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.

Terpsichore It's a very special book indeed. I seem to recall that one of the Blue Peter presenters lived in the house that part of the book is based on but I might have my books muddled up.

BlackCountryExile I hope they do the Woolpack for the Kindle.

Another favourite was Gerald Durrell's The Talking Parcel.

bett yes, it was Simon Groom but I think they used his historic Derbyshire house as the latter-day filming location rather than it being the original the book was based on, iyswim. Beautiful house though - google tells me it was up for sale last year.

One of my bitterest disappointments was finding out that Alison Uttley was a deeply unpleasant person in so many ways - controlling and dominating. I've got a biog somewhere but haven't been able to bring myself to read it yet.

Nooo Terps, I don't believe it (sticks fingers in ears and runs away singing Greensleeves)

Also loved The Woolpack, and Ring Out, Bow Bells by the same author (who, hopefully, was a lovely person)

54 Passing - Nella Larsen

I'm not sure if I read this as a recommendation on here - but please let me strongly recommend this compelling and historically relevant book. It is short and holds you almost immediately. Published in the 20s and set in 1920s Harlem, it is about a wealthy black woman and her reuinion with her light skinned friend who is passing as white. It is fascinating on the life of wealthy black people in Harlem, I didn't realise there was such a privileged class co-existing while separate from white America. It is great on the psychology of hiding who you are, the draw back to where you came from, female friendship, betrayal and married life. It is an all round astonishing read.

34. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Struggling to get into the Christmas spirit, I re-read this. Did the trick. Quite fancy a pan of Smoking Bishop now.

@bettbattenburg
I think it would be a good thing if Cynthia Harnett's books were available on Kindle and so could be more widely read. I'm very attached to my elderly copy of The Wool-Pack. I'd like to read some of her other books but as far as I can see they are all out of print.

Thanks for the rec HeadNorth - passing is currently 0.49p on the kindle

Thanks Spella and HeadNorth - I had Passing on my wishlist so have snapped it up for 49p!

@KeithLeMonde

Also loved The Woolpack, and Ring Out, Bow Bells by the same author (who, hopefully, was a lovely person)

I'm sure she was lovely. I've heard similar things about Uttley - I think I read the blog that Terpsichore mentioned on here, I would like to refuse to believe it though I suspect it's true.

Ring Out, Bow Bells was lovely. I've just seen that The Woolpack is available on Audible so maybe there is hope of it coming to the Kindle.

Rosemary Sutcliff is another author who I enjoyed books by though I can't remember a specific title.

I'm also failing to get into the Xmas spirit, as is DS. He says he doesn't want to put the xmas tree up and isn't looking forward to Xmas. No roast turkey as he doesn't like it (the only good point about not going to a relative for xmas lunch). I'm struggling with not seeing my remaining parent on Xmas Day when last Xmas was difficult as I knew it'd probably be the last Xmas when my Dad was still alive, now I am thinking (with no evidence really) that it'll be the last one when my Mum is alive. My usual optimism has taken a bit of a battering this year, as has been the case for many I expect.

Betts sorry you're having a hard time.

I am all over the place with my numbers. I think Goodreads is lying to me, or I'm so fuzzy headed I can't count.

263. Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson
     Jackson Brodie #4, much enjoyed. I'm going for mainly lighter / untaxing reads until the end of the year and this was perfect for mindless entertainment.

264. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
     A mild-mannered 30-something spinster is taken for granted by those around her. Observations of 1950s life. Gentle humour that raised many a wry smile. My word this was good, so thank you to those discussing the author recently. I don't think I'd have found her otherwise.

Betts

Really don't think I am going to make 200. Still going to try but just haven't had the mental energy the last week or so.

190. Reaching Down The Rabbit Hole by Allan Ropper

Memoirs of a neurologist

It was free on Prime Reading

It needed to be.

Betts, I’m sorry, that is so unfair. I sympathise - my parents understandably don’t want to come to plague-ridden tier 3 and we can’t go anywhere as the DC are with their dad on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. I find myself wishing I’d have my mum around to fuss about the turkey and nag me about not having a drink before 5pm. And dd is in tears because she turns 16 on 30 December and had planned a tiny party in the garden with the fire pit and her five mates and now she can’t have that either. You’re not wrong about optimism; it’s in short supply this year.

I know we are meant to talk about books but I can’t face reading. I think I too need to hunt out some of my favourites from childhood - it feels as if it may be time for a Chalet School. Odd that I never read any Antonia Forrest; where would I start?

Thank you all.
Pepe we had a 16th birthday this month, a real damp squib as my teenager had to self isolate due to sitting next to a friend who tested positive. So far this year we have had a 21st birthday the day after lockdown started, my Dad's birthday and he died, and the self isolation 16th birthday.

I didn't read at all for a week earlier this year if Goodreads is to be believed, that's unprecedented. I'm not in the mood now so I am reading short free kindle unlimited books thanks to the free trial.

The Chalet School sounds good.

bett

betts

Also been having trouble reading. Too many deadlines, exams too and generally not feeling in the Christmas spirit despite having the tree up and wearing Christmas jumpers. If I have to read one of those ‘that’s not my baby’ books again I’m going to fucking cry. Had my 16th in the middle of lockdown too, this year is absolute shit

Also forgot to add my latest

37. The Queens Gambit - Walter Tevis Orphaned at the age of eight, Beth is sent to an orphanage where she learns to play chess with the janitor, William Shaibel. Over time, Beth soon comes to love chess and begins to play in tournaments, also becoming somewhat famous across the world as a child prodigy. Having gone through trauma at a young age, Beth finds herself relying on pills in order to sleep, and turns to alcohol once older.

Been on my list for a while, having finished my other bedtime book and the Netflix series coming out recently made me decide to make this my next bedtime book. Really enjoyed, felt as though I could relate to Beth quite a bit even if I did zone out during some chess games

268. Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella

Ava and Matt fall in love on holiday, but when they get back discover they are completely incompatible. This was predictable and the main characters were a bit annoying, so not one of Kinsella’s best. I still enjoyed reading it though.

269. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper

I did not enjoy reading this. It always gets mentioned on threads about Christmas books so I thought I would give it a go as it’s not one I read as a child. I just couldn’t get on with it though. The main character is an 11 year old boy who suddenly discovers he has magic powers and has to go on some sort of quest to collect signs and prevent the Dark from rising. Why, I don’t know. I found this very confusing and got bored in the end, although I did finish it to see if it got better. It didn’t.

96: Walking With Ghosts - Gabriel Byrne

A memoir of the actor's childhood in Dublin and his early rootless adulthood as he struggled to find a place in the world. Short but devastatingly good. I was quite bowled over by this...it's so poetically, beautifully written and brings his Irish childhood so vividly to life. Also deeply sad and full of yearning - for the parents he's lost; for his sister who died in her thirties. At this late stage, one of the best books of the year for me.

Betts and everyone who is finding life hard at the moment.

96. Christmas Days - Jeanette Winterson

Festive short stories interspersed with recipes gathered from Winterson's friends and family. This was gently entertaining and Winterson has an intriguing interest in the deep mythic origins of the Christmas tradition. I enjoyed the ghost stories the most, especially the one featuring a chilly encounter in the Swiss Alps with an other-worldly mountaineer.

97. Traces - Patricia Wiltshire (Audible)
Professor Patricia Wiltshire was one of the originators of the field of forensic ecology, using the traces of plants and fungi to link perpetrators to crime scenes, establish time of death, find traces of plant toxins, etc. I decided to listen to this after hearing an old radio interview with her, and being inspired by her journey from the Welsh valleys, via secretarial work to environmental archaeology and her forensic breakthroughs.

There were some fascinating insights that I will retain eg wind-pollinated flowers are not so much use forensically as their pollen spreads widely, but insect-pollinated plants require close contact to leave a pollen trace and so can help to prove that someone was at a particular crime scene. However, I don't think the topic held enough interest for me over a whole book and my mind tended to drift off a little when the botanical detail got too much. Also, Wiltshire came across as very arrogant about her abilities and dismissive of the techniques of others, which I suspect may be an editorial artefact as she seemed pleasant and engaging on the radio.

191. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey (Audible)

If no-one has read this bought this or has it on TBR, I have taken one for the team here

It's not an autobiography no

It's an "approach" book

Read by the actor, its a spray of anecdotes, cheesy aphorisms and psychobabble

Every so often the narrative pauses for him to repeatedly yell :

GREENLIGHT!!!!

BUMPER STICKER!!!

NOTE TO SELF!!!!

PRESCRIPTION!!!

And then declare some homespun philosophy. After the annoyance fades it becomes oddly amusing

NO

and the latest twist to 2020, self isolating until at least xmas day pending test results. Maybe I will read those final 33 books to get to 200 but I am not seriously expecting to!

I've just finished Last Christmas which was very recently reviewed here so I won't review it again as I agree with what's already been said.

If you like cosy reads and swimming then the Whitstable swimming club series of 3 short books (cheaper then the actual all in one novel) are to be recommended. Ideal reads when in bed feeling under the weather when brain cells are not at their best.

Hope you are OK bett !

Simon Groom's farm was indeed the original house Dethick Manor that A Traveller in Time is about. Simon Green was 'discovered' by children's BBC during the filming of the TV series starring Sophie Thompson, he went back home for a weekend to see hisparents, at the time he was DJing in London.

One of my favourite novels as a child was Stars of Fortune by Cynthia Harnett, I remember loving the illustrations and like A Traveller in Time it is set in a real place, in this case Sulgrave Manor near Banbury. Don't know why her books aren't published any more, I'd snap them up!