50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Seven

[southeastdweller]

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

59. The Killings at Kingfisher Hill by Sophie Hannah

I wasn't impressed by the first I read of these "continuation Poirots", and in general I'm not a Sophie Hannah fan (the endings never live up to the fantastical premise). But I was given this as a gift, and it was diverting enough as a holiday read. I guessed part of the mystery, although I thought the ultimate motive of the killer was a tad weak.

I have tried to work out why (for me) these don't live up to the standards of even the weaker Christies and I think it is partly that Hannah lacks Christie's gift for plotting, but also (and perhaps more importantly) that her ear for dialogue is nowhere near as sharp. Christie's dialogue is hugely underrated. Plus the books are just too long. Although they had a smaller print size, generally an Agatha Christie is wrapped up briskly in around 200 pages. That's how it should be. And whilst I'll happily read through a much longer, more involved mystery (I even enjoyed the latest Robert Galbraith), if you're doing a Poirot pastiche, it has to be short and snappy.

I agree about the pithiness of Christie, Welsh - she can evoke a character in a single sentence.

Sapat - I have never had any interest in Westerns, either, but this one is more a road trip in the wilderness peppered with short analyses of the situation on the ground between Western settlers and their unstable fledgling governments on one hand, and native tribes on the other. It is political and human rather than "cowboy", iyswim.

22) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Well this was one of those books that could have been a DNF. However I carried on as this was given to me by my MIL. I was soon hooked but it did take quite some time to get into it. I really wanted to see what happened to the different characters. It was outstanding, very moving so yes a recommended read. I want to see the film now and will keep an eye out for this when shown again on t.v

@Welshwabbit

59. The Killings at Kingfisher Hill by Sophie Hannah

I wasn't impressed by the first I read of these "continuation Poirots", and in general I'm not a Sophie Hannah fan (the endings never live up to the fantastical premise). But I was given this as a gift, and it was diverting enough as a holiday read. I guessed part of the mystery, although I thought the ultimate motive of the killer was a tad weak.

I have tried to work out why (for me) these don't live up to the standards of even the weaker Christies and I think it is partly that Hannah lacks Christie's gift for plotting, but also (and perhaps more importantly) that her ear for dialogue is nowhere near as sharp. Christie's dialogue is hugely underrated. Plus the books are just too long. Although they had a smaller print size, generally an Agatha Christie is wrapped up briskly in around 200 pages. That's how it should be. And whilst I'll happily read through a much longer, more involved mystery (I even enjoyed the latest Robert Galbraith), if you're doing a Poirot pastiche, it has to be short and snappy.

I agree. Both on Christie and Sophie Hannah.

Christmas hijack- can you remind me please, anyone, the name of the company that sells wonderful book connected gifts?

29. Children of Men by P D James. Set in 2021 when the human species has been unable to procreate for 25 years. This book follows Theo a professor who ends up supporting rebels who wish to take down the English leader who has brought peace but also lethargy and secret / not so secret harm to society. I liked this a lot, I’ve definitely seen the film a long time ago, but the book is quite different and was for me a pacey thriller. I didn’t love Theo or the diary style and some of the timing references felt a bit off. But it’s the sort of ‘imagine if’ story that I can really get on board with.

Fortuna well now I'm even more interested! Have requested The Personal Librarian from the library, it seemed only fitting

SOLV I don't know the name of the company, but I did just buy myself Modern Mrs Darcy's Reading Journal and it's very nice.

God, I hated The Book Thief with a passion - YA books that con me into reading them because they are NOT marked as YA drive me up the wall.

Death droning on like a moron about the color of this, the color of that.... You would think that an eternal being would have something slightly more insightful to say

Elkie I don't think I have read any Gordimer before. I thought I had, but I am ashamed to admit I think I was confusing her with Rumer Goden. No Time Like the Present sounds really interesting - do you recommend it? After I read the Trevor Noah book last year I was looking for fiction set in post-apartheid SA and didn't find this one, so I'm interested to give it a go!

Eine, Americanah is one of my favourite books. I credit it (along with Half of a Yellow Sun) with completely blowing my mind open on race. And it's also just so beautifully well-written.

@CoteDAzur yes I was surprised it was a YA and only found out when reading the reviews on goodreads

What was it about The Book Thief that convinced you it was written for adults?

Was it to all-juvenile cast of characters? Could it be the short sentences and its 200-word vocabulary? Or (my personal favourite) the stupid "Death" character that basically droned on about the color of the sky?

@Midnightstar76, I also enjoyed The Book Thief when I read it some time okay. I'm not too bothered if a book is classified as YA or not, I'm more concerned about whether the reading experience is worthwhile.

@WinterfellsStarbucksConcession yes I am glad I persevered as I enjoyed it and got caught up with the story and the characters in the end. Although I think it is a very marmite book in that you either love it or hate it as some of the reviews I have read are very different.

The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers Anna Seghers was a Jewish German Communist who left Nazi Germany for France in 1933 and then fled on to Mexico after the German invasion of France in 1940. She wrote The Seventh Cross in 1939 and it was first published in 1942. It tells the story of seven political prisoners who have escaped from a concentration camp and follows their fate over seven days, through seven chapters. There are a wide range of characters portrayed, through which she explores the diversity of beliefs and responses of the German population to the Nazis' political terror, giving an insight into their personal fears and mixed loyalties. Given that it was written so early in the war, it was sobering to read how much ordinary Germans knew of the camps at that time. The Seventh Cross is a gripping read that carries the sense of menace and urgency right through to the end.

Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout Much read and reviewed previously. Another, but very different, exploration of the human condition. I enjoyed these stories very much, some more than others, with just a couple that missed the mark for me.

Letters to Camondo by Edmund de Waal This could be read as a companion piece to The Hare with Amber Eyes in that it follows the fortunes of the neighbouring Camondos, a wealthy Jewish family who were part of the belle epoque high society in Paris before losing so much in the Second World War. It takes the form of a series of letters written to the original owner, Count Moise de Camondo, and explores his magnificent art collection as well as his family story. The book itself is beautiful, a lovely size and weight, with quality paper pages and photographs. It sounds ridiculous to say, but having lost myself in the lavish details of their life and culture, I was brought up short by the inevitable fate of a Jewish family in France at that time.

60. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Late to this particular party; I was never quite tempted enough by the reviews, but then a friend lent me her copy so I felt compelled to read it. And I'm glad I did; it was lushly written and a page turner, but didn't really live up to the hype for me.

I don't imagine any of you will need me to summarise the plot but just in case: it's the story of Kya Clark, who is abandoned by her parents and grows up alone in the North Carolina marshes, until her life begins to intertwine with the lives of the local townsfolk. The book begins with the death of local jock Chase Andrews, and the plot moves back and forth between Kya's lonely childhood (for me, the strongest part of the book) and the mystery of what happened to Chase.

I really enjoyed the story of Kya's struggle to survive and the relationships she began to build. Owens is a nature writer and it really shows in her descriptions of the marshes and their creatures. I was less keen on the mystery part, and didn't like the ending which I thought was weak and abrupt. It almost felt like two books - as though the author felt Kya's life story wasn't enough and had to throw a murder in too. I don't think it was needed.

@SOLINVICTUS try www.theliterarygiftcompany.com/

Thank you! That's the fella!

I really liked The Book Thief. Death 'droning on like a moron' was right up my street.

The Butcher of Berner Street: A Leo Stanhope Case by Alex Reeve
One of a series - can't remember if it's the 3rd or the 4th. They're historical crime, with a trans man as the hero. Not great writing, but gripping enough.

Thursday's Child by Noel Streatfeild
I can't remember if this was one I read as a child or not, bit if I did, it can't have been more than once. It was okay - far from her best.

Viking If you're looking for books set in post-apartheid South Africa, yes, No Time Like the Present was good but perhaps a bit sad.

I was brought up with supporting the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and against racist white minority rule in Rhodesia before it became Zimbabwe. And here in North London there are still lots of people around my age and a bit older whose parents were exiled political activists etc.

Gillian Slovo, one of the three daughters of Joe Slovo and Ruth First, has written a memoir of her family and particularly her dad.

Yewande Omotoso, The Woman Next Door is one I enjoyed.

For Zimbabwe, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Petina Gappah and Irene Sabatini have all written novels (and Gappah has two volumes of short stories too) that are good reads. And all are black writers, though probably somewhat more privileged than many of their compatriots.

44 Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez I’d bought a paperback edition of this a year ago, read the first hundred or so pages, and put it on the shelf - not meaning to give up on it, but not driven to persevere. It was chosen by my book group recently so I went back to it, but in the end resorted to borrowing the audiobook from the library to help me through.

As many will be aware, the book is about the gender data gap and the failure often to collect data about women at all (in medicine, for example, the menstrual cycle is often seen as such a complication that women are not used as subjects at all), or not to disaggregate data by gender. Men are seen as the ‘default’ and this causes bias with all manner of impacts. For example, it can happen that drugs, tested on men, are found not to work for women. What drugs that would work for women have not been developed because they didn’t work in trials only run on men? What health conditions that only affect women have been dismissed as hysteria?

Much of the book is really interesting and there is much that should be common knowledge, and much more that should be required knowledge for professionals in various fields. As a general reader I found that there was much that seemed very important for other people to know. However somehow the overall effect was not as satisfying as the best popular science books. It sometimes reads as a list of facts rather than an elegant exposition of a complicated argument. In the best science writing you are primed to think of objections and they are addressed as they occur, but here this was not always the case. For example, in a discussion about division of domestic tasks, the author says that men often cherry pick the best jobs such as childcare. Can I be the only person who, after a day looking after an infant while my partner worked a paid job, happily handed over a tetchy baby and joyously skipped to the sink to do the washing up with a podcast on?

I’d recommend the book especially on audio and particularly the sections relevant to your work. If you happen to have a part-read copy, the healthcare section is particularly revealing if you didn’t get that far and want to revisit the book.

Great review @Cornishblues. Having spent the afternoon tidying to audio books to avoid parenting I totally get that.

Another fan of The Book Thief I listened on audio last year and death was narrated brilliantly. But then I’m partial to a YA.

@BestIsWest

Just marking place as this dropped off my threads I’m on. A bit bored with reading at the moment and currently re-reading Marian Keyes. I need a good mountaineering or history book to clear my head.

Frustratingly DS said he had a couple of good books about burial customs, whetted my appetite, then remembered he’d lent them to a friend. I can’t even remember the names to look them up on kindle.

Assume you've read Smoke Gets in Your Eyes?

Thanks for the review @Cornishblues. I'm got about 20% through 6 months ago and although I've found it interesting, I don't often want to read it so haven't made much progress. Trying to audible (to escape childcare) sounds like a good option!

88. Je t'aime La Folie - Michael Wright. This is about a journalist who gives up his job in London and goes to settle in rural France. He starts keeping chicken and sheep, learns to fly and is on the lookout for love. I bought this as I sort of knew the writer who taught at my school as a young man. I thought he was very cool at the time so was intrigued when I found out he'd written this. There's a few references to the school which has played a bigger part in his life than mine, but it's not really my kind of book to be honest and it dragged a bit although was very sweet.

Remus no I haven’t but I do recall you mentioning it. I’ll go and look it up now.

48. Help Your Child to Read and Write - Fiona Chandler
    Getting my head around phonics before my daughter has to!

49. Fragile Lives - Stephen Westaby
    First volume of memoirs by the ground-breaking heart surgeon, focusing particularly on pioneering work in artificial heart pumps. I noticed his tendency to blame others when something goes wrong more here than in The Knife's Edge, but I think that's part of the mixed bag of semi-psychopathic alpha personality traits needed for his work. The section on unnecessary deaths due to the limitations of NHS funding was particularly heart breaking, as was the case of the mother and child he worked with in Saudi Arabia. Highly-recommended if you like no nonsense, fairly technical medical autobiographies, which focus on the cases not the doctor's backstory.

50. Make Your Worrier a Warrior - Dan Peters

Although I was familiar with most of the cognitive/behavioural techniques explained here, this is a really useful explanation of how to use them with your anxious child. Unlike a lot of parenting guides, it also doesn't bash the parents over the head for causing their child's issues, but is gentle and straightforward in suggesting that the same techniques can be used by anxious parents.