Challenge 18: A book with a blue cover

Ida's book: "Dietland" by Sarai Walker (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015)

So this is yet another book that have been on my to-read-list for a long time. I became aware of it through a fat activist network, but I was reluctant to actually read it: probably slightly scared of the inevitable truths it would make me aware of. Then a book shop offered 20% on all english books, and I thought, why not.

Comments:

Although it has only taken me just under a month to read this book, it was a slow start. The writing is excellent and I wanted to savour it; reading slowly and not rushing it. The main character's 'awakening' for lack of a better word is so well written and I follow her anger and wish for revenge, in fact, all the characters are believable and you sort of come to respect and care for them. As a fat woman, it hits close to home, and sometimes I just couldn't summon the energy to read on, it's a tough read sometimes, but then you get to the last 100 pages and I probably read them in a day or so (very typical reading behaviour from me). It's such a great book, and I will be sharing it with other fat women in need of an eye opener to the diet industry (land) that we live in. I'll probably return to it as well, in a not too distant future. Although I took my time (with most of the book) I still feel there is much to discuss and pick through, and I have a feeling it'll be one of those books that I will come back to time and again.

Challenge 17: A Book That Will Make You Smarter

The Last of the President's Men, Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster, 2015)

I've been looking forward to reading this ever since I met Alexander Butterfield at an event at the British Library.  He's an absolutely charming man and, when it turned out that we were heading in the same direction at the end of the talk, insisted on walking me back to the station.  He told me at the time that Woodward was writing this book, and now I finally get to read it!

Comments
This is a wonderful and insightful look inside the Nixon White House, and a very honest account of Butterfield's role in the administration and, particularly, in the taping system that would eventually prove to be Nixon's downfall.  Butterfield's memories reveal the complexity of Nixon's character, and how Butterfield was both charmed, intrigued, and also sometimes repulsed by the president.  Butterfield's dilemma once the Watergate hearings started is handled with sensitivity and honesty, and it's really great to read that side of the story.  My only regret is that the book focused pretty much exclusively on Butterfield's work for the Nixon administration, and didn't cover much more of Butterfield's fascinating career.  I'd heard some of this when Butterfield gave the talk at the British Library, and I was hoping to read more about it in the book.  Maybe they'll be another volume!  I'd definitely read it if there is!

Challenge 17: A Book That Will Make You Smarter

Ida's book: "1915 - Da kvinder og tyende blev borgere" by Pia Fris Laneth (Gyldendal, 2015)

This book is about the Danish suffrage movement - it's title in English: "1915 - When women and servants became civilians". I've been reading it on and off since March, and have read embarrassingly little of it so far. I know quite a lot about the English suffrage movement as I wrote my MA thesis on it (its representation on screen, anyway) but I know next to nothing about the Danish effort. So I shall use this challenge number 17, to get to the bottom of it.

Comments:

Halfway point comment: The problem with books that will make you smarter is that they can be hard to get through. I am halfway through this one now, and have read two other fiction books in between - oops! It's not that it's badly written or anything, but sometimes it becomes too much of a trip through history, I think I need a little more structure and a feeling of connectedness between all the characters and events described. I have decided to continue with the book (obviously! I never abandon books), but also to continue with the other challenges alongside this one, as I would otherwise grind to a complete halt, and I can't really not read books. Stand by for further comments when I finish it.

I FINISHED IT!
I decided to give this book a few days, so I could complete it, and move it from my 'reading pile' to it's proper place on my shelf. It picked up in the second half, and the last few chapters were quickly read. It's a great book for the wider perspective on women's suffrage in Denmark, and I have definitelt learned some new things so - mission accomplished!

Challenge 16: A Book You Learned About Because Of This Challenge

Donna's Book: "Chicken's Soup for the Woman's Soul" by Jack Canfield (Ebury Digital, 2010)

Because of Ida's interests, and the books that she's been reading in this challenge, I've become much more aware of feminism and feminist issues in literature.  I'm not sure that I wanted anything too heavy this summer (I really need to relax after finishing writing the book, end-of-year marking, and the St Peter's 60th Anniversary) and I've always loved the 'Chicken Soup' series, and so I'm hoping this will help me think more about the role of women in society but without being too taxing!

Comments:

Sadly this was really disappointing.  Rather than being a celebration of women and their contributions to society, or inspiring women to succeed or fight on, it drifted into stereotypical messages of how motherhood was good, and very little else.  Of course motherhood is good and important, but women are so much more than that.  Shame this book didn't seem to realise it.

Challenge 15: A Book Of Poems

Donna's Book: "Summer With Monika" by Roger McGough (Andre Deutsch, 2017)

I adore Roger McGough!  I've loved him since he was in The Scaffold and since I've started reading his poetry, I've loved him even more.  I always go to see him when he does readings in Liverpool, and I dragged by parents to see him in King's Lynn last week when they told me he was doing a performance for the King's Lynn festival while I was on holiday in Norfolk (they really enjoyed it though!!).  At the time that this challenge arose, I hadn't read this so it seems like the ideal choice!

Comments:

This summer has been a summer of anniversaries in Liverpool, but one of my favourites was the full performance of "Summer With Monika" (with some other readings) by Roger McGough and musicians from the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for its 50th anniversary in June!  With Roger's usual wit and wisdom it describes the excitement of falling in love and then the emotional rollercoaster as that love progresses and fades, along with the fading summer.  It's just beautiful, especially when read alongside the CD with its full musical dramatisation of the poems.  Wonderful and powerful, and I love Roger even more now!

Challenge 16: A Book You Learned About Because Of This Challenge

Ida's book: "The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes From A Small Island" by Bill Bryson (Doubleday, 2015)

So this is a book that Donna read, and I have since then heard a lot of good things about Bill Bryson, so I'm gonna give it a go!

Comments:
Overall, this was a really enjoyable read. Bill Bryson clearly loves the UK as I think only a foreigner can (myself included). His writing is witty and warm and the amount of knowledge gained about tiny villages and moorlands is pretty staggering. However, I do find that some of his opinions can be filed under 'old man refuses to acknowledge change', especially his dig about trans* people was a low point, as were some of his other utterances.
So my enjoyment of this book is somewhat dampened byt this, but his writing can't be faulted, and I obviously agree with him, when he says the the UK is a wonderful country.

Challenge 14: A Book Set In Summer

Donna's Book: "One Summer: America 1927" by Bill Bryson (Transworld, 2013)

I love Bill Bryson and I've been using this reading challenge to make myself catch up with all of his books that I haven't read yet.  This, obviously, fits nicely in this category!

Comments: 

Once again, Bill Byrson did not disappoint!  This is a gentle but at the same time fascinating stroll through the main events of the summer of 1927 in the United States.  The main focus is on Charles Lindburgh, and his record-breaking flight from New York to Paris, but other chapters focus on baseball stars Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, Grover Cleveland and Herbert Hoover (with a really excellent section on the great Mississippi flood), and the notorious criminals of the age, including Al Capone.  Bryson described both the lead-up to the 'key moment' in 1927 and its aftermath, and thus provides a real insight into the development of the United States in the inter-war years.  This is very different to Bryson's travel books, and so, if you're not interested in history too, this might not be for you.  But Bryson's style never fails to entertain!  I loved it!

Challenge 15: A Book Of Poems

Ida's book: "Making Cocoa For Kingsley Amis" by Wendy Cope (Faber Faber, 2001)

I've been waiting for this one to come up, and I've had a name down for this challenge basically since beginning the whole reading challenge: Wendy Cope. I can't remember why or when I first read her poem The Orange, but I absolutely loved it, and since then I've read a few of her love poems; they are quirky and to the point, but embody so much feeling as well (I can heartily recommend 'Differences of Opinion' just because it's so on the point on mansplaining).

Anyway, I've chosen to read Making Cocoa For Kingsley Amis, mostly because my Danish library had it, and so the choice was sort of made for me. We shall see whether it lives up to the poems I already know.

Comments:

For new-comers to Wendy Cope I would recommend her love poems, as most of them are quite straightforward and deliciously unprententious. This collection requires slightly more thought, or maybe I just feel like that because, despite having lived in England for 5 years, there are still a lot of (cultural) references I don't get and my reading of this collection suffers slightly from it. However! There are brilliant poems in this collection. The 'All-Purpose Poem For State Occasions' is wonderfully to the point and a true comment on the role of the royals in British society. 'From June To December' and 'Rondeau Redoublé' are, I suppose, love poems, but not the soppy ones. They are more bitter or bitter-sweet, but all the better for it, I think. And the concluding poem, 'Making Cocoa For Kingsley Amis' is possibly the star of the collection, what with it's position at very back of the book, in it's own section, and the way it completely does away with any kind of implied depth from the title of it. I won't spoil it (can you spoil a poem?), but read the collection and make sure you save it for last.

Challenge 14: A Book Set In Summer

Ida's book: "The Yellow Wallpaper" (and other stories) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Dover Publications, 1997)

So! It's been quite a while since I've given any thought to this reading challenge, and I am only slightly cross with myself about it. I moved back to my home country, became unemployed, then employed again, and all the while I re-read some of my favourite books. Probably a bit of a coping mechanism: if life is chaos, it's nice to return to a familiar place and familiar characters, to not be surprised by anything.

But life has calmed down a bit now, and the reading challenge has been nagging for at least a month. Yesterday I read a short story, sort of by accident, and then realised that it was set in summer, and that it would therefore fulfil challenge number 14: A book set in summer! So I am now back in the game, with The Yellow Wallpaper.

The book (if you can call it that) is short. But my God is it well-written! The story is about a woman confined to a room by her doctor-husband, because of her nervous breakdown, but of course it only makes it worse, and of course, her confinement should be read metaphorically (after all this is a feminist text!).
The woman's descend into madness is gradual, and you can't help but follow her, it's not until the end that you realise you've been sucked in and that's what makes it so good.

It's part of a collection of some of her other stories, which I will now promptly go read!