50 Book Challenge 2015 Part 4

oh god cote, how horrible horrible HORRIBLE! I can't bear that kind of thing. Even the idea of it, I'm so sorry.

I did find Alex too graphic for me but it did not involve children never mind babies :(

I knew Irene had died but I didn't know ANYTHING about a tortured baby.

Hope you are not too traumatized, is it too early for ?

40. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Think I've said enough already about this. Just not enough internal structure or logic to really hold the story together. I found I read away as it flows along fairly well but then whenever I looked up I wondered what the hell all that was about? Very very silly in places and you are talking to someone who really enjoyed John Dies at the End. Read if you must but don't blame me if you hate it!

Really need something MUCH more sensible next. Hmmmm.

42 - Irène - Pierre Lemaitre

This started out boring, then had some interesting bits, but ended in an awful way with some unspeakable stuff being done to a hugely pregnant woman AND her unborn baby. This sounds like a spoiler but isn't really - since the name of the book is Irène, you know what is coming for her from the moment she is introduced early on in the book. I wouldn't normally give plot away but am doing it in this case to convince all of you NOT to read this book, lest you stay up until 4 AM like me, unable to sleep because of the awful images burnt into your brain about the torture and massacre of a newborn baby. I'll never be able to unread this book and would like to state here for future reference that I don't ever want to read about tortured babies again, so please don't recommend such books on here without a warning. (I'm not blaming you, wilting, I know you didn't read this book).

Yeah 89% in and I can tell you it does not improve, quit now and run away!

Sorry - by pseudo science I meant vague attempts to make magic sound as if it had a scientific basis - all that crap about chaos and logic. It's stupid, and you're not inspiring me to read on!

I actually think there's far far far too much happening yet no real plot development. It's tiresome. Ive no clue why everyone wants this book. In fact there's so much constantly going on at times I forget they are all looking for a book!

No background or context to give it depth, who set up this library, why, how is it maintained, why did Irene choose it, did she consider not, etc etc.

The kid trainee is ridiculous, can't believe in supposed to take him seriously. Just a warning he gets more unbelievable if anything, not less!

Gosh I should not have started analysing my vague dissatisfaction cause I'm putting myself right off!

I think the actual writing is fine, it's the story that needs editing and reining in.

Is it YA? I actually hadn't noticed any effort at science assumed it was all magic

Wilting

So far, I'm finding it very clumsily written. Nothing has really happened, and the assistant kid isn't very well drawn. In fact, even the main character is pretty one dimensional thus far.

I have no objection to YA at all, if it's well crafted, and I don't even know if this IS YA, but it seems to have attributes of the worst of YA whilst seeming to aspire to something more complex and intelligent than that. Sadly though, all that the aspiration appears to have resulted in so far is a load of twaddle and made up pseudo-science. And in attempting to keep it 'pacy' the writer appears to be unable to construct many sentences longer than eight words, or to begin a sentence with anything other than a name or a pronoun.

I'll try again with it later, but right now I've got a couple of other things to read and this isn't really grabbing me yet.

I love Bill Bryson so much. I second that recommendation.

I'm reading it Remus. Am 53% in. I find it engaging but the plot is incoherent so far. It just seems to be a series of fantastical events which happen to the characters without much rhyme or reason. What do you think of it?

57. The Aylesford Skull by James P Blaylock

Spotted this in Waterstones the other weekend and was feeling in the mood for a bit of steampunk so picked it up. Blaylock was apparently one of the pioneers of the steampunk genre, although it's not easy to tell from this. That element is very understated and the story is much more character driven than some others in the genre where the key seems to be the fantastical inventions.

Set in 1883, it follows Professor Langdon St Ives, eccentric scientist and explorer, who is at home with his family in Aylesford. Not far away, a steam launch is taken by pirates and its crew killed, then a grave in Aylesford is robbed of the skull, accompanied by murder. The grave robber is an old enemy of St Ives, and when he kidnaps St Ives' four-year-old son Eddie, St Ives and his friends head for London to attempt to rescue Eddie from the clutches of the sinister Dr Narbondo.

The story doesn't just follow St Ives - Narbondo's activities are covered, as well as those of St Ives' wife Alice, and the various other players. There isn't so much of the fantastical machinery, but there is a hint of spiritualism and magic thrown into the mix. It's pretty decent.

Has anybody read, 'The Invisible Library' btw? Am about 25% in, but not loving it. I like the concept and the characters, but not v taken with the construction.

Book 95 - 'Mother Tongue' by Bill Bryson
A re-read but a good one! I highly recommend this, if you are at all interested in how language/s develop.

Meg Just got that for my Kindle. Thank you.

Neal Stephenson's masterpiece Anathem is £1.19 on the Kindle just for today! Don't miss it. It will stretch your brain in ways you did not know were possible

I loved Not My Father's Son, Best. I listened to the audio book read by Alan Cummings, which added to the enjoyment. It really is superb.

25. Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton

Short but powerful classic novel about a poor New England farmer who falls in love with his wife's cousin when she comes to live with them. Recommended for fans of Steinbeck, Carver etc and free on Kindle.

48. Agatha Christie - Murder in Mesopotamia. Standard Poirot stuff.

49. Isobel Wolff - Ghostwritten. Ghostwriter records the wartime memories of an elderly lady. The sections about the treatment of the women at the hands of the Japanese were interesting but the surrounding framework lacked any real depth.

50. Not My Father's Son - Alan Cumming. Actor recalls his miserable childhood at the hands of his brutal father. At the same time he is recording an episode of a Who Do YouThink You Are in which the mystery of his maternal Grandfather's life is unravelled.
    Absolutely brilliant, great writing with a few twists along the way. Very very good.

Finally finished

35. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. This is a non-fiction book about how our brains work in making decisions, eg why we tend to place more emphasis on intuition and observation rather than evidence, relevant statistics etc. Drawing together themes from lots of different research projects, I found this absolutely fascinating and a real eye opener. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in behavioural economics.

34. London Calling - A Mirabelle Bevan Mystery- Sara Sheridan - this is the second book in a series. Fairly gentle 1950's detective novel. Mirabelle Bevan, having worked in the Secret Service during the war is now a private detective in Brighton. I enjoyed this book, they are short, well written and in my opinion she creates a very realistic feel of the time the book is set in,1952 without trying too hard. Recommended if that is your type of book.

Moving on to The Girl on the Train, I am required to read this for two book groups over the. Summer and was given a copy as a present so I'm going to try and read it with an open mind!

40: Went straight to another Anna McPartlin book as I enjoyed Rabbite Hayes so much...."The One I Love" is about a woman who goes missing, and how her old school friend accidentally meets the woman's husband and gets involved in the search even though the two women have not been friends for 18 years. Lots of good characters and funny bits. I enjoyed it as a good light read.
41: started Jojo Moyes "Silver Bay" now:

Here are my numbers 36 to 40:

36. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
    This is a memoir by a former Muslim brought up in Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Kenya. At 19, her father arranged a marriage for her to a Somalian man who was living in Canada. She had no desire to live with this man, so on the stopover in Germany to Canada to be with him, she escaped to Holland and claimed asylum. She learnt Dutch, went to university, got involved in politics, lost her religion and made a short film about Islam with Theo van Gogh (for which he was later assassinated by an extremist). I found it an immensely compelling read, and very harrowing in places (such as the account of her forced FGM). Her account of the cruelty she experienced as a child (her mother used to beat her) and of the harsh attitudes of Muslim communities in Kenya and Somalia towards women is eye-opening.

37. Friday on my mind by Nicci French
    This is the latest in the Frieda Klein crime series - an enjoyable read though I have the sense that the series is beginning to flag a bit now.

38. Granta 132: Possession
    Good, and as usual, eclectic collection of stories/essays - always worth reading, and a great combination of well-known and little-known writers, and of fiction writers and journalists.

39. Keeping an eye open by Julian Barnes
    Very accessible and engaging series of essays about art, mostly 19th century French artists, though he's also excellently acerbic about Lucian Freud.

40. Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
    Although I'm a big fan of Mitchell, I didn't have very high expectations of this because it was his first novel, and really only bought it because it was so cheap on Kindle. But it's a great read and very clever and funny - essentially all the things you expect from a David Mitchell novel. Each chapter is a self-contained story, told from the perspective of a different character, all very different from each other, and the book similarly ranges between different locations, such as Hong Kong, Moscow and Mongolia. The stories are all linked through connections between the different characters . An absolute joy to read.

I've read, 'War Horse.' Was pretty underwhelmed by it, tbh.

Have read, 'Pies and Prejudice'. Thanks, Best.

Thank you Duchess. Got my holiday reading sorted!!!

If anyone is into Poldark novels, there are seven in the kindle daily deal today, £1.19 each.

61. Calling me Home by Julie Kibler. I'm almost finished this. It's about a elderly lady, Isabelle, taking a road trip to a funeral with her much younger friend, Dorrie. Dorrie is a single mother having problems with her teenage son. As they drive Isabelle tells Dorrie the story of her love affair with a black man in racist Kentucky in 1939. The chapters skip between the past and present and the love story is much stronger that the present day story. Some of the writing is a bit clunky but Isabelle is such a sympathetic character and her story is so compelling that any minor faults don't matter and I'd recommend it overall.

I'm also on the waiting list in the library for The Green Road but I reckon it'll be Christmas before I get it. I love Anne Enright-Making Babies is the best book about motherhood by a long way.