50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Three

Thanks for the review Museum I might check the dawn french one out!

Thanks Biblio. Someone gave me a beautiful edition so maybe I'll just leave it looking pretty on the bookshelf a bit longer and bump it down on the reading list...

Sorry to dangle Ordinary Families in front of you when it's not available on kindle. If you ever see it in a charity shop, snap it up; it's - well - lovely.

15. A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French I would love for my review of this just to be 'it's a tiny bit marvellous' but I think I should say a bit more than that. Very funny. Narrated in turns by a child psychologist and her two very different teenage children. The characters and events are exaggerated and caricatures, but that doesn't matter as this is an unashamedly comedy book. Despite them being caricatures, I cared about the characters and laughed and cringed along with their mistakes and misunderstandings. Narrated absolutely superbly on audible by Dawn French herself.

Have started my next audible book Elizabeth is Missing and finding it a bit pedestrian so far. I do get that some scene setting is required so we understand the extent of the main character's dementia, and get used to the fact that the story will be relayed by someone with an unreliable memory, but 30 mins in and all that's happened is she's bought too many tinned peaches. I'm going to need more than this to sustain me over 11 hours of listening. Does it pick up?

Have Austen fans read Jane Austen's History of England? It's a pastiche of her history textbook showing all her own personal biaises, and very funny.

MamaBear, I found Jane Austen's letters quite heavy-going. I think if someone edited them down to the best bits, it might be quite a fun read, but the complete letters are (whisper it) dullish.

Remus, you're a hard one to please but two books came to mind that you might like. Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant, though you may well have read it. Greed, excess and a wonderful absence of morals in C19th Paris. I have just started another by him called Strong as Death, or Fort Comme la Mort. Also, I unexpectedly loved My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff when I read it last year. It was delightful.

18. In the Heart of the Country - J.M Coetzee
    Madness, death, racial power struggles and the breakdown of the status quo in an isolated farmhouse in the colonial/postcolonial South African desert. OMG. This is not for the faint hearted, not least because the narrator is so unstable so you never really know what is real or imagined. The time period is ambiguous too. A strange, powerful, complex read.

19. We Are Called to Rise - Laura McBride
    Fail. Cliched, underdeveloped and implausible novel about the impact of PTS on US veterans of the Iraq war. Not at all good and one to avoid IMHO.

Thanks Biblio I might have to have a look and add them to my list. I also have Jane Austen's Letters to read

38. After You by Jojo Moyes.

This is the sequel to Me Before You. I enjoyed the original, the sequel was ok. I didn't feel that the main character in the sequel followed on from how we had been led to think of her in the original. I didn't like the character of Lily and I thought the ending was predictable. A shame as the original was good.

For all the Austen fans, I don't know if you're interested in related non-fiction, but John Mullan's book What Matters in Austen and Paula Byrne's Jane Austen: A Life in Things are excellent reads, and I found they added an extra dimension to my understanding. On a totally different note, someone here recommended Bitch in a Bonnet which is excellent fun.

southeastdweller YY to Freya! I've got it on my to-read/to-review pile right now. Read the first few pages walking back from the sorting office where all my packages seem to end up and was really drawn in by it. Think it's going to be one of the season's big hitters.

23. This House Is Not For Sale, by E.C. Osondu. It's marketed as a novel but it really does feel more like a collection of short stories, about a large family house in an unnamed Nigerian city (Lagos?) and the despotic patriarch who dispenses money, jobs, spouses (yes, really) and sometimes death to his extended family. It's very short (read it in a day) but I think it says a lot about the stranglehold of families and of small communities, and, yes, of the patriarchy too. I'm very interested in stories by writers of colour that aren't about race relations (because, let's be honest, white people are not the focus of everyone's lives), and this is a good example of that. Osondu won the Caine Prize for African Writing a few years back; his style is very controlled but evocative. V v good.

Sadik, we have quite similar tastes - Letters from a Faint-Hearted Feminist is one of my favourite comfort reads too.

Another vote here for Pride & Pejudice as my favourite Austen. I loved the Dragon Tattoo trilogy too. Hope you enjoy Flight Behaviour, Satsuki!

Oh, and I love Persephone books and found Stasiland mesmerizing.

Remus I hated Dragon Tattoo too. I liked some technical aspects of the book - it really hooked the reader so I had to finish it although I loathed it - but there was something sleazy about the book. I didn't find the characters believable. I'm Nordic and I think I read it in Swedish. There are far better Scandi thrillers out there mostly written by women. I binned the sequel.

Still reading three different books at the same time, not finishing any.

Joyless I haven't read it myself as I am total wuss when it comes to any kind of horror but have you read any Joe Hill? I remember hearing about NOS-4R2 and thinking it sounded quite good. Might be worth getting a sample and having a look if you're interested as I thought it sounded like a good creepy book. Just an idea!

Now I always felt that Fanny was just terrified of social awkwardness and doing the wrong thing rather than a prude as such. The Crawfords would have ripped me to pieces as a child, whereas Fanny would have been a peaceful, non-stressful friend.

Don't say that about the Invisible Library - I even bought it! (Though admittedly for a couple of quid on ebay.) However I suspect dd will like it just because it's about a library & has overtones of the Dr Who library episodes, so I can pass it to her.

The Invisible Library - not worth finishing. It doesn't get any better (I now - I did actually force myself to the end of that one).

I didn't like Dark Matter either - or, rather, I liked it until all the ghost stuff started.

I suspect that one of the reasons I hate Fanny Price so much is that I was a po-faced little prude at times as a child too. I suspect the Crawfords would have been much more fun to be around, even when children.

I've never managed to read Cloud Atlas either (though I might try again - I was given it when dd was very small and not sleeping).

Mind you, Mansfield Park is probably my favourite Austen (tied with P&P and Sense & Sensibility, with Persuasion coming in close behind). In fact, if I had to come up with a list of fictional women I identified with most as a teenager, Fanny Price would be high up the list (along with the Provincial Lady, Jill Tweedie's Faint Hearted Feminist, and Hetty from What Hetty Did).

Reading The Invisible Library as recommended on here, and not that thrilled at the moment, despite the fact that it ought to be my perfect knackered weekday evening read (hence why MNing instead!)

Michelle Paver! Or The Loney.

Ghost story - Dark Matter? Michele someone. Hang on while I Google.

Have finished a couple since the last time I posted on here:

13. The Exclusives by Rebecca Thornton - read off the back of something someone said on the previous thread (I think). A few people were discussing it so I won't rehash all the plot details. The premise sounded quite good and I enjoyed it as a light read, with a lot of 90s nostalgia and a school setting which was scarily similar to mine. The ending felt very rushed though which annoyed me, as the rest of the book had been quite evenly-paced. Equally, it was a bit frustrating that the split narrative between 1996 and 2014 didn't come across as two distinct narrative voices. I just don't buy the idea that a 35 year old narrator would sound exactly the same as her 17 year old self. If it was meant to make a point about the fact that she hasn't moved on, it was a lazy one, in my opinion! On the whole though, I enjoyed it.

14. Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories by Thomas Grant - reading for book group. This is non-fiction about several of the cases defended by this criminal barrister from the 1950s-1980s. I found this a really interesting read. It covered a range of cases from spy trials at the height of the Cold War to censorship cases like Lady Chatterley and Mary Whitehouse. It was fascinating to see how the outcome of individual cases reflected, or even occasionally affected, how society was changing during the period.

Have started The Tea Planter's Wife and Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (the third in the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan Novels quartet). I'm going to be busy at work for the next few weeks, so am in need of easy reading.

I might - if I can find it in the library and not spend (waste?!) any money on it!

I won't give up on you Remus

(You can stop me bugging you about CA by reading just the dystopian and post-apocalyptic stories, though. Two little stories. Think about it )