50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Two

Remus, I presume you've read Le Carre? The Constant Gardener is a good place to start if not.

Finished Lasting Damage by Sophie Hannah. Now that I've reconciled myself to the fact that her endings manage to be both ludicrous and unmemorable, I enjoy the ride to get there. Woman views property website late one night, sees image of dead body in one of the rooms. How did this happen? Enjoyed it for the portrayal of her smothering family (the sister trying to get her son to eat his greens is very mn).

Skimmed through A notable woman : the romantic journals of Jean Lucey Pratt - a woman's diaries from the 1930s to the 1970s. I was ready to love this, thinking it would be very Barbara Pym (her life is not dissimilar - single, but lots of crushes on men along the way). She's grumpier, and the diaries got bogged down in details of work and cats. Didn't love it as much as expected.

Just started Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson and loving it. Teenage girl lives with mother and Hungarian grand-aunts. I love the elderly Hungarians. The action moves to boarding school, so not sure if I'll love the rest as much, but the writing is delightful.

Haven't really been getting on with the Game of Thrones. It's not drawing me in.

Just finished #4: The Martian.
I enjoyed it, nothing like I normally read, but exciting and I enjoyed the way it was written.

Now going onto A Man Called Ove

10. World War Z by Max Brooks

Presented as "an oral history of the zombie war" this novel takes the format of a series of interviews with survivors of said war. It makes it feel a bit like reading non-fiction and allows the novel to have a very wide scope as people from several different countries and walks of life tell their stories. I did think that many of the interviewees' voices were too similar to each other and some of the characters I would have liked to have spent more time with. It is quite thought-provoking, showing the different ways people respond to a desperate situation.

If anyone is left who hasn't read it, The Martian is £1.99 on the Kindle

No idea where the stars came from

6. Americanah by Chimamanda* Ngozi* Adichie - I really wanted to love this book. I slogged through it over the last couple of weeks and I'm not sure why I bothered. The story is about a Nigerian couple who separately emigrate to the USA and the UK, although it is mainly told from the woman's perspective in America. To me it felt like one long, tedious lecture about race. I couldn't bring myself to care about any of the many characters, and there just wasn't much of a plot. Adichie is clearly a very talented writer but this novel is just desperately unsatisfying. I am relieved to have finished it!

I have now moved on to A God in Ruins which I am already enjoying about a million times more than Americanah.**

The Hot Zone: The Chilling True Story of an Ebola Outbreak is £1.99 on the Kindle.

I've been waiting for this book's price to drop since I read that it is the book that the film Contagion was based on.

Amazon blurb:

In March 2014, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was first reported. By October 2014, it had become the largest and deadliest occurrence of the disease. Over 4,500 people have died. Almost 10,000 cases have been reported, across Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and the United States.

Impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone is the terrifying, true-life account of when this highly infectious virus spread from the rainforests of Africa to the suburbs of Washington, D.C in 1989. A secret SWAT team of soldiers and scientists were quickly tasked with halting the outbreak.

Thanks, Quog. Just got some free ones to try out.

Remus - The Tales of Max Carrados by Ernest Bramah were contemporary to the Sherlock Holmes stories. Some of them are free on kindle and others are 99p, so not a big spend if they turn out not to be up to much! I listened to a couple of them narrated by Stephen Fry which were an Audible freebie last December. Definitely of their time but might appeal?

I'm really glad to hear people enjoying The Vegetarian. I know Deborah Smith, the translator, slightly and she's doing all kinds of amazing stuff.

Still making slow progress myself but about halfway through my book now.

Yes, have read Dashiel H. Okay but not a patch on Chandler imvho.

X1V: The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi. I picked this up in paperback years ago, based solely on recognition of the title based on knowing of the existence of the TV series - which I'd never actually watched :$ Somehow the book stayed with me and now its time finally came. Entertaining enough coming of age tale, with our hero's sexual and ethnic issues neatly dovetailed - that's the point of the story I guess, that some of Karim's problems are related to race, but in other ways he's just as different, hence the same, as many other folks. I liked the depiction of 1970s England - well, London and the suburbs - though, it's extremely well drawn in simple passages that nevertheless feel authentic.

0xF: World War One: History in an Hour by Rupert Colley. I'm reading another, much longer WWI book, published in 1920, which assumes much more familiarity with the details of battles and combatants than I have, so I picked this up as a guide and timeline; it does what it says on the tin really, there's little in the way of opinion, "just the facts."

I have given up on The Devil Wears Prada - I only got three chapters in and it was utter shite. I should have paid more attention when on the back cover some trashy gossip magazine described it as "sooooo Sex and the City". So it's now in the charity shop bag.

I'm re-reading The Last Kingdom, Bernard Cornwell. I read this when it first came out and loved it, but never really got into the rest of the series. However, I have accumulated all the subsequent books over the last few years from charity shops and bootsales so I am starting again.

1. The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett, which has been reviewed lots of times already on this thread. It's a 'Sliding Doors' type story of how a life can turn out differently after a chance encounter. I thought the theme was well handled and I enjoyed this.

Yes, I saw her comment about ones set in the past only after I'd posted.

1. One hundred years of solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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

Remus, I don't think you'll like Elly Griffiths, at least not the Ruth Galloway books. I love them but I'd be surprised if you do. They are written in the present tense for one thing. She does have another series set in post war Brighton but I haven't read them so can't comment. Maybe try a sample on Kindle.

Yes of course, you're right, silly me she's pre-1900. Just glanced at first 'hit'. I'm out, sorry

Remus have you read Dashiell Hammett (you probably have)?

#8 Raising Kids Who Read - What Parents and Teachers Can Do by Daniel T. Willingham

Can a nonfiction book be a pageturner? This one definitely was, I read it in about 24 hours. I've realized my DC don't seem to pick up reading quite the way I did. I wanted to understand what I can do. The book is excellent, research-backed and realistic, written by a cognitive scientist who is also a parent (and a great writer!). Lots of tips what to do. My children see reading as a chore, it's dreary daily homework assigned by the school. I had next to no homework growing up but was surrounded by voracious readers, regular trips to the library, and we had tons of stimulating books at home. This book gave me a clear idea how to change things, and hope that it is not too late.

Pretty sure there were quite a few of hers for free on Kindle - I don't think I paid for them.

I'm still plodding through my second and third reads of the year, which are Life After Life and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying, the latter is non-fic but I have been wanting to read it for a while. They are both v good so far, I've been so busy I've mostly only been listening to the unabridged audiobook of Shantaram which is flipping amazing. I don't think I'd have the patience to read it but having it told to you, especially by such a glorious narrator, is a blissful experience. I listen in the bath or before bed while colouring. I've seen from reviews that people say he's used a bit of artistic license or fibbed about some events but I don't even care, it's so engaging a book.

Have read a few of hers. The Leavenworth Case was the best of them.

You read any Anna Katherine Green remus? American writer of early detective novels, pre Conan Doyle and an influence for agatha Christie and so on.

I have the Leavenworth Case, her first, on my Kindle tbr but haven't got round to it yet, if you get there first let me know how it is. It's £1.68 on there at the moment. My dad loves detective mysteries, but has to be well written, so I'm always trying to find 'new' writers for him!

Thanks though - will investigate.