50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Five

Satsuki - Ah OK, I think I might be able to manage it if I was pregnant and off work! As it is, I'll be starting GCSE exam marking from next week until early July, so there's no way I'll finish Ulysses at the same time! I've read The Odyssey but it was years ago, at uni, so I don't think I'll remember enough of the details to really make much difference. I'm thinking of reading a critical companion at the same time to try and pick up on all the things I'm pretty sure I'll miss. Would you say that's a good idea or do you think it's better to just treat it as a story, as you say?

Really must stop buying series just because they're 99p on Kindle. I feel obliged to slog on through them then even if they're crap.

45-48 ish. Charlie N Holmberg
The Paper Magician
The Glass Magician
The Master Magician
Fantasy series set in some indeterminate period in History where women wear long dresses and don't shag before marriage. Apparently set somewhere in England, by an American writer who apparently has an atlas to pick names out of, but hasn't twigged that England is a different country to America and has different vocabulary, food, and so on.

Fairly typical "trainee magician falls in love with tutor" beginning, with moderately interesting premise for the magic (magicians bond to a material, and then use that material for casting all their spells). The main character has the annoying trait of constantly ignoring all advice or sense to throw herself into pursuing various psychopathic magicians, resulting in various people getting killed. Her response to this is to angst a lot in a very teenage manner about how this must make her a bad person (to be fair she is 19-21 through the books so actually is a teen), but not change her behaviour at all. I think it's meant as an excuse for her dashing tutor to clasp her to his bosom in a comforting and sexual but ultimately chaste way because he respects her too much blah blah.

Anyway, I didn't like them. Too sloppy to be enjoyable even as easy reading fluff.

I enjoyed Shop Girl too.

Predictive text fail - Just One Damned Thing After Another ...

45. Just One Fanned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. Ok, so I bought this thinking that if I like Rivers of London, then I might like this. It started off all right, an easy enough undemanding read. But I got bored half way through, lost interest and just didn't care enough about the characters or their time travels. Not for me.

46. The Farm by Tom Rob Smith. I like unreliable narrators, usually, but somehow this one just didn't work for me. It was a pleasant enough story, a quick read. Had potential to be a really good twisty thriller but the ending was a bit weak, and disappointing.

Currently reading Shop Girl by Mary Portas which I'm loving. She writes really well and knows how to tell a good tale from her childhood succinctly. I like the way the book is laid out - in little sections with a nostalgic heading like Anne French cleansing milk, Vesta curry, Bronnley soap etc. A little reminiscent of Toast by Nigel Slater, and just as enjoyable a read.

Very disappointed with The Loney. Felt it had a bit too much of the Hammer Horror about it. Amazed at the reviews it had printed all over the covers and feel your is much more appropriate, ChillieJeanie.

Book 65
Facing Up by Bear Grylls
I really enjoyed this, Bear G’s story of his Everest ascent aged just 23 and just two years after breaking his back in a parachute accident. Much like a bid on Everest, much of the book (around 75% at least) is about the preparation and there’s quite a lot of sitting around being bored and waiting for the right weather conditions. I found him so endearing though, that this didn’t matter – he comes across as self-effacing and humble, and v much in thrall to those he was climbing with and those who had gone before him. What shines through, apart from his Christianity (which isn’t too wearing, considering how little patience I usually have for such things) is his love for his family and friends, his respect for fellow and former mountaineers and the Sherpas who support them and, more than anything, his respect for the mountain itself. Really glad I read this. I knew nothing about Bear G before this, but would definitely read something else by him now.

82. Read All About It: My Year Of Falling In Love With Literature Again by Paul Cuddihy

Another book about books! I enjoyed this one more than the Nick Hornby one, as I had heard of most of the books and read a few. Nice easy read, but he did mention his own books too often which was off putting.

83.The Good Mother by A. L. Bird

Psychological thriller. A woman wakes up in a room she doesn't recognise. She realises she has been captured and her daughter is captured in the next room. The first two thirds dragged a bit and I found it hard to care about the characters. However the last third was better after the twist, which makes sense of some of the earlier chapters. It was an unsettling read though with an unresolved ending which will stay in my mind.

53. The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley

This is a story told in the memories of a man looking back on his childhood with his mute brother in a religious family. Every year, the family takes part in the church pilgrimage from London to a shrine on a desolate strip of coast called the Loney in the north. It becomes clear that the family is the purpose of the pilgrimage - that the whole event is in search of a miracle cure for Hanny. The pilgrimages eventually cease, until the coming of a new priest after the death of the old. But there is something different this time, the Loney has changed.

I was actually disappointed with this. There's the potential to be really atmospheric and creepy, but it never quite gets there. Hurley tries to create a sense of paranoia and fear as it progresses but it's not convincing, and the great revelation at the end is pretty meh and obvious, in my view. Shame.

Ha looking I didn't actually finish it by the 16th, I think I overshot by at least a week I had severe spd from early on in my first pregnancy so I was off work from 3 months with lots of time on my hands where I could do very little except sit down, so it was Ulysses or death by daytime TV and online shopping. I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed it once I'd got into the rhythm of it. I had read the Odyssey, which helps a little as a framework, but really I tried not to worry too much about all the allusions as I was reading it and to think of it as an ordinary day in the life of an ordinary man, which is sort of what it is, really. I read the first half really quickly just to get into it, then slowed down towards the end as it does get dense - my copy is 933 pages. It definitely would break down well into its separate sections as wilting says. I didn't realise it was as funny as it was, so many good phrases and jokes. I'm pleased I read it, Finnegan's Wake would be a step too far though I think.

Ulysses is just. so. fucking. huge.

It's a great idea, fantastically done, but so fucking long.

Sorry for the vulgarity but James probably wouldn't mind

It actually holds up well to randomly dipping in, surfing it for a bit and then putting. it. down.

I remember that feeling Satsuki! If you don't start enjoying it more once you're halfway in then perhaps it's not the one for you, but I was definitely glad I persevered!

at the nasty fantasy. I did wonder what you'd meant to say pre-autocorrect . . .

Tanaqui thanks for clearing up your typo. I must admit after your first post I was a bit that YA gay nasty fantasy was a thing.

I'm a long way off having anything to report (Watership Down and The Bone Clocks don't have much in common apart from both being very long) but I like to pop in to see what everyone's up to.

My hats off to statsuki I tried reading Ulyses and failed miserably. I rarely stop reading a book but this beat me. It can say with total honesty that I couldn't make head or tale of it. I am not sure but I think joyce was on drugs or something when he wrote it. The dubliners I finished but that was not much better.

book19 Robin Hobb Ship of Magic this book is the best surprise of this book challenge so far. It was a freebie from Amazon and I chose it out of a whole load of books because I liked the cover .

What can I say about this. It's fantastic. Part 1 of a triology. A fantasy novel about ancient trader families, their customs traditions and the live ships. This novel focuses on the Vestrict family and their live ship Vivica their dealings with The strange River Wild people.

I loved making comparisons between the issues raised in the book such as a fear of foreigners, upholding traditions, slavery, ecology, gender stereotypes and immigration. I can't wait for book two.

Satsuki - Am impressed you managed to get Ulysses finished in June by the 16th! I'm planning to start around then but really don't think I'll be done by the end of the month. I'd also love to go to Dublin and do the whole Joyce experience. Not sure I can convince DH though as he harbours huge resentment for Joyce after apparently hating Dubliners at A-level (we nearly fell out discussing that once) and has been to Dublin before with friends, so doesn't feel the need to go again! My secret plan is to wait until DS (9) is old enough and go with him...

So sorry - awful typo- Mercedes Lackey's Magic's Price is angsty fantasy, not nasty fantasy! Quite a different thing!

Ooh I liked Death and the Penguin, meg, will look that up. I also read the follow up, can't remember the name now but didn't find it as good. Both went to the charity shop just last week as I thought I wouldn't reread, but I did really enjoy the first one.

52. Great Britain? by Richard Abbot

A look at Britain and its place in the world through the lens of numerology, with the significance of the four elements and Tarot thrown in as well. Quite thought-provoking, although there is always a nagging question in mind about how much of it shows actual patterns and how much is a pattern being made to fit. My understanding of numerology is fairly superficial though.

Just marking place!

Sorry, I should say Ukrainian magic realism as Kurkov is from the Ukraine although he writes in Russian.

Ooh, new thread, thanks!

28. The Good Angel Of Death - Andrey Kurkov

Picked this up at the library as I loved his book Death And The Penguin. It's kind of Russian magic realism, a tale in which Kolya, a young Russian man living in Kiev, finds out about a mysterious treasure buried in the Kazakh desert decades before by a Ukrainian author and sets off to find it and bring it back home. Along the way there are nomads, former KGB agents, drug and gun smugglers, a chameleon and much musing on the character of nationalism in the post-Soviet republics. He writes beautifully and although it won't be everyone's cup of tea, if you like this kind of thing then I would recommend it.

28. Foundation by Mercedes Lackey. A Valdemar novel- definitely a YA one (some I think are adult fiction), sadly rather formulaic- badly treated boy gets a companion and becomes a hero, and without the angst and freshness of the magics price trilogy (which as I recall were the first YA gay nasty fantasy around, though they may just have been the first I read!). Would not recommend.

I'm reading the Bear G Everest book that was on Daily Deal yesterday. Enjoying it, but the punctuation is dreadful - not sure whether to blame him, his editor or the conversion to Kindle.

I didn't think much of Wool either!

Chessie, Dance for 2 is interesting as she rewrote it about 10 years after first publication iirc, so 2 versions exist. A Proper little Nooryeff is fab- very evocative of its time now! Have you read the super mouse books?

Yy Sadiq, I wish the Mortal Instruments were as funny!