50 Book Challenge 2022 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2022, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, it’s not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

If possible, please can you embolden your titles (and maybe authors as well) of the books you've read or going to read? It makes it much easier to keep track, especially when the threads move quickly at this time of the year.

The first thread of the year is here.

What are you reading?

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage Sorry forgot to reply to you! I’ve listened to quite a lot of McWhorter’s books and Great Courses lecture series - I have a huge intellectual crush on him. Goodreads says I haven’t read The Power of Babel, so I’ll look out for it .

1. Jamaica Inn - Daphne du Maurier

What's not to love about this classic? Brimming with gothic moodiness, smuggling and murder, against the backdrop of Bodmin Moor (her landscape writing is terrific without being overblown) and just enough romance to keep the plot rolling along nicely.

Just dropping by to agree with GrannieMainland about Seating Arrangements - I really enjoyed it too. It's got quite a dark undertone, I thought.

I had no idea Maggie Shipstead wrote Seating Arrangements. I mean, I assume I knew at the time that she was the author but I had completely forgotten. I loved both that and Great Circle but would never have associated them from a style or narrative perspective.

Cote, I’m going in with The Diamond Age. I will report back…

Pepe - Excellent choice

DNF: Diary of an MP's Wife, Sasha Swire
This was talked about very well by a poster on the previous thread (Who I think DID finish!), so I shan't go on.
Basically, I read a bit, felt like I had the measure of it/her/everyone in it, and decided life was too short considering the length of my to-read list!
She can be quite funny ('the seven-year-old Gavin Williamson' ) and is clearly fiercely intelligent. But there's a lot of 'and then she said, so I said, and then he said…', which is only vaguely interesting in content and not written well enough to really come off the page and entertain. Also, and I am by no means a Corbynite serious lefty, her and her circle's blind privilege and superiority complex really got up my nose. She describes the Chris Huhne debacle (his wife claimed to have been driving so he could dodge a speeding fine) in weary terms: I paraphrase, but basically the proletariat cannot possibly know what it's like to live under the pressure politicians do, and they're held to impossible standards, and it was a 'measly' speeding fine…
Pales a bit in comparison to the Covid parties, but on the other hand
it all seems to spring from the same attitude.
It does, I will say, offer some fascinating glimpses/reminders of very recent history that nonetheless seems like a long time ago and worlds away (remember when we were all outraged about the coalition?!).
But, end of the day, I just couldn't justify the time.

On to Marking Time, Elizabeth Jane Howard. Loved The Light Years and am so happy to be catching up with the Cazalets and their circle again.

Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

I know that lots of people loved this, but frankly I can’t see what all the hype was about. I really didn’t like it and nearly didn’t finish - I only got to the end because I wanted to see if there was a decent ending (there wasn’t). Emira is a black babysitter looking after a white child, and one day she’s stopped in the supermarket because they think she’s kidnapped the child. Sounds like a great premise and I was expecting the rest of that book to be more linked to that event - the publicity of it and what that means for race relations in that city etc. The event happens right at the beginning of the book, and it does get publicised towards the end but in the middle is a lot of - not much. Emira’s white boss basically becomes obsessed with trying to be Emira’s friend and that’s about it. There is an important message in here about racism and white saviours, but none of the characters seem to have any personality (I literally know nothing about Emira except that she’s black and doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life) so it’s hard to care what happens to any of them, and her boss just behaves really oddly. A wasted opportunity considering the important message at the heart of it.

My list so far:
January 22

1. The Night She Disappeared – Lisa Jewell 3/5
2. The One Hundred Years of Lenni & Margot – Marianne Cronin 5/5
3. The Last Thing He Told Me – Laura Dave – 3/5
4. The Paris Library – Janet Skeslien Charles - 3/5
5. The Other Black Girl - Zakiya Dalila Harris – 4/5

The Other Black Girl Enjoyable and through provoking. Nella is the only Black girl working as a Publishing Assistant in NYC. When a new Black girl starts in the office, strange things start happening. It’s described as mix of the Stepford Wives and Get Out, and I’d agree with that. My favourite book read in January was definitely The One Hundred Years of Lenni & Margot

Daphne I really rated Luster too. I agree it wasn't perfect and was a bit of an odd plot, but there's something in the writing. On Sally Rooney I think she can write, but I'm not that interested in what she has to say. I'm hoping that changes as she gets older.

Chessie I agree on Such A Fun Age. I think it was a good premise ruined by gimmicks and unnecessary drama. The TV interview thing at the end was ridiculous. It could have been a much better book without and it lost the overall point as a result.

Purpleavocado I really enjoyed The Other Black Girl but the ending made me want to throw it across the room. A ridiculous ending to what had been a very credible book.

9 Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar

10 Wildlands by Evan Osnos

I read these in tandem and am going to review them as a pair even though one is non-fiction and the other is fiction. But Wildlands is told as a narrative through the eyes of a small number of people so reads in places like a novel, while Homeland Elegies has long passages that felt like essay or memoir rather than novel.

Both deal with the recent history of America – the impact of 9/11 (indeed Wildlands is framed explicitly as a story of the US from that date to the storming of the Capitol last year) on culture and society, the fragmentation, race and terror, corporate greed and small town decline.

Osnos digs deep into three places – Greenwich, Connecticut, Chicago and Clarksburg in West Virginia to trace the roots of their divergent fortunes through interviews with a small number of people who in different ways represent the story of America over the past 20 years. From the disgraced hedge fund manager to the small town journalist and the mother who – when Covid hit – realised she couldn’t send her children to get medicine because the route to the inner-city pharmacy was too dangerous for them, there is a lot of human detail here. He does a good job of showing how Trump was able to come to power, and the roots of people’s alienation from the political process that propelled him there. His political views come through strongly throughout and it’s interesting to reflect on how the same material may have told a different story in the hands of a different writer. But as you’d expect from a New Yorker journalist the writing is wonderful and the research thorough. I was a little surprised he didn’t talk more about the impact of the opioid crisis in West Virginia in particular, which from what little I know has blown an enormous hole in some of those communities.

Homeland Elegies took a while to get going for me, and I couldn’t quite pin down what sort of novel I was reading, but about half way through it all fell into place and I thought it was very powerful on themes of race, religion and familial ties. Trump looms large in the book, in a personal and political capacity. This is funny, diverting and informative. And really sad, and beautiful.

17. The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11 - Garrett N. Graff
Well-reviewed just above, and much recommended on here, so I will just say that I recommend it too.
18. Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer - Harold Schechter
A 99p read, about the worst school massacre in the US, which actually happened in 1927, in rural Michigan. The problem is, no one really knows that much about the culprit, or why he did it (he seems to have had an idée fixe about the local school tax causing all his financial difficulties), so the material’s a bit thin, and very tragic. More interesting is the discussion of why certain crimes catch the public imagination and others don’t: this one was overshadowed by Lindbergh’s first transatlantic flight, and the real-life ‘Double Indemnity’ case. It seems the scandal of the modern sexy woman was more gripping than a bonkers midwestern farmer. I’d rather read Schechter developing this argument further.
19. Something Fabulous - Alexis Hall
Irreverent and hugely entertaining m/m Regency romance. Just what I needed, as I am in bed with COVID.

I think it was me that enjoyed the Sasha Swire @IntermittentParps Interestingly I've read a bit of but I think will DNF MP Alan Duncan's diaries In the Thick of It for very much the reasons you DNF'ed MP's Wife. (Though tempted back occasionally by his hilarious levels of self-regard.) I think maybe I found the insight into levels of privilege etc worth reading for one diary's worth, but that was enough!

@Sadik

I think it was me that enjoyed the Sasha Swire *@IntermittentParps Interestingly I've read a bit of but I think will DNF MP Alan Duncan's diaries In the Thick of It* for very much the reasons you DNF'ed MP's Wife. (Though tempted back occasionally by his hilarious levels of self-regard.) I think maybe I found the insight into levels of privilege etc worth reading for one diary's worth, but that was enough!

Yes, I may recognise your name from the other thread... I'm slightly tempted by Alan Duncan's diaries. Maybe the way to do it is just dip in and read bits that grab you...

Ooh, I might have to try the Alexis Hall ChannelLightVessel - I've just seen it recommended on a FB group I belong to as well.

I liked the Swire as well, but will admit that it's mostly horrible people saying horrible things about other horrible people, so it's very much in the love-to-hate-it vein. I can see that it could get tiresome.

On Sally Rooney I think she can write, but I'm not that interested in what she has to say. I'm hoping that changes as she gets older.

This is such a good description of how I feel about Sally Rooney. I hope she gets the space to develop her writing because she clearly has such talent. Of course maybe she's happy writing her books and has no desire to write a 'great novel' with lots of ideas about politics and the state of the nation.

Thanks for those reviews PepeLePew. Very interesting.

Oh dear, as usual my tbr pile is now higher than I have available time!

8. Put a Wet Paper Towel on It by Lee Parkinson. Apparently Lee has a popular podcast and is active on twitter, but although I am a primary school teacher, I don't generally do "work" outside school and u hadn't come across him. Mostly I think this is just meant to be funny, but as I am older and have not taught in the UK for 10 years, not much hit the mark for me. The rant chapter about what is wrong in education was interesting! Has anyone been to any of his professional development sessions? (Although I think a lot of you teach secondary?).

@FortunaMajor @LadybirdDaphne it was that plot where Luster fell down for me too. It felt a bit like Detransition Baby (which I know is a controversial one) to me, in that it took a completely improbable set up to explore the issues and relationships. Some beautiful writing though.

I'll admit to being a Sally Rooney fan too! @JaninaDuszejko I think that's an interesting point - for me I see her books as already being very political, about how to form meaningful relationships in a (what SR would deem) broken capitalist system. I'm excited to see what she does next though and agree would be good to see something wider in scope.

Homeland Elegies sounds really good and I've put it on my wish-list Pepe. I can't actually buy any more books at the moment as the TBR pile is already teetering, but it's definitely one for the future.

These threads move fast!

Just finished pretty girls- karin slaughter. Very graphic but i enjoyed the book. would definitely recommend if you’re not squeamish

@LadybirdDaphne I've no idea what the author may have meant, but "uncoupled" oxygen suggests to me that the normal double-atom molecules have split into single atoms.

I'm not sure why that would be associated with a particular kind of weather because atomic oxygen is highly unstable at ground level. Though this article is fascinating if anyone fancies a short read.

Ozone is three atoms. Maybe that was floating around the author's subconscious?

@GrannieMainland thanks for the Maggie Shipstead recommendation, I've picked it up.

I preferred Such A Fun Age to Luster but think I was in the minority. I wanted more of the wife character in Luster, to understand her motivation, which I found a bit unconvincing. Totally agree with @FortunaMajor about the end of The Other Black Girl.

Sally Rooney, I'm fascinated by but did find her latest book a bit self indulgent. It will be interesting to see what's next.

I'm reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. It was recommended on one of those lists of books you should read but have never heard of. It's a bit like the Secret History and Catcher in the Rye but hasn't hit the heights of either yet. Interesting if slight pretentious style.

I’ve nothing really to add, apart from get well soon @ChannelLightVessel, but had fallen off thread and so just wanted to get it back on my threads I’m on page. I’m so enjoying the discussions.