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.

@Sadik

Any of the Simon Garfield books that might be good on Kindle? Just thinking about my Dad's birthday next month (he can't read paper books). I'm going to get him Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, but would quite like to find another interesting book to add - the fonts book sounds like a bad choice (& probably the maps one too) but perhaps the engineering one?

I've read the fonts, miniature, engineering and map ones on the kindle and all have been fine.

13 Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan.

I enjoyed this, but it won’t stick in my mind. Quite derivative of authors like Angela Carter, but with added Sex Bits that pop up with boring regularity.
A lot of the characters, particularly the female ones, blend into one as the voices aren’t distinctive enough.
Descriptions of Edinburgh were fantastic.

6. The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante.

Audiobook read by Marisa Tomei. Dramatic and a bit over the top with multi-faceted female characters. The male characters are less developed but are peripheral to this coming of age story. This story grew on me as it progressed - my favourite kind! One for Elena Ferrante fans, not as good as The Neapolitan Quartet but still engrossing.

7. To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine.

Wow, what a memoir. I loved Clothes, clothes, clothes. Music, music, music. Boys, boys, boys. and thought this was excellent too. Musings on feminism, love, childhood and parents, growing old, loneliness, Viv Albertine feels steadfastly honest throughout it all. I also loved the way it was organised and written. A great read.

Perfect - thanks Bett and Terp

Stokey - "Cote will definitely add Cage of Souls to my list. I loved Children of Time & Dogs of War. Have you tried his fantasy stuff?"

I didn't because fantasy usually annoys me. The way my respect for this author keeps growing? I might try his fantasy books one day, too

I really dislike the film of 84 Charing Cross Road. Find the main actress really terrible.

8 The Siege by Helen Dunmore. I love her as a writer and although this isn’t my absolute favourite of her books, it’s very good indeed. The setting is Leningrad in 1941 when the Germans blockaded the city and its inhabitants gradually starved through the winter, and the novel follows a family struggling to survive, in particular Anna, a young woman whose resilience is at the heart of the story.

Had the happy realisation today that I hadn't spent my work Christmas voucher, and one of the online retailers was Waterstones. So...

DS nicked some of it to buy the Heroes of Olympus graphic novels, but I had enough left to get Three Hours and Magpie Murders as recommended on here.

Not sure how that fits in with my plan to not by any books this year, but it was free money, so I decided it didn't count. And that also meant it was okay to buy books that I probably won't re-read so could have just got from the library. I'll just pass them on to DM afterwards and assuage my guilt that way!

A very slow start to the year for me- I'm finding it very hard to concentrate but have nevertheless enjoying reading everyone else's views and reviews. This is one of my favourite threads on MN (Archers chat comes first obviously) and so thank you to all who contribute. Anyway:
2. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. This did its job for me of being an unchallenging bedtime read. It's been much commented on already but I would agree with a previous poster that it has a real Sunday night BBC series feel, so much so that I was surprised to hear that it's been optioned by Spielberg. I wonder if it will be rewritten for the US market. It is so very British. There are a few decent laughs in this and some real moments of pathos. Osman writes the female characters well- better in my opinion than the male ones who seem more like caricatures. I particularly liked Joyce, the diarist who tells much of the action. Actually Osman writes the older characters better than the younger ones now I think about it- the young female policewoman might as well have been cut out of cardboard like those ones they prop up in Poundland to stop people shoplifting. So an enjoyable but ultimately silly book that entertains without leaving any particular impression.

Stuck for something to read? I would LOVE it if someone on this thread tried one of these volumes of Trump-era erotica (sample: Hot Mike: A VICE Presidential Erotic Short )

I saw those, mackerella. I am very fond of you all but that’s not nearly brave enough for that. But yes, big 50 Book love to the first person to try one out and report back.

mackerella errr I'm good thanks

Is it seriously wrong that I am more than a little tempted?!

Yes, Mog , it is wrong. Very, very wrong.

Any review is now going to be a let-down if doesn't involve raunchy deeds in the Oval Office, but here goes:
6 Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons: Travels in Sicily on a Vespa, Matthew Fort
I thought it would be nice escapism but it was more "Salt, meet wound". Lots and lots of drooling descriptions of his wonderful meals. I got a bit weary of conversations with locals where they went on and on about only using this type of tomato/pepper/olive in this recipe, but possibly I'm being peevish.

15: A Song for the Dark Times - Ian Rankin

A case far more personal than usual takes John Rebus far away from his normal stamping grounds, while Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox work together on an apparently motiveless murder back in Edinburgh. But there are unexpected connections between the two cases.

The latest Rebus, and I confess that I always enjoy these - admittedly some more than others, but it feels as though all the characters are old friends by now, and I think Malcolm Fox has been successfully integrated into the fabric of the story after a bit of a shaky start. I suppose Rankin will have to kill Rebus off at some point but it doesn't look as though that's anywhere near happening yet.

www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-497708/Ian-Rankin-didnt-kill-Rebus.html

Interesting article about Ian Rankin Terpsichore. He is a thoroughly nice guy. I spoke to him at Edinburgh Book Festival a few years ago (we studied English Lit at the same university but a year apart so i didn't know him). He took time to have a proper chat with each person in a very long line as he signed their books. Really down to earth and completely unspoiled by all the money he must have earned.

I’ve always thought he seems like a good sort, highlandcoo - and I’m glad he found a way to keep Rebus going, although he has given him COPD so he’s deteriorating gently (though probably realistically, given the millions of cigs he’s smoked). Must say, John Hannah always seemed like a very odd casting choice to me!

I've finished Book No. 5 'The Salt Path' by Raynor Winn. This book is out a few years so some of you may have read it already. The author and her husband Moth lose their home and business and within a few days, Moth is diagnosed with a life changing illness. Still reeling from the double whammy of losing their home and the diagnosis, the couple embark on a 630 mile walk along the South West Coast Path. Their budget is £48 a week (the amount of tax credits they receive) which doesn't lend itself to accommodation, apart from the very occasional night at a campsite, so the couple must resort to wild camping. This is a nice, gentle read as it follows the couple along their journey - the places they visit, the people they meet, the wildlife they encounter, their battle against the elements - the scorching sun of summer and later the cold nights as winter draws in. Their walk is made more arduous by the tightness of their budget - on one occasion the couple discover that their weekly income of €48 has been reduced substantially due to a forgotten direct debit leaving their bank account. They eat a lot of noodles! The occasional financial windfall might lend itself to such indulgences as a Cornish pasty (usually shared), or a sausage sandwich, or a night in a campsite with cold showers. Along the way there are musings about homelessness and how the people they encounter re-act when they discover that Raynor and Moon are homeless. Moon's illness and fear of what the future holds are constant companions on their journey. I really liked the couple and was rooting for them. There was just one discordant note when the author describes the holiday makers staying at a nearby caravan park, "They might have been sleeping in a concentration camp, but at least their days were spent free on the beach" . I was more than a little taken aback at that analogy and I suspect anyone who ever had the misfortune to be imprisoned in a concentration camp would find such a comparison offensive.

Oof, that Putin one looks particularly...harrowing.

@highlandcoo

www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-497708/Ian-Rankin-didnt-kill-Rebus.html

Interesting article about Ian Rankin Terpsichore. He is a thoroughly nice guy. I spoke to him at Edinburgh Book Festival a few years ago (we studied English Lit at the same university but a year apart so i didn't know him). He took time to have a proper chat with each person in a very long line as he signed their books. Really down to earth and completely unspoiled by all the money he must have earned.

I met him at a crime writer convention and he was lovely. He was sat next to Mark Timlin, who was a grumpy old arse and I didn’t really know who he (Rankin) was. He was very chatty so I bought one of his paperbacks (Black And Blue) which he signed for me. Been a fan ever since, been to author evenings and book signings as he is a very entertaining speaker. I like the way he has made Rebus age realistically and in accordance to his lifestyle.

I need to join this thread. I was averaging 25-30 books a year until last year where I reached 54. Furlough was to thank for that and I’m now working full time again and doing a masters but I’m still off to a strong start with 8 books down.

I’ve just finished 8. Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead which I gave 5 stars. Absolutely moving and will sit with me for a long while!

8. Earthlings - Sayaka Murata
This dark and disturbing novel from the author of Convenience Store Woman follows the story of Natsuki, a troubled young girl who becomes so dissociated from society that she creates a fantasy life where she and her cousin Yuu are literally aliens. The first section is brilliant in depicting the helplessness of children in the face of adult power, particularly when Natsuki tries to speak up about the abuse she is facing at the hands of a school teacher. As she reaches adulthood, her entire personality is built around her dissociation from what she sees as 'the Factory', and the stifling pressure in Japanese society to work, marry and have children comes across very powerfully.

Although I appreciated this as a fascinating psychological portrait, the themes of child sexual abuse, incest and extreme violence mean this is probably not for everyone. The ending was... bizarre and has reduced my rating from 5 to 4 stars, although I suspect that the author intended to shock rather than satisfy the reader.

9. Night School - Richard Wiseman (Audible)
Exploration of the science of sleep and dreaming. I was most fascinated by the studies showing the ways in which dreams can be used to explore and solve real-world problems (while not in any way having mystical significance or fixed symbolic meanings a la Freud). It also contains useful information on how to resolve insomnia, avoid jetlag and put an end to nightmares. Also found out that waking a sleepwalker IS actually dangerous, as they may become very aggressive. The multiple choice quizzes, with scores for different answers which you had to add up in your head while listening, did not work well in audio format!

8 Serpentine by Philip Pullman

A short story in the His Dark Materials universe. Lyra is a teenager after the events of HDM and back to the north where she meets up with an old friend. This was written in 2004 but has only been published recently. It can be read before The Book of Dust series but links up with events in The Secret Commonwealth. It's a tiny hardback book with beautiful illustrations. Fun but short.

Place marking. Nothing to report.