50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Five

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth 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, the third one here and the fourth one here.

What are you reading?

If you have a link to one feel free to PM it although I'm sure others would be interested on this thread.

Ten Cities that Led the World: From Ancient Metropolis to Modern Megacity by Paul Strathern

This is hands down the worst book I have read this year. I actually plan to dispose of it in the bin, rather than donate it. I should have known from that title, but I was taken in by the pretty cover.

The writer has picked ten cities that he believes have the led world. It’s a pretty decent, if predictable collection. I quite liked the Babylon chapter since I don’t know anything about Babylon, but by the time we got to more modern history and things I do know about I just lost faith in the rest of it.

I understand that this is a popular history book, so space for nuance and explanation is limited, but the attached two instances are just two ‘highlights’ to illustrate what I mean.

Persevering on with Ducks then

I may be the last person on earth to know this but sharing just in case - did you all already know that as well as kindle daily and monthly deals, there's a weekly deal?! I had no idea!

Talking of deals, I've just picked up Small things like these by Claire Keegan in today's kindle deal

28. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

My latest installment in PG's plantagenet/tudor series. This one covers Henry VIII's fourth and fifth wives, Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard. Both of these women are people we know very little about and Gregory admits in her Author's Note that there's a lot of conjecture, but I personally like the way she fleshes out their storylines and personalities. Her take on Anne of Cleves' childhood with her brother is quite a bold route to go down but her views on Katherine Howard are ones I personally agree with. Katherine has received a lot of criticism over the centuries but I think it needs to be remembered how young she was and how old Henry was and the terrible physical shape he was in by that point in his life.

This is definitely one of the better books in the series, I think the series gets weaker as you move through the writing order, as if Gregory was just churning them out rather than taking her time to really flesh out her characters and storylines

Noodle - ha! I had a similar revelation literally yesterday. Who knew? Not me, evidently!

74: The Trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover - Sybille Bedford

This is a very short book, more of an extended essay really, in which Bedford (who'd written a fascinating account of the murder trail of Dr John Bodkin Adams in 1957) returned to the Old Bailey 3 years later to cover the sensational case of Regina vs Penguin Books Ltd. They were on the stand for having celebrated their 25th anniversary (and the 75th anniversary of the writer's birth) by issuing an unexpurgated edition of D H Lawrence's novel.

Bedford is clearly incredulous that, in 1960, such a prosecution should ever be brought - an act of Parliament had been passed barely a year before that should have protected works of literature against claims of obscenity - and her descriptions of the outrage of the prosecuting counsel, Mr Griffith-Jones, are magnificently withering (and hilarious at times)….he was the one who famously asked the jury Is it a book you would wish your wife or your servant to read?

I was left slightly wishing this had been a longer account, but it was written as an extended magazine feature and she didn’t decide to work it up into a book. However, there’s another entertaining look at the trial in Thomas Grant's book Case Histories, his biog of the barrister Jeremy Hutchinson, who was one of the defence team.

Apologies for spamming the thread but I've just noticed that Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is also in the daily deals today - an absolute bargain if you have an interest in history and how very rare and ancient texts are transmitted through the ages.

Admittedly the illustrations aren’t going to be the greatest in the kindle edition but it’s such a great book, I’d get it in a heartbeat anyway (and you could probably find web pages with the illustrations online).

The Ink Black Heart - Robert Galbraith

Oh where to begin? We all know Rowling needs a lot more editing than she gets and never more so than here. Far too many characters; after a while I began to forget who was who and couldn’t tell them apart. The story is about the online fandom of a cartoon series who turn against the creators, specifically the female partner.
There’s a lot that is interesting in here, far right conspiracy theories, online pick up artists, the abuse women get online - but there’s just too much of it. There’s also a hugely irritating problem (for me anyway) in that large sections of text consisted of messaging between people playing an online game - in three columns reading vertically on the page in tiny writing which wouldn’t enlarge on my Kindle. I found it infuriating and gave up the first time I tried to read it. A really accessibility problem and I skipped a lot of it.

Robin and Strike’s relationship remains the best thing about the series and I’ll probably read the next one because of them, fool that I am.

Are you still in the holiday cottage, Best? Can you now hit the holiday cottage bookshelf? Bliss!

😅enjoy your holiday, Best.

Too much choice Biblio. Don’t know where to begin!

68. The Problem With Men: When Is International Men's Day? By Richard Herring

If you have ever been on Twitter on International Women's Day you'll probably have seen comedian Richard Herring's Herculean attempts to reply to every misogynistic idiot who thinks they are oh so clever in asking "So when is International Men's Day?" Spoiler alert: it's 19th November.

After a couple of years of dealing with this nonsense Richard Herring used this as an opportunity to raise money for Refuge, while dishing out humorous responses to idiots, and to date he has raised hundreds of thousands pounds. In this short book he goes into a little more detail on why people even ask this question.

As someone who has read a fair amount about 'women's issues' and misogyny I didn't think I'd learn much from this book and while there was a lot I did already know there were definitely some facts that were new to me. I found this a quick and easy read which made me chuckle a fair few times.

I love a holiday cottage selection!

I think someone in my village works in publishing as we’ve found a house that often leaves brand new copies of recent releases outside. Yesterday I got The Book of Form and Emptiness and Entangled Life now I just need to find an excuse to walk passed every day.

Its a good day for Kindle deals - the Excellent 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism by Ha Joon Chang is also on there for 99p. (Particularly helpful right now in making sense of a lot of the news )

I can't see weekly deals - is there a link, please? Thanks!

smile.amazon.co.uk/s?rh=n%3A28746997031&pf_rd_i=3017941031&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_p=aa285e53-9829-484b-89e5-79905ba44d97&pf_rd_r=CFBBMAV2T5DR82H13JHE&pf_rd_s=mobile-hybrid-7&pf_rd_t=30901&ref=mh_s9_acsd_al_c2_x_c2cl

212 The Blessing by Nancy Mitford

An English woman marries a French nobleman and discovers that life in France is not what she expected. Funny but not one of Mitford’s best.

213 The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

About ten years after everyone else I have finally got round to reading the first in the Strike series. Not much to say as everyone else on here has already read it but I enjoyed it and will definitely read the others.

214 Last Chance Saloon by Marian Keyes

A reread of one of Keynes’s earlier books. Some of the references are rather dated now but I still really enjoyed it.

215 The Self-Help Bible: All The Answers For A Happier, Healthier Life by George Mahood

I’m not a fan of self help books but I am a fan of George Mahood’s books. Here George distils lots of advice from lots of different self help books. Nothing particularly groundbreaking but easy to read and some things I will try to put into practice.

216 Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Carrie Soto is a tennis player who comes out of retirement when it looks like someone is going to steal her Grand Slam record. I really enjoyed this but I am a big tennis fan. If you don’t like tennis you may get bored of some of the descriptions of matches and training sessions. Carrie is also a hard character to like as she’s very arrogant. One thing I did find very annoying is that Carrie and her father often speak Spanish to each other but there’s no translation of this in the book so if you don’t speak Spanish (I don’t) you will miss what they’re saying.

@ChessieFL

We have almost identical thoughts on Carrie Soto

I was going to say no, so thank you to Chessie for finding it! I only found it by going to the general 'Kindle Book Deals' page and scrolling down.

That’s probably an easier way to find it again in future noodle.

I had no idea at all about the kindle weekly deals, not sure how I missed that!

Trying to catch up on reviews; these go back to earlier in the year when I was so preoccupied with work that I didn’t have time to review what I was reading

46. Georgia Pritchett, My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety 4/5
    A memoir by a comedian and screenwriter (she is a writer for the show Succession and has a very impressive CV). Short, funny chapters that also become very moving when she talks about parenthood. I found her descriptions of anxiety highly relatable, and I admire the way she turns anxiety into fodder for comedy. Recommended.

47. Jenny Diski, Monkey’s Uncle 4/5
    My first encounter with Jenny Diski, who is clearly a woman of formidable intellect. This novel is dense but it was worth persevering. The heroine has a bout of psychosis and though part of her is able to carry on in everyday life afterward, another part lives in a dreamworld and chats with Freud, Marx, Darwin and a talking monkey. Yes, really. The historical figure Robert Fitzroy also appears as a character: a British naval officer who took Darwin on the famous voyage that culminated in On the Origin of Species. Diski’s heroine reads about Fitzroy and identifies with his mental instability (he ultimately committed suicide). A weird, dark, satirical book but not an unhopeful one.

48. Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions 5/5
    Recommended previously on this book thread, but I can’t recall by whom. A powerful account of a young girl growing up in colonial Rhodesia, and acquiring an education in a white missionary school. This is a novel but feels like a memoir. The heroine Tambu has difficult relationships with her family, but relationships of solidarity between women are highlighted. The title is a reference to Frantz Fanon and the psychological difficulty of living under colonialism.

49. Sarah Polley, Run Towards the Danger 5/5
    A marvellously thought-provoking collection of autobiographical essays by the Canadian actor and film director. I loved this. The essay topics range from child celebrity (Polley was a child actor) to sexual assault and the Me Too movement to motherhood to physical illness. Polley is warm and wise and the kind of person you feel like you would like to know in real life.

50. Elizabeth Strout, Olive, Again 5/5
    This was a reread for my book group so I won’t review it again, but it held up well to a second reading. I love Strout.

@Southeastdweller - we’re going to need a new thread…

I'm still backlogging and have more to add, but first of all just to say, if you're a William Boyd fan, his novels are on the daily deal today (I've just bought several).

No Room for Secrets Joanna Lumley's autobiog. From about 2002, so not that up to date, but it covers Ab Fab. It's structured as her giving a tour through her house to an imaginary visitor who critiques the gaff and asks (im)pertinent questions about her life. She is seriously nuts, in the most likeable and entertaining way. A lovely read.

Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks, Keith Houston I'm a nerd so I liked this. It's very accessible and readable, all about, obviously, punctuation/typographical marks: their history, origins etc.

The Mare, Mary Gaitskill Written from the POV of an 11-year-old Dominican girl from Crown Heights, a poor area of Brooklyn, who is sent to stay with a white middle-class couple in a small town upstate as part of a government scheme. She bonds with a difficult, 'dangerous' horse at a nearby riding stables, and turns out to be a natural horsewoman. It is basically the story of her relationship with the horse, with the 'foster' couple, her own mother and brother and her wider community at school and home.
The protagonist's voice isn't always totally convincing; it's hard to sustain a whole novel this way, I think. And I thought the voice of the 'foster' woman sometimes sounded oddly like hers. But it's largely very captivating. I loved the material about the girl's relationship with the horse (I adored horses and riding as a child). Her life in Brooklyn is quite shocking sometimes in its neglect, violence and hopelessness, but there is much that's positive in the novel too. It could easily have been very cliched, but I found it surprising. Recommended.

Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley Starts not with 'Now' or 'So' but 'Bro' . Super-lively, perceptive and entertaining translation with some truly beautiful language. Makes you think differently about all the characters, particularly for me Grendel's mother, who is not just a monster here. A rollicking read and a very clever and thoughtful one too.