50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Three

I'm tickled by the combination of The Road mixed up with Amelia Jane, Quog

24. The Road by Cormac McCarthy - A well written depiction of the fight for survival in a bleak post apocalyptic world. But the ending disappointed me. Wtf was he thinking? Oh, of course, Hollywood .

25. Amelia Jane Again by Enid Blyton - DS's bedtime story this week. Not the best, but was reasonably entertaining.

Still enjoying Bring Up The Bodies.

Tried again and it went through this time. Who knows? Thanks Satsuki

Book 31
The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth by Katherine Woodfine
The second in a series of children’s detective series set around a luxury department store, clearly modelled on Selfridges in its heyday. I thoroughly enjoyed this. It’s a bit like Philip Pullman’s Sally Lockhart series, but rather more frivolous. An absolutely perfect read for a horribly stressful week!

No, it's fine. Will it not let you do it?

I didn't think I did best but I'll just make sure it went through...

Just tried and failed to buy Brooklyn. Anyone else had a problem?

I have not read a thing this week. I've had so little sleep this week I can't concentrate.

Popping on to say Brooklyn by Colm Toibin is £1.99 on Kindle at the moment. I read his Testament of Mary last year and loved it so giving this a try. Recent film seems to have good reviews too.

I think I may finally read Vanity Fair this year, hearing so much love for it here. It's one I've had on Kindle for ages and never got round to.

Hope you enjoy!

I've added it on my Goodreads challenge list. Thanks biblio.

Ooh, definitely try Barbara Pym, Natasha! Some Tame Gazelle is a great one to start with.

Muskey I did enjoy it but I think it's one of those books that's really well written with a not particularly good plot. It was more of a tick box for me as I am trying to get through some classics this year that I feel I should have read, but haven't.

Just started the audio version of Murder on the Orient Express read by David Suchet

Barbara Pym is another one I've never read. It seems like she would be a writer I might enjoy - I'm not sure why I haven't read anything of hers before now.

What you quoted sounds very much like the kind of conversation my gran and great-aunt would have had.

TooExtra I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Yes, Becky is fascinating. I also like that Amelia isn't portrayed in a "oh isn't she BORING for being NICE" way; both characters are given their dues in a manner that feels realistic. Did you have an edition with the original illustrations in it? They're pretty marvelous, too.

I can see why people admire her, but she's not for me. I suppose my problem is that I compare her with the likes of Barbara Pym, who always has a shaft of sunlight cutting through any bleakness ("There was something to be said for a nice cup of tea and a cosy chat about crematoria").

bibliomania That's interesting. I've had quite a few recommendations from people who rate ET very highly. I'm about a quarter of the way in with Mrs Palfrey, so can't really say yet. I'll add Angel to my list and give that a try.

Mind you, I quite enjoy bleak. I used to read a lot of Susan Hill - the earlier stuff - and most of that is a bit on the austere side. I didn't care for her detective novels quite so much and I've never read The Woman in Black which is arguably her best known work. I suppose I should make the effort but I'm not a ghost/horror fan.

Natasha, I find I don't quite like Elizabeth Taylor as much as I want to. I didn't care much for Mrs Palfrey. The only one of hers I really like is Angel, and even that is bleak enough at the end.

I'm going to do a full list of what I've read this year - I thought it would be easier to stop counting, but it's just made me lose track, so I'm back on the numerals again.

Just finished The Outrun, by Amy Liptrot. A memoir by a woman who returns to her childhood home of Orkney as part of her recovery from alcoholism in London. I liked this - more drinking memoir than nature-writing (which is a good thing in my book - I find nature-writing a bit slow and dull). I sympathise with her youthful longing for the bright lights of the bigger world, and then missing home once you've left. It's also not overly sentimental - she's conscious of still being considered an outsider in Orkney though born there, as her parents are English.

18. Mother Of Eden by Chris Beckett (Dark Eden #2)

This was a bit too YA for me, but ultimately I enjoyed it. Here, the story continues for the descendants of three astronauts crashed on an unknown, dark, desolate planet they have ironically named "Eden". They now populate several areas with different rules and ways of life, trading with & threatening each other in various ways.

POV changes between characters in every chapter, which gives it a cinematographic feel with the reader as the omniscient eye-in-the-sky. I liked the realistic details like their various units for time like "wakings" (day) and "womb" (9 months), as you presumably would in a place where there is no day or night.

The book is narrated mostly by young people in their teens & 20s so a certain YA feel is perhaps unavoidable but it also deals with some interesting (and adult) themes, such as power structures necessary to keep a population in check & working for the elite. The recognition that cruel societies advance to modernity (natural selection? driving people to work more?) while idyllic egalitarian ones stagnate & live like tribal savages in nature. The sour rise of civilisation on the graves of its victims and slaves.

I would recommend this book but do read Dark Eden first.

15. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson I read this because I enjoyed Life after Life, and I liked this too- a little bit predictable, but well enough done that it didn't really matter. Will read the next.

Middlemarch and Vanity Fair are wonderful reads.

Just finished The Girl in the Red Coat (can't remember what number it would be). Odd book. Not sure what the point of it all was but I do think there was more point to it than the girl on the train/gone girl books.

Tomorrow I will finish Carrie by Stephen King (on audio in the car). God I am glad he is a writer.

33. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray. Satirical farce holding up an all too honest mirror to Victorian Society-with-a-capital-S. Becky is a scheming adventurer aiming for the best marriage possible; Amelia is the good woman beloved of Victorian literature. I like that Becky is the more sympathetic character. Her cleverness and ruthlessness are much applauded, and the likes of Dobbin don't hurt her in the end. I would have absolutely adored her 10 years ago, but her relationship to her son soured her slightly for me. She is very similar to Scarlett O'Hara, but much more honest with herself - and I did read Gone With The Wind as a teenager and wasn't particularly put off by Scarlett's attitude to her children. I did take a long time to read this because you retain a certain distance from the characters, so they don't grab you and make you read voraciously - Thackeray's too focused on satirising them for that. But it was so clever and amusing! I am very glad I read it.

17. The Janissary Tree - Jason Goodwin Mystery set in 1830s Istanbul. Recommended and reviewed up thread. Very enjoyable. My DM will love this.

18. In the Midst Of Life - Jennifer Worth Challenging book about death from the author of Call the Midwife. Very very interesting to read about death from the nursing point of view although it I found it difficult emotionally at times. She had very strong views on resuscitation and care of the elderly and difficult not to agree with her having just lost MIL to Alzheimer's.
    All the more poignant given that she received her own terminal diagnosis shortly after finishing this book and adresses this at the end.

That should read not disappointed

grey I liked the burning land. I was beginning to think the characters were getting a bit predictable. I am interested to see in the later books how uthred's relationship with his eldest son is going to pan out. I don't think it's going to end well.
pterobore did you like The Great Gatsby I was a bit disappointed with Gatsby I was hoping he was going to be much nicer than he actually was. I hated the self serving attitude of many of the characters.

I am still reading Margaret Lennox The lost Tudor Princess by Alison Weir. As always she has disappointed but it is a big book