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.

12. A Swim In The Pond In The Rain - George Saunders

Based on his creative writing class at Syracuse, Saunders shares seven short stories from Russian writers including Tolstoy and Chekhov with each followed by an essay on how and why the story works. I found this an absolute joy to read (both the Russians and Saunders), just fantastic on writing, reading and life in general.

Just to weigh in on the topics of the day *
*
I loved all of Flowers for Algernon, it broke my heart a little.
I loved A Little Life too but I must admit I skimmed or skipped the more horrific flashback episodes.

It's a Sin, is just brilliant and emotionally devastating. I find the history of the early AIDS epidemic really interesting but I've not seen much from a UK perspective. If you do want to know more from a US perspective I really recommend two books - And the Band Played On and How to Survive a Plague.

I'm with Cote in thinking that the latter section of Flowers was weaker than the very fine first half.

I can't remember when I last updated so I've just guessed.

8.Contacts - Mark Watson

This book tells the story of a man who gets on a sleeper train from London to Edinburgh with the intention of killing himself when he gets there. As he departs he sends a text message to everyone in his phone about his intention then puts flight mode on. It follows several people including the main character, his mum, sister, flatmate, ex and ex best friend.
I was intrigued by this book just to see how the author would have all the characters deal with this text message having had some personal experience of this type of situation. I found it really quite interesting.

9.Girl A - Abigail Dean
This book follows Girl A who was one of many siblings kept captive in a house of horror by her parents. The story starts with the death of her mother and her having to deal with the estate and in time unravels the story of her and each of her siblings.

I didn't love this one as much as I thought I would but I don't know if that was just due to the hype it received. It was a good read and as a debut has done well but at times I found it a little slow.

10.Dead Simple - Peter James
Having never read a Peter James book before I decided to read the first book in this series which I imagine a lot of people have read. I was gripped by this story about a man buried alive by his friends on a stag night and then left stranded after a fatal accident. But everything wasn't quite how it seemed.
I will definitely be going on to read more of the series... Although why I bother starting series when I have so many books to read I will never know!

Also have Motherwell waiting to read having not known much about it but living in Glasgow I thought it could be quite interesting.

LOL @ storming through, I am in a total rut since Jude The Obscure but I finally broke the spell last night and may have a review later.

DS is reading Flowers for Algernon at the moment. It’s a good book for young teens, I think. And sad, though I agree it is a little uneven.

How To Survive A Plague is a brilliant book. I was absolutely gripped by it. I’m wrung out by It’s A Sin with two more episodes to go. I’d also highly recommend the movie 120 Beats Per Minute to anyone interested in the AIDS crisis - it’s all about the Act Up movement in France and their efforts to get the medical establishment to help those with HIV and AIDS. The story of how those suffering from the disease took on the medical profession and politicians to campaign for change is amazing. I really do think the AIDS crisis will become an important part of history - I was very surprised my teens knew almost nothing about it, apart from the fact that it’s largely a manageable condition now. Which is enormous progress in a couple of decades but also comes on the back of such huge cost to life.

@PepeLePew I'll have to try that, my reading has definitely been too US focused. I think one of the most horrifying things about the early epidemic was the fact that nobody knew what caused it or how it was spread and by the time people started dying so many others were already infected and didn't know it. And the Band Plays On really captures the dawning realisation that something was killing gay men and the fact that no one in authority seemed to care. The ACTUP movement was amazing - the way they fought for effective drugs and the shortening of the drug trial process saved so many lives.

I haven't seen It's A Sin but highly recommend the film Pride if anybody hasn't seen it yet.

Pride is fab. If you enjoyed that, I’d recommend It’s a Sin.

I still haven’t seen the last episode though as we were waiting for our takeaway to turn up. It didn’t so have just had beans on toast.

Such a frustrating DNF I'm listing it though I don't usually. I had 'Operation Countryman' by David Kirby on my Wanted list for weeks if not months. It's almost unreadable. Like a really boring colleague droning on about the time when two people in the office didn't contribute to Sheila's wedding present fund and how young people have got no manners these days and of course you can't really blame them because the immigrants are confusing things. There has to be a better book about 70s corruption in the Met. Alternatively, it's one of those things that sounds exciting but in fact is sorted out by good accounting and it's just dull to read about.

25. Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

A US couple drive cross country in pursuit of work projects. They each have one biological child whom the other is raising as their own, unbeknownst to their children their marriage is crumbling and their marriage looks set to conclude with this one last trip.

I'm going to start with the bad :

Both the adults involved are pretentious wankers, in pursuit of edgy artistic goals.

The children (if you are the right age to remember this) are like the criticism of Dawson's Creek in the 90s. They simply aren't believable depictions of a 5 yr old and a 10 year old. More so the 10 year old.
Ludicrously mature and knowing.

The good :

I really sparked off it, it drew me in, and broke my drought the writing is lovely and its really odd and atmospheric. I would recommend it but strongly feel its not for everyone in terms of putting quite lyrical prose and fablesque qualities over any reasonable realism, and it wont get bolds for this reason.

Someone else read this in 2020 but I can't remember what was said

(also betts She, Six Months Off 40)

10. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London - Garth Nix Absolute nonsense. It's a tale about a country girl looking for her father in London but he turns out to be a mountain and she needs help from some magic people who staff a couple of bookshops in London when not battling mythical creatures or driving taxis.

Not my kind of book really, recommended by DH as a complete change after I finished with Lolita. It certainly isn't Nabokov, but it's a harmless fantasy romp with no literary pretensions so probably quite good if you like that kind of thing.

@cassandre, the Viv Groskop does sound interesting. I did a degree heavily weighted to (white male) literature - in fact, I'm not sure I read a single female author in French (though German was a little more varied. I'll look it up.

I still have to finish It’s a Sin. I remember all the adverts in the 80’s and the stigma, I have a friend who was diagnosed very early on, in the first 10 anyway, walking miracle as still with us

Pride was a great movie, I am looking forward to It's A Sin.

@bettbattenburg, imo the broblem with To The Hilt is that the connection between Alexander and Chris was far stronger than between him and Emma, and yet he ends up with the latter!

15. The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett. I liked the idea of this, but found the novel never really came alive for me. There seemed to be a lot of tell, not show, in the narration; and she threw in everything and the kitchen sink in terms of issues- racism, sexism, trans gender, twins, domestic abuse, marriage, dementia...which for me diluted the main story (which is that the twins (whose father has earlier been lynched), leave their hometown (where everyone is a very light skinned black), for the big city, where one takes a job where she passes as white, while the other marries a very very black man; one's husband beats her, one randomly becomes a maths professor, both have children, one of whom has such a miserable school life it seems unbelievable her mother remains where they are...but overcomes it to become a doctor, and so on and so on). Would have been much improved by hefty editing.

Thanks for all the YA recommendations, she hasn't read any of them so at least a couple of months fodder!

@YolandiFuckinVisser I have the Gareth Nix book on Kindle as thought it may be a good one for Dd1. I might avoid it though.

Interesting discussion about Motherwell. I wanted to love it and some of the writing was beautiful, but didn't quite hit the spot. I think I would have liked more of her later life in there. Have heard terrible stories about Will Self though, even keeping her friends away from her funeral.

16. Insurgent - Veronica Roth - continuing the YA fest to keep Dd1 company. I do struggle with the angstiness of YA girls. I want to give them a good shake and say, just be a bit more trusting, but I guess then there wouldn't be much of a story.

@bettbattenburg sorry for your losses

10. No way down - life and death on K2 by Graham Bowley

I am an armchair mountaineer and love books following the dramas at altitude. This is similar to Into Thin Air as it tells the story of an avalanche and a high death toll on K2, the world's second highest mountain, which is generally seen as a more difficult climb than Everest.

It's a fascinating read and covers the issues well of limited time in the death zone means stopping to save other people will likely mean you die as well.

It's not as good as Thin Air as the writer wasn't interested in mountain climbing before this book and it shows, as he never really understands what drives the climbers desire to summit. John Krakuer was a good enough climber to be actually there attempting to summit Everest when that disaster unfolded and so he has a better perspective on this.

So overall I recommend it if you are interested in the subject but there is a reason Thin Air is considered one of the best mountaineering books.

18. So....Anyway - John Cleese

I love anything Cleese or Monty Python and expected this to be a riot of laughs, jumping from one funny story to another. It isn’t, although I did enjoy the book.

Cleese talks of his childhood and we see how this shaped the man he has become. There are indeed funny stories, but this book isn’t just that. I listened to the recorded version, which is narrated by John, and found it all the better for it. It seems more personal somehow, and when he tells something funny, his laughter brings a richness to the whole thing.

If the reader goes into this JUST for the laughs then they’ll be disappointed, this book is a true autobiography, giving us glimpses into the life and career of a man who is more than just a funny character on Radio/TV.

10. The Trench by Steve Alten

This is a sequel to The Meg, which is about a giant pregnant megalodon shark that escapes from the depths of the Mariana Trench and wreaks havoc.

In The Trench, set a few years later, the Meg’s surviving offspring, Angel, is now fully grown and a star attraction at the Tanaka Institute. But Angel’s about to make a break for freedom.

So then we have shark expert, Jonah Taylor and team, trying to catch and / or kill Angel before she eats too many people. And a sub plot, involving a scientific mission at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, which is headed up by a sinister man who’s rather reminiscent of a Bond villain. They also introduce some new menacing giant predators from the depths, Kronosaurs.

All in all, an action packed read with lots of tension, although rather gory in places.

12. The Black Cloud - Scottish Mountain Misadventures 1928-1966 - IDS Thomson

Quite niche this - wonderful for me as I live in rural Scotland and have walked pretty much all the routes/areas covered in the book. The writing itself is stuffy and pendantic but the incidents are still gripping - this is pre goretex and fleece, pre weather forecasts, pre mountain rescue. The equipment was so basic and cumbersome and communication so challenging. Plus they were all a bit bonkers - swearing by an onion as 'one of the best stimulants one can have on the mountains in winter' (!), going into the Cairngorms at new year in scout uniform, complete with short trousers, the author casually mentioning part way through the account of Norman MacLeod on Ben Macdui that 'it must have been particularly troublesome for the kilted Macleod to keep warm with his kilt flapping violently in the gale'. He was in a kilt?! So much is of its time, any recovery of the bodies was done by local ghillies and shepherds, who gave of their time to help find walkers in trouble, with local GPs taken up the hills on Highland ponies to assist. Sadly, some of walkers had survived the first world war to die in the hills, and some survived the hills to die in the second. Humbling and fascinating, a reminder to always respect the hills in Scotland, and to appreciate how easy I have it with modern equipment.

Lovely review HeadNorth

I did French and German at uni and still have most of the Marguerite Duras from that time. I had deliberately chosen my course because the year abroad was working, not studying and you could choose between literature, politics and economics as your modules.

I read a few books in French and German each year and did start a thread to share back in January and there is now one dedicated to reading short stories in French, one story per week.

4. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a life. By Jane Sherron de Hart
Biography of RBG, from her early years right through to her death. Lots of details on the sexism she faced and her involvement with the American civil liberties union, her teaching career and how she became a judge. As well as being very clever, using previous judgements to build on new judgements, she also loved opera and was very caring, keeping in touch with former students and clerks.

@Taswama, I did French and Politics! Also had to read Marguerite Duras. Think we did Moderato Cantabile (unless I'm getting my authors confused)!

20. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell Much reviewed already on here - I found it hard to read, but very powerful.

Interesting reviews @HeadNorth and @RazorstormUnicorn - as a committed armchair mountaineer myself I have read a lot of high-altitude books and I too enjoy the pre-Gortex accounts. My absolute favourites are Starlight And Storm by Gaston Rebuffat and Conquistadors Of The Useless by Lionel Terry - two legendary Alpinists who were also involved in the first ascent of Annapurna.