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50 Book Challenge 2013 -The Sequel!

807 replies

CardiffUniversityNetballTeam · 16/06/2013 11:05

Morning all,

As the old thread here is nearly full, I have created a shiny new one for your delight and delectation.

Sign in and update your progress here!

I'm Cardiff and I've nearly finished book 16, so I'm very behind as to be in track we should be approaching 25 by now. Where is everyone else up to?

OP posts:
MrsCosmopilite · 03/11/2013 09:52
  1. The five orange pips (and other stories) - Arthur Conan Doyle. I've never read any Sherlock Holmes stories before. Quite entertaining, and makes me think that Jeremy Brett's portrayal was pretty much spot-on. Interesting to see how science now would blow some of Holmes' deductions out of the water.

Just finishing off
56. Jack the Ripper: The terrible legacy - Whitechapel Society. This one is non-fiction and looks as the people other than the murder victims whose lives were ruined/altered by JTR. I was hoping for some clues to his identity, or speculation about the same, but that's not covered in this one.

DuchessofMalfi · 02/11/2013 21:23

90 - The Empty Family - Colm Toibin.
91 - Dark Matter - Michelle Paver.

AnonYonimousBird · 02/11/2013 12:54

funambulist - well done you, I too have updated myself to a 60 target, might be a tad ambitious on my part, but hell, let's give it a go.

WednesdayNext · 02/11/2013 11:39

  1. Jim Higley "Bobblehead Dad : 25 life lessons I forgot I knew". It was ok.

  2. Charlotte Perkins Gilman "The Yellow Wallpaper". Only a short story but I loved it.

Started 54 last night: Sebastian Faulks "Birdsong"

Congrats on reaching 50 galaxymum and AnonYonimousBird

Foosyerdoos Enjoy! I love Fforde and really envy you reading his novels for the first time!! I too am impatiently awaiting the second Shades of Grey novel!!

CircassianLeyla · 02/11/2013 09:22
  1. The Office Idiot Reviews by Pete Sortwell. Not sure what I was thinking really. It is a silly book that can be read in an hour. The plus side is I now only have 10 books to go so perhaps I will make it after all.
MegBusset · 01/11/2013 22:29
  1. Autobiography - Morrissey

Hard to argue with Stuart Maconie's Observer review of this as a frustrating mix of brilliance and petulance. He is really horrible about Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke but very sweet about Kirsty MacColl and various injured animals.

funambulist · 01/11/2013 17:57

Congratulations AnonYonimousBird!

I have tentatively set myself a new target of 60 books by the end of the year, having recently passed the 50 book mark myself.

greenhill · 01/11/2013 13:39

Congratulations to everyone who has made it to 50 and some of you are much further on too!

  1. The Flight - M R Hall. This is the third book I've read by him this year. I was involved as I read it, but when I put it down I didn't think about it at all. Which was odd given the dramatic subject matter. I read it a few weeks ago and forgot to update my list, so dropped off the thread again. My DH was a bit scathing about some of the technical info too, which didn't help.

I've not been reading much as I'm reading something on my kindle that is not grabbing me, but I always feel obliged to finish books, so am ploughing on 10 pages at a time. On the plus side I have listened to a lot of short stories, biographies and drama on iPlayer.

AnonYonimousBird · 01/11/2013 13:06
  1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  2. Blackwater Lightship

50! - Florence and Giles!

Phew, I did it.

Foosyerdoos · 31/10/2013 20:14
  1. 2312 - Kim Stanley Robinson

Hi Wednesday, I am just getting into Jasper Fforde and I am really enjoying them. I read a couple last year, I keep looking out for the sequel to Shades of Grey but it does not have a release date yet. I just bought the second nursery crimes book so will read that next.

funambulist · 31/10/2013 12:29

51 A question of identity by Susan Hill

Number 7 in her detective series. I enjoy the way that the characters surrounding her detective, Simon Serrailler, his parents, siblings, friends and work colleagues continue from book to book and the way that events described in the earlier books affect the characters in the present book. After several murders and serial killers the poor things are quite traumatised though!

52 Before I go to sleep by S J Watson

Not great literature but a real page turner about a woman who can only remember the last 24 hours of her life so she relies on her apparently loving husband to tell her what has happened to her over the previous 20 years. Things change when she starts to keep a journal and can record what happens each day.

AbsDuCroissant · 31/10/2013 12:15

I had to do all the Anne of Green Gables style-y books after all that Gillian Flynn stuff. But I did love the Gillian Flynn books, I think Gone Girl was my favourite (which terrified DH, I was all "this wife is AWESOME"), with Sharp Objects a close second. But a lot of it was cringy to read, and I was also very surprised by who the killer was.

AbsDuCroissant · 31/10/2013 12:12

It's VERY good Meg, read it if you can. It goes into his background (really uninspiring, which makes his rise very suspect, and creepy) and the early years of him in power, dodgy stuff he's allegedly been involved in, such as attacks against Russians and blamed on other people. Really good, but scary. Very scary.

Actually, I have just remembered another one I read but didn't list - so 46, White Teeth

minsmum · 31/10/2013 12:02

71 The Witness - Nora Roberts

MegBusset · 31/10/2013 11:59

Oh I really want to read that Putin book.

AbsDuCroissant · 31/10/2013 11:56

Right, i'm on 46 now (Collected Poems by Rumi) but here's the full breakdown

  1. The Red and the Black - Stendhal
  2. Tales of the Jazz Age - Fitzgerald
  3. The Power of One
  4. Putin - the man without a face (highly recommend - amazing, but scary reading. the man's a psychopath)
  5. - 8 Little Women etc. series
  6. noah's compass (meh)
10. Amerika - Kafka 11. Samurai - the story of Japan's last samurai 12. Why Nations Fail 13. A Fine Balance - MEGA DEPRESSING 14. Burger's daughter by Nadine Gordimer AMAZING 15. Nothing to Envy - real lives in North Korea 16. Gone Girl (loved it) 17. La Liste Hariri 18. Africa - a Crude continent 19. The Conservationist, JM Coetzee 20. Pow! 21. No time like the present 22. Native Son 23. Sharp Objects 24. Dark Places 25. Anne of the Island 26. Anne's House of Dreams 27. Anne of Avonlead (that was fun! It was so retro of me) 28. My week with Marilyn 29. Stalin - in the court of the red tsar 30. Let the Great World Spin - another AMAZING book 31. The Old Man and the Sea 32. Snows of Kilimanjaro 33. July's people 34. Norwegian Wood 35. Memoirs of a Geisha 36. Le Petit Prince 37. Tokyo Tango (rubbish) 38. The Sound of Waves 39. To Kill a Mockingbird 40. Beloved 41. In Cold Blood 42. The Marriage Plot 43. Freedom from Fear - collected writings of Aung Sang Suu Kyi 44. The Blind Assassin 45. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
PerksOfBeingNorthern · 31/10/2013 11:19

Getting a march on during week off!
90. Rosie Fiore - Babies In Waiting
91. Monica McInerney - The Alphabet Sisters
92. Cath Staincliffe - Witness
93. Kristin Harmel - The Sweetness of Forgetting
94. Rachael Lucas - Sealed With A Kiss
95. Steena Holmes - Finding Emma
96. Steena Holmes - Emma's Secret

CoteDAzur · 31/10/2013 10:15
  1. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

I reread it for the first time in 25 years and so and am sad to report that it has not aged well. Or my recollection of it from when I read it as a teenager was overly generous. I found it to be badly written, superficial, even slightly silly. Unlike 1984, which I admired more after a recent reread than I did as a teenager.

Now on to Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry for book club. First 7% is pretty dull and disappointing tbh. Is this really a book for grown people about a pensioner walking across the country to find hope to a dying friend?Hmm

juneybean · 30/10/2013 23:03
  1. Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding

I'm so behind!

CircassianLeyla · 30/10/2013 23:02

Just noticed I haven't updated properly.

  1. Honour by Elif Shafak. As previously stated I am a fan.
  2. Around the World in Eighty Days - see below for proof I am a fan.
CircassianLeyla · 30/10/2013 22:57
  1. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne I love this story and have fond memories if reading it and it didn't let me down. So pleased I have rediscovered it.

Not sure what no.40 is going to be but I think I clearly need a few short novels if I am to make 50.

Original poster
CardiffUniversityNetballTeam · 28/10/2013 21:54
  1. A Death in Tuscany by Michele Giuttari

Crime thriller/police procedural about, unsurprisingly, a death in Tuscany!
The author is a retired Italian policeman which gives the story a real sense of authenticity. There are two others featuring the same character so I will keep an eye out for those.

OP posts:
MrsMaryCooper · 28/10/2013 19:30
  1. Ready for Murder - Joe Hill

Atrocious! A ripped off barely disguised re-write of Basic Instinct. I can't believe that it was written by Joe Hill who wrote Horns and The Heart Shaped Box. I think it must be someone else cashing in on his name. There were spelling mistakes and editing mistakes too.

funambulist · 28/10/2013 09:26

Congratulations Galaxymum!

tumbletumble · 27/10/2013 21:59
  1. Trust Unwrapped by Dan Collins and David Thompson
  2. The Outcast by Sadie Jones
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