50 Book Challenge 2021 Part One

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first 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, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

Who's in for this year?

Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer
A re-read and not her best. It was okay only.

Okay just finished number 2 and onto 3! I've decided to do a challenge I've seen of reading Stephen King's books in order of publication, which is something I've never done! Starting with Carrie.

1. Love your life by Sophie kinsella
2. Mr Mercedes by Stephen King

And now onto 3. Carrie by Stephen King

14. The Inheritors by William Golding

A book about a bunch of Neanderthals.

I suppose it makes me something of a Neanderthal to say I really wasn't into it and found it quite boring, but C'est La Vie - another longstanding member of the TBR boxed off.

I've got the year off to a great start:

1. All at Sea - Decca Aitkenhead. This is an outstanding non-fiction book in which the author writes about her grief following the sudden death of her partner and father of her two children, and she contrasts this experience with her grieving her mother who died when Decca was nine. I loved her style - it's clear, feels very honest and there isn't a dull section. I've always enjoyed her interviews in the Guardian and The Sunday Times and she's just as perceptive and eloquent writing about her own life. This a very moving and tender book about how grief and trauma can change a person, a family and is highly recommended for any non-fiction memoir fans, perhaps @bibliomania? I know it's only January 11th but I already know this will end up in my top 5 at the end of the year.

f6ef36b9-7831-480c-a1f4-f1725438f6cc.filesusr.com/ugd/8130bb_1a9d0a829b334e82a45fed2df916cad8.pdf

This is a good read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan; you get Sundays off to go to church Not that I finished it; I still have most of the prophets and most of Paul’s letters to go. I actually found the dull bits, eg instructions for making the tabernacle, rather soothing.

7. Country - Michael Hughes

Set in 1996, in border country, this gripping and bloody novel reworks The Iliad to tell the story of a Provisional IRA squad. The narrator, like Homer, is a skilled storyteller, and the book gives a good insight into the Troubles. I’m not sure, however, that Hughes’ use of The Iliad has anything particularly profound to say about either Homer or the Troubles, although I did find it interesting that the Irish are the Greeks and the British the Trojans.

Now going to start William Dalrymple’s The Anarchy, for more British imperialism...

I started The Inheritors a couple of years ago - it is still on my half read pile.

I've come back to the thread after a few days and so many books have been added to my TBR list, and there are so many I want to comment on but have missed the boat! I'm a folk horror fan too so it was good to see it getting a mention. I don't know if I should admit that I liked Station Eleven, Never Let Me Go AND Beyond Black...

I started reading Natives but my brain went a bit hazy when lockdown was announced so I put it to one side and read Diary of a Bookseller for some light relief instead. I liked it, and it tied into the Amazon/independent discussion going on upthread. And his assistant Nicky was brilliant.
No 3 for me is We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, a Russian dystopian novel written in 1921 that influenced Orwell among others.

6. Afraid Of The Christmas Lights various authors try their hand at short, sharp crime stories with a seasonal twist. I started this before Christmas but it’s not the sort of book you can read all in one go as it can get a bit repetitive and you lose the nuance from what are, for the most part, dark and enjoyable bits of crime fluff.
Profits go to charities supporting victims of domestic abuse, which seemed a little discordant considering the content of some of the stories. There’s a predecessor Afraid Of The Lights which I’ll look out for, because sometimes it’s nice to dip into themed short stories.

I had to give The Inheritors to the charity shop because it kept trying to shame me into finishing it and I didn't want to.

Wow, this thread is still moving fast! I'm another one juggling wfh and home-schooling, so not keeping up with the chat here very well. Stitches we've also found that the school's offer is much better this time - lots of live sessions, plus some pre-recorded videos to explain the workbooks - which is great from one point of view, but goes put even more pressure on us to do particular things at particular times (which isn't always easy with work mertings). I'm not sure I can face another term of this...

Fortuna what's your favourite cathedral? I went in a choir tour in about 1999 that included a stop at Salisbury but I can't remember much about it except that it was full of an Anthony Gormley installation of little clay figures that looked like moomins.

Before I started university (to read English), they sent us a list of books we should read beforehand (during a compulsory gap year). It started:

The Bible
Shakespeare's plays
Paradise Lost
The Iliad and the Odyssey

and continued in that vein for another 20 lines or so. Needless to say, I hadn't completed all of it before I started my course! I may still have the list somewhere - I'll try to find it and share it here, as it will be an interesting snapshot of a Books You Should Read list from 25 years ago (with a strong emphasis on Dead white males, of course!)

Thanks for the tip, southeast, - will keep an eye out for that book.

My concentration isn't great and I seen to be surrounded by books I've started and put down. I did complete 3. The Push, by Claire McGowan.. An antenatal group meets up: someone falls off the balcony. An accident or murder? It's pretty standard crime fiction, nothing to write home about, but it kept me turning the pages.

Thanks for the link ChannelLightVessel, I might have a go at that, although I suspect I may slip off the suggested schedule.

@SatsukiKusakabe I've ordered the Clive James book. I was looking it up and it says that in the last few months of his life, his vision was impaired by surgery and he wasn't able to read so he "explored the treasure-house of his mind". It must have been so frustrating for him that he couldn't read but how lovely that he had all of these poems memorised so he could summon them up. Not only that but he turned the whole experience into a book. If it was me, I'd be relying on a few verses (mostly Yeats) and half-forgotten lines from other poems from my schooldays. Anyway, I'm interested to see which poems he chose and what he has to say about them. Can't wait for my parcel to arrive. I've also ordered 'The Salt Path' and 'Shuggie Bain'.

Also, I was interested in your review of 'Other People's Houses'. I'm assuming you've read 'When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit' by Judith Kerr? I recently read the sequels - 'Bombs on Aunt Dainty' and 'A Small Person Far Away'. The second and third books are darker than the first. The three books together form a remarkable account of the experiences of a refugee family in the run up to, course and aftermath of World War II. It's interesting to see how the different family members cope with the challenges of being a refugee and adapting to a different country, language, culture etc. And the loss of their status - before the war Judith's father was a writer and journalist. And of course, the family lived in Switzerland and France before settling in England. I'll add 'Other People's Houses' to my tbr pile.

I also gave up on The Inheritors. Duller than a dull thing, and I was all fired up by Backlisted as well.

Salisbury is my second favourite cathedral in the UK, too. My absolute favourite is Liverpool Metropolitan because it's so light and spacey, but Salisbury is just a gem. We have a long term plan to visit all of them - it's taking a while but we were making steady progress pre Covid, as I shared fascinating medieval cathedral building anecdotes with DP gleaned from Pillars of the Earth.

The Inheritors has been on my tbr for years. Sounds like it should be removed.

Also - there's The Complete Novels of George Orwell on the kindle daily deals for £1.99.

Don't be fooled by it - his novels are all on there for free as he went out of copyright this year (mentioned by someone waaaay up thread I think) and they're just hoping people don't notice.

@mummyplus7 the Stephen King challenge sounds fun. The first ones I read were my Dad's Readers Digest collection when I was a teenager which IIRC had Carrie, Salem's Lot and The Shining. Pretty strong collection of books! It'll be interesting to see how some of his later ones stack up.

@Palegreenstars I agree about the uncomfortable young love in SC.
Having just been through HDM with my 11 year old, they are quite uneven. We actually found the first one very slow moving until the action moves to the North - I actually thought they did the first part much better in the TV series. The second one picks up but Lyra isn't in much of it and I think the whole horses with wheels section is in that one. But then the third really picks up the pace and I almost think makes up for the rest of it. We've all really enjoyed the TV series including my 8 year old who hasn't read them.

I'm also WFH and homeschooling, it's not easy, but at least we have a lot more input from the school than last time!

Oh phew so glad I'm not alone!

In the same vein as The Inheritors, I read Pincher Martin, also by Golding, for my English degree. It was very tedious, then went a bit apocalyptic THEN turned everything around on the last page which was highly irritating as it made me like it but didn't make up for the earlier tediousness.

1. Rapture by Ragnar Jonasson, book 4 in Dark Iceland.

Hmm. As a Ragnar fan, this one had the potential to be the best so far, one of the inevitable two storylines was definitely my favourite.

But- I dunno. It seemed until the last few chapters as though he had a few ideas for plots in his head, couldn't make a whole book out of all of them, so threw them together in one (but two unrelated plotlines) book.

Some of the translating irked too. I don't speak Icelandic, but I do translate and write in/from other languages and some of the English renditions here were lazy and clumsy. It's the same translator- who I've gleaned is also a writer himself, but it just seemed as if he wasn't really concentrating properly this time.

(I've also started to notice the "telegraphing" of what's to come in future books, and I don't think he writes women very well, but I don't want to be too totally negative)

3 stars, and I usually give him 4.

Rupture

Auto-correct. My memory isn't that bad.

Home schooling is tough. Number 3 daughter's school has always used iPad for learning. They were on the roll out with ever child having one. A good system as those who can afford pay a little more so the families who might struggle can have the same. Even with this style and set up it tough so I don't know how others manage. 'Ellenor Oliphant is just fine' beautifully written. Of genre for me but most enjoyable book of the 5 years. 'A little life' also excellent.

So the restful Christmas lull has been over for a week and already I’m behind on this thread - need to set aside an evening to catch up – but I’m determined not to drop off because I can’t keep up so I’ll just bookmark my latest read:

1. The Beekeeper of Apello by Christy Lefteri

This was our bookgroups choice for January and it had also been sitting on my kindle for a while. A mesmerising story that follows beekeeper Nuri and his wife Afra on their journey from war-torn Syria, across perilous waters and through dangerous encampments, to the relative safety of Britain. Sad, haunting and moving but also a book of hope – hope that there will be a bright future ahead ( and new beehives) I loved how the book was written and switch from present days struggles to what happens on their Journey. A good read!

I’ve also started book 5 Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks. This was a charity shop purchase last year and has been sitting on my TR bookshelf since then. I am absolutely loving this book! Faulks’s affection for and knowledge of Paris is apparent in every page and I feel like I’m there on the Metro

1. How much of these hills is gold by C Pam Zhang. This was a recent Kindle daily deal and is the writer's debut novel. I wonder if anyone else got it?

It's a very good read. Two orphans of Chinese descent drag around their father's body on a stolen horse to find the best place to bury him. It's a sweeping novel about the Wild West, prospecting, gold mines, the colonisation of the West and the grim conditions people lived in.

Within this more 'traditional' genre, she weaves the themes of isolation, destitution, puberty, gender and race.

Now reading Sarum by Edward Rutherford which is just what the doctor ordered. I feel like the first four books of 2021 have been a bit heavy on 'misery'!

It's a few decades years since I was there but Gloucester has the lovely early fan vaulted ceilings (Cirencester as well, although it's not officially a Cathedral I think).