50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2021, 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. Could everyone embolden their titles and/or authors as well, please, as it makes the books talked about easier to track?

The first thread of the year is here.

Has Bainbridge done anything cheerful? Master Georgie sounds good, but I just don't think I could cope with it right now.

I agree SOLINVICTUS, I liked September too. In fact I think I need to re-visit it as I haven’t read it in a while. Have you read Coming Home, by the same author.

Thanks for the further information on Annie Ernaux cassandre. She was also mentioned a few times in Returning to Reims by Didier Eribon which I read at the end of last year (and which sounds a bit similar, except from a gay man's perspective) so I am looking forward to reading something by her.

I studied a couple of Annie Ernaux's books at university. Time for a re-read methinks, although I think my copies are in a box in the UK and well out of my reach for the foreseeable However I'm pretty sure I haven't read that one cassandre so thanks for the heads up - it appears to be available at the library

Still haven't finished book 2 yet and it's nearly the end of the month. Too much bloody end-of-semestre marking. Give me strength!!

1. A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny - the 4th instalment in the Armand Gamache series. It was good :)
2. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - a woman tries to commit suicide, ends up in a library where she can choose to lead any one of her lives in an infinite number of parallel universes. Very poorly written, extremely predictable but had a certain charm and I quite enjoyed it.
3. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel - And the award for the most pointless book ever written goes to ... Honestly, never read anything by her before but she is a beautiful writer, she can draw you in. I got to 150 pages until I realised I'd been tricked and this is one of those books about absolutely nothing. Skim read the last 250 pages and was glad to return to the library :(

@ElizabethBennetismybestfriend

I agree SOLINVICTUS, I liked September too. In fact I think I need to re-visit it as I haven’t read it in a while. Have you read Coming Home, by the same author.

I think so, but years ago. I probably need to revisit, thanks for reminding me. I vaguely remember a blue cover.

6. How to Talk to Anyone - Leil Lowndes
Read as a confidence booster in the hope of actually being able to meet and communicate with other humans at some point in the not-too-distant future.

7. The Terror - Dan Simmons
Flawed but brilliant historical horror take on the 1845 Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest Passage (a route from the Atlantic to the Pacific across the north coast of Canada). Trapped in the polar pack ice, the crews of the ships Erebus and Terror are also faced with a cunning man-eating monster who is somehow linked to the strangely tongueless Inuit girl they have aboard. Simmons is a master at maintaining tension, especially given that you basically already know that it's all going to end in disaster, and the world he creates is incredibly vivid and visual.

But you could also write a long essay on everything that's wrong about it. The structure is uneven, key elements are dropped in suddenly without any subtle build-up, and the whole Hickey episode did not work for me. Also, Simmons could give Ken Follett a run for his money in the Boobswatch department, even when this means bosoms running the risk of near-certain frostbite, with the added bonus of describing the pubic topiary of pretty much every female character.

Despite this, The Terror is certainly going to be one of my highlights of the year. The detail of naval life, arctic exploration and Inuit survival skills is so fascinating that I loved spending time in this world (Simmons info-dumps his head off but I really didn't mind in this case, which is just as well as 900+ pages). It also definitely leaves you wanting to do your own research into the true story of the expedition, as well as the Inuit mythology that inspired the horror element.

4 Grace under Pressure by Sophie Walker

The author’s moving and frank story of struggling through her daughters early school years and eventual ASD diagnosis. One of Sophie’s coping strategies was to take up running and setting herself the challenge of completing the London Marathon, to fundraise for increased Autism awareness.
The parallel stories about the struggle to start and keep running and her exhausting journey to find support for her family works well. There’s also lots of love, warmth and celebrating achievement.

There are no cheerful Bainbridge novels Remus, but some are macabre rather than relentlessly bleak if that helps.

7 The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

Much reviewed on here. I had a copy with an interview with the author at the end and apparently she has received masses of abuse from 'ripperologists' who aren't happy that she has concentrated on the lives of the victims and particularly that she has shown that most of them weren't prostitutes. The last chapter is very powerful and angry at how these women's lives have been ignored and what that says about how we as a society value the women at the margins of society and how ripperology harms all women. Very much worth reading but unbearably sad in parts. Now for something more cheerful!

Nice review of The Terror Daphne.

Thanks, JD re Bainbridge. Might have to leave her for a while, as I absolutely can't cope with misery at the moment.

9. A Symphony of Echoes - Jodi Taylor

Second in The Chronicles of St Mary’s series regarding time-travelling historians. The action moves between 681BC and the Hanging Gardens to the court of Mary Queen of Scots via a trip to the future St Mary’s and a hunt for dodos in Mauritius. Plenty of scrapes along the way and lots of fun.

Thanks Remus!

Boiledegg, I read Return to Reims as well, and thought it was great! He did ramble on a bit in places, but overall I really liked the mix of memoir and political reflection. He did a good job of showing how the formerly lefty working class in northern France were marginalised and ignored by left-wing parties, so began to espouse the xenophobic doctrine of the far right. I suspect his analysis could be applied in part to the UK and the US as well.

@nowanearlyNicemum, I take it you're in France then? I sympathise with the piles of marking (I'm a uni lecturer, currently teaching online badly and trying to do home learning with my DC -- also badly!).

Yes, Ernaux's masterpiece Les Annees came out in 2008, and Memoire de fille in 2016. I have a couple of her books from my uni days too, but I remember not liking them at the time. I think I thought they were too bleak. I'm keen to go back to them now that I am an old middle-aged woman.

Back to my original username as I prefer it.

1. What she saw, Wendy Clarke. Fictional story of a woman who is in the witness protection programme and what happens as a result of decisions that she makes. Fairly good for a quick read.

1. Away with the penguins, Hazel Prior. The story of Veronica who is a wealthy woman living on the west coast of Scotland. Her life has had some interesting turns and difficulties which she hasn't dealt with. She decides to take a trip to the South Shetland Islands and discovers a fascination with penguins which turns out to be therapeutic and helps her to deal with some of the issues from her younger life. I really enjoyed this book.

@cassandre yes, I seem to remember reading La Place and one or two others (?) but not really feeling the love! Your review of Memoire de fille sounded great though!

I'm a uni lecturer too cassandre - just finished my pile of Semester A marking!

1. Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton. This was popular on last year's thread, and received mainly positive reviews I believe. It's a school shooting story with the action taking three hours from beginning to end. Excellent - one of the best thrillers I've read in a long time. I couldn't quite stay awake last night to finish it, but I did find myself waking early this morning and picked it up instead of trying to go back to sleep!

Betts I'm glad you've said that about Away with the Penguins as it's our book club choice this month and I was feeling a bit ambivalent about it.

I've got reviews to add, but this is the first night I've finished on time from work since Xmas. I feel absolutely frazzled and can't manage much more that zombie staring at the wall right now.

Continuing my easy reading

The Falls by Ian Rankin vaguely familiar but I can’t remember if it’s because I have read it before or not. Rebus again is the antihero of the police, various twists and turns and although guessed the murderer it was a good read to find out how.

@FortunaMajor

Betts I'm glad you've said that about Away with the Penguins as it's our book club choice this month and I was feeling a bit ambivalent about it.

I've got reviews to add, but this is the first night I've finished on time from work since Xmas. I feel absolutely frazzled and can't manage much more that zombie staring at the wall right now.

I'll be interested to know what you think of it. I almost didn't read it because it was one I kept hearing about and so felt a bit like Osman's TMC but then it was 99p one day.

I'm glad I kept my review brief so there weren't any spoilers.

Sounds good Tara, Three Hours goes on TBR list!

1. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

I heard about this book through these threads and was intrigued. I absolutely loved the first half, which builds the world of the House, with its endless halls, statutes, seas and clouds, birds and fish. I had no idea what was happening but was happy to wander with Piranesi, finding the Beauty of the House immeasurable; it's Kindness infinite. I didn't enjoy the more plot driven second half so much, but it is a book that will stay with me - other solitary worlds and labyrinths where you can lose yourself, whether they are prisons or a kind of freedom. A very appropriate lockdown read.

@DesdamonasHandkerchief

Sounds good Tara, Three Hours goes on TBR list!

I loved Three Hours but then made the fatal mistake of thinking all of RL's books would be good, and promptly buying up her back catalogue. They are, imo, so shockingly bad and forgettable it's hard to imagine they're the same person! Hopefully she'll write some more now as good as Three Hours.

I finished n8 via Audible this morning.

1. Nobody is too small to make a difference Greta Thunberg.

Hmm. Now, this is a collection of her speeches. So there's a heck of a lot of repetition, as the lovely and admirable Greta just says pretty much the same thing on every platform. I'm not sure her passion translates well in an Audible collection of her reading her own speeches as the passion she emits when live isn't there, and she often comes across as quite pompous and threatening. It's all a bit "you'd better do as I say matey or I'll be coming to get you". I'm sure if read, rather than listened to, it wouldn't come over like that, but by the end I was thinking "oh give over with your menacing" I'd like to read her rather than listen to her I think.

1. *The midnight library - Matt Haig’

My book club read for the month and @Hellohahi would agree word for word with you. Very predictable but there was something very charming about it. An easy read which was just what I needed after finding lockdown challenging last week.

1. A Wizards Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher I picked this up hoping for a light magical read but did not enjoy it at all. I’m normally easily persuaded to suspend disbelief but it just seemed so silly. The animated gingerbread men and frankly murderous sourdough starter in the basement didn’t do it for me and the plot meandered ridiculously with a lot of unnecessary detail.

1. The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us by Dr Lucy Jones is a fascinating read telling the stories of a range of historical natural disasters. It’s full of interesting and often harrowing historical detail as well as explaining the science behind disasters and concluding that being well prepared for foreseeable disasters is generally a good investment. A viewpoint we can probably all get behind at the present time.

I'm glad to read your review of the Defensive Baking book GreenNettle - it's on my maybes list but I couldn't quite decide whether it was going to hit the sweet spot for lighthearted fun, or be really annoying. I had a suspicion it might be the latter, & you've confirmed it for me.