Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic 50 Book Challenge 2020/What I've Read in 2020

77) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K Rowling again a re-read of this one for me as is the next one below

78) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K Rowling

79) Quidditch Through the Ages (Hogwarts Library Collection) by Kennilworthy Whisp ok so this book is actually of course written by Rowling, but since it is really a part of the Hogwarts book collection I’ll keep the name as what it is said to be authored by. If you’re a fan of the series you’ll definitely enjoy this look into the history of the wizard it sport Quidditch. Bonus points also go out for having an Australian team from the city of Wollongong which is a real place that is about 60-70km south of Sydney

80) The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Hogwarts Library Collection) by J.K Rowling muggles have Grimm’s Fairytales, wizards have this one. This edition also has explanations as to the meaning or moral of the story being told.

81) China’s Last Empire: The Great Qing by William T. Rowe this is the last in the series about the imperial system of China. The Qing Empire was the last imperial dynasty to rule China before the establishment of the republic. Of the books in this series, this is my pick of the lot which may have more to do with the familiarity with the history of some of the major players during this period (in fact my mother knew the grandchildren of one of the major Qing court officials during the dying years of the dynasty). That being said because of my relative knowledge of this period, I was also aware that there were some things that were omitted so it kept me from giving the book full marks

82) Why we get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman this book further emphasised my belief that all politicians are as bad as each other. This book pertains to the politics of Britain and so if you haven’t kept up to date with what has been going on you’ll find this hard to understand.

83) Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel I’m not a fan of historical fiction as my usual reading is history in general, but this I thoroughly enjoyed as a look into the opulent and brutal world of Henry VIII’s court and the rise of its central character Thomas Cromwell. I often don’t say this about books that win major literary prizes (especially since I was put off reading Hemingway’s books for years after reading The Old Man and Sea not understanding how it contributed to his being awarded the Nobel for literature until I finally decided to read A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls), but this I found to be page turner right from the beginning.

84) Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel the sequel to Wolf Hall and as usual with sequels I tend to find the second book a little difficult to really absorb myself. More often than not I force myself to finish. In the end though I did end up enjoying it as the pace picked up towards the end

#53 Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan

Multiple generations of a family meet at a cabin in upstate New York for their annual week long vacation.

This was a long book with little action. What was interesting (and not so interesting) was that it read like what a real family might deal with. The boredom, the petty grudges. We followed nine people, which got a little confusing when it came to the kids. While there were personality conflicts, there was no true climax to the book.

85) Great Books of the Western World Volume 43: American State Papers, The Federalist and J.S Mill once at a car boot (trunk) sale, the Lions Club had a stall selling books. At the time my intention was only asking how much was it for the book on the top which was Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, but the lady said I could take the whole box for $10 so naturally me being the hoarder I am I bought the entire box, having only glanced at a few, of which I was familiar with and realised that I had a good set of the Great Books of the Western World a collection is heard about, but never actually had seen. This is one the ones I didn’t even notice initially and so I decided to read it. Admittedly though I certainly found it interesting, I did struggle to get through it as I found it rather too dry even for someone who’s reading taste is usually fairly dry in the first place.

86) A Promised Land by Barack Obama last book of the year as we see off 2020. I found this to be well written, insightful and full of humour. My only real criticism from my perspective is that there was one aspect I’d hoped would be further elaborated on beyond what he’d written, but otherwise that I did really enjoy this.