50 Book Challenge 2013 -The Sequel!

Updated list:

1. Coraline - Neil Gaiman
2. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
3. Them: Adventures with Extremists - Jon Ronson
4. The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin
5. Sabra Zoo - Mischa Hiller
6. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
7. 1984 - George Orwell
8. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Max Brooks
9. Metro 2033 - Dmitri Glukhovsky

Currently reading:
15. Eats, Shoots & Leaves - Lynne Truss

30. Moon Called - Patricia Briggs
31. Blood Bound - Patricia Briggs
32. Iron Kissed - Patricia Briggs
33. Bone Crossed - Patricia Briggs
34. Silver Borne - Patricia Briggs
35. River Marked - Patricia Briggs
36. Frost Burned - Patricia Briggs

As you may have guessed those are all one series. It's a series about Mercy Thompson, a 'walker' who shapeshifts into a coyote, and her adventures with werewolves, fae, vampires, etc in the Tri-cities area of Washington. I love this sort of stuff and this is one of the better series I've read. And it's ok for me to recommend it to my teenage dd because it doesn't have the graphic sex scenes that so many books in this genre seem to be full of.

30. The Visitor - Lee Child
31. The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time - Mark Haddon

Book 37 To Davy Jones Below - Carola Dunn

Book 38 The Case of the Murdered Muckraker - Carola Dunn.

Racing through this series good clean fun

Just finished Book 37, The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent. Really enjoyed it. It is set at the time of the Salem Witch trials and captures the superstition, hysteria and horror perfectly.

Sorry, haven't posted here for a while but am enjoying seeing everyone's choices.

15. The Blackhouse - Peter May 7/10
16. Giants: The Dwarfs of Auschwitz (non-fiction) - Eilat Neyev 7/10
17. Dead Tracks - Tim Weaver 7/10
18. Layer Cake - J J Connolly 8/10
19. Far from the East End (non-fiction) - Iris Jones Simantel 7/10
20. The Language of Flowers - Vanessa Diffenbaugh 8/10

I've had a good run of some good reads - the Language of Flowers was particularly beautifully written.

I'm on holiday in 10 days time and would love to spend some time reading by the pool but doubt my kids will let me, sadly as they (and me to a certain extent, I guess) want to be doing 'stuff' and going on excursions - how do people manage to read so many on holiday??

I liked HEr fearful symmetry. It is set close to where I live which gave it an extra edge for me.

InLove I enjoyed that too although I think we are in the minority!

literally just finished 27) her fearful symmetry. read it much slower than normal (busy/headaches) but i really really enjoyed it.

28. one moment, one morning - sarah rayner. again, ive heard good and bad reviews of this one so cant wait to get stuck in

49 - The Saint Zita Society - Ruth Rendell.

Meh

Book 36 The Dinner - Herman Koch. I had vague idea of the premise of the book but I found it to be much more than I expected. It was very well written the story flows but I found it utterly horrifying.

You wonder what you would do in the same situation and hope to god that your decision would be different, at least I did.

I would highly recommend this book and know that it will live with me for a very long time.

Book 67 The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. Very entertaining novel. Would make an excellent summer holiday read.

Galaxymum - I know what you mean! I know some reviewers have said it is unconvincing and contrived etc, but it completely sucked me in and I actually had to re-read several sections as i went along and the day after I finished it, I re-read the last bit....

31. A Tale for the Time Being - enjoyable, though rather longwinded in sections, but it's a Man Booker Longlist candidate, which I only found out after I had started it, so perhaps I should not have been surprised.

32. Just about to finish Falling in Honey which I am rather enjoying as a light summery read, though the main character is rather annoying in her naivety. But loving the descriptions of a Greek Island and its inhabitants and history.

37. A Perfectly Good Man - Patrick Gale. I loved this, there was a moment half way through when I suddenly realised a major plot point, flicked back to confirm it and cried. I had to re-read some of the chapters as soon as I'd finished it because it was so good.

38. The Summons - John Grisham. I've struggled to read this and broken off several times. Even though it is a pacy thriller, I just didn't care about the storyline. I've concluded that it is 'too male' for me and it was a relief to finally finish it.

42 The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I now feel overwhelmed by the emotions I have from the writing in this book. The characters felt so real to me, and I didn't want to let them go. Very hard to finish and no idea what I can read next. Wow! Just discovered John Green and hope others will give this book a go.

You are in for a treat. Enjoy

Cote you will be pleased to know I'm taking Ready Player One on holiday with me.

29. Boys From Brazil - Ira Levin

Brilliant premise, told by an expert mystery author. I watched the film when I was a teenager, then researched cloning for my biology class a looong time before Dolly the sheep. This is in Amazon's Kindle summer sale so i thought it was the perfect time to read the book.

I introduced myself at the start of the first thread I think but haven't posted anything else.

I am on book 32 I think, which is The Blind Man's Garden by Nadeem Aslam. It is the third book I have read by this writer ( though not this year) so I have high hopes for it being good. I am only a little way into it and finding it very difficult to sit down to read in peace with the children home from school.

It's set in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the months following 9/11 and follows the lives of two brothers who enter Afghanistan to care for civilians but end up at a Taliban camp.

I have included a few Radio 4 Books at Bedtime/ Books of the Week and audiobooks in my list of books I have read as I tend to listen during the day if I am busy and do most book or kindle reading at night (unless I get a rare child free day when I have nothing else planned). They are my favourite days, as I snuggle up with plenty of tea and chocolate if it's cold out, or I lie on a blanket in the garden if it's sunny and it always feels like a decadent treat. In the pre-kids days I took all that for granted!

I have read a mixture of fiction and non-fiction so I will look over my list and see of there were any particularly good ones I can recommend.

31. Martian Time-Slip - Philip K Dick
32. The Witches - Roald Dahl
33. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
34. The Worst Journey In The World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard
35. James And The Giant Peach - Roald Dahl
36. The Children's Hospital - Chris Adrian. Not quite what I was expecting and took a while to get into but actually very well-written and moving by the end.

Duchess - I Persuasion. I regularly dip into chapter 23. Makes me smile ALWAYS.

Recent name change but this is Mixed. Taken forever to read my latest book so thought it was about time to update completely. Just finished,

29. Adam Bede by George Eliot Depressing but some fab writing but often very flowery.
30. The Return if the Soldier by Rebecca West About shell shock. Very short and I enjoyed it.
31. HHhH by Laurent Binet Didn't work for me, about Heydrich's assassination.
32. The BFG by Roald Dahl
33. Poirot's Early Cases by Agatha Christie
34. Working Class Cultures 1890-1960 by Joanna Bourke
35. History: a very short introduction by John Arnold
36. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D H Lawrence I will say it again. I love this book!!!
37. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
38. Alice by Eva Hanagan
39. Love on the Dole by Walter Greenwood
40. The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpugo
41. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
42. Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
43. The English German Girl - Holocaust related but incredibly powerful and if you can cope with it a must read.
44. Gone girl by Gillian Flynn
45. The hundred year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared
46. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
47. Victorian Feminism by Philipa Levine
48. Fifty shades of grey by E L James

1. Murder on the links by Agatha Christie
2. Emma by Jane Austen
3. Call the midwife by Jennifer Worth
4. The tenant of wild fell hall by Anne Brontes
5. The Lighthouse by Alison More
6. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
7. The mysterious affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
8. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone by J K Rowling
9. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Finished book 31, "Before I Met You', which was okay. It was gripping in some parts, but predictable in others.

About to start book 31, which is Stuart Hill "The Prince of the Icemark", a prequel to a trilogy of books I came across whilst studying children's literature.

48 - The Casual Vacancy - JK Rowling. I really enjoyed it. i was surprised by how good it is.