50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Five

68. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

This has been reviewed by several others so I won't repeat the synopsis here. Quite entertaining, and I like the time-travelling observers of history idea.

44. Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine. Another from the Carnegie shortlist- this is a very slight novel, more of a novella really, and I think it might have been better a little longer- the payoff was clever, but i felt not all the characters really had time to come alive, and the texture felt a little light- it all read too quickly! An interesting read though.

22- The Gap of Time- Jeanette Winterson

This is a modern re-telling of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. I wasn't too familiar with this play but there was a handy synopsis at the beginning which helped.
I enjoyed the way she handled this story - the use of names as a nod to the original was clever and I settings were believable. The writing was quite compelling and the character of Leo was repulsive when in his jealous rage.

69 Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger. More YA comedy steampunk, entertaining light read.

Have been pondering whether to use one of my Audible credits on The Muse. Still unsure. Maybe I'll listen to the abridged version on Book at Bedtime first.

Just finished reading an utterly crap novel that has made me very cross with myself for bothering with - The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh. Was just vile. No redeeming qualities, nothing likeable at all. Hell, she even managed to make me feel like I would never want to go to Mallorca

Landmarks sounds really good - just the sort of thing I'd enjoy. I'm reading Jeanette Winterson- The Gap ofTime at the moment but will see if I can find Landmarks cheaply to read after.

68 Postcapitalism: A guide to our future, by Paul Mason
Basically, does what it says on the tin. I nearly gave up on this one half way through, but in the end I was glad I stuck with it.

I've read an awful lot of books by leftist economists that do a great job at analysing what is wrong with 21stC neoliberalism, but which peter out at the stage of suggesting what could actually be done. This one for me was the reverse - if PM had kept the historical analysis (fine) but not bothered shoe-horning it into Kondratieff long waves, dropped the middle very, very long section about the labour theory of value (Joan Robinson had it spot on about the usefulness of the LTV), and got straight to the meat of his suggestions for ways forward, it'd have been great.

As it was, I spent much of the first half of the book thinking he didn't have a clue (why so much about abundance and nothing about climate change? why no mention of precarity in his talk about the networked generation? why no discussion of housing / land?), then he did actually get to these pretty critical issues & say some useful things - in the last 2 chapters. (Nothing about land though - he needs to read this manifesto - it's a very urban analysis.) Overall I'd probably recommend with reservations to anyone interested in the subject.

42.Death in Bordeaux by Allan Massie The author's wishlist seemed to include the following components: murder mystery; maverick cop; convey sense of everyday life in 1940 France; convey sense of attitudes to homosexuality and Jews in 1940 France; convey political and domestic situation in early days of German occupation of France and beginnings of French resistance; create 500 surplus characters and give them each masses and masses of no added value dialogue to hammer home points above until reader is past caring. Had the ingredients of something good, but needed a really drastic edit.

This was a present, and was a high quality paperback - stiff jacket, thick white paper, high res printing. Nice looking book, which the giver will have paid good money for, yet the text was littered with typos and formatting errors - disappointing.

whippet - i enjoyed Landmarks too and, no, I dont think you sounded too gushy about it :o I think I'll re-read it - in need of something nature-y.

Have you read Common Ground by Rob Cowen? I've heard many good things about it and have it on order from the library. It's on the Wainwright prize shortlist along with Landmarks and others.

I've fallen off the reading wagon at the moment. Ive been on holiday and was so busy I didn't get a chance. I now have my mum staying who complains every time I look at a book or my iPad. She is asleep at the moment so sushhhhh. We will be going to France in three weeks time for three weeks so I am pretty sure I'll catch up then.

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound so gushy about Robert Macfarlane! Just read it back and am a bit
I did really enjoy the book though.

Cote, it sounds a nightmare. So sorry

Remus, your tattoo sounds interesting!

58. The Bridge of St. Luis Ray - Thornton Wilder
A famous bridge collapses killing the five travellers traversing it in Peru on a certain day in 1714 (not a spoiler). Were the people on the bridge just random travellers, or is there something that links them? This is a classic I guess, and is considered by many to be profound. Whilst interesting, and something different, I didn't find it extraordinary by any means.

59. Landmarks - Robert Macfarlane
Robert Macfarlane is just a beautiful nature writer with such lovely prose and I absolutely adored this book in which he talks about other notable authors and poets of books about the natural world and the environment. I wanted to read every book discussed here as he makes them sound so wonderful. Following each chapter is a list of local and little-used or lost nature words describing weather, geological features and the environment. The back of this edition included a 500 word glossary of local nature words people have sent him, which make interesting reading if like me, you enjoy words and nature.
This is one of my favourite books of the year, if not my favourite so far.

60. The Rest of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness
I liked the fact that the central characters in this 'coming of age in small-town America with some gods/immortals' book are not involved in the main storyline of what is happening in their town, whilst at the same time, the book is all about them. Other than that it's fairly standard YA stuff but as I am a woman in my early 40s, I'm hardly the readership it's aimed at!

Good Guardian review of it here

Book 81
Anatomy of a Soldier by Harry Parker
Made it to the end this time – easier to read on Kindle than in a huge hardback! The concept is clever – it’s the story of a soldier wounded in an unnamed combat zone, but akin to Afghanistan. Parker himself lost both legs in Afghanistan. The story is told from the perspective of objects connected to Parker – the bomb that injures him, his mother’s handbag when she visits him in hospital, his prosthetic legs etc. It’s a clever idea and I was particularly interested in the sections in the hospital. My problem with it is that the perspective of the objects removes a lot of the emotional contact for the reader, so it all feels a bit too dispassionate, and you don’t really get anything in terms of character development or character relationships. I’m glad I finished it but still think it would have worked better as a short story or novella, rather than a novel.

Worth a read though if you're interested in literature and how stories work, or in modern war.

Gosh Cote it only sounds incredibly stressful and reading a boring book must just be adding to your woes. Some friends are on holiday in Munich at the moment, the world has just become so frightening.

48. The Little Red Chairs - Edna O Brien. This is the story of a man who has come to live in an Irish village and sets himself up as a healer but is a wanted war criminal in the Balkans. A lady in the village falls in love with him and then suffers the consequences. There are some beautifully written parts, and the image of the 11,451 red chairs each representing one of the victims of the Balkans war will stay with me but I didn't feel it was the masterpiece it's been billed at. The characters in the Irish village are cliched, and as the action moves to London and refugees there, it becomes very bitty. I read another book in the middle of this.

49. Written by Fire - Marcus Sakey. This was the third in the Brilliance trilogy, which is set in our world but where some people have developed special powers. He deals with the fallout very realistically. People react the way I think they would if this happened in real life. The final book pitches the norms against the abnorms in a pitched battle in the middle of America. I didn't find it quite as compelling as the first two but he wraps up the story, leaving room for sequels.

But VAT isn't 30%?

How would they even justify the same price? Paperbacks need to be printed, stored, transported, etc.

VAT I expect, Cote. Is that Make Me? It was okay but not one of his best. I gave all mine away and now I wish I hadn't! I hope things are going okay.

43. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. I expect everyone has read this- I found it slow going but it is undeniably charming.

Where is the tattoo going Remus?!

Shakeitoff, I worked my way through all the D'Artagnan books as a teenager, would definitely recommend the full series (esp The Man in the Iron Mask).

And as I'm looking at the latest Jack Reacher book for the same purpose of mindless distraction....

Can someone tell me why it is £4.99 on the Kindle but only £3.85 in paperback? That's a 30% difference in price!

Well, I can't say I'm enjoying Under The Dome but it is providing (sort of) distraction from the daily doom and gloom of having to erase my WhatsApp chats every couple of hours, worrying about a terrorist attack if my DM takes the DC to the town centre or shopping area for a few hours, hearing of friends being turned back from the airport as their passports were apparently cancelled, and least but not least, watching mobs getting larger every night in city centres.

37. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.
Very much enjoyed reading the Three Musketeers! My favourite quotes:"D'Artagnan wondered at the fragile and unknown threads from which the fates of nations and the lives of men are sometimes hung". Scarily could apply to today's politicians and leaders. "Life is a chaplet of little miseries, and the philosopher tells it over with a laugh. Be philosophers like me, gentlemen. Sit down and let's drink. The future never looks so rosy as when it's viewed through a class of chambertin." Anyone for a relaxing 🍷? And lastly ""In general, people ask for advice", he used to say,"only so as not to follow it;or, if they do follow it, it's only so as to have someone to blame for having given it.""

The whole thing reminded me of a modern day soap opera, very in keeping with the BBC's current rendition. All in all very good.

38. The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff.
Urban fantasy which is really just a byword for witches, dragons, romance and adventure. I liked it and will read the next in the series.

I agree with Remus, Under the Dome was fairly entertaining till the absolutely ridiculous ending. I would be AMAZED if you enjoyed it, Cote.

Remus, a tattoo, how exciting. Very curious to know what you're getting..

67. The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

I've been seeing a careers coach who has been pushing this book for a while and saying how amazing and life changing it is, so I thought I might as well give it a read. Not terribly convinced, but who knows, it might be worth a shot. Basically, it's about how doing six things in the morning can set you up for a brilliant day and start transforming your life from the mediocre to the amazing. Bought it on Kindle so it was only £1.49 and it's quite short. It would be even shorter if all the repetition was cut out, mind. Still, I suppose there is something to be said for trying to organise the start to your day in a purposeful way. I'm just not convinced that it can make the kind of difference being claimed.

I was very tempted by 'We all float down here' (not by the lobster though!).

Is it the lobster "monster" in Dark Tower?