50 Book Challenge 2015 Part 3

Yes I think you'd be better off waiting for it from the library, Southeast. I wouldn't bother buying it if I were you. The satire falls very flat and becomes rather boring after a while.

47. Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes. This is allegedly a satire based on what would happen if Hitler were not dead, but had merely slept for the last 60 odd years and woken up in modern day Germany. How would people react? Such a fine line with satire. One person's satire is another person's offensive material. Although it started quite well, I didn't think it was all that good by the end. At best it's really only 2 stars, maybe even 1.

48. Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson. Really liked this story of a young girl and her very strange upbringing in a close and rather claustrophobic, restrictive religious sect. I remember watching, and loving, the television series with Geraldine McEwan and Charlotte Coleman.

Have got a big fat biography of the Mitford sisters glaring at me, which has been waiting to be read for a while. Will probably read that next.

Must update more often
Here's the last few:

19. Flight Behaviour, Barbara Kingsolver Set in a small Appalachian community, a swarm of Monarch butterflies takes up residence on a mountain because their normal migration route has been affected by climate change. Dellarobia, on her way to meet a would-be lover on the mountain, is the first to find the butterflies. The media and the scientists descend on the rural community of rednecks, and Dellarobia, who married at 17 because she was pregnant and is now unhappy and ignored by her husband's family, becomes part of the effort to monitor the butterflies and reassesses her life. It's really hard to write a short outline of this book without making it sound trite or simplistic (as I think I've just done), but Kingsolver is brilliant at creating three-dimensional characters who feel real. Would definitely recommend this.
20. Sunstroke, Tessa Hadley Short stories, reminded me of Alice Monroe. The stories often turn on a single long-ago incident, which Hadley uses to dig into her characters. Again, recommended.
21. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier I'd never read this before, and it was one of those books where I disliked most of the characters but still enjoyed the book. Du Maurier is brilliant at creating tense atmosphere.
22. Perfume, Patrick Susskind The story of a boy born into extreme poverty in Paris, who has no smell of his own but an intensely developed sense of smell. He becomes a perfumer's apprentice and begins to create perfumes which enable him to manipulate other people into doing things. He is also completely amoral (the subtitle is The Story of a Murderer). Enjoyable, a bit silly and gross in parts.
23. Alphabetical, Michael Rosen The story of various alphabets, told letter by letter. Loads of fascinating facts about the history of letters.
24. H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald I know this has been reviewed upthread so will just say I loved it. Beautiful writing, lyrical and thoughtful but never precious. Will definitely read again.

Now reading Virginia Woolf's second novel, Night and Day.

Iron - I read it about ten years ago. I liked it a lot, more than The Goldfinch I would say, which I found a bit more of a chore. My favourite is still The Secret History

33. The Surgeon's Mate by Patrick O'Brian

Ordered home from the New World by despatch vessel to bring the news of their latest victory, Captain Jack Aubrey and Doctor Stephen Maturin find the attentions of a couple of privateers lead to a tense chase through the fogs and ice of the Grand Banks. Back on land, Aubrey is rather a fish out of water, so welcomes command of a ship to the Baltic where Maturin undertakes a dangerous mission vital to the British war effort. There are sea battles, imprisonment, and espionage, and once again it's a cracking good read.

I hate to say it but I think I'm going to give up on this soon. With over 400 pages left to go I'm losing the will to live.

I've read it, but didn't like it much.

Book 21 - The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

I'm really not sure what to think about this book. I'm 1/4 of the way through and I'm struggling to be remotely bothered about any of the characters. This book seems to be taking me ages to read and it's feeling like more of a chore than a pleasure!

Has anyone else read this and does it get any better?

Book 55 - 'XYZ: A Detective Story' by Anna Green
Another early American crime novel. This was quite short and v lightweight. Mildly diverting for an evening's read, but I've read better.

Last night i finished "The Girl on the Train"

I did enjoy the book, and was sucked it and always wanted to continue reading, I wouldn't say it was amazing but it was good if that makes sense.

If you want something quick and easy to read then this is perfect!

Duchess - Let me know what you think of Mountains Of The Mind when you read it.

Book 19 Innocence by Penelope Fitzgerald. Set in 1955 in Italy it is the story of a family, once wealthy, now almost penniless, eccentrics. Well written, funny, slightly odd ending.

You probably wouldn't like Landmarks then, Cote. There's more of the biographical sections - Nan Shepherd and others. But then again, the regional word lists might be of interest (occasionally amusing and some downright crude).

I have Mountains of the Mind lined up to read soon. Then, I think, that will be all of his books I've read.

Also bought Roger Deakin's Waterlog on recommendation from this thread.

Poor Robert M. I adored, 'Mountains of the Mind' but found his other stuff a bit like watching butterflies - pretty enough for a minute or two, but not something I want to do all day.

couple more:

25. White Nights - Ann Cleeves. It's the second of the 'Shetland' books - murder mystery books, except both this and the first book seems to be using the murder story as a way of telling a story about the life on the Islands. While the first book is set just after New Year and through the dark winter nights and "Up Helly Aa" festivial (the mid-winter fire festivial held on Mainland Shetland), this book is set in the "simmer dim" - the part of the summer when it doesn't really get dark at all. you do get a sense of the environment and small communities really effecting people. I really fancy visiting Shetland now!

26. Lady Susan - Jane Austin. An early recommendation from this group. It tells the story predominiately thought the letters written by/to the main characters. It works very well and gives the book a very different feel to other Austin books, although I didn't like that at the end the letter format was dropped. It's very short (under 100 pages) so easy one ot add for those trying to get their numbers up!

20. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields – I enjoyed it but it’s a depressing read about how most of your life will be spent being old and ill.

21. That Woman by Anne Sebba – a biography about Wallis Simpson a person I knew very little about. Neither she nor the abdicated king are exactly sympathetic people anyway and this book did nothing to convince me otherwise. However I was appalled by the treatment of the royal family towards them after the king did abdicate. Very odd how behaviour to your brother/son etc

I've sadly given up on Mountains Of The Mind. I really wanted to like it, but ultimately couldn't stand another page of the author's navel-gazing nonsense speculations and tedious history of what some books published hundreds of years ago have said about mountains.

This was the final straw: "Oil painting is an appropriate medium to represent the processes of geology, for oil paints have landscapes immanent within them: they are made of minerals."

Because graphite (pencils) and pigments (watercolour) are not minerals? What nonsense is this?

25: Deirdre Purcell The Winter Gathering. Needed a "light" fix. Found this boring. Second time this year I've read one of her books and it will be the last time. Don't like her characters or story line or even writing method. Sorry for any fans of Ms Purcell but not my cuppa tea!

26: Started a thriller will up date here when finished!

Provencal, if you do like her chosen writers, I can totally see why you'd like the book. It got some fantastic reviews. It just didn't do it for me.

Dragon and Remus, thanks for the East Lynn recommendation. I've never read it, but for some reason "Dead - and never called me mother!" is lodged in my brain in relation to it. Next time I'm in the mood for some Victorian melodrama, I'll give it a shot (and more Wilkie Collins!)

Having a bit of a non-fiction moment. Just finished

52. The Great Silence, 1918-1920, Living in the Shadow of the Great War, Juliet Nicolson. It looks at how British society dealt with the immediate aftermath of WWI - the grief, the injuries, the demand for employment, the desire for frivolity, the changing role of women. Lots of intriguing vignettes - men with facial injuries being given painted masks, but over time, the aging bodies and unaging masks becoming increasingly incongruous. The author had done a lot of interviews - Barbara Cartland was surprisingly good value. To me it did feel as if it hopped about a lot - from one viewpoint to another in the course of a couple of sentences. But overall it was a lively read.

16. We The Living - Ayn Rand - novel about life in post communist Russia, the author lived during this period but did escape to Russia. So a very realistic, sad picture of Russia at the time. Told through the stories of Leo and Kira, ex-bourgeois, and Andre, a party member. I found the book fairly hard work but ultimately pleased I perservered and have cretainly learned a lot.

17. Audio book, Lawrie Graham, The Duchess of Prunty, story of Nan who believes Nelson was her father and narrates her story. Recommended as a book but excellent for audio, the narrator was very good.

18. Five Dead Canaries - Edward Marston - basic detective story, easy read.

Yes to East Lynn too (have read that this year, as well). It waffles on a bit but it's beautifully sensationalist in the Collins tradition!

Biblio if you like Lady Audley's Secret, East Lynne by Mrs Henry Wood is in a similar vein, albeit somewhat thicker - lots of good old Victorian melodrama and sensationationalism, together with frankly implausible plotting.

I loved The Art of Fielding Provencal, think it needs a re-read soon