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?

www.amazon.co.uk/s?ref=aa_sbox_sort&s=price-asc-rank&rh=n%3A3017941031&i=digital-text&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&fs=true&qid=1627832654

Years ago Kindle monthly deals were from the first Tuesday, but it now says from the first day of the month. They're just really slow sometimes to actually put them up, and in the last few months it's often been the second when by the time the list changes, with books gradually being added over 24 hours or more. Plus other offers seem to come and go in between, which aren't daily or monthly but it's not always clear how long they'll be there.

Enjoying all the reviews!

30. Conundrum by Jan Morris Enjoyed this 1970s memoir covering Morris’ life from the moment of revelation, aged 3 or 4 and crouched under the piano as her mother played Sibelius, that she was a girl in a boy’s body. The book covers her life as a WWII officer and as a journalist and travel writer, a husband and father, and then her transition from James to Jan. The writing is a pleasure to read, and her experience of gender, of wanting to be and being a parent, her marriage to Elizabeth who she had a wonderful and remarkable relationship with (they divorced after her transition then later remarried as 2 women) fascinating - the sort of book where you live a different life, through a different consciousness, for a while. Yes she lived a life of privilege and the class prejudice and the misplaced sense of national superiority are often maddening, as are many of the generalisations about women and female experience, but this is all part of the interest of the book.

31. Winter by Ali Smith - enjoyed this second in the Seasons quartet. Took me a while to settle into, partly because the fragmentary structure was exacerbated by needing to set it aside twice for library books I couldn’t renew, but once about a third in I was hooked. The dominant thread of the book is the dynamic between two elderly sisters, one of whom is a retired successful businesswoman and the other a committed environmental and humanitarian activist, and the son of one of the sisters who goes home for Christmas with a girl he’s paying to stand in for his girlfriend, and who nearly steals the show. The structure of the book is a bit like how memories pop up unbidden - sometimes scenes from earlier in the book, sometimes disturbing real world things that you’d rather not remember like that poor dog that was sent into space - and along the way you get the history of the characters and the family by way of Greenham Common, Barbara Hepworth and Hostile Environment.

Thanks elkiedee and all the others who have posted about this month's Kindele deals.
I'm also enjoying all the reviews even if I don't post responses.

I'm off to bag Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym

I got:

The Eye of Darkness -Dean Koontz (the one the conspiracy theorist said predicted Covid) (fancied a bit of daft thriller not involving psycho women going up stairs

Summerwater- Sarah Moss

Zennor in Darkness- Helen Dunmore

Dear Reader

The Loving Spirit

I would have liked about 30 of the cookbooks but I want proper books for my cookbook collection, so I go to World of Books for those. I have about 8 arriving this week!

Haven't looked through all the deals but I did spot All The Lonely People by Mike Gayle which has had positive reviews on here recently.

I haven't bought anything yet but I'm eyeing up quite a few of those cookbooks - there are some good reductions on offer.

Thanks @Palegreenstars

These are the deals I bought today. Recently read We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker which is also 99p today and I would recommend!

Polished off another library ebook - 68: Modern Lovers - Emma Straub

in the hip Brooklyn suburb of Ditmas Park, old friends and former college band-members Elizabeth, Andrew and Zoe have grown up and settled down - the first two are married to each other; Zoe to Jane, with whom she owns and runs a local small restaurant. Years ago, Elizabeth wrote a hit song for their band which was made wildly famous by the fourth member, Lydia, who OD'd at 27. Now, Elizabeth is an estate agent and mother to teenager Harry, while Andrew, freed from the need to work thanks to a generous trust-fund, drifts aimlessly from one thing to another. Zoe and Jane also have a teenager - headstrong, self-willed Ruby - and a marriage that's seemingly on the rocks. Tensions are already simmering when Harry and Ruby start to put pressure on the adult relationships by starting a romance of their own.

I read another Straub novel recently ( All Adults Here ) and was curious to see the blurbs comparing her to Anne Tyler, which I thought was stretching it a bit. I think I enjoyed this book more, funnily enough. It's quite light, a good holiday read, and enjoyable if you like reading about the minutiae of a particular kind of American everyday life in a not-too-serious vein.

Start Your Engines by Sam Briggs

Sam Briggs is one of the best known CrossFit athletes so I thought I'd read her autobiography this week while the CrossFit Games are on, a bit like location reading while on holiday.

Since I am a fan of Sam, it was interesting to read her background, how she approaches competition and her determination to succeed.

I only recommend this book if you have an interest in CrossFit!

40. Blind Goddess by Anne Holt

The tag line on all of Holt's books is "the godmother of modern Norwegian crime fiction", as described by Stieg Larsson. I am now suspicious of all such accolades from fellow authors, which seem particularly prevalent amongst crime novelists, although Marian Keyes (who I love) also sprays her praise around liberally. All that said, I greatly enjoyed Larsson's trilogy, and I enjoyed this first instalment in Holt's Hanne Wilhelmsen series.

It was written in 1993 so I found it comforting nostalgic. It's not particularly polished, but I liked the main characters (Wilhelmsen herself is sparky and I enjoyed her rough diamond counterpart Hakon Sand). The plot was decent and kept me turning the pages, although I worked out who the "third man" was quite early on. Looking Holt up I see she worked as a lawyer and briefly served as Minister of Justice, both of which are reflected I'm her knowledgeable writing about the criminal justice system in Norway. I am hoping I've found something to fit my Sandhamn Murders shaped hole (albeit without the lovely archipelago escapism).

If you fancy giving it a try this first instalment is 99p at the moment.

40. Circe - Madeleine Miller A detailled account of the activities of a minor character from the Odyssey written from her perspective.

Most of my knowledge about Greek myths & legends comes from Clash of the Titans, so this to me wasn't a rehash of anything I already knew. I won't go into detail of the plot as it seems to have been widely read here.

I quite enjoyed reading it, didn't hate it or love it either. Interesting story reasonably well-told.

28. Icon by Frederick Forsyth

This was fantastic! It is always a good sign when you find yourself reading slowly so as not to finish the book quickly, but this one goes beyond that. It is the best spy story I have ever read, made even more interesting by the author's vast knowledge about Russia's history, people, and institutions which he shares liberally and at regular intervals.

Forsyth builds the story up slowly, starting with the recruitment of our hero, ex-CIA Jason Monk. We learn about who he is, what he has done in CIA, how he developed a relationship with his informants in Russia. We learn about the respective mole hunts that went on in CIA and KGB. Then we come to post-Soviet Russia in 1990s, and read about the neo-capitalist plunder of natural resources and the rise of organised crime. Into this environment comes a likely next president of Russia financially supported by organised crime, and his fascist manifesto outlining his plans for genocide and single-party state. He must be prevented from achieving presidency, and wheels are set in motion for an intricate plan that will discredit him in the eyes of his people.

Full of suspense, deeply informative, interesting, this book was a masterpiece. I couldn’t help but wonder if the author was saying that this or something like this should have been done before Putin came to power in Russia.

Don't miss this fantastic book for 99p on the Kindle, if you have the slightest interest in this genre.

29. Walking To Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I loved everything this guy has written... until now. This was the exceptionally boring and unimaginative story of an astronaut finding himself alone in an alien artifact and coming across some alien species, written by what sounded like a teenager.

Avoid.

I DNFed Walking to Aldebaran Cote - a shame, as you say his other books are so enjoyable (though I've not tried any of his fantasy). Have you seen the new book, Shards of Earth? Looks like it should be good.

Cote any ideas please for accessible sci-fi or sci-fi lite for a book club that ahem loved Klara and the Sun

[quote ChessieFL]@yoshiblue half the people on the thread will say yes, NLMG is a wonderful book and well worth your 99p. The other half will tell you that NLMG is an awful book and you should go nowhere near it. It is the most divisive book discussed on this thread.

I’m in the first camp so I recommend you give it a go![/quote]
I'm also in the first camp, but there are many who are not. For 99p i'd say give it a try and see what you think.

@CluelessMama

Haven't looked through all the deals but I did spot All The Lonely People by Mike Gayle which has had positive reviews on here recently.

Oh yes do it, it's a wonderful book!

54. The Plot - Jean Hanff Korelitz

I really enjoyed this book.

Jake Finch Bonner is a non too successful writer who teaches part time. He meets a student who outlines a brilliant plot for a novel and shows him a couple of pages that he has written. He is convinced it will be a bestseller and loved the world over and Jake agrees.

A few years later Jake still thinks of the plot of the book and in the meantime has always looked out to see if it has been published. It never has, so Jake looks up the student who told him about his idea, only to find he has died.

Jake takes this opportunity to write the book based on the plot his student described to him. Instantly it becomes a bestseller, but someone know his secret and makes sure to let Jake know they know.

I don't want to give any more detail as I think you should go into reading this only having read the blurb.

It starts slowly, but don't let this put you off, the pace then quickens to the end.

[Post edited by MNHQ at poster's request]

@FortunaMajor

Cote any ideas please for accessible sci-fi or sci-fi lite for a book club that ahem loved Klara and the Sun

I know I'm not Cote - but what about Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky - terrifically accessible & loads to talk about for a book club too.

3. April in Spain - John Banville
I didn't realise this was part of a long running series of books about a hard drinking pathologist called Quirke (I think Banville published several of them under another name). I hadn't a clue what was going on or where the narrative was heading for a long time. Banville, takes so, so long to set the scene before anything really happens that I had quite given up. I didn't connect with the characters or story so it was all a bit of a slog for me.

I've tried reading some books by Banville over the decades (Dr Copernicus, The Sea,The Book of Evidence) he is a writer I think that I should like and is highly accalimed but his prose always leaves me a bit cold. Perhaps I would have connected with the book more if I had read some of the previous books. It is obviously really popular but just not for me.

32. Oh William! - Elizabeth Strout
Elizabeth Strout returns to the story of Lucy Barton who we met in "My Name is Lucy Barton" and whose childhood story was examined in "Anything is Possible." Lucy is now in her 60's living as a renowned author in New York, far away from her abusive and deprived childhood in Amgash, Illinois. She has recently buried her second husband and goes on a road trip with her first husband, William, now in his early 70's when he discovers (through a DNA Ancestry kit) that he has a half sibling and all his beliefs about his mother are thrown into disarray.

The book is written after the events have happened in a chatty style as if Lucy is writing to you or telling the story to you over lunch. She frequently interrupts the narrative to delve into the past, go out on a tangent , to say she can't talk about something just yet, or to retell something that was mentioned further back in the narrative. The Oh William! refers to what Lucy exclaims to herself when William gets it all wrong in some way whether it is in what he is wearing or how he behaves (she says it a lot). It is a bit rambling and not as tightly written as the Olive books (IMHO) but if you like Elizabeth Strout books (and they can be a bit marmite) then you'll enjoy sitting down with Lucy and hearing about what been happening with her.

@SapatSea I know what you mean about John Banville. I feel he's not very good at plots, although his writing can be beautiful. The only book of his I've ever loved (and I really, really loved it, it is one of my favourite books ever) is The Untouchable, and I think that's because someone else (i.e. real life - it's a roman a clef about the Cambridge spy ring) wrote the plot for him.

Thanks Sadik, looks like a really good shout. We've read a lot of crap this past year and we have loved having a few books recently with something to actually talk about in them.

We've resorted to a two tier selection, something light as a crowd pleaser and something a bit meatier for those wanting a deeper read.