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.

7. Summerwater by Sarah Moss
I'm usually a big fan but didn't really enjoy this. I found the setting a little dull and all the characters' inner voices sounded the same. It seemed like it was building up to say something much bigger than it ended up saying.

24: The Great Nadar: The Man Behind the Camera - Adam Begley

I'm persisting with my alternating fiction/non-fiction regime and this was a spin-off prompted by Richard Holmes's history of ballooning and one of its most compelling characters, the French photographer/caricaturist/writer Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, aka Nadar. Holmes is unashamedly fascinated by Nadar but hasn't written a biography of him, more's the pity, and in its absence, Adam Begley does a workmanlike job in this fairly brisk and short book.

It covers the essential points and gives a good idea of Nadar's phenomenal energy and exuberant, Bohemian spirit (he was a friend of Henry Murger, author of La vie de Bohème, later the basis of Puccini's La Bohème ). His greatest fame comes from the many extraordinary photographic portraits he made, often of famous literary and artistic figures, mainly in the 1850s, and Begley reproduces quite a lot of these - I just wish there'd been more. A good, meaty biography would have been nice but this did at least tell me quite a bit I didn't know about an extraordinary character.

6. The Duke and I (first in the Bridgertons series) – Julia Quinn

A regency romance I took a punt on when it was in the 99p kindle daily deal – it is a newish addition to Netflix and seems quite popular at the moment.

This is full of worn out old tropes - the pure and plucky heroine who starts off seemingly sensible and independent but devolves as the plot goes on. The fabulously wealthy, brooding man with a sad childhood and a tortured soul who just needs the love of a good woman to set him straight.

The first third where our couple meet and their romance simmers away wasn’t so bad. Once the sex scenes started it went rapidly downhill and both characters were thoroughly unlikeable by the end.

I would go as far as saying this was like a slightly sanitised Fifty Shades of Grey, in content, characterisation and quality.

BadlydoneHelen, Rovelli was indeed my recommendation. It's my go-to gift for lots of people as I think it's a stellar introduction to a fascinating subject, and just about the right side of accessible. I find it very hard to hold that sort of information in my head, but have a bunch of post-it notes stuck on the wall behind my desk to try to make it all stick (currently focused on trying to learn the Second Law of Thermodynamics!).

But Rovelli is a master communicator and great fun regardless of how much of what he tells me I retain. Divisive, though - he infuriates people who don't agree with his anti-string theory views. I have an acquaintance who can't even say his name without a tone of barely suppressed fury. Rovelli is one of the people behind the loop quantum gravity theory which is the basis of one of my favourite Big Bang Theory . I'm glad you liked it!

Thank you for reviews of The Warden & A Suitable Boy Fortuna and MamaNewt - both were favourites of my DM & I've got them waiting on my shelves, you've both inspired me to push them up my tbr list.

Hello everyone. I've just read all three of 2021 threads and you have inspired me to Make A List. Before we start:

• Thanks for the threads, south
• scone rhymes with cone and I don't see how you can put jam on top of cream
• I haven't read any of the Bunfight Books

I have, however, read War and Peace, way back when I last Made A List when S2 was young (approximately when TTOD was first out). When the dramatisation came on telly I realised that I remembered absolutely nothing - not even whether they ended up together - except the confusion over dates and the fact that one might be addressed by any variation of one's given name. Nowadays, of course, I muddle it up with Amelia Havisham

On cathedrals: Edith Pargeter (the other name of the Cadfael author) wrote a trilogy called The Heaven Tree, set in the first third of the thirteenth century. People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like. (Note to self: put that on the re-read list)

14. First Man- The Life of Neil Armstrong by James R Hansen

Biography of Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon.
I hate a bit of a love/hate relationship with this one. I loved Lost Moon by Jim Lovell about the doomed Apollo 13 mission and Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, and I was expecting similar. I certainly enjoyed the early chapters about Neil's childhood and early life and how he ended up as a NASA test pilot. I also enjoyed the later chapters about life after the moon landing for the Armstrong family, but I did find a lot of the heavy scientific descriptions a bit of a slog (there are only so many acronyms I hold in my head at any one time).

Decent read, but not my favourite space biography.
Good photos though (which were lacking in Hidden Figures)

Despite liking the look of several books mentioned here (notably Piranesi and Louding Voice) I am making a list of books I already own. In order of what occurred to me:

Optimistic To-Read List - started trying to alternate f and non-f
Casual Vacancy
the Octopus thing
Ender's Game (not actually mine, belongs to S1)
do I have any Richard Dawkins unread?
Jasper Fforde - I got halfway through Thursday Next
any more SJG?
Go Set a Watchman
Unquiet Women
Frankenstein in Baghdad
A Game of Thrones
did I finish Barbarians?
The Long Earth
Mein Rant
Jonathan S & Mr N
Utterly Exasperated History
The Colour of Heaven
The Handmaid's Tale
Curious Incident
Harold Fry
Madman's Library
Book Thief

I've hardly read any actual books the last couple of years - Mansfield Park prompted by a thread on MN a few months ago, and a novel about one of Queen Victoria's granddaughters who married a minor royal Russian, which I picked up from MiL's library pile. So this is going to be interesting. Will attempt some reviews, though I'm usually better at the ones I didn't like (Norman Mailer I'm looking at you).

...oh and I have a secret hope that I might open Berkey's Calculus and see how much I remember...

@merryhouse

Of those :

A Game Of Thrones
Handmaids Tale
Book Thief
Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell

Would be my starting point

Rather More Realistic To Re-Read List
Fifth Elephant
Frederica
The Heaven Tree et seq
Persuasion
Strong Poison
Acts and Omissions - prep to getting the sequels, ooh and there's a 4th due in May
need another Pratchett as antidote at this point, I think! Maybe the trains one

Eine - I'm not sure I can cope with GoT right from the off!

ChannelLightVessel

Dogs of War and Bear Head are brilliant, aren’t they? Glad you liked them too!

1. Devolution - Max Brooks
2. The Whisper Man - Alex North

Devolution was a Bigfoot themed survival horror from the author of World War Z, set in the area around Mt Ranier. There’s snow, a volcanic eruption, a Bigfoot family (but no Hendersons) and a group of disparate people living in an eco-village created by a rich tech guru. What could go wrong? Well, snow, a volcanic eruption and a Bigfoot family, basically. If you like your survival horror lite-ish, you might get on with this. There are far fewer narrators than World War Z, which helps it feel more cohesive, but one particular narrator does have a habit of interrupting the drama to rant-splain the story/backstory.

The Whisper Man I did not enjoy this but it’s completely my fault! It had been on my kindle for ages, and I’d forgotten or misread the blurb and was expecting something supernatural. And while there was an element of the supernatural, the main focus was on a serial killer who targeted children. Which I wasn’t expecting. The book is really well written, the supernatural elements were well done I thought, and the child who’s the focus of the story is quite realistically adorable. I would definitely read another book by this author, but next time I will make sure to read the blurb properly!

1. The Cruelest Month, Louise Penny
2. Dear Edward, Ann Napolitano
3. Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith
4. A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman
5. A Rule Against Murder, Louise Penny
6. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
7. The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel

1. Us Against You Fredrik Backman - the second in a trilogy about a small town where the most important thing to people is hockey. The first book deals with the rape of a young girl by the star of the hockey team, and this book follows on. This is the third Backman book I've read. Beartown and A Man Called Ove (not part of this series) are 2 absolutely brilliant books. I did enjoy this, but he has a quirky way of writing which at times during this book started to annoy me. Not quite sure if I'll read the third in the series because of this.

1. The Bad Daughter Joy Fielding - one of those suspense novels which I felt was badly done. Everyone was pretty unlikeable and I skim read most of it.

10. The Boy from the Woods Harlen Coben - a thriller. I like Coben, he's easy to read and you quickly get lost in the story.

11. Noughts and Crosses Malorie Blackman - a young adult dystopian novel. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I really enjoyed this and read very quickly. Will request the rest of the series from the library

12. The Evening and The Morning Ken Follett - the prequel to The Pillars of the Earth which is in my top 10 favourite books ever. None of the 3 books in the Kingsbridge series have quite matched TPOTE, but this is the best out of the 3 in my opinion. Follett just draws you into his books, and before you know it, you've read 300 pages. Highly recommend.

I’m now currently reading Someone Like Me by M R Cary, and Moby Dick which I have been reading for approximately 86 years. Have survived my first Cetology lesson. The writing goes all over the place and throws nonsense and then random gems (like this) at you with zero notice.

“Some days elapsed, and ice and icebergs all astern, the Pequod now went rolling through the bright Quito spring, which, at sea, almost perpetually reigns on the threshold of the eternal August of the Tropic. The warmly cool, clear, ringing, perfumed, overflowing, redundant days, were as crystal goblets of Persian sherbet, heaped up—flaked up, with rose-water snow.”

I also found a very appropriate lockdown philosophy
“Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.”

Mansfield Park prompted by a thread on MN a few months ago

After a 'heated discussion' with DH about Mary Wollstonecraft I was googling more about her and her reputation going down the pan because of Godwin's biography of her. Apparently lots of female writers distanced themselves from MW (either directly criticising her or including comic characters that were clear caricatures), except Jane Austen who never mentioned her but did include a lot of MW's ideas in her novels. So clearly I now need to go back and reread Manfield Park.

13. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
What to say about this book that hasn't already been said? Austen's only real romance, her only likeable heroine, the mix of comedy and seriousness, the list of comic setpieces always fresh and pleasing. I was struck this time by the reality of Wickham, that pleasant, good-looking man who turns out to be almost too hollow and useless for true evil. Still there and still in the family at the end of the novel, they have to have him in their lives because of Lydia's selfish thoughtlessness. Nothing excites Austen's contempt like financial uselessness. I contrast it with Becky and Rawdon in Vanity Fair, 'living well on nothing a year' and still rather glamorous even so, whereas Lydia and Wickham trudge from one unpleasant lodgings to another, trapped together by nothing more than stupidity and veniality. Almost as awful as the terrible fate of Maria in Mansfield Park.

@merryhouse if you make an exception from your list, please make it for The Girl With The Louding Voice. Definitely my book of my reading year so far.

I can't remember if I've already posted this about A Suitable Boy, but it shares with Ulysses the debatable honour of being the two books I've failed to finish. But I do think it has potential, it just needs a decent chunk of reading time to get into it - let's hope Boris is right and we can holiday this summer.

As an aside, it's also the book which led me to announce my pregnancy. I was discussing it with a friend, they asked "by the way, how far through are you?" and we were clearly talking about two different things! But I take from that that (a) it's enough of a doorstop that nine months didn't seem unreasonable, and (b) the fact this conversation happened in 2013 means it's probably time to try again (book, not child - I'm definitely done on that front!).

merry, thanks for the tip-off about a new Catherine Fox book out in May (fourth in the series that started with Acts and Omissions). Straight onto pre-order!

12. Monogamy by Sue Miller I didn't enjoy this as much as I expected to, though I came with high expectations. I really like Sue Miller, and several of her books are in my comfort-reread pile for when I can't face anything new. There were good things about it - she presents complex and flawed characters very well and is brilliant on quotidian detail. And her portrayal of (complex) grief and time is very good. But it also felt a little bit formulaic to me - themes from previous books that she'd returned to or that reminded me of scenes in her other books. I didn't love it, and I wanted to, and I don't think I'll read it again.

13. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff I finished this last night, and to some extent I feel like I'm still working out what I think. It's about the marriage of a 'golden couple' who meet and marry fresh out of college in America. The first half is told from the man's perspective, the second half the woman's, and obviously they are very different. That makes it sound like chick-lit, and it really isn't. I found the first half OK, good in parts, perhaps a bit overlong and the style of writing takes a bit of getting used to. The second part is much better, really races along and explains a lot of what happened in the first half in a whole new and unexpected light. There's a twist at the end which is good too. Jury's still out at the moment - if anyone has read it I'd love to know what you think.

I haven't managed to finish A Suitable Boy and given that I didn't even manage to on a period of enforced four-month bed rest years ago, I possibly never will, though I still hold out hope. There's a quote on the edition I've got which says 'Make time for it, and it will keep you company for the rest of your life' and I love that and part of my really wants to do it.

But Eine would you still recommend GOT knowing what a mess books 4 & 5 become, and suspecting he'll NEVER finish the series? I kind of resent the time I spent on it (pre TV series). I massively preferred Piranesi to Johnathan Strange but I do have a hatred of Dickensian tomes.

18. The Marlow Murder Club - Robert Thorogood. This was a 99p Kindle buy and was glad I didn't pay more for it. It's by the guy who wrote Death in Paradise and you can see it's written with the view to being a screen play. A woman hears her neighbour murdered while swimming in the river and teams up with two other women to investigate. It was ok but I never really felt engaged with the story or the characters who just seemed like caricatures - the eccentric aristocrat, the vicar's wife, and down on her luck dog walker.

I've finished books 6, 7 and 8.

Book 6 was 'The Heart's Invisible Furies' by John Boyne. The story begins with a pregnant teenager (Catherine) being denounced from the altar by her parish priest and taking the bus to Dublin. I wrongly assumed that she would be the main character but the story follows her son Cyril (although she emerges at several points throughout the book). I really struggled with the early section of this book. Pretty much all of the characters were irredeemably awful (with the exception of Catherine). The historical inaccuracy annoyed me (irl nobody was killed when Nelson's Pillar was blown up). I liked the book a lot better when the protagonist left Ireland. I disliked Cyril in the early section of the book and found myself getting very frustrated with his ill-judged actions which inevitably caused problems for him - and others. But as Cyril made his way through life (with all its twists and turns), I developed a fondness for him and I understood better how the Ireland of his early years shaped him (warped him?) and contributed to those actions. There's a lot more I could say about this book but I don't want to spoil the plot for those who haven't read it. I'm very glad that the harsh, repressive Ireland he depicts in the early section of the book has given way to a softer, more liberal society. That's not to say that there isn't room for improvement.

Book 7 was 'The Wild Silence' by Raynor Winn. It's the sequel to 'The Salt Path' which we've already discussed at length. I wanted to find out what happened next for Raynor and Moth. The only thing is, it took a long time to get to this point (158 pages, to be precise) and there was a bit of repetition of the events of the first book. I found myself skipping pages. The last section of the book is an account of a hiking trip to Iceland with a couple they met when they walked the Salt Path. I really enjoyed this section of the book but I felt it could have done with some photos - the scenery sounded amazing. I worry about what the future holds for Raynor and how she'll cope when the inevitable happens. She seems to be very dependent on Moth and admits to having social anxiety.

Book 8 was 'The Year of Living Danishly' by Helen Russell. The book is out a few years so I'm sure a lot of you have read it already. For anyone who hasn't, the book is an account of the experience of a UK journalist as she moves to Denmark for a year with her husband. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There's a really nice blend of research and personal anecdote. It's a gentle sort of book. Nothing major happens. There's a weekend in Copenhagen. There are musings on life in Denmark - the workplace, the obsession with joining clubs and societies, the high taxes, the severe winters which are alleviated by embracing hygge. The author gets to indulge her love of pastries and her husband gets to indulge his love of interior design. There are lots of laugh out loud moments. A perfect lockdown book.

25: The Moving Toyshop - Edmund Crispin

Classic crime fiction, not quite golden age (published 1946) but very much of a quirky cast. Crispin was the pen name of Bruce Montgomery, composer and Oxford crony of Philip Larkin (who's slyly name-checked in this book) and Kingsley Amis. Devotees of British films of the 50s and 60s, including half a dozen of the Carry Ons, will have heard Montgomery's film scores, but his other life was as the creator of eccentric Oxford detective Gervase Fen, Professor of English at the fictional St. Christopher's College.

This is the third Fen novel and our hero is involved in helping his old friend, poet Richard Cadogan, solve a baffling murder in which a toyshop - and the eveidence of crime contained within it - literally disappears overnight. Full of larky and erudite capers, very amusing and with a preposterous plot that isn't really the point. I'll definitely read all the others (there are 9 in total) courtesy of DH, who's been a Fen fan forever and has the set in green Penguins. Not sure why I haven't got round to them before...!

Eine - "Very dark in places, and with such a disregard for PEOPLE'S FEELINGS that it would suit Cote "

I am tempted but it sounds like fantasy which I don't usually get along with.

@Barnanabas I read Monogamy last year and quite liked it. It was my first Sue MiIler book so it didn't feel repetitious to me (although I've felt that way about Elizabeth Strout books). I agree that she is really skilled at observing the everyday and exploring grief. The book really grew on me as it went on. I didn't like Graham though, selfish man with his first "open" (to suit him) marriage and betrayal of Annie.

1. Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This was another excellent look into the possible future of the human race, continuing with the stories of Honey (Bear), Bees, and "distributed intelligence" HumOS from the author's previous book Dogs of War.

Modified humans have started building on Mars, where Bees also resides following her frustrated attempts to save Earth from global warming. Meanwhile on Earth, Bear finds herself in the crosshairs of a simple-minded yet powerful and dangerous man, public personality, cold sociopath, master manipulator, and wannabe politician (obviously modeled after Trump).

Excellent sequel to Dogs of War, highly recommended to everyone here.