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.

Idiom, big hugs. It’s so crushing, isn’t it? I can live with the disappointment of not seeing family etc but there are things that can’t ever be put right. So so fed up with everything right now. DS just brought me a cup of tea and I burst into tears.

I feel so unbearably bad for bookshops in tier 4 right now. Imagine - you’re closed for months and then get shut the week before Christmas. When I used to work in a bookshop this week was always crazy. I’m sure we used to do around 25% of our year’s sales in that one week. I am going to spend my Christmas bonus on books this week if the local shop is doing click and collect - not that I need any books but everyone always needs books, right?

Thanks everyone, I had just had enough of everything yesterday. Was mostly upset that DD won't get to spend Christmas with her grandparents and uncles, because it's likely to be a couple of years before we see them again. Now we're not sure if we'll be able to see them at all before we emigrate (we're in SE and they're in Wales).

That's so frustrating and sad, Idiom.

It doesn't affect my plans, as I hadn't made any. On the face of it, I don't feel bad, just blah, but yesterday I became obsessed with the hamster's cage not being large enough and spent half the night researching the largest cages obtainable. Transferred anxiety, anyone? It's cutting into my book-reading time.

Idiom

idiom

Idiom

Oh idiom, that's rubbish. and all round.

to all those who have had their Christmas plans disrupted.

Sympathy from Tier 4 to other Tier 4-ers (and indeed everyone else, because one day for gathering is quite rubbish).

68. Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller

It has taken me an absolute age to read this, which really is no reflection on its quality. Just far, far too much to do and it required a bit of concentration. It's not at all my usual sort of thing (I'm not a big historical or war novel reader), but when I had a chance to get immersed I thought it was great.

The main character, John Lacroix, is a landed gentleman who has returned badly injured from the Peninsular War. We don't know what has happened to him, but it gradually becomes apparent that he was somehow involved in an atrocity in Spain, and as a consequence, two men have been sent to find and kill him. The majority of the book is about his flight and the people he meets on his way, interspersed with the journey of his pursuers.

I know next to nothing about the Napoleonic Wars, but that didn't cause any issues. On this evidence, Miller is a fantastic writer who can pull you in to virtually any scenario, no matter how alien. There are many beautifully written descriptions of the sea and the landscape in this book, which never feel forced or overwritten. And the story moves along at a pace without feeling rushed. A great book; I recommend it.

40. The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis

I loved the Netflix series by the same name, and when I heard that the book was written by the author of The Man Who Fell To Earth, I had to read it.

This is the story of orphan girl Beth Harmon who turns out to be a chess genius and later champion in 1950s, while struggling with multiple addictions and a personality that never got a chance to develop with normal human interactions.

I loved this book although my knowledge of chess is basically what I learned from my father as a child. It felt real, full of detail and raw emotion rather than whiny feeeeliiiiiingssss that characterise most introspective books of such personal struggles. I am not surprised to learn that the author struggled with addition for most of his life and was quite obsessed with chess himself. Neither am I surprised that many of its readers then Googled "Beth Harmon", thinking she was a real person rather than a literary character.

to everyone who has had their plans disrupted or is otherwise finding life difficult at the moment. We're still in tier 2 but cases here are rising fast (after being lower than the rest of the country for most of the year) so I think that won't last long. We've cancelled plans to see family over Christmas but I'm relieved as well as disappointed: trying to find a way to mitigate risks while keeping everyone happy was getting increasingly stressful, and we're all (DH, me and the DCs) exhausted after a term of very full-on work and school. I'm hoping that we'll have lots of time to relax at home (and read, of course!).

DD has just been singing the Twelve Days of Christmas, which prompted me to dig out The Thirteen Days of Christmas, which was a book I loved as a child. Lo and behold, it's by Jenny Overton, who also wrote The Night watch Winter, as reviewed by Terpsichore very recently! I think I'll probably re-read TTDoC as a quick, comforting read over Christmas but I'm also worried that it won't live up to my memories . Then again, can anything live up to your most intense childhood reading memories? I know I've never experienced that total immersion in a book as an adult - there's always something at the back of my mind, something to do or remember or look after. That's why I enjoyed Bookworm so much - it captured that feeling of being literally lost to the outside world while you're inside a book really well.

I have a backlog of reviews but can't seem to sit down and focus long enough to post them, sorry! I'm very impressed by everyone who has managed to keep reading and reviewing here despite the chaos going on around us!

Oh, and I thought I'd try my first ever slightly lame Christmas name

It's funny you should post that, mackerella , because I went back and sent off for a copy of Jenny Overton's Creed Country , which is the prequel to The Nightwatch Winter - just reading it now

to everyone whose plans have had to change. I have everything I could ask for as both my kids made it out to me, and I am so happy- I keep peeking in on them!
86) Before the Coffee Goes Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Mixed reviews upthread but I enjoyed this short and quirky time travel story, although the writing did seem a bit circular at times. I am not sure I have read much Japanese fiction, can anyone recommend anything else? I would like a point of comparison.

I think @satsukikusabe is the Japanese connoisseur but I really liked The Guest Cat by Takeshi Hirade recently. Odd in a good way @Tanaqui

I have nothing to add but I couldn’t leave the message count at 666

41. Games People Play by Eric Berne, M.D.

This was quite interesting to start with, but then got far-fetched and ultimately boring. Some of it sounded made up. I think it was written for other psychiatrists and not the public.

Christmas name-changer here with a couple of random reviews.

78. Desert Air - ed Barnaby Rogerson & Alexander Monro

A pocket-sized book of poetry about the Middle East, which turned up unexpectedly in a Christmas card from Eland Books. I have a subscription which gets me the eight books scheduled for publication over the year, but this was a bonus extra. I have dipped in and am really enjoying this. Half the poems are by Middle Eastern writers, ancient and modern, the rest are by Western writers and are often more an imaginary version of "the East". As such it's a good primer on 18th and 19th century Orientalism, including poems and extracts from Pushkin, Goethe and Oscar Wilde, among others. It also works as pure escapism.

79. Wild Strawberries - Angela Thirkel

Escapism of a different kind, set in the English countryside in the interwar years. A large family of thoroughly good sorts gather in the countryside (and briefly in London) in the run-up to a seventeenth birthday party. There are some low-key romantic shenanigans, a failed attempt to bring back the French monarchy and an excellent finale with a gong. It's like a slightly stoned Downton Abbey and a really lovely read. I'm sure it has subtexts but I'm choosing to ignore them.

Someone upthread mentioned having a Western itch. I'm currently reading Letters from a Woman Homesteader, published in 1914, by Elinore Pruitt Stewart, which is available as a free Kindle book. It consists of letters written by a young woman who moved to Wyoming with her small daughter following the death of her husband. She is remarkably resourceful and tells wonderful stories of her neighbours. Many live miles away across the mountains and desert, about which she writes beautifully, and all have their own interesting stories. Highly recommended.

81. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams A quick and easy read. Queenie is a 25 year old black woman in London who splits up with her boyfriend, sparking a few months of poor choices, including in sexual partners, which is portrayed pretty graphically. She is supported by a cast of family and friends who seem to have been selected for their simplistic racial and cultural stereotypes (the Jewish friend lends her money but turns out to be a bit of a cold fish, the 'tough' black friend offers to get some black boys to beat up a cheating man, the Jamaican auntie prays to Jesus to help her, etc). There are a lot of 'issues' in this but none are really explored in depth. The author could have got away with some of this if the central Queenie character had been funnier and sparkier, which I think she was supposed to be, and there were tiny flashes of it at times, but unfortunately she veered more towards the annoying and selfish. Disappointed this didn't quite live up to my expectations, so I've probably made it sound worse than it is. It was OK.

@HarlanWillYouStopNamingNuts that was me on the westerns, thanks have picked this up. inland by Tea Obreht is still enjoyable - although the distance between people you note is sort of claustrophobic here as the main female protagonist is so powerless waiting for her husband to bring water home. I’m finding it a bit challenging right now. There are more action filled sections about a camel rider journeying ‘inland’ which I race through and then slow down on the uncomfortable sections.

More for all this weekend has been so hard.

I couldn't stand Queenie. I thought there were some very lazy and offensive characterisations in that book.

I'm not going to make 50 books this year, due to lockdown stress and studying for an MSc. My last book of 2020 and number 41 was Eating for England, by Nigel Slater, which was a delight. It's a non-fiction book about his memories of food. I adore his writing and this was a great book to end the year on.

Another Queenie naysayer here. I couldn't finish it. My issue was more that it seemed in the vein of twenty-something self-indulgence that seems to be everywhere at the moment (Sally Rooney et al). I don't mean that to sound ageist - I was exactly that self-absorbed at that age and would have lapped this up at the time, but I don't much patience with it now. It's not meant for me, though, so it's fine by me.

Agree Nutcrackers. I think the only point in the book when I identified with any of the characters was when her white female middle aged boss (yet another stereotyped character) was trying to get Queenie to focus on her work rather than all her drama and attention seeking by pointing out that we all have issues and that life isn't fair. Many people I'm sure, myself included, go through a pretty torrid and self-indulgent stage at some point in young adulthood, but for me a whole book about one person's such phase, without any particular literary merit and with the already mentioned flaws, didn't really do anything for me. I'm definitely not the target audience either.

I thought Queenie was alright, also liked normal people despite being 40 years old so not the target audience.

60. Half of a yellow sun by Ngozi Adichie Chimamanda

I read Americanah all the way back in January and that will be one of my stand out reads this year, also liked this alot which follows individual characters during the Nigerian Civil war during the 1960s.

61. The memory police by Yoko Ogawa

Absolutely loved this, definately will be one of my top reads this year. Its about some people living in an island where things disappear from memory (e.g. fruit, calendars, roses etc) for a few people, the memories don't fade away which is where the memory police come in. It's a little like 1984 but much more personal as it deals with loss.

This was a book club read and interestingly everyone had their own Theory about what it meant for them.

62. Various pets alive and dead by Marina Lewycrka

This is about a family that grew up in a communue, one is now a banker during the financial crash, another a school teacher etc. Nothing wrong with this but just not really for me, found the characters quite one dimensional but an easy read.

Aargh, my book group has chosen Queenie as our next book, and I already had doubts about it! (Having said that, I really liked Normal People, so maybe it won't be as bad as I fear...)