50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Seven

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh and (and probably) final 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, and even though it's late in the year, it’s not too late to join. Please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

How have you got on this year?

What a great literary debate for the Christmas holidays! I do like Jane Eyre and see Jane as a heroine, though I read it very young and was bored rigid by the last third when she left Rochester's house. I saw a wonderful stage adaptation of it a few years ago as well.

But a family friend lent me Wide Sargasso Sea as a teenager which definitely changed my views. Then I did a module at university on women and the gothic, where Jane Eyre really is a seminal text and you start to see the motif of the hidden, bad wife appear over and over again (Rebecca most notably of course). Since then I'm afraid I've seen Rochester as one of the great malevolent figures in literature.

68. The Heron's Cry by Ann Cleeves. Second in her newest Two Rivers detective series. As someone said recently, these have a really cosy and neat feel to them. I enjoy her descriptions of various country pubs, beach cafes and art centres as much as the murder mystery.

Austen is pre-Victorian.

Here’s a more balanced review of Jane Eyre:
The Jane and Rochester stuff is great. The rest is boring and shit. And totally agree with whoever said that the ending is sexy.

But the school stuff is so boring that I can’t even care when whatshername dies. And the StJohn stuff makes me want to vomit from boredom and fury.

I LOVED Jane Eyre (and Wuthering Heights). But I read (and re-read, many times) both as a teenager and haven't revisited them since, so I'm not sure how well they would work for me as an adult. Never read Wide Sargasso Sea.

51. Christmas is murder by Val McDermid

Quite liked these short stories but pretty sure only one was set at Christmas which is a bit disappointing given that's why I got it!

I know quite a few of you lot really like her full novels and will probably read one in 2023, it's not a genre I read much so quite looking forward to something new!

I love how differently we all feel about books like Jane Eyre, one of the joys of this thread (along with discovering books like Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts which I would never normally have picked up, and is currently my gentle bedtime read). Lowood was absolutely my favourite part, and I love how you can see the influence on children's books like The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Thursday's Child.

On a separate note, any recommendations for a favourite Hardy other than Jude & Tess which I've read in the long-distant past?). A conversation in a pub persuaded me I should re-visit him, but only gave 'all of them' as the answer to which one. Farming and countryside content a plus

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is my favourite Bronte. And The Bronte Myth, by Lucasta Miller is my favourite book about the family.

Have read 140 books and close to finishing three more: The Christmas Chronicles, by Nigel Slater (tooth-grindingly tweet but the Christmas Eve parsnip loaf was an unexpected hit); A Year of Wonder, by Clemency Burton-Hill, which suggests a piece of classical music for every day and has expanded my horizons - a tip of the hat to Fuzzy for keeping the thread going; the fourth Quantum Curators book, hokum but fun.

Of the 140 completed, 74 were non-fiction and 66 fiction, mostly crime, with 16 by Agatha Christie, as well as series by Alison Joseph and Colin Cotterill.

Favourite fiction:

O Caledonia, by Elspeth Barker
The Sentence, by Louise be Erdrich
Hurdy Gurdy, by Christopher Wilson (not at the time, but it's stuck with me).

Favourite non-fiction:
Hidden Hands, by Mary Wellesley (about medieval manuscripts, so cassandre,* loved your link and I look forward to the future book that someone undoubtedly will write)
The Button Box, by Lynn Knight
Lost Japan, Alex Kerr
The Dancing Bear, by Frances Faviell.

I'm proudest of having finished Tristram Shandy and loved visiting Shandy Hall back in May. It worked well to tackle it a couple of pages per day and I'm going to try this with a couple of Simon Schama books I have on hand. Other than that, my aim is to read at least two physical books I own each month - I prioritize library books and read Kindle when on the move, so the physical books I own rarely make it to the top of the pile.

*twee not tweet

I haven't done well in terms of diversity - nothing in another language or in translation, and only three by authors I know to be non-white.

@Sadik I really liked The Mayor of Casterbridge the only other Thomas Hardy book I've read was Far From the Madding Crowd which I wasn't that keen on.

I’m another who fell in love with Jane Eyre at 11 when I was given it for Christmas. I read it again a couple of years ago and enjoyed it but, good grief, had forgotten the stonking coincidence. I loved the Lowood bits as a child.

We love Gavin and Stacey here. I was working in Cardiff when it was originally shown and everyone else on my team was from Barry. Some of it was so true to life.

Daughters of Yalta by Catherine Grace Katz This was a really interesting account of the Yalta Conference in 1945, the political background and proposals for the imminent end of war with regards to collective security and self-determination (particularly for Poland). I had no idea that Sarah Churchill, Anna Roosevelt and Kathleen Harriman (daughter of the US Ambassador to the USSR) had accompanied and supported their fathers at the Conference, and their involvement provides a backdrop for a more intimate account of the conditions (eg serious illness, bedbugs and very limited sanitation) as well as the personal background of these interlinked political families. It is a well written and compelling account but I was occasionally irritated by Katz's attempts at embellishing the narrative with, frankly, silly and unnecessary conjecture ("When she (Sarah Churchill) arrived she immediately went up to see her father , who was dressing for dinner. While meticulously brushing the two or three hairs that remained on his otherwise bald head, he conspiratorially turned to Sarah....." Overall it's a great read and although primarily an overview of the Conference, it is an interesting insight into the lives of three extremely capable and intelligent women, and the choices they had to make. The final chapter, After Yalta, shows this particularly starkly with regards to Anna Roosevelt who always seemed to prioritise the men in her life, but it also highlights the devastating effects that the War had on those who lived through it.

Loving the last couple of days' chat.
Have only read a children's version of Jane Eyre iirc. My dad bought me a series when I was about 10. Lorna Doone, Little Women, Jane Eyre. Etc. I saw it at the cinema and hated it. But that was perhaps due to an irrational hatred of watching films in company with my shoes on (I've been to the cinema 7 times in my life) and the actress. It was (Google tells me) the Charlotte Gainsbourg version.

I'm going to try and read more classics next year (famous last words) so might have a bash at the book.

Love the medieval controversy. Carla Rossi is such a Jane Doe name. Bet she'll be called something else entirely really.

I never saw Gavin and Stacey first time round, and eventually got the box set a couple of years ago. Tbh, I didn't totally "get" it, (also probably due to watching them late at night and falling asleep) and the fact that, for me, like Harry Potter himself is the weakest link in Harry Potter, Gavin and Stacey are the weakest links in G&S. I also hated Alison Steadman in P&P. HOWEVER, thanks to the rewatch when properly awake, it's bloody brilliant. Alison Steadman and Ruth Jones in particular are just perfect. (I still think Stacey is a bit crap but I suppose she's supposed to be) I also realised I hadn't seen the more recent Christmas special so that was a treat.

Stacey is a bit crap, and Gavin is really annoying. The others are sheer delight, all of them. I adore Doris and aspire to be her when I get older. Some of my favourite lines are from the minor characters although Nessa will always have my heart.
I did go looking for a book of the scripts a while back but didn't have much joy. I remember getting Yes Minister and Faulty Towers scripts for Christmas years ago and loving them both.

Gavin and Stacey are definitely the weakest characters in Gavin & Stacey. I love Alison Steadman as Pam, she’s just brilliant.

Sadik, I'd also vote for Mayor of Casterbridge as the best Hardy. It really is all his best themes - fate and character, bucolic splendour, rising and falling fortunes. I read it for A-level and it didn't ruin it for me - I think I got more out of being forced to do a close read.

I like both the Mayor of Casterbridge and Far From the Madding Crowd.
One of my earliest Christmas memories is seeing the film of the latter at my gran's on Boxing Day. Early 70s probably.

I’ve been utterly baffled in the past by some of the Jane/Rochester castings in film and TV adaptations of Jane Eyre.

'Poor, obscure, plain and little' is how Jane (= Charlotte) describes herself. So who do we get?

Joan Fontaine (with Orson Welles 🥴)
Susannah York (with George C Scott 🤔)
Charlotte Gainsbourg (with William Hurt 🙄)
Mia Wasikowska (with Michael Fassbender 🤦‍♀️)

I think Samatha Morton and Ciaran Hinds were nearer the ideal in my mind, and I’m ancient enough to have had the definitive Jane/Rochester fixed for me forever by Sorcha Cusack and Michael Jayston in the 70s TV adaptation.

I loved the 1970s adaptation and thought Michael Jayston was (in the words of the time) very dishy. I hadn't read the book and found the goings-on in the attic absolutely chilling (and was quite scared going up to bed straight afterwards).

I thought Ruth Wilson was perfectly cast in the TV series.

Goodness, I've just looked up the cast list from the 1973 BBC adaptation and what stars! Stephanie Beacham as Blanche Ingram and Geoffrey Whitehead as St John Rivers! And Sorcha was one of the Cusak girls. Thanks for reminding me Terpsichore.

Cusack

Ha! And Lizzie Dripping played Helen Burns!!

I hated it too but loved Jane eyre

20) Manchester Fourteen Miles by Margaret Penn

My final book of the year and already well reviewed by @Terpsichore but briefly it is about Hilda Winstanley a young girl living a village life set in Lancashire Moss Ferry. I really enjoyed this for the cosy read it has been. It reminded me a little of Anne of Green Gables as Hilda is a feisty character just like Anne. The author is actually Hilda Winstanley herself. I have been debating if I should get the next books in the trilogy as I know from Terpsichore’s reviews that her life goes quite sadly in the last book of the trilogy but curiosity has got the better of me and I am going to order the next two. On reflection though I hope her life went okay as she got the opportunity to get her work published. I loved how she really tried and worked at her education. Thanks again for your review @Terpsichore as really enjoyed this Gem.