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?

Oh @mackerella I’m listening to The President is Missing on audio which you ‘recommended’ a while back in a so bad it’s good way. It’s so funny. Dennis Quade’s terrible accents / delivery of female voices. My husband and I have been pissing ourselves laughing. Thank you!

Re names in One Day, I think the characters are a couple of years older than me, perhaps slightly more. Dexter seems very unlikely but although Emma wasn't as popular as Karen or Joanne at school, it wasn't unusual or particularly posh. I know quite a few Emmas a few years older than me and a few years younger, ie in their 40s and 50s, including my kids' primary headteacher Both middle and working class. It's also one of those names used across several religious backgrounds, including Irish and other Catholic countries and Jewish backgrounds and people of no particular religion.

At 12 my 4th year at middle school we were streamed according to ability/tests in English although we were told contradictory things, with separate setting for Maths and French so you might or might not be top class and both top sets. The effect of this was that my class had 25 girls and 8 boys, including 3 Karens, a couple of Joannes and 2 Michaels. Halfway through the year one Michael was moved down and replaced by another boy called guess what! There were a lot of single parent family kids and kids with stepdads in my class, and many years later I think it might have been because we were the ones whose families had no money and lived in cheaper areas of the city but had had quite a good education so we had access to books and help with our homework. At secondary school the top sets were really dominated by middle schools in the more middle class suburbs and C of E schools, with the exception of mine which was neither but those of us who'd done ok at my middle had a real advantage at the start of secondary.

I was thinking the same @elkiedee. I lived in the same street as they live on in One Day at Uni a few years later, and knew 3 Emma's. Didn't know any Dexter's though!

There was a much smaller pool of names pre 90s I guess, so you'd always get kids called the same thing. At my girls school there were loads of Catherines (& variations), while at university, lots of boys called Bens & Wills. The DCs classes now have a lot more variety.

I confess to skipping through some of the battles in Lionheart- it's very battle heavy. I've got another one of Sharon Penman's on the Kindle but I think it's the second in a series, possibly the Welsh trilogy. She died earlier this year I seem to recall.

Oh @SOLINVICTUS, no! I absolutely love Sharon Penman's historical fiction (although I didn't like Lionheart for exactly the same reason, too battle-y) I didn't realise she had died, how sad. One of my favourite authors.

The first Emma I ever met was at university, but she was the only one. 547 X Sarahs though.
We were definitely Karen/Catherine/Lisa/Donna/Dawn heavy and the boys were Steve/Ian/Darren/Paul with the odd posh Robin thrown in.

Hermione wouldn't have been called that either. Not by Muggle dentists. Now she would have been an Emma! Whereas Harry would have had a more wizardy name. I like how the Weasleys have old grandad names (which makes the loathsome Ginny even more out of place than the atrocious acting did) presumably because Mr Weasley thought they were cool Muggle names. In which case Ginny should be Edna or Doris.

I probably need to stop thinking about this!

I'm 51 and at a quick count I know 10 Emmas in my immediate social circle, aged from 20 - 70, and ranging from really normal to proper posh, so I don't think it's that rare! The 20 & 70 yr olds are outliers, TBF, the rest are all mid 40s- mid 50s.

I also know a lot of Julies and plenty of Tracys, but many fewer Sharons than where I grew up. I always say that I've never met a Tracy that I didn't like & get on with, which probably speaks to it's specific time/class of use.

Nice to see the love for the Ali Smith Seasons Quartet. I enjoyed them progressively more, probably as I got used to the style, and now need to pick up a copy of Summer.

I’m almost 39 and in my (very working class and largely low income) school there were 2 Emmas, a couple each of Joanne, Rachel, Carrie, Keeley, Rebecca, Clare, a few Lisas and Sarahs and one Karen. There were a couple of people with my name too which just doesn’t get used in my daughter’s generation

Actually there have been times when both my brothers have had girlfriends with versions of my name too

I don’t know any Emma’s over 40! I am a bit older though.There weren’t any in my year at school and there were 350 of us in the same year (big comp). 50% of the boys in my class were called Martin.

Lots of Karen, Emma, Gemma, Jennifer, Sarah, Lindsey and Claire in my very working class area schools in the 80s. When I went to Durham for uni every other person was called Tamsin, which I'd never heard of before and met 4 in the first week in my college halls.

New Boy - Tracy Chevalier
A retelling of Othello set in a US middle school where a recent Ghanaian immigrant boy finds trouble fitting in, causes jealousy among friends and all hell breaks loose over a strawberry pencil case.
This was part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project (which also commissioned Atwood to write Hagseed). I didn't think it had that much to do with the original and it didn't really do anything for me. I usually really like Chevalier but this was a bit ho hum.

I, Claudius - Robert Graves
Bloody brilliant historical fiction telling the life of Claudius before he became Emperor of Rome. I was gripped by this and was up into the early hours as I couldn't put it down. I wouldn't usually go straight into a sequel, but I need more! Right now!

The beginning is a bit off putting as he throws a lot of names in to set the scene that were stretching my memory quite a bit trying to place, but if you can get beyond that bit it's captivating. There are some arguments about his accuracy/bias at times, but I don't mind a bit of liberty in historical fiction.

There's always been a joke going around about every Emma born in the 80s having the middle name Louise. It's definitely a thing.

Thinking about it Caroline, Catherine/Katherine and Rebecca were also very popular.

As for Dexter, I definitely remember having a crush on Dexter Fletcher in his Press Gang days.

Re. names in One Day - the novel has them graduating in 1988. So they’d most likely be born around 1967?

I had a look at the Office for National Statistics website, they’ve got a bit where they give the top 100 names in 10 year intervals up to 1994 (for England and Wales).

In 1964 Emma wasn’t even in the top 100.
In 1974 and 1984, it’s the 4th most popular girls name. 10th most popular girls name in 1994, and still in the top 100 now.

So given the massive rise in popularity for Emma between 1964 and 1974, a fictional Emma born around 1967 isn’t that unlikely.

Dexter looks like a complete outlier though.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/babynamesenglandandwalestop100babynameshistoricaldata

25. Gillespie and I - Jane Harris Oh I loved this. The audio book has kept me company on my runs for weeks and I feel a bit bereft now it is finished. An elderly English lady, Harriet Baxter, writes her memoir of her 'freindship' with forgotten Scottish painter Ned Gillespie - but all is not as it seems. I thoroughly enjoyed the setting at the Glasgow Iternational Exhibition in 1888 and the High Court in Edinburgh as they are both cities I know well. Harriet is an unhappy and lonely 'spinster' and the ultimate unreliable narrator and the story soon takes a dark and disturbing turn. This was both gripping and blackly comic, so well pitched as you decended further into Harriet's world and fully comprehended the depths of her strangeness, loneliness, neediness and manipulation. It is an unsettling but still enjoyable read that I did not want to end.

Im 52 and I count 3 Emmas among my closest friends, all within a year of my age, plus a couple more a few years younger, plus I have an Emma born in the 30s in my family. I assumed it was fairly timeless. I didn't love the book though...

On Chesil Beach ‘s ‘Florence’ and ‘Edward’ got me very annoyed. I did wonder if he’d originally set the book decades earlier, and then yanked it forwards, as that would explain the characters’ old-fashioned attitudes to sex.

44. Space Boy Vol. 5 - Neil McCranie and 45. Eight Little Piggies - Stephen Jay Gould
Further instalments in series I’ve already reviewed (SF graphic novels and essays on natural history respectively).

46. The Godmother - Hannelore Cayre
Recommended on Radio 4’s A Good Read, a humorous French crime novel. The heroine, a middle-aged mother, works as a translator/interpreter of Arabic for the police. In desperate need of funds to pay for her mother’s care home, she seizes the opportunity when chance events put a huge stash of cannabis within her grasp. With her ex-sniffer dog, DNA, and shopping bags of hashish, she uses supermarkets and the local leisure centre to meet up with dealers. Entertaining. Has apparently been made into a film Mama Weed (orig. La Daronne ), which I will try to stream.

One of the most jarring names in fiction was the main character in The Widow by Fiona Barton. She’s called Jean, yet the book is set in present day and she is meant to be in her 30s/40s if I remember correctly. I just found it really off putting as the name just didn’t fit the character.

I know several Emmas in their 40s and 50s. And now fondly remembering Dexter from Press Gang too. I had an enormous preteen crush on him.

I never met an Emma I didn't like. Except in the pages of One Day. Emotionally manipulative and boring (the book, not Emma - I can't remember enough about her to have a view, apart from finding the whole thing tedious).

I had major problems with The Children of Men which is supposed to be a great book and PD James' masterpiece, but the anachronisms were glaring. The main character was born the same year as me in the late 60s in the UK, sounded like someone born in the 20s, and had to be reminded who the Beatles were. PD James may have hated the Beatles but I would bet nobody born that year here will ever have to be reminded who they were.

@PermanentTemporary

I had major problems with The Children of Men which is supposed to be a great book and PD James' masterpiece, but the anachronisms were glaring. The main character was born the same year as me in the late 60s in the UK, sounded like someone born in the 20s, and had to be reminded who the Beatles were. PD James may have hated the Beatles but I would bet nobody born that year here will ever have to be reminded who they were.

Not just you. I only lasted a couple of pages. I've never managed to finish one of hers.

Another pair from me as I inch towards 50:

46: Words & Pictures: Writers, Artists and a Peculiarly British Tradition - Jenny Uglow

A slim volume exploring the links between writers and illustrators over centuries of British literary endeavour. The main focus is on Milton (Paradise Lost) and Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress); then on the social commentary of Hogarth and Fielding, and finally on Wordsworth and Thomas Bewick with their preoccupation on the natural world. Blake, Carroll, Dickens and his collaborators are also brought into the discussion. This is almost more of a long essay than a book but is beautifully illustrated and thought-provoking, and really makes me want to read Uglow's biography of Bewick, which is somewhere on the tbr pile.

Then, by way of contrast:

47: The Inimitable Jeeves - PG Wodehouse

Book club read. Another short one, effectively a series of amiable, loosely-linked vignettes. I'm not really a Wodehouse devotee but these were amusing enough and slickly-written (published in 1923, so many years of Jeeves still lay ahead at this point). I'm not sure I feel a burning need to read any more of Bertie W's escapades, though.

@Sadik, I'm also 51, nearly 52, 1990 graduate on a 3 year course. My memory was that the characters were a couple of years older than me, but I think it's more like 3-4 (as a summer baby, the oldest kids in my school year would have been 10 months older than me). I think the characters in One Day are at a Scottish university (4 year course) but from England, so probably born between September 1965 and August 1966.

Sarah, Karen, Joanne and Michelle were all quite common at school. At primary in a working class area, I also had a Henrietta, Yvette and Donna, at middle school there was an Emma and a Rachel, and Rachel and Louise were also quite popular in the late 60s and through the 70s. At university in 1st year 2 of my 8 flatmates were called Sarah. But also girls' names were more varied and more adventurous, as much so for working class as middle class families.

Far too long since I did any updates!

125. The Secrets Of Us by Lucinda Berry

This month’s Amazon First Reads freebie. Krystal and Nichole are foster sisters. Nichole is arrested for trying to murder her husband during an apparent psychotic episode - but is she really mad? This was OK.

126. Sight Unseen by Robert Goddard

Audible ‘reread’ of one of my favourite authors. It’s a while since I read this one so didn’t recall the end and enjoyed listening to it again. David was sitting outside a pub in Avebury when he witnessed one little girl being abducted and one being killed. Twenty years later, the person found guilty has died in prison and David and the retired police officer who led the case are dragged back in to find out what really happened.

127. The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn

Sequel to The Salt Path, following what happened to them after their South West Coastal Path walk. This was more bitty and less interesting- felt like a bit of a cash in following the success of the first book.

128. Her Last Holiday by C L Taylor

A woman goes on a wellness retreat to find out what happened to her sister who disappeared on a previous retreat. OK.

129. Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly

Thriller set in the ballet world. Ava is a world famous ballerina but not everyone wants to see her succeed. I though i knew where this was going, and the first section follows that predictable path, but then it went off in a completely different direction and it wasn’t what I expected at all. However, not sure I buy the main twist. Still a good read although not one of her best.

130. The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

Yet another book set in an isolated hotel where everyone’s trapped due to a snowstorm and then people start dying. Too many unanswered questions at the end. Disappointing.

131. The Governer: My Life Inside Britain’s Most Notorious Jails by Vanessa Frake

Frake was head of security first at Holloway then Wormwood Scrubs. This is an easy to read interesting book about her experiences including dealing with escapees and her dealings with high profile prisoners such as Myra Hindley and Rose West.

132. Missing Pieces by Tim Weaver

Weaver normally writes books about missing person investigator David Raker. This is first stand alone book although Raker does get a cameo right at the end. Here, Rebekah is abandoned on an island that’s uninhabited throughout the winter, and we get flashbacks to prior events gradually explaining how she ended up there. Good, but a bit too much about how she tried to survive before the reopening of the island in spring.

133. The House Party: A Short History of Leisure, Pleasure and the Country House Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

The title says it all! Short book of anecdotes about posh house parties, mainly in the 1920s and 1930s. Interesting if you like this sort of thing.

134. The Imposter by Anna Wharton

Chloe becomes obsessed with the story of a girl who went missing aged 4 about twenty five years ago. She ends up becoming the lodger of the parents to try and find out what happened to the little girl. Most of this is quite predictable but there was an extra little twist at the end that I didn’t see coming and liked.

135. Women and Super Women by Jilly Cooper

Jilly’s musings on different types of women. Written in the mid 70s so lacking some political correctness but still quite funny in places.

136. Nella Last in the 1950s: Further Diaries of Housewife, 49

The last of her three volumes of diaries. This was less interesting than previous ones as she isn’t out and about as much although the parts about her dealing with her husband’s poor mental health were touching.

137. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

Starting a reread of the St Mary’s series, which I really enjoy.

138. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

The story of the Galvin family, where six of the twelve children were diagnosed with schizophrenia. You can’t help feeling sorry for the whole family, but some seem to have been affected more than others - some of the well ones moved away as soon as possible and don’t seem to have had much involvement after that whereas more burden fell on others. The bits about the family were interesting but I found the chapters about gene research etc a bit dry.

@FortunaMajor
I absolutely hated 'New Boy'. It just didn't work. The setting (middle-school) was too young for what is actually a play about sexual jealousy. Far fetched, melodramatic yet banal at the same time. Has put me off Chevalier for life. Whereas I adore Atwood's Hag-Seed - captures the essence of the Tempest perfectly whilst being a very modern story.

NotSo I agree it was completely lacking, it really didn't work. I think it had scope as an original story, but that also didn't work as it was too busy trying to be something else. It's a shame as she can write well.