50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth thread of the 50 Books 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.

The first thread of the year is here, the second one here and the third one here.

What are you reading?

@DameHelena @MaudOfTheMarches I'm another one who finds Ann Patchett a bit hit and miss. Loved Bel Canto, State of Wonder and Commonweath, found The Dutch House a bit dull.

I keep losing this thread as the threads I'm on have all vanished for me since the update. Anyway, my recent reads:

22. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi - tells the story of a Ghanaian-American family torn part by opioid addiction, and the efforts of the grown up daughter Gifty to understand and explain addition through her work as a research scientist. I liked this but would have preferred more family history and less science, as some of it just went over my head to be honest.

23. The Sealwoman's Gift by Sally Magnusson. Much reviewed and liked here! I really enjoyed this, it was a period of history I knew nothing about (I was shocked to learn people were kidnapped from British shores as well) and some really beautiful writing about the culture shock of arriving in Algiers. My only minor complaint was that I found the love story between Asta and Cilleby a bit unconvincing, there could have perhaps been a bit more space to unpack their conversations and growing relationship.

23. Troy - Stephen Fry.

A fiction (mostly) recounting the classical myth of Troy and build up to the Trojan War up to its destruction by the Greeks with the legendary wooden horse.

This was a Mother's Day present. I'm in two minds about this one. Having recently read a few books of mythology from the female perspective, this was a very male-heavy retelling. I didn't much like the author's "voice" in parts, especially when characters (of which there are many) were speaking. There were some non-fiction tangents in the early part of the story, and many footnotes referring to his other books Mythos and Heroes, neither of which I have read. I get the feeling it works better in the audiobook format.

Having said that I liked the Appendices looking at what makes myth, the history of the discovery of Troy and the origins of the Homeric tale. A keeper - for now.

36 A Beautiful Spy - Rachel Hore God, this was dull! And the main character was such a drip for most of the book. It’s based on a true story of a woman who worked undercover for MI5 in the 30s, infiltrating the communist headquarters, so it could and should have been exciting - it’s amazing how the author managed to make such an interesting story so boring! She seemed to be focused on ticking off the real-life events one by one, rather than bringing the characters to life or giving the story a proper narrative arc, and there was a lot of telling rather than showing. I would rather have read a (better-written) non-fiction account of the actual events instead of this insipid fictionalisation.

23. Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

Yep still trotting through these. Still enjoying the light reads.

I'm spending a lot of May on trains or planes so will try and get into some heftier books I've got downloaded.
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I know quite a few on here have read The Sleeping Beauties but neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan. What an absorbing read. She particularly made me reflect on the Western world's hankering after medical diagnoses and how people's lives are altered so long as their condition has a palatable name. This was especially interesting re autism, POTs and epilepsy diagnoses. A real journey through illnesses we don't understand and , perhaps, don't want to. As a side note, because so many females suffer from functional neurological disorders, the feminist issues around illness and its treatment are thought provoking. The chapter where she details the swoop of anti-vaxxers on a community of girls who had (coincidentally) had HPV vaccines certainly resonates.

Oh, and a reminder - tomorrow is Hard Times day!

Thank you so much @FortunaMajor for your reviews, and commentary on the Women’s Prize. I found out which of the short-listed books DM has read by using the cunning ploy of, er, asking her, and I think I’ll get her The Sentence as a very late Easter present.

49. The Heart’s Time: A poem a day for Lent and Easter - Janet Morley
An interesting selection of poetry (only some explicitly Christian) with thoughtful commentary; actually a good way to read and think about some poems, even if you’re not particularly religious. Her Advent and Christmas book Haphazard by Moonlight is also good.

50. The World of Stonehenge - Duncan Garrow and Neil Wilkin
Catalogue of the excellent British Museum exhibition, mostly about the Neolithic and Bronze Age context of Stonehenge, rather than the monument itself. Particularly interesting to see finds from elsewhere in Europe as well as the British Isles; a great summary of recent discoveries and thinking. Catch the exhibition if you can.

51. The Western Wind - Samantha Harvey
Set in an isolated Somerset village in 1491, the richest man has drowned in the river, but how did he get there? The story is told backwards, and narrated by the troubled village priest. A mostly satisfying and fascinating immersion in a very different world, on the brink of change, although with a few surprising anachronisms eg views on suicide, lack of deference to the lord of the manor.

@ChannelLightVessel Thank you for the review of The Heart's Time - I read about it ages ago and couldn't remember what it was called.

I've somehow ended up with six (now five) books on the go, which is really agitating me.

29. On The Road Again: Granta 94
This was a £1 charity shop find, a volume of travel writing from summer 2006. I was surprised that there was little to situate this in 2006, less than five years after 9/11, but maybe that had been covered in earlier issues.

Standouts for me were the short stories by Tessa Hadley and Michel Faber, and a piece by Tim Parks about commuting on Italian railways. The latter really resonated with me, as a long-term commuter - the unspoken companionship of other train readers, moving seats to get the optimal reading environment.

As always with Granta it's a mixed bag, some gems and some self-indulgent drivel, but I'm glad there was somewhere that writers of the latter could get published.

31. Cecily - Annie Garthwaite

The Cecily in question is Cecily Neville, great granddaughter of Edward III, granddaughter of John of Gaunt, mother of Edward IV and Richard III and wife of Richard, Duke of York. Whilst I knew of her as the formidable mother of two kings, the War of the Roses is not a period I knew in much detail - I’m better on the periods before and after. The book covers her life from the age of 16/17 starting with her and Richard witnessing the burning of Joan of Arc and follows their time holding / fighting for English territory in France, back in England, bringing order to Ireland, the ups and downs (mainly downs) of rule under Henry VI and the birth of many children. The book very much portrays Cecily as the ambitious partner and driving force behind the house of York. Richard is more cautious (unsurprisingly as his father died as a treasonous traitor) and wants to do the right thing. I thought I would love this as I enjoy historical fiction but it didn’t have me turning the pages in the same way as Hilary Mantel, Sharon Penman etc. However, I do feel far better informed on that period now.

@ChannelLightVessel The Western Wind sounds great!

30. Wham! George and Me - Andrew Ridgeley

A fun bit of nostalgia. I had totally forgotten how Wham were criticised in the early days for supposedly "glorifying dole culture". I'd also forgotten some of the onstage shenanigans (George putting a shuttlecock down his shorts then throwing it into the crowd of teenage girls), which by today's standards seem both totally inappropriate and very innocent. What I wasn't aware of at the time was how different George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were - both knew Wham had a very short shelf-life, but whereas Andrew accepted that and didn't think much further ahead, George quickly realised he had the potential to build a longer career. As a pop memoir, this isn't a classic of the genre but it is a nice read if you are of Wham's vintage.

A couple more for my list:

20. HhhH by Laurent Binet. This is a detailed account of the assassination attempt on the high-ranking Nazi Reinhard Heydrich in Prague in 1942. Alongside the narrative, the author muses on the difficulties inherent in writing historical non-fiction, for example when recreating dialogue. This book caused a bit of a bunfight on one of these threads a few years ago - IIRC, Remus enjoyed it and Cote thought it was pretentious. Well... I agree with both of them <sits on fence> I really liked it, but the style is a wee bit pretentious!

21. Spinning Plates by Sophie Ellis-Bexter. Massive respect to Ellis-Bexter for maintaining a successful career as a singer-songwriter for the last 20 years while bringing up 5 boys (aged between 3 and 17 when she wrote this last year) - what a legend! I listened to this on Audible, read by the author. It's fun and honest and deals with some interesting topics (having a famous mum, sexual assault, her time on Strictly). Not in the same league as Viv Albertine's amazing autobiographies, but very enjoyable.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage you must read winter solstice by Rosie Thomas- it's a great read.

30 Pyramids - Terry Pratchett

Seventh Discworld book, and not one of the best imo - some decent jokes about ancient Egypt and Greece but lacking in really memorable characters.

@TimeforaGandT I have a soft spot for Cecily Neville. You mentioned Sharon Penman - have you read The Sunne in Splendour, about the House of York? It's one of my favourites of hers (although writing this I realise it's been years since I read it, so I may have to go for another re-read).

98 The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

Jess comes to stay with her brother in his flat in a block in Paris, but when she gets there he’s vanished and there’s signs that something bad may have happened. Plus all the other residents of the block seem a bit odd. I liked this, some of the characters are a bit extreme but I liked the setting of the apartment block and it felt fast paced.

99 Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal

I used to love the Sweet Valley High books so was interested to read this, but it’s awful. It’s as if the author thought about what readers would expect for each character, and then wrote the exact opposite. Every nice character is now awful, the awful characters have been given redeeming features, and people are married to/friends with people they barely spoke to previously. Obviously people change but that’s not what you want from a book like this!

100 Harriet by Jilly Cooper

Obviously very dated now and quite sexist but still good fun.

101 Life In A Cold Climate: Nancy Mitford The Biography by Laura Thompson

I think I would have struggled a bit with this if I didn’t already know a reasonable amount about the Mitford family, as this does jump around quite a bit. An interesting read though.

102 How Words Get Good: The Story of Making A Book by Rebecca Lee

As the title says - the process of creating a book. Lots of different chapters about various things to do with the writing and publishing process. I did enjoy this and found it interesting, but there are far too many footnotes (there’s even a chapter about footnotes!) which got annoying after a while. I read it in hardback so the footnotes are at least on the same page - I can imagine it would have been even more irritating on kindle where you have to keep moving back and forth.

I have dropped off the thread as I've found myself barely able to read due to an uncomplicated but unpleasant dose of Covid. I spent 10 days in bed binge-watching Parks and Recreation then the next two weeks mostly reading Ben Wyatt fan fiction (and I'm not even sorry 😀)

I'm now catching up with my War and Peace chapters and trying to find something that is both easy and engrossing, to get me back into books again. I did read 22. Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry, which was really just an extention of all the fanfic: A heart-wrenching YA book about two broken teens struggling to put the shattered pieces of their lives back together and finding love along the way . But was the level that my brain was able to cope with at the time.

I've agreed to join a book group with a friend and already remembering why I don't like being in a book group. I say that I want to read outside my comfort zone and try books that I wouldn't normally pick up, but it turns out that I am a massive snob (yeah, I recognise the irony given the reading I have reported in the previous paragraphs) and don't want to waste my time on poorly-written stuff from the 3 for £7 selection at Tesco..... Hopefully this month's choice is a blip as I like the group members and am optimistic that they could come up with some interesting choices. I think part of the problem is that the books are chosen by vote - the shortlist always contains a couple of wild card choices which look interesting but the majority vote lands with "The Lollypop Man's Daughter-in-Law" or "She Will Die"

I haven't read any of the Womens Prize books other than Sorrow and Bliss which I thought was well-written but deeply irritating. I also loved Erdrich's Night Watchman recently and will seek out a copy of The Sentence. I also LOVED Ruth Ozeki's Tale for the Time Being so generally I am looking forward to exploring the shortlisted books.

@Carriemac thanks - I’ll look out for that one! No other Rosie Thomas books in my library but maybe at some point I’ll get round to buying it…

Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro. Translated by Frances Riddle

Elena's daughter has been found hung in the local church. The authorities say it's suicide by Elena knows her daughter would never go to church in the rain and so starts a journey across Buenos Aires to ask an old contact to help. Elena has Parkinsons and her time is measured from pill to pill. Claudia Piñeiro is a very successful crime writer and this book makes use of the tropes of the genre while examining women's relationships with their bodies. Very readable but more than just a page turner.

15. Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
Non-fiction. The author lived in Odessa, Texas for a year to research and write about this community where life for many revolves around the fortunes of the high school football team. I think this is a very big, well known title among sports non-fiction, but I hadn't realised until I started reading that it was written in the late 1980s - my copy had a '10 years on' epilogue, but even it was written over 20 years ago. The key theme is really meant to be on the huge pressure that is on the shoulders of these teenage boys as they are lauded as local heroes and encouraged to focus on football ahead of all other aspects of life. They face the possibility that one injury could end their careers and their prospects for getting into college. For me, the racism in this community was shocking. Schools had largely been segregated until the early 1980s, and black pupils were still fairly unwelcome unless they happened to be physically mature/fast/strong in which case they were considered a valuable commodity for the football team. As a teacher, I found the sections about education really interesting too. 'Football' in this context is of course American football - the descriptions of matches confirmed to me that it has a language all of it's own and I am no closer to understanding how the sport actually works than I was before!
16. Beartown by Fredrik Backman
My favourite book of 2022 so far! I loved the setting (small town Sweden in winter), I loved the writing (felt like it jumped around a bit at first but settled into it, quite easy reading but sharing big reflections on life and relationships), I loved that the plot got me completely engrossed but I couldn't entirely see where it was going, I loved that it covered lots of shades of grey (there is a big thing that happens where one character is entirely in the wrong, but throughout the rest of the novel we can see what would be right or brave or what we want characters to do but also fully understand why they might make different choices) and I loved the cast of characters...will be following them in the next in the series :)
17. The Last Migration by Charlotte McConaghy
This was a library hardback - it seems to now be called Migrations in UK paperback and in other parts of the world.
In a future where climate change has led to the mass extinctions of many species, main character Franny is desperately trying to track and follow the remaining Arctic terns on what may be their last migration from the Arctic to Antarctica. Franny takes huge risks and it is not entirely clear what her motivation is. There are references to events and people from her past, and in flashback chapters her backstory is gradually revealed.
I think climate change is increasingly appearing as a theme in fiction and the depictions of the loss of wiildlife in this novel are pretty heartbreaking. I was interested in the main plot, although some elements required a little suspension of disbelief I felt. I found some of the mystery about Franny's backstory became annoying/frustrating, but all is ultimately revealed and that was really satisfying. I finished this yesterday and suspect it will really stay with me.
Two non-fiction reads on the go at the moment, and lots of fiction that I am looking forward to in May.

A few womens prize novels in this months deals - I picked up The Paper Palace and •already own Opal and Nev*

Diary of an MP's Wife is also in this months deal. I recall one or two people here enjoying that @PepeLePew

I’ve bought a few things - a very well-reviewed biography of Holbein; the first volume of A Horseman Riding By, and if anyone wants to read The Five or The Haunting of Alma Fielding, they’re down to 99p too.

I notice that they’re quietly bumping up the price of more 'deals' to well beyond my standard 99p….I suppose the general price increase is going to affect books too.

@Tarahumara and
Glad you enjoyed it! In the spirit of fairness, I must say that my OH was very much in #TeamCote. Me, I thought it

The Lamplighters is in the deal if anybody wants to see a good book go very bad.

I've bought The City We Became which has been on my list for ages, although I can't remember why.* *

@CluelessMama My Kindle tells me that I've read Beartown but I have precisely zero recollection of it!