50 Book Challenge 2015 Part 4

I've just started Lena Dunheim's non fic book , creator of Girls
Can't get into it though think it's too young for me

Esio

Hi Everyone,

Back to update after my holiday. Sorry to hear some of you have been having a tough time.

37. The Colour Purple - Alice Walker - an audio read, I enjoyed the narration and story.
38. England Expects - Sara Sheridan - 1950's murder mystery.
39. Summertime - Vanessa Lafaye - I was in Florida on holiday so decided to read this book set in the Florida Keys and portraying racial tension prior and during the 1926 hurricane. Interesting and worth a read, especially when you consider Florida today (Disneyland etc.)
40. Are You Dead - Peter James - latest in the Roy Grace series, good comfort read.
41. Deeds of Darkness - Edward Marston - latest in the Home Detective series (First World War) - again a comfort read.
42. One Summer - Bil Bryson - I haven't read a BB book for a while and I do enjoy his style of writing. Goes though 1927 concentrating on aviation but also covering baseball, boxing amongst others. I enjoyed the book but did skim read some of the slightly boring baseball sections!
43. Heartstone- CJ Sansom - I enjoyed this Shardlake saga and almost finished the series.
44. Pop Goes The Weasel - MJ Arlidge - an audio book. Didn't like the narrator or the sloppy writing but the storyline was more interesting luckily. Looking online some people really enjoyed the narration, so it's obviously all a matter of taste!

Am now on Bringing up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel - at last.

Due to being on holiday , Crap rainy weather & hackergate I've just finished

No 71

Mary Kubica's Pretty Baby

This is another psychological thriller from the author of The Good Girl
Heidi takes in a homeless girl and her baby , but due to her own past she becomes obsessed with the baby
The story is narrated by Heidi , Willow the young mum & Heidi's husband Chris
There's lots of twists and turns and I enjoyed it , I hadn't guessed all the twists

Hope you enjoy Meadowland as much as I did, whippet His writing really drew me in. It was superb. One of my favourite reads of this year so far.

Congratulations tessie. How lovely to have a Christmas baby

Duchess, my copy of Meadowland has arrived from the library and it looks to be exactly my sort of thing so I am looking forward to getting started once I’ve finished up some others. Thank you for the recommendation.

This discussion has made me of those going to Hay too. I only live two hours away and have never been there so we are planning a trip if we can palm DS2 off to relatives for the day.

71. Royal Highness – Thomas Mann
    He’s one of my favourite authors and I loved reading The Magic Mountain, Buddenbrooks and Doctor Faustus when I was in my twenties. Unfortunately this doesn’t compare, although it is very interesting in parts, but it took a good few hundred pages to get going! I guess it’s one of his lesser-known novels. It tells the tale of a young prince of a German principality under Kaiser Wilhelm; what it’s like to be born into a royal family and to have to live a life made for fulfilling royal duties and being permanently on public display. It gets interesting when a rich, intelligent American heiress appears on the scene but my word, there’s a lot of novel to get through before that happens!

72. My Salinger Year – Joanna Rakoff
    I really loved this. In the 90s, Joanna Rakoff spent a year working in the office of a literary agent in New York. It turns out the agent had, amongst others, a very famous client called Jerry. It’s basically a coming of age story and a glimpse into the literary world of New York and I found it to be a really enjoyable read.

73. Volpone – Ben Jonson
    I went to see this at the RSC at Stratford on Monday evening and decided to read the play first, and managed to finish it before I went -–and I definitely didn’t read any at work, oh no not me--. I’m glad I read it as it did make it easier to keep up with the fairly complex plot and it was genuinely funny. The production was excellent by the way, and I heartily recommend it if anyone is able to get up to Stratford. I’m glad to have read a play this year too.

66. A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett

The second of the Tiffany Aching series. Tiffany has gone off to learn to be a witch in the mountains, working with Miss Level, who has two bodies. But Tiffany's trick of stepping outside her own body has attracted the attention of a hiver, a formless being endlessly seeking new, powerful bodies to take over. Tiffany has to learn to be a witch very quickly indeed.

Yes, lots of opinions from strangers about lots of books. AND we will even have opinions about the books you read. If you have published anything, we would even go out of our way to write our opinions about YOUR writing, as well

And sometimes we have opinions about what we've read - lots of opinions, about lots of books.

And we read. LOTS

Oh dear, Mrs Twee. It really doesn't look as if this thread is going to suit you terribly well. We have opinions on here...LOTS of opinions.

Mrstwee - your post made me laugh, are you serious? Not sure this thread will suit someone who doesn't like reading . Perhaps those unread books are best donated to a library?

If you don't like reading and find other people's opinions (like ours) annoying, I'm not sure that you will like it on this thread

I'm starting a bit late. Reading gets on my nerves, other people's opinions are really annoying. I'd rather write. However, I do have a whole lot of unread books in the house, so this is a place to start. Hoping to be back later with the first one read.

Help - need an emergency Kindle buy that I am guaranteed to love! Any ideas, pretty please?

Hope you're okay, Duchess, and that you've had lots of lovely time to catch up on reading since the scan.

Book 60. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson

Lovely feel-good story about two widowed people, a retired Major and the village shop keeper, Mrs Ali.

Hope you get good news Duchess - will send positive vibes your way

I too suspect this is not the last attack

What a terrible time MNHQ have been having. Hope that's the end to all the attacks on the site, but suspect it isn't though :(

Hospital went ok-ish I think. Seen Consultant and had another MRI scan today. DH was sat in the waiting room and when I came out he said he was a bit bored - had read the magazines, and read a bit of his book. I said how about lying motionless on a bed in an MRI scanner for 40 mins with no book - that's boring :o

No 70
Lisa Unger Crazy Love You

Ian Paine has had a lot to deal with in his life. As an overweight child, he would be constantly bullied by kids at school and was to scared to stand up for himself. Ian's family would also fall apart after his younger sisters death. After that his mums mental health would deteriorate and his only escape would be to go into the nearby woods to spend time with his only friend, Priss. To start of there relationship was like all other children with lots of playing and fun times. That soon changed when Priss discovers the bullying that Ian has endured and goes out of her way to protect him and make the perpetrators pay.

Years later and Ian is doing his best to move on after losing a fair bit of weight, becoming a successful graphic artist with his own popular line of comics and living in New York. Priss though refuses to leave and will continue to be his Achilles heel as he tries to drown his past in booze, drugs and sex. Things will seemingly go full circle when Ian meets the beautiful and sweet Megan and fall in love. Ian wants to be a better man for Megan and after proposing is the happiest he has ever been. Priss though is not happy and will do everything in her power to make Ian suffer for ever wanting to leave her.

I can honestly say this book was not quite the way I thought it would be. I thought Priss would be the possessive ex who was very dangerous and although she was creepy i was not prepared for link that connected her and Ian. Nothing in the story is quite as it seems with the story going from one twist to the other. I really enjoyed it . Might try some of her others , has anyone read any of hers ?

Esio xx

Just managed to get back on - what a time it has been for MN HQ

I had better update before Mumsnet goes again...

Book 44: The Undertaking – Audrey Magee
Another charity shop 50p find and well worth it! The story follows two storylines – Katharina a newly-wed wife in Berlin and her husband, Peter on the Russian frontline. Peter marries a photograph of Katharina in Russia whilst in Berlin Katharina marries a photograph of Peter – a marriage of convenience that ensures Pater a period of Leave from the traumatic Russian frontlines and Katharina a “Widow Pension” in the event of his death. When they first meet they fall in love and begin to imagine a life under the bright promises of the new Nazi Germany. But as the tide of war begins to turn against the Germans the couple find themselves facing the terrible consequences of being ordinary people. I thoroughly enjoyed this – memorable, often bleak and defiantly not for those who like gentle romantic, heart-warming war stories.

Following my love of The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver I have just started The Lacuna by the same author. I have also started another Audi Book Wish You Were Here by Catherine Alliot chosen as I hoped it would be easy to listen to. So far it has had me smiling at her observation of teenagers

Sorry, Sonnet - It was Biblio who mentioned it, not you. Must check back properly!

Thanks for the welcome back and good wishes folks. Hope hospital goes well Duchess, Remus continues to feel better and Best enjoys Hay - On - Wye

Remus - I haven't read The Mangle Street Murders yet - maybe I won't bother now

Hello to all those of you I don't know and congratulations Tessie on your pregnancy. Just think of all the reading you can do throughout the night feeds!

Book 42: Northanger Abbey – Val McDermid
This was a 50p charity shop find. I began reading it not having heard of “The Austin Project”. It was quite a gentle book and I kept waiting for the pace to pick up and the suspense to start having read a couple of McDermid’s previous novels. It just didn’t happen…. I flipped towards the back of the book and seeing the words “The Austin Project” I did a little googling. For those of you that don’t know (I suspect I am in the minority here!) “The Austen Project pairs six bestselling contemporary authors with Jane Austen’s six complete works: Sense & Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion and Mansfield Park".

I am afraid it just didn’t do it for me. I found it boring and did not engage with any characters. I just plodded through to the end. It reminded me of “Death Comes to Pemberly” and I did not like that novel either.

I joined Audible a few months ago but have failed to get to grips with it. My credits stacked up so prior to going on holiday in July I downloaded lots of “light”/chic lit type books. Lying on a sunbed and listening to an audio book just sent me to sleep though….I have now decided to make a real effort (not least because of the amount of audio books I now have) and have finished my first one –Book 43: Mud, Muck and Dead Things by Ann Granger (the first in a new Cotswold Crime series featuring detective duo Campbell and Carter). I have never read any of her books before but it reminded me of the Agatha Raisin books that I have enjoyed.

Book Synopsis: "Lucas Burton hates the countryside. To him it's nothing but mud, muck and dead things. And he's right. When he turns up at a deserted farm in the middle of nowhere hoping to conduct a business deal he stumbles across the body of a girl. And that's just the start of his bad luck: Penny Gower from the local stables has spotted his silver Mercedes leaving the scene of the crime. Suddenly, for Lucas, things are looking very bleak indeed... Inspector Jess Campbell is on the case, but with few leads and a new superintendent, Ian Carter, breathing down her neck, she's beginning to feel the pressure. Then another dead body is found..."

I am finding it difficult to describe my feelings about this book without resorting to clichés – A book about good old fashioned gentle sleuthing, an easy listen making no demands on the listener. Perfect for turning on and off whist cooking, cleaning and gardening. I don’t think I will read them in book form but will certainly listen to them via Audible again!

I am currently three quarters of the way through Book 44 The Undertaking by Audrey Magee and loving it! Another 50p charity shop find

oh
my
GOD

I was kicked off the site last WED with all the hacker brouhaha and I have only managed to reset my password TODAY Kept getting a "Expired Link" message when I tried to do it, took three emails to MNHQ to sort it out although I do suppose they probably have had a lot to do the last few days

Whew. Must now read over the thread and see how you are all doing :)

I finished the Churchill book (by Roy Jenkins), it was mammoth. Took me ages. Very interesting, very dense, deeply political [duh I know]. Incredibly detailed. Plus lots of very obscure vocabulary [obloquy anyone? anyone? Jejune? I'll be v impressed!]

I'd love the real book as things like photos and maps are just not that great on a kindle. Definitely want to read more about WW2, might try a Max Hastings book, I understand they are good.

Would only recommend if you are very interested in Churchill and politics. His career spanned something like 65 years so it is not for the lily livered!

Love, 'The Importance' - and even better in the theatre than on the page. The last production I saw of it had Lady Bracknell lost for words and just mouthing, 'A handbag' - very funny.

Biblio - I'll stay well clear of, 'Moriarty' I think!

Book 109 - 'The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon' by Alexander McCall Smith
I really like these books - they are nothing earth shattering and can get a bit samey, but they are so lovely and feel-good. This wasn't my favourite of them, but it was a pleasant way to while away a couple of hours - just wish I'd had some cake to go with it though!

Remus, sorry The Mangle Street Murders wasn't for you. It's still better than Moriarty though!

tessie, congrats on pregnancy, and I agree that Agatha Christie is great for these kind of situations.

95. The Sleeper, Emily Barr. If you loved The Girl on the Train and wanted something along similiar lines, this would probably fit the bill. It was fairly credulity-stretching by the end, but these kind of books usually are.

Now reading The Story of Alice: The Secret History of Wonderland by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst. I think Karoline Leach's In the Shadow of the Dreamchild was more revolutionary (she argues that after Carroll's death, his family unwittingly contributed to a later portrayal of him as a paedophile, by their Victorian censorship of his interest in adult women).