50 Book Challenge 2013 -The Sequel!

24. A Dreadful Murder (The Mysterious Death of Caroline Luard) - Minette Walters. Based on an unsolved 1908 murder, MW presages the changes that are about to occur due to WW1 and emphasises the social differences within the village.

25. On Battersea Bridge - Janet Davey. About loss of identity and finding your place within a family, after a tragedy.

24. How It All Began by Penelope Lively. Good - she's one of my favourite authors.

11. Who Killed Zebedee? Wilkie Collins

12. Entertaining Eric, Maureen Wells (non-fic. Extracts from letters written by a young woman during WWII to her fiancee. She had a "good war" in the Wrens)

13. The Ghosts of Athens, Richard Blake (latest a very gory but atmospheric series set during 7th century - very interesting period, amid the crumbling remains of classical empires)

14. Dear Lumpy, Roger and Louise Mortimer (non-fic. Along the same lines as "Dear Lupin". The fatherly affection is endearing but it's all a bit Little England).

15. Villa Serena, Domenica de Rosa (I really like this author. She takes a corny topic - English expats in Italy - and really makes you feel for her characters. And she creates very attractive heroes...)

16. Mistress Masham's Repose, TH White (Enjoyed the 18th c pastiche and the impoverished Professor who plans to work his passage to London as a bus conductor to consult Latin dictionaries in the British Library).

17. The Pleasures of Men, Kate Williams (familiar Gothic Victoriana - madhouses, a madman murdering women, and Sapphic intimacies with maids. Atmospheric but a ludicrous plot).

Have just started Tom Holland, Rubicon

Finished! That was fun- an easy and uplifting read. Good if you enjoyed Silver Linings Playbook or Nick Hornby-type novels. It won't win the Booker Prize, but I bet it will make a cracking film.

Wow, this one is brilliant- I'm a third of the way through now, and so far it feels like it would make an excellent film. It's about a middle-aged Jewish bloke who has lost his wife to his boss, jacked in his job, is living in a bedsit and now his father has died. His father's last wish was that his family all sit shiva together, ie, spent seven days all together in his home after the funeral. All the family tensions are there, but the way it is written, it is full of wry Jewish humour and bittersweet observations about what success means, what life's all about etc. I'm really enjoying it.

I read 40. Learning To Lose, by David Trueba, in translation from the Spanish, late last night and today. Beautifully written.

I've just started 41. This is where I leave you, by Jonathon Tropper.

tumbletumble I liked the idea of it and read it fairly quickly so it got points for being an easy read.

Tumbletumble I read "the five people we meet in heaven", it was alright, the end was a bit contrived. I didn't know it was critically acclaimed, I got it from the library.
Since January I'm currently on book #48 "strata" by Terry Pratchett and #49 "The Wild Rover" by Mike Parker.

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

Currently reading:

1. The Smoke Jumper - Nicholas Evans - this one will have to wait, as I don't actually have it at home, but, to be honest, I'm only reading it cause I don't like abandoning books half-way through, I'm not enjoying it at all...

27. HHhH by Laurent Binet

I didn't like the unique narrative style. The story was interesting though.

Reading 28. Adam Bede by George Eliot

31. Martian Time-Slip - Philip K Dick
32. The Witches - Roald Dahl (to DS1 at bedtimes)

Cote thanks for the recommendation, I've reserved it at the library :)

Thanks, hack!

Luckily I have a child that likes toast.

Book 23 complete.

Book 24 is Iain Banks "The Wasp Factory"

20. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Truly awesome story. Brilliant adventure in the virtual reality of a dystopian future.

Hackmum, that is frighteningly close to the truth

juney, what did you think of The Five People You Meet in Heaven? I read it last year and was not too impressed. I don't understand why it is so critically acclaimed!

Nickname - what a pleasingly varied list. If there was a prize for eclectic reading choices, you'd probably win it.

I've read 29 books so far this year. Not sure how those of you who have read 50 or more are doing it - I imagine your children in rags, sobbing, scrabbling at pieces of coal for food.

MegBusset - I came on here with the sole purpose of telling you to immediately start reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I am reading it now and it is brilliant cyberpunk. On par with Snow Crash, in fact (minus the Sumerian genius) and I don't say that lightly as a card carrying Neal Stephenson fan.

I bought it a while back because it was the Kindle Daily Deal and forgot about it. Wow, am I regretting that now! I can't wait to come to the end of this post so I can go back to reading it

Im halfway through 39, a really well-written family drama, Whatever You Love, by Louise Doughty. It's been shortlisted for the Costa prize, and long listed for Orange, and it hasn't disappointed me so far.

Books 57 and 58 - finished yesterday -

Brooklyn - Colm Toibin - audio book.
Findings - Kathleen Jamie

Last night I finished 38. Louise Douglas' Missing You- it was nicely written, but I found the characters a bit flat and the plot unremarkable. I'd got it for bobbins in the kindle sale and forgotten the genre, so I was half-expecting a bit of a thriller. It wasn't .

Wednesday, I loved it too. It was the first (and, so far, the only) Neil Gaiman book I've read, I'm gonna have to put some more of his work on my "to read" list.

25. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

22. Dear Lupin by Roger and Charlie Mortimer. Gentle humour from a past age when people wrote letters rather than sending e mails or texting!

Ooh, I love Coraline.