50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Ten

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the tenth (and final?) 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
9

I've just checked and these threads this year have moved more quickly than any other year since they started back in 2012! We'd never reached ten threads in any other year.

A Clockwork Orange is in the kindle deal today. Difficult and unsettling, but deeply impressive.

I think the first half of Lolita is masterful.

I have read both Lolita and a Clockwork Orange. I recognise the skill of the authors but could never face reading them again. What I find interestng is the way both of them have been adapted in the popular imagination to make them more palatable. In the Lolita film she is 14 not 12 and the public view of Lolita seems to be a teenage temptress, not a victiim of child abduction and abuse. Similarly in the Clockwork Orange film they rape a good looking woman, not an old lady like they do in the book and Alex is considered more of a rebel than a brutal, scary psycopath that society does't know how to deal with. Anyway, sorry for rambly post, both books are worth reading but in many ways very different to what we have been led to expect.

I also agree part one of Lolita is an outstanding piece of writing. I think the author grooms the reader as much as Humbert grooms Lolita and her mother. Then he drops you in a place where you feel quite disgusted, mostly with yourself. I remember needing to walk away for a few days in the middle because I couldn't stop thinking about what the book was saying about me as a person for reading it and my opinion of it up to that point. It's very unsettling. I also think the way the writing devolves in the second part at the same time as the character is also very deliberate, but makes it less enjoyable. If I were to read it again, I think I'd only be interested in the first part.

It's a book you can't escape from, you'll never forget it. I've got books from earlier this year that I couldn't begin to tell you what happened or what any of the characters were called.

A Woman of No Importance was brilliant, one of my top reads this year.

I'll put my hands up to be a Ken Follett fan. I know some of his superfluous descriptions of breasts are dodgy, but I can't help loving the stories and the characters. So here goes with the new one.....

66. The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett
    It was typical Ken Follet, he has a predictable pattern of a meandering story, interesting characters with intertwining stories over several years.
    It is set in the tiny village of Dreng's Ferry near the fictional town of Shiring which is little more than an alehouse and a ferry, with a few farmsteads nearby, as it develops slowly into the thriving town we know as Kingsbridge in Pillars of the Earth, The main characters are Edgar, a boatbuilder who adapts his skills to building brewhouses, churches and eventually basic bridges. Minor Norman noblewoman Ragna who comes to nearby Shiring to marry the local Alderman. She is educated and intelligent, and despite being treated appallingly by her inlaws, she becomes respected and popular with the local people. Also the monk Aldred, who is secretly in love with Edgar, but has a dream to turn the tiny monastery into a centre of learning. There are the usual Follet villains, the corrupt bishop, the middle aged woman with a grudge and the resentful sibling. The story following them over several years but there are a fair few minor characters I would have liked to know more about, such as the Welsh slave Blod, and Edgar's mother, a formidable woman who was only ever referred to as Ma, as far as I can recall.
    Probably not his best, it’s not as good as Pillars of the Earth, but I enjoyed it and rattled through it at a fair pace.

67. The Tudor Crown by Joanna Hickson
    I've read a lot of fiction around the Wars of the Roses, and this was OK, on a par with Philippa Gregory. It is a follow up to The First Tudors, which focused on Jasper Tudor and Margaret Beaufort, which I read in 2018. I feel there should be a book in the middle, - this feels like the third in a trilogy somehow, but I can't really put my finger on why, I can certainly find no record of a book in between these two.

Anyway, the plot is well known to me, so there was no real suspense. It is told my two narrators, Margaret Beaufort and her exiled son Henry who is the last of the Lancastrian line. There is a good deal of correspondence between them as Henry matures while in France as he realises he may be King, and Margaret as she navigates the complex loyalties of the English court while secretly hoping her son may one day be king. The dramatic years of the reign of Edward IV, his death, the disappearance of the Princes in the tower and the brief reign of Richard III is told mainly through Margaret's letters to Henry.

A decent easy read.

91: Autumn Term - Antonia Forest

Without meaning to, I seem to have retreated into the institutionalised world of Kingscote School (though not quite in the right order). Ah well. In this one, twins Nicola and Lawrie become the victims of injustice when they're accused of playing with matches and causing a fire on a hike with their Guide pack, and patrol leader Lois Sanger fails to speak out to clear them. Universally despised Marie Dobson also proves herself to be an unmitigated rotter*, but there's triumph for the twins and the girls of the Third Remove when they stage an end-of-term play.

*Forest's characterisation of Marie is difficult to read at times; she so obviously dislikes her, and spares no effort in making her unpleasant, with no attempt to give her any redeeming features whatsoever. It's obviously judged OK for the others to isolate and behave horribly to her. Strange in books that are otherwise so notable for their subtlety and depth.

56. Ducks, Newburyport Lucy Ellmann. This book is composed of the everyday musings of an American woman living in Ohio. She touches on many topics with a focus on her family (husband, four kids, deceased parents and aunt, ex-husband), her pie-making business, pollution, gun control, native Americans and her own feelings of shyness and anxiety. Also lions. It has taken me ages to read, partly because it's long, but also because the rambling, stream of consciousness style and absence of a page-turning plot meant that I had a tendency to doze off while reading it. It's a great cure for insomnia, and I mean that as a compliment! I loved every word and felt properly bereft after finishing it last night.

Well done on finishing, Tara! You make it sound appealing.

Not making much headway on any book at the moment. Have been reading Kindle samples of books about neanderthals (nonfiction). Not for any particular reason, just interest.

Oh there's no question of it having good writing, but I just couldn't enjoy it at all. The constant nymphetting just nauseated me.

116. Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Fantasy novel. Overall ok, but it dragged in places.

Princess Elisa bears a magic Godstone in her navel, a sign that she’s been chosen to perform some sort of divine duty. She’s being married off (at 16) to the king of a neighbouring country that’s threatened with invasion at the start of the book.

But she’s completely lacking in self confidence and views herself as fat and useless. Not helped by her husband declaring that he wants to keep their marriage a secret for as long as possible.

The first part of the novel has far too much about Elisa brooding about her weight / Elisa overeating / other characters being unkind about Elisa’s size.
This mostly stops when she’s kidnapped and taken into the desert, where lots of enforced marching and restricted rations mean that Elisa is soon a normal size.

And we then move onto Elisa fulfilling her destiny and being instrumental in the defeat of the evil forces threatening the kingdom, which is a bit more exciting.

I'm delighted you enjoyed it Tara, I agree it's a terrific book!

50. After Me Comes the Flood - Sarah Perry

I found it hard to get to grips with this in some ways - only after I'd finished it did I realise it was the same author as The Essex Serpent, which I liked. It was an odd book, full of confusion and menace and I was never sure where the author was taking us. It is set in a strange house with a cast of characters that make it almost feel like a metaphor. The claustrophic atmosphere and sense of entrapment are well done with nature signalling little harbingers of doom. Strange and timeless, it was worth a read. And I am at 50!

Head - Having loved Serpent, I gave up on Flood after only about twenty pages. I was bored to tears by it, but it sounds like a slow burner that might have been worth persevering with.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I wouldn't say Flood was a must read, so don't feel you have to give it another go. But it didn't open up into something more interesting and it isn't one of this books I resent having wasted my time reading. I know, damning with faint praise....

Sorry, it did open up into something more interesting- oh for an edit function!

249. This Mournable Body - Tsitsi Dangarembga Set in Zimbabwe, a woman with high hopes for her career and mighty ideas about herself slowly comes to terms with the fact that she is at best mediocre and clinging onto past glories. During her education she was promised the earth, but finds the reality hard to face that despite many advantages, she is no further ahead. After a failed career and disappointments with housing, she is offered a new opportunity but not everything goes to plan.

While this is not that plot heavy, it is an excellent character study and a commentary on an emerging Zimbabwe moving on from a colonial past. It focuses on the barriers women face. I thought it went off the boil a little in the middle, but it had a strong start and end. The writing is excellent and she captures the internal monologue of self recrimination really well.

250. The Street - Anne Petry
     Set in 1940s Harlem, a young woman struggles to raise her son trapped in a world full of poverty and disadvantage with no real option for escape. A new home isn't quite the fresh start she hopes for. She does everything she can to give her son a good life, but poverty, racism and sexism are grinding and never ending and hold her back at every turn.

This is pretty relentlessly grim and hard hitting, but the writing is sublime. One of those books that you know within a few lines that it is going to be treat. It chronicles the sheer misery of the black experience at the time. What an ending!!!

Thanks Keith for championing this one as it is a brilliant read.

258 Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

Not much really happened in this, but I still liked it. The titular character is a governess. Her first family is full of feral children, then she goes to a family with a couple of teenage girls. After the death of her father she opens a school with her mother, then marries a curate. A lot of it reflects Anne’s own experiences as a governess although it’s not strictly autobiographical. As I said there’s not really much plot but it’s a good insight into what life was like for Victorian governesses.

Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
Well, all I can say is that I LOVED it. Up there with her best. Funny, sweet, tender, some cutting observations about society and its hypocrisy, and a blooming lovely happy ending. Totally joyful.

180. Old Baggage by Lissa Evans

In the 20s former suffragette Mattie, written off by locals as an 'Old Baggage' - still means to crusade for feminism, champion pioneering women, and empower girls until a new face threatens to make her forget her principles....

Only read due to mentions on here and God I loved it, I really did and I can't wait to read her others. I saw Mattie so clearly in my mind as one of those posh practical Jolly Ho Come Along Old Girl type women that they don't really make anymore, and unafraid to be LOUD in an era when women were still taught to be quiet.

For some reason, and I entirely mean it as a compliment, I see this as a sort of adult equivalent of a Blyton or a Ransome.

Can anyone reassure me the sequels are as good?

Eine many on here prefer Crooked Heart, the second book, though I missed Mattie (like you, I loved her as a character). A great read though. I also loved Their Finest Hour and a Half which I only realised some time later is by the same author.

Fortuna, so glad you enjoyed The Street. Such a shame it's not better known.

Thanks Eine - pretty sure Old Baggage is in this month’s deals so will go and snap it up!

Not reached 50 yet and some of these were read late last year. Would recommend all of them except where mentioned.

1. Far Cry From Kensington - Muriel Spark. Found myself LOLing at this, although quite dated.
2. Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens. Loved this adventure.
3. Since We Fell - Dennis Lahane. Ok thriller, good pace.
4. 1984 - George Orwell. Never read before, disturbing because it was so visionary, loved it.
5. Conversations With Friends - Sally Rooney. Irritating for many reasons.
6. Bhuddism for Busy People - David Michie. Soothing for the soul but might have to re-read.
7. The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter. Bonkers fairy tales for adults only.
8. The Mars Room - Rachel Kushner. Affecting but miserable tale of struggle, poverty and women's prison life.
9. Middle England - Jonathan Coe.

10. American Pastoral - Philip Roth. An absolute epic but hard going at times. Also enjoyed the recent TV version of The Plot Against America. 11. A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James. Rollercoaster with this one, difficult to follow but parts of it were mind-blowing and then I struggled to finish it! 12. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath. Hadn't read this before but now firmly one of my favourite books of all time. 13. My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh. Really enjoyed this 14. Lowborn - Kerry Hudson. Loved this 15. Love is Blind - William Boyd. A bit daft but enjoyable love story. 16. Three Women - Lisa Taddeo. Loved this book though quite depressing. 17. Expectation - Anna Hope. The ups and downs of friendship and motherhood. 18. The Road to Wigan Pier - George Orwell. Riveting. 19. The Testaments - Margaret Atwood. Brilliant. 20. Not a Diet Book - James Smith. Meh. 21. City of Girls - Elizabeth Gilbert. Enjoyable theatrical romp. 22. The Interestings - Meg Wolitzer. Ok, reminded me a bit of Donna Tartt The Secret History. 23. Motherwell - Deborah Orr. Love and miss her writing. 24. The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford. 25. Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frenkel. Human nature laid bare. 26. Normal People - Sally Rooney. Loved this, unlike CWF above. 27. American Dirt - Jeanette Cummings. 28. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark. Found this hard going 29. Finger smith - Sarah Waters. Love her stories. 30. The End of the Affair - Graham Greene. Thoroughly depressing! 31. Hamnet - Maggie Farrell. One of my favourites this year. 31. Empire of the Sun - JG Ballard. Amazing. 32. Days Without End - Sebastian Barry. 33. A Thousand Moons - Sebastian Barry 34. Redhead by the Side of the Road - Ann Tyler. 35. The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst. Another epic. 36. 12 Rules for Life - Jordan Peterson. One I shall return to. Loved the biblical philosophy even though I am a complete atheist. 37. My Sister the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwate. The audiobook narration by Werruche Opia is outstanding. 38. Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid. 39. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart. So painful but loved it. 40. Who They Was - Gabriel Krauze. Relentlessly violent but a glimmer of hope at the end. 41. Notes on a Nervous Planet - Matt Haig. Ok but not particularly illuminating. 42. The Five - Hallie Rubenhold. Fascinating.

I'm now enjoying The Lost Pianos of Siberia and Brighton Rock.

After Me Comes The Flood was a DNF for me earlier this year (after about 40 pages). I just couldn't get a grip on what was going on. But I decided that it was probably me, rather than Sarah Perry, so it's definitely still on the TBR list (pending a time when I have more brain power than I currently do).

@Terpsichore, I always felt that it is Nicola 's view of Marie we get in Autumn Term- and iirc, later she reflects on how awful it must be to be Marie (I think).

80. At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie. A Miss Marple that made a good film, and was a good read, if a little uneven. Miss Marple is staying in a London Hotel that seems just too good to be true...and of course, is. Robbery takes as big a part as murder, and Miss Marple doesn't get quite enough to do, but the comparisons Miss M makes between the present day and the past are nicely done.

92. Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to British Birds
An alphabetical trawl through a selection of British birds, formatted like a scrapbook or set of field notes, and illustrated with Bill Bailey's own cartoons. Gently funny, while also very well informed about the birds he describes, and a perfect pick me up for a rainy day.

93. Paranormality: why we see what isn’t there - Richard Wiseman (Audible)
Exploration of the real psychology behind alleged paranormal occurrences. Most interesting was the description of cold reading techniques used by fortune tellers - basically if you tell someone something flattering and suitably vague, they'll be happy to accept it as an uncannily realistic portrait of their personality. Most bizarre was the tale of Gef the Talking Mongoose, who allegedly inhabited the wall cavities of a remote farmhouse in the 1930s and declared himself to be the eighth wonder of the world. Wiseman obviously thinks this was a hoax, but I don't know...

94. The Word for World is Forest - Ursula Le Guin
Sci-fi is not my usual comfort zone, and this was given to me as a present, but this is an exceptionally good novel. In a universe where multiple planets are occupied by different types of human, Earth humans (Terrans) have begun to colonise Athshe, enslaving its peaceful inhabitants, who are small and green, but still human. Amongst other atrocities, the Athsheans are forced to assist the Terrans in their project of deforesting the land (Earth has become so ecologically degraded that wood is worth more than its weight in gold). The Athsheans themselves have no concept of war, live in harmony with nature, and maintain psychological equilibrium through their spiritual practice of spending waking time in a dream state (this was written in the 1960s, after all). But the brutality of one particular Terran, Captain Davidson, tips the Athsheans into violent rebellion; the example of the Terrans combined with the pain they suffer at their hands teaches them how to kill, and their lifeway is irredeemably altered.

Chapters alternate between the Terran and Athshean worlds, and Le Guin manages brilliantly to convey the difference between their worldviews in the pace and language. Captain Davidson's chapters are full of opinion, action and ego, but you literally slow down your reading pace when you step under the forest canopy into the Athsheans' sun-dappled world. It's the sort of book you want to read again to understand how the author achieved it on a technical level. Le Guin has built a comprehensive world and culture for the Athsheans, but has the confidence to tell the whole story in 120 pages - a lesser writer would have made this into an epic. Its immediate inspiration was the Vietnam War, but it works as a metaphor for any encounter between more technologically advanced humans with native peoples (the colonisation of Australia and some parts of South America are what immediately springs to mind).

Five stars, highly recommended.