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.

44. Candide by Voltaire

Obviously I'm not an uncultured swine and so I do understand this book has a historical value as an 18th C social satire and farce, but over 250 years later this has no real resonance for the modern reader beyond academic value.

It's just weird, and really meh.

It is mercifully short.

25. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

About Vanessa and her relationship with her much older English teacher. Vanessa has been determined to believe in this as some sort of love story, but is forced to start re-evaluating things when other girls come forward accusing the teacher of grooming and sexual abuse.

Rather disturbing. I’m not really sure how I feel about this one on the whole.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

Fuck Me Are There Any Books On There That Aren't

Female Relative
Twee Ladies Book Covers
LOOK OUT HE'S BEHIND YOU

and utter embarrassments of titles

Todays winners :

The Kindness Club On Mapleberry Lane
Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Cafe

TREES DIED FOR THIS SHIT

So true @EineReiseDurchDieZeit Also The something at/in the something The wedding at the beach hut, The school at the top of the dale, The Little teahouse in Tokyo etc

I did pick up Queen's Gambit as loved the TV show, a Belinda Bauer crime book, and most excitingly Are you there God, it's me Margaret by Judy Blume for DD1 who's 11. I remember loving this as a pre-teen so hoping she will too.

22 The Vegetarian by Han Kang. Translated by Deborah Smith

I'm not sure I can improve on Eine's review of this last year. Brilliant, deeply disturbing novella in three acts about a woman who becomes vegetarian. Spoiler: it's not about the animals.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

Fuck Me Are There Any Books On There That Aren't

Female Relative
Twee Ladies Book Covers
LOOK OUT HE'S BEHIND YOU

and utter embarrassments of titles

Todays winners :

The Kindness Club On Mapleberry Lane
Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Cafe

TREES DIED FOR THIS SHIT

genuine LOL. My thoughts exactly.

Along with the "Teashop on the top of the hill", the "Plumber's Sister-in-law" and anything including the word "library" or "book" I've spotted another trend. The swirly William Morris style cover in navy or green with a shadow of a Victorian lady in there somewhere. Laura Purcell has spawned a new breed that we're all going to be running from soon. Mark my words.

I actually yelped out loud as if stung when I clicked on one of the titles to read the blurb which said something like "magic realism meets YA dystopian in a tea shop in Kabul" or something equally dreadful. (I may be exaggerating how many tired plots were inserted into one 99p offering but you get the drift.) think there might have been time travel and a library in there too.

I think that between us we could write some of these books.

The Fat Blonde Twat at Number Ten
The Useless Prick in the Education Department
A Quick Wank on the Top Bunk
Slap and Tickle in the Stationery Cupboard

Excellent. You start those, Remus, and I'll get cracking on The Proctologist's Maiden Aunt, and The Most Scrumptious Tea Shoppe in Moss Side.

@Stokey Oh my, think I'm going to have to buy Are you there God, it's me Margaret for me!

Found the monthly deals rubbish this month, I'm saving my money until Waterstones reopens.

Oi, I’m still waiting for Remus to write the Lesbian Austen spin off!

Great chat everyone! 😆

I’m also sticking to my wishlist and reading the first few pages of the book on Amazon before buying, so I can get moving with all my unread books rather than adding to the pile.

piggy and Remus - thanks for your comments re:Boys Don’t Try. I had a sneaky suspicion that might be the case but I’m not on Twitter so missed all their antics. I think I was taken in/swayed by the confident tone of the narration (by Rupert Halliday-Evans piggy) and even I, not a teacher, could see the impracticalities of some of their suggestions. Neither did I agree with everything they said. And yes, a female perspective/contribution would have increased the value.

19. Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga.

Well researched, accessible, interesting and detailed, this history takes us from Roman times to post-World War II. David Olusoga shows how black British history is closely linked to that of Africa, the Caribbean islands and the US, painting a complex picture of economic, moral and political imperatives and the change of attitudes brought about in the 19th century. This is a dense book, taking me a while to read but I thought it was excellent.

Thanks to the discussion upthread, I had a brief look online about the UK racial inequality report. Looks like a missed opportunity with many objections to the leaders on the report, their findings and recommendations. Disappointing.

I never did come back with my other books.

58. Burnt Sugar - Avni Doshi
    Another WP long listed book that also made the Booker shortlist last year. Set in modern day India, recently married Antara finds herself looking after her mother with dementia. In a series of flashbacks she explores why they have such a difficult relationship and have never really liked let alone loved one another. This is an insightful look at the complexities of mother daughter relationships with some incredible writing in places. However it bored the pants off me. It was very slow to get started and tried to shoehorn in too many issues without fully exploring any. A slog to finish.

59. The Narrowboat Summer - Anne Youngson
    Three women each at a crisis point in their lives unexpected meet and end up on a narrowboat journey that will change them forever. This is a very twee book probably worthy of the mockery above however a tale of friendship with a bit of minor peril and a nice ending was exactly what I needed. It was warm and cosy with a feel good factor that makes it a nice gentle read for anyone looking for an escape. It's not perfect, it did drift off a little in the middle and the characters were not always distinct enough to know who was who, but overall a lovely untaxing read.

Eleanor and Park Much reviewed bittersweet teenage romance with social issues thrown in.

Shuggie Bain Also much reviewed. I initially found this an almost unbearably bleak read, but it developed into a tender and compassionate portrayal of poverty and resilience.

Wilding by Isabella Tree This was a fascinating account of taking land out of intensive farming and restoring it to a more natural and richly diverse ecosystem. It contains a wealth of information about wildlife, conservation and more generally about environmental issues and the terrible damage that man is wreaking on the planet.

As a minor aside, (and tangential to the main point of the book), it also reminded me of the huge inequalities of wealth that continue in this country. I work in an inner-city primary school in a deprived area which this week reported that it is facing an £80,000 shortfall next year. Isabella Tree drops into the narrative comments that highlight the vast area of land and other assets that her husband's family have owned for generations "..across the estate, ... we can spend around £10,000 pulling up (ragwort)" - that's the figure for one year! "Duncan (the Exmoor colt) would gallop onto the practice polo field in front of the house.." - practice polo field! The rewilding project is supported by a variety of Government (and previously EU) grants with the odd complaint that they had to bring in workers "at our own expense". Overall Wilding was an excellent read, but comments such as these did rankle at times.

29. The Fall of the House of Byron, Emily Brand
The poet was proud of his Curs'd Ancestry, and this book uses the poet's introduction to his inheritance as a framing device to explore the lives of his Georgian forebears. There is a particular focus on three members of his grandfather's generation - one a wastrel who killed a man in a duel, one a gallant admiral who survived a terrible shipwreck as a very young man, and their sister, who became a duchess and who yearned for love and defied scandal. Pretty much everything you want from Georgian high society, in fact. The later chapters are a bit confusing, thanks to the multiplicity of cousins, many with the same names, but overall I found this an enjoyable read.

@BestIsWest

Oi, I’m still waiting for Remus to write the Lesbian Austen spin off!

Ha ha! Sorry, Best.

Amused by the made up book titles! They are made up aren't they??

I would contribute

The Girl Who Pushed a Shopping Trolley in Sainsbury's

Obviously a romantic comedy/ stalker thriller.

I genuinely spent time pondering which supermarket was most middle class and floaty dressed without being too exclusive. Decided Aldi or Lidl might suggest a different Plotline. Fancied the CoOp for a while but decided not much trolley pushing in CoOps.

I think has been done , though, at least the US version , courtesy of Kiley Reid.

Matilda I'm with you on the wishlist thing - I'll do a daily scan of my wishlist to check for price drops and don't tend to comb the deals sections. Resisting the 99p deals that other 50-bookers mention here is another matter though....

Still ploughing, very slowly, through Our Mutual Friend and started Shuggie Bain a couple of days ago. Being born and raised in Glasgow in the 80s I'm really identifying with parts of this and finding it a good read overall so far.

@inthecludgie obviously the idea is not to browse and a lot of months I fail. The hiccup this month means I cannot be bothered and so will stick to the wishlist

45. Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

A strange thing. A non fiction book about female sexual desire, focusing on 3 individual stories.
There is good here, definitely. There are some beautifully crafted individual sentences about women and sex that really resonated with me and I went so far as to note the quotes in the reading app I use.

BUT

despite the odd pearl of a sentence it frequently feels surface and not remotely insightful whatsoever.

Even though it is "real womens stories" they feel both bizarrely fictional and bizarrely cliched.

Lina is a loveless marriage and is having an affair with Aidan. She is so desperate for love that she is ignoring all the obvious red flags.

Maggie is trying to prosecute her high school teacher for grooming her. It's My Dark Vanessa but less well written.

Sloane is in a marriage which is blatantly both coercive and abusive. She has normalised it, and does not contemplate escape.

Of these Lina and Maggie are unfortunately real people who feel like stereotypes. Maggie dominates the book and Lina comes second.

The woman in the truly interesting, complex and damaging situation is Sloane, she is barely in it. I felt she had been really shortchanged. She is depicted at times as being personality free, a hollow empty vessel who exists for mens pleasure and defines herself that way. Like a hollow shell or an empty vase. Unworthy of female empathy and unlikeable. I thought it was unkind on the real Sloane.

Not a patch on the buzz it got, and many of the revelations here are only revelations to younger women not those seasoned by their 40s and MN Relationships board. I will be immediately buying it for a much younger female friend though as I think it will be of value for her.

Less than the sum of its parts

I have 3 women in my shelf (came in a subscription box) this review and others I've read make me wonder if I'll bother. My sister is in her late 20s, maybe I'll pass it on

29. Bear Head - Adrian Tchaikovsky. Pretty sure Cote reviewed this earlier this year. It's a sequel to Dogs of War which I read a couple of years ago but didn't remember that well. This time the action moves to Mars where humans have been genetically modified to work on building a new habitat there. There are three main view points, Jimmy a strung out junkie on Mars trying to get his next hit, Springer PA to an arch villain, & Honey the bear from Dogs of War. Since the battle for the rights of animals (bioforms) in the Dogs of War, the tide has turned and now using a type of mind control called collaring is gaining popularity. Tchaikovsky weaves a great story, he is one of the most original writers out there. My only criticism of this one is that the villain, who seems to be based on Trump, is almost too evil. I'd recommend this but read Dogs of War first.

Scroll on by if you don't want to read politics on the thread, but for those interested in Olusoga, I said I'd like to hear him on the recent racial disparities report. David hath spoken :

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/sewell-race-report-historical-young-people-britain

14. The Foundling - Stacey Halls

A quick read to get me back into reading. It's the story of how a young mother has to give up her illegitimate daughter to the Foundling Hospital, and when she goes to claim her back six years later, finds she has already been claimed. This was an easy read, but with one too many coincidences to really grab me - I know you sometimes need them to make a plot come together, but I felt this would have benefited from being slightly longer so that the plot devices felt slightly less clumsy. That said, not every book has to be a literary masterpiece, and I did enjoy reading this as I thought the characters were interesting enough to want to know what happened to them, so it wouldn't necessarily put me off reading more by the same author.

@Boiledeggandtoast I was also REALLY annoyed by bits of Wilding. As you say it's a very good read, she's an excellent writer (and I've recommended it to lots of people) but oh my the lack of awareness. The one that got me particularly was when she was complaining that she couldn't get a grant to do a section of fencing. I figured out that she'd have needed to sell at absolute maximum 20 acres out of their 3,500 to pay for it. (Like my Mum used to say, that's how the rich stay rich!)