50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Three

Ah bibliomania I thought it was you! I seem to get most of my biography recommendations from you

Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue is £1.99 on Kindle. A brilliant read.

Still onboard. I'm reading 3 equally interesting books, so not finishing anything. Work stuff, non-fiction and a crime novel.

Too-Extra I've read Daddy-Long-Legs many times and I always found it a bit creepy and disturbing.

Cheddar Yep, have read Just Patty but not a patch on Daddy Long Legs, I thought.

Highly recommend HHhH - a bargain at £1.99.

Re: The Mangle Street Murders I enjoyed the first half and hated the second. Here's my review:
This was a book of two halves, I think. I quite enjoyed the beginning, and the concept - orphaned young woman goes to live with strange and eccentric male guardian, who happens to be a private detective. There's a murder and detective is hired to investigate - young woman assists. But I got a bit fed up of it by half way through and by the end I felt really rather disappointed in it.

There are some fairly terrible attempts at jokes, the detective is a pain in the arse (deliberately) but the young woman is also (and I think we're supposed to like her). There's a whole load of italicised stuff about something that happened in the past and that isn't developed, presumably in an attempt to get us to want to read the whole series; some of it attempts to 'cleverly reference' Conan Doyle etc but is about as subtle as a whack over the head with a spade and adds nothing to plot or character development, and the ending was stupid. I doubt I'll read another of these.

tumble, delighted you liked Romantic Outlaws! Young Romantics by Daisy Hay or The Poets' Daughters by Katie Waldegrave are in a similar vein, if you'd like to read more. Young Romantics might be too close to Romantic Outlaws, as it covers a lot of the same material, but it's still a pleasure to read.

Dinosaurs, I liked the Mangle Street Murders but someone else (Remus?) hated it. They're a bit too gory to be really fluffy. You can read an extract on the Amazon website, and that should give you an idea if it's to your taste or not.

I haven't updated in ages - will come back with a proper list. I've decided I don't want to read The Game of Thrones series; just not getting into it. I've been reading a bit of crime (the latest Anne Cleeves book, The Moth Catcher and the latest Barbara Nadel book, On the Bone). Both okay if you're familiar with the series already, but not necessarily the place to start if you're new to them.

I have a pile of non-fiction lined up, including the nicely contrasting Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes by Virginia Nicholson and Her Brilliant Career by Rachel Cooke, about women's lives in the 1950s.

18. That Distant Land by Wendall Berry This is a collection of short stories all set in the same place (rural Kentucky) and including many of the same people/families dating from the 1880s up to the 1980s. Berry is a lovely writer but also has very strong beliefs about the importance of connection to land, environmentalism, the ideas of families/people being connected, etc. he is absolutely anti-big agri business and reveres the old ways of farming (he farms himself-he is about 80 now). I listened to these on cds in the car (20 hours) and I loved them. All of the stories were fascinating about a way of life essentially gone now, some very funny, some very moving, and he made his point about land/people/animals coexisting without being preachy. Would highly recommend him.

19 Daddy long legs Re read this in one go last night because of this thread. Lovely!

Ha! No, I didn't get the "feeeeliiiiings" vibe from Black Swan Green. It wasn't up to the usual (very high) standards of David Mitchell imho but it wasn't a heartstring-tugging sob-fest like those feeeeeliiiiiings books

Did someone recommend The Mangle Street Murders on the last thread as a good 'cosy murder mystery' type? I just noticed it on the Monthly Deals on Kindle and remembered something about it, but can't remember if it was a 'good' or 'bad' review! I've realised I need to have some 'fluffy' books to read inbetween (to use Cote's new dictionary) brainhurty or upsetting ones.

And don't forget "feeeellliiiiings", cote

Cote Oh, I see! Yeah, that sounds awful. What a disappointment.

tumble I am very keen to go to Iceland, so Names for the Sea sounds right up my alley

Also, have finished 21. Wake by Elizabeth Knox. She's a Kiwi author whom I'd never heard of before, but this is her eleventh novel and New Zealanders seem to really rate her. It's literary psychological horror, essentially: a small coastal town is gripped by a homicidal madness, which leaves only fourteen survivors. They're cut off from the outside world, and have to find a way to live together while also battling grief and defending themselves against whatever caused the madness - which is still there. A bit like The Walking Dead meets Under The Dome meets Margaret Atwood. I normally have zero time for zombie stories, but this one's different. Addictive, enigmatic, very well-written, and great characterization (hard to do when you have fourteen survivors to write about!) A definite page-turner.

Seconding Cote's recommendation of The Reluctant Fundamentalist. It's very good, thought-provoking stuff.

HHhH by Laurent Binet is also £1.99 in the Monthly Deals for March. Thinking about getting it. Have bought A Very British Murder by Lucy Worsley - an examination of the British obsession with tales of murder over the past 200 years or so. Am a bit of a fan of her tv programmes and the one this book accompanied was fascinating.

I agree Black Swan Green is a bit "unpickupable". (Writing it next to brainhurty and boringer )

That should read dust bowl, althought the dust owl is great for those hard to reach cobwebs

oh, I feel I'm going to have to read these books you are arguing about to be able to join in... (adds more ot the 'to read' pile)

12. Night After Night - Phil Rickman
I'm not sure who recommended this on a previous thread when it was on offer on the Kindle, but thank you, I liked it in a "this is not fluffy" way!

Basic plot - an independent production company decides to do a "Big Brother" type show with celebs/well known people in a haunted house - with the 'residents' split between people who have been publically sceptical of such things as ghosts/afterlife/general woo shit, and those who have publically talked about believing or having experienced the unexplained. The main story is focussed on Grayle, a researcher/journalist who'd worked on paranormal magazines in the past, and is put to work finding the spooky history of this house - which gets all a bit dark. First half of the book is focussed on her research, trying to find out what happened in this house in the past and the backgrounds of the people going on the show, then it moves onto the TV show itself.

The spooky bits of this book aren't what you'd expect from a haunted house story, there's not lots of ghosts and sightings, it's the effects the House seems to have on people who live in it/are associated with it, what the house seems to turn them into.

Well written and believable, mainly because it's not ghosts jumping out left right and centre being scary, but just real live people being scary.

Love The Time Machine.

Have ordered Daddy Long Legs as it was 99p.

Also my dh has just made me a present of East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath with a voucher he had. Been want ing to read them both for a long time, so think I'll be spending part of the summer in the dust owl.

Black Swan Green is enjoyable while I'm reading it, but a bit unpickupable at the same time

I have never understood the love for Terry Brooks Extra, don't really get Robert Jordan much either. There's an appalling series now about Shannara that DH started watching the other night - lots of beautiful 20-somethings with pointy ears to make sure you KNOW they're in a different world. I had to leave the room.

I think the Gibson book improves Cote. Actually the computer game bit is just a distraction to introduce her into the other world and it soon fades. The second half is definitely more coherent. I loved all his early stuff too, Neuromancer and Virtual Light. I think he started going off the boil for me with Idoru and yes Pattern Recognition was silly. I don't think I bothered with Spook Country, but I did enjoy this one in the end. Then again I quite liked Authority

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is £1.99 on the Kindle.

TooExtra - Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel

I love "boringer" and will adopt it as a new favourite word

I'm reading and thoroughly enjoying The Time Machine, so thanks to all of you who said I was a fool for not reading it I should give it a go

Have you read Just Patty, Remus?

I just don't like Master Jervie. I love Judy and the college atmosphere and everything, but Master Jervie comes across as a spoiled brat most of the time. I also love Dear Enemy and am about to move onto that!

30. The Sword of fucking Shannara, Terry Brooks. I hated this book. Hated hated hated it! It is basically the exact same story as Lord of the Rings only without the interesting characters, dialogue, awesome poetry, and the ultimate in world-building. The Sword of Shannara is utter shite by comparison. The characters barely speak to each other and have no back story. There is one female character whose job is to be pretty and slim. LOTR is not brilliant in the feminist stakes but compared to this bollocks it's practically The Female Eunuch. Every fucking non-event was a boringer version of LOTR - a company set out, they travel underground through the Tombs of the Kings/Paths of the Dead, which also bear a striking resemblance to Moria, there's a land with a warlock king of incredible power, there's a massive battle, the hero saves the day at the 11th hour, then goes home and mopes around. It's terribly written and has not one original idea in it. Grrrrrrrrr. I can only assume that the publisher had never read LOTR and didn't realise that SoS was a total rip-off of it.

I never see the creepiness. I think it's lovely. It always makes me want a dorm room, and to be sent boxes of chocolates and roses, and to have a toffee drive or whatever it's called! And the final letter is just filled with such joy.

Yes I love Daddy Long Legs too. The creepy thing never occurred to me as a child!

I teach 'Lord of the Flies' too!

'Knife' was a reading for pleasure book, so not much analysis, just encouraging reluctant readers to enjoy a story.

Cheddar I absolutely adore Daddy Long Legs. One of my favourite comfort reads.