2020 50 Book Challenge

[Fueco]

39. A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership; by James Comey

Former FBI Director Comey on what ethical leadership looks like and how severely lacking it is in the current political landscape in the US.

 

[LonerMatt]

Haven't come across that one. I need to read it; I have strong family connections with the Ballarat gold mines (including a distant relationship to Peter Lalor).

I've been wrong before, but I'd hazard a guess that you'd like it. It's a new 2020 book so easy to find, I imagine.

 

[Fueco]

40. A Long Way Home, by Saroo Brierley

A five year old boy gets lost by getting onto a train in India and ends on the streets of Kolkata before winding up in a home for lost children and adopted to a family in Tasmania.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

40. A Long Way Home, by Saroo Brierley

A five year old boy gets lost by getting onto a train in India and ends on the streets of Kolkata before winding up in a home for lost children and adopted to a family in Tasmania.

Haven’t read the book but the film is exceptional.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

I've really got to catch up on my reviews. Unfortunately I've been working very hard to deadlines over the past week or so and haven't had time, which means now I've got about 6 or 7 books to add...

 

[Fueco]

41. Blink: The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcom Gladwell

 

[California Dreamer]

Spoiler: Previously read

1. Damascus, by Christos Tsiolkas
2. Dr Knox, by Peter Spiegelman
3. The Hills Reply, by Tarjei Vesaas
4. Cold Fear, by Mads Peter Nordo
5. The Drover's Wife, by Leah Purcell
6. The Silent Death, by Volker Kutscher
7. Darkness for Light, by Emma Viskic
8. The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides
9. Recursion, by Blake Crouch
10. When All is Said and Done, by Neale Daniher
11. How the Dead Speak, by Val McDermid
12. Goldstein, by Volker Kutscher
13. Saving Missy, by Beth Morrey
14. Hi Five, by Joe Ide
15. Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths, by Shigeru Mizuki
16. The Real Peaky Blinders, by Carl Chinn
17. Agent Running in the Field, by John le Carré
18. The Good Turn, by Dervla McTiernan
19. Amnesty, by Aranid Adiga
20. Downfall, by Inio Asano
21. Sheerwater, by Leah Swann
22. In a House of Lies, by Ian Rankin
23. The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel
24. Pollock Confidential, by Onofrio Catacchio
25. The Brothers York, by Thomas Penn
26. Double Blind, by Sara Winokur
27. The Transaction, by Guglielmo D'Izzia
28. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk
29 Journey Under the Midnight Sun, by Keigo Higashino
30 Impostures, by al-Hariri, transl. Michael Cooperson
31 A Walk Through Hell, by Garth Ennis et al
32 The English Civil Wars, by Blair Worden
33 Something Fresh, by PG Wodehouse
34 Killing Eve: Die For Me, by Luke Jennings
35 The Sculptor, by Scott McCloud
36 Puckoon by Spike Milligan
37 Murder in the Garment District by David Witwer and Catherine Rios

38 Unflattening by Nick Sousanios

This would probably be the most unusual "comic book" that I've ever encountered. It is more like a graphic philosophical essay, in which Sousanis discusses concepts like vision, perception and imagination, arguing that comics enable the combined use of text and images (engaging both sides of the brain) to enhance the imagination and rewire our thinking. This can take us from the "flatland" of dulled, routine thinking into a more enhanced mode of thought.

The text is quite erudite and intellectual, with copious references to the work of other thinkers and philosophers, as well as to popular culture. Sousanis uses stunning black and white imagery to both convey what he is saying and lead the reader through the train of thought that he is encouraging.

It's no surprise that this deeply contemplative work was published by Harvard University Press; it is one of only two graphic works on their list, which is an indication of how exceptional this book is.

39 Normal People by Sally Rooney

Rich girl Marianne is a bit of an ugly duckling and a misfit at her school, not really interested in what others think of her. She strikes up a relationship with the popular Connell, the son of her family's cleaner. Connell wants to keep this relationship secret from their school peers, which Marianne is happy to go along with.

When they leave school they both end up at Trinity College, where the roles become reversed. Suddenly Marianne is in her element and it is the working-class Connell who is the misfit. The two drift apart, but events keep drawing them together, back and forward, with nothing being resolved between them. Connell also starts to learn things about Marianne that he never quite realised, which makes him even more nervous about a relationship with her.

This is a love story with a difference. There is no vaseline-smeared view of this relationship. It's presented warts and all, on both sides, and Rooney consistently resists the temptation to opt for the easy cliched resolutions common in this genre. Very good.

40 Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock

The grim Christopher Glowry lives at the secluded and austere Nightmare Abbey, with his son Scythrop. Glowry wants his son to marry and selects a suitably serious bride for him, however Scythrop falls for his flighty and impertinent cousin, Marionetta. This father-son conflict is played out during a sojourn at the Abbey, attended by several of Glowry's friends.

Peacock's characters include several satirical portraits of notable literary figures of the day, such as Percy and Mary Shelley, Coleridge and Byron. A lot of the dialogue is stilted and long-winded, but one suspects this has more to do with him sending up his colleagues than being a clumsy writer himself. This book was probably quite notorious amongst the literary establishment of the time, but it has since lost its cutting edge, and now comes across as a bit dull.

 

[Fueco]

42. The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli

 

[California Dreamer]

Spoiler: Previously read

1. Damascus, by Christos Tsiolkas
2. Dr Knox, by Peter Spiegelman
3. The Hills Reply, by Tarjei Vesaas
4. Cold Fear, by Mads Peter Nordo
5. The Drover's Wife, by Leah Purcell
6. The Silent Death, by Volker Kutscher
7. Darkness for Light, by Emma Viskic
8. The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides
9. Recursion, by Blake Crouch
10. When All is Said and Done, by Neale Daniher
11. How the Dead Speak, by Val McDermid
12. Goldstein, by Volker Kutscher
13. Saving Missy, by Beth Morrey
14. Hi Five, by Joe Ide
15. Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths, by Shigeru Mizuki
16. The Real Peaky Blinders, by Carl Chinn
17. Agent Running in the Field, by John le Carré
18. The Good Turn, by Dervla McTiernan
19. Amnesty, by Aranid Adiga
20. Downfall, by Inio Asano
21. Sheerwater, by Leah Swann
22. In a House of Lies, by Ian Rankin
23. The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel
24. Pollock Confidential, by Onofrio Catacchio
25. The Brothers York, by Thomas Penn
26. Double Blind, by Sara Winokur
27. The Transaction, by Guglielmo D'Izzia
28. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk
29 Journey Under the Midnight Sun, by Keigo Higashino
30 Impostures, by al-Hariri, transl. Michael Cooperson
31 A Walk Through Hell, by Garth Ennis et al
32 The English Civil Wars, by Blair Worden
33 Something Fresh, by PG Wodehouse
34 Killing Eve: Die For Me, by Luke Jennings
35 The Sculptor, by Scott McCloud
36 Puckoon by Spike Milligan
37 Murder in the Garment District by David Witwer and Catherine Rios
38 Unflattening by Nick Sousanios
39 Normal People by Sally Rooney
40 Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock

41 Instructions for the British People During the Emergency by Jason Hazeley

* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. *

It was inevitable that the COVID-19 epidemic would eventually be satirised, and we all need a belly laugh or two about now.

Jason Hazeley's book is a brief and helpful guide from Sir Clement Apricot-Wilson of the Department of Unforeseen Circumstances, on how the British people should conduct themselves during the COVID lockdowns. Important topics such as working from home, personal hygiene and keeping your children under some semblance of control are covered. There are helpful lists of dos and don'ts. If the British people are prepared to follow Sir Clement's strictures then they may get through this dark time relatively unscathed. Or not.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

38. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

I had really enjoyed Ogawa's recent book, The Memory Police, a subtle novel of encroaching fascism, so I decided I would seek out her previous work. The Housekeeper and the Professor is also partly about memory. It is the story of a woman who works as a housekeeper for an agency, that sends her to work for a very self-contained women, to look after her brother-in-law, an eccentric former Professor of Mathematics, who after a serious accident many years before has been left with a memory for new things that only last 80 minutes. Rather like the lead character in the film, Memento, who has a similar affliction, he also writes important facts down, but not on his skin, instead on little scraps of paper which he pins all over the suit he wears every day. The housekeeper (and eventually, her son) establish a beautifiul and precarious relationship with the Professor, based around cooking, mathematics and baseball (he shares a passion with the boy for the eternally unsuccessful Hanshin Tigers), which is innevitably disrupted by how the problems of ageing affect the mind, and also by the curious relationship of the Professor with his sister-in-law. Like The Memory Police, and indeed a great deal of Japanese literature, this is a novel the excels in affect, in the evocation of subtle details of taste, smell, sound and their relationships with our feelings. It's seems almost effortless but it's also powerful.

 

[Fueco]

43. The Soul of America: The Battle For Our Better Angels, by Jon Meacham

I actually read most of this months ago and forgot it, until I noticed it sitting on the floor under a table in my office.

This is a fascinating look at select times in the nation’s history when we have overcome division and fear and what good political leadership looks like.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

Spoiler: Previously read

1. Damascus, by Christos Tsiolkas
2. Dr Knox, by Peter Spiegelman
3. The Hills Reply, by Tarjei Vesaas
4. Cold Fear, by Mads Peter Nordo
5. The Drover's Wife, by Leah Purcell
6. The Silent Death, by Volker Kutscher
7. Darkness for Light, by Emma Viskic
8. The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides
9. Recursion, by Blake Crouch
10. When All is Said and Done, by Neale Daniher
11. How the Dead Speak, by Val McDermid
12. Goldstein, by Volker Kutscher
13. Saving Missy, by Beth Morrey
14. Hi Five, by Joe Ide
15. Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths, by Shigeru Mizuki
16. The Real Peaky Blinders, by Carl Chinn
17. Agent Running in the Field, by John le Carré
18. The Good Turn, by Dervla McTiernan
19. Amnesty, by Aranid Adiga
20. Downfall, by Inio Asano
21. Sheerwater, by Leah Swann
22. In a House of Lies, by Ian Rankin
23. The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel
24. Pollock Confidential, by Onofrio Catacchio
25. The Brothers York, by Thomas Penn
26. Double Blind, by Sara Winokur
27. The Transaction, by Guglielmo D'Izzia
28. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk
29 Journey Under the Midnight Sun, by Keigo Higashino
30 Impostures, by al-Hariri, transl. Michael Cooperson
31 A Walk Through Hell, by Garth Ennis et al
32 The English Civil Wars, by Blair Worden
33 Something Fresh, by PG Wodehouse
34 Killing Eve: Die For Me, by Luke Jennings
35 The Sculptor, by Scott McCloud
36 Puckoon by Spike Milligan
37 Murder in the Garment District by David Witwer and Catherine Rios
38 Unflattening by Nick Sousanios
39 Normal People by Sally Rooney
40 Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock

41 Instructions for the British People During the Emergency by Jason Hazeley

* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. *

It was inevitable that the COVID-19 epidemic would eventually be satirised, and we all need a belly laugh or two about now.

Jason Hazeley's book is a brief and helpful guide from Sir Clement Apricot-Wilson of the Department of Unforeseen Circumstances, on how the British people should conduct themselves during the COVID lockdowns. Important topics such as working from home, personal hygiene and keeping your children under some semblance of control are covered. There are helpful lists of dos and don'ts. If the British people are prepared to follow Sir Clement's strictures then they may get through this dark time relatively unscathed. Or not.

Is it translated into Australian? Could be good for when the second wave hits.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

39. Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa

Well, if you had only read the more recent novels by Ogawa and pigeonholed her as a talented but perhaps overly restrained novelist, then her earlier work, Hotel Iris, is sure to shatter those illusions. Lots of readers who've posted reviews on Amazon or Goodreads seem a little shocked even disgusted, and maybe they should be because this isn't about the subtleties of memory or loss, it's about a young woman who engages quite deliberately and knowingly in a sado-masochistic relationship with an older man. It isn't metaphorical or oblique either - there are several very explicit scenes. However, it's not some cheap 50 Shades of Grey type of fantasy. The young woman lives a dull, hard life in a small seaside town, where she is forced to work as an all-purpose maid for the faded family hotel. The object of her desire isn't some cruel handsome businessman who takes her away, but an ageing translator of Russian who isn't even particularly attractive, but whose voice inspires her need to obey. She tracks him down to the island he lives on. And so it begins. But the novel is far from just sex scenes, most of it is a beautifully described set of scenes of the crushingly dull life of this small fishing town, which seems no place for anyone with an imagination of a desire to be free. And her dominator is never a sympathetic character in the book, and often seems sad and pathetic even to her. This is the end of things for him, but it's just the beginning for her. Hotel Iris in the end is an interesting book. It's not particularly likeable, but I admire it all the more for that. It's a million miles away from western expectations of Japanese women's writing. There is no 'kawaii' here. It's as hard and unforgiving as the summer sun reflected off the sea, and sometimes as weirdly hallucinatory.

 

[California Dreamer]

Spoiler: Previously read

1. Damascus, by Christos Tsiolkas
2. Dr Knox, by Peter Spiegelman
3. The Hills Reply, by Tarjei Vesaas
4. Cold Fear, by Mads Peter Nordo
5. The Drover's Wife, by Leah Purcell
6. The Silent Death, by Volker Kutscher
7. Darkness for Light, by Emma Viskic
8. The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides
9. Recursion, by Blake Crouch
10. When All is Said and Done, by Neale Daniher
11. How the Dead Speak, by Val McDermid
12. Goldstein, by Volker Kutscher
13. Saving Missy, by Beth Morrey
14. Hi Five, by Joe Ide
15. Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths, by Shigeru Mizuki
16. The Real Peaky Blinders, by Carl Chinn
17. Agent Running in the Field, by John le Carré
18. The Good Turn, by Dervla McTiernan
19. Amnesty, by Aranid Adiga
20. Downfall, by Inio Asano
21. Sheerwater, by Leah Swann
22. In a House of Lies, by Ian Rankin
23. The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel
24. Pollock Confidential, by Onofrio Catacchio
25. The Brothers York, by Thomas Penn
26. Double Blind, by Sara Winokur
27. The Transaction, by Guglielmo D'Izzia
28. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk
29 Journey Under the Midnight Sun, by Keigo Higashino
30 Impostures, by al-Hariri, transl. Michael Cooperson
31 A Walk Through Hell, by Garth Ennis et al
32 The English Civil Wars, by Blair Worden
33 Something Fresh, by PG Wodehouse
34 Killing Eve: Die For Me, by Luke Jennings
35 The Sculptor, by Scott McCloud
36 Puckoon by Spike Milligan
37 Murder in the Garment District by David Witwer and Catherine Rios
38 Unflattening by Nick Sousanios
39 Normal People by Sally Rooney
40 Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
41 Instructions for the British People During the Emergency by Jason Hazeley

42 Fathoms by Rebecca Giggs

* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. *

Rebecca Giggs' book is a contemplation on the place of whales in our environment and our culture and, paradoxically, our place in the environment of the whales. It's an unusual blend of history, natural history and philosophy, reaching from the shores of a beach in Perth to the depths of the oceans and also to the surface of the sun.

I learned a lot about whales reading this book, but I was not really sure what to make of it overall. I found the philosophical elements a bit unconvincing, and excessively anthropomorphic at times.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

27.A Bigger Picture by Malcolm Turnbull (former Australian PM)

Actually the title of this should be A Bigger Ego. Essentially this is the story of a bloke who found himself in the right place at the right time until the day he wasn’t.

The Medici Prince only spent ten years in politics. Reading this has left me contemplating the size of this man’s ego. As a political biography I think Fred Daly From Curtin to Kerr is a much more informative and entertaining political work.

When the book came out in April the SMH magazine front page ran a portrait of Mr Harbourside Mansion with the title So This Is Revenge Right? “Absolutely Not.” Seriously Caeser has pulled the knives out and stuck them where IHHO they belong, and its a long list.

Its insightful, never mind the hubris, in terms of how dysfunctional conservative/ right wing politics are in this county with their outright denial of climate change at its core. In terms of “The Coup.” I have read much better accounts.

The only positive in reading this was that I didn’t pay for it. So I’ll give it to Vinnies where it can do some good.