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

Just finished Seven Lies by Elizabeth Kay which is the Clare Mackintosh book club book of the month. I don't know if I just didnt care for the books/characters or whether it was just really disappointing after the comedown of the latest Strike book. But I wouldn't recommend.

Now onto try reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier which I've never read. I think studying classic books in English put me off actually reading any for enjoyment! Wish me luck

Just finished Seven Lies by Elizabeth Kay which is the Clare Mackintosh book club book of the month. I don't know if I just didnt care for the books/characters or whether it was just really disappointing after the comedown of the latest Strike book. But I wouldn't recommend.

Now onto try reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier which I've never read. I think studying classic books in English put me off actually reading any for enjoyment! Wish me luck

I’m here! Had a few shitty days and been up to my eyeballs in work so not had that much reading time. Recently had a breakup so reading Romeo and Juliet seeing as it’s rather tragical any other heartbreak novel reccomendations?

Matilda
Good Luck
Good Luck
Good Luck
(unless the MN glitch gets me too)
I think you'll enjoy Rebecca it's not a chore to read.

Eine I know what you mean. Tissues may have been required.

I like a good target as much as the next person, but I think this year is stressful enough. I was pushing myself earlier in the year and I was glad to fail a partial target in August as it stopped me going crazy for the rest of the year. I thought 300 was doable at one point but the pressure took the joy away. You can of course game the system and choose your books wisely. No whoppers on the final approach to a tidy number!

Matilda
Good Luck
Good Luck
Good Luck
(unless the MN glitch gets me too)
I think you'll enjoy Rebecca it's not a chore to read.

Eine I know what you mean. Tissues may have been required.

I like a good target as much as the next person, but I think this year is stressful enough. I was pushing myself earlier in the year and I was glad to fail a partial target in August as it stopped me going crazy for the rest of the year. I thought 300 was doable at one point but the pressure took the joy away. You can of course game the system and choose your books wisely. No whoppers on the final approach to a tidy number!

I’m here! Had a few shitty days and been up to my eyeballs in work so not had that much reading time. Recently had a breakup so reading Romeo and Juliet seeing as it’s rather tragical any other heartbreak novel reccomendations?

@fortunamajor seems it only hit you twice it didn't appear to have posted this many times when I first checked

@fortunamajor seems it only hit you twice it didn't appear to have posted this many times when I first checked

You two too.

Sorry, my book is a bit dull so I'm being mischievous.

Monogamy - Sue Miller
2nd wife is surprised to discover the husband was having an affair after he dies suddenly and she goes on to postmortem the relationship. She's also bezzie mates with the first wife and they lovingly co-parent each others children in perfect harmony. The character is obviously not a mumsnetter and the book would be a whole lot more interesting if she were.

Damn i posted twice too

“ I think studying classic books in English put me off reading them for enjoyment”

To be honest, I felt that way too! While I am slowly adjusting to Shakespeare I have been better with him than three years back excluding the exams where I was cursing him while I have gotten on with some books I still refuse to touch as you hate it (as we referred to it in year nine) with a ten foot pole!

@teaandcustardcreamsx

You might be interested in Queen Mab by Kate Danley which tells the story from her perspective. I enjoyed it but thought it was a "younger persons book "

149. Heartburn by Nora Ephron

Ephron's witty but ultimately insubstantial fictionalised rendering of her own divorce. Too many recipes!

150. A History Of Britain Vol. 1 : 3000 BC-1600 AD by Simon Schama (Audible)

This has pissed me right off. Got it in an Audible deal and thought great. Found Timothy West as reader quite annoying and thought it was more "overview" than proper history. The War Of The Roses for example was skipped completely. On finishing I went looking for Vol. 2 and 3, to find all 3 volumes read by Stephen Thorne, and Vol. 1 twice the length. It was not for me, properly advertised as an abridgement and I think an unfair confusion.

Might read 2 and 3 next year, but thanks to this, have I even really read 1?

Returned obviously

Eine, when I read a review that says 'too many recipes' it piques my interest. I was hesitating over Heartburn but you've just sold it to me

I liked Rebecca much better when I read it a few years ago, than when I read it as a late teen, I think it is a better book once you have lived a bit more!

65. The Crimson Petal and the White by Micheal Faber. Thanks to Cote, and others, above, I wasn't expecting much from the second half of this! I found the beginning overwrapped in its stylistic conceit, the first half of the middle mildly interesting in a historical way, the second half of the middle entirely implausible and the ending a cop out. Will not be reading any more of his!

I think Rebecca gets better every time I read it. I see different things the older I get.

Great review Tanaqui.

I absolutely loved Small Island and Rebecca - 2 very different, very good reads.

Thank you eine that does look rather good!

151. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Oddly enough, another protagonist named Janie!

Janie returns to Eatonville where she had once lived with her late husband. Curiosity among the locals reaches fever pitch and Phoeby Watson is dispatched to get the goss. Janie then recounts her life story to Phoeby.

I admired the overarching theme of female empowerment and autonomy as well as the clarity around specific challenges faced by black women, in general and of that era.

Although this is quite short it is largely written in Deep South dialect that you have to sound out as you go and I found this challenging.

3/5

82: A Colder War - Charles Cumming

Spy thriller and immediate follow-up to my previous read. Ex-spook Thomas Kell is once again drawn back into an undercover operation, this time in Istanbul, when a British agent is unexpectedly killed. I've no idea whether any of the 'tradecraft' portrayed bears any relation to reality, but it's certainly entertaining. I can see these novels becoming a dangerous addiction.

232. Monogamy - Sue Miller
     Mentioned by me upthread and I don't have much to add. Characters explore their feelings about relationships after the death of a man on his second marriage and having an affair. No plot as such and quite dull, even though the writing is technically sound.

233. Ties That Tether - Jane Igharo
     A Nigerian-Canadian woman is pressured by her family to only date other Nigerian immigrants, but she falls for someone of a different heritage and race. She has to choose between her own happiness and her duty to her family.

This was quite well written and engaging but ultimately the intended audience is half my age. It references Bridget Jones a lot and was going for that vibe of slightly hapless character muddling through life as well as dealing with issues of inter-racial relationships.

51. Therese Raquin by Emile Zola

It's a short book and one I read as a teenager but I came across it whilst having a clearout and fancied re-reading it. My memories of reading it aged sixteen were of a sort of morbid fascination (the equivalent of the first time the twelve year old me read 'Flowers in the Attic' ) and I wanted to see if it still read that way.

WIthout giving away too much of the plot, it's a story of a young woman who is married off to her sickly and insipid cousin and is moves to Paris to live with him and his mother in a dark, claustrophobic apartment. She starts an affair with a friend of his and they eventually plot to kill her husband, seeing him as the only obstacle in their path. It's a tale of lust and a descent into madness, that is heavy with symbolism and gothic vibes.

The adult me did enjoy it as much as the teenage me had but I read it very differently - thinking about the relationships and personal traps we create for ourselves, but I still enjoyed the horror of it all in a rather gratuitous way.

Rebecca is one of my favourite books. The Netflix adaptation was predictably glossy and not great but nonetheless quite entertaining.

I’m ploughing through Mexican Gothic. Nearly half way through and I’m wondering when the plot will turn up. There’s ample atmosphere and it’s all a little tense but not much is happening. I really need something I can lose myself in at the moment and that’s not quite hitting the spot. Otherwise I’m just going to keep endlessly refreshing my Twitter feed.

@PepeLePew . Rebecca also one of my favourite books. I thought the Netflix adaptation was dismal. All shiny and zero tension. So disappointing.