50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

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

So, we're now almost half way through the year - how's the first half of the year gone for you, reading-wise?

Just finished no 27
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. At times difficult but an utterly brilliant book about growing up in poverty in Glasgow with an alcoholic mother. Grim reading at times, but also moving and funny in places

25. Phase Space (Manifold #4) by Stephen Baxter

This was an excellent book of short stories about the near and far future of the human race, as well as some imagined forms of life from elsewhere in the galaxy. Some of the stories happen in the same universe as the Manifold books that I have already read and enjoyed, so it is considered as the 4th book in the series.

Many of the stories deal with the Fermi Paradox ("If there are so many millions of planets in the universe, why do we see no sign of intelligent extraterrestrials?") and the question of whether we would even recognise extraterrestrial life if we chance upon it. Most are incredibly imaginative and serious page turners, even for someone like me who reads next to no short story books.

I have been raving about this exceptional hard-SF author for quite a few years now, and if you haven't read Flood and its sequel Ark, you really should.

32. Pale Rider by Laura Spinney

Thanks to everyone who recommended this and pointed it out on the 99p deal. I'm glad I read it. I would have loved to have read this before 2020, I wonder how (if it all) it would have changed the spring of 2020 for me?

I think another poster commented this already, but it is slightly terrifying that 100 years on and quarantine and masks are still our best defence against infectious disease.

85. The Outsider by Albert Camus

A really slight tome about a young man who commits a random act of violence. I think its like a little study on the idea of those who don't fit in in society. The last line is really good.

The Plot is 99p today even though it's not in the daily deals email. Thought it might be worth mentioning for the other crime/mystery lovers on the thread.

Thanks noodle, I read the interview with the author in yesterday's Guardian and thought the setting sounded fun, so have forked over the 99p.

21. Summer by Ali Smith
Feuding teenage brother and sister Sasha and Robert are dealing with the fallout from the older generation - brexit, climate change and divorce. The pandemic only sharpens the difficulties they face. Their story is reflected in the memories of Daniel Gluck, the centenarian protagonist of Autumn, as a dementia pulls him back into his past.

This was great. The battles of Sasha, Robert, and their menopausal mother Grace were often comic. The themes of immigration, imprisonment, and belonging are tackled from a current and historical perspective. The connections between all of the seasonal quartet's characters are drawn together well, and it's refreshing to read something so incredibly current.

I’ve also splashed out 99p for The Plot, thanks Noodle

26. Box 88 by Charles Cumming

The top intelligence officer of a deeply secretive US-UK intelligence agency is kidnapped. While he is interrogated, we learn about his first mission.

It's not the best spy book I've ever read and Cumming is no Frederick Forsyth, but I think he finally got that editor he so desperately needed. The story flows better than his previous books and he is as good with the details as ever. I liked it.

That’s good to hear Cote as I have Box 88 on my summer reading pile.

Now I'm reading Frederick Forsyth and he is definitely head and shoulders above Cumming, but Box 88 was still quite good.

I enjoyed Box 88 too, albeit with no clue (and no real interest in) whether it was remotely true to what might actually happen in those very specific circumstances!

@bumpyknuckles

Here's my list:

The Girl With the Louding Voice - Abi Dare
Hard Times - Charles Dickens
Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
Bad Science - Ben Goldacre
The Woodlanders - Thomas Hardy
Normal People - Sally Rooney
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
What Ho! The Best of PG Wodehouse
O Pioneers! - Willa Cather
The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
The Quiet American - Graham Greene
The Dutch House - Ann Patchett
Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill*
The English Patient* - Michael Ondaatje
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene
Circe - Madeline Miller
The Way We Live Now - Anthony Trollope
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Maurice - EM Forster
Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie

Currently reading The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, which is a bit of a slog. I must admit, having read The Turn of the Screw late last year, I was expecting something sinister. However, it's not sinister at all and draaaaags aloooooong in veeeeeeeery long paragraphs 🥱

A very cool selection. Good reading!

And my latest reads are:

56. V for Victory - Lissa Evans

The third in the series about Noel Bostock. It is 1944 and Noel is now 14/15 and living in the house he inherited from his godmother, Mattie, with Vee and a number of lodgers. Vee - the lady to whom Noel was evacuated in Crooked Heart - is now masquerading as Noel’s aunt and the lodgers between them are acting as Noel’s tutors (when not doing their day jobs). I like this series and the gentle humour and the relationship between Vee and Noel.

57. The Edge - Dick Francis

Back to my Dick Francis readathon. I did recall this one reasonably well. The bulk of the story is set on a race train travelling from Ottawa to Vancouver with stop offs at various racecourses along the way. Owners, horses and race goers are all travelling on the train. Our man, Tor, works for the security section of the Jockey Club and is travelling incognito on the train to keep an eye on a shady owner, Julius, who has vowed to cause trouble for racing. There’s plenty of trouble. I normally complain when there isn’t much racecourse/stable action but, even though there isn’t much, I still enjoyed this and it makes me want to travel across Canada by train!

@ChessieFL it was me who recommended Theatre For Dreamers, glad you enjoyed it

86. One. Two. Three. Four. : The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown.

I seem to remember this getting mixed reviews on here?

I really enjoyed it. I'm from Liverpool so some stories were known to me, but I've never read a book about the Beatles before so I found it a new and diverting enough experience.

It had a lack of reverence and a cynicism I enjoyed, efforts to pop the pompous bubble around the Beatles industry and a willingness to be critical of anecdotal evidence, particularly where it clashes in varying accounts.

I found the John and Yoko stuff near the end really tedious but then so did the 1970s.

Cynthia was really wronged, more so than I realised and Yoko just seems unhinged really.

I found it interesting that whilst all the wives are mentioned, Linda McCartney barely features at all and the focus is on Jane Asher. Perhaps because Macca is still alive?

All in all a good read and I looked forward to it every evening.

In news which will please some and piss off others Light Perpetual has been longlisted for the Booker

I’ve only read one of the Booker long list - China Room. It was good but not sure I would say it was prizeworthy, but what do I know. Lots on there I haven’t even heard of.

I've not read any but have bought two and borrowed one from the library, and heard parts of the Ishiguro via Radio 4. I renewed the library book, Great Circle today before anyone reserves it - I read, enjoyed and reviewed Maggie Shipstead's previous novel a few years ago and have her first still TBR on my Kindle.

Am currently reading, among other books, Paula Byrne's biography of Barbara Pym - it's a large book with a high page count but is actually a faster read that I expected before I picked it up from the library, as the print is quite large and clear and it's all spaced out - perhaps the publisher thought this was a good idea for a book with a readership of a certain age. I also have several novels on the go (I normally read quite a few books at once).

We're reading twins, elkiedee - I'm reading the Pym biography too, will be keen to hear what you think of it. I also looked for Great Circle in the library but they didn't have it, darn it....I read Seating Arrangements a few years ago and really enjoyed it. This seems a very different sort of book, though, I like the sound of it.

Wading through books slowly, much like I am wading through life. I really need to spend less time on social media and more time doing something I actually enjoy.

55 Nomadland by Jessica Bruder
I've not seen the movie, but plan to watch it this weekend. The book is a compelling tale of the (mostly) older Americans taking to the road to seek out low wage high risk jobs after their lives take unexpected turns. It's a long way from the romance of the Instagram "vanlife" feeds with a lot of hard work and effort, in precarious conditions. It made an interesting counterpoint to Prairie Fires and made me think a lot about the American dream and how desire and necessity sometimes overlap.

56 Tales from Lindford by Catherine Fox
More cathedral close shenanigans, this time with a Covid lens. I'm not quite ready to read Covid fiction but this felt at least contemporary and benefited from (I think) being more or less written in real time. Certainly it captured some of the strangeness of last year while also being comfortingly familiar in terms of the characters and their concerns.

57 The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns
Someone (I forget who, sorry!) recommended this on the previous thread after I reviewed Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead. And thank you. What a very deeply strange and unsettling novel this is. Lots of sinister undercurrents, and a properly gothic backdrop - swirling mists in Battersea, sick animals and a deeply unpleasant father. And the most extraordinary ending which took me quite by surprise.

58 The Other Side of the Coin by Angela Kelly
Kelly has been the Queen's dresser for many years. This is a slightly breathless and not very well written memoir, but I found it quite diverting, and the insights into the planning and level of detail needed to plan the Queen's wardrobe were interesting.

33. Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

Disclaimer - I purchased this before the discussion on here about the dislike for books called "occupation and location"

And I'm pleased I already had it or I might have missed out. After slogging through a lot of non-fiction this year this is my first real page turner in ages. It follows the story of two asylum seekers leaving Syria in search of a better future. It's well told and sad, although not too difficult to read. I had to keep reminding myself that although fiction, this is still real life for a lot of people at the moment.

19 The Midnight Library by Matt Haig Well I think this is a marmite book where folks tend to either love it or hate it. I am on camp I like it. It was a quick unputdownable read and I was very intrigued by it. I am sure this has been reviewed before but basically it is about a young lady called Nora who’s life isn’t working out quite as it should. Nora end’s up in a place called the Midnight Library and gets to choose as many lives as she likes until she finds one that she want’s to live. I give this a 5/5, on my good reads review I gave a 4/5 but no this is definitely a 5/5 so a recommend from me. Matt Haig is a new discovery for me so will look out for more of his books.

Terpsichore and elkiedee I'd be really interested to hear your views on the Barbara Pym biography (especially page 461!).

52. Perfect Daughter (No Greater Strength) - Amanda Prowse

I liked this book, for me it simply brought home how lies in a family will always out, and to be honest and treat those we are close to with love and compassion. Life doesn't necessarilly turn out how we expect, but that doesn't mean it can't be good. Our dreams can come true, but not always where or how we expect them to.