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?

The Foundling by Georgette Heyer
Adding more Heyer to my list of re-read s and this one was fun.

Ignore s the dissing of the beautiful Roland below...

A question for anyone who knows about changes to language across time....

When did people stop referring to any conversation as ''intercourse'? I am reading Wives and Daughters (1867) and it's full of intercourse! Dickens doesn't seem to have much intercourse in his novel but plenty of ejaculation.

And when did the word fanny start meaning 'lady bits' and therefore stop being used for every second female in society and, by extension in books??

I found this about Fanny:
www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2017/02/fanny.html

It seems Fanny didn’t start being rude until music hall songs of the 1830s. I don’t know about intercourse though (from an etymological point of view...)

Damn you, Terpsichore, I've now just added the lemons book to my TBR (I think you're responsible for more additions than anyone else!). I think I'll treat myself to it in hardback, too - it sounds like the kind of book that would benefit from being read indulgently in small chunks.

I'm interested to hear about the chinotti, as the only fizzy drink I like is an Italian soda called chinotto, presumably because it's flavoured with the citrus fruit. (It's like a bitter cola.) I adore Campari as well, so that explains a lot!

@Piggywaspushed

A question for anyone who knows about changes to language across time....

When did people stop referring to any conversation as ''intercourse'? I am reading Wives and Daughters (1867) and it's full of intercourse! Dickens doesn't seem to have much intercourse in his novel but plenty of ejaculation.

And when did the word fanny start meaning 'lady bits' and therefore stop being used for every second female in society and, by extension in books??

An ancestor born in 1900 was christened Fanny so it can't have been all that awful then.

Thank you so much @southeastdwelller

Struggling on the Alevel front to remember which came where but Frankenstein, To Kill a Mocking Bird and Larkin were definitely there. It’s all a bit of a blur, and the way poetry was taught at my southern grammar put me off for such a long time. And for some reason a lot of Rushdie in my degree.

1. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
2. The Diving Bell by Jean-Dominique Bauby
3. Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain
4. Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend
5. Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness
6. Hollowpox by Jessica Townsend.
7. Know My Name by Chanel Miller.

1. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronvitch. Much reviewed here I think, the first in a magic, detective series set in London. This was too fast paced for me. I didn’t really get on with writing style - lots of random unnecessary details that felt shoe-horned in so the author could make an unrelated point. Heavy on the violence and if the bechdel test If we can apply that to books (as an aside my dad messaged me the other day to ask what ‘that mayonnaise test about women in film was’).

10. Plain, Bad, Heroines by Emily Danforth. A Rhode Island Gothic boarding school in 1902 where mysterious deaths seem related to an ‘incendiary’ book that is found near the bodies. A second timeline set currently follows three young stars (of varying notoriety) making a movie about the supposed curse of said boarding school. This was excellent fun. Lots of spooks and scares, great female characters and lovely writing. It got a bit bogged down in the middle and was a bit messy thematically but I really enjoyed it. 11. 29 Seconds by T M Logan. Female professor is sexually harassed by her hideous boss. A chance encounter gives her an opportunity to make her problems disappear. This was in the ‘silly, thriller’ genre which I continue to read and enjoy despite knowing they are silly. They don’t take long and I’ve no regrets. This one was particularly silly and gripping.

Sorry, mackerella ! You won't regret it, though (and she mentions fizzy chinotto, which as a fellow-Campari-lover who now no longer drinks alcohol, I'm quite interested in tracking down).

Damn all of you who have mentioned The Land Where the Lemon Grows.

I know I have a copy of it (unread) & can I find it...?? Can I heck.

Even accused DS of stealing it off me & whisking it away acros the Chanel with him last time he visited.....

Search will continue tomorrow.

that mayonnaise test about women in films

I have just ordered a secondhand copy of the lemon book, having seen the recommendation on here

I am just reading Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari. I am finding it ridiculously fascinating. Keep turning to DH to tell him random things about Neanderthals. DH is not amused . I think I'm quite late to the party with this book, (as usual), but it's incredible so far (only 40 pages in). Will hopefully not be eating my words before I finish it. Hate it when I love books to begin with and despise them by the end, but that doesn't normally happen with non fiction tbf.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast

A quick pop in to say hello. Got a lot going on at the moment so reading has slowed. I also have lost my list document so I can't even post that.
A few to add just to stay up to date, but brief comments is about all I can muster.

60. *The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix
    Clichéd stereotypes of women fight off a nefarious stranger new to the neighbourhood threatening their children. Bloody awful and far too long.

61. Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters
    Not sure this lived up to the hype and it was unnecessarily long. I much preferred Fingersmith

62. *Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy.
    Beautifully written misery. Tess is a complete drip though.

63. *We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler
    A woman recounts her unusual childhood as a science experiment for her parents.
    I found this a little odd and I'm still not sure what I think about it.

64. Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers
    A single woman trapped into looking after her elderly curmudgeonly mother yearns for escape.
    Agree with you all about the ending, but before that absolutely loved it.

65. The Golden Rule - Amanda Craig
    Ripped off the plot of Strangers on a Train but with women and turned into a preachy lecture on the haves and the have nots, Brexit, rural communities vs London, millennials vs boomers and how women fare in failed relationships. Lots of telling rather than showing. I'm not convinced this is prize worthy and don't feel it deserves to be on the WP longlist. It was chock full of issues but the plot was ludicrous and I'm not convinced by the writing. It did improve but felt very chick lit over all. It felt like the author was very full of her superior intelligence and insight into modern life, but it failed to translate into a credible novel worthy of a prize.

I've got 2 left to go on my women's prize marathon. Technically 3, but I abandoned Detransition, Baby at 30%. Life is too short. My overall view of the long list so far this year is not that favourable. There are a few decent books but a lot of dross. Last year I couldn't get it down to six and was still fighting with myself to produce a top 8. I can't help but feel this has been a deliberate change in direction by the judges and not one for the better.

Hope all is ok, Fortuna.

I've seen a number of similar comments about this year's WP longlist. Apart from the most obvious controversy, the general feeling is that a number of the books just aren't of a very high calibre, and that much better writing has been overlooked.

I haven't read any of them yet so I am purely following this for the gossip. I find both Bernadine Evaristo and (particularly) Elizabeth Day deeply annoying and wouldn't choose either of them to recommend books for me TBH.

Thank you for the thread, Southeast! Fortuna, I also hope things are all right with you. I've also had a mad few weeks, mostly relating to my family in the US, who (if I'm honest) have always had a tendency to lurch from one crisis to another. I'm trying to do the 'detach with love' thing but sometimes it's hard not to get caught up in the vortex of drama. Anyway! I'm massively behind with the threads and want to get caught up with all the comments and reviews.

For now though I just wanted to say that I'm intrigued by Fortuna and Viking's comments about the Women's Prize longlist. I entirely agree! I have made it through the list much faster than I expected, and I think it's partly because the books aren't very demanding this year. Like Fortuna I have two left to go, so I'll actually finish the longlist before the shortlist is announced, which is a first for me.

It's not that the books are rubbish; I've enjoyed them all to varying degrees, but there is definitely a shortage of amazing ones books that take your breath away at moments and that you know will stay with you. There aren't many that do really innovative things with language either not that novels always have to do innovative things with language, but this list is full of novels that are quite traditionally/conventionally narrated. It's a shame because I like Evaristo as a person; I think her heart is in the right place and she is doing so much to foreground Black British writers. Elizabeth Day I know very little about, but I wasn't a huge fan of her novel The Party.

Anyway, I'll do my shortlist soon!

And oh yeah I also agree with your review of The Golden Rule, Fortuna! A great concept for a story but just too preachy and heavy-handed. And I say that as a lefty who agrees with a lot of Craig's political views.

41: No Cure for Death - Hazel Holt

Cosy crime. This one wouldn't win any prizes, I don't think, but I've been meaning to try one of these for a while because Holt was Barbara Pym's great friend and wrote her biography (which I have read). Then someone else on here - sorry! I can't remember who - reviewed a couple of these, which spurred me on.

Basically we're in the world of Pym here, minus the curates and with added murder. Retiree Sheila Malory lives in picturesque Devon ( in 'Taviscombe') with cat and dog, a wide circle of friends and her son and family nearby. Into this agreeable world death intrudes when a local GP is murdered. Epic amounts of gossip and sharing of information that should surely be confidential by the detective on the case (the son of one of Sheila's old friends, very handily) ensue, but the unmasking of the killer is actually revealed via quite a nice twist at the end.

Gentle and undemanding but suited my purposes well eg when insomnia struck.

15. The Way Home - Mark Boyle
This was a fascinating account of a man trying to live without modern technology for a year. He moves back to Ireland and lives on a small holding where he spends his time growing food, catching fish, enjoying chats and interaction with his neighbours. He was obviously very ready to try this and his dedication to a life without so much we take for granted was inspiring. It’s full of interesting social commentary and history too. I liked his focus on thinking about what he could gain from this way of life rather than what he lost.
I couldn’t go to the lengths he did to pursue a technology free life but it did make me think about reducing what I use. Less time online, back to physical books for the majority of my reading, writing by hand in a notebook rather than always typing on a screen...
It also led me to reread a book I’ve kept on my bookshelf since I first read it.

16. Timeless Simplicity - John Lane
This is thoughtful examination of living a more simple life. There are inspiring quotes and it highlights the obstacles in modern culture which prevent many of us from being able to downsize our commitments/material objects. Some of the trends he highlighted have become much more pronounced over the 12 years since I last read it. The cost of housing in the U.K., growth of media and celeb culture and use of technology have increased massively. I felt a bit sad when I think back to my mostly analogue teen years and how I never would have carried a phone with me. Even when I first got a mobile phone, it mostly lived in a drawer until I felt I needed it in case of an emergency. Now, my phone is rarely out of my hands. It’s given me a lot of food for thought.

Interesting chat about the Woman's Prize. I read the Dawn French one because it was nominated, and it was fine but nothing really beyond your average IMO. I've also read Burnt Sugar which I didn't love but can see being prize worthy, and Piranesi which would be one of my books of the year last year. I'm not reading the trans one as it sounds like utter tosh and I'm enough of a feminist to dislike the fact it qualified. I've got Small Pleasures lined up so will read that, but don't think I'll bother with the Golden Rule based on @FortunaMajor's review.

33. Love After Love - Ingrid Persuad. Thanks to whoever recommended this when it was on Kindle deals a couple of weeks back as I absolutely loved it. I feel immersed in Trinidad culture reading this after the Mermaid of Black Conch, author they are very different books. This follows Betty, her son Solo and their lodger Mr Chetan and their daily life. I liked the authenticity of each voice of the characters and the minutae of they're lives, what they eat especially. It touched on loads of themes and opened my eyes to how homophobic some Caribbean islands are.

30. Things We Never Said - Nick Alexander

< TRIGGER WARNING deals heavily with the death of a spouse >

The book introduces us to Sean who has just lost the love of his life Catherine. The whole premise is an unusual one, it starts with Catherine's funeral and then goes on to describe that she has left Sean a box with envelopes, each containing a photo and a cassette tape and instructions that he is to open one a week.

Through Hannah's recordings we learn of her life, love, and ultimately death. She tells Sean the things that she remembers, talks of their relationship from her point of view, experiences, and things he never knew. She also tells Sean of things that he wouldn't have known about her, or how she felt about things. She is no Angel, as nobody is, and it's refreshing to read that she wants Sean to know and acknowledge this along with the good things. The book may sound depressing but it isn't, it is in turns funny, emotional, and uplifting.

I laughed, cried, ugly cried, and smiled, this book is unique and made me realise how easy it is to read into or interpret someone else's thoughts, feelings, or actions. Sadly when people die sometimes we can never know, in this book, through Catherine's tapes, Sean knows all the things that were never said.

This made me realise how much isn't said, between the important things to the everyday. I don't know why one part stuck with me, but it was when Catherine was telling Sean that once she had gone, no one would know how she set the cushions on the sofa. I thought the same applies to me, DH has no interest and DD is a teen (say no more), stupid as it may be I was compelled to tell them. As said before it's the little things too.

A thought provoking, interesting, emotional, humorous ride. I thoroughly liked reading it.

20. The Familiars, Stacey Hall

OK, quite interesting in parts. Bit of a stretch calling it The Familiars tbh. There was a dog or two I would have liked more witchy goings on.
I do wonder if I am being sucked into this new easy-read-sort-of-historical-pseudo-creepy-bit-gothic genre with its dark swirly covers. They're ok. But blur into one after a while. Country squire here, downtrodden woman there, creepy wotnots etc.

@SOLINVICTUS

20. The Familiars, Stacey Hall

OK, quite interesting in parts. Bit of a stretch calling it The Familiars tbh. There was a dog or two I would have liked more witchy goings on.
I do wonder if I am being sucked into this new easy-read-sort-of-historical-pseudo-creepy-bit-gothic genre with its dark swirly covers. They're ok. But blur into one after a while. Country squire here, downtrodden woman there, creepy wotnots etc.

I fell into that sort-of-historical-pseudo-creepy-bit-gothic genre with its dark swirly covers hole a few years ago and then learned my lesson. I try to avoid them now, because they all try to ram more issues in than any novel should have to deal with, or they're badly written or, like you say, they are all virtually the same book.

@Hushabyelullaby Thank you for this review! I’ve just bought it on my kindle. I’m a bit “thriller’ed out” at the minute. I feel like I’m walking around anticipating murders/stalking and need a different genre!!

Talking of historical books with dark swirly covers...

29. The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

This was quite a disappointment! it's not a bad book by any means: it's diligently researched, intelligently imagined, well written (with some beautiful turns of phrase in places) and generally accomplished. In particular, I thought her evocation of atmosphere, and of the ways that a community can splinter under extreme pressures, were excellent. It's better than many of the other books I've read this year and I should have loved it! But I just found it lacking as a whole.

The pacing wasn't great: after a strong start, depicting the 1617 storm that killed almost all the men of Vardø and left the women to fend for themselves, the narrative dragged somewhat and didn't pick up until the last quarter (when the accusations and witch trials finally began). I found the characterisations rather flat and clichéd - they were modern people with very modern sensibilities dressed up in 17th century clothes. Related to this were two things that annoyed me in particular: the author doesn't seem to understand true religious feeling, so Absalom Cornet (the Commissioner turned witchfinder) ends up as a cartoon baddie rather than as a man whose sincere beliefs have led him to persecute innocent women in an excess of zeal. Also, I thought the relationship between Maren and Ursula became ridiculous - this desire to "queer" everything probably stems from the author's background in YA fiction (where it's rife) but I found it tiresome and anachronistic here. There were also some annoying inconsistencies that made it hard to imagine the setting with clarity: did the houses have windows and curtains or not? How could one of the characters think aniseed is a mind-blowing new taste like nothing she's ever had before when she puts ground fennel seeds in her bread? Would these people, living lives of grim subsistence in a bleak and windswept landscape, really own baths big enough to sit it? OK, those are pretty pedantic niggles, but they were symptomatic for me of the clumsiness that I found throughout the book.

As I said, it's not a bad book, and I'd probably read whatever Millwood Hargrave writes next. The thing that has stuck in my mind is not the hackneyed romantic plot or the unsubtle attempt to portray these women as proto-feminists because they go fishing and one of them wears trousers when the men have all drowned. Instead, it's the horror of the real life story behind the book - the 91 people (Norwegian women and Sami men) who were accused of sorcery, tortured, imprisoned and executed in 17th century Finnmark.

The Madness of Grief- Richard Coles

The Rev. Richard Coles lost his partner in December 2019 and this is an account of the days between his death and the funeral, of the shock of loss and grief, of love and heartbreak. I found it deeply moving and sad and funny in parts. Much of it resonated with me, having lost my dad last year, what he calls the ‘sadmin’ that has to be done when someone dies can be overwhelming. I listened to the pieces of music he mentions in the book as I went through - some very beautiful. Definitely recommended.

I don't think it's her best book, but I really enjoyed The Golden Rule when I read it at the end of last year, at a point when I was finally getting a bit of focus back in my reading. I think I might not have read all Amanda Craig's novels, but she's one of a long list of writers whose books I would generally borrow from the library and/or wishlist with a view to buying at some point. In this case I had a Netgalley review copy - I still have to write a proper review.

I enjoy chicklit, crime and literary fiction. I think the Women's Prize for Fiction has always bee n a prize for which novels from a variety of genres have been listed, rather than a more highbrow literary prize.

That said, I've read 3 books off the longlist so far and think I'm going to start another today or tomorrow, Small Pleasures, The others I've read are The Vanishing Half and Unsettled Ground, and though I really enjoyed reading TGR, I'd like to see the others on the shortlist.