50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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, the second one here and the third one here.

19. Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese This book charts the early life of Marion Stone, separated at birth from his conjoined twin and adopted by the gynaecologist who delivered them when their mother doesn't survive the birth and their surgeon father walks out of the hospital never to return.

Marion & his twin Shiva grow up living in the small hospital in which they were born, situated in Addis Ababa, with their adopted parents and the maid's daughter. Of course the boys become doctors themselves and continue to live & work in the place they were born until Marion is forced to flee Ethiopia to New York.

This is a long book with a lot of themes running through. There's sibling rivalry, political intrigue, FGM, murder & the confused emotion of an adopted child who loves his parents but longs to know more of his biological family.

I enjoyed it, I imagine I would have enjoyed it more if I had an interest in reading long, detailed descriptions of surgical procedures or had an abiding interest in Ethiopian politics in the latter half of the 20th century.

I’ve lost track a bit so here’s my last few
12. Witch Week - Diane Wynn Jones
This is a childhood favourite that I picked up Kindle as fancied a comfort read. Haven’t ever read any of her other books and a bit unsure where to start.

13. The Bigamist - Mary Turner Thompson A real life story of, I’m sorry to say, a woman too naive for words. The man she married pretended to be in the CIA etc, and had more red flags waving than a field of red bunting. 2/10

Into Thin Air have seen this raved about on here so decided to give it a go - and gosh am I glad I did. Ended up reading up into the wee small hours to finish, and at some points felt I was right there on that mountain with them. Amazing stuff.

I am only just done on Book 12 which is very slow for me. It was Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy. I have been feeling overly cynical about education recently so have avoided this, thinking I would hate it but I didn't. Clanchy doesn't boast at all but just threads together a series of vignettes about children she has worked with. her job is very particular ,really, so it isn't so much a book about teaching as about creative writing (in fact one of her laments is that there is really no place in the curriculum for allowing children to just write creatively) . It's an inspiring book.

I've lost track of my numbering for now but I've just finished Fat Cow, Fat Chance by Jenni Murray, which was OK. It's about the psychology of eating and weight and I mildly enjoyed reading about her battles with her weight, but as Biblio said a few months ago, there was nothing new that she brought to the discussion. I'm left feeling 'So what?' and that there was much more to her unhappiness than what she was willing to say in this book. All in all this was a frustrating read.

2021booklover if you like Witch Week I'd recommend Charmed Life as having a similar "feel" to it.

Charmed Life is lovely 😊

Biblio, I like the sound of that LIW book. I loved her as a child and read the series several times. Have seen references in other threads to there being more to the story than she chose to tell and I'd be interested to read a good detailed account of how the books were written and how much truth is in them.

I hope it won't ruin Almanzo for me, he was probably my first love....

@2021bookloveri felt the same about The Bigamist. How do you fall for those stories

@PepeLePew we did The Bacchae as a play in 6th form. Even then it seemed rather inappropriate for a bunch of 16 year old girls writhing around the stage in red catsuits. Not quite sure what our Latin teacher was thinking.

12. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Will is 15. His brother has been shot. Will knows the rules. 1 Don't cry. 2 Don't snitch. 3 Get revenge. We travel with Will as he takes the elevator from his home on the 8th floor down to the lobby, on his way to seek revenge.
I've recently started listening to the Currently Reading podcast and this was recommended on there. I think it would be described as a short novel written in verse. I listened on BorrowBox eAudio and it was read by the author so you get the cadence and emphasis that he intended, and the five minutes of him talking about the book afterwards was interesting. I was intrigued enough to then read the eBook, also on BorrowBox, to see how it was set out on the page and found it really interesting, a very different experience. It let me really slow down and appreciate some phrases that had passed me by on first listen.
A short read which packs a lot in, every phrase written with intention. I think this is a read which will stay with me. Awesome ending too.

@Tarahumara

2021booklover if you like Witch Week I'd recommend Charmed Life as having a similar "feel" to it.

Thank you - have just downloaded this- I think I may have a nice bath and make a start on it.

[quote Matilda2013]**@2021bookloveri* felt the same about The Bigamist*. How do you fall for those stories [/quote]
I found it infuriating! Him not turning up to their wedding would have been the point at which most people would walk away!

We clearly think alike, southeast!

Viking, I did think it was well worth the read, although I don't have an intense emotional connection to the Little House books so I don't know if it is disconcerting to see how different the reality was (Pa Ingalls skipping town to escape debts!)

38. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi Reviewed by lots of people already, I found it short but charming.
    (It reminded me rather of Changing Planes by Ursula le Guin which I'd also thoroughly recommend.)

35. The Hiding Game by Naomi Wood

In the 20s, a group of six start at the Bauhaus School Of Art - unaware that Nazism is coming.

Several problems with this, before the discussion on thread my thought was "This wishes it was The Secret History and isn't.

Two characters just fade out, they are always periphery anyway and therefore pointless.

One female character is so Manic Pixie Dream Girl its cringe. Everyone apparently adores her but its very hard for the reader to see why.

It also makes what I think is more often than not a literary error (unless you are really good) of giving several character outcomes before the end, anticlimactically.
You always know where its going.

I raced through the first half. But this was because it was just unchallenging in style and content. The second half was better but on the whole it was distinctly average.

16. Up by Ben Fogle

I actually had Accidental Adventurer on my list but someone on here mentioned Fogle had also written an Everest book which a few days later came up on my Amazon and was £5 cheaper so I bought that instead

It's a good read. I wouldn't say he adds anything new to the Everest story but I just love reading anything about the mountains. There are also short chapters his wife writes about her point of view waiting at home for news which was brave of them to address I think.

Small Pleasures which is on the Woman's prize longlist is 99p today on Kindle. It sounds good, comparisons to Anne Tyler & Barbara Pym.

Hi! Checking in.. Hope you don't mind me joining in. Ive just finished my 27 book this year. Im aiming for 50 books in 2021

Join us, Feeling! What would you recommend from your reading so far?

Stokey, you temptress. I had virtuously resisted today's deals, but one comparison to Pym and I'm sold. So many books clamouring for attention on my kindle, but I'm currently in the almost unprecedented situation of being down to my last library book, so I can tackle physical books I own plus my kindle.

Thanks Stokey snapped up Small Pleasures

20. When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelson. This is a family drama following a few months in the life of Claudia Rubin, a glamorous female rabbi, and her husband and four adult children. The family home is in Gospel Oak in North London which is where I grew up (I went to Gospel Oak primary school), so that added a bit of interest for me. This is okay but nothing special.

Welcome @Feelinglow8736

Welcome @Feelinglow8736

I am curled up in bed with a hot water bottle reading @VikingNorthUtsire's recommendation of Findings. Oh my life but it's wonderful. I've already ordered the sequel. I'm limiting myself to a chapter a day (I keep wanting to write "unit" which shows how work is infiltrating
The writing is just magnificent. I love short sentence writers. Reminds me oddly of both Frances May (Under the Tuscan Sun - marvellous book, shite film) and The Bridges of Madison County (marvellous story, no I didn't need to see boney old Clint with his kekks off.) the writing that is, not the content!

I'm so glad you're enjoying it, SOL. I too am having a duvet day, feeling rough after being vaccinated yesterday (thank you NHS), and have found a lovely Laura Ingalls Wilder book from the library (inspired by Biblio) which is just right for lying in bed with.

I’ll Take Manhattan and Mistral’s Daughter - Judith Krantz. We discussed these a few pages back and I’m happy to report that they are still as thoroughly over the top as I remember. Totally improbable characters, everyone is a genius at what they do, everyone looks sublime and if they are not loaded at the start of the book, then they are by the end. Lots of food, sex and fashion. Complete escapism and just what I needed.

The Life of Stuff - Susannah Walker This is the story of the author’s relationship with her mother told through objects she finds when clearing her mother’s house. Her mother was a hoarder and the house fell into a terrible state of disrepair. Walker analyses why she was unable to help her mother when she was alive and looks at the psychology of hoarding. There is a lot of introspection but I thought it was fascinating and really well written.

Daisy Jones and The Six I know this has been much reviewed and liked on here but I thought it made a story that could have been exciting pretty dull. I kept waiting for something to happen, some kind of twist but if there was anything I missed it.

20. Our Dancing Days - Lucy English A middle-aged woman reflects on her youth as a a hippie living in a commune in 1970s Suffolk. Meh.