50 Book Challenge 2015 Part 4

Bloody love Chandler, and 'Farewell'is him at his finest, I think.

Book 111 - 'Cold' by Bill Streever
I really enjoyed this. It's basically a meander through lots of information about cold, taking in polar exploration, global warming, failures of weather forecasters, how animals cope with cold etc. People who like Robert McFarlane would probably enjoy it.

28. Farewell, My Lovely - Raymond Chandler

Peerless crime thriller, gripping and full of unforgettable phrases and dark humour.

Honey2006 - I read the Narrow Road many months ago and I still think about it, a fabulous book. I must read it again soon.

Congratulations Tessie on having a girl, exciting to get to 24 weeks too!

Congratulations Tessie! Best wishes for the safe arrival of your baby girl

Just finished book 45 on Audible - Wish you were here by Catherine Alliott. And easy to listen to story perfect whilst I am cooking cleaning and ironing. I suspect I may have got bored though if I had read this as a book. I thought her character observations of family members were were spot on and they often had me chuckling away to myself . The story was about a family who had been lent a villa in the south of France which they immediately decamped to for the summer . Extended family members, boyfriends and hangers on all tagged along too. A predictable recipe with the spilling of family secrets .
I am about a third of the way through Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver but not enjoying it as much as The Poisonwood Bible.
Tessie glad the scan went well
Sorry you had to cut your stay in Hay short Best
Have a great bank holiday weekend everyone.

68. The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett

The elves are coming back, and Tiffany Aching must summon all the witches to help her defend her land.

My heart ached a bit reading this one, but as the finale it is perfect. So many endings and beginnings, old friends seen again as well as old enemies. I don't think Pterry could have planned a better farewell to Discworld than this one, but I am still sad that there will be no more. The final few pages nearly had me in tears, which wouldn't have been a good look on my arrival at work this morning.

Haven't updated in a while so apologies in advance for the long post!

23. We are all completely beside ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler
    Covered a lot already on here and despite knowing a lot about the plot I enjoyed the story particularly the references towards the end about our own memories of events can be wrong

24. I let you go - Clare Mackintosh
    I really enjoyed this a good page turner with a twist I didn't see coming. Stayed up late to finish it

25. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson

26. Confessions of a city girl - anon
    True story of the girl who used to write the column of the same name in the Metro newspaper. Has some interesting things to say about the credit crash

27. Before we met - Lucie Whitehouse
    This was an ok thriller. Wanted to find out what had happened but was pretty forgettable and the main character got on my nerves!

28. Since you've been gone - Morgan Matson
    A YA novel that I really enjoyed. Captures that period between being a young teenager and a young adult well. A great summer read.

29. I capture the castle - Dodi Smith
    A classic that I had never read before and I really enjoyed it. Can see why it's so many peoples favourite novel

30. Leaving Time -Jodi Piccoult
    Warning - don't read this unless you like elephants ! A lot of elephant facts in this book I enjoyed it and didn't see the twist coming at all.

31. The girl in the photograph - Kate Riordan
    A time slip novel that was quite forgettable apart from the terrifying passages about how women with pnd where treated in the 19thc

32. The lie - C L Taylor
    Story about a group of friends who go backpacking and get mixed up in a cult. Ok but a familiar story that has been done better before.

33. Taming of the Queen by Phillipa Gregory
    Last in her Tudor series and this one is about Katherine Parr. I enjoyed this and it is very atmospheric about just how suffocating being married to Henry VIII was. Interesting scene involving Henry and some spanking! Overall a good read

34. The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood
    Another classic I have only just read. Absolutely loved this book and it gave me the chills at the ending.

Next up is In Cold Blood but it's my birthday tomorrow and I have requested books so may end up reading something else !

Oh and congratulations Tessie that's wonderful news

Congratulations tessie! Glad to hear your scan went well - I found out the sex of my two boys too..

37. Blood and Sand by Frank Gardner.
    Audiobook narrated by the author. Autobiography of this BBC journalist/broadcaster who was shot whilst on assignment in Saudi Arabia. He has a very dry voice that took me a while to get used to. This was an abridged version and recommended by a colleague. It was okay, maybe the actual version would have been better.

38. Red carpets and other banana skins by Rupert Everett.
    Another autobiography that I have been meaning to read for a while. On the cover of the book the Daily Mail says 'Funny, outrageous and extremely well written'. Not particularly funny, certainly not ha-ha out-loud funny, although saying that the last paragraph made me giggle. Sad in some parts - sent to boarding school at the age of 7, a fair amount of death from misadventure and illness. A LOT of partying, some drugs and celebrity, lots of travel and grand houses/apartments. It does seem like a very superficial world, full of fleeting friendships and highs and lows. Too long but overall a fairly entertaining read.

SouthEastdweller I've read The Bolds to eight year old dd , we both loved it !

67. Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett

13-year-old witch Tiffany Aching puts a foot wrong and attracts the attention of the spirit of winter, the Wintersmith, who thinks he's in love with her and showers the world with snowflakes and icebergs shaped like Tiffany. And since it was her mistake, it's for her to deal with the consequences...

I've skipped the re-read of I Shall Wear Midnight for now and gone straight to The Shepherd's Crown. It's already feeling very appropriate for Pterry's final novel.

37 The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

This has absolutely blown me away, I feel very haunted by it. Best book of the year by far for me

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer
The Fault in our Stars by John Green
World War Z by Max Brooks
Comfort and Joy by India Knights
This Boy by Alan Johnson
Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
The GIrl Who Fell from the Sky by Simon Mawer
Carry on Jeeves by P G Wodehouse
Katherine by Anya Seton
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Ann Fowler
The Last King of Scotland by Giles Fodden
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriaty
Lasting Damage by Sophie Hannah
The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce
A Street Cat Called Bob by James Bowen
Tickling the English by Dara O'Briain
Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd
Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson
The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Anne Fowler
The Language of Flowers
The Girl on the Train
Prep by Curtis Sittenfield
A Room Swept White by Sophie Hannah
The Confusion of Karen Carpenter
The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh
The Return by Victoria Hislop
Love Lies by Adele Parks
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
The Liar's Diary by Patry Francis
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Book of You by Claire Kendal

The first 36 of the year :)

Lovely news, Tessie!

38. The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer, a page-turner about a child who is abducted by a man pretending to be her grandfather. Not bad.

39. Dead Babies and Seaside Towns by Alice Jolly. Despite the devastating subject matter, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the author's dark sense of humour and I felt she gave an interesting perspective on grief and loss. It's not for the faint hearted though!

40. The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes. Decent chick lit, but not nearly as good as her earlier book, Me Before You.

41. Alex's Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos. This is a super book! It's a lively, light-hearted explanation of a number of general mathematical concepts, with extra details about the history and/or personalities behind the maths. It's easy to skim over any sections which are either too easy or too hard to be of interest to the reader, and as a result I think it succeeds in appealing to a wide range of maths backgrounds - for example, I have a high level of mathematical understanding (sorry for the stealth boast!), but I was reading bits out to my primary aged DC.

Now reading a biography of Vladimir Putin, which makes for interesting but somewhat depressing reading.

I loved Moonfleet as a child Remus. Had forgotten about that. Adding to my list.

Book 110 - 'Moonfleet' by John Meade Falkner
Found this when Googling classic children's literature and it was free on Kindle. I enjoyed it - it's a gripping adventure story involving smuggling, a treasure hunt, and the usual boys' own stuff of manly friendship etc. It whiled away a long train journey very nicely.

That's a shame you had to cut your trip short, Best.

We used to stay at The Old Post Office at Llanigon, which is a couple of miles from Hay, over the border in Wales.

Unfortunately had to cut short our break in Hay so didn't get to check out all the book shops or the pubs although we did manage to spend two hours in the old Cinema book shop and came out with a stack of books.

We will go back though and if anyone is thinking of going I can recommend a lovely house to rent.

Book no 61 - Crown of Lights - Phil Rickman, no 3 in the Merrily Watkins series about a vicar set in the villages around Hereford. We visited Hereford Cathedral and some of the villages when we were in the area so I can now visualise some of the scenes in this series. I was not so keen on this one as on the previous two but will continue with the series.

Congrats Tessie. A little girl, how lovely.

Thanks Biblio and Duchess we are over the moon but would have been equally as happy if she were a boy!!

Congratulations, tessie Girls are fab and so are boys (have got one of each). In fact it's DS who loves to cuddle and DD is more independent.

Aw, girls are brilliant! (I'm sure boys are too, just haven't had one myself). Congratulations!

Finished Murder at the Vicarage and enjoyed it although I was a little disappointed by who the killer turned out to be. I was expecting a twist. However, yet again Agatha kept me gripped!

Have just started I Let You Go by Claire Mackintosh. Let's see if a non Christie can hold my attention!

Feeling very happy today as I had 24 week check up this morning (first time being checked out at a clinic in Sarajevo so was a bit nervous) and everything is looking great. We were also treated to another scan which we weren't expecting and doctor confirmed baby is definitely a girl