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?

I’ve never heard of The Victorian Chaise Longue before but it sounds interesting. Expensive on kindle but luckily my library has it so I’ve reserved.

It's definitely worth listening to the Backlisted episode too, Pepe and Chessie (though ideally after rather than before reading it, as I did!).

Marghanita Laski was an interesting, quirky writer. I've read two of her other novels as well and they're all completely different from each other. Apparently she was the OED's most prolific contributor - she submitted over a quarter of a million quotations

The Grapes of Wrath is great. I really rate Steinbeck as a writer; I like his clear uncomplicated style. I first read TGOW as a teenager and then again thirty years later and the scene that had stayed with me throughout that time was the very last one - so powerful.

East of Eden is also excellent.

Agree with the Steinbeck love. I like Kristin Hannah but The Four Winds was a poor rip off of Grapes*.

22. The Last Thing He Told Me - Laura Dave A man implicated in a finance scandal disappears leaving his new wife to deal with his teenage daughter. It come to light the husband she knew doesn't exist and she tries to piece together snippets of information to discover his true identity. Book club choice and Goodreads Choice Awards winner for best mystery or thriller. Had a vague John Grisham feel to it, but much more simplistic. The plot zips along, but it's very far fetched and the writing is dire. It's being made into a film and I can see it working better in that medium. I feel like I was promised a fine Italian meal and got served tinned spaghetti hoops.

I absolutely loved East of Eden as a teenager, and re-read it several times. I read it again after reading Grapes of Wrath for the first time a few years ago, and found it a very different book from what I remembered. It was much darker (I don't know what I was thinking as a teenager) and much more beautiful and much more expansive - I'd distilled it down to a single narrative about a relationship in my head over the years but it is so much more than that. Extraordinary.

@highlandcoo

The Grapes of Wrath is great. I really rate Steinbeck as a writer; I like his clear uncomplicated style. I first read TGOW as a teenager and then again thirty years later and the scene that had stayed with me throughout that time was the very last one - so powerful.

East of Eden is also excellent.

Agree. The Grapes of Wrath blew me away as a teenager. I only read East of Eden a couple of years ago but what a book.

I haven’t read East of Eden or The Grapes of Wrath yet, but have read Cannery Row, Travels with Charley and The Pearl in the last year or so and loved all those. The others are on my TBR list.

Love your Italian meal analogy Fortuna - nothing wrong with tinned spaghetti if that’s what you’re expecting/what you feel like but agree very disappointing if you’re expecting the finest pasta!

The Worst Hard Time sounds really intersting, will add to the TBR!

Material Girls - Kathleen Stock very interesting and thought-provoking.

The Salt Path - Raynor Winn Enjoyable read. I found the couple a little annoying at times they managed to deal with some huge stuff yet couldn't sort out smaller easier issues (you'll know if you've read it)

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee My favourite of the year, and I suspect it will be for a while, sets a high bar.

Kirstin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath by Sigrid Undset. Translated by Tiina Nunnally

Sigrid Undset won the Nobel Prize for literature in a large part because of this trilogy. It was written in the decades following Norwegian independence and is still widely read in Norway because it is about a historic period when Norway had independence from its surrounding neighbours, an important period in the mythogy of the country. The Wreath is the first book in the trilogy and covers Kirstin's life from age 7 to her early 20s. Kirstin is the daughter of an honourable nobleman with a large and well run farm. She is betrothed at the age of 15 to the son of a neighbouring noble. After the death of her childhood friend she goes to spend a year in a nunnery in Oslo where she falls in love with a man who was disgraced after taking another man's wife as his mistress and having 2 children with her. The main action of the novel concerns their attempts to get married with or without the approval of their families. As I said upthread there is a lot of action in this novel and the twists and turns keep you gripped. In among the excitement there are lots of details of medieval life that create a fully rounded world. I expected this to be incredible literatute but was not expecting it to be quite so thrilling a read. I loved it. Part II and Part III have now been bought!

It reminded me of Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Scotland's equivalent novel about a woman who represents much of our national mythology.

1. A Little Life - Hanya Yanaghara
2. Still Life - Val McDermid audiobook

A Little Life had me totally consumed for 3 weeks until I finished. Parts are truly harrowing and upsetting, I cried numourous times and often found myself gasping aloud with shock. Yet there are some truly wonderful parts of this book too. I loved how the narration moved between characters so you got to really know many of the characters intimately. The deep friendships were beautifully done.
I have recomended the book but with the warning that it is deeply traumatic reading at times. The characters have stayed with me.

Still Life - this was one of the more recent Karen Pirie series which I didn't realise when I started listening. I enjoyed it anyway and don't think I missed much not having read the others first!

I'm now on Mr Loverman - Bernadine Everisto, The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki and listening to The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman

1. The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places by Neil Oliver

Another audio book for me giving another opportunity to listen to the beautiful tones of Neil Oliver's reading voice. This was a much longer read with bite size chapters giving an ambitious history of the British Isles. I applaud Oliver's political neutrality and yet deeply personal mission - he clearly states his belief that this diverse archipelago is the best place in the world. Obviously this is arguable but his passion for the land of his birth shines through. I am gratified that I have personally visited over 80 of the 100 places mentioned and now have to target the remaining few.

1. The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

A little bit of nonsense read as, like many others on this thread, I am taking part in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge 2022. The only thing I remembered about this book from reading it 40ish years ago was the "brachycephalic head" and no wonder because, whilst mildly entertaining, it's no where near Ms Christie's best. I did warm to Anne Beddingfeld and found the action pacy, if convoluted. A pp queried why this book had been chosen, over other, better examples - Anne mentions early on that the date is January 1922 so it is set exactly 100 year ago this month .

That sounds really interesting Janina I have added it to my list

1. Excellent Women Barbara Pym

Martha is a single woman in her 30s living in London not long after the end of the war. She is one of the title’s ‘excellent women’ - usually defined as such by men and taken to mean a practical, sensible sort who can be relied upon to do good works and help others and not ask for very much in return. At the start of the book Martha fancies herself content with her lot, a small flat with shared bathroom in an ok if not particularly ‘good’ part of time, her voluntary work with gentlewomen who have fallen on hard times, her membership of the church community and friendship with the vicar and his sister. When a more glamorous, worldly married couple move into the flat below however, she is drawn into their orbit and finds herself embroiled in their various problems.

Nothing much happens in the story really, but it doesn’t happen in a witty and well-observed way, funny and charming and sad all at the same time. There are some brilliant character sketches in there too, and truly great character names. I really loved this and am going to read more Pym, I started and abandoned another of hers previously but may give it another go now.

Thank you @SirSidneyRuffDiamond for solving the mystery of why The Man in the Brown Suit was chosen as the first Agatha Christie challenge book. You’re obviously much more switched on than me.

Another fan of John Steinback. Completely wasted on my teenage self but I just loved East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath (read in the last couple of years). The latter is à harrowing read though which left me feeling literally 'winded' at the end. He is timeless.

I'm now reading Robert Preston's The Fall. Felt ot was timely given the current Ghislaine trial.

Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne I should declare an interest in that I have a long-held crush on Gabriel Byrne, but I enjoyed this well-written and at times painfully honest autobiography. (Reviewed in more detail on previous threads.)

The Grasmere journals by Dorothy Wordsworth A great bedtime book to read in short bursts rather than at one sitting. This was a fascinating record of Dorothy and William Wordsworth's time in the Lake District between 1800-1803. In some ways they had quite a privileged life, with a decent income and able to walk out in the countryside largely at will. But it also offers an insight into the difficulties of life at that time, with frequent passing references to unspecified illness. She also mentions the number of beggars and the dispossessed who passed by their house or who they encountered on their walks, often former sailors, and always offers assistance by way of food or money (her younger brother, John, was at sea and would later die in a ship wreck off the English coast). Interesting.

I'm currently reading Red Famine by Anne Applebaum about famine in Ukraine when it was part of the USSR under Stalin, most notably in 1932-33 when it is estimated that 4 million Ukrainians died of starvation. A chilling read which is proving an invaluable background to current events as Russia assembles its military forces on the border with Ukraine.

Love love love East of Eden. I read it after a random bloke on the train gave it to me as he was getting off, saying "I've just read this and it's amazing, everyone should read it". And he was right.

Anne Applebaum is such a fantastic historian. Her Gulag is seminal.

I read East of Eden for the first time last year - one of my top reads of 2021. I've never read Grapes of Wrath but I'm still a bit traumatised from seeing my brother in the part of Lenny in a school performance many years ago

12 - 10 minutes and 38 seconds in this strange world by Elif Shafak (audiobook).

I know this was discussed in depth last thread so won't instigate further discussion here; just keeping track.

Brief summary for anyone who doesn't know much about it: a book of 2 parts. The first part is broken into 10 sections, one for each minute after Leila's heart stops beating. A lady living in Turkey is killed and we learn more about her life and what led to her death as she gets flashes of memories in her last moments. The second part follows her friends and how they deal with their grief over her death.

Putting the inaccuracies and stereotyping to one side, this is a fantastically told story with excellent story craft and characterisation. Really harrowing and the main character felt authentic. Didn't like how the writer broke away from Leila to give backstories of other people. It just felt so fleeting and a bit pointless as their stories were so brief that it was too difficult to connect with the characters in the same way as I did with Leila. I would have personally preferred part 2 to be cut and part 1 to be extended to include more of Leila's life and more time developing the backstories of the secondary characters told here.

Part 2 was really boring. Because the backstories of these friends' weren't delved into enough in part 1, I didn't really care about them or connect with them in the second part. They sort of morphed into the same characters and I found myself getting confused over who was who at times. I really didn't enjoy this part and think the author tried to shoehorn in a lot of preaching and messages into this section about all the bad stuff that has happened in Turkey over the decades. But there was so much of it that, again, these were only touched upon and not explored at a deep enough level to have the same emotive impact on me as Leila's story.

7 The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
I don't recall much discussion about this on the thread, though I'm sure it's been widely read. Feels like a really obvious book club choice, and if I could bring myself to join a book club then I'd have been really keen to have a discussion about it, despite having mixed feelings.

Nora has depression, and having the worst day of her life. After she takes an overdose, she wakes up in a place between life and death - the midnight library where books that show all possible futures in all possible universes are available to her. Universes where she made different choices and is living different lives as a result. The book takes us through many of these lives, some in great detail, some in just a sentence or two.

This is a really uplifting novel with a positive message and Nora is an endearing character (although I found her many talents a little grating - really, is anyone a gifted philosopher, Olympic level swimmer, outstanding musician...). There were a few details that really irritated me too that should have been picked up in the edit - if someone orders a Uber then they don't pay the driver at the end of the journey. But these are small quibbles.

This isn't really my kind of book - the resolution felt a bit too obvious, and the messages a bit heavy handed. So I was grumpy about it all the way through but then found myself giving it more headspace after I finished it than I would have expected, and reflecting on what it said about life. And it was funny, in places, and definitely uplifting.

@BookBanter I definitely agree that part 2 was a bit of a mess, and also that the very brief back stories of the 5 friends didn't really go anywhere, several were very thinly drawn and seemed to dwindle to pretty much nothing in part 2.

@PepeLePew for me The Midnight Library felt a bit too much like a self help book. To me it was reminiscent of the kind of Eat, Pray, Love books. But judging from my social media feed over the summer, I'm in a minority.

I tried to read The Grapes of Wrath about 20 years ago and couldn't get into it at all. Maybe I'll try East of Eden.

@StColumbofNavron

Anne Applebaum is such a fantastic historian. Her Gulag is seminal.

Thanks StColumbo, I shall add that to my wishlist. I came to Red Famine after reading Twilight of Democracy last year, which I thought was excellent too.

Behold! I have finished book two! Very slow reading so far this year.

I read The Time Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain having recently read and enjoyed the Elizabethan guide. This is entertaining, detailed and fascinating. And grim in parts such as on asylums, animal cruelty and crime and punishment.

I give you my favourite part. Not a description of Boris Johnson, unbelievably :

...one of the laziest, most vain, spoilt, arrogant, self-indulgent, profligate, uncaring and conceited Englishmen ever to have lived. He is a lecherous, drunken boor ; a glutton and a snob. He does have some positive virtues but they are so heavily outweighed by the negatives aspects of his character that to give them priority would be disrespectful to anyone who is forced to put up with him.... from the politicians he bullies, the friends he insults, the people he rules and the women upon whom he lays his increasingly corpulent and bloated frame.

He is described as the chief actor in a pantomime before an audience he deems to be infinitely beneath him.

No, still not Boris. The Prince Regent apparently.

But definitely Boris.