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?

7. We don’t know ourselves by Fintan O’Toole Found this interesting and illuminating. My mother was Irish and what I did know of Ireland was very idealised. This is a good dissection of the reality behind the recent history and politics and there’s no holds barred when it comes to highlighting the corruption in the Irish church and politics. It was a long and at times distressing read but one of these books that I’m glad I read.

8. The Visit by Chimimanda Ngozi Adiche A short story but absorbing. I think she’s such an accomplished writer - she could rewrite the phone book and I’d find it interesting. Very good.

9. Hungry by Grace Dent Thank you to all those who recommended this. Really enjoyable read. It does cover a lot of ground - growing up in the north of England, not doing well at school, getting into a career where the norm is to be from Oxbridge, and then the challenges of caring for ill parents. It’s funny and moving and entertaining.

Now reading Three Sisters by Heather Morris.

Speaking of iain banks....has anyone read The Steep Approach to Garbadale? That was a favourite for me.

I'm noting the Iain Banks recommendations, thank you. DH has lots of Iain M Banks in his collection.

7. The wisdom of trees by Max Adams

This is a lovely book about all things tree related, written by someone who is clearly passionate about the subject. It’s very factual, but never gets dull, probably because of the breath of topics covered; from ecology to archeology to woodworking, this book really does it all.

Recommended for anyone who wants to learn about trees, without any of the tree hugger vibes that are so often associated with these types of books...

@ontana

Speaking of iain banks....has anyone read The Steep Approach to Garbadale? That was a favourite for me.

Yes, me! My favourites are The Crow Road, Stonemouth, and Garbadale. But really, they're all great. I still haven't read The Quarry because it's his last and I haven't yet been quite able to accept that. (Same for the final Pratchett).

14. Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney

29-year-old writer Alice and best friend Eileen explore new relationships, alongside the deeper issue of what makes life meaningful in a time of (political, climatological) crisis. This did get on my nerves more than Rooney’s other novels, and I started to wonder whether Email Conversations with Pretentious People might have been a better title. The characters were annoying me I think because I’m almost 40 and would give my left leg to be 29 and FREE, and they mostly moan about it. Also I’m quite like Eileen in some ways (never quite fulfilling my writing ambitions; worrying about whether we are facing a systems collapse similar to the end of the Bronze Age - although I usually bang on about that in drunken ramblings rather than in over-intellectualised emails to my besties) so that might have been while she in particular got on my tits.

Still, it all came together in a satisfying way in the end, and Rooney has my respect as one of those writers whose prose is so smooth and clear, you never have to go back over a sentence to dig out its meaning. And the book did address the issue of whether small-scale, relationship-based stories (like Rooney’s own novels) are relevant in a world in crisis, and I agree with Alice and Eileen’s assessment that they are, that finding people you connect with is what makes life meaningful. It reminded me of Dr Zhivago, solely in terms of the emphasis on the personal still being important, in spite of wider upheaval. So I’ll go on reading Sally Rooney, even while spending at least part of the time wanting to throw the book (or just Eileen) out of the window.

10. The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy - Fiona Neill

Hmm. Reminded me of Motherland without the realism, and that's saying something. The same North London stereotypes, a plot twist I saw coming a mile off, and an improbable resolution. Also the main character was relatable but no one could be that disorganised. I assume it was written as a parody of that sort of lifestyle but it didn't do it for me I'm afraid.

Straight in the charity bag.

9. Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute
Another reread. A delicious fairytale about a model engineer who is faced with a desperate dilemma and is helped by a global fraternity of engineers. Lacks the driving energy of his early stories like Pied Piper but nonetheless so readable.

@Boiledeggandtoast

Still Life by Sarah Winman I know this received a lot of love on the thread, but it was a very disappointing DNF for me.

Red Famine by Anne Applebaum Brilliant and devastating analysis and account of the Ukrainian famine in the early 1930s which led to nearly 4 million deaths. She chronicles events from the Bolshevik revolution through to the time of writing (2017), which provides important background context as well as highlighting the subsequent consequences. She concludes that although collectivisation created the conditions for famine, starvation was a result of forcibly removing food from people's homes; preventing peasants from travelling in search of work or food; harsh blacklists imposed on farms and villages; restrictions on barter and trade; and vicious propaganda. All this was aimed in particular at those who sought an independent sovereign Ukraine that truly represented Ukrainians.

Issues around the famine have inevitably become politicised both in Ukraine and Russia and I found the book really helpful in understanding current events, although as AA is careful to make clear, the famine was not a result of Russian policy - there was no Russian state in the 1930s - rather the blame lies with Stalin and the Soviet Communist Party. I am following AA on twitter and have found links to her more recent writing invaluable too.

Red Famine sounds right up my street. Thanks for the recommendation.

I need to read some Iain Banks now!

12. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

Recommended on here otherwise I would never have come across this book.
Charlie Gordon is a gentle trusting man of low intelligence who takes part in an experiment to increase his IQ to genius levels. The story unfolds by means of the journal Charlie keeps during the process, and we witness his struggle to adapt to a world he begins to understand all too well; his realisation that his friendships at work are not as straightforward as he had thought, and his growing awareness of the tensions in his family in the past. It's quite heartbreaking at times, and an interesting exploration of the different types of intelligence needed to cope in adult life.
Flowers for Algernon was written over 60 years ago and I believe it soon became a classic in the genre. I have read hardly any SF and for me it was a unique and memorable read.

13. A Place of Execution by Val McDermid.

This stand alone crime novel was extra enjoyable because I know the Peak District well (although I don't find it quite as grim as in VMcD's descriptions). Set in a remote, insular village, it tells of the disappearance and possible murder of a teenage schoolgirl and a young detective trying to solve his first serious major crime case.
I did notice one jarring comment - can't find it again but from memory- about a character's past history of indecent exposure being insignificant when he is under possible suspicion for having committed a more serious crime .. I wonder if she would have written that now, over 20 years later?
A gripping and entertaining read.

14. Selective Memory by Katharine Whitehorn

An autobiography by KW. I remember her writing as a journalist and I enjoyed her tales from that world.
She lived from 1928 to 2021 and there's a real sense in the book of how much women's lives changed during her lifetime and in particular the transformation that reliable contraception brought about. I'm old enough to remember the Brook Advisory Centre which was a great place to go if you were young, single and wanted to go on the pill, and your GP wasn't disposed to be helpful. It's hard to imagine those days now.
She writes well about a miserable time at Roedean, a much happier move to school in Glasgow, forging her way in the man's world of journalism, various love affairs and her long marriage and subsequent widowhood. She's pretty honest about her own failings I think, especially how much she and especially her husband liked a drink, and the issues that caused. An intelligent confident woman who led a varied and stimulating life. I wonder what she'd make of what's happening to the place of women in our society now.

Fake Law by ‘The Secret Barrister’. This is the second book and I read the first one a couple of years ago. Using real life examples, SB talks through how law is misinterpreted, misrepresented and misused. Sometimes deliberately (by politicians apparently - shock horror!) and sometimes just because, SB explains, our legal system is so woefully underfunded.

Sadly it also talks through the John Worboys fiasco where the police repeatedly dropped process, ignored witnesses, lost and generally cocked up evidence and the legal system then continued to utterly fail victims even through court proceedings. Absolutely awful that we are still now hearing the Met in the news today seemingly no further forward.

Fascinating and rage inducing by turns. A lesson in knowing your rights at the very least.

I’m still reading Troubled Blood and loving it, but took a little break at it’s such a brick!

4 Lost for Words: the mangling and manipulating of the English language by John Humphrys

I read the first part of this then had to take a break for other stuff: while doing the other stuff I imagined myself describing this as "basically a rant. An amusing and enjoyable rant, but a rant nonetheless." Then I read the rest of it, and had to recant.

I have a few quibbles (for example, even as one who was a teenager in the eighties, when we were fond of saying we learnt all our English grammar in French lessons, I find it very hard to believe that someone could have got as far as a teaching qualification without discovering the difference between a noun and a verb; and Humphrys' continued insistence on the ugliness of a split infinitive while explaining the origin of the artificial rule started to sound like an affectation) but I have sympathy with his stance.

It's an examination of the tendency to jargon, cliche and obfuscation; and a plea for vigilance, not in defence of arbitrary rules but in the championship of clarity in communication. The language needs to be as versatile, nuanced and adaptable as we can make it...

I suspect the ranting of the first part was deliberate, to entice fellow-ranters to read the rest.

@highlandcoo the Katherine Whitehorn book sounds fascinating, a bit like Diana Athill who I also love.

11. China Room - Sanjeev Sahota. The main part of this is set in 1929 Punjab where a young bride marries one of 3 brothers. But she doesn't know which brother is her husband as they only see each other at night in the dark, or which belongs to the other 2 brides. The other part of the story follows an 18 year old ex heroin addict from the UK who visits the village to recover from his addiction and ends up staying in the old China Room of his great-grandmother. I thought this was very evocative of the time and place. It was on the Booker longlist last year and personally I preferred it to some that made the shortlist.

It's taken me so long to read Book 4, I fell off the thread!

This was All In, Billie Jean King's very detailed, lengthy but generally absorbing autobiography. She really is an interesting woman who ahs campaigned all her life for equality. She has lived a long time so has experienced, Civil Right, BLM, Gay an trans Rights, the professionalisation of tennis, campaigned for pay equality and on it goes. Rarely boastful, she is honest and the book is occasionally very moving. She never sops advocating.

I skimmed the tennis stuff quite a bit...

I loved Sahota’s The Year of the Runaways so I snapped up China Room when it was 99p. I’ve not got to it as I’ve been picking my Kindle reads by allowing my children to pick a number from my spreadsheet, but I’m pleased to see a positive review.

@VikingNorthUtsire

Cassandre, hope you are not feeling too rubbish.

Desdemona, Tracy Thorn's My Rock n Roll Friend was one of my absolute best reads of last year - highly recommended. I'd avoided her a bit as I'm not really interested in the music industry but she writes so well and is obviously a very thoughtful and insightful character.

Thanks Viking, I'll look out for that one too 👍

6. Before The Ruins, by Victoria Gosling. I don't quite know how to describe this. As four teenagers leave school, they spend their last summer together playing a game in the grounds of an old manor house, inspired by the story of a diamond necklace stolen from the house long ago. They are joined by a mysterious fifth person, who completely changes their dynamic, with far-reaching consequences. Years later, one of the group goes missing, and another searches for him.

Of course none of this is actually about the game or the necklace, it's about friendship, trauma, class, and a million other things. It's been described as Secret History-esque (which I love), and I see why, but I don't think it's an accurate comparison.

It's not short on plot but it is a very slow burn, and I found it incredibly evocative of that age when everyone is about to leave school and go their separate ways. There's some absolutely beautiful writing, particularly about the landscape, but in the end I thought there was one too many ideas thrown in and too many strands to follow. Nonetheless I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to her next book.

13. The Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly Another random choice from the library - this time a courtroom drama set in LA, with an alpha male defence lawyer as the main character. Apart from disliking him, it was quite a good read - reasonably engaging and with an ending that wasn’t too predictable.

13. Venice - Jan Morris

Morris (also author of Coronation Everest and the fascinating Conundrum) was such a tremendous writer, and this portrait of the city (where she and her family lived for a while) is no disappointment. I've never been to Venice so can't vouch for its accuracy, but it's a sprightly tour through the lagoon taking in its people, history and an awful lot of churches on the way. Like being taken round a city by a gossipy friend who knows all the good stories.

Stokey I was fortunate enough to hear Diana Athill talk one evening in London a few years before she died. It was probably around the time Somewhere Towards the End came out.

She was really sharp and engaging as a speaker. What I remember most is her discussing her recent decision to go into residential care in a wholly positive way; the way in which relinquishing her home freed her to enjoy her interests and friendships in her old age without all the responsibility of managing a house, cooking etc.

She did add "And of course I did not have a daughter to care for me". As an independent career-orientated woman herself I thought that comment was rather interesting.

I'm another one who loved The Year of the Runaways so will look out for China Room

I love the sound of Venice too and Before the Ruins sounds like it might be up my street.

The list of books I want to read just from recommendations on this thread is pretty epic already and it's only mid-February. Will no doubt constitute a book in itself by the end of the year.

10. The Chequerboard by Nevil Shute
A reread. Well. I can't really recommend this to anyone else. It almost makes it worse that it's written as a progressive novel trying to show that the rank egregious violent racism of the 40s should be a thing of the past. I guess it's a useful example to show how things actually might have been then, because to a more recent eye it's nearly unbelievable. So take it - if you do - as an artefact of the past. I'm not sure I'll look at it again.

@highlandcoo

Stokey I was fortunate enough to hear Diana Athill talk one evening in London a few years before she died. It was probably around the time Somewhere Towards the End came out.

She was really sharp and engaging as a speaker. What I remember most is her discussing her recent decision to go into residential care in a wholly positive way; the way in which relinquishing her home freed her to enjoy her interests and friendships in her old age without all the responsibility of managing a house, cooking etc.

She did add "And of course I did not have a daughter to care for me". As an independent career-orientated woman herself I thought that comment was rather interesting.

That is interesting about Diana Athill. I wonder if she was being tongue-in-cheek? Or maybe she was more of a product of her time and class than other aspects of her life suggest.

Just finished The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix. I'm now officially a Grady Hendrix fan. Not quite as good as The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires but a cracking read nevertheless. It helped that I have watched my fair share of 'slasher' films (Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street) so I got the references but even without this background I like the way Grady develops his female characters and makes social comment without it being heavy handed.

@IntermittentParps - I take your point, but I'm fairly sure it wasn't tongue-in-cheek.

She'd just been discussing the strength of female friendships and the way in which, as they aged, her group of women friends had been mutually supportive, looking after one another when recuperating from a hospital stay for example. And how that had become more difficult as the health of each deteriorated in late old age.

Perhaps she was just being realistic .. that it most often falls to the daughter to support an elderly relative. It was the case when she was young and not much has changed since in my experience. Whether it's fair or not is a whole other debate of course.