the wonderful world of reading 2020 reading challenge thread

[Shirl]

1/40 50 Ways to Wear a Scarf - Lauren Friedman. Yes I know, but it's a hard back book and I read it cover to cover.
2/40 The house on the Strand - Daphne Du Maurier
3/40 Afternoon of a Good Woman - Nina Bawden
4/40 Familia Passions - Nina Bawden
5/40 Spiderweb - Penelope Lively (5 books in 10 days is a lot for me but I've spent an awful lot of time hanging around in hospitals + nothing much on the telly.
6/40 A Little Love, A Little Learning - Nina Bawden
7/40 The Day That Never Comes - Caimh McDonnell

 

[Detroit City]

I think so though I've never seen it. I usually prefer books to films so I'm really ignorant of films. I mean, I'm not that well read either, but still...

I enjoyed the movie thoroughly, probably seen it 3 or 4 times. You would enjoy it

 

[braindancer]

1/30 - Now in November - Josephine Johnson
2/30 - The Wanderers - Richard Price
3/30 - The Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov
4/30 - The Naked Sun - Isaac Asimov

 

[MsHopper]

How was this?

Very readable - quite a lot of breadth and interesting anecdotes the women included. I had heard of very few of the women
However it didn't have lot of depth. I enjoyed it tho and would recommend it.

 

[MsHopper]

1/50 Bloody Brilliant Women - Cathy Newman
2/50 A Perfectly Good Man - Patrick Gale
3/50 All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

4/50 I Invited her in - Adele Parks
5/50 Wakenhyrst - Michelle Paver

 

[pennimania]

1. The Generous Earth - Philip Oyler
2. Excitements at the Chalet School
3. The New Mistress at the Chalet School
4. Betty: the story of Betty MacDonald - Anne Wellman
5. The Coming of Age of the Chalet School - Elinor Brent Dye

6. Riding with the Lintons - Diana Pullein Thompson

 

[pennimania]

1/40 50 Ways to Wear a Scarf - Lauren Friedman. Yes I know, but it's a hard back book and I read it cover to cover.
2/40 The house on the Strand - Daphne Du Maurier
3/40 Afternoon of a Good Woman - Nina Bawden
4/40 Familia Passions - Nina Bawden
5/40 Spiderweb - Penelope Lively (5 books in 10 days is a lot for me but I've spent an awful lot of time hanging around in hospitals + nothing much on the telly.
6/40 A Little Love, A Little Learning - Nina Bawden
7/40 The Day That Never Comes - Caimh McDonnell

I love Nina Bawden novels

 

[Shirl]

I love Nina Bawden novels

Apart from The Secret Garden I've only just discovered them. I love them too.

 

[Winot]

1/19 Normal People - Sally Rooney

2/19 Prospero's America: John Winthrop, Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture, 1606-1676 - Walter Woodward

 

[May Kasahara]

1. ed. Dan Coxon - Tales from the Shadow Booth vol.3.
2. The Lonely Crowd issue 9.

3. Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Lives and Others. I appreciated these stories very much, for the rigorous exercise of ideas and imagination they offer, as well as for their clarity, but I did miss feeling any genuine emotional connection to most of them.

 

[Ptolemy]

1/30. Royal Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty. - Karl Shaw.
2/30. Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Stories - Unknown (translated by Hermann Palsson).
3/30. Born 1900 - Hunter Davies.
4/30. The Pearl - John Steinbeck.
5/30. A Journal of the Plague Year - Daniel Defoe.
6/30. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick.
7/30. A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf.
8/30. First Love - Ivan Turgenev.
9/30. The Color Purple - Alice Walker.
10/30. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger (re-read)
11/30. The Last Man - Mary Shelley.

 

[BoatieBird]

1/70 - Shirley Jackson - The Bird's Nest
2/70 - Annie Proulx - Accordion Crimes (re-read)
3/70 - Liz Nugent - Unravelling Oliver
4/70 - Elizabeth Strout - Anything is Possible

5/70 - Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones

 

[Biddlybee]

1. ed. Dan Coxon - Tales from the Shadow Booth vol.3.
2. The Lonely Crowd issue 9.

3. Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Lives and Others. I appreciated these stories very much, for the rigorous exercise of ideas and imagination they offer, as well as for their clarity, but I did miss feeling any genuine emotional connection to most of them.

Hmm, was next on my list. Might rethink.

 

[May Kasahara]

I'd still recommend it as an interesting read Biddlybee. Just wouldn't rush to read anything else of his above other stuff, I suppose.

 

[Biddlybee]

Think I'll bump it down

 

[QueenOfGoths]

1. "Tombland" - C. J. Sansom. Very good historical thriller, both the story and characters were brought to life well. Rather long though!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

3/30 Mark Hayes - The Trouble With National Action
4/30 Daniel Sonabend - We Fight Fascists: The 43 Group and Their Forgotten Battle for Post-War Britain

I thought that Sonabend was OK as a way of expanding the the original book on the 43 Group by Maurice Beckman. But not as good as that one.

 

[imposs1904]

1/26 Smart Moves by Stuart M. Kaminsky
2/26 Think Fast, Mr. Peters by Stuart M. Kaminsky
3/26 Buried Caesars by Stuart M. Kaminsky

4/26 Hunting Grounds: A Scottish Football Safari by Gary Sutherland

 

[bellaozzydog]

1/59 Mortal causes, Ian Rankin a Rebus novel
2/59 Let it bleed Ian Rankin a Rebus novel
3/59 I know why the caged bird sings, Maya Angelou
4/59 Adolph Hitler, My part in his downfall. Spike Milligan
5/59 Rommel, Gunner who? Spike Milligan
6/59 Mussolini, his part in my downfall. Spike Milligan
7/59 Where have all the bullets gone? Spike Milligan
8/59 Diary of a nobody. George & Weedon Grosssmith
9/59 Black and blue, Ian Rankin a Rebus novel

 

[Smokeandsteam]

1/40: Ben Pimblott - Harold Wilson
2/40: Raymond Williams - Border Country
3/40 : Neil Campbell - Lanyards
4/40: Steve Wright - Storming Heaven
5/40: David Wilkinson - Post-Punk, Politics and Pleasure in Britain
6/40: Martin Upham - Tempered not Quenched: The History of the Iron and Steel Confederation

 

[gawkrodger]

Had a very slow start to the year, laregly due to work and being paid to do a qualification.

1) Kate Evans - Red Rosa (only the 3rd graphic novel I have ever read. Hugely enjoyed this)
2) Daniel Finn -One Man's Terrorist. A political history of the IRA

 

[Ptolemy]

1/30. Royal Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty. - Karl Shaw.
2/30. Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Stories - Unknown (translated by Hermann Palsson).
3/30. Born 1900 - Hunter Davies.
4/30. The Pearl - John Steinbeck.
5/30. A Journal of the Plague Year - Daniel Defoe.
6/30. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick.
7/30. A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf.
8/30. First Love - Ivan Turgenev.
9/30. The Color Purple - Alice Walker.
10/30. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger (re-read)
11/30. The Last Man - Mary Shelley.
12/30. A Very Easy Death - Simone de Beauvoir.

 

[Me76]

L - library
Ld - my sister's library

1/50 The Gallows Pole, Benjamin Myers - Ld
2/50 You, Caroline Kepnes - Ld
3/50 Women Within, Anne Leigh Parrish
4/50 Life After Life, Kate Atkinson - Ld - enjoyed this. An interesting concept that isn't laboured and gives you lots of stories in one book.

 

[PursuedByBears]

1/50 Hilary Hinds - A Cultural History of Twin Beds
2/50 Alan Garner - Boneland
3/50 James Herriot - All Things Bright and Beautiful
4/50 Philip Pullman - The Secret Commonwealth

5/50 Edgar Allan Poe - Tales of Mystery and Terror

 

[chilango]

11/100: For a critique of the political economy of the sign - Jean Baudrillard.

Edit to add: I enjoyed this at the start. I liked his stuff on "objects" and consumption as status. Though it read as quite dated now (the stuff on TV sets for example) but once he started trying to construct a theory with equations and stuff I felt he'd pushed it too far.

 

[chilango]

3/30 Mark Hayes - The Trouble With National Action
4/30 Daniel Sonabend - We Fight Fascists: The 43 Group and Their Forgotten Battle for Post-War Britain

I thought that Sonabend was OK as a way of expanding the the original book on the 43 Group by Maurice Beckman. But not as good as that one.

Is that Hayes book any good? I heard it was quite a "thin" book in both senses?

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Is that Hayes book any good? I heard it was quite a "thin" book in both senses?

It's basically an essay and is an OK overview of NA statements, and things that have appeared in the press about convictions etc.

There is a useful and entertaining review on libcom which covers some of the on the ground stuff that happened when NA organised things:

The Trouble With The Freedom Press Book About National Action

There is no mention of the militant anti-fascists who physically opposed the neo-Nazi group throughout their existence

libcom.org

 

[BoatieBird]

1/70 - Shirley Jackson - The Bird's Nest
2/70 - Annie Proulx - Accordion Crimes (re-read)
3/70 - Liz Nugent - Unravelling Oliver
4/70 - Elizabeth Strout - Anything is Possible
5/70 - Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones

6/70 - Ruth Rendell - Make Death Love Me (re-read)

 

[Ptolemy]

1/30. Royal Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty. - Karl Shaw.
2/30. Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Stories - Unknown (translated by Hermann Palsson).
3/30. Born 1900 - Hunter Davies.
4/30. The Pearl - John Steinbeck.
5/30. A Journal of the Plague Year - Daniel Defoe.
6/30. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick.
7/30. A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf.
8/30. First Love - Ivan Turgenev.
9/30. The Color Purple - Alice Walker.
10/30. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger (re-read)
11/30. The Last Man - Mary Shelley.
12/30. A Very Easy Death - Simone de Beauvoir.
13/30. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys.

 

[Shirl]

1/40 50 Ways to Wear a Scarf - Lauren Friedman. Yes I know, but it's a hard back book and I read it cover to cover.
2/40 The house on the Strand - Daphne Du Maurier
3/40 Afternoon of a Good Woman - Nina Bawden
4/40 Familia Passions - Nina Bawden
5/40 Spiderweb - Penelope Lively (5 books in 10 days is a lot for me but I've spent an awful lot of time hanging around in hospitals + nothing much on the telly.
6/40 A Little Love, A Little Learning - Nina Bawden
7/40 The Day That Never Comes - Caimh McDonnell
8/40 In Search of the Rainbow's End: Inside the White House Farm Murders - Colin Caffell


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