50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Three

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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 and the second one here.

@bibliomania

10. Written in Bone, by Sue Black Further adventures of a forensic anthropologist. Reviewed positively a few times on here and I agree - it's very interesting to find out about this area of work. I wish I was all expert in something useful - thinking balefully of my own career choices.

I have major career envy of Sue Black and also Patricia Wiltshire (an expert in pollen forensics). I cling on to the fact that it was Patricia Wiltshire’s second career, after leaving the business world. There is hope (she tells herself as she hurtles downhill towards 40).

11 Bright by Duanwad Pimwana. Translated by Mui Poopoksakul

This is the first novel by a Thai woman translated into English and is brilliant! I want you all to read it. 5 year old Kampol is abandoned by his parents after their relationship breaks down but his working class community come together to care for him. This consists of short chapters, snapshots of Kampol's life. He raises crickets, attends a wedding, goes to a fair, goes a day without food when he is forgotten, gets a bursary so he can attend school. It (like Cannery Row mentioned above) builds up a vivid picture of the community and while it has a sense of humour about his adventures you are aware all the time that this is a child abandoned by his family and deeply affected by that. The stories have a folklore feel to them but at the same time there's a gritty edge to it. Just fabulous.

@Terpsichore

A quick update *@Boiledeggandtoast* - the whole film's on YouTube Stevie

Ooh, marvellous! Many thanks.

36. Hard Time by Jodi Taylor

The second in the Time Police series, a spin-off from St Mary’s. These are also good fun. Here the team are trying to find out who is responsible for some illegal time travel.

37. The Deadly Mystery Of The Missing Diamonds by T E Kinsey

This was an Amazon First Reads choice. It’s a light hearted crime story set in 1925. Members of a band work undercover in a club to find the man who has stolen some diamonds. Not bad but did seem to drag a bit. This is also a spin-off from another series, the Lady Hardcastle mysteries, which I haven’t read. I don’t know if it might be a bit better if you’re familiar with the earlier series.

Thanks for the new(ish) thread south.

I'll post my list and latest reads later on when I've got a moment, but as an aside, has anyone read Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky? It's on the daily deals today and I quite like the look of it, but am trying not to get sucked into 99p deals unless they're really worth it** as I have plenty of unread things on my kindle already.

I haven't read it Athos but sounds a bit bleak for a February lockdown read!

I've succumbed to buying the Crawdads which is also in the 99p deal.

And to continue the marmite books theme, The Night Circus which.I personally liked is also one of the deals today.

February’s Dick Francis was For Kicks

I must have read this in my youth but I can’t remember it. Dirty dealings in a very dodgy racing yard and a hero that very happily abandons his siblings which he cares for the other side of the world.

Took me a while to get into this but I think that was more to do with how tired i am from work (33 days to go)rather than anything else as once I managed to sit down and have a stretch at it it was a page turner

16. Charlotte by Helen Moffett

Thanks for pointing me towards this Mackarella - like you, I didn't think it was as good as The Other Bennet Sister, but still an enjoyable read. I liked the quieter, domestic parts best, exploring how the Collins' marriage worked. I thought the more plotty bits were very rather implausible, but still well worth reading overall (for those who like that sort of thing!).

I'm also reading Dead Famous but finding the oh-so-jolly tone rather annoying.

I've been thinking that a better Austen spin-off might have involved Charlotte and Mary buggering off to the continent and shacking up together. They could have worn breeches and written sensational novels.

That sounds genius Remus. You should write it.

Inspector Gamache - A Trick Of The Light - Louise Penney

I’d gone off this detective series set in the French Canadian townships near Quebec as they were getting a bit ridiculous, however decided to give them another shot and thoroughly enjoyed this one. Set in the Montreal art world seemingly full of recovering alcoholics there was plenty to keep me going. I did for once guess the culprit. I’ve found that these books often rely on a late revelation to resolve the murder but this one gave plenty of clues.

The Beautiful Mystery - Louise Penny

This time Inspector Gamage and his faithful sidekick Beauvoir investigate a murder in a remote Quebec monastery. This was entirely ridiculous to be honest, lots of monks and Gregorian Chanting and I didn’t really understand why the murder was committed. The back story of Beauvoir’s personal struggle was more interesting and I’ll probably continue the series to find out what happens to him.

The Dig - John Preston
Book of the recent film with Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan. I enjoyed both book and film but feel a teeny bit let down. I think I was hoping for more detail about the actual dig in the book and didn’t really get it.

The Hopkins Manuscript R.C. Sherrif. Published 1939 when Europe was in real life turmoil. The story follows Mr Hopkins a small, fussy , snobbish 47 year old bachelor, full of his own self-importance. His big interests are poultry breeding and discussing lunar science in a smart club. Having accidentally promised to underwrite the cost of an observatory for the Lunar club, he is justifiably worried when called to an emergency meeting of the club. So worried is he about this that he is relieved when told that the moon is going to crash into the earth. When this sinks in, his main observation is that not as many cream eclairs have been eaten as usual, because that’s the kind of cake you can only eat with a calm and steady hand. Eventually, everyone is told about the impending catastrophe and we follow Hopkins as his local village prepare for the moon fall and the aftermath when he writes his manuscript and stores it in his thermos flask tobe found in the future. It's a kind of Mr Pooter faces the apocalypse. It should have been right up my street as a Barbara Pym and Persephone book fan but it took me a while to finish. Perhaps it's down to my lockdown mood at the moment.

I found Mr Hopkins fussiness quite humourous but did feel that the section leading up to the disaster went on for too long as I was more interested in the aftermath. I thought what brings about civilsations collapse was very interesting given this was written after WWI and just before WWII.

I was surprised RC Sheriff was a man as I read A fortnight in September several years ago and assumed the writer was a woman as it was published by Persephone. That book had a similar really cosy, British tea and crumpets feel until events turned nasty.

When I checked out the author on Wikipedia I found that he wrote some of the most famous screenplays for British films in the 30's and 40's e.g. That Hamilton woman, The Dambusters, Goodbye Mr.Chips and the Four Feathers.

You might find this website interesting, BestisWest: saxonship.org/ A team of archaeologists, historians, ship experts and volunteers are reconstructing the Sutton Hoo ship. If you sign up for the newsletter you can get lots of information, including extracts from the original dig diaries. You can also sponsor a rivet for £20.

@BestIsWest

That sounds genius Remus. You should write it.

I wish! I can write poetry, but haven't got the staying power for prose.

Just to revive the controversy (although it seems a bit one-sided this time round), I love both the book and the film of The Remains of the Day. Can never get through either without blubbing everywhere. I am, though, a sucker for a bit of stiff-upper-lipped thwarted love, so it was always going to be my sort of thing.

9. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Gothic suspense classic narrated expertly by Richard Armitage. This story packed a lot in for a novella and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.

I bought the Monsters Collection on Audible, which also includes Frankenstein followed by Dracula, in a 2 for 1 offer with Anna Karenina. But I am going to take a break from the gothic and as I’m not ready to commit to AK, have used a credit to buy The Burning by Megha Majumdar.

C’mon Remus,you know and love Austen, you’re an engaging writer and you know what makes a good sequel. Who better? Applying the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair etc.

Channel Thanks for the link, I shall take a look.

You keep the seat of my pants out of this, Best. 😂😂😂

I thought the film of Stevie was very poignant. The first half covered some of the events from Novel on Yellow Paper and captured the essence of the book very well, although (necessarily) in a more straight forward way. Glenda Jackson and Mona Washbourne were perfect, but I felt that Alec McCowen was quite wrong as Freddie so that it was difficult to sympathise with her anguish when they broke up. Thanks again Terpsichore.

Just wanted The Dig on Netflix. It was rather lovely.

13. A Song for Summer - Eva Ibbotson

Ellen confounds her suffragette mother and aunts by declaring she would prefer to go to cookery school rather than university. In the late 1930’s (after cookery school) Ellen sets off to Austria to take up a position as matron at a bohemian boarding school which focuses on the performing arts. The school is generally staffed by misfits and eccentrics and the children, many of whom are from distinguished backgrounds, are not necessarily happy. With her homemaking skills and no desire to perform, Ellen brings some order and stability to the school and becomes a confidante of staff and pupils. Some of the staff have come to the school as an escape from other aspects of their life and, across the border, Nazi Germany is asserting it’s position and the impact of this ripples through the book. I really enjoyed this particularly all the quirky characters. Whilst it is a romantic novel I wouldn’t call it a romance, if that makes sense. Will look out for others books by this author.

It was, wasn’t it, biblio! I eyerolled at some of the changes to the true life events but the overwhelming feeling was of Basil Brown’s legacy being recognised at last and it was all rather lovely in a British Film sort of way. John Hannah founded the Clerkenwell company and it has done some good stuff over the years.

I have started reading The Institute by Stephen King. I am really not sure about it and I would class myself as a huge SK fan (albeit one that can see some of his stuff is sheer churned out dross). I don’t like the way he describes the young female characters, basically.

I read The Dig a few years ago and also thought it was a little lacking, I enjoyed it though. I've spent a lot of time in that area and it's always fun to read books set in places you know

Can I draw on the 50 bookers' collective wisdom? I'm thinking of ordering some Persephone books for my mum, could you recommend anything gentle and amusing for a woman in her early 60s? I'm thinking along Diary of a Provincial Lady lines. Thanks

Gotta be Miss Pettigrew! I read a Dorothy Whipple too and liked it, but can't remember which one.