50 Book Challenge 2014 Part 3

Marking my place.

Have had a manic & stressful few months & not made the progress I'd hoped but starting to get my mojo back so will review & update tomorrow.

Can't believe how many some people have read !

whatwoulddexterdo Have you read The 50/50 Killer by Steve Mosby? [[http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0752881574?pc_redir=1401765341&robot_redir=1 The 5050 Killer ]]
When I first saw the blurb for Eeny Meeny I thought it was a joke and Mosby's blurb had been posted onto a fake book. The books sounded so similar I'd love to know what someone who's read both thinks.

It was like she needed to, 'Punish' men iirc - I know I threw it down in disgust anyway!

I will have to go and look up the ending of Alias Grace now as I have a vague recollection that it might have annoyed me too but have no memory of what it actually was despite having read it at least three times.

I should think so too. And :)

42. Eeny Meeny. - M.J. Arlidge Really really really good serial killer 10/10

I've not read'Alias Grace', but it's sat on my shelf waiting to be read. Will I regret it?

I was on the thread last year too, but kept out of the debates as I was a bit fragile at the time. I really enjoyed my debate with Cote though. I might read something else off her list just to have another argument :)

I consider myself thoroughly chastised Remus!!

Atwood's biggest problem is that she always lets her feelings about men get in the way of the story. 'Alias Grace' one of her better ones, until the ending - which really annoyed me.

That article was quite interesting in its comments on sci-fi, until it got to the Ustopia stuff, which was ridiculous.

Wednesday - you are forgiven (but don't do it again!). Stick around and you'll find that quite often Cote and I argue for the sake of it (with each other too) and when either of us is in that mood, no amount of quotation will convert us!

As far as Atwood is concerned, I loved Alias Grace and have read it a number of times, I thought the Handmaid's Tale was ok but have failed to finish any of her other books.

I have had at least 3 attempts at The Luminaries this year.

Ah, I loved Life After Life! Behind the Scenes at the Museum is one of my all time favourites, but many of hers since then have been a bit 'meh'. I though LAL was a real return to form! I do love a bit of weird plot device in a book though, have just downloaded The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August which looks to be along sort-of-similar lines.
I might give The Luminaries a stab then!

Remus I fully understand. I'm a lit graduate I'd have failed my degree if my essays were like that :) Problem was, Cote didn't like my opinion so I figured I'd throw some others in and see if it converted her to my way of thinking Failed miserably!!!!!

Mumslife - no, but it's on my kindle now

26. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I really enjoyed this, thanks mumslife and others for the recommendation upthread.

Now for Lexicon, really looking forward to it (although not feeling qualified to enter the dystopia discussion!).

Gods, Cote - what on earth are you reading Atkinson for? I would bet my hat that you will absolutely detest her. I liked one of hers and the others I read annoyed me so much that I vowed never to read another, so will not be reading, 'Life after Life.' She is the queen of convenient coincidences, and it drives me batty.

Sorry for them 'Long and boring' comment by the way all - I just prefer people's direct opinions, rather than people copying swathes of stuff from other people/Wikipedia/whatever. As I tell Yr 12, one short, pertinent quote is worth more than twenty general ones etc etc.

Nessalina - I loved The Luminaries - great story, beautifully written, very insightful. And I generally loathe books written by female authors (I know how that makes me sound, too )

Case in point - I'm currently 10% into Life After Life and wanting to slash open my wrists because of its pointless droning on and non-existent plot. Thankfully, there is a bit of cynicism in it which gives me hope that it might turn out to be slightly more than a typical "women's lit" book.

I did heavily paraphrase the Attwood quote, the full article she wrote about it is here for anyone that wants to be further annoyed not that I read all of it, it's a but up it's own bum

It's gross and unnecessary Nessalina, one mention would be enough I thought, but there were at least five over a couple of pages.

That quote from Attwood is annoying me more than it should be...

I enjoyed it Nessalina - took me a while to get into it. IMO it is a book that you need a good long reading session to start with...

Those who have read The Luminaries - is it worth a look? I'm compiling a list of books to take on hols and I need something in the 'long & literary' category

Right - just had a re-cap by trawling through the thread and this is where I am:
1.Jamaica Inn -Daphne Du Maurer
2.The Oak Apple - Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia
3.Before I Go To Sleep - SJ Watson
4.The Machine Gunners -Robert Westall
5.Charlotte Grey -Sebastian Faulks
6.The Twins - Saskia Sarginson
7.The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
8.The Hangmans Song -James Oswald
9.River of Destiny -Barbra Erskine
10.Burning Bright - Tracy Chevalier
11.My Family and Other Animals - Clare Balding
12.Cold Granite - Stuart McBride
14.The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul -Deborah Rodrigueze
15.Harvest - Jim Crace
16. The Night Rainbow
17. Cuckoos Calling
18. The Light Between Oceans - M L Steadman
19. The Personal History of Rachel DuPree by Ann Weusgarber
20. The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filet
21. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
22. Last Bus to Woodstock Colin Dexter
23. White is for Witching
24. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
25. The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin
26. The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves
27. Love in the time of Cholera
28. Love Hunt Fiona Walker
29. I am a Pilgrim (amlost finished!)

I have slowed down a bit recently due to a hectic life.... but need and want to ramp it up - 30 weeks left and want toget to 60 books - luckily I have a 10 day holiday to look forward to which consists of reading all day on a beach or by the pool :)