The 2019 AW Book Reading Challenge! New year, new categories, new books and new friends

Verboten - sorry to hear you're struggling with Cutting for Stone. It's a tough book, not only in length, but in subject matter, and has some heartbreaking episodes. Overall I enjoyed it. It certainly doesn't leave the reader untouched, dealing as it does with moral questions. I also learned a lot about Ethiopia.

Oneblindmouse and Chris P--I have heard great things about it. There are books that I have heard great things about and I don't like them. But, other times, after I've made it all the way through, I'm glad I struggled through it. I'm going to put it down for a few days and maybe try to go back to it with a new "tackle" outlook. This one and "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell are my last two for the years challenge. I'll keep you posted. .

Eeek! I haven't updated this for a while! I read 3 more books on the list, yo!

1. Crossing the Color Line: We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo. I liked this one very much. The voice was strong, enjoyable, and believable (if a bit inconsistent in places). The main character is a girl named Darling, born and raised in a Zimbabwean slum, who at one point goes to live with her aunt's family in the States. I devoured the Zimbabwe part – it was hard to put down (no, it wasn't misery porn... well... not much). The Detroit part was somehow predictable, but still pleasant to read. Darling was an interesting narrator, but it was her aunt whom I liked the most.

2. Learn the Quadrille: Band Sinister by K. J. Charles. It was okay. I only read non-heterosexual romances, but this one was so unbelievably fluffy and saccharinely sweet that I wanted to get away from the main characters and read about the sister of one of them (who was a cis girl). But alas, despite the promise in the blurb of both a LGBT and straight romance, she was just a tertiary personage; the important stuff was the MENZ. The book was also very very VERY light on history, which didn't sit well with me... I hoped to see more of the period attitudes and setting.

3. Succinct: Bitter by Francesca Jacobi. I... I don't know what to think of this one. It was okay too, I guess. I thought it was a tale about a woman who develops an obsession with her daughter-in-law, but there was very little of this particular relationship; it was more of a character study of Gilda (the mother-in-law); if I wanted to be uncharitable, I'd say that it was an all-out Gilda pity party, but it was such an intensive one that I actually teared up around the end. I don't really understand myself sometimes.

I don't know what I'm going to read next. I've been reading The Song of Jacob, but it's just so mercilessly huge that I'm ignoring it at the moment. Maybe I'll reread my old friend Sologub. Hm.



------STATUS-----

2. That old black magic: A paranormal novel. Dracula in Rokumeikan* by Hagi Kōsuke. (The title says it all, but the setting is a twist. Rokumeikan Pavilion was a building in the 19th century Tokyo, famous as a symbol of Westernization of Japan.)
7. Doorstoppers: A book more than 600 pages. The Books of Jacob* by Olga Tokarczuk. (912 pages. Not an e-book. I got it from my family 2 years ago, haven't read it yet for fear of breaking my wrist.) started
11. Anyward, ho!: A travel novel (any genre, including non-fiction). Beasts, Men and Gods* by Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski. It's an account of an attempt of an escape from Communist-controlled Siberia to India through Mongolia, China and Tibet in the 1920s. I have a hardcover edition of this book with beautiful color pictures!)
13. Learn the Quadrille: A Regency Romance. Band Sinister by K. J. Charles. FINISHED
14. Crossing the (color) lines: A book about a person of color (POC), any variety, written by an author of the same variety. We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo. FINISHED
17. Back in the day: A historical of any genre. The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields. (A novel about Edith Wharton, who is one of my favorite writers.) FINISHED
29. You might also like...: A book recommended by someone real, or by a bot. Hild by Nicola Griffith. FINISHED
30. QUILTBAG: A book with a major LGBT+ character or about an LGBT issue. As Music and Splendour by Kate O'Brien. FINISHED
34. Ye olde booke shoppe: A book written before 1800. The Taiheiki: A Chronicle of Medieval Japan, translated by Helen Craig McCullough. (I don't particularly care for samurai or war tales, but there's no popular Japanese culture without Taiheiki, my MC would have known it, I feel that I can't avoid it anymore).
35. No hablo: A book originally written in another language (i.e., a translation). Noodle Maker by Ma Jian. (He's one of my favorite writers since I've read Red Dust.)
37. Read it again, Sam: Reread a book you have already read. The Petty Demon* by Fyodor Sologub. (I love this book to pieces. It is a stellar example of a completelt engrossing story with an unlikable protagonist.) started
47. Succinct: A book with a one-word title. Bitter by Francesca Jacobi. FINISHED

*not in English

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"-a Sikh greeting)

Congrats, mrsmig!

I'm on a reading sabbatical while we work on moving across town. I expect to complete at least 12 categories of challenge books. God willing, I might even be able to complete a variation of my own challenge of 6 or more categories of paired books.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Congrats mrsmig!

I finished The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor for my By Its Cover challenge. A beautiful cover, with a drawing of flames rising above buildings, but a disappointing read. I expected much more from a historical mystery set in London in 1666, year of the Great Fire of London. The opening scene of St Paul’s in flames is dramatic but confusing, and brought vividly to mind Nôtre Dame in flames earlier this year. The action is very slow, only speeding up at the end. The characters are one-dimensional, and the plot is fairly obvious with very few surprises. The only interest it held for me was historical, as I’d never heard of the King Jesus group of Dissenters, and knew very little about Charles II’ dealings with the Regicides who had beheaded his father.

Second challenge update:
1. I’ve met them! (by an author you’ve met) De un mal golpe by Félix Bayón DONE
2. Down on the farm: (about farming or with an agrarian setting): The Sussex Downs Murder by John Bude DONE
3. That old black magic: (a paranormal novel): Best Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens DONE
4. Man’s best friend (with a dog on the cover): The terra-cotta dog by Andrea Camilleri DONE
5. Metrosensual (a romance in a major city): On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulkes. DONE
6. By its cover: (chosen purely for its cover) Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor DONE
7. Flight of fancy: (about airplanes or flying): For your freedom and ours: The Kosciuszko Squadron – forgotten heroes of WWII by Lynne Olson & Stanley Cloud.
8. You might also like: (recommended): March Violets by Philip Kerr
9. Locked up: (taking place in a prison, mental institution, etc.): Los renglones torcidos de Dios by Torcuato Luca de Tena
10. Backlist delight: (lesser-known work by the author): The Breaking Point by Daphne du Maurier
11. Out of Africa: (set in Africa): Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow
12. Be the change you want to see: (about a sociopolitical issue): Madness explained: psychosis and human nature explained by Richard P. Bentall

I'm halfway finished with Reading Lolita in Tehran. I really like it, but since it's the kind of book I can put down for a long period of time and then start reading again with no trouble, I've done non-Challenge books off and on.

I did make a switch in my Food entry, subbing Apples of Uncommon Character, 123 Heirlooms, Modern Classics, and Little Known Wonders, by Rowan Jacobsen. I'm reading it now. It brings back memories of all the East Coast apples I grew up eating -- Gravenstein, Spy, Rome. One of them, I think it was Rome, was HUGE. As a child it tickled me that I could eat a huge apple that, to me, was almost the size of grapefruit. The flesh was different too -- very white, and the texture fine. It had a rich taste that wasn't too acidic. On Sundays my mother would take me to the local farmers market and we would come back with baskets of fruit. In Washington State, the apples are different, and they've changed over time, as I'm discovering while reading the book.

UPDATE: Finished Apples. Very interesting. I'll never look at apples in the same way again. Picking up Reading Lolita in Tehran again.

4. What you will read to your grandchildren: A children's book (middle grade or younger).
A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Madeleine L’engle
Picked because it's been hanging around here for a while and I want to see what's going on with the Murry kids. DONE

5. East meets West: A book taking place in Asia (Turkey to Japan, Siberia to Vietnam)
The Last Samurai, the Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori, by Mark Ravina
Japanese history. DONE

6. Just the (alternative) facts, Ma’am: An alternate history.
The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson
What if all of Caucasian Europe had died during the Great Plague?

9. Best friend: A book with a dog on the cover.
Being a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz
Loved her previous book, Inside a Dog. DONE

14. Crossing the (color) lines: A book about a person of color (PoC), any variety, written by an author of the same variety.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemison
Wanted to read this author for a while. DONE
+ Extra Credit: Tales from La Vida, A Latinx Comics Anthology, ed. Frederick Luis Aldama. DONE

17. Back in the day: A historical of any genre.
A Murder in Thebes, Anna Apostolou
Alexander the Great turns amateur detective! DONE

18. Do you deliver?: A book where food, cooking, restaurants, chefs, etc. play a major role.
American Pie, Pascale Le Draoulec
Apples of Uncommon Character, 123 Heirlooms, Modern Classics, and Little Known Wonders, by Rowan Jacobsen DONE

25. Flights of fancy: A book in which airplanes figure prominently.
Jet Age, Sam Howe Verhovek.
The rivalry between the British Comet passenger jet and the Boeing 707. DONE

28. Keep up with the Joneses: A book everyone else seems to have read but you have not.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
I don't know what I will find in here.

39. Tuesdays with Balaam’s Ass: A book with a non-human (animal or fantastic creature) main character.
Tales from Watership Down, Richard Adams
Talking rabbits. DONE

48. Matryoshka books: A book mentioned or discussed inside another book.
Reading Lolita in Teheran, Azar Nafisi
Self-explanatory. WORKING ON

49. What you read: A book you loved as a child.
A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. LeGuin
How did this one hold up through my adult eyes? DONE

I've got two to go. Frankly I am not sure I'll have time for Days of Rice and Salt. I may have to sub something shorter. We'll see how it goes.

I finished March Violets by Philip Kerr, for my You Might Also Like challenge, (recommended).
In this quite short detective mystery, the first of Kerr’s acclaimed series, former Berlin police inspector Bernie Gunther is asked by millionaire Hermann Six to investigate the deaths of his daughter and son in law. Against a chilling backdrop of increasing Nazi regulations and persecution preparatory to the 1936 Berlin Olympiad, Gunther, who specializes in missing persons, follows clues indicating arson and a diamond burglary, and soon uncovers unsavoury truths and gruesome bodies. After several painful run-ins with thugs intent on thwarting his investigation, he receives personal instructions from someone very high up in the government. Someone he cannot refuse.
I enjoyed this mystery. Kerr is clearly well documented in his descriptions of Berlin and Nazi Germany, and the reader can perceive the underlying fear and foreboding permeating German society. I shall definitely read more of this excellent series.

Finally getting back to this - even if I'm pretty sure I won't finish my extra credit, I want to get through at least a few more.

Started Morning Star, the third book in the Red Rising series (and technically the original end of the trilogy, before it expanded), by Pierce Brown. In a future where humanity has separated into color-coded, engineered subspecies throughout the solar system, former Red miner Darrow - transformed into a ruling Gold to bring down a corrupt system that oppresses the other colors - has been captured, tortured, and imprisoned after starting an interplanetary rebellion... but he still has friends and allies, and the dream of a free solar system may not be dead yet. Like the previous book, Brown throws the reader right into the action; there's a very brief recap at the start, though I know I've forgotten several of the names and the nuances of their relationship. The decadent, casual cruelty of the ruling class is on full display (and rooted firmly in human history, where lives and pain were the favored playthings of the elite), but there might still be a chance of a happy (or not-entirely-terrible) outcome.

Challenge Status FINISHED: (12/12)

1. Lockwood & Co.: The Whispering Skull, Jonathan Stroud (Started 4/27, Finished 5/3)
2. The Name Of This Book Is Secret, Pseudonymous Bosch (Started 1/7, Finished 1/12)
3. Bitter Seeds, Ian Tregillis (Started 5/10, Finished 5/27)
4. For a Muse of Fire, Heidi Heilig (Started 4/15, Finished 4/20)
5. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly (Started 2/9, Finished 2/18)
6. Skyward, Brandon Sanderson (Started 3/17, Finished 3/27)
7. The Tiger's Daughter, K. Arsenault Rivera (Started 6/11, Finished 6/15)
8. Discount Armageddon, by Seanan McGuire (Started 3/14, Finished 3/17)
9. Endling#1: The Last, Katherine Applegate (Started 1/21, Finished 1/22)
10. Born a Crime, Trevor Noah(Started 6/17, Finished 6/20)
11. Spellslinger, Sebastien de Castell (Started 1/14, Finished 1/16)
12. Fur Magic, Andre Norton (Started 2/7, Finished 2/9)

Extra Credit: Get On With It, Already! (6/12)

1 - The Tropic of Serpents, Marie Brennan (Book 2 of the Memoirs of Lady Trent) (Started 2/20, Finished 2/26)
2 - The Wall of Storms, Ken Liu (Book 2 of the Dandelion Dynasty)
3 - The Shadow Throne, Django Wexler (Book 2 of the Shadow Campaigns)
4 - The Infinite Sea, Rick Yancey (Book 2 of the 5th Wave trilogy) (Started 7/15, Finished 7/19)
5 - Morning Star, Pierce Brown (Book 3 of the Red Rising series) (Started 10/14)
6 - Arabella and the Battle of Venus, David D. Levine (Book 2 of the Arabella of Mars series) (Started 7/1, Finished 7/5)
7 - The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, Catherynne M. Valente (Book 2 of the Fairyland series) (Started 8/14, Finished 8/19)
8 - Across the Great Barrier, Patricia C. Wrede (Book 2 of the Frontier Magic series)
9 - The Alloy of Law, Brandon Sanderson (a Mistborn novel) (Started 8/24, Finished 9/4)
10 - Legion of Flame, Anthony Ryan (Book 2 of the Draconis Memoria series)
11 - Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson (Book 2 of the Mars trilogy)
12 - Binti: Home, Nnedi Okorafor (Book 2 of the Binti trilogy) (Started 1/22, Finished 1/27)

Finished Reading Lolita in Tehran. Wow! Such a great book. It's a fictionalized memoir of a Iranian literature professor who returns to Iran from the US and lives through the fundamentalist revolution in 1979 and the later war years. Nothing terrible happens to her, but the accounts of her life, her students, and the atmosphere of trying to teach Western Classics (Lolita, but also Pride and Prejudice, Daisy Miller, and The Great Gatsby) in that situation is compelling. You don't need to have read those classics to make sense of the book. It made ME want to read them, and that's amazing, as I really disliked Miller and Austen when I had to read them for school.

I want to finish reading Me now, Elton John's autobiography, so I think my last two books will go with me on my trip to Hawaii in November.

4. What you will read to your grandchildren: A children's book (middle grade or younger).
A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Madeleine L’engle
Picked because it's been hanging around here for a while and I want to see what's going on with the Murry kids. DONE

5. East meets West: A book taking place in Asia (Turkey to Japan, Siberia to Vietnam)
The Last Samurai, the Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori, by Mark Ravina
Japanese history. DONE

6. Just the (alternative) facts, Ma’am: An alternate history.
The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson
What if all of Caucasian Europe had died during the Great Plague?

9. Best friend: A book with a dog on the cover.
Being a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz
Loved her previous book, Inside a Dog. DONE

14. Crossing the (color) lines: A book about a person of color (PoC), any variety, written by an author of the same variety.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemison
Wanted to read this author for a while. DONE
+ Extra Credit: Tales from La Vida, A Latinx Comics Anthology, ed. Frederick Luis Aldama. DONE

17. Back in the day: A historical of any genre.
A Murder in Thebes, Anna Apostolou
Alexander the Great turns amateur detective! DONE

18. Do you deliver?: A book where food, cooking, restaurants, chefs, etc. play a major role.
American Pie, Pascale Le Draoulec
Apples of Uncommon Character, 123 Heirlooms, Modern Classics, and Little Known Wonders, by Rowan Jacobsen DONE

25. Flights of fancy: A book in which airplanes figure prominently.
Jet Age, Sam Howe Verhovek.
The rivalry between the British Comet passenger jet and the Boeing 707. DONE

28. Keep up with the Joneses: A book everyone else seems to have read but you have not.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
I don't know what I will find in here.

39. Tuesdays with Balaam’s Ass: A book with a non-human (animal or fantastic creature) main character.
Tales from Watership Down, Richard Adams
Talking rabbits. DONE

48. Matryoshka books: A book mentioned or discussed inside another book.
Reading Lolita in Teheran, Azar Nafisi
Self-explanatory. DONE

49. What you read: A book you loved as a child.
A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. LeGuin
How did this one hold up through my adult eyes? DONE

I finished For Your Freedom and Ours: The Kosciuszko Squadron – Forgotten Heroes of WWII by Lynne Olson & Stanley Cloud, for my Flight of Fancy challenge (about airplanes and flying).. This was definitely my most challenging read so far: over 400 pages of teensy-weensy print and dense historical fact. But how interesting! About a third or half of the book covers the formation of the Polish squadrons in the RAF in WWII and the heroic exploits of their pilots, while the rest is a detailed account of Polish history in the Twentieth Century: the invasion and occupation by Nazi Germany in the west and the Soviet Union on the east, the mass deportation and extermination of Poland’s Jews and intelligentsia, the bravery and imagination of the Polish resistance, the Warsaw uprising, etc. The treachery of Churchill and Roosevelt - who, at Tehran and Yalta, reneged on their promises and the Atlantic Charter, and carved up Poland to appease their Soviet ally - is analyzed in great political detail.
I was brought up listening to my father’s tales of the Poles’ exceptional bravery (he was a fellow RAF pilot), but never knew the whole story, and I was shocked, saddened and ashamed to read how post-war Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee betrayed the Polish pilots who had fought in the Battle of Britain, and had them evicted as superfluous and expendable. It’s not often that non-fiction reduces me to tears, but this account of modern Polish history affected me deeply.

I kind of lost interest in reading a lot of the books I put on my list, but I've picked up a few others, so I'm switching things around a bit.

Sue me.

That old black magic: The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman DONE 2/14/2019
Top of the heap: Old Man's War- John Scalzi (From NPR’s Top 100 Scifi/Fantasy list)
Just the (alternative) facts, Ma’am: The Years of Rice and Salt - Kim Stanley Robinson The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal DONE 10/24/2019
Crossing the (color) lines: We Need New Names – NoViolet Bulawayo
By its cover: Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom: A Novel of Retropolis - Bradley W. Schenck. The Girl In the Ice - Robert Bryndza DONE 6/13/2019
Support the home team: TBD
Steady there, cowboy: Karen Memory – Elizabeth Bear
Keep up with the Joneses: The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) – Brandon Sanderson Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett DONE 9/4/2019
You might also like. . .: The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files #1) – Charles Stross. (My mother has been bugging me to read this one.) Midnight Riot (Rivers of London #1) - Ben Aaronovich (The other series my mom wanted me to start.) DONE 5/9/2019
QUILTBAG: TBD
Still time for more chapters: Becoming – Michelle Obama DONE 2/25/2019
Succinct: Seveneves – Neal Stephenson DONE 1/29/2019

I have Old Man's War on my Audible and I still intend to listen to it before the end of the year.
I started Karen Memory and I was enjoying it, but somewhere along the line, reading potential comps for my newest novel took over my reading list.
I pretty much hated the Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom. I couldn't get into it at all, but then The Girl in the Ice caught my eye and I devoured it.

I still need to pick books for the two categories I haven't filled in yet. I read more in the winter, so hopefully, I'll be able to catch up.

And finished Morning Star. (Would've finished earlier, but I lost a week to various household distractions/emergencies...) The third book in Pierce Brown's Red Rising saga (and the conclusion to the original trilogy, when it was just a trilogy) brings the solar system's war between the old Gold-ruled society and the rebellious Sons of Ares to a grand climax. After a year of torture, the former Red miner turned Gold hero/rebellion figurehead is no longer as sure of himself and his place in the unfolding rebellion as he once was... but the people still need the Reaper to lead them against the crushing forces of the Sovereign and the Gold rulers who would grind them back down into slavery. He has learned the hard way that, no matter how noble the cause, war is not a place of clear morals or clean hands, nor is it ever guaranteed that any sacrifice will be justified by a victory. Even more intense and fast-paced than the previous volumes, it brings to a head the many tangled rivalries, friendships, and betrayals that have woven through the story, with shades of ancient war epics and Roman political backstabbing transposed into interplanetary space. A worthy conclusion, if borderline grandiose.

Challenge Status FINISHED: (12/12)

1. Lockwood & Co.: The Whispering Skull, Jonathan Stroud (Started 4/27, Finished 5/3)
2. The Name Of This Book Is Secret, Pseudonymous Bosch (Started 1/7, Finished 1/12)
3. Bitter Seeds, Ian Tregillis (Started 5/10, Finished 5/27)
4. For a Muse of Fire, Heidi Heilig (Started 4/15, Finished 4/20)
5. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly (Started 2/9, Finished 2/18)
6. Skyward, Brandon Sanderson (Started 3/17, Finished 3/27)
7. The Tiger's Daughter, K. Arsenault Rivera (Started 6/11, Finished 6/15)
8. Discount Armageddon, by Seanan McGuire (Started 3/14, Finished 3/17)
9. Endling#1: The Last, Katherine Applegate (Started 1/21, Finished 1/22)
10. Born a Crime, Trevor Noah(Started 6/17, Finished 6/20)
11. Spellslinger, Sebastien de Castell (Started 1/14, Finished 1/16)
12. Fur Magic, Andre Norton (Started 2/7, Finished 2/9)

Extra Credit: Get On With It, Already! (7/12)

1 - The Tropic of Serpents, Marie Brennan (Book 2 of the Memoirs of Lady Trent) (Started 2/20, Finished 2/26)
2 - The Wall of Storms, Ken Liu (Book 2 of the Dandelion Dynasty)
3 - The Shadow Throne, Django Wexler (Book 2 of the Shadow Campaigns)
4 - The Infinite Sea, Rick Yancey (Book 2 of the 5th Wave trilogy) (Started 7/15, Finished 7/19)
5 - Morning Star, Pierce Brown (Book 3 of the Red Rising series) (Started 10/14, Finished 10/29)
6 - Arabella and the Battle of Venus, David D. Levine (Book 2 of the Arabella of Mars series) (Started 7/1, Finished 7/5)
7 - The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, Catherynne M. Valente (Book 2 of the Fairyland series) (Started 8/14, Finished 8/19)
8 - Across the Great Barrier, Patricia C. Wrede (Book 2 of the Frontier Magic series)
9 - The Alloy of Law, Brandon Sanderson (a Mistborn novel) (Started 8/24, Finished 9/4)
10 - Legion of Flame, Anthony Ryan (Book 2 of the Draconis Memoria series)
11 - Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson (Book 2 of the Mars trilogy)
12 - Binti: Home, Nnedi Okorafor (Book 2 of the Binti trilogy) (Started 1/22, Finished 1/27)

Is it wierd of me that I'm already planning next years' reads?

Cobalt Jade said:

Is it wierd of me that I'm already planning next years' reads?

Click to expand...

LOL Me too!!

Chris P said:

Gee, good thing I'm not doing anything like that.

But since we're on the topic of next year: Any suggestions for new topics? I've come up with a few more to my master list, but will gladly take more.

Click to expand...

Do we have a Serendipity/It's Kind Of A Funny Story... category? Sometimes the means by which books end up in our hands are almost their own story, the synchronicity and coincidence and six-degrees-of-separation that leads us to unexpected finds and encounters.

Books bought in secondhand or charity shops?

I finished my book for the Locked Up category set in an institution: Los Renglones Torcidos de Dios (God’s Twisted Lines) by Torcuato Luca de Tena. I knew it wouldn’t be a fun read, being set in a mental hospital, but I hadn’t expected it to be quite so badly written (all tell, no show; outmoded grammatical expressions; stating the obvious) and in need of drastic editing. Inspired IMHO by Ken Kesey’s brilliant One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, published 15 years earlier, Luca de Tena’s drama hinges on whether a woman committed to a mental hospital is genuinely suffering from paranoia and delusions of grandeur, and is guilty of a triple attempted homicide, or is faking paranoia so as to investigate a murder, as she claims. The facts regarding Alice Gould change as the story progresses (frustratingly slowly), and she gradually wins over everyone in the hospital - patients, nurses, doctors - except the director, who loathes her at a visceral level.
I abhor the way the author objectifies most of the patients, not even giving them names, but referring to them as “the elephant”, “the hunchback”, “the pendulum girl”, “the cyclops”, etc., thereby denying their humanity. In the mid 1970s, when this novel was set, I was studying psychology and doing weekly volunteer work in a mental hospital in the UK, (not in Spain where this novel is set), and my experiences differed radically to the descriptions given in this book. In the UK patients were assigned to wards depending on their diagnosis, rather than all being lumped together, and were heavily medicated. The female patients were given the pill, whereas in the novel one of the female patients becomes pregnant. By the 1970s electroshock therapy was no longer practised in the UK or the US (though now it’s back in favour for certain conditions, but that’s another controversial story), while insulin shock or coma therapy was largely discredited and abandoned back as the early 1960s, yet they both figure prominently in the novel.

Nine down, three to go in my second challenge of the year.