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

Some of my 5 star reads are:

Restoration & Merivel - Rose Tremain
A Spell of Winter - Helen Dunmore
The King Must Die, The Bull from the Sea & The Persian Boy - Mary Renault
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O'Farrell
Small Island - Andrea Levy
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson
The Invention of Nature (biography of Humboldt, 19th century naturalist) - Andrea Wulf

Madame Bovary, Middlemarch and Dangerous Liaisons from the Classics.

Haven't actually read that many of those mentioned which is a good thing

Read :

TTOD

All Quiet

Clockwork Orange

Oranges Are

Small Island

And read The Dark Is Rising and Swallows many years ago

Yes to A Town Like Alice although I know some people on here have disliked it.

I struggle with the 5 star system. I instinctively think of 3 as mediocre, which means that 4 has to cover everything from "quite good" up to "excellent", leaving 5 for standouts. It would be much more sensible if I could think of 3 as "good" but I must have the soul of an Ofsted inspector as I look at a book with an average 3.8 rating and think "Not that good then".

Some of my 5 stars

A Fine Balance
Wolf Hall
Heaven, My Home
Persuasion
Americanah
Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile
Never Let Me Go (DON'T @ ME)

Ooh I also have Swallows and Amazons though actually I read it in 1983 and haven't gone back to re-read so it may not be the most objective rating.

(previously rated Outstanding so exempt from re- inspection)

My best novel from this year's reading to date I'd say is Neal Stephenson's Anathem .

If anyone wants cheering up, and is a John Cooper Clarke fan, I'm currently listening to his autobiography read by him on Audible, and its a delight :)

Nerd that I am, I've made a note of your five star novels that I've not read to add to my TBR.

My list:

The Goldfinch
The Paying Guests
Lolita
The Great Gatsby
A God in Ruins
Girl, Woman, Other
The Remains of the Day
The Secret History
Normal People
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night‑Time
Notes on a Scandal

I have cross over with a few already mentioned, but from off the top of my head:

The Accidental Tourist
The Rotter’s Club
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Brazzaville Beach
True Grit
The Fortnight in September
HHhH
The Woman in White
Middlemarch
War and Peace
Anna Karenina

5 stars- Howl's Moving Castle, possibly my all time favourite book!

Dragonlance- omg, I am not sure i have ever met anyone else who even read them! That was Raistlin and Cameron wasn't it- I was so slashing them before I even know it was a thing (maybe 1987ish?!?). Yes I guess I could Google! And Arthur Hailey- I was transfixed by the prison sex in The Money- lenders? Changers?, and the woman with the outstanding memory. My Dad had taken it on holiday to read and I had, as usual, run out of other things- am sure I was far too young. Read my first Heyer, Francis, Collins, all on holidays as other people's discards! It's definitely different now you can just kindle stuff; but I still like to look on the shelves in hotels for random holiday reads.

3 is also my default rating and most books I read end up being rated 3. For me a 3 ranges from fine to quite good. A 4 is very good and a 5 is really loved it. Very few books get a 5 rating from me. I don’t keep separate track of my ratings and I can’t work out from Goodreads if I can search for my 5 star books so I’m not sure which ones I have given a 5 star rating too this year but these are definitely 5 star reads for me:

Wuthering Heights
Rachel’s Holiday
The Cazalet Chronicles
Never Let Me Go
The Great Gatsby
Pride and Prejudice
Rebecca
All Quiet On The Western Front

Tanaqui Raistlin and Caramon were brothers!

I was in love with Raistlin I thought I could turn him to the good side

The Unseen World by Liz Moore, Suri Hudvest What I Loved and Sarah Walters Fingersmith. A Place For Us by Fatima Mirza. Some of my 5*s.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Yes to A Town Like Alice although I know some people on here have disliked it.

@ChessieFL

3 is also my default rating and most books I read end up being rated 3. For me a 3 ranges from fine to quite good. A 4 is very good and a 5 is really loved it. Very few books get a 5 rating from me. I don’t keep separate track of my ratings and I can’t work out from Goodreads if I can search for my 5 star books so I’m not sure which ones I have given a 5 star rating too this year but these are definitely 5 star reads for me:

Wuthering Heights
Rachel’s Holiday
The Cazalet Chronicles
Never Let Me Go
The Great Gatsby
Pride and Prejudice
Rebecca
All Quiet On The Western Front

If you go to my books and then click on rating it will order them by stars.

I can’t see rating when I go to my books. I’m using the iPhone app so maybe that’s only available on desktop? I only ever use the app.

I'm also using 3 as a positive but nothing special. 4 very good. 5 outstanding.

Eine do you do Goodreads?

A few of my 5s (sorry on phone so struggling to compare other lists to take any the duplicates out). Some are old favourites rather than of particular literary merit.

Empire of the Sun
Schindler's List
Catch 22
7 Years in Tibet
The History Boys
Vanity Fair
Beloved
Circe
Milkman
Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Agnes Grey
Secret History

I pay at lot of attention to the bolds at the end of the year to inform my choices for the following year, particularly if the same books come up several times

235. Old Baggage - Lissa Evans After women have got the vote, suffragette Mattie is lacking purpose and sets up a group for girls with mixed results.

Although this is very well written it didn't do much for me. I much preferred Crooked Heart.

(previously rated Outstanding so exempt from re- inspection)

So I have around 100 pages left of Rebecca but unfortunately I have to sleep

However, I have discovered spoiler alert that she is not in fact in the attic.... I have no idea who has a wife in the attic but it appears it is not this one.

Loads of you have now named some of my 5 stars

Fingersmith
Secret History
What I Loved
Tenant Of WH
Wuthering Heights
Secret History
Vanity Fair

I've got Circe, Restoration, and Trustee From The Toolroom so I may start with those.

156. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson

As stated by a PP, really poor, easily the worst Brodie, cliched characters, droning characters that are irrelevant to the plot, over tying of loose ends no one cared about to start with, cringy shoehorning of real world references including several to Mumsnet.

Was maybe my most looked forward to 'treat book' this year "ooh the new Brodie"

Nope.

@Matilda2013

That's Jane Eyre

Rebecca was dead to begin with, much like Marley

Matilda I feel that telling you where there is a mad woman in the attic would be a major spoiler to come for another book and time, but she definitely isn't in Rebecca.

Cross Posted

Surely its impossible to spoil a 173 year old book?!

p.s. I've no idea who Marley is, but you've bloody ruined that one for me!