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?

My first review seems to have posted itself as freeform verse

@elkiedee

I loved the Joan Smith books, and was eagerly rubbing my hands for more....but it was not to be...one was televised and had Imelda Staunton and very tall actress who I will Google in a minute and one of Greg Wise's first TV appearances. It was fab.

I still love Morse. I think the of-its-time sexism and other -isms were toned down for TV but can see similarities in the earlier Dalgliesh ones. Lots of barmaids, secretaries and wives hovering in the background. If only we'd known their daughters would all turn into psycho nutjobs living-next-door!

I am dipping in and out of The Yorkshire Shepherdess and surprisingly enjoying it. I know she is a divisive character on MN but I'm enjoying the sheep and landscape.

SOL I remember that series - Janet McTeer? I liked it very much and will seek out the books.

I only remembered there being 3 books in the Loretta Lawson series by Joan Smith - apparently there were 5. But in the early to mid 1990s I couldn't look up series books and order online, and was reliant on what I could find in whatever libraries I was using. They are all available in Kindle (and poss paperback through Bloomsbury Reader.

The TV adaptation of the first book, A Masculine Ending, (which I didn't even know about at the time) apparently did feature Janet McAteer as Loretta. It was directed by Antonia Bird and the casting details do sound quite impressive

genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/161ebf51b23e4c25ab4b467c7c7f3fb9

@cassandre I read the Cazalet Chronicles over 3 years. I never like to rush through a series

@VikingNorthUtsire please send my love to Norfolk. That's my neck of the woods and I haven't been able to get home to see my family for the past 18 months .

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit nothing I've read by Sebastian Faulks quite measures up to Birdsong although I have enjoyed several of his other books. Paris Echo was OK... will be interested to see what you think of it.

39 Rivers of London by Ben Aaranovitch

New PC finds a role in a branch of the Met devoted to using, and controlling, magic and magical creatures which make their own contributions to the challenges of London policing.

I really enjoyed this, contrary to my misgivings when Fortuna told me she felt it tailed off towards the end. I do think I'd have enjoyed it even more if I'd read it, rather than listened to it - some of the detail of the worldbuilding got slightly lost on me, as did the intricacies of the plot. But overall, this was a fun take on the police procedural novel and a good and well told story - I particularly liked the London-ness of it. Aaronovitch clearly knows and loves London, and I felt as if I was there on the streets of Covent Garden all the way through.

For those talking about Picnic at Hanging Rock - there is a 'lost' chapter which explains the ending I think. I downloaded it from somewhere years ago but haven't actually read the book (or the extra chapter) yet. I love the film though, probably due another watch - after I've read the book obviously.

I re-read The House in Norham Gardens recently and realised it was one of those books from my childhood where a scene had got stuck in my head but I couldn't remember where from (the school play where Clare points out Banquo's ghost). This happens a fair bit and it's very satisfying tracking down the books the memories come from, although I've got a couple that I can never find despite some very determined googling.

@BestIsWest

Janet McTeer! That's the one. Thank you for reminding me. I'll look out for the others. A Masculine Ending was great.

Palegreen Thank you for the link to Lemn's latest project. It looks brilliant and ties in very neatly with our current family tree project.

PermTemp if you want to read fiction set during the Medieval period then While Christ and His Saints Slept is a good book about the Anarchy (Team Empress!) For something more scholarly then Barlow's Feudal Kingdom of England is a good overview of Conquest to Magna Carta without being too dry. Alison Weir's Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England is also worth a look if you are interested in women of the period. I did Medieval History for A level and my tutor told me I'd be back in 20 years to tell her I wish I'd picked a history degree. My other 3 A levels were all MFL so I was only headed in one direction, but I do often wonder if I made the right choice. A lottery win would be spent on that.

Sharna I found the missing chapter of Picnic even more infuriating that the published ending.

Pepe I glad you enjoyed Rivers in the end as I'd hate to think I'd put someone off due to my grumpiness.

SOLINVICTUS it invoked a memory of living in our first house, pre-children and being curled up on the sofa together with a bottle of Sicilian red watching Friday night telly. Ah, young love.

Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov
After a poet dies, his editor puts his final piece into a book with lengthy notes that start to reveal more about the poet's life and far too much about the editor himself. This largely went over my head and I can't say I enjoyed it.

Othello - William Shakespeare
Tragedy with all the expected love, betrayal and death, but sadly missing 'a bit with a dog'. Read as prep ahead of reading Tracy Chevalier's New Boy which is a modern reworking. I enjoyed it but didn't love it, but it's one I'd probably revisit. I also watched the 1995 film as I believe Shakespeare should ideally be seen rather than read.

Paradise Lost - John Milton
I'd always avoided this as I am not a christian and assumed it was bible fan-fic and wouldn't be that interesting. I hadn't realised it was in the form of an epic poem. It was pure word porn and is actually rather good. I'd really recommend the audio version narrated by Simon Vance.

@FortunaMajor

Loved Paradise Lost

Pale Fire along with American Psycho are probably my most loathed books ever

40. Fire from Heaven - Mary Renault

Alexander the Great’s boyhood. Not sure why I never came across this as a teenager - too much pederasty, I guess - but it’s interesting to compare it to more recent historical fiction. Much less revisionist - this is #TeamAlexander, who is a Heracles/Achilles figure - but great detail, in particular the portrait of Macedonian society, and a clear sense that the past was not like the present. Female characters rather marginalised and one-dimensional.

And three books in series:
41. Arlo Finch in the Kingdom of Shadows - John August
Third in a series of tween fantasy, loved by DD(12). I thought it was a bit breathless, rushing past significant psychological moments.
42. Fleshmarket Close - Ian Rankin
Reliably-gripping police procedural, focusing on the murder of a refugee. Not convinced by the chacterisation of DS Siobhan Clarke: she seems to have become as solitary and alcoholic as Rebus.
43. Fugitive Telemetry - Martha Wells
Everyone’s favourite rogue cyborg, Murderbot, helps solve a murder while getting used to his new life on Preservation. Plot is not that thrilling, but Murderbot is as lovable as ever; would appeal to fans of Marvin the paranoid Android.

@BestIsWest

SOLINVICTUS it invoked a memory of living in our first house, pre-children and being curled up on the sofa together with a bottle of Sicilian red watching Friday night telly. Ah, young love.

Would have been around the same time that Neil Pearson was in Between the Lines. Excellent telly back then. Also remember me and my friend watching Rachel and Michelle on EastEnders drinking a bottle of red wine and deciding we were always going to have red wine in the house because it looked sophisticated

@FortunaMajor, love When Christ and his Saints Slept and got irrationally irritated with Ken (and his breasts) when the Mauds and Stephen he conjured up weren't the same as Sharon Penman's!

The lost chapter of Picnic at Hanging Rock is very silly indeed - as silly as the ending of King's Under the Dome.

I think I'm going to have to DNF The devil and the dark water by Stuart Turton as I'm finding it absolutely unreadable. I'm 3 pages in after a week. Has anyone enjoyed it, does it get better? I really liked the setup. It seems to have been published without an editor - if that's the future I'm not looking forward to it.

I am reading Shuggie Bain at the mo and loving the Glasgow voice he ahs created. The encounter with the women at Pithead was so 'nostalgic' for me , for want of a better word. He brings back so many things about working class 80s that I had forgotten : Kensitas cigarettes, catalogue ladies. I never went to those parts of Glasgow (apart from once through 'Pithead' - or a place like it- on the slow train) but the types are so familiar.

However ... something he keeps repeating is bugging me. Was pleather a word in the 1980s? I heard it for the first time on MN about six years ago.

Eine I'm glad it's not just me over Pale Fire. It was one of those Am I thick, or is this shit? moments.

Piggy according to Marriam-Webster, the first known use of Pleather was 1982, but I've only been aware of it in the past few years. Always heard of it referred to as PVC leather going back years.

Sol it is a fantastic book. It was lent to me by the aforementioned A level tutor. She kept a shelf of fiction for use to borrow to try to get a concept of them as real people rather than lists of dates and facts as she found it made for better essays. She'd only entertain historically correct work. The easiest way to disrupt class was to mention the Braveheart film. I remember borrowing The Morning Gift as well which was by Dianna Norman aka Ariana Franklin. I've got Penman's Lionheart lined up which I must dig out.

I found that 1982 thing too but I just don't think it was widely used. The context in which he uses it doesn't sound right either. It jars because it sounds a bit sneery.

Piggy I don't think it was widely used either or something that would be regional.

Just as an experiment, Google returns 3.5 million results for pleather, 38.7 million results for "pu leather" and 70 million for "faux leather" which while not scientific does show something of the prevalence of usage.

I think we would have said 'fake leather'. I don't really know what a pleather phone table even is!

PermTemp I ultimately enjoyed The Devil and the Dark Water, but did find it took a while to get into it. I'd say it's worth giving it a bit more time if you can.

It's definitely shit Fortuna incredibly pretentious too.

58. The Curious Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (Audible)

Read by Richard Armitage (swoon)

Surprised by how short it actually is. Incredible final chapter.

59. Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks

Oh Faulks. You are never going to top Birdsong are you?

Hannah an American academic and Tariq, a Moroccan teenager seeking an experience converge in Paris.

Characters are shallow, prose is poor, lacked any sort of feeling that I had more than a surface connection to the book or anything in it.

I felt like Faulks was really unsubtle in his desire to draw comparison between the Vichy occupation of the 40s and current Islamophobia tensions in France.

If you want to read a good (grim and chilling also to be honest) fiction novel about the horrific Vel d'Hiv Roundup in Paris, you want Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.

Also, this France obsession Sebastian no one wants to read a fictionalised experience of every Metro line and station, thanks.

Hollow.

Ooh, I'm currently 80% of the way through Shuggie Bain as well, and am loving it! I agree that "pleather" sounds wrong (I think I would have said "fake leather" or "mock leather" too), but I've picked up a few other oddities, so I wonder if it's something to do with the editing? A few times, it mentions a "purse" when it's clear that a handbag is meant, and there's also a bit of confusion about stockings and tights (Agnes is apparently wearing the former but then it mentions a gusset ). Is this a Scottish thing (like the characters using "gotten") or is it something to do with the fact that the book was originally published in the US?

Incidentally, I find it astonishing that this book was rejected by dozens of publishers before finally being picked up (and winning the Booker) - it's so evidently a very high-quality book! Apparently, they were reluctant to take it on because they thought it would be hard to market as it didn't fit neatly into existing genre or subject-matter slots, which is a pretty depressing reflection of where mainstream publishing is nowadays!