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?

@elkiedee

Remus, maybe as I disagree with you about The Age of Innocence, I'll like Light Perpetual too.

Give it a go and let me know.*

*Yawn

63 How to Own the Room by Viv Groskop

Re-read - short book on public speaking for women. This is really mainly about encouraging women to take more opportunities to speak in public, and about overcoming nerves. I'm not really the target audience as I like giving talks and have been doing them regularly for years, but it still has plenty of useful tips for getting your message across clearly and effectively.

I'd welcome any recommendations for other good books on the subject too :)

Public speakign in general that is, not just for women!

16. Girl A by Abigail Dean.
Lex Gracie and her siblings were brought up in a household that was initially neglectful and then became horrifically abusive. After the death of her mother in prison Lex returns to the UK to deal with her mother's estate, contacting her siblings as part of the process.

I didn't love this. I felt that some of how things were managed after the siblings were found didn't ring true, and that irritates me. I work in a related field, so don't think I'm talking out of my arse here. There's what I think was supposed to be a Big Reveal which you can see coming over the hill and round the bend.

24. Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
Edward is the only survivor of a plane crash in which his mum, dad and brother lose their lives. The chapters of this novel alternate between Edward's life after the accident as he recovers from his physical injuries and tries to adjust to life with his aunt and uncle in a new town, and before the crash from going through security and boarding with his family.
Despite a friend recommending this I wouldn't have picked it up if I was going to be flying this summer! The alternating chapters worked really well and kept my interest throughout. The novel wasn't as sad as I feared it might be and there was some lovely writing. An enjoyable novel that felt quite different to anything else I have read.
25. The One by John Marrs
The discovery of a specific gene means that everyone can submit a DNA sample to receive a match with 'The One'. But (no spoilers here, this is all revealed from the start) what if you are matched with a serial killer or someone who lives on the other side of the world?
Short chapters rotate around five storylines following five different individuals as they seek 'The One', and as a reader that definitely made me want to keep reading to get back to find out what would hapoen next in each storyline. It gets a bit daft but a fun read overall. Liked the ending.
26. The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
"Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his new wife, Hannah: protect her. Hannah knows exactly who Owen needs to protect - his 16 year old daughter, Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. And who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother."
I listened to this whole novel within 36 hours - it felt perfectly paced to grab my interest and hold me in it's grasp. The relationship between stepmother and stepdaughter is central to this, as is the relationship between Hannah and the absent Owen. I was definitely questioning some of Hannah's choices about who to trust, but the plot rolls along brilliantly as we try to figure out what has happened to Owen and why. Liked the ending of this too.
Currently reading Where The Crawdads Sing and my library reserve of Travellers in the Third Reich has finally arrived.

61. Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art, by Rebecca Wragg Sykes
The author provides an overview of all the latest research on Neanderthals. The book is a slightly uneasy mix of (somewhat dry) scientific information and poetic interludes where she imagines their experience. There is a lot about stone tools and patterns of hearth usage and it did sometimes feel like a bit of a chore, if I'm honest. Overall I'm glad I read it, but a bit of judicious skimming wouldn't go amiss.

Thanks for giving me some hope, @Stokey and @PepeLePew! I work in academia, so I know there are lots of people doing research on where we can make really big, impactful (sorry, work jargon) changes, but it's hard not to feel frustrated that the pace of change is so slow. And I'm really worried that covid has basically set this all back 10 years - the focus will now be on economic recovery and damn the consequences! Anyway, I'll continue to do what I can as an individual, and will investigate how I can try and support/lobby for/force change at a higher level.

My Kindle daily deals are still weird - today I'm being offered a couple of books for £2.99 and one for £9.38! (Admittedly, the latter is supposedly reduced from £20, but still.) Have they given up on the 6-or-7-books-at-99p-each model now?

I think they're still doing the 99p books, mack, but they're not getting the offers on the webpage till quite late in the day. I looked a few times yesterday (just out of, ahem, curiosity. Definitely not addiction) and it wasn't till late evening that the 99p deals were visible.

@CluelessMama I love the sound of The Last Thing He Told Me, that's going on my TBR list!

I have now read The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, a work read really but a seminal and fascinating piece of work (and ultimately overlooked/ignored by austerity era governments) on social inequality.

Lots and lots of scatter graphs!

There's an extra random 30 crime books on Kindle as part of prime day if anyone is interested. I got the TM wozzisface one just so I can come and tell you how crap it was.

TM wozzisface?

I quite liked The Way of All Flesh, a historical novel written under a pseudonym by Christopher Brookmyre and his wife (who is a doctor), though I was a bit annoyed by finding that the Kindle edition layout cuts some words at the start of each chapter.

I already have the whole Arkady Renko series in Kindle format though I've only ever read Gorky Park, and that was in my teens so approaching 40 years ago, My stepdad had a copy.

62. The Wild Silence, by Raynor Winn

A bit of a hotchpotch aiming at cashing on the success of The Salt Path (which I actually did like, mostly). We get childhood memories (father killing rats back on the farm), a rather uncomfortable account of her mother's death, information about their renovation of a farmhouse (fair dues to them, the mould and mice would have put me off no matter how nice the views) and an account of a hiking trip to Iceland - the nature stuff was a bit repetitive, but I enjoyed it when she turned a beady eye on the younger hikers encountered at campsites.

There's an account of the genesis of The Salt Path that I don't believe for a second - "I wrote it just for my husband as an act of love, no thought of it being read by anyone else, but then my daughter read it and said 'You have to do something with it!' 'Like put it in a binder, you mean?' I asked in my unworldly way. 'No, send it to a publisher!' and then the next minute shy little child of nature me was sitting in a publishers' office while they insisted on publishing it, changing only the title". Nope.

There is a fair amount of her being curled in a ball while the forces of nature throb around her. I got a bit weary of her self-image as a delicate little thing trustingly following her Magnificent Hunk of a Husband. All the same, despite my cynicism, there is something touching when she looks at the older man, weakened by chronic illness, and sees in him the young man she first loved, decades ago. Despite the self-dramatization, it feels like there is something real in there.

34. The Darkest Evening by Ann Cleeves

As previously mentioned, I can only really cope with familiar detective fiction at the moment. I've been saving this latest Vera up for ages and it was like a lovely warm comfort blanket. Murderer out of left-field as usual. Some nice stuff between Holly and Vera. Cleeves writes women - and especially older women - so well. Just what I wanted.

62. White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick

This was a bit of an odd one. I’m not really sure what I think of it.

We’ve got a teenage girl, Rebecca, who’s just moved from the city to a small remote village and who isn’t happy about things at all. It’s one of those villages that’s gradually tumbling into the sea as the sea eats away at the coastline, so a great dramatic setting there.
And then we’ve got 2 characters, 2 centuries apart, both obsessed with the question of whether there’s life after death and whether it can be proved. An 18th century vicar, who takes his search for answers much too far with the help of a wealthy doctor who’s living at the village hall. And a strange and lonely modern teenage girl, Ferelith.
Soon after Rebecca‘s arrival, she meets Ferelith and they become friends, but Ferelith’s secrets and obsessions eventually become threatening.

@elkiedee

TM wozzisface?

I quite liked The Way of All Flesh, a historical novel written under a pseudonym by Christopher Brookmyre and his wife (who is a doctor), though I was a bit annoyed by finding that the Kindle edition layout cuts some words at the start of each chapter.

I already have the whole Arkady Renko series in Kindle format though I've only ever read Gorky Park, and that was in my teens so approaching 40 years ago, My stepdad had a copy.

Logan. I had to look it up. I always call him Lewin then people get confused as to why I'm dissing men's shirts. Very murder-by-numbers-Richard-and-Judy stuff. Easy to read when you are busy but need a homicide or two!

Haha. I'm glad it's not just me who struggles to remember author names and titles and can't always be bothered to look up even though I have the tabs open to do so permanently open on my laptop (Amazon, LibraryThing and Goodreads, and googling when I don't remember enough to search otherwise.

37. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker. Non fiction about Mimi and Don Galvin, who lived in Colorado and had twelve (count em!) children born between 1945 and 1965, six of whom had (or have, if still alive) schizophrenia. The book discusses the development of the disease in the sick family members and the enormous impact on their parents and the well siblings, who dealt with it in very different ways. There is a particular focus on the two youngest children, the only two girls. This very human story is interspersed with more general information about the broader landscape of schizophrenia while the Galvin children were growing up, in particular the changing theories around probable cause - essentially the nature / nurture debate, for which this family proved to be a rich seam of genetic data. Absolutely fascinating.

@Tarahumara

One of my stand outs last year

I knew it had been recommended on here! Thanks Eine. So good!

Really struggling to start anything

And my TBR is Ridiculous!

🤦‍♀️

35 The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah. Translated by Geoffrey Strachan

A poetic novel about Raj and his attempt to help David ecape from the Jewish internment camp on Mauritius. An atmospheric but slight story about memory and loss and regret.

A DNF for me: About Britain, by Tim Cole.
I like the premise - author takes short road trips around Britain as recommended in 1951 guidebooks. Unfortunately, I found the execution dull. He rarely gets out from behind the wheel of his car and I'm not that interested in accounts of the decline and fall of local cement works.

Please don your tin hats/prepare popcorn.

92. Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro In a not too distant future an Artificial Friend called Klara waits to be chosen from the store by a teenager. Her observational skills allow her to adapt to the changing environment of her new home and she starts to understand the complex emotions and motives of the humans around her and the true purpose of her existence.

If you loved/loathed Never Let Me Go then you will like/despise this. *delete as applicable.

I am still a little on the fence about this. I really enjoyed NLMG but felt this didn't have the same impact or shock value of the reveal. I think this is more subtle. I didn't enjoy it as much due to a slower pace and simpler plot. However I'm still thinking about it and there was a lot in there to unpick. Similar themes to most of his books and some good observations about childhood/technology and modern society. He manages to convey some really deep ideas in very simple language. I didn't love it, but I do quite admire it and know this will stay with me for a while. Worth a read even if it's only to join in any future bun fights.

I heard quite a bit of |Klara and the Sun on Radio 4 a few months ago and would quite like to read it, but I really do need to read some of the library books I've already borrowed at the moment, as my reservations - and the rest of my borrowing - is even more seriously out of hand than usual. Probably partly because I'm making up for last year when I couldn't make new reservations and had a serious reading slump from mid-March to October.