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?

47. The Searcher, Tana French
This takes the plot of a spaghetti Western - lone stranger rides into town; will he be a force for justice? - and transposes it to the west of Ireland. A retired Chicago cop moves to a small town in the west of Ireland. It's not long before someone asks him for help; will he be able to untangle local loyalties to find out what is going on? I thought she teetered on the edge of outdated stereotypes, but I forgave her based on sheer enjoyment. She writes well and the dialogue is great.

48. Island Dreams, Gavin Francis
A physically beautiful book, in which the author dreamily recounts trips he has made to islands around the world, and considers how he is pulled between a life of connectedness, with his family and his work as a doctor, and his longing for remoteness. Balm for the soul.

49. Eight Detectives, Alex Pavesi
The author is clearly proud of his own ingenuity. It's a riff on the formula for Golden Age murder mysteries, with chapters alternating between short stories illustrating the permutations of the formula and a discussion between author and editor, hinting at some larger mystery. The problem is that the author has no feeling for the inter-war era he is attempting to invoke. The characters' names are wrong (Megan and Lauren), the dialogue is wrong, and the way they interact with each other is wrong. You'd be better off with Agatha Christie rather than this misfiring homage.

elkie, which of her books would you recommend next? I picked this one up from a table at the front of the bookshop so didn't really have much sense of what to expect, so it was a completely serendipitous find. I'd definitely be keen to read more.

Whatever order you can find and get to them in? Though currently most seem to be available in some form. Did you get the Daunt Books edition of Who Was Changed...?

I particularly liked Our Spoons Came From Woolworths. Her first novel, Sisters by a River also draws on her own experiences and is about childhood. Both are more recently reissued by Virago with recent covers and new introductions - I think I have 2 slightly different 80s green editions of Woolworths and 1 of Sisters and the new ones but am still hunting for the newer editiions in the boxes and chaotic piles in my bedroom.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit, excellent review! In the same spirit, I started Ursula, Under which looked great from the blurb, but the first 3 pages were so winding and wordy I discounted it as totally overwritten - if anyone has read it, does it improve?

Tanaqui, I read it on a plane, once, as the only bearable thing I could find in a bad US airport bookshop. It’s not great literature, but I found it quite enjoyable. I don’t remember it as being hard to get into.

39. There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

YA thriller.
A killer is stalking and murdering high school students in a quiet town. The killer’s motivation makes very little sense once it’s revealed.

40. Troy by Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry’s retelling of the Trojan War. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and would recommend it to anyone interested in Greek myths and legends.

41. The Escape Room by Megan Goldin

4 ruthless investment bankers are summoned to a meeting in a partially built skyscraper, and find themselves stuck in an elevator escape room. It doesn’t end well for them.

42. Hekla’s Children by James Brogden

A decade ago, teacher Nathan saw 4 of his students walk up a hill and vanish into thin air. Only one returned.
Now, the body of a Bronze Age warrior has been discovered in the area where they went missing. Turns out the warrior was ritually sacrificed and was holding an ancient evil at bay ever since - until he was dug up.

43. X-Men: Nation X

The X-Men are living on an asteroid that they’ve floated in the ocean off San Francisco in this one. They’re dealing with some logistical problems (such as how to stop their asteroid sinking), as well as fighting monsters.

44. The School at the Chalet by Elinor M Brent-Dyer

The first Chalet School book.
In which Madge Bettany moves to the Tirol and starts a school, with her sister Joey as the first pupil.

Place marking. Reading a good book about the Cold War and bought Mort in the Kindle deal today for a re-read. I haven't re-read many Pratchetts but remember liking this (although Reaper Man is better).

Has anyone read all the Seven Sisters books? Can they be read out of order after the first one? I reserved books 2 and 3 in ebook format and 3 has arrived first.

20. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig I’m in the ‘didn’t do it for me’ camp on this one, though it has grown on me a bit since I struggled through it for book group. Some strong moments where you feel the weight of regret lifted as an almost physical sensation, but it bothers me to have a book that starts with an attempted suicide contrive a happy ending, hardly a book you can press on someone who is struggling.

21. Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden A small group of nuns attempt to start a convent in the remote Himalayas. Beautiful, sensual and atmospheric. The nuns arrive with a misplaced sense of Christian superiority but have lots to learn and little to offer. Will need a reread to absorb this one. Regret treating myself to the recent VMC hardback as it’s printed too close to the gutter and is hard to hold.

41. The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson, 42. Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson. I'd read the first of these about 5 years ago and picked up the second and third recently in a Kindle deal. So thought I'd read the whole as a trilogy. I didn't really remember the first so reread it in that way where a book seems familiar but the detail is missing. The characters were well drawn and plot building up but it felt long. Then moved on to the second which I've enjoyed a lot more, although still a bit long-winded. Just finished today and was about to start the (what I thought final) part of the trilogy and have discovered not only is there a fourth, he's also planning a fifth, and in fact the whole thing is part of a planned 10 part series. I just don't know if I can be bothered! Sorry realise this is more of a rant about fantasy authors inability to get to the point than a book review. If you like GOT, you'll probably like this too, but be ready to invest weeks of your life.

stokey, be careful. Look at all those GOT fans still waiting for Martin to pull his finger out and finish the series...

cornish, I’ve got Black Narcissus on my pile beside my bed. It needs to go back to the library soon so perhaps I should bump it up on the strength of your review.

Pepe it certainly took me somewhere different from anything else I can remember reading, and the sense of repressed desire is palpable. I didn’t race through it though and would need to go back to it to get to grips with some of the characters.

@PepeLePew

stokey, be careful. Look at all those GOT fans still waiting for Martin to pull his finger out and finish the series...

Raises anguished hand. And it can't end like the show as there are already too many narrative disparities.

Also look at Patrick Rothfuss and Kvothe, The Kingkiller, who hasn't killed any kings yet and there's only one book left. And they aren't even that good. And no sign.

31. A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine I read this on DH's recommendation. He said I might like it because it isn't really about space. I'm not really a fan of sci-fi as a rule. I ploughed my way through it and I can confirm it is really too much space for me. If you like this genre (looking at you DH) this is a good example, reasonably well-written etc, but I can't really tell you what its about because I don't really know. There's an ambassador to the "empire" from some "station" to replace the previous ambassador who was murdered during some negotiation with the emperor over some memory-enhancement device specific to the stationers. The people native to the empire of Teixcalaan have silly names (Three Seagrass and Six Direction feature heavily, as do One Lightning and Twelve Azalea). There is insurrection and a scary AI-controlled police force, a bizarre poetry-centric society and political intrigue that I just couldn't care about enough to follow properly.

Two very different updates from me:

45. A Whole Life, Robert Seethaler

Has been read and reviewed here before. A spare, unemotional telling of the events of one man's life. I admired this but didn't love it.

46. Shadowplay, Joseph O'Connor

This one, by contrast, I did love. It's a gorgeous camp, emotional, literary, spooky chunk of theatrical Victoriana, and it just took me into its world for a few days and wrapped me up in pure escapism.

O'Connor tells the (largely true) story of the time that Bram Stoker spent as General Manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London's West End, his friendship with the renowned actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, and the genesis of his classic gothic novel, Dracula. It's absolutely stuffed with literary illusions from Chaucer to Whitman via LOTS of Shakespeare; there's a wonderful bitchy cameo from Oscar Wilde; there's atmospheric Victorian London and Jack the Ripper; and through all of it O'Connor sprinkles little elements of Dracula so you can see it start to come together in its author's head. A perfect engrossing and poignant book for cold dark evenings - shame we're still having those in May....

42. A Rose Petal Summer - Katie Fforde

Some much needed light froth during a stressful time. Caro (early 40s, single mother to grown up daughter) takes a job as companion to Murdo, an elderly well off Scottish gentleman, and gets bound up in the lives of his family. Murdo’s son, Alec, turns out to be the one who got away - they had met as teenagers on a Greek island. Lots of unlikely plot lines and not as good as her earlier stuff but suited me for now.

You're so right @PepeLePew

When he released that prequel Eine, does he not know he has books 6 & 7 to finish?

A few short up dates:

21.	<strong>Brazzaville Beach</strong> by William Boyd, we meet Hope Clearwater when she is working as a primate researcher in Africa. We learn of her past life and loves and follow her as she becomes slightly embroiled in the African Civil War. 

Despite this being heavily praised I didn't really ever get into it.
The character of Hope didn't ring true for me and many of the bit parts were poorly drawn with little or no motivation on show for their actions. I found the device of alternating chapters written in first and third person irritating (although this probably wouldn't have bothered me with a more engaging novel) and all in all I was glad to see the back of it!

22.	<strong>Later</strong> by Stephen King This is the most recent King novel, released in March of this year. Given most of the books I've read by him were written decades ago it's strange to read a King book that's so bang up to date with nods to Trumps presidency and other current events, he also references himself describing a building as 'looking like the prison in that Shawshank movie', which made me smile. 

Heavily borrowing from The Sixth Sense (which also gets a name check) our hero, Jamie, is 22 years old looking back on his life so far. It soon becomes apparent that Jamie 'sees dead people'. The twist is that he can only see them for a week or so after they die and if he asks them a direct question they have to tell him the truth. His unique gift is, of course, misused by those around him for their own ends. Being a King novel the boy also ends up with a difficult to shake off bogey man stalking him and various other calamities. This is a short snappy tale for King, 272 pages, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

23.	<strong>Mr Loverman</strong> by Bernadine Evaristo This details the life of a 74 yr old Caribbean London man, Bernard,who is closet homosexual, he has been in love with his best friend, Maurice, since they were boys and in his old age is wondering if now is the time to leave the lies behind and come out of the closet. Some chapters are written from the perspective of his long suffering wife. 

This was okay, I enjoyed the characters, but it didn't blow me away, I preferred Girl, Woman, Other by the same author, and it did have the unfortunate side effect of me constantly singing the Shabba Ranks song of the same name whilst I was reading it.

24.	<strong>The Pursuit Of Love</strong> by Nancy Mitford I found a full book pdf of this online and like <strong>G&T</strong> read it ahead of the recent BBC serialisation. I thoroughly enjoyed my first foray into the output of the Mitford clan. I also enjoyed the dramatisation, particularly Andrew Scott's flamboyant take on Lord Merlin.

Just stopping by to mention the shark and the albatross by wildlife photographer John aitchison. I gave it a rare 5* rating, it's a fantastic book with good language and interesting information.

Popping in to add @Sadik's JET book to my wishlist, and @bibliomania's Islands one.

23. The Yorkshire Shepherdess Amanda Owen. I'm confused by my thoughts on this. I loved it. She irritates the living fuck out of me. See? I love the landscape, the description of the farming life, the sheep! (Love the sheep!) I suppose AO needs no introduction and has been the subject of many MN threads for better or worse (9 kids, husband 20 years older than her, wears lipstick and has had work done to do her farming etc etc) I find her both interesting and smug beyond belief, her "parenting" is both cool and wilfully neglectful IMO (kids are expected to do chores from an early age, but then they seem to have no rules/boundaries. She thinks very lowly of schools in general, convinced her way of educating is better, almost brags about a schoolmum not sending her son back to them after a first abortive playdate, and is strangely couldnt-care-less when she says that ALL (9!) of the children have speech developmental problems which have been flagged by the school. Her husband (often viewed on MN as some kind old git she took advantage of) seems even more convinced of how their way in everything is the right way. I wonder if she intended him to come across as a cold, unfeeling, unpleasant almost bully of a bloke? The most irritating thing of all is when she does direct speech and writes an "ay oop me duck tha'll be alrait if tha can ge' muck off tha' ferret an cap" parody of Yorkshire. I've heard her, him and the children speak and none of them sound remotely as she writes them. Like I said. I'm torn. Would probably be in my top 5 if there'd have been more sheep and less "where's t' whippet" silliness.

I'd absolutely recommend it Solinvictus.

On the sheep front, have you read The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks? I seem to remember my review was roughly that it's beautifully written, but there were too many sheep for my taste!

@Sadik

I'd absolutely recommend it Solinvictus.

On the sheep front, have you read The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks? I seem to remember my review was roughly that it's beautifully written, but there were too many sheep for my taste!

I think I may have it on the Kindle, if I've definitely seen it mentioned, possibly by you. I'll look out for it.

I think I might treat myself to the two mentioned in real book form. My best friend did JET back in the late 80s and we were all kind of immersed in Japanese culture for a while. It's on my bucket list.
I allow myself two a month!

@Stokey

From what I have read he has lost track of his own universe so much he relies heavily on Elio Garcia (a superfan) for help. Elio runs the Westeros website.

@VikingNorthUtsire

Two very different updates from me:

45. A Whole Life, Robert Seethaler

Has been read and reviewed here before. A spare, unemotional telling of the events of one man's life. I admired this but didn't love it.

46. Shadowplay, Joseph O'Connor

This one, by contrast, I did love. It's a gorgeous camp, emotional, literary, spooky chunk of theatrical Victoriana, and it just took me into its world for a few days and wrapped me up in pure escapism.

O'Connor tells the (largely true) story of the time that Bram Stoker spent as General Manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London's West End, his friendship with the renowned actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, and the genesis of his classic gothic novel, Dracula. It's absolutely stuffed with literary illusions from Chaucer to Whitman via LOTS of Shakespeare; there's a wonderful bitchy cameo from Oscar Wilde; there's atmospheric Victorian London and Jack the Ripper; and through all of it O'Connor sprinkles little elements of Dracula so you can see it start to come together in its author's head. A perfect engrossing and poignant book for cold dark evenings - shame we're still having those in May....

A bitchy cameo from Oscar Wilde, you say? I'm in!