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

A good way to support indi bookshops in November uk.bookshop.org/

234. The Foundling by Stacey Halls

This was OK but it felt very much like YA. The settings and the dialogue didn’t quite ring true for me - it all felt a bit too much like it was aimed at children. The story was OK but you could see where it was going very early on. I don’t think Halls did as much with the premise as she could have done. Not as good as The Familiars.

67. Third Year at Malory Towers - Enid Blyton

Another nostalgic re-read. The new girls this year are Zerelda - a sophisticated American with misplaced ambitions to be a film star but a good heart, Mavis - a girl with a phenomenal voice who lacks any humility in respect of her talent and Bill - a girl with seven brothers who is obsessed with horses. The usual ups and downs of the school term culminate in a night of disaster when there are nearly two deaths which leads to the new girls all finding a different perspective. I remembered Bill clearly, recalled Zerelda when she was first mentioned but had completely forgotten about Mavis.

68. The Dressmaker’s Gift - Fiona Valpy

Harriet has moved to Paris to escape her unhappy background to start a career in fashion and drawn by a wartime picture of her grandmother, Claire, in Paris. The majority of the book is flashback to Claire’s life as a seamstress in a fashion atelier in German occupied Paris where she lives with fellow seamstresses, Mireille and Vivienne. Inevitably life under the Nazis was not easy and not everyone has a happy ending but I thought this was well told although I found some of the interruptions to come back to Harriet in the present day distracted from the flow of Claire’s story. However, the discovery of Claire’s story does impact on Harriet so the flashbacks are not just a device and the story lines are brought together. I would read another by this author based on this book.

Thanks Chessie - I was toying with buying The Foundling so you may have just saved me some money!

I would agree that The Foundling is best left for a library borrow than parting with cash for it.

Keith great reviews. I'm going to give The Weekend a whirl.

I quite liked The Foundling and it would hit the spot if you're in the mood for a light historical page-turner and can cope with very large dollops of coincidence.

78. Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer (Audible)

Following on from the excellent Into Thin Air, I thought I would give Krakauer's slightly earlier work a listen. This is the story of Chris McCandless, a young idealist who took to a nomadic, solitary life after college and tragically died of starvation aged 24 in the Alaskan wilderness. Again, Krakauer has created a brilliantly gripping story from his material.

Looking at reviews on Goodreads, it is hard to separate an assessment of the book from your opinion on McCandless himself. Krakauer acknowledges that McCandless made mistakes on his final expedition, but overall admires the young man's determination to create a life shaped by his own ideals. As the chapter on Krakauer's own experiences as a solo explorer in Alaska shows, he clearly sees an identification between McCandless and his younger self. I enjoyed the book as an insight into a character very different from my own (I once took a solo trip to the cities of Ireland, but that's the extent of my adventures), but see McCandless not as any sort of hero but as a tragic figure who was too young to have learned that happiness and wisdom come not from splendid isolation but from connection with those around us.

79. Jeremy Hardy Speaks Volumes - Jeremy Hardy

Compendium of the 'words, wit, wisdom, one-liners and rants' of the left-wing comedian and radio personality. Perfect as a light, gently amusing book to fall asleep to on the Kindle (I often have one of these on the go to read after DP has switched his bedside lamp off).

Just bought Lady in Waiting for 99p which I'm happy about as it was on my wishlist.
Is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell OK on Kindle? I have a vague feeling there's an issue with the footnotes? Again one I've been meaning to read.

@Palegreenstars I've just finished Mexican Gothic as a Halloween read. Like you, this isn't my usual sort of book but it was a great halloween page turner. It was very Hammer House of Horror with a splash of Angela Carter & I enjoyed the Mexican/Spanish element & feminist twist.

@TheNavigator hammer horror describes it perfectly

147. No Place To Hide by Glenn Greenwald

Greenwald's personal account of the experience of being selected to be the journalist Snowden chose to expose the NSA.

Having read Snowden's own autobiography earlier in the year, this proves shorter and more succinct, more enjoyable and more informative, which I guess makes sense because Greenwald's a writer by trade.

Overall lesson - the US government can read your email and your internet history whenever the fuck it feels like it.

Whilst they try and couch this as "only the bad guys" - there was a time both Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King were considered 'hostiles' after all..

Scary

148. Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson

Someone else on the thread has read this but I can't remember who.

Janie Ryan grows up with a chaotic irresponsible mum in socially deprived conditions, multiple new dads and different homes but it's all normal life to her

I think it's meant to be "darkly comic" but I just found it depressing....

Am I alone on the thread? Should I turn off the lights? 👀

Hi Eine, not alone! I didn't read that book, but I read the author's memoir, Lowborn, which I think covered the same territory. Interesting, but I agree, not cheery.

I am here! Don’t turn out the lights, I won’t be able to find you all.
Weird day - was in the office for what I expect will be the last time in 2020, worrying about whether my sister will make it back to Spain tomorrow, fretting about election results, wondering if we have enough of everything to get us through lockdown, pondering if the cat needs to see the vet...
I have finished Fake Law by the Secret Barrister and will post a review in due course. I had to rush to get it back to the library so didn’t give it the attention it deserved but would highly recommend.

I read Tony Hogan back in July and thought it was really good. I thought the author did a great job of drawing you into her characters, and showing how they made a life in difficult circumstances. I wouldn't have called it comic (at all!) but I didn't find it depressing either.

Not just you Eine. This new job malarkey is seriously cutting into my reading time. Still in classroom training (virtual) so I am exhausted come early evening and having early nights so I can be up early to get the dog out for a decent walk in the mornings. I much preferred being a lady of leisure.

231. Small Island - Andrea Levy Follows the lives of 2 couples in postwar Britain with flashbacks to their earlier experiences. One pair are a couple from Jamaica who came over on the Windrush and the other are a British couple who rent a room to them. The two men are both ex servicemen with very different wartime experiences.

I really enjoyed this, although it wasn't quite the book I was expecting. It looks at racism and empire. The writing is outstanding and the flashbacks build up slowly to reveal the motivations in the later behaviour. Most of the characters are not particularly likeable which can make longer sections about them hard work at times, but the overall experience was a positive one for me. I already know it's one I'd like to revisit.

Hi eine good reviews. I have not been sleeping well and not been managing to read either mainly listening to podcasts and reading the news.

I’m here! I’m not making that much noise because I got a new job today too. Giving up my share in a company to start a new far less stressful job doing something I love. I hope to have more time for reading and life rather than worrying about keeping people employed (they will be in safe hands with someone else).

Some joy in this crappy week! Thanks to this awesome group - one of the best / sanest things of 2020.

Congratulations on the new job, Pale.

Nothing much to report here. I've almost finished a not very good crime thing, but it's about all I'm capable of.

There's a James Herriot in the deals today which I don't seem to have on Kindle although have definitely read before. So I now have it on Kindle for lockdown (but not really lockdown because I'm still in the classroom) comfort.

Palegreen that sounds like a really positive change. Best of luck in your new role.

Thanks both! This year has taught me a lot.

The Air Raid Killer by Frank Goldammer
Not sure if this was badly written, badly translated or both.
Set in Dresden during the final months of Word War 2 The allied bombings are just getting going, and there's a serial killer on the loose.

I liked the setting and the central character, but some of the writing was truly dreadful, as if a 14 year old boy who's never read anything more than comics or watched anything more intellectually challenging than Indiana Jones or Scooby Doo kept stealing the word processor from a slightly better writer. It's the first in a series but I won't bother with him again.

@FortunaMajor

Throughout Small Island I was like this is good but "just" good and then the ending blew me away and put something in my eye

@Sadik

Yes I thought it might be you! No it wasn't that it wasn't good, it was just so accurate it couldn't help but make me think of all the Janie's out there being failed.

I'm back in lockdown as of Thursday, so plenty of reading time, wonder if I go hard, I could hit 200 🤔

It does give me self created unnecessary stress though

Just finished book 68 Seven Lies by Elizabeth Kay which is the Clare Mackintosh book club book of the month. I don't know if I just didn't care what happened or about any of the characters or whether I was just on a comedown from the new Strike book and nothing was going to compare but I wouldn't recommend this.

Book 69 will be Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier which I have never read. I think studying classic books in English put me off reading them for enjoyment! Wish me luck!