BRITISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE - SEPTEMBER 2017 - THE NEW MILLENNIUM

BOOKS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM

CHOOSE FROM:

Witch Child by Celia Rees
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Haweswater by Sarah Hale
Judge Savage by Tim Parks
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The People’s Act of Love by James Meek
Restless by William Boyd
Day by AL Kennedy
Poppyland by Raffaella Barker
The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
NW by Zadie Smith
Longbourn by Jo Baker
The Dig by Cynan Jones
The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins
Nutshell by Ian McEwan

What I fancy?

Pretty much all of them but I have done terribly this year so I don't wish to plan too ardently!

Certainly

The Dig and possibly Haweswater will be my immediate choices.

Well I've read 5 of those already Paul. Not sure I will participate for this month (sorry, not done too well with your challenge this year).

>5 Caroline_McElwee: I have not pulled up any trees either, Caroline!

Will this be the month I finally read Jonathan Strange?

I (surprise, surprise) started early and have gotten through six of this month's titles so far.

Witch Child--Unoriginal, but largely inoffensive.

Day--I didn't care for it, but that's mostly because I'm not fond of stream of consciousness novels.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell--Fantastic! I'm slightly ashamed I've owned this for ten years and have only now gotten around to reading it. It's a slow starter, but after about 300 pages I was completely immersed in the world and dying to know what would happen next.

Judge Savage--Repugnant.

The Dig--Good, but the ending was too abrupt.

Nutshell--For fuck's sake McEwan! You can do better than this!

I have a few of those on the shelf and I haven't read them. What I read will probably depend on what I can find first.

>8 amanda4242: Mmm. Well a couple at least justified your usual hell for leather pace!

Well, I'm not sure I'm participating in reading the challenge but I can say I very much enjoyed reading Longbourn, Restless, The Memory of Love, Pigeon English , and The Girl on a Train.

>8 amanda4242: Am I missing something? How have you read 6 of the books on Paul's list already when he only posted it here a little over 12 hours ago? Or is it just coincidental that he's picked several books that you had finished previously? Bewildered minds want to know.

>12 laytonwoman3rd: Linda, the books were chosen last year to be fair - even Amanda doesn't finish them quite so quickly!

If you look on the general thread you will see that they were posted up at the beginning of the year.

>12 laytonwoman3rd: I looked at the list on the general thread and started ticking books off at the end of July. I read quickly, but even I couldn't read all 1000+ pages of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell in half a day!

>13 PaulCranswick: OK, I'm looking at the general thread for this year. I see no titles for September there. Are you saying the list was posted in 2016?

>15 laytonwoman3rd: It's here.

>16 amanda4242: Thanks Amanda. Hope that helps, Linda

Coincidentally, I have the audio of Longbourn home from the library, so I'll be listening to that.

I know I have The Girl on the Train on the tbr shelves ...

Pigeon English--Kelman's not bad at writing dialect, but it's still a self-conscious "issue" book narrated by a not very bright eleven year old...and a pigeon.

The Quickening Maze--I'm surprised I liked this one as much as I do. Nothing really happens, but the characters are so beautifully drawn I found I didn't care about the lack of plot.

>19 amanda4242: Interested to see who will go and look for that one after your one-line review, Amanda!
Hani has in fact read and enjoyed it.

>21 PaulCranswick: It was shortlisted for a number of awards so this may just be another case of me being contrary.

>12 laytonwoman3rd: Don't feel bad Linda, you're not the only one who missed that on the general thread. If I had realized the list was there I would have had a bit of a head start on September's reading.

As it is the two books that I have are The Eyre Affair and Longbourn. They both look to be take offs on Austen works. I never read an Austen book but figured I would get more out of the BAC book if I read the actual Austen. I happened to have a copy of Pride and Prejudice on the shelf (only because LTers keep talking about the book). So now I am reading P&P and Longbourn at the same time (well concurrently, actually). The touchstones seem to be on strike again.

>23 Familyhistorian: The Eyre Affair deals mostly with Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, although it's full of allusions to tons of other works and authors.

>24 amanda4242: Thanks, I get what Jane Austen and the Brontes wrote mixed up because I have never read either. Maybe I need a better background in books of that ilk before reading The Eyre Affair. I enjoyed Fforde's Big Over Easy because I was able to get a lot of the allusions to nursery rhymes.

>23 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg. I remember now that Amanda posted the list down thread a bit...I think in response to an earlier inquiry of mine!

>25 Familyhistorian: Watching one of the many film versions of Jane Eyre would be sufficient preparation to see you through The Eyre Affair.

>26 laytonwoman3rd: I didn't remember that either, Linda. I was starting to wonder how I was going to get this month's reading done when the monthly thread wasn't posted for a while.

>27 amanda4242: Thanks for the tip. I will have to add Jane Eyre to my viewing list.

>28 Familyhistorian: The one with Orson Wells is very good, as is the mini-series with Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson.

Some of the things which annoyed me about Haweswater: the never-ending, highly-romanticized descriptions of the landscape; a city man and spirited farmer's daughter starting a tempestuous affair after speaking to each other exactly twice; and the use of dashes instead of quotation marks for dialogue.

I was worried Longbourn might be one of those books which just re-tells Pride and Prejudice from a slightly different point of view, but my fears were quickly put to rest. A true joy to read.

>31 amanda4242: Yay, you liked one!!

>32 PaulCranswick: Hey! I liked Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and The Quickening Maze, too!

>33 amanda4242: I know, I was pulling your leg. xx

Actually you also gave a cautious thumbs up to The Dig. I reckon that a 40% success rate this month so my comments are more inappropriate than usual.

>34 PaulCranswick: I know you were teasing ;)

Restless--Another of this month's BAC selections I liked. Boyd does an excellent job of balancing the book's two narratives and doesn't make the espionage plot so convoluted you need a flow chart to sort it out.

NW--God, please save the modern novel from the modern novelist. Thank you. Amen.

The People's Act of Love--Men being consumed by god, governments and man in the most artful depiction of cannibalism I've come across since the cancellation of Hannibal.

>38 amanda4242: But did you like it?!

>39 PaulCranswick: Oh, yes. I suppose that wasn't very clear.

The Memory of Love picked up significantly in the second half, but I had to be bored for 200-odd pages to get to that point.

Once you brush aside the literary aspirations of Poppyland it's really just boring chick-lit.

Why was everyone going gaga over The Girl on the Train a couple of years ago? It's not awful, but it requires zero effort from the reader.

Two thoughts I had while reading it: 1) why did Hawkins have to make all of her characters unlikable and boring? 2) Hitchcock was so much better at this.

Just finished my re-read of The Eyre Affair. I love its literary allusions and wordplay, and discover something new in it every time I read it.

And that completes The 21st Century selections. My ratings for them:

1. Witch Child ★★1/2
2. The Eyre Affair ★★★★★
3. Haweswater ★★
4. Judge Savage 1/2
5. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell ★★★★1/2
6. The People's Act of Love ★★★1/2
7. Restless ★★★★
8. Day ★★1/2
9. Poppyland ★★
10. The Quickening Maze ★★★1/2
11. The Memory of Love ★★1/2
12. Pigeon English ★1/2
13. NW ★★
14. Longbourn ★★★★1/2
15. The Dig ★★★
16. The Girl on the Train ★★1/2
17. Nutshell ★

>44 amanda4242: Amanda, I am so impressed that you read all of them!

4 of the 17 you clearly thought were top notch
3 more passed muster
A whole 10 were underwhelming and two of them horribly so.

>45 PaulCranswick: There were more than a few stinkers, but a couple of this month's selections wound up on my best of the year list.

It took be a long time to finish the BAC book for this month. In part that was because I was getting behind with all the challenges that I was doing for this year but it was also because the book that I chose was Longbourn which was billed as the servants story behind Pride and Prejudice. Since I had never read P&P or watched any of the TV or film adaptations, I didn't know the gist of the story. That is why I read the books in tandem. They fit really well together and, truth be told, I could relate better to the servant's story.