50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Eight

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eighth (and probably final) 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, it’s not too late to and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.The lurkers among you are also very welcome to come out of the woodwork and share with us what you've read!

The first thread of the year is here, the second one here, the third one here, the fourth one here, the fifth one here, the sixth one here and the seventh one here.

How have you got on this year?

There are quite a few of us who said we enjoyed Marian Keyes's books and I think we all know the term "chick lit" is used to diminish works by female authors.

We might not all have the same tastes but in my mind so-called chick-lit is just as valid a choice as the classics, or sci-fi. It's all about reading, enjoying, sharing and healthy debate where we can disagree without putting anyone else's choices down.

I'm also looking forward to the follow up to Rachel's Holiday and think I'll reread before the new one comes out.

I agree with MamaNewtNewt. I’ve often sung Marian Keyes praises on here. She covers some very dark issues. Her writing on abortion in Ireland in The Break is outstanding. Definitely not superficial.

119. Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance I read reviews of this when it first came out, but obviously not with that much attention, since I was expecting something much more directly political and right wing. Instead this was a really affecting memoir of the author's childhood growing up in a troubled family in rustbelt Ohio, intermixed with the story of his wider family and their origins as Kentucky hillbillies.
     Although the author has become a Republican politician, I didn't feel that his stories in the book necessarily led to either a right or left wing conclusion, but rather to the need to avoid simplistic sticking plaster solutions and look at people's lives and families as a whole. I particularly liked the acknowledgement of his good luck in having enough support at certain moments (especially from his grandparents) and the ways in which that enabled him to succeed.

Merry Christmas everyone! (It’s already Christmas morning in my part of the world.) Hope Santa brings you everything you asked for! He bought me the latest Sally Rooney

What is "genre fiction"?

SF, spy dramas, crime fiction, etc.

What is "women's fiction"?

Books written by half the world's population which you repeatedly have stated you aren't keen on.

I'm not quite sure why you felt the need to speculate on and criticise my supposed taste in books, it doesn't really fit with the spirit of these threads.

Merry Christmas Gang

Merry Christmas all.
May Santa bring you lovely books.
Peace and love.

Janina - "What is "genre fiction"? SF, spy dramas, crime fiction, etc."

That is so broad a class as to be meaningless. I was talking about chick-lit, which Marian Keyes writes.

"What is "women's fiction"? Books written by half the world's population which you repeatedly have stated you aren't keen on."

I think you will find that you are mistaken there. "Women's fiction" refers to books about women's lives that are marketed to women, NOT to books written by women.

My point was that we should not assume that all or even most women read mainly or even any "women's" fiction.

I was not criticizing your taste of which I have no idea at all, since I don't remember you from earlier 50-Book threads. In any case, I read a lot of SF, historical fiction, spy/political fiction and some quite odd books about math, science, and classical music that most people find weird. It would be pretty boring around here if everyone read the same kind of books.

What I challenged was your idea that Marian Keyes writes "complex and meaningful literature", which I find unjustified for an author of chick-lit/popular fiction. There is nothing wrong with enjoying her books - we can call a spade a spade, and enjoy that spade for what it is.

"it doesn't really fit with the spirit of these threads"

I have been on every 50-Book thread since the first one in 2013, and we have always poked fun at books and authors people read/like, which is what I was doing re Marian Keyes when you stepped on the scene. Check out the epic Never Let Me Go and Station Eleven wars that played over many years not to mention the Nevil Shute debacle which is my personal favorite.

And on that conciliatory note full of feeelinnggsss, happy Christmas everyone

Cote, I don't want to talk for Janina but you asked her what she meant by genre fiction, and she told you. My understanding is that it's more 'mainstream' popular books e.g. thrillers, crime etc. as she said.

Yes you are right, there are some spirited debates on the chat, and that's as it should be, but to me your posts tonight came across as dismissive of certain genres and a bit condescending about Janina's taste. Someone reading those comments might not think this is a place where they can contribute on certain type of books, which from what you say wasn't your intention. We all love to read, we all love to share our opinions and as you say it would be boring if we all liked the same stuff.

On that note, Merry Christmas one and all. I hope Santa brings us a plethora of books from all genres which will get us all talking

Merry Christmas everyone! I loved Rachel's Holiday and clung onto it like a drowning woman to a raft when I realised that a very close friend was an alcoholic. It taught me a lot. I find great writing hard to define but a woman who can write truthfully about alcoholism AND make it funny is quite something.

Another fan of Rachel's Holiday here. If it isn't complex and meaningful fiction, I don't know what is!

Happy Christmas everyone

And the term women's fiction is ambiguous I suppose. My first interpretation of it would also be fiction written by women -- this is probably because I've been following the women's fiction prize for many years now and that encompasses fiction written by women, not necessarily fiction written specifically for women.

I wouldn't call writers like Marion Keyes chick lit, but it does exist. There is definitely a market for the modern fairytale. Twenty-something protagonist faces a bit of mild peril before getting the boy/ job and living happily ever after. Replace this with quirky buisness venture by the sea and a bit of a health scare for the middle-aged market. While they serve as page turning entertainment, they are generally completely vacuous and largely have no edifying purpose. Which is fine, if that is what you want to read, but they are completely pointless as a book club choice because there is nothing to discuss in them.

There is definitely a problem in publishing with the perception and marketing of female authors. Look at JKR, most successful author of our era, but told to use initials for one series and a male pseudonym for the other because female authors don't get taken seriously. I once heard snide and dismissive comments about JoJo Moyes on the Backlisted podcast. She might not write the sort of books the snobby male guest on there wanted to read, but she certainly deserves praise for her amazing adult literacy charity. Sadly too many decent authors get the silly covers and the chick lit label and are not taken seriously as a result. This is particularly crap because women buy more books - 64% of all books and 80% of novels.

I'm sure I read a lot of stuff others in here wouldn't appreciate, and equally there are genres I wouldn't touch with a barge pole. The joy of the thread is the variety. I started and dropped out one year and the quality of my reading dipped as a result. Keep reading and debating you lovely lot, because my life is certainly richer as a result.

Happy Christmas to you all, may your stockings be laden with books.

@VikingNorthUtsire I just gave up on the Ninth House. I wanted it to scratch a light and easy itch and it just wasn't. I got about 20% through and was thoroughly bogged down by all the descriptions of the Yale campus. There just wasn't much there to keep me interested.

I'm not going to weigh in to the woman's fiction argument having never read a Marian Keyes, but would say @JaninaDuszejko has had one of the most interesting book lists on these threads with lots of books I've never heard of.

Merry Christmas to all book lovers, I've really enjoyed being part of this thread this year

I left more than one book club because friends kept making me readchoosing books like Memory Keeper's Daughter, 1000 Splendid Suns, and The Book Thief. The idea seemed to be that badly-written popular fiction is somehow worthy if it talks about difficult topics such as abused women or the Holocaust, especially if it suitably tugs on their heart strings.

In my current book club, we choose a theme for each month and everyone reads what they like within that theme. We did biographies, short stories, SF, unreliable narrator, travel, historical fiction, non-fiction, Russia, France, sports, and many more. Everyone gets to hear about others' reads, much like the 50-Book threads. It is perfect

I agree that there is a problem with the marketing of women's fiction. Somehow, somewhere, someone has decided that women want to buy pretty pastel-colored books with Female Relative Of Man With Occupation titles in cursive lettering. That same man must have been convinced that women can't possibly want to read about anything other than women doing womanly things with their friends, husbands, and children, which is why they call it "women's fiction". It is patronizing and infuriating.

If women indeed buy 80% of all fiction books and chick-lit/popular books with "feminine" covers don't make up 80% of all book sales, publishing houses need to wake up to the fact that "women" are not a homogeneous group with uniform tastes, and that even those of us who read their pink glittery books don't read ONLY those.

Happy Christmas all. My favourite thing about this thread is the wide range of books people read, from the highest to the lowest brow, from obscure technical works to lightweight sunlounger reads, from every genre and with every type of cover including pink ones with pictures of shoes 😊 Thank you all for the excellent reviews and for the occasionally robust (but always interesting) discussion. I too would hate anyone to feel they couldn't come here to talk about what they've been reading, whatever it is. Hearing people talk about books which you yourself would never dream of reading is an absolutely integral part of the thread magic for me - sometimes inspiring me to try something new, sometimes reinforcing my "Yeah, that sounds as bad as I thought it would be". Love the variety and the open mindedness, thank you all.

Merry Christmas to all the 50 bookers, thank you for another awesome year of reading!

Merry Christmas all!

Another year of reading slightly less for me but as always I’ve enjoyed hanging out with you all. My reading is a complete mixture from light to heavy and I love discussing all of it here.

Ooh and a few new books arrived on my bedside table from the big man over night.

Please do share bookish gifts - as ever I’ll be trying to avoid Amazon in the early part of the year by sneaking in a lot of purchases before the year is up.

Happy reading @Palegreenstars and everyone. Here's my book haul from Santa!

Ooh the Gaskill looks great, ‘a pulsating history of sorcery’ apparently!

I have no book haul this year, which is probably just as well as I have plenty to keep me going. Hoping to join you for the full year next year.

Decent haul - I shared Amazon shopping list with DH, which helped...

DS1 all on his own without research got me the Jess Phillips book which was a stroke of genius.

DH got me the Ian Mortimer book on Regency Britain, Billie Jean King's autobiography, the newer Christy Lefteri book and Sebastian Payne's Broken Heartlands so a good mixture.

Happy Christmas all!

No book haul here - the family consensus seems to be that I don't need any further encouragement - but I did get a requested guide to cycling routes.

On the chicklit question, there's lots of bad stuff out there. At its best, it can include really good observational humour, as with Bridget Jones - there's such specificity to a young woman of that age at that time and in that place. You can be a very different person and still recognize her. I'm currently reading the latest book about Aisling, by McLysaght and Breen, which plays the same game with a young woman from small-town Ireland. She's practical, kind-hearted and utterly conventional and I could swear I know her in real life. It's the same skill as that used in portraying Alan Partridge or David Brent - the comedy of recognition.

Happy Christmas all!

Happy Christmas everyone 🎅

My final book of the year was Will She Do? by Eileen Atkins. This was a surprisingly average read, much too leisurely told. I'm quite disappointed as I've read several interviews with her and she comes across as such an interesting and formidable person but this memoir only covers her life up to her mid-30s so there's some dull stories about her childhood and adolescence which means the book often drags.