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?

Fell off the thread but it's like there's a magnet drawing me back whenever NLMG is discussed!

Few more reviews to add. I'm finally on leave the week after next so I hope I will get the chance to do much more reading then.

37 The Reckoning by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

The second in the Freyja & Huldar (Children's House) series, I saw this on the 99p deal and thought I would give it a go even though the first didn't really grab me. This one didn't either; the child abuse plot was unpleasantly graphic and I don't really care about either Freyja or Huldar, so I won't be reading any more of these.

38 My Former Heart by Cressida Connolly

This author's After the Party was one of my stand-outs from last year, so I had high hopes for this earlier novel. A saga covering three generations of women in the same family, it was well-written and had some lovely, telling moments, but I just didn't feel it had the emotional heft or depth of After the Party. I will remember the characters, though. The book is at its best when describing female disillusionment with relationships, and the difference between those who leave for a whole new life, and those who adapt and stay - ultimately, both decisions can result in fault lines that reverberate down the generations. Enjoyable but not earth-shattering.

39 The World I Fell Out Of by Melanie Reid

Much recommended on here, this book deserves all its plaudits. An enthralling, terribly sad but also cautiously optimistic account of spinal injury, written by the author of the Spinal Column, er, column in the Times. I work with spinally cord injured people from time to time and so some of the content was familiar, but Reid went far beyond what I would normally learn in my work. The most memorable part for me was the lead up to and aftermath of Reid's second fall; the hope and disappointment were excruciating. Really worth reading to understand how very hard it is to navigate the world and other people following this type of injury.

I have also fallen off the thread! I've just been incredibly scatty for the past month, too scatty even to follow an MN thread. I will jump back in though with the results of a Mitford binge, then try to catch up on everyone else's reading.

39. The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford. 5/5
    I don’t know why I never read this before (maybe because I grew up in the US rather than Britain?) but it’s great, simultaneously playful/escapist and thought-provoking. I have definitely read about this novel somewhere before, because terms like Hons and Counter-Hons were familiar to me. The plight of women, especially women who haven’t received the formal education their brothers have received, is something Mitford poignantly brings to the fore. A few tangential observations: first, I ordered four Mitford paperback novels at one go and the patterned cover art by Lourdes Sanchez is BEAUTIFUL. The books are a delight to look at and hold. I’m so glad I bought them instead of borrowing them from the library as I usually do. Second, all four Penguin paperbacks were prefaced by the following editorial caveat: In this book are some expressions and depictions of prejudices that were commonplace in British society at the time it was written. These prejudices were wrong then and are wrong today. We are printing the novel as it was originally published because to make changes would be the same as pretending these prejudices never existed. Reading this, I felt conflicted. On the one hand, I completely agree with the statement. On the other hand, is it really necessary? Shouldn’t readers be savvy enough to read and discover prejudice for themselves? (Having read the book, I think it’s probably racist terms like ‘wop’ and ‘dago’ that are being referenced here, terms that were new to me – but the main character who uses these terms is Uncle Matthew, and he is hardly an exemplary character.) Finally, I saw the new BBC adaptation of The Pursuit of Love, and thought it was great, especially Andrew Scott as a campy Lord Merlin. But yes, the books are better, especially when it comes to the character of Fanny. As a narrator she’s witty and subtle, and the TV version is not very subtle (it makes her overtly jealous of Linda, which just seems too crude).

40. Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford. 4/5
    Very funny and satisfying. I was surprised to find such explicit treatment of gay relationships in a 1949 novel. I didn’t adore it quite as much as The Pursuit of Love because Polly and Lady Montdore are less loveable characters than Linda and the Radletts.

41. The Blessing, Nancy Mitford. 3/5
    It was a lot of fun reading about France vs Britain in this novel (even though the France evoked is one of fairytale privilege), but it is lighter than its two predecessors. I also didn’t find the portrayal of the conniving child Sigi very convincing.

42. Don’t Tell Alfred, Nancy Mitford. 4/5
    After The Blessing, which had left Fanny behind, it was lovely to come back to her again, and see her trying to cope with her unruly teenage sons. Very relatable.

The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa Reading a book like this reminds me what a true classic is. I loved it and read it slowly to fully appreciate all the gorgeous language. It is set in Sicily and begins in 1860 as Garibaldi invades the island before the unification of Italy. The book follows the fortunes of the Prince of Salina, head of an ancient noble family and greatest landowner on Sicily, and his beloved, charming and intrepid nephew who joins up with Garibaldi's men and then marries into the nouveau riche. It ends some 50 years later with the "Relics" and an understanding of the pathos in life. I have a very old copy that belonged to my father and cannot better the description by the historian A L Rowse on the flyleaf: "This book has everything: poetry, truth to history and to character, atmosphere; charm, sadness, regret; above all, a sense of life and understanding of its depths." Brilliant.

Another vote for NLMG. At the very least you need to have an opinion.

Just realised it's #WITmonth on Sunday so I've got to get cracking on with my current (not translated!) book so I'm ready to start on my TBR pile of women in translation. Any recommendations?

I know I’m a couple of weeks behind here, but @VikingNorthUtsire, wow to your review of Klara and the Sun. No need to read lit crit when we have you around! I definitely want to read that book now – and it’s made it to the Booker longlist as well. I don’t really know Ishiguro. I read NLMG long ago and don’t remember it at all . I will have to read that one too so that I can stake out a position in the Great NLMG Controversy, which seems to be de rigueur on this thread, ha. I don’t remember hating it…

@Terpsichore and @bibliomania and @PepeLePew, the De Hamel manuscript book sounds fascinating. So much so that I just ordered a temptingly priced secondhand hardback copy. Which is BAD as my nonfiction TBR pile is already teeteringly high. I never make as much headway with nonfiction as I do with novels, but I’m aspirational…

@Boiledeggandtoast, I’m another person who had never head of Charlotte Mew before, and am intrigued.

@TheTurn0fTheScrew, beautiful review of Summer. I loved it too. Ali Smith has outdone herself with that tetralogy.

I was quite intrigued by bits of Owen Meany on Radio 4, and have it and several other John Irving books on my Kindle TBR - A number of his books have been £1,99 on Kindle quite recently but I don't know whether that's still the case. I'm not sure it would have appealed to me as a teenager though, but it's hard to know, because some of the books that I loved and didn't like at 16 are hard to account for in both directions, others more predictable!.

Never Let Me Go is one of two Ishiguros that I've read, both choices for my local library reading group. I liked them both and would think it's worth snapping up. If you miss it this time though, it seems to come up most often out of all of his books on the deals.

Thanks for the further opinions re: NLMG! Bought!

67: The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym - Paula Byrne

A big brick of a book that could have been more manageable with smaller print, slimmer margins and longer chapters! Interesting and readable but, I think, a bit unsatisfying. I'm trying to put my finger on why and I'm not sure. I'd agree with boiledegg that the focus on Pym's relationships with men was undoubtedly the main focus of the book, and this made it feel oddly lop-sided. Although Pym shared her life with her sister Hilary for many years, and had a close friendship with Hazel Holt, they were mentioned very much in passing.

I'm torn because, having read Holt's biography of Pym, I did feel I was missing quite a lot of in-depth detail, which Byrne certainly gives (not least the Nazi boyfriend and the less-than-critical attitude to Hitler at first), but it did often feel as though she was determinedly setting out to show that spinsterish 'Miss Pym' really wasn't the strait-laced church-going maiden lady she's often portrayed as.

Still, I'm glad to have read it. It filled in a lot of gaps. What a cruelly sad end Pym had, so soon after achieving deserved rediscovery.

(Oh, and I do think the comment on page 461 was the author's, and not an editing oversight)

but it did often feel as though she was determinedly setting out to show that spinsterish 'Miss Pym' really wasn't the strait-laced church-going maiden lady she's often portrayed as.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there Terpsichore

33. The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Really enjoyed this novel. Alice is bored, living with her parents in 1930s England, when she meets a travelling American, marries him and moves to Eastern Kentucky as his wife. Looking for something to get her out of the house, she joins the packhorse library and local Margery takes Alice under her wing, teaching her to navigate the rural area and introducing her to the residents and recipients of library books. Margery is a great character, I liked the setting and enjoyed the plot.
34. Jews Don't Count by David Baddiel
Short social justice book that I listened to narrated by the author on Audible. Baddiel makes the case that anti-semitism is not viewed or challenged with the same seriousness as other forms of discrimination, sometimes because it is unnoticed even by those who want to do the right thing or is viewed as 'not as bad' when it is noticed. He gives a lot of examples from the last few years, including examples from football, Twitter and the Labour party, to make his case. I found it informative but, as with most non-fiction books, it also left me more aware of how much I don't know.
35. Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan
The blurb says...
"Near the dying English seaside town of Ilmarsh, local police detective Alec Nichols discovers sixteen horses’ heads on a farm, each buried with a single eye facing the low winter sun. After forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen travels to the scene, the investigators soon uncover evidence of a chain of crimes in the community – disappearances, arson and mutilations – all culminating in the reveal of something deadly lurking in the ground itself.
In the dark days that follow, the town slips into panic and paranoia. Everything is not as it seems. Anyone could be a suspect. And as Cooper finds herself unable to leave town, Alec is stalked by an unseen threat. The two investigators race to uncover the truth behind these frightening and insidious mysteries – no matter the cost."
The strong sense of place was my favourite element of this novel, with descriptions of rural, coastal landscapes and the vividly drawn desperation and dilapidation of seaside town Ilmarsh. I struggled a bit with the plot, and thought for a while that it was me (took a two week break in the middle when real life events made me a bit sensitive about a particular plotline) but by the end I'd come to the conclusion that it was partly me but also that it's quite a creepy, weird book. I'd expected a more conventional crime novel, but after I finished I actually read an interview in which the author described this as living on the threshold of crime and horror. I listened on Audible and it was well narrated but I wonder if it would be easier to follow on paper. I don't think I'm either recommending or advising against this novel but will be interested to see what others think of it if it is reviewed on here again.
Have just started The Vanishing Half

40 Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Two sister in the Gold Coast at the end of the 18th century, one marries a slave trader, the other becomes a slave. Each chapter alternates between each bloodline, following the generations for the next 200 years to the beginning of the 21st century. This is an ambitious first novel that covers a lot of ground and while the American sections reminded me of Roots, the West African sections feel fresher to this (white British) reader. Some of the American reviews complain of the later sections feeling a bit 'African-American by numbers' and it would be interesting to know what Ghanaian readers thought of the Ghanaian sections. But I enjoyed it and was swept up in each individual story and look forward to reading more of her work.

Has anyone found the monthly deals for August? I don’t need them as I’m reading so slowly - but it’s my first day of holiday / pay day so was looking forward to a cheap book hit.

I think you're ahead of yourself, Pale - pretty sure it's not August till tomorrow.

Just catching up with cassandre and the editorial caveat in the Nancy Mitfords.......

@bibliomania D’oh. I definitely need a holiday.

Pale - I’m in New Zealand and it’s not even August here yet, hold your horses!

at Terpsichore

Yeah, the more I think about the statement In this book are some expressions and depictions of prejudices that were commonplace in British society at the time it was written, the more it seems obvious that the statement holds true of practically every book ever written in history (if you replace 'British' with whatever society is applicable).

I used to think of myself as fairly radically PC when compared to the average person, but I seem to be turning into more and more of an old fogey. My feelings are similar when it comes to trigger warnings for university literature courses. If you're going to read literature, you're going to encounter plenty of things that are disturbing and downright wrong. But that's OK, because reading for pleasure and reading critically are not necessarily opposed. You are entitled to disagree with what you read or parts of what you read. The idea that we need a special warning if we are going to encounter any form of prejudice in a book is pretty creepy, not to mention infantilising.

I'm also very wary of the attitude that says 'Oh, we were so prejudiced in the olden days but we've got everything right now.' Arrogant much? Novels being published in 2021 are in no way immune to various forms of prejudice, and we're deluding ourselves if we think they are.

Rant over for now

And by the way I completely respect people if they say, 'I can't read Author X because they are too racist/sexist/ableist for me to stomach.' There are authors I feel like that about myself (Houllebecq, cough cough). That's not the same thing as saying no one else should read Author X, or saying that the works of Author X should only be published with a trigger warning. Let grownups read like grownups!

Oops I guess the rant wasn't over

I'll join you in your rant, cassandre

As someone who studied history I feel more and more that everyone should be required to study history to some level, to have at least a basic knowledge of how the world has worked up until this point. The fact that Penguin are publishing that pompous statement is truly astonishing to me.

That whirring sound is Allen Lane turning in his grave.

I suspect the caveat is a reaction to cancel culture unfortunately. It's basically Penguin saying fuck you to those that would remove all art that contains things that might offend.

74. Swarming: Biology & Control by Wally Shaw I treated myself to a few bee books earlier in the year, & this is the final one. Wally Shaw's excellent pamphlets on various aspects of beekeeping are handed out as part of Welsh beekeeping association membership, & we've used them a lot. The first half of this book book goes into more detail (as per the title) on the biological underpinning of swarming, with the second half laying out practical methods of pro and re-active swarm control. I don't know if anyone on here keeps bees, but if so I can't recommend this book too highly, it's clear, useful and fascinating. Having read it through once, I'm now planning to go back and take notes ready for next season :)

I'm sure they're under massive pressure, Janina; publishing seems like a bear-pit at the moment (and let's face it, where isn't?). The fact that they've felt they have to cave to that extent is still so depressing, though.

I absolutely agree, Janina, that it's a fuck you to cancel culture. But as Terpsichore says, it's also a kind of pandering to cancel culture. Since when do we even need to debate about whether or not it's OK to bowdlerise books? Of course it's not OK! That's why I felt conflicted.

It's cool that you have a history background, Terpsichore. Shouldn't your name be Clio?

I wasn't aware Christie Watson had written an follow up to The Language of Kindness, until I saw The Courage To Care in Sainsburys. It's as good as her first book full f stories of nurses , nursing and patients. She wrote parts of it during covid so there are soem interesting points on the illness and healthcare. The book also deals with adoption in an interesting and moving way. She is a very

good writer and this book is easy to gobble up quickly.