50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Five

[southeastdweller]

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

How're you getting on so far?

You’ve completely sold City of Friends to me Mackerella if only because I was one of about 6 girls on an Economics degree out of a class of 70 (in the 80s though). Sadly I don’t live in Holland Park though.

@FortunaMajor I just saw this project Lemn is doing this month as part of the Brighton Festival. Something nice to show your mum perhaps

brightonfestival.org/whats-on/tell-me-something-about-family-1355/

Hi everyone, I've not been here for AGES, so sorry for missing all the chat. I've been having a pretty rough time, but reading has been my happy place!

25. Mustard Seed by Laila Ibrahim This is a sequel to Yellow Crocus which I enjoyed last year, set in the 19th Century about ten years later in Virginia, immediately after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.

In Yellow Crocus, the slave Mattie is brought in to nurse Lisbeth the baby daughter of her white master. As Lisbeth grows up there is an unshakeable bond between Lisbeth and Mattie and her children. Mattie and her daughter Jordan escape to Ohio (which is a much more liberal state) and Lisbeth marries against her parents wishes and also moves to Ohio and lives near Mattie and her family.
I was a bit dubious about Mustard Seed, as I felt Yellow Crocus ended well and thought a sequel would be a bit of a cash in, and in some ways it was - Lisbeth is returning home to visit her dying father and Mattie decides to return to the plantation where she was enslaved to visit her relatives that still work there. It's all a bit co-incidental and convenient but a good fast-paced plot and focused on Mattie's daughter Jordan for a good chunk of the story. It's certainly a page turner, even though for a book which covers some difficult issues and a brutal period of American history, it feels a bit "easy" and sanitised.
There is a third one too, called Golden Poppies, which I will probably get around to reading at some point.

26. Prophecy by S.J. Parris
    Second in the series by SJ Parris, about the exiled Italian ex-monk now working as a spy for Frances Walsingham at the court of Elizabeth I. I think I enjoyed this one more than the first one. This time, Bruno is sent by Walsingham to investigate the connection between the murder of one of Queen Elizabeth's ladies with the intrigue surrounding the Catholic plot to put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne of England. Bruno finds himself undercover at the French Embassy and the plot twists and turns and there are some interesting characters and the plot moves at quite a pace.

It's not quite Shardlake standards, but a decent enough easy read

27. Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
    This was a step away from my usual genre and I enjoyed it. It is the story of Ruth Jefferson, a black labour and delivery nurse with twenty years experience, who finds herself removed from the care of a white supremacist's baby. When the baby sadly dies suddenly, Ruth is accused of murder after she is caught up in the resuscitation attempts. As Ruth is initial suspended from her job and then arrested, it would appear to be an open and shut case of racism against her.
    It becomes a complex case, as Ruth had been told by her manager to not touch the baby, but is then accused of neglect for doing exactly that. When Ruth loses her job and is awaiting trial, relationships with her family become difficult and her public defender Kennedy struggles to put Ruth's defence together without resorting to making it a show trial on racism and inevitable media circus.
    It is written from the point of view of three different narrators- Ruth herself, Kennedy the lawyer and Turk, the skinhead father of the baby who died, all of which are credible and quite powerful narrators.
    It's a powerful story, dealing with issues that can make the reader uncomfortable, but a satisfying read. The ending was possibly a bit too tidy to be credible, but a firm ending, so I’m not complaining too much.

28. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
    A good non-fiction account of the development of Homo Sapiens (ie us) from our earliest ancestors to the most powerful and destructive species on earth, as we are today.
    It was an interesting read, as with all these type books, I found some chapters more interesting than others. I particularly enjoyed the early chapters about how we lived alongside other human species (eg the neanderthals) for thousands of years. We were happy and healthy as hunter-gatherers and then the Cognitive Revolution (were we learned how to plan, communicate on a higher level, and most importantly imagine things that are not real - allowing the development of religions and gods) and then later the Agricultural Revolution which fundamentally changed the way we lived forever.

A good read.

I'm now listening to Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on Audible which is very good, but I am not enjoying it quite as much as Americanah which is one of my favourite books ever, and I have finally given in the hype and reading Crawdads - I's usually a bit sniffy about overhyped books, and while I think Crawdads is definitely in that category, I am quite enjoying it. Not the most amazing book I've ever read (as so many people seem to claim) but a decent enough read.

Oh RavenclawesomeCrone I'm reading Half of a Yellow Sun as well. Thought I was the only person who hadn't read it yet! It is well written but I knew nothing about the Biafran war and so have been distracted as I read around some of the history - this is a brief and angry summary by Frederick Forsyth who was in Nigeria at the time.

Nice to see you back RavenclawesomeCrone, I hope things are getting better for you.

Two more to add to my list, both non-fiction and both recommended:

28. Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze. A few books ago I remember using the word "gritty" in one of my reviews, but that book was nothing compared to the grittiness of this one! It is an autobiographical book which shines a light on the issues of drugs, crime, violence and gang culture in north London, written by a second generation Polish immigrant with genuine lived experience of the subject. Some scenes are distressing but it's rare and fascinating to hear such an authentic, articulate voice on this topic (as most gang members don't also have a degree in English). Perhaps even more powerful for me personally, as all the action takes place 2-3 miles away from where I grew up and my parents still live.

29. The Life Project by Helen Pearson. Thank you so much to everyone on this thread who recommended this book, I found it so interesting. It is about the British cohort studies, which started in 1948 and follow a group of children born in that year (and later years for the subsequent studies) through their lives, gathering vast amounts of information about them - medical, social, financial etc - at regular intervals. The studies have generated hundreds of books and thousands of research papers, and this book discusses some of the key findings, but it also tells the story of the studies themselves - how they initially got off the ground and have kept going, and the challenges and benefits of this type of project. Excellent.

Hope you're okay, Raven. I really enjoyed Half of a Yellow Sun but didn't get on with any of her others.

@JaninaDuszejko - thank you for that article by Frederick Forsyth - what an impassioned and difficult read. I found Half of a Yellow Sun a very painful book to read and when I read up a bit about Biafra I was truly horrified that it was a man made famine and that the UK was complicit. A really shameful period where children bore the brunt of the suffering, as usual. It is a book that stayed with me and I am glad to have my eyes opened to a period of history the British establishment would obviously much rather was forgotten.

19. The Long Song by Andrea Levy a reread for me and I enjoyed it as much this time around as last.
    The blurb states: 'July is a slave girl who lives upon a sugar plantation named Amity and it is her life that is the subject of this tale. She was there when the Baptist War raged in 1831, and she was present when slavery was declared no more. My son says I must convey how the story tells also of July's mama Kitty, of the negroes that worked the plantation land, of Caroline Mortimer the white woman who owned the plantation and many more persons besides - far too many for me to list here. But what befalls them all is carefully chronicled upon these pages for you to peruse.'
    I was totally caught up in the life of July, ostensibly written down by the character in her old age so her son can read about his heritage. I think I may even prefer The Long Song to Levy's other acclaimed work Small Island, which is probably also due a reread.

    20. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie I am no longer a Christie virgin, and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed this locked-room mystery far more than the more modern takes on it I've tried recently. (The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - baffling, The Hunting Party - irritating) I saw an old black and white movie of this decades ago which stuck with me so thought I knew exactly who the killer was. But happily for me either I misremembered it, or they changed the culprit, because it wasn't who I thought it was. I'm now keeping my eye out for the most recent adaptation with Dominic West and Anna Maxwell Martin amongst an all star cast. So my first Agatha Christie was a resounding hit, but have I started with the best? Or are there other of her novels that are equally good I should add to my TBR pile?

Yes some of the history of Nigeria is horrific and Britain doesn't come out well at all. It's the sign of a good historical fiction, when I keep having to stop and google.
On the subject of colonial Africa - I have King Leopold's Ghost and The Poisonwood Bible lined up. Which would you go for first? I am probably the only person in the world who hasn't read Poisonwood, and I downloaded King Leopold's Ghost when it was 99p based on recommendations on here.

I'm now keeping my eye out for the most recent adaptation with Dominic West and Anna Maxwell Martin amongst an all star cast.

That's the one with the delicious Aiden Turner? It is very good.

There was an adaptation of The Long Song on the BBC a few years ago that's suppose to be very good.

I like the look of The Long Song
Will put it on my wish list

I saw that Long Song adaptation Janina, it was excellent, I'd like to watch that again.
And yes to Aiden Turner in the Christie adaptation but it doesn't seem to be available anywhere to view for free. Will have to keep my eye out for it.

I think it's well worth a read Ravenclaw, Andrea Levy is a great loss.

I'd put The Poisonwood Bible in my top ten books ever Ravensclaw, it loses focus somewhat towards the end but it's a great book nonetheless.

@mackerella if you'd like a better book on crops in pots, that's suited to someone with growing experience as opposed to being for total beginners I'd recommend Paul Peacock's book Patio Produce. I've only seen it in paperback so don't know what it'd be like on Kindle, but it's only £1.99.

While I have no desire to read City of Friends and it sounds dreadful, in her defence I graduated 1991 in economics, & have friends with 5+ bedroom houses in seriously posh bits of London. They're also mostly the more sensible staid ones!

I've got another re-read (actually re-listen) and then my second proper paper library book of the year (which took a lot less time to get through than Prairie Fires):

52. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
    Re-listen at work where I need something that can stand a bit of lost attention, this is the closest to her fanfic days both in dodgy prose and dubious plot holes, but also in energy and entertaining snark. As a side note Clary, the heroine, is one of the most wonderfully convincingly self absorbed and irritating teenagers to be found in YA fiction, and I always wonder whether actual teens read her as such, or sympathise with her!

53. Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky
    Sequel to Dogs of War which is possibly my favourite of his books. This features Honey, the multi-talented bioform bear, plus a Trump-esq politician and the settlement of Mars. Not quite up to the first book, and the politics was a bit heavy handed in places, but still an excellent read that rattled along.

Thanks for the recommendation, Sadik - I'll check it out!

I may have wronged JT slightly because I forgot to take into account that the book was published 4 years ago, making her characters more like 7 or 8 years older than me. I graduated in 1999 (would have been 1998 but I changed course) and there's no chance that I could have afforded their lifestyles, even with my less career-driven choices! (Having said that, I went to a v posh university and many of my contemporaries are doing very well for themselves indeed, so maybe it's just me that's underperforming .)

The Poisonwood Bible is one of my favourite books of all time as well, but, oddly I have DNFd everything else of hers I've tried.

Poisonwood was a DNF for me.

Desdamona I'm an Agatha Christie fan however I have not read any of her standalone novels (have had And Then There Were None on my kindle for aages) or her Miss Marples, I've been slowly working through the Poirots and just have a few to go. Of the ones I've read, i'd recommend The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Death on the Nile and Hercule Poirot's Christmas.

53. Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn

Patsy is a young Jamaican woman who trapped in a life she never wanted fantasises about joining her best friend Cicely in New York, even if it means relinquishing her daughter Tru.

But as an undocumented immigrant, the American Dream is not what what Patsy had envisaged.

Though Patsy makes poor choices, she is a character that it is easy to relate to and empathise with.

But the heart of the book is her lost daughter Tru, whose childhood to adolescence narrative illustrates that the abandonment destroys her mental health

The last 20 pages broke my heart honestly.

Really enjoyed it BUT it won't make "the bolds" because as much as I enjoyed this, I won't remember it in a couple of years.

Thanks Cludgie I'll look out for the Christie's you've mentioned.
Happily I found the entirety of the recent And Then There Were None adaptation on YouTube so have spent this rainy, cold afternoon snuggled up watching it. (I was wrong it's not Dominic West but Toby Stephens in the cast.)

Re Barbara Kingsolver I finished Flight Behaviour but didn't enjoy it much, I do have some others of hers I'd like to try though given how impressed I was my The Poisonwood Bible.

Desdamona I'm a Christie fan - I like The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side if you fancy trying a Miss Marple, and Murder on the Orient Express is a classic for good reason. Crooked House is a good standalone one.

I'm also a massive Kingsolver fan. The Poisonwood Bible is possibly my favourite but I would be hard pushed to choose between that, The Lacuna and Flight Behaviour.

I liked The Poisonwood Bible a lot but also DNF anything else of hers.

My top 3 Christie’s are Evil Under The Sun, Death on The Nile and Murder on the Orient Express. Honourable mention to The Mirrors r Crack’d but I definitely favour Poirot over Marple.

Have not read anything worth mentioning here but have started on Gaudy Night. The snobbery puts Christie to shame so far.

Eine, Desdamona and Best - have you tried The Lacuna? I think it's the one most similar to Poisonwood.

The only Kingsolver I have read in addition to The Poisonwood Bible is The Bean Trees. I think it is her first and I read and enjoyed it in my 20s (a long time ago!).

Oh speaking of Gaudy Nights we're off to Oxford for half term so I need some themed reading. DD1 is deep in His Dark Materials, DD2 is getting The House in Norham Gardens and DS is getting Alice in Wonderland but what should I read? Already read Brideshead revisited and Jude the Obscure (the later of which I have no desire to read again!).