50 Book Challenge 2013 -The Sequel!

50. Roald Dahl - The Twits
51. Mhairi McFarlane - You Had Me At Hello
52. Eoin Dempsey - Finding Rebecca

28. The Secret Speech - Tom Rob Smith

This is the sequel to Child 44, the first thriller to be longlisted for the Booker Prize, iirc. I really enjoyed Child 44, despite the shortcomings of its plot, because it was such a brilliant insight into Stalin's Soviet Russia, not to mention the transformation of detective's relationship throughout the book. This sequel is not as good, imho. It's written to be an action movie and the insight that has made Child 44 great is just not there.

Child 44's film is coming out next year, apparently.

Thanks Duchess, I'll have a look at that one!

Book 66 - Persuasion by Jane Austen. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get round to reading this novel. Just delightful :)

19. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - OK
20. The Innocents by Francesca Segal - OK
21. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - OK
22. The sick rose by Erin Kelly - OK
23. Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussman - Great
24. War of the Worlds by HG Wells - Fantastic 25 What have I done by Amanda Prowse - Good 26 The Hive by Gillian Hornby - Fair to Poor 27 Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle - Average 28 The fault in our stars by John Green - Great 29 How to be a good wife by Emma Chapman - Good, scary! 30 Capital by John Lanchester - Good romp.

Well I sort of stopped reading for 6 weeks and not being able to get into anything. I finally started again and just finished no 35 World War Z - Max Brooks. I saw the film last week and really enjoyed it and so read the book. Really enjoyed it.
Hopefully it won't be another 6 weeks before I can start the next one

39 The Long Weekend by Veronica Henry
40 Time's Echo by Pamela Hartshorne (fantastic timeslip novel. Quite spooky with haunting scenes which gave me shivers. Very well written).

41 - now reading Joyland by Stephen King

Thanks, Cote, I've read most of that series (Janissary Tree etc) but it's a good reminder to go back and see if I've missed any.

Currently on (37) The Letters of Jane Austen. I'm enjoying it as an evocation of the very early 19th century, and there's a palpable warmth between the sisters.

Book 65 Gangsta Granny by David Walliams. Bedtime story for DD. Very good - we loved it!

Wednesday - I read Ian McEwan's Enduring Love recently. I'd recommend that - completely engrossing.

13. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce - really enjoyed it although it wad quite predictable.

Now reading:
14. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson - can only read it at a certain workplace so it will take me a while to finish it.
15. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

NicknameTaken - If you like that genre, I would recommend Jason Goodwin who writes murder mysteries in Ottoman era Istanbul, where the detective is a eunuch. Interesting and impressively correct re history & detail.

36. The Main Line Murders - Sonia Kilvington. Patchy and disjointed psychological thriller. Not recommended.

34. The Istanbul Puzzle, Laurence O'Bryon. I have a fondness for this genre - ancient artefact uncovered, murders, being chased by bad guys through exotic locations, blah de blah. This is a rather paint-by-numbers version, though, and it fizzles out rather pointlessly at the end.

35. After the Funeral, Agatha Christie.

36. The Hive, Gill Hornby. I'm sure we'll be seeing threads on this, as the topic is quite Mumsnetty. Clumsy use of metaphor - there is an actual hive and a conversation of what will happen to the queen bee. My main quarrel was with the character of Georgie, a woman so bovine she has to produce another child because she doesn't know what to do with herself when the rest are at school. All fine and well as a study of pathology, but deeply irritating when the author holds her up as some kind of model of instinctive womanhood. The dialogue isn't as witty as the author seems to think. On the plus side, I quite enjoyed a couple getting wildly aroused during a quiz night.

28. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I know I'm a bit late to the party on this one, but I absolutely loved it. Possibly my favourite book this year.

Finished book 30: Ian McEwan's "Sweet Tooth".

I loved it. It had me hooked from the start. Definitely a must read for fans of "Atonement". I think I actually prefer this one.

I'm looking for recommendations for other Ian McEwan books if anyone has any?

Book 31 is Lisa Jewell "Before I Met You"

35. The Turtle Boy - Kealan Patrick Burke. Winner of the Bram Stoker Award and quite creepy. Free download as it's the first story in a series.

33. The Innocent - M R Hall. A prequel to The Coroner, a Jenny Cooper crime short.
34. The Golden Egg - Donna Leon. The latest Brunetti novel in her magnificent series, it's a long muse on identity and ethics.

Feel like throwing a party and waving a few flags for ...
49) Leo Tolstoy- Anna Karenina
That was three long weeks but one I've been meaning to read for a while.

47. The Glass Room - Anne Cleeves

Nearly at 50!

Meant to add, it was another free download.

32. Woof Hall - Hilarity Mental. Parody of the royal romance as if written by a foul mouthed, horny teenager.

31. Aim High - Tanni Grey Thompson. Inspirational advice as part of the Quick Reads project in Wales, a joint venture between the Basic Skills Agency and the Welsh Books Council. A free kindle download.

nicknametaken at least the DM short story was a free download too.

A damning verdict indeed! Hope they're tasty biscotti at least. I've read books where I haven't even got that much from them...