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

See I discovered that the road dahl books were mostly published in the 80s due to the fact that no one I worked with had ever read them. Being a 90s kid I imagine that's why they were popular when I was younger. Absolutely loved GMM and BFG and then Matilda with the film came along. The Witches film stilll terrifies me but they are remaking it...

GMM and Giant Peach were read to us in primary school in about Y2/3. I do remember my favourite ever teacher (Y4) reading us The BFG and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (as well as Return to Oz and The Iron Man). Dahl was very in fashion in my school.

I remember having a Dahl phase around the time Matilda was published. That was my christmas book that year. I used to get a lovely illustrated hardback book every year, but all of the previous ones had been classics like Railway Children/Secret Garden etc. I was thrilled to get something so trendy!

There were quite a few I wasn't keen on though - Witches/Twits. I only read Danny last summer and still have the odd one outstanding such as Fantastic Mr Fox. I've picked up a few of his books written for adults in a charity shop, but haven't been tempted so far.

We were read James and the Giant Peach at school too. I had most of the Dahls at home but wasn't allowed The Witches as my parents were strictly religious. We read it in the first year at high school though and I got away with that (but it required some stealthy hiding of my English homework).

I think I must have been a bit too old for Roald Dahl too. Certainly we never had them in school. DH read them to the DC.

Though I did read the Charlie books because l still have recurring nightmares about elevators going in all directions.

Judith by Noel Streatfeild
This was a strange one. A child from a broken home, with a self centred mother and absent father, is passed around from pillar to post and has a pretty miserable time, but ultimately a happy ending.

This reminded me a bit of the later Katy books and a b it of Louisa May Alcott. I liked the first half but found the second h alf, when said girl meets a lowdown rotten guy, quite irritating. And I thought the final section was rushed and weak.

A really odd read overall. I enjoyed sections of it, and got really annoyed with other sections. Would be interested to hear if anybody else had read it.

Yes read many of the Roald Dahl books too, and many of the David Walliams ones too! I remember once I went to my aunties and flashed awful auntie in her face cause I hated her still do to be fair

Also read the first two narnia books, and plan to go back to them at some point. Planning to finish A song of fire and ice first and depends on exams as to how much time I have to read!

George’s Marvellous Medicine was one of the books we did in English in Year 7. I’ve read most of Dahl’s other books too.
Animal Farm was another one from school.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe must be pretty universal?

@BestIsWest

Though I did read the Charlie books because l still have recurring nightmares about elevators going in all directions.

Charlie and the chocolate factory was published in 1964,fantastic mr fox in 68 and Danny the champion in 75 so he'll have had distinct sets of readers by age

You all got to do Roald Dahl in year seven?! I was talking to a friend the other day and they said how they did Harry Potter ... meanwhile my school did a midsummers night dream although saying that I did enjoy Shakespeare. I love the lion the witch and the wardrobe. Probably going to branch out soon. Now I’ve got the James and the giant peach song from primary school stuck in my head

The books that I assume everyone who claims to be moderately well read has read would be
Pride and Prejudice
The Hobbit at least even if not LotR
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
To Kill a Mockingbird
Of Mice and Men
1984

I haven't read The Hobbit. At our school LoTR was carried around religiously by a certain group of pupils, and the more well-thumbed looking the more kudos received. I suspected some of them sat at home distressing their copies while watching TV. Anyway it put me right off Tolkien. This same group had also knitted a forty foot long stripey scarf and sat in English lessons with it wound round all their several necks. (my old-fashioned Scottish grammar school was surprisingly laid back about this when I think about it now)

I haven't read any Harry Potter either, but that's probably because my kids were old enough to read HP themselves and I never felt tempted. Have I missed something as an adult?

I'm guessing that as well as all the children's classics P&P must be pretty widely read?

Oops forgot to say thank you for the thread southeast!

And Welshwabbit I see you enjoyed the first two Lissa Evans books. Me too. Do you have the third on your TBR pile? I'm hoping to get to it soon.

135. A Story Lately Told and
136. Watch Me by Anjelica Huston

Anjelica's Huston's autobiography, which has been quite unnecessarily split into 2 volumes with the first covering her childhood and the second the fame years onwards.

I was only drawn to read it on the basis that I found her half sister Allegra's autobiography Love Child absolutely fascinating earlier in the year.

Watch Me can be written off as very surface level and PR conscious, endless cast and location lists very little content. I even felt that Allegra's book gave better assessments of her relationships with Jack Nicholson and Ryan O'Neal. It's a below average book in general.

What made A Story Lately Told poignant and unintentionally sad for me as a reader was the stark, almost criminal, contrast between the two sisters childhoods, one which Anjelica I don't think has ever properly taken on board. She praises her father for taking in Allegra and is very dismissive of any idea that Allegra was failed. But you only need to compare the two to see it.

Anjelica had the kind of childhood that is really only enjoyed by the 1%, multiple households, multiple household staff, horses, all the best of Irish country life matched with clothes and healthcare in London, bespoke Chanel, 5 star holidays and an endless parade of the great and the good. This is also coupled with that sense that you get with "autobiographies of the privileged" that because privilege is their norm they have no concept of how real people live and therefore no idea of their own privilege.

Though Allegra's lacking childhood was not Anjelica's fault, it makes it worse by comparison. Until she was 10 or 11 Allegra lived more or less solely with paid employees, then her fathers 3rd wife who he had left, and then her ex stepgrandparents. She was basically brought up by random people in random households, whoever would take her in really. Akin to growing up in care but with wealthy relations. So to compare it with Anjelica's gilded "my new pony" fairytale just solidified the horror of it.

Nothing to see here really, very much glosses over anything that might put anyone in a poor light

Still recommend Love Child hugely it is so much more "real" in terms of perspective and honesty

Thanks for the new thread southeast - although I thought to myself that Monday would be an alright time to bring my list over only to find the thing five pages deep already!

1. Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir

1. This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El Mohtar
2. I Might Regret This - Abbi Jacobson

4. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng

1. The Cactus - Sarah Haywood

6. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo

1. Story of a Soul - St Therese of Lisieux
2. Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid
3. Queenie - Candace Carty-Williams

10. Conviction - Denise Mina 11. Under the Dome - Stephen King 12. Still Lives - Maria Hummel 13. The Black Echo - Michael Connelly 14. The Wisdom of Compassion - The Dalai Lama 15. Black Ice - Michael Connelly 16. Watch Me Disappear - Janelle Brown 17. Fool's Assassin - Robin Hobb 18. Fool's Quest - Robin Hobb 19. Assassin's Fate - Robin Hobb 20. 11/22/63 - Stephen King 21. The Closer I Get - Paul Burston 22. Whisper Network - Chandler Baker 23. Elevation - Stephen King 24. The Outsider - Stephen King 25. Harrow the Ninth - Tamysn Muir 26. Mr Mercedes - Stephen King 27. Finders Keepers - Stephen King 28. End of Watch - Stephen King 29. The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley 30. My Lovely Wife - Samantha Downing 31. The Warehouse - Rob Hart 32. All Adults Here - Emma Straub 33. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell 34. Summer - Ali Smith 35. 84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff 36. The Institute - Stephen King

37. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke - I mentioned when I started reading it that I wasn't sure what to make of anything or anyone, and I still feel that way but I absolutely loved this. I was going to put it off because I wasn't sure how anything else she wrote could even come close to Jonathan Strange, but she's just written something completely different to avoid comparison and it stands up on its own merits entirely. Beautiful and strange.

38 - Killing Eve: No Tomorrow - Luke Jenkins - I love the show, this was okay. Standard three star thriller I guess.

39 - Killing Eve: Endgame - Luke Jenkins - Look, I love the tv show and I ship Eve/Villanelle even though it's a seriously unhealthy ship because I am a sucker. However, this was absolute garbage. The biggest stinker I've read this year. I won't waste words on it. It took me less than a day to get through, so if you're curious as to how the author ends it then at least it won't take you long.

40 - A Far Cry From Kensington - Muriel Spark - I haven't read Spark since I did my Masters and I'm honestly not sure why. I loved her when I read her then, and I loved reading her now. Pisseur de copie indeed.

41 - Rachel's Holiday - Marian Keyes - Never read Keyes before, will absolutely be reading her again. I've got Grown Ups sitting in the bookcase unread, but I think I'll read a bit more about the Walsh family first.

42 - On the Beach - Neville Shute - Saw some chat about this on the old threads, was curious and decided to give it a go. Some characters I understood (without wishing to spoil anything, the chap that decides to go fishing at his hometown) and some I don't (most of them). In the end though it was just very, very sad. I went back and read Cote's take on it to cheer me up.

43 - Reasons to be Cheerful - Nina Stibbe - And then I read this to try and cheer myself up and it worked. Snort laughs aplenty, I loved the moments with the Woodwards. TAMMY CAN DO BETTER. Christ I hated JP. What a sniveling little xenophobe.

Currently reading 44 - One by One - Ruth Ware which is a page-turner no doubt about it. I thought I'd figured out whodunnit but they went and killed them off so now I'm not sure. Pretty boilerplate 'party in a remote place, they all have their motives for bumping each other off, oooh look one of the 'staff' is more than meets the eye etc. etc.' but I'm enjoying it.

Got some horror books lined up as we get closer to the witching season as well, but will happily take more recommendations. The only book I've read that properly scared me was The Ritual by Adam Nevill and it is to date the only film I've never finished because I was too scared. I am a bit of a wuss though so admittedly I don't watch many.

sigh, an addendum to note that Maggie O'Farrell, Ali Smith and Helene Hanff should all be in bold...one day I'll double check my work.

Karma - The Ritual is easily the most terrifying book I've read too. The horrible sense of there being something behind you... I slept with the light on for a while. And has horrible dreams about goats.

The film is ok but they changed quite a bit and it's nowhere near as scary.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

This is a great example of how to write a layered, interesting, emotionally impactful novel in around 200 pages, and leave the reader feeling like nothing was wanting. Clear, lean writing, excellent character building, the story moves in every chapter, the ending slaps you around the face. The Nickel Boys are so called because they attended the Nickel Academy reform school. The book follows Elwood Curtis, an academically gifted and hard working young man and Turner, the boy he befriends at Nickel, and their experiences there in the 1960s. It also flashes forward to the present as we see the reverberations through the years, as the abuses committed by the staff come to light. It is a heavy read in that respect, but Whitehead writes about the suffering of the students with delicacy, it underlines, rather than overpowers the story. Well written, powerful and definitely recommended.

87. Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch

One of the Rivers of London series. Murders and mysterious things going on underground in the Tube system here. It’s ok.

88. The Map of Bones by Francesca Haig

Second book in the Fire Sermon trilogy, set in a post nuclear war future. All babies born are twins, one perfect Alpha twin and one imperfect Omega twin. And all twins are linked by a fatal bond.
Seer Cass continues to seek out answers and find a way to prevent her twins plan to store all Omegas in tanks.
Very readable.

89. Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates

This was a bit weird. It starts off set in a near future America which is all very totalitarian with a very 1984 feel about it.
Adriane falls foul of the regime and by writing a speech that asks too many questions, and as punishment, is sent back through time to a university in 1950’s Midwest USA, with threats about instant execution if she oversteps certain boundaries.
And then she spends a lot of the rest of the book obsessing about a man.
There’s a suggestion towards the end of the book that the whole thing is some sort of simulation inside her head, which frankly makes a lot more sense than the whole time travel to a relatively pleasant and peaceful part of the not so distant past as a punishment.

90. The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

This is definitely one to avoid if you’re scared of spiders.
The premise is that a previously unknown species of spiders has suddenly started hatching in various global locations. Spiders that swarm and eat almost anyone unfortunate enough to be in their path. The ones they don’t eat - well, they get used as an unwitting host for the egg laying spiders, and end up carrying the spiders wherever they go before more spiders explode out of them in Alien like scenes.
All pretty gruesome but gripping reading.

91. The Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence

Children’s story about a group of Roman children trying to work out who’s been killing dogs in their neighbourhood and why.

92. Girl by Edna O’Brien

This was about a girl captured by Boko Haram militia.
It’s a compulsive and harrowing read, and a very good book, although the subject matter makes it difficult to read in places. There’s a lot of sexual violence.

Great review Satsuki. I've added it to my wishlist.

Thanks for the new thread, south. My list from 30 and my latest read and review at the end.

30. Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday.
31. Sula by Toni Morrison.
32. The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst.
33. The Winter of the Witch (Bk3 The Winternight Trilogy) by Katherine Arden.
34. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams.
35. Salt on Your Tongue by Charlotte Runcie. 36. The Life Project by Helen Pearson.
36. The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak.
37. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge. 39. The Five by Hallie Rubenhold.
38. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. 41. Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector.
39. Chosen (Bk4 in the Alex Versus series) by Benedict Jacka.
40. Hidden (Bk5 in the Alex Versus series) by Benedict Jacka. 44. Lila by Marilynne Robinson.
41. Maoism: A Global History by Julia Lovell.
42. Oathbringer: The Stormlight Archive Book 3 by Brendon Sanderson.
43. Vital Conversations by Alec Grimsley.
44. Ramble Book by Adam Buxton. (Audiobook) 49. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stewart.
45. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

51. Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe by Kapka Kassabova.

This is such an interesting book. Kapka Kassabova is a writer of Bulgarian descent, living in Scotland, who in her thirties decides to travel back to and live in Bulgaria for a few months to investigate her roots and heritage. She travels around south-east Bulgaria and across the border to Turkey. There is such empathy and camaraderie with the people she meets in these rural and struggling communities along with historical facts and beautiful words. This book really struck a chord with me - in parts sad and melancholy but with humour and understanding.

To help with someone’s spreadsheet, I have read:
Of Mice and Men
Little Women
1984
Harry Potter
The Hobbit (my P5 teacher read this to us in instalments over the school year, still remember being enthralled!)
Pride and Prejudice
To Kill a Mockingbird
Roald Dahl - the Charlie books (😂 the whizzing elevator!), GMM, The Twits.
The Narnia books.

I have not read FF or Swallows and Amazons.

Silence by Shusako Endo

This was a fantastic book, so pleased to discover it (it’s on this week’s Backlisted) as it is crosses over several of my personal favourite areas, Japanese literature, historical epistolary style, and religious and moral philosophising. It is about two Jesuit priests in the 1600s who travel to Japan to find out what happened to their mentor, who is said to have “apostatised”, by stamping on a religious image and renouncing his faith, a fact which the two priests cannot comprehend to be true. Their time in Japan is fraught with danger and difficulty as the Shogun seeks to drive Christians from the land, and it becomes harder to hold on to their beliefs in a remote place that has not asked for them. Written in devastatingly spare prose, it deals with torture of an emotional and spiritual as well as physical nature, and will stay with me a long time.

I’ve read all the classics mentioned I think except Mallory Towers - Dahl, Tolkien, Brontes, Austen, Orwell, Dan Brown, all the greats.

boiledegg it was very impressive. I haven’t read The Underground Railroad as thought I might but will now.

stitches I’ve just got Girl from the library this morning. Looks like I’m in for a harrowing hat-trick.