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.

26. The Hopkins Manuscript - RC Sherriff

I don't think any other book has affected me so much this year - possibly because of the state the world's been in. Published in 1939 (Sherriff had fought in WW1, an experience which led to him writing the brilliant play Journey's End, which I think I studied for GCSE English) on the eve of WW2, it's a speculative fiction novel based on the premise that for reasons unknown (it doesn't really matter to the plot) the moon has come out of its orbit and is on a collision course for the earth. The eponymous Hopkins is a middle-aged Hampshire poultry farmer who narrates his experience in the weeks leading up to the 'Cataclysm' as it's known, and the years after. It's at once a celebration of English provincial life and the matter of factness of the practical human spirit, and the tragic seeds of destruction carried within humanity against itself. It's also very funny (the pompous Hopkins is beautifully characterised) and very moving - had me in tears more than once, and that takes some doing. Book of the year without a doubt.

InMyOwnParticularIdiom if you enjoyed Forest you should definitely read some other Le Guin - The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness are probably her best known, but pretty much all her adult books are worth reading IMO (I mean, so are her children's books, but differently).

Great review, Meg . I started The Hopkins Manuscript near the beginning of the pandemic and found I just couldn't hack it, I'm afraid. Hoping to go back to it when I'm feeling more up to the task.

Tanaqui because I'm reading/re-reading the AFs out of order, I've already done The Cricket Term in which Marie gets briskly dispatched and her fellow classmates agree that they can't send a sympathy card to her parents saying how sorry they are, because they're not sorry....

Thanks Sadie - I read The Left Hand of Darkness a couple of years ago but suspect I wasn't in the right mindset for it, will look out for The Dispossessed.

Sadik not Sadie!

151. A Dying Fall (Ruth Galloway #5) - Elly Griffiths All the usual from Ruth and the gang, but the action takes place in Blackpool for a change of scene. Old bones, a suspicious death, much awkwardness after an affair and a few druids thrown in for good measure.

I've got bronchitis and am floored by it at the moment so nice easy reads are the order of the day. I always like slipping back in to a familiar world with good characters. I could quite happily sit with this series back to back.

152. Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner 1920s spinster yearns for freedom from society's expectations. Stuck living with her brother's family, she decides to move to the countryside alone and have her own freedoms.

Long and pointless at the start and ridiculous at the end. It's a no from me.

Get well soon Fortuna!

Hope you feel better soon Fortuna, bronchitis is nasty.

thanks to those on previous threads who recommended Eleanor and Park. it was book 44 for me this year, and not the kind of thing I would normally pick up but I loved it. a brilliant depiction of that teenage live that is so intense

Terpsichore, I had forgotten that lovely bit of teenage honesty! I do love those books.

81. The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie. Another Poirot, but although it is another of the kind I like, where you get good look at the characters before the murder happens, they don't quite come alive in this one for me. Interestingly, the "heroine" here comes from St Mary Mead, but there is no Miss Marple connection!

Get well soon Fortuna . Think the flu and cold season has kicked in, first bout of tonsillitis of the academic year , never wanted to not read so much in my life cause my voice just goes

Get well soon, Fortuna.

Sending good wishes @FortunaMajor

@StitchesInTime I preferred the original Malory Towers books too, but having said that, if I'd been devouring reading them for the first time I think I'd just have been thrilled that there were more!

@InMyOwnParticularIdiom I really enjoyed that Richard Wiseman book! I also enjoyed The Luck Factor which discussed whether we make our own luck by believing that we're lucky or unlucky; I often think of the findings when deciding how to react to a situation. He also does an interesting blog.

157. Caroline Roberts - The Cosy Christmas Chocolate Shop

Aaarrrrgggghhhh. I used to loathe 'chick lit' (and this isn't a prime example, but I'd have classed it as such as it's not exactly challenging) but after the, ahem, challenges of 2020 this is all my poor frazzled brain can cope with. Oh well, it passes the time and talks about chocolate a lot! Heartbroken woman sets up her own chocolate shop, overcomes adversity, meets good looking stranger. I think you can guess the rest

181. Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans

Vera Sedge takes in evacuee Noel Bostock, underestimates him and gets a lot more than she bargained for.

I really wasn't sure if I would like this to begin with as I didn't like either Vera or Donald Sedge, but the way the author turns your head on this is great storytelling.

Loved it (not as much as Old Baggage but still) one of those last sentences that cracks your heart...

Get well soon Fortuna

Hope you’re feeling better soon Fortuna

Clara, I got a few Richard Wiseman books when they were in the 2-for-1 deals on Audible, so I also have The Luck Factor and Rip It Up lined up to listen to. I also like the narrator (Peter Noble), he's very prolific on Audible. His voice almost gives me ASMR tingles, it's very relaxing.

Sorry to hear you're feeling rotten, Fortuna . Take it easy and rest.

92: A Woman of No Importance - Sonia Purnell

Recommended by many on this thread. An incredible story of wartime heroism. It wasn't surprising, but was still nevertheless deeply depressing, that Virginia Hall, working undercover in France for the SOE in conditions of unimaginable peril and stress, faced extra challenges not only because of her disability (she'd lost a leg after a shooting accident) but simply on account of being a woman - she had to fight constantly to be taken seriously, both during the war and after it, as an employee of the infant CIA. But that she achieved so much in the fight against the occupying German forces was truly extraordinary.

Thanks for the well wishes everyone. I'm camped on the sofa for the day with a flask and a book.

153. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab Late 1700s, a young woman on the eve of her wedding begs for more time and freedom. She unwittingly makes a deal with the devil who tricks her and gives her both. She is then destined to live forever but is cursed that nobody will ever remember her. The timeline shifts between present day New York and the start of her curse in France and her experiences through the centuries that led her there.

I wasn't expecting much from this as I'd read something else by the same author earlier in the year and thought it was a bit naff. I wouldn't have guessed this was the same writer. Pacy, interesting and compelling. Although fairly lightweight it was exactly what I needed and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sofa, flask and book sounds like a great plan, Fortuna.

125. Expectation, by A Hope
(By Anna Hope really, but come on, Marketing missed a trick).
Liked on here and I concur. We see three female friends at various ages, but the main storyline is when they are 35, and beginning the painful process of realising that life doesn't turn out as you intend.

It doesn't break new ground, but it does what it does well. I'm very close in age to the characters and went through a similar painful realisation in my mid-30s, so it rang true to me.

@Terpsichore

Sorry to hear you're feeling rotten, Fortuna . Take it easy and rest.

92: A Woman of No Importance - Sonia Purnell

Recommended by many on this thread. An incredible story of wartime heroism. It wasn't surprising, but was still nevertheless deeply depressing, that Virginia Hall, working undercover in France for the SOE in conditions of unimaginable peril and stress, faced extra challenges not only because of her disability (she'd lost a leg after a shooting accident) but simply on account of being a woman - she had to fight constantly to be taken seriously, both during the war and after it, as an employee of the infant CIA. But that she achieved so much in the fight against the occupying German forces was truly extraordinary.

Indeed, and all the more galling that there were feckless and philandering men promoted above her.

Exactly, boiledegg

What also galled me is that a woman such as Virginia wouldn't be accepted into the Security Services NOW - wouldn't pass the medical and yet she was INVALUABLE and also that in the twilight of her career she was regarded as an embarrassing relic by men who had no real idea what she had done.

@FortunaMajor get well soon
@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl I read the cosy chocolate book for similar brain frazzled reasons earlier this year.

I've just finished close to where the heart gives out which is a year in the life of an Orkney islands GP who doubles up as a sermon reader and does a bit of teaching on the side. It's a beautifully written book with a lovely approach. It's only 99p too so I'd snap it up. 5*.

betts Thank you for the recommendation of Close to where the heart gives out, it looks lovely. I haven't posted in a while as the stress of the last nine months has finally hit me and I think I've got close to my limit, TBH. Best wishes to all those who are struggling in various ways. I will post a list and some reviews at some point.

182. A Promised Land by Barack Obama (Audible)

Done as Audible as I love his voice.

If its your sort of thing it will be if it isn't it won't.

Found it interesting that he was reticent to be critical of American politicians, and yet left you in no doubt about foreign leaders, blatantly couldn't stand Sarkozy, blatantly thought Cameron was an empty suit.

Will, naturally, be reading Part 2 at some stage