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50 Book Challenge 2015 Part 4

991 replies

southeastdweller · 01/06/2015 22:15

Thread four of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2015, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. It's still not too late to join, any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

First thread of the year here, second thread here, and third thread here.

Happy reading Smile

OP posts:
hackmum · 14/08/2015 09:01

Ha, I enjoyed Pollyanna as a child. I wonder what I'd make of it now.

CoteDAzur · 14/08/2015 08:58

I don't know Remus. How you can detest a masterpiece like Cloud Atlas and then love a sob-story for small children like Polyanna is beyond my powers of comprehension Grin

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 14/08/2015 08:53

I was very surprised at myself. Must be getting soft in my old age!

CoteDAzur · 14/08/2015 08:53

Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is 99p on the Kindle today.

CoteDAzur · 14/08/2015 08:52

Lol you didn't have to say it, Remus. I was Hmm even when I read it as a child. I don't even plan to give it to the DC. I doubt if DD would take to it after binging on Percy Jackson anyway Grin

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 14/08/2015 08:08

Book 104
'Pollyanna' by Eleanor H Porter
I vaguely remember watching the film of this when I was about seven, but couldn't really remember anything about it except a little girl in a tree and that she made everybody happy. Well, I absolutely loved this book! It's terribly old fashioned and sweet and could easily have been cloying, but it wasn't. It's beautifully feel-good, and I 'may' have needed to wipe away a few tears as I was reading it too. Just lovely (Cote - you'd absolutely detest it!).

I am feeling as if I need something meatier now though. Have given up in disgust on, 'Damn His Blood.' Any good non-fiction recs?

Cedar03 · 13/08/2015 22:15

Book 33 A Legacy by Sybille Bedford. Story of three families related by marriage. Set mainly in Germany in the late 1800s early twentieth century. It's partly based on her family. Well written and I enjoyed it.

  1. Yes Please by Amy Poehler. This was a gift. It was quite interesting, some bits were funny. But some bits I skipped because Zi didn't really know who she was talking about.

  2. A Buzz in the Meadow by Dave Goulson. Interesting facts about various insects - perhaps not as well structured as his previous one about bees.

  3. The Caravanners by Elizabeth Von Arnim. Read this as enjoyed An Enchanted April earlier. If that was a charming positive fantasy this is a farce about a holiday. The narrator - a German army officer and his wife decide on a caravanning holiday in England with a friend and her relatives. He is an awful character - expects his wife to do everything for him, won't help anyone else. The farce comes from his failure to see how others see him and also in how he tries to get something for nothing. Some of the timescale and distances travelled in a day don't work but apart from that very good.

37 Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party by Alexander McCall Smith. An easy read. Another farce - American couple go to Ireland for a holiday and various awful things happen mainly because he is very overweight. Took me about a couple of hours to read.

BestIsWest · 13/08/2015 20:51
  1. Sophie Jones - Fallout. Boring.
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 13/08/2015 20:44

That sounds good, Chillie.

Book 103
'A Little Country Girl' by Susan Coolidge of, 'What Katy Did' fame.
This was okay. It has the usual Coolidge flaws of being overly preachy and being far too obsessed with interior design and flowers, but it was okay. The heroine was sweet and it had a happy ending - and sometimes, that's enough!

ChillieJeanie · 13/08/2015 20:27
  1. The Queen's Conjuror by Benjamin Woolley

Biography of Dr John Dee, philosopher, scientist and magician, known to have been an occasional confidante of Elizabeth I. Woolley goes into most detail over the partnership with Edward Kelley and the communications with angels and otherworldly spirits which purported to reveal the lost language in which God and Adam communicated. But there was a lot more to Dee than this - he was a scientist, mathematician, and was involved in producing charts used in the exploration of the New World. In short, he was a genuine Renaissance man, but he remains best known as a seeker after mystical truths.

AtticusPlatypus · 13/08/2015 18:47

For anyone who is interested, Christos Tsiolkas' new book 'Barracuda' is 99p on Amazon's Kindle Daily Deals today, and the unabridged Audio version (for Whispersync) is only an additional 99p (Tsiolkas wrote 'The Slap', which I've heard from DH is very good but which I haven't read myself yet).

Sorry for the long silence, I'll update with my latest books when I can, DS2 is now nearly 10 weeks old and we are all doing very well!

BestIsWest · 12/08/2015 18:42
  1. Thursday's Gone - Nikki French. Still being annoyed by Frieda Klein. I may as well read the next one, presumably there are only 3 more to come.
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 12/08/2015 17:21

Book 102
'The Invisible Library' Have forgotten the writer's name but it's mentioned below. I didn't love this by any stretch of the imagination but I did end up quite enjoying it in a, 'This really isn't very good but it's reasonably diverting' sort of way. I don't recommend it though, and I wouldn't read anything else by this sort of writer. It was attempting to be really clever and amusing steam punk, I think, but failing. I did end up rather liking the assistant though!

Iamblossom · 12/08/2015 13:32

God I am sooo behind.

Book 18 - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.
really enjoyed this, different, clever, interesting, funny in places. Took me ages to read though.

esiotrot2015 · 11/08/2015 21:46

No 65

Plague by Michael Grant

Catching up on the Gone series which I'm thoroughly enjoying

Provencalroseparadox · 11/08/2015 13:51

Dragon I just found them a bit silly and a lot of the incidents mentioned have been in The Paris Wife, Mrs Hemingway and Z for Zelda (as I said I'm fascinated by this group). This was definitely the weakest of those but it was an easy quick read

Dragontrainer · 11/08/2015 08:48

Provencal I've just abandoned Villa America halfway through after having looked forward to reading it! Just goes to show that it is horses for courses. I agree that Owen was by far the most interesting character - I found both Sara and Gerald highly irritating.

hackmum · 11/08/2015 08:47

One of the many nice things about the Year of Reading Dangerously is that it mentions Mumsnet.

Provencalroseparadox · 11/08/2015 07:18

Just returned from a 2 week holiday where, shockingly for me, I didn't read much.

  1. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Book group choice. Utterly silly. Completely unbelievable even in a fantasy way. Badly written and irritating to the point I was shouting at the book. Marginally redeemed by the history. Overall do not understand the love for this.

  1. Villa America by Liza Klaussmann

I've read and enjoyed a few books set amongst the Hemingway/Murphy/Fitzgerald set and did enjoy this one as well. Was disappointed that this seemed much more superficial than say The Paris Wife but also the most interesting character, Owen Chambers, was a complete fiction. An easy holiday read.

Just started The Year of Reading Dangerously

ladydepp · 10/08/2015 10:02

mmack - I have just ordered Winter's bone, someone else recommended it to me once and I completely forgot about it so thanks for the reminder!

hack mum - A year of reading dangerously has been added to my Wish List - looks really interesting

ladydepp · 10/08/2015 09:51
  1. The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett

I had high hopes for this but sadly it just didn't blow me away. The book's premise is to show 3 different versions of two characters' lives. It's really well written but even trying very hard to pay close attention I got very confused by the 3 different versions, which change throughout the book and not always in order. I also found their lives slightly boring, very realistic but just not interesting enough to hold my focus. A great idea, well written but only 3 stars out of 5 for me. I would definitely look at the author's future books though.....this was her first novel and is very promising.

Original poster
southeastdweller · 09/08/2015 19:59
  1. Fast Exercise - Dr Michael Mosley and Peta Bee

Persuasively written book about the benefits of high intensity training, this has done wonders for my motivation at the gym.

  1. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

I almost feel like apologising for not loving this book. Great messages, some fab quotes, but some of it was dull and the class inequalities theme laboured. Struggled to believe in some of the characters, too.

OP posts:
mmack · 09/08/2015 17:29

Daniel Woodrell also wrote Woe to Live On which was adapted by Ang Lee as Ride with the Devil.

mmack · 09/08/2015 17:18

  1. Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido. A suburban girl, Katherine, gets caught up in the lives of the bohemian Goldman family.An easy read but the characters were all stereotypes. The two brothers who provide the love interest were fairly charmless. I feel like I should have enjoyed this a lot more than I did so maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for it.

  2. The Ice Storm by Rick Moody. I imagine lots of people have seen the excellent film adaptation of this and the book was just as good.

  3. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. I think everyone should read this. The author shows how bad science reporting leads people to believe all kinds nonsense.

  4. Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell. Teenager Ree Dolly lives in the Ozarks and is struggling to raise her younger brothers after her mother has a breakdown. She finds out that her meth-cooking father has put up their house as collateral with a bail bondsman. As he hasn't shown up for his court date she has 30 days to find him before the family ends up homeless. The film version of this is one of my favourite films ever and the book is fantastic too.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 09/08/2015 13:00

Book 101
'Jerry' by Jean Webster
Another Kindle freebie from the, 'Daddy Longlegs' writer. This one was a little more 'grown up' and is essentially a very silly but sweet love story. I enjoyed it enormously. If you like, 'Miss Pettigrew' or, 'What Katy Did Next' you'd probably like it.

I've started, 'Damn His Blood' about a 19th century murder case, but am struggling to get into it. There's an awful lot of padding and it reminds me a lot of, 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher' in that there's an interesting historical crime case at the heart of it, then the writer scrabbling around for stuff to make it enough for a book. I probably won't bother finishing it tbh.