50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Two

Vanderlylegeek I've read Jersualem the Golden, The Millstone and The Peppered Moth, but I'd say none of them are as good as A Summer Birdcage. I really enjoyed Possession and The Children's Book by her sister.

I read The Pure Gold Baby by Margaret Drabble last year for book club. I wasn't very keen but if you are looking for more it might be one to look at.

Just finished book 6.

1. The Husband's Secret, Liane Moriarty

1. The Captains of the Sands, Jorge Amado
2. The Importance of being Earnest, Oscar Wilde
3. You had me at hello, Mhairi McFarlane
4. The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford
5. The Last Kingdom, Bernard Cornwell

5. Disclaimer by Renee Knight. Oh that was bad. I should have known, really. I mean it even has the warning sign on the cover "an addictive novel with shades of Gone Girl". That means pale imitation, I now realise.

I am listening to this in the car on tape. Find myself switching off to the radio more and more...

The problem with Station Eleven wasn't so much that survivors were useless but that they still managed to survive while being utterly useless and not bothering to spend any time or effort on finding or cultivating foods and clean water.

So if they weren't going in for hunting/gathering or attempts at farming, how were they surviving?

I confess I haven't read Station Eleven. I picked it up at the library last time I went in, but then was tempted by another book and put Station Eleven back on the shelf.

1. Life, Death and Vanilla Slices by Jenny Eclair

tumbletumble Do you recommend any other books of Drabble's? Seeing how her style has developed could be interesting, I think.

1. The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness I just finished this book and so am still digesting it, but I do appreciate Ness' gracefulness and humour.

Quogwinkle I read the Medieval Time Traveller's Guide a few years ago

and found it really enjoyable and learned a lot from it.

I quite like Ian Mortimer - apart from his blind spot about Richard III and he has a bee in his bonnet about the fate of Edward II. I read his Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-Made King and 1415: Henry V's Year of Glory around the same time. Fascinating stuff. They weren't too off-puttingly dry or dense, which a lot of books on mediaeval history can be.

He was supposed to be working on a life of Richard, Duke of York which was due out in 2014. I was eagerly anticipating it, but no sign of it yet.

1 & 2 history books for a course, do count but not for reviewing here. .

1. King of the North, the life and times of Oswald of Northumbria by Max Adams

"I would be utterly useless in any survival situation so I didn't have the slightest problem with the flu survivors not really achieving much!"

The problem with Station Eleven wasn't so much that survivors were useless but that they still managed to survive while being utterly useless and not bothering to spend any time or effort on finding or cultivating foods and clean water.

I lost this thread, so marking place.

Dinosaurs - I agree re: Station Eleven, I would be utterly useless in any survival situation so I didn't have the slightest problem with the flu survivors not really achieving much! (I need to stick very close to DH in the zombie apocalypse as he is very practical and sensible, I can just about change a lightbulb but setting up an electricity grid would be WAY out of my comfort zone )

1. Finally finished Game of Thrones 4 A Feast of Crows, loved it and can't wait to crack open the next one but I am going to hold off and get stuck into Not my Father's Son as recommended on this thread (dd saw cover and shouted "he's in Spy Kids!"). Celebrity memoirs are really NOT my thing so I'm quite curious about this....

I've just found this thread. Hurrah! I dropped off last year's one fairly early as I fell out with reading for a while. I managed 32 books last year in the end and I'm aiming for more this year.
So far:

1. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie.
Short story collection featuring Poirot and Marple stories. Nice and easy to start the year off.

2. Zero Day by David Baldacci
I like Baldacci's thrillers. They are easy to read with likeable heroes, hateful villains and abundant plot twists.

I will probably spend the rest of the evening reading these two threads and noting down recommendations.

From previous thread:

1. The Ice Twins
2. The Taxidermist's Daughter

Have now just finished:

1. Us - David Nicholls. I know this has had mixed reviews but I really enjoyed it. I felt sorry for Douglas, rather than irritated by him, which probably had a lot to do with it. It was the perfect antidote to my first two books of the year, which didn't really do much for me.

I'm also 62% of the way through War and Peace now. Still aiming to finish by the end of January. I also have 3 plays to read for work by then (2 Shakespeare, 1 not) and am going to read 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro as background reading at the same time.

Forgot to highlight - Book 6 was The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer

1. Disclaimer by Renee Knight. Oh that was bad. I should have known, really. I mean it even has the warning sign on the cover "an addictive novel with shades of Gone Girl". That means pale imitation, I now realise.

The premise that the victim of a crime to be perpetrated reads of their own fate in a book delivered to them sounded good. It is a good idea, but it was badly executed here. Such a shame.

1. The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer. An audio book, really well read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am trying to make myself study a bit more history this year and this was effortless, fascinating and often quite funny. The author has also written The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England, which I now want to read.

Sadik - I must say, the fact that lots of people who survived a flu epidemic that wiped out a large percentage of the population weren't convinently the types who'd 'prepped' for it, but just normal people who were a bit useless, great at sort of middle level jobs, but no fucking clue about survivial, only having any sort of idea what to do from watching zombie films. This could well be because that's how I would be in an 'end of the the human race' situation. I'd be fine as long as I could raid the supermarkets, but once Waitrose had been emptied, I'd be screwed...

Sadik - you do know I was joking, right?

(Well, mostly)

fatowl - I am reading 'Dark Fire' now ... enjoying it so far ...

Moving - was that the Alex Garland book that was made into that awful movie with an all saints theme song??

Sorry Remus

It's the itch we can't stop scratching

Oh gods, don't talk about Station Eleven again. The threads last year were full of it and it was (to be as polite as I possibly can be about it) absolutely bloody dreadful.

Yes, the comparison with Station Eleven was obvious and rather damning (for Emily Whatshername). It's not great that a post-apocalyptic novel written over half a century ago is more realistic in the year 2016 than the one you published last year, is it?

Glad you enjoyed 'Triffids', Cote. DD just picked Station Eleven out of my charity shop pile & read it - it was interesting comparing how much more sensible John Wyndham's survivors were. DD was quite miffed by the incompetence of the Station Eleven survivors, and started planning her own post-apocalyptic novel featuring a band of hippy teenagers (her apocalypse conveniently will mostly wipe out working age adults, I believe a la Spanish Flu) living comfortably in their off grid community maintaining their electricity system, scavenging additional solar panels, batteries etc, growing vegetables and running a school teaching useful skills to the children

Still working my way through Viper Wine - rather too much book for the amount of plot, so far, though I quite like the main characters, hence why I'm persevering.

Hurrah- I can finally join in properly, just finished book 1 (started on Boxing day):

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I really enjoyed it, not the type of thing I normally read (I'm usually more into thrillers and fantasy)
She did annoy me for quite a lot of the book, and thought she treated Obinze appallingly, but I did warm to her.
Very well written in my opinion.

Now on Book 2: Dark Fire (Shardlake 2)