50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Five

Remus and Sadik I really liked Whicher so I was surprised I didn't enjoy Wicked Boy. I think the problem with Wicked Boy is there's no mystery or tension - you know right from the start what happened and who did it, whereas with Whicher there was the whodunnit element.

Sadik - exactly! Wilkie is God.

In fact, just wondered if I was being crap and checked out the kindle app for mac, and even that needs a newer version of the system software than'll run on my computer

MontyFox sadly I don't have a smartphone or tablet either!!! I do sometimes read on my laptop, but it's a bit of a pain, so I'll probably just wait for it to be available 2nd hand (or for someone to dump it on one of the pirate sites I sometimes read from at which point I don't mind so much putting up with whirring / dodgy screen).

I've just ordered the epigenetics book, so that sounds like it'll keep me busy for a while :)

I was very disappointed with Mr Whicher too, Remus - I really didn't think it lived up to the hype (possibly not helped by the fact that I had it vaguely associated in my mind with Wilkie Collins/The Woman in White, which I love).

Interesting to read that about The Wicked Boy. I was v disappointed with The Suspicions of Mr Whicher , which I thought was pretty boringly written, so was in two minds as to read another of hers. I almost certainly won't bother now. Thanks, Chessie.

120. Number Eleven by Jonathan Coe

I had never heard of this author but picked this up on a whim in the bookshop. It's more like 5 tenuously linked shorter stories than a complete novel. I enjoyed this although the ending was odd, and I will try more by him.

121 The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale

I was really looking forward to reading this as I thought the story was interesting - it's the true life story of a 13 year old Victorian boy who killed his mother then lived in the same house as her body for 10 days before she was found. Unfortunately I found the book really boring - just a 'he said, she said' account of the trial and his life afterwards, with no real attempt to analyse what happened or why. The characters were very flat and didn't come alive. The last chapter was interesting, where the author met someone who had known the boy in later life, but it wasn't enough to redeem the book.

122. Wicked! by Jilly Cooper

Continuing my aim to reread all the Rutshire Chronicles before the new one comes out next month. I first read this about 10 years ago and remember thinking it was a bit near the knuckle, but rereading it this time I found it far more disturbing, probably because I'm now a parent. It's set in a school and not only is there a lot of sex between pupils, there's also some very unprofessional teachers and other adults doing and thinking things about pupils. It's also really long. I really like Jilly Cooper but really struggled rereading this one. Hoping the new one is a return to form! I read the other day she's now writing one about football - not sure about that, she's at her best writing about posh people and horses!

Constance Kopp sounds brilliant!

Book 88
Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie
This was okay. It’s one of her non-detective books, this one about a scientist who has disappeared and about whom it’s suspected that he’s defected to Russia. Meanwhile a young woman is contemplating suicide, and is approached by an English man who offers her an alternative potential death – taking on the role of the missing scientist’s wife, and allowing herself to be taken to him, so that the British can discover his whereabouts. It was about as unbelievable as it sounds, and got dafter and dafter – by the final quarter or so there was a twist on every other page. I quite enjoyed it, although it required a lot of willing suspension of disbelief –Famous Five for adults.

32. Girl Waits With Gun, by Amy Stewart This book is the first in a series based on Constance Kopp, who was the first female sheriff's deputy in the US. It starts in 1914, when Constance and her sisters' buggy is seriously damaged by a wreckless motorist who was also a wealthy industrialist. Constance seeks $50 in damages from him, so he begins a campaign of harassment and intimidation against her and her sisters. Constance is not one to be cowed into submission, and she takes on the industrialist and his hired goons (members of the Black Hand) together with the progressive local sheriff.

While some events are fictionalized, the major plot points are real, as are the main characters. Also, the social issues it deals withworkers' rights, immigration, single parenthoodare all too familiar, even a century later.

And, even if this isn't the book for you, do Google Constance Kopp. She's fascinating!

Sadik depending on your phone or iPad, you could download the kindle app and use that - no kindle needed. I have no plans to buy a kindle as I like paper books too much, but I use the kindle app to read books on my phone when on the go.

Nope - it sounds like the sort of thing I wouldn't appreciate, so probably safer for both of us that I leave it well alone.

"I suffered...Every..Single...Potato"

You like apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic stuff. Did you give Seveneves a go?

I read Every...Single...Word...I suffered...Every..Single...Potato...

I will never get those hours back. And I only carried on beyond page 3 (by which time I already knew I didn't like it) because I love you so much!

You are wrong but I love you anyway

The Martian is anything but boring. And the narrator is typical astronaut (positive, upbeat, and focused on working the problem rather than depressed and overwhelmed) as Chris Hadfield said.

Admit it: You skipped all the calculations & sciencey bits and read it like some superficial YA story, didn't you?

Face it - it's a boring 'teenager' talking about potatoes and mechanics whilst driving a kind of truck across a planet. Mine was two boring men talking about snow and mechanics whilst driving a kind of truck across Antarctica.

It's the constant calculations, problem solving, and innovation/invention in order to stay alive. Mathematics, physics, chemistry - it's a nerd fest Potatoes are just the food.

Well, I thought it was as bad, but am pretty sure you'd prefer the potatoes!

I loved The Martian but doubt if this book was anywhere near as good

For pages and pages and pages, Cote. Imagine The Martian, with ice and snow, seals, pemmican, two stuffy narrators instead of one irritatingly adolescent narrator, and not even any potatoes to break the monotony.

"Our machinery broke again, so we hung around for three decades waiting for it to be fixed; within seconds of us setting out again, it broke again and this time took us several millennia to get going again"

Remus

lady - Ah yes, but it's not fiction

I know that IABU but it's personal preference and I can't help it. I have loved The Goldfinch, The Luminaries, and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, for example, so there are exceptions.

Cote - would it be too cheeky to point out that the Epigenetics book is written by a woman . Sounds great btw, yet another book added to my groaning Kindle pile!

I'm quite busy loafing in front of the Olympics but am still really enjoying Sapiens (book about human evolution, very readable)

79 All is Fair by Emma Newman
Fantasy, book 3 in the Split Worlds trilogy. Much the best of the three, the plot has really got going and rattles along at a good pace. Lots of satisfying quirky detail & world building, and pleasing characters. Overall I'd recommend, but with the caveat that the first book of the three jumps about rather too much.

The only annoyance is that she's recently brought out a 4th book to continue the series, but it costs over a tenner in paperback and I don't own a kindle!

Book 87
The Crossing of Antarctica by Vivian Fuchs and Edmund Hilary
I was so excited to find a beautiful vintage first edition of this. It’s the account of Hilary reaching the Pole for the 1st time by land since Scott, and the account of Fuchs’ crossing of Antarctica. Unfortunately, it’s boring as fuck. Most of it seems to consist of sentences along the lines of, ‘Our machinery broke again, so we hung around for three decades waiting for it to be fixed; within seconds of us setting out again, it broke again and this time took us several millennia to get going again’ (I may have paraphrased it a bit). Both men are such boring writers that you can barely tell which one is writing when. A man died, and not only did they not mention his name, he didn’t even get a full sentence to himself. For something so exciting, this was abominably written. I hated it, but will keep my copy of it because it does look cute.

Sent, Côte.