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.

9 Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Already reviewed on here. Funicula Funiculi is a cafe where you can travel to the past but have to finish your coffee before it gets cold to return to the present. Enjoyable but the final story is heavily foreshadowed and involves a central decision I don't think anyone would make in real life.

Also, last year I read only women, so this is the first adult book I've read by a man for a while and the clothing choices and attractiveness of the female characters were discussed in more detail than those of the male characters so a bit of an eyeroll about that. Japanese so lots of large eyes rather than boobing boobs at least.

Pepe and SOL, mention of David Lodge reminds me of the time he kicked up a huge fuss over a Mills & Boon romance, claiming it plagiarised one of his novels. He didn't do himself many favours with the aggressive way he went about it, iirc. It was a classic case of the Streisand effect, since the original M & B book was hardly likely to have been read by millions.

The author stood up for herself, it went to the High Court, and eventually Lodge had to issue a grovelling apology and pay her damages. Not his finest hour and I have to say, I've never really been able to quite 'get' his writing, even before that. I never find him as funny or clever as he thinks he is.

@Terpsichore

Pepe and SOL, mention of David Lodge reminds me of the time he kicked up a huge fuss over a Mills & Boon romance, claiming it plagiarised one of his novels. He didn't do himself many favours with the aggressive way he went about it, iirc. It was a classic case of the Streisand effect, since the original M & B book was hardly likely to have been read by millions.

The author stood up for herself, it went to the High Court, and eventually Lodge had to issue a grovelling apology and pay her damages. Not his finest hour and I have to say, I've never really been able to quite 'get' his writing, even before that. I never find him as funny or clever as he thinks he is.

Oh that's interesting. I'm trying to think when I got these books, I seem to remember something was televised and my Mum bought me them for Christmas on the back of that.

Hah! Being one of those people who scribbles in books, I can confirm it was December 1988.

Hmmm. Just googled the whole John Hannah/Rebus thing and he claims he was forced into it because he was co-producer but he knew he was wrong for it and never wanted to do it.
I'll unkindly vote for a rewriting of history there I think.

The David Lodge book was Nice Work and the M&B was called The Iron-Master - I just looked it up and read a few articles. Seems it was horrendous for the other writer, Pauline Harris - she'd never read Lodge's book but M & B promptly terminated her contract so she lost her income entirely, then she fell into severe depression and developed writer's block and thought she'd never be able to work again.

Given that Lodge was massively better-known and an acknowledged literary figure, as opposed to someone writing under a pseudonym in a niche area of genre fiction, you'd have thought he might have been a bit more gracious, but

(Oh, and Rebus/Hannah - yes, I agree, he doth protest too much! Though I never noticed Mrs Hannah )

Mrs Hannah was usually a nurse, or a solicitor. Once memorably the judge.

That's awful about David Lodge. Nothing new under the sun etc. How did he even find out I wonder? Secret stash of bodice rippers under his bed?

Secret stash of bodice rippers under his bed?

You've got to wonder

1. Trespass - Rose Tremain

I was sorely disappointed by this book. I recently put Restoration through a re-read and confirmed its place in my favourites list. So I thought I'd give this one a try. It is drivel.

An aging, once successful antiques dealer is looking for a house in the Cevannes to retire and be near his sister who is living an idyllic lifestyle as a garden designer with her watercolourist partner. There is an almost-perfect house but it is occupied by an objectionable old man whose ill-treated sister lives in an ugly prefab bungalow on the edge of the grounds. I didn't care about any of them. Some nice descriptions of the landscape but the people are trite characterisations and there are a few instances where she uses the wrong word for something and repeats it again and again, which I find irritating.

This one is going to the phone box library

Because I'm obviously a raving narcissist, I see Remus with every mention of Rebus.

there are a few instances where she uses the wrong word for something and repeats it again and again, which I find irritating

This really pisses me off. I've read a book and thought 'that doesn't mean that' and then I end up questioning myself because after all they are the writer and I am not and so I check and sure enough I am correct and they are wrong and Yolandi is right, they always use it a few more times and it gets more and more irritating. Grrr.

Gosh, I didn't know that David Lodge story. What a jerk. I was a fan of his novels back in the day, but haven't read them for many years. I once taught at the same uni as Stanley Fish, who was the inspiration for Morris Zapp, and he was a colourful colleague indeed, with his green Jaguar a familiar sight on campus.

I recently discovered Alison Lurie and her academic novels (set in the US), as she died in December and some of my friends were talking about her. I read Truth and Consequences and The War Between the Tates and quite liked them. The satire is biting, and there is a definite feminist slant. I have Foreign Affairs in my TBR pile; it won the Pulitzer Prize.

I haven't read any Alison Lurie in a long time, cassandre, but I really like her novels - thanks for reminding me about her. She was an authority on children's literature too.

took another break from Ducks, Newburyport to re-read something I last read yeeeears ago....

11. A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness
This was not as good as I remembered it being. I'm not going to go into a big long review because life is too short but suffice to say it's cheesier than it thinks it is, and rather than embracing it tries to come across as serious which is quite laughable.

I ditched Shadow of Night 15% of the way through when I realised how deathly boring it was.

Back to Ducks until I get at least halfway through now.

6. How To Be Good, Nick Hornby

I first read this when I was about 17 or so, and loved it then, but find it even better now that I’m in my thirties, and married. I think it’s a really excellent look at the real bones of marriage/long-term relationships.

Katie is married to David, the “Angriest Man in Holloway”, according to his newspaper column. He’s also cynical, critical, negative and sarcastic. Their marriage is on the rocks (unsurprisingly) and Katie’s just about coming to the conclusion that they need to divorce, when David undergoes a sort of spiritual transformation. Fed up with his back pain, he, somewhat uncharacteristically, ends up going to see a “healer”, and comes back a changed man. No longer angry, and wanting now to atone for all, he starts down the path of becoming the sort of overly sanctimonious do-gooder whose intentions cannot be argued with, but whose methods are so piously disruptive that they make everyone else feel simultaneously infuriated and guilty. It starts with David giving away their son’s computer and handing £80 to a homeless man, and before Katie knows it David’s new healer friend, DJ GoodNews has come to live with them and they’re spending all their time working out how to end the world’s problems.

Nick Hornby does the most fantastic job of portraying the frustration that comes from being faced with someone who’s technically right, but whose proposals are of an extreme nature, and coming out of it looking like the bad guy. It’s the argument I have with myself when listening to the likes of Greta Thunberg, where I know that she’s quite right about us all needing to stop flying around the world so much, but I don’t really feel ready to accept the idea because, you know, holidays and travelling are wonderful things, and I don’t want to have to give them up or make them hugely inconvenient. It’s that battle we all have between doing what we want and doing what’s right, and why doing the latter is so difficult when pitted against human things like desire, or embarrassment, or selfishness.

Highly recommended.

I started and almost immediately gave up on The Pleasure of Reading edited by Antonia Fraser. It's of the book-about-books variety, which I normally enjoy, but it had a sort of stuffiness to it that I just wasn't in the mood for. Plus, a few pages in, Doris Lessing had a go at Winnie the Pooh, which I'm having none of.

Now reading The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells and The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte, and am still reading War and Peace.

I have also used an unspent birthday voucher from last year to treat myself to the entire set of Adrian Mole books which I'm most excited about

First reviews for 2021; I’m doing pretty well having done 4 books in January alone, given I only did 8 in total in 2020! I’ve joined GoodReads with a friend and we’ve both signed up for 24 books this year. I’m incorporating reading daily into my life and finding massive benefits to counteract a work life on Zoom.

1. Midnight Library - Matt Haig
Easy first read in 2021, a Christmas present, but I must say Matt Haig isn’t the best writer, his writing style is extremely basic. It was an interesting and enjoyable concept about a woman caught between life and death, and who gets to try out different lives based on her taking different decisions and paths in life.

2. The Story of a Lost Child - Elena Ferrante
This is the last of the Neapolitan quartet of novels by Elena Ferrante. I know they are marmite on Mumsnet and people either love them or hate them. I absolutely loved this book and actually felt bereft when it was finished. The books are written with messy language and are know for suffering from some translation issues, but I couldn’t help by being fully drawn in and immersed in Lina and Lila story. My experience of the book has very much been added to by watching the HBO series, it’s literally one of the best things I’ve ever watched. If this series perked your interest, I’d highly recommend starting it and see what you think. They are the first set of books I will fully reread again in future, so they really were something very special to me.

3. We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Super short book covering her Ted talk on feminism from a few years ago. No major surprises really, I thought it would be a good quick book for my husband or FIL to read to understand feminism better.

4. Strange Weather in Tokyo - Hiromi Kawakami
The first Japanese book I’ve read, about a single woman in her thirties befriending her elderly school teacher. I found the book to be beautiful little read, very atmospheric and absorbing. I’ll certainly look up the author’s other books, and I want to try at least a couple of other Japanese novels this year.

ritzbiscuits The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino by the same author was one of my best reads of last year. Absolutely loved it and didn't really want to read anything for a bit after finishing it because the ending was so perfect. You might enjoy Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto as well.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Because I'm obviously a raving narcissist, I see Remus with every mention of Rebus.

I just realised I was automatically reading it as Remus. It might make you a raving narcissist but what on earth does it make me?

Bett

Alison Lurie's Don't Tell the Grown Ups is a lovely book about children's books.

Finally! I finished the first book! Ok so I accept my plan to read 50 in a year isn't going so well . I have 3 hours a week where I am not working or homeschooling at the moment but hopefully things will calm down soon. So The Goldfinch. Well I didn't love it. I kind of enjoyed it - the first part much more so than any other. From Vegas onwards it gets a bit depressing and continues in that vein until the end. I didn't really like any of the characters and it didn't make me laugh or cry. It wasn't hard to get through or anything, it was just ok...

So my next read is Firefly Lane which I am hoping might be more my sort of thing.

Either way I am happy to have gotten back into reading after many years of barely picking up a book so even one in a month is a triumph for me!

Thanks @JaninaDuszejko

I think The Goldfinch is a big first book for the year. I know it doesn't work that way, but I do think some books should count for extra. I woke up in the middle of last night, couldn't get back to sleep, so read one of the Trebizon books on my Kindle as it was better than turning on the light and waking up DH. But I wouldn't count that as a book as it only took 30 minutes! Equally, my first book was a whopper so took as long as three "quick read thriller" library books would have taken.

Anyway, I guess my point is that I'm not going to feel bad for not making 50 - I'm more quality over quantity and want to read for the enjoyment of it, and if that means only reading 20 books or whatever, so be it.

By the way, I don't think anyone on this thread has suggested otherwise, which is why it love it - the number is almost irrelevant, it's just for the love of books. I just mention it as there are some huge variances in numbers, and wouldn't want anyone to feel they're "failing".

12. Her Perfect Lies - Lana Newton

This book tells the story of Claire, a woman involved in a car accident that leaves her with no memory of who she is or of her life to date. The book sounded interesting and the statement on the cover that it is 'the new psychological suspense for 2019 that will keep you guessing' had me reading it as it sounded right up street. I wish I hadn't bothered.

I have to say that this certainly didn't keep me guessing, I think I had pretty much guessed the ending by about the 5th chapter. All in all predictable, underwhelming, and not worth reading to pass the time (i'd rather watch paint dry)

I seem to remember loving the chapter that went with the shipwreck picture in A History of the World, but it is nearly 30 years since I read it!

11. Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie. This was recommended by one of you as a better version of another Christie I had read, but I had to wait to borrow it as it was clearly seasonally popular, so I now can't quite remember the details of the other to compare! But this is a nice secure one with few loose ends, although I did not love the solution. I think I have either read or watched it before as I vaguely remembered the little gardens, but not enough to spoil it!

I am soldiering through book 3 which I had wanted to finish by February but its length, my workload, and the dark days have defeated me.

However, I am popping on to remind the OMFers that tomorrow is February 1st!