50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Nine

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the ninth thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2020, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, it's still not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The previous threads of 2020:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Not so much novels, but there's lots of terrifically readable non-fiction set around about the Spanish civil war. Apart from Homage to Catalonia, I'd have though a 16 year old with an interest in Spain would really enjoy Laurie Lee's As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and (a bit more left field) Decca Mitford's Hons and Rebels.

(Gerald Brenan's account of the aftermath of war The Face of Spain is also worth a thought though perhaps a bit too hard going for a 16 y/o.)

@Boiledeggandtoast

Apologies. I should have checked before I posted. I've just dug out my old copy and it looks somewhat impenetrable; I suspect I was a rather pretentious teenager.

Isn't that in the teenage job description or was that just me?

Pretentious teenage moi would be horrified if she could see the stuff I read now.

Thanks for all these recommendations! He is definitely not pretentious :more your salt of the earth , sensible type. But reasonably brainy .
Might try the Orwell first! He loves Animal Farm but I don't think he'd like 1984.

Current bedtime reading is a sociology textbook and prior to that James Milner and Reni Eddo Lodge, so ermm, eclectic...

Non fiction again but Giles Tremlett has a new book out in the Spanish Civil War. His Ghosts Of Spain from about 15 years ago is a fantastic read and touches on the Civil War.

It’s the book I’d have bought for my Dad for Christmas this year - he read everything he could on the subject of the Spanish Civil War (even the Victoria Hislop) and was reading the Laurie Lee when he died.
Sorry for the morbid touch but it has reminded me of how much pleasure I got from choosing books for him for presents (I bought the Laurie Lee for his birthday) and how much I miss him.

When I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning is set before the civil war. A Moment of War describes when Laurie Lee returned to join the International Brigade, inspired by that earlier experience of Spain. They're best read as a pair, but in my view the former (i.e. the one not set during the civil war) is a better book. I've re-read it many times and absolutely love it.

Thanks bettbattenburg 😄

@Piggywaspushed The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (of which you may remember I am a massive fan) does have a Spanish Civil War backdrop. Not sure it's really enticing to 16 year old boys though. But I will push it at any opportunity!

61. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

I've read a few books recently that I thought were fine, chosen because they were right up my street, but all a bit familiar and well trodden. Whilst this had a really interesting premise (how would you live your life if you knew the date of your death), I felt the author used it to tell a family saga the likes of which I've read many times before. For all that, I really enjoyed it. The characters are well drawn and memorable and it tugs you in. It's doing something that's been done many times before (with a smart twist), but it does it well.

I think part of the trouble with reading more wabbit, is that more and more plots and styles start to feel familiar. Sometimes I think, I'd have loved this if I hadn't already read x y or z.

64. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie Another reread, this is the first Poirot and Hastings, and although it's not the best, it's a good read.

I love Miss jean Brodie ,too! Not sure DS will get it though...It's short, though!

Tanaqui I think that is a really good point. I often think I'm being too hard on a book and I think this might be the root of it. It's also hard not to fall into habits of certain genres so a lot do start to feel samey after a while.

Best

So you've all made me suddenly aware of how very little I've read around the Spanish Civil War. I'm guessing that Michael Morpurgo's Toro Toro will be sniffed at by a 16 year old
I seem to remember there's a fair proportion of William Boyd's Any Human Heart that takes place during that period.
I adored The Seamstress by Maria Duenas but admit it probably wouldn't appeal to a teenage boy.

The first and second of Ken Follett’s century trilogy cover a good bit about the Spanish Civil War I think. I remember the Welsh Socialists heading off to fight.

Winter in Madrid - I found it a pretty good read until the ending. I remember thinking the ending was ridiculous but can't remember much, if anything, about it. There might have been a motorbike. Or there might not.

229. Bestiary - K-Ming Chang Three generations of Taiwanese American women cope with how their migration to the US is affected by the mythology and traditions of their homeland.

I don't even know where to start with this. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it. Part migration story, part coming of age with a lot of magical realism thrown in. I felt baffled, bewildered and bemused through much of it as I didn't know what on earth to think, but the language drew me in and was captivating. Although I am still not sure what on earth I have just read.

230 Sleep Donation - Karen Russell
A novella about an insomnia epidemic sweeping the US that is causing deaths to those severely lacking sleep. Others can donate excess sleep, but it is often infected by the dreams of the donors. One major donation poisoned by nightmares is worse that not sleeping at all, putting fear into those in desperate need. A baby with perfect sleep becomes a universal donor, but how much can they ethically take from the baby.

This started really well, but petered out into a complete non-ending that was a bit of a disappointment.

@Welshwabbit You've summed up my feelings about The Immortalists .
Which brings me to
70 The Most Fun I Ever Had Claire Lombardo
A contemporary American saga of a family of 4 daughters. I found this a very absorbing read, mainly because the characters are so well drawn and the tone is compassionate and accepting. It reminded me of Anne Tyler. As a sister and a parent of daughters parts of this novel really resonated with me. I thought the description of the relationship between the parents took up too much of the story and got repetitive but otherwise I enjoyed it very much.

I am not sure 202 was the right year to eventually read 1984 but I just have.

Depressing, not a fun read, rather dry, but intellectually interesting. Last section so much better than the first 2.

But Winston was astonishingly stupid! I guess that's the point.

I kept waiting for 'sexcrime' to appear as a word... it didn't.

2020 obviously!

I ahve read Any Human heart. Forgot about that. Too adult for DS1. I am not sure he would sniff at a Morpurgo actually (he read a Paddington quite recently)!

57. The Book of Not – Tsitsi Dangarembga

Sequel to Nervous Conditions which I read and thoroughly enjoyed. The final book of the trilogy This Mournable Body has been shortlisted for The Booker Prize. The Book of Not had quite a different feel and style to Nervous Conditions but nevertheless I thought it was equally good.

Less expansive than its predecessor, this book has a claustrophobic feel as Tambu takes up her coveted place at The Young Ladies College of the Sacred Heart. The writer focuses less on Tambu’s family, who appear hardly at all as the emphasis shifts to the world of school and her almost obsessive quest to be the highest performing girl in her year. The day to day racism Tambu and the tiny, token cohort of black pupils at the school is recounted in a matter of fact, resigned way which is often hard to read.

In the background the civil war rumbles on, but it feels like background noise to the vividly recounted struggles of Tambu’s everyday life. In an attempt to be accepted, she joins her white peers to knit gloves for the Rhodesian forces in support of the war effort. Meanwhile, back in the village her politically active sister Netsai becomes involved with a guerrilla fighter, losing a limb in the process. The contrast between the two illustrates how far Tambu has travelled from the first novel. I am really interested to see how the writer concludes this story in the final instalment.

90 Silence by Shusaka Endo

This was the subject of a recent Backlisted edition. It’s the story of Jesuit missionaries in Japan in the seventeenth centuries, sent to discover if priests who went before them have renounced their faith under threat of torture. Local Christians are in hiding, and if found, are challenged by officials to trample on engraved medals of Christ, or face torture.

This was quite a read, and I’d never have come across it without Backlisted. There are some brutal depictions of torture, but the anguish of the priest witnessing the suffering of other Christians and waiting for his own trial is almost worse. As a lapsed (very lapsed) Catholic, I found this fascinating as a depiction of faith and the loss of faith, and the search for a God who is seemingly absent.

91 Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam

I found this on the bookshelf, no idea how it got there. Eliza is a neighbourhood do-gooder and she likes to send notes to her neighbours advising them on how to do the right thing. Until a neighbour disappears and things start to unravel. Told in letters from Eliza to the missing neighbour, we see Eliza start to fall apart as what is real and what isn’t real blurs. My problem with this was that I had no idea what was going on and didn’t care enough to try and figure it out. There were occasional laugh out loud moments, but for the most part this just sort of meandered along in a quite odd way. One for the charity shop, I think.

92 One Two Three Four by Craig Brown

Bought in the Kindle Daily Deals a week or so ago after a glowing recommendation on here from…someone. Sorry, I can’t ever remember who recommends books.

I’m not a Beatles fan. My favourite song is Here Comes The Sun, which, as my ex used to say, is not even a “proper Beatles song”. But I do like a good well written rock biopic, and this is entertaining in the extreme. It has touches of Ma’am Dear which I really enjoyed last year, although it’s more rooted in reality. I did particularly like the way in which Brown uses different biographies to draw on and compare when looking at different stories.

93 The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey

Read, of course, by Mariah herself. Just what I needed on a couple of long-ish half term drives. Mariah breaks into song regularly which made DD and I laugh like drains every time it happened. As Mariah reminds us repeatedly, her childhood was difficult and her experiences of life as the child of a white mother and black father meant she never really fitted in properly anywhere. And her first marriage to the boss of her record label was obviously extremely troubled and abusive. But Mariah is humble, thankful, talented and hard working (or so she tells us) and therefore rises above it all to super stardom. I don’t think I could name a single Mariah Carey song apart from All I Want For Christmas but I now feel exceptionally well informed about just how fabulous Mariah is.

94 Exit Management by Naomi Booth

This came highly recommended and was well reviewed, but I really have no idea what the point of it was. Lauren works in HR firing traders from a finance firm. Cal manages upscale AirBnB type properties, and has a particular bond with an elderly man who lives in one of them. Lauren meets Cal and they both behave in incomprehensible ways while spending a lot of time wafting around London. Some more stuff happens, then the book ends. Not good.

*Apologies. I should have checked before I posted. I've just dug out my old copy and it looks somewhat impenetrable; I suspect I was a rather pretentious teenager.
Isn't that in the teenage job description or was that just me?

Pretentious teenage moi would be horrified if she could see the stuff I read now.*

IME everyone seems to be surprised when I tell them run book count! Majority of my friends have only read the compulsory gcse books turns out we didn’t technically even need to with cancellation

80: A Foreign Country - Charles Cumming

Not overly demanding spy novel recommended by a friend. Ex-MI6 agent Thomas Kell is brought back into play when Amelia Levene - soon to take over as the first female head of the service - suddenly disappears during a last-minute holiday. Can Kell find her while also coming to terms with his own conflicted past in the world of espionage?

This slipped down easily and was enjoyably twisty, reminding me very much of the Mick Herron 'Slough House' novels, albeit minus the eccentric characters and jokes. My only cavil would be that the denouement was a bit rushed. But I've already borrowed the next in this series from the library.

230. The Perfect Girl by Gilly Macmillan

I’ve enjoyed others of hers but this was dull. Zoe is a 17 year old girl trying to rebuild her life after she killed three people in a car accident when she was 14. One night she gives a piano concert and by the end of the evening her mother is dead (not a spoiler, this is in the blurb). The rest of the book goes back and forth between present day and the original accident. The twist isn’t very twisty, the book relies on unlikely coincidences, and there’s a character in there who could be completely removed from the book and it would make no difference at all - they’re not even there as a red herring as it’s obvious they’re not involved. Not recommended (but do try others by her).

231. Dead on Dartmoor by Stephanie Austin

Second in a series featuring antiques dealer Juno Browne who keeps getting caught up in murderous events. These remind me a bit of a sort of British version of the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series in tone. More of a light hearted take on a murder mystery. I enjoyed this and the first that I read earlier this year.

232. The Escape Room by Megan Goldin

Four employees of a New York investment bank are summoned to an escape room set in an elevator - but it soon becomes clear that it’s not a normal escape room. The book moves between the escape room and the events of the last few years leading up to the present day. I enjoyed this.

233. Come Back For Me by Heidi Perks

Stella is drawn back to the island she lived on as a child when a body is dug up near her old back garden. Too many plot holes in this and the setting didn’t come to life. It’s an island that takes 30 minutes by ferry from Poole Harbour and only around 100 people live there but the author never explains how/where the children go to school, how the island supports a pub and cafe and B&B, what there is to encourage tourists to visit - nothing that brings it to life. The main character is always saying how much she’s wanted to go back to the island since she left but there doesn’t seem to have been anything stopping her doing so and that’s never explained. Too many other plot holes like that as well so I can’t recommend this.

Now reading The Foundling and have also done my chapters for the OMF readalong.

Not much going on in the monthly Kindle deals. A couple of popular older titles (Heartburn, I Capture the Castle) which I've already read. Just bought one, the recent book by John Sutherland, about his policing career. Not to be confused with his namesake, who writes about literary topics. I liked his previous policing memoir, Blue.