2019 50 Book Challenge

[Geoffrey Firmin]

@California Dreamer don’t know about ‘woke’ but it’s been a while since I’ve read or seen a real Neanderthal troglodyte cooper. Will see if there in the library.

 

[California Dreamer]

@California Dreamer don’t know about ‘woke’ but it’s been a while since I’ve read or seen a real Neanderthal troglodyte cooper. Will see if there in the library.

Have you read any of Persson before? Backstrom appears as a minor character in the Story of a Crime trilogy and also in The Dying Detective. The Backstrom series starts with Linda, As In the Linda Murder.

 

[LonerMatt]

Spoiler: List

1. The Broken Kingdoms
2. The Kingdom of Gods
3. Semiosis
4. Bridge of Clay
5. Blackwater City
6. Bullshit Jobs: a Theory
7. Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire
8. The People vs Tech
9. The Outrun
10 Ancillary Justice
11. Words without Music
12. Digital Minimalism
13. When Rivers Run Dry
14. The Uninhabitable Earth
15. Do we need inequality?
16. Carbon Ideologies: No Immediate Danger
17. The Secret Life of Trees
18. Educated
19. River of Doubt
20. Holy Sister
21. A War in Crimson Embers
22. Ancillary Sword
23. Ancillary Mercy
24. One Way
25. The Raven's Tower
26. Dark Emu
27. A Memory Called Empire
28. A Forest of Wood and Steel
29. Makers
30. Pink Mountain on Locust Island
31. The Summon Stone
32. Fallen Gate
33. Senlin Ascends
34. Howling Dark
35. Arm of the Sphinx
36. Fall, or Dodge in Hell
37. The Hod King
38. Boy Swallows Universe
39. Ancestral Night
40 Inappropration
41. Ordinary People
42. 21 lessons for the 21st century
43. There There
44. Stumbling upon happiness
45. Dark Matter
46. Children of Time
47. Middle Game
48. Recursion
49. Convenience Store Woman
50. Black Friday
51. White Girl
52. Photowork
53. The boy behind the curtain
54. Walking
55. Silence
56. H is for Hawk

56. H is for Hawk

I've been spending a lot of my free time around birds of prey recently, so when I checked this out of the library I was keen to read a bit more philosophising and celebrating about these animals.

Helen - the author - experiences a terrible bout of depression after her father's death, she finds some redemption in the training of a goshawk, a species that is often maligned even among the falconry community. Helen gradually overcomes her depression, and her interactions with the bird make up a rough half of the book.

The other half of the book is her response to an EB White (the author) novel 'Goshawk' where she reads into his actions with his goshawk as a metaphor for his beliefs about himself and his place in the world. What she doesn't do (although I believe she encourages the reader to do) is to make those connections between her methods and her beliefs about herself.

The book garnered a lot of praise, and certainly there's a lot to love. I found myself often bored by the response to EB White's text, finding them dull and laborious. I just cannot bring myself to care about him, since the story was about her.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

60.The Samurai by Shusaku Endo

I initially read this book when it was released back in English in 1983. Overall it reminded me of The Myth of Sisyphus and Camus, mind you I never agreed with Camus that Sisyphus accepted his fate.

Thirty six years between reads and I still think this is quite a remarkable novel. The hubris of the priest and obscenity of politics stand out more so today because of the times we are in.

It is IMHO quite a remarkable novel. I never considered it to be an adventure novel based on historical circumstances but one about the excess of faith, fatalism, existentialIsm and power.

Overall it asks some interesting questions about futility, existence and obligation.

 

[Fueco]

124. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, by Al Switzler, Joseph Grenny, and Ron McMillan

 

[Fueco]

125. Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad

I’ve been working through this one since July, and finally finished it in time to make it #125 of the year. It starts off slow, but the action in second half makes for quicker reading.

Against a vivid backdrop of the sea and the East Indies, Conrad tells a penetrating story of a young man’s struggle to overcome the evil he sees in himself. Prompted by cowardice, Chief Mate Jim abandons 800 passengers on bard his sinking ship. Condemned by the world and a disgrace to himself, Jim spends the rest of his life hounded by a sense of moral failure. He escapes to an exotic, primitive island where he is received as a god, and there falls in love with a beautiful native woman. He attains final spiritual peace of mind by an unexpected and inspired act of courage.

 

[jeradjames]

43. The Undiscovered Self - CG Jung
44. Beware of Pity - Stefan Zweig

 

[LonerMatt]

Spoiler: List

1. The Broken Kingdoms
2. The Kingdom of Gods
3. Semiosis
4. Bridge of Clay
5. Blackwater City
6. Bullshit Jobs: a Theory
7. Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire
8. The People vs Tech
9. The Outrun
10 Ancillary Justice
11. Words without Music
12. Digital Minimalism
13. When Rivers Run Dry
14. The Uninhabitable Earth
15. Do we need inequality?
16. Carbon Ideologies: No Immediate Danger
17. The Secret Life of Trees
18. Educated
19. River of Doubt
20. Holy Sister
21. A War in Crimson Embers
22. Ancillary Sword
23. Ancillary Mercy
24. One Way
25. The Raven's Tower
26. Dark Emu
27. A Memory Called Empire
28. A Forest of Wood and Steel
29. Makers
30. Pink Mountain on Locust Island
31. The Summon Stone
32. Fallen Gate
33. Senlin Ascends
34. Howling Dark
35. Arm of the Sphinx
36. Fall, or Dodge in Hell
37. The Hod King
38. Boy Swallows Universe
39. Ancestral Night
40 Inappropration
41. Ordinary People
42. 21 lessons for the 21st century
43. There There
44. Stumbling upon happiness
45. Dark Matter
46. Children of Time
47. Middle Game
48. Recursion
49. Convenience Store Woman
50. Black Friday
51. White Girl
52. Photowork
53. The boy behind the curtain
54. Walking
55. Silence
56. H is for Hawk
57. Blue Meridian

57. Blue Meridian

This book traces the first attempt to use shark cages and underwater photography to film the Great White Shark, an animal that, at the time, was incredibly unknown. AN interesting book that covers whaling, tiger sharks, conservation, boredom, repetition, team dynamics and the conflicting desire to see something that's feared, a great read.

 

[mak1277]

125. Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad

I’ve been working through this one since July, and finally finished it in time to make it #125 of the year. It starts off slow, but the action in second half makes for quicker reading.

Against a vivid backdrop of the sea and the East Indies, Conrad tells a penetrating story of a young man’s struggle to overcome the evil he sees in himself. Prompted by cowardice, Chief Mate Jim abandons 800 passengers on bard his sinking ship. Condemned by the world and a disgrace to himself, Jim spends the rest of his life hounded by a sense of moral failure. He escapes to an exotic, primitive island where he is received as a god, and there falls in love with a beautiful native woman. He attains final spiritual peace of mind by an unexpected and inspired act of courage.

View attachment 1301612

Is Lord Jim as good as Lucky Jim?

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

43. The Undiscovered Self - CG Jung
44. Beware of Pity - Stefan Zweig

What other Jung have you read?

 

[California Dreamer]

Spoiler: Previously Read

1. Andy Kaufman: The Truth, Finally, by Bob Zmuda and Lynne Margulies
2. Illustrado, by Miguel Syjuco
3. Kill 'Em All, by John Niven[
4. The Black Monday Murders, volume 1: All Hail God Mammon, by Jonathon Hickman
5. Bad News, by Edward St. Aubyn
6. Education, by Tara Westover
7. Europe: A Natural History, by Tim Flannery
8. No Tomorrow, by Luke Jennings
9. Scrublands, by Chris Hammer
10. The Kingdom, by Fuminori Nakamura
11. The White Darkness, by David Grann
12. Sacred Cesium Ground and Isa's Deluge, by Yusuke Kimura
13. The Black Monday Murders, Volume 2: The Scales, by Jonathon Hickman
14. Dark Echoes of the Past, by Roman Diaz Eterovic
15. Acute Misfortune, by Erik Jensen
16. The Low Road, by Chris Womersley
17. Steve Smith's Men: Behind Australian Cricket's Fall, by Geoff Lemon
18. River of Salt, by Dave Warner
19. City of a Million Dreams, by Jason Berry
20. Nagaland, by Ben Doherty
21. Queen of Kenosha, by Howard Shapiro
22. Daisy Jones and the Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
23. Saga, Volume One (Eps 1-3), by Brian
24. The Forest of Wool and Steel, by Natsu Miyashita
25. The Waiter, by Matias Faldbakken
26. Manchester Happened, by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
27. This body's Not Big Enough For Both of Us, by Edgar Cantero
28. The Erratics, by Vicki Laveau-Harvie
29. Saga Book 2, by Brian Vaughan
30. Murder in the Crooked House, by Soji Shimada
31. The Brewer of Preston, by Andrea Camilleri
32. Eight Lives, by Susan Hurley
33. Fu Ping, by Wang Anyi
34. N, by John A. Scott
35. Adele, by Leila Slimani
36. Gretchen, by Shannon Kirk
37. An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
38. The White Girl, by Tony Birch
39. The Trauma Cleaner, by Sarah Krasnostein
40. The Ballad of Captain Kelly, by Jonathan Wicken
41. Grief is the Thing With Feathers, by Max Porter
42. Dark Emu, by Bruce Pascoe
43. A Keeper, by Graham Norton
44. Saudade, by Suneeta Peres da Costa
45. The Murder Farm, by Andrea Maria Schenkel
46. Gallows Court, by Andrea Martin Edwards
47. Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan
48. State of the Union, by Nick Hornby
49. Being Black 'n Chicken, and Chips, by Matt Okine
50. Rather Be the Devil, by Ian Rankin
51. Forbidden Harbour, by Teresa Radice
52. The Grade Cricketer: Tea and No Sympathy, by Dave Edwards
53. A Fist or a Heart, by Kristin Eiriksdottir
54. There Was Still Love, by Favel Parrett
55. Bury the Lede, by Gaby Dunn
56. Eggshell Skull, by Bri Lee
57. The Yield, by Tara June Winch
58. Heida, by Steinunn Sigurðardóttir
59. My Life As An Alphabet, by Barry Jonsberg
60. Babylon Berlin, by Volker Kutscher
61. Too Much Lip, by Melissa Lucashenko
62. An Orchestra of Minorities, by Chigozie Obioma
63. The Cold Summer by Gianrico Carofiglio
64. Shamus Dust by Janet Roger
65. If You Tame Me by Kathie Giorgio
66. The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion
67 The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan
68 Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
69 Bowraville by Dan Box
70 Swallow the Air by Tara June Winch
71 He Who Kills the Dragon by Leif G.W. Persson

72 Time and Space: the tactics that shaped Australian Rules football and the players and coaches who mastered them, by James Coventry

This is quite an unusual book: the history of Australian Rules football, recounting the changes in the rules and tactics as the game evolved. From the 1860s (before global football was even encoded as a sport) cricketers in Melbourne started organising games with a view to keeping themselves fit in the off-season. They sought something less physical than rugby, to avoid injuries, but that proved to be a vain hope. The earliest days of the sport were dominated by violent low-scoring affairs, and the earliest rule changes were with the intent of cleaning up the sport, reducing scrimmages and making it more appealing to watch.

AFL fans today would barely recognise the game in its original form. It was played on a rectangular pitch, rather than an oval. Position names were different; the full-forward was known as the goal sneak, a term that implied the somewhat shameful behaviour of hanging back out of the play to snaffle a goal. Captains doubled as umpires, and this enabled the early giants of the game, such as Tom Wills, to try and stamp their own interpretation on what the rules should be and how the game should develop.

The book recounts regional differences in how the sport was played and the political battles waged between states as a unified code began to be adopted. Controversial tactics such the flick pass ebbed and flowed over the decades as rules continued to be amended. Coventry highlights the influence of some of the games early thinkers such as Len Smith, whose thoughts on attacking football can still be seen in the tactics coaches use today.

This is quite an engrossing book with information likely to surprise even people who think they know AFL well. It is, however, for aficionados of the game only, in my opinion.

 

[jeradjames]

What other Jung have you read?

Modern Man in Search of a Soul is the only other Jung I've read which I much prefer over this work. I have Man and His Symbols and plan on reading that at some point in the future!

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

Modern Man in Search of a Soul is the only other Jung I've read which I much prefer over this work. I have Man and His Symbols and plan on reading that at some point in the future!

I’d recommend reading Memories, Dreams,Reflections before MaHS.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

61. The Fall of Troy by Peter Ackroyd

An intriguing historical novel which combines, myth of Troy with its Greek gods and Homer.An archeological trip through the sediment of time with its trials and practice and above all the hubris of its central character.

When I finished it I had to consult Wikipedia and found that the principal characters where based on historical personages with very colourful pasts. Very entertaining and enjoyable read.

 

[Fueco]

126. Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell

A fascinating look at what causes some to succeed where others fail.