50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Three

at Amazon! I'm in England.

Expensive book

Tsk. Obvs that should say Cote. Wilting, she also loved the Dark is Rising series.

Vote, some suggestions from my DD: Percy Jackson, the Cat Royal series, the Stravaganza books, the Nicholas Flamel books.

*5. I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
*
This is an absolute beast at 900 pages and had taken me most of Feb to read. But, hell it was worth it. What a great story. It has a real extra something else that sets it apart from other thrillers I think. One of those books that leaves you almost in mourning that you've finished it.

That happened to me with. Cloud Atlas. Was only through s link here I could getvtheclower price. Might a location thing? I'm in Ireland.

Cote I'm sure you've probably already checked out Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series? Loved that growing up.

Just to be clear, I've followed both links within seconds of each other and getting the different prices, have both windows open in front of me, so don't think it actually changes. Maybe it's a parallel universe thing (read a lot of sci fi recently)

I've just given in and bought it myself, even though I wasn't going to, I've brainwashed myself into it by visiting it so often

Yes I had that price come up yesterday so thought it had gone up, but maybe it's on there twice as I get 5.98 following your link and 99p following mine

For the link you would do ((amazon.co.uk/etc Here)) only with square brackets ifyswim?

Thanks Satsuki! I've just bought. Weirdly my link is still coming up as £5.98
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005133J8G?colid=26JR92MS3O67X&coliid=I2BTMAZ03SWOS8&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl
How do you do the neat linky?

Try here

It's coming up 99p for me at the moment, so hope it works!

I've just looked Satsuki and it's coming up as £5.98 for the kindle edition-do you have a link? Thanks.

Night Women went up briefly but is back to 99p elle

Cote - my dd is a bit older (13 going on 14), but will have a think.

If she likes the Hunger Games there's a whole swathe of YA dystopian fiction out there - Divergent / Uglies / Gone etc aren't great literature, but pre/young teens seem to like them a lot.

There's also authors like Frances Hardinge (Fly by Night / Twilight Robbery / A Face Like Glass) and Cat Valente (The Girl Who Navigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making + sequels) though I don't know if the language would be hard work if your DD usually reads in French.

I've got a MN freebie to read next, Girl In a Band by Kim Gordon.

Thanks Looking, I was too slow to grab Night Women when it was 99p.

I am looking forward to Mr Whicher now Looking and Satsuki.

Hot Zone sounds interesting Cote. You can't really blame the author for wangling a trip to Africa from his publisher! I've just tried to recommend it to my library as an ebook but I have reached my limit of reccs (they are very good and have bought loads of my reccs-my attempt to be frugal!), so I've added it to my kindle wish list instead.

Eitak I have read a few of her early books but didn't enjoy them as much as the Rizzoli and Isles series. I think she comes into her own with character/plot development over the series eg the story about Maura's family background. Her earlier books are light and enjoyable but forgettable.

10. Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932, by Francine Prose This novel centres on a group of artists, writers, and patrons in Paris from the mid 20s through WWII. Their social life often revolves around the Chameleon Club, a 'louche nightspot' with daring and often transgressive performances (and performers). Lou Villars, an athlete-cum-performer-cum-race-car-driver-cum-Nazi collaborator, forms the book's narrative thread. The question of why Lou collaborated is never fully answered, though each character has his or her own theories and insights, some of which conflict and none of which are fully formed. Though the book's material is serious, the narrators are often very funny, particularly the Hungarian photographer (based on Brassai) and the American author (based on Henry Miller, and who is awful in lots of ways but also incisive and correct in others).

Speaking of Brassai, Prose got her inspiration from a subject of his: Violette Morris, a French athlete who collaborated with the Nazis. Morris is on the right in this picture, Couple Lesbien au Monocle.

This book is fantastic! All manner of social and cultural issues converge and connect and make a slippery whole. The narration, with one major exception, isn't so much unreliable as it is shifting and a comment on the variations of the individual experience of truth. And, as mentioned earlier, it's a lot funnier in places than I ever expected it to be. Highly recommended.

Book 11 will probably be All The Light We Cannot See. I mean, for real this time...

wilting - I know what you mean. When I was her age, I was reading whatever I could get my hands onto, which was iirc encyclopedias (dad had Encyclopedia Brittanica. I'd sit on the floor & pull out one volume at a time to read) and whatever books I could find in the little local bookstore. I also read a good percentage of the books in my school library. It was a different world. Now DD is used to just pointing at books she might be interested in on the computer screen and expecting them on her Kindle seconds later.

Sadikoglu - DD is 10.5. She is currently reading #3 in the Hunger Games trilogy. I want to encourage her to read in English (French is her stronger language) so I want to find her some good books to dig into. Any recommendations will be much appreciated. All the better if I don't have to read them

5. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

This came up as a recommendation after reading A Man Called Ove, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore etc. It's the story of a depressed (after the death of his wife) owner of an independent bookstore who's life gets turned around when he unexpectedly becomes the guardian of a toddler abandoned in his store. It had some charming moments, but was odd in some places and cliche in others. Overall, I didn't fall in love with it, but found it to be an okay read.

6. The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand

YA. This book has been sitting in my "to read" list for a long time. I can't remember how it got on my list. I kept asking myself that repeatedly over the first few chapters, convinced that I was going to regret picking it up. I'm glad I stuck with it. It's a sad book - told from the point of view of a sister dealing with the suicide of her younger brother. It was well written and very touching.

I didn't know there was a fourth Jennifer Worth book either. Will also be adding to my list and I think I might re-read Call the Midwife.

I have four books on the go at the moment.

The Janissary Tree as recommended above which I'm saving for my commute, a massive biography of Jackie Kennedy, a book on the Thirties and SPQR, all of which I am dipping into. They are all quite hefty books hence me not lugging them on my journey to work.

Fated by Benedict Jacka. Urban fantasy which I read following recommendations on here. I enjoyed it - not the best fantasy novel ever, but a pleasant light read. The style reminded me rather of Mercedes Lackey's earlier books (though obviously she's not urban fantasy), a bit clunky but a good plot to carry things along.

Cote, I've read a lot of YA owing to having a teenager of my own, and I have to say I've not been that thrilled by Patrick Ness. I didn't get more than a chapter or so into The Knife of Never Letting Go, which is quite unusual for me with a YA fantasy novel, normally I'll at least skim to the end. How old is your dd?

I didn't know there was another book by Jennifer Worth. Thank you Quog this is on my tbr list

Buy not by .... (autocorrect fail).

17. Farewell to the East End by Jennifer Worth. The last in her midwife trilogy, although there is a fourth stand alone book In the Midst of Life which I may read at a later date. This one was as good as Call The Midwife, with a return to midwife work rather than treatment of elderly patients. This one was bleak, though, with the tale of an entire family wiped out by tuberculosis, back street abortions and the damage caused by them, infanticide when families were unable to cope with yet another baby.

It's interesting to see how very differently the tv series treats the characters. Trixie, Sister Bernadette, and Cynthia all had completely different lives. As did Chummy.

18. Billionaire Boy by David Walliams. Read to DS. We both really enjoyed this one, with its non too subtle message that money doesn't by you happiness.

34. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix JK Rowling. Another reread!

17. Ever After by Kim Harrison

Rachel Morgan, witch-turned-day-walking-demon, is tasked with stopping demonic realm the Ever-after from shrinking after she accidentally caused a rip in a ley line. But the most powerful demon in the Ever-after is after revenge against her and has stolen her friend and her goddaughter to use as leverage, and he is inciting the demons to sentence her to death for threatening the destruction of their realm.

Something a bit lighter than the recent archaeology! This is book 11 in the series and I've finally got round to buying the final two so will probably finish The Hollows series off in the next few weeks.