50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Two

That was 15 not 14.

14. The Mirror Crack'd - Agatha Christie Miss Marple - first time I'd read a Christie for years and then I remembered I'd read it before about halfway through. Easy reading though.

I've now run out of things to read until I can get to the library. There are a few things on Kindle I want but don't want to pay for.

I did have Jeanette Winterson's The Gap Of Time but failed to get into it so far.

bella I started The Moonstone last year or the year before, and only got about 30 pages in. I can't remember why I stopped reading it, because I was interested. I think it might have been because the font in my copy was miniscule and I was having a job concentrating on it! I'll keep it in mind for the next time I fancy another classic.

Remus Yes I have noticed a certain repetition of that particular phrase. I'm trying to ignore the childish delight he seems to take in some cases, and his anthropomorphising of mountains. If you took him at face value you'd think all mountains are out to get their climbers.

Monty You could try counting how many times Bear says, 'That showed real grit' in his book. Agree entirely that the stories are interesting but the telling leaves much to be desired.

Monty I hadn't read any classics since school either, but have just started to in the last 2 years. I'm a similar age, and I always just thought I wouldn't enjoy them. I read (and enjoyed) Jane Eyre quite recently, and have got Anna lined up to read soon so glad you liked it. I would also recommend Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone is probably the best classic I've read.

Can you get the Radio 4 books as Podcasts? And if not, how do you know when a new one is starting?

1. The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu. This took a while to grab me but I liked it once I got into it. Been reviewed a few times already, so I won’t cover old ground except to say that I liked the direction it took and enjoyed being confused for a bit whilst trying to work things out.

1. Murder At The Vicarage, Agatha Christie. The first Miss Marple book. I’ve only read And Then There Were None and her Poirot books previously, so wanted to see what the Marple ones were like. Surprised to find that Miss Marple wasn’t actually in it that much! The plot kept me entertained for an afternoon while I was unwell. Light, easy-going stuff.

1. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy. I loved this but good god is it long! Listened to it on audiobook, borrowed on the Overdrive app. 33 and a half hours long with an excellent narrator. I had to borrow it three times, starting in 2016, to get through it all as you can’t renew on that app. I doubt I need to summarise the plot for anyone; I’d guess that many of you have already read it. I’m in my late twenties and am only just getting over school ruining classic literature for me. I’ve started making my way back to it, easing in last year with Jane Eyre and A Christmas Carol, and now Anna. I’m glad to say that I’ve enjoyed all three immensely.

As light relief I am now reading True Grit by Bear Grylls, and listening to Gangsta Granny by David Walliams on audiobook. I’m enjoying the stories in True Grit, but not Grylls’s way of telling them. Gangsta Granny is good and has earned me a few funny looks in Sainsbury’s from sniggering at inopportune moments.

I listened to The Wonder on Radio Four last year and was captivated. It was heartbreaking and so real. It made me think about children who are involved in miracles in a completely different way. It also brought the Ireland of that period to life so completely that it was as if I was there.

Checking in to place mark, but also to remind myself that I am missing reading. Had a really bisy week and haven't read anything but the news, threads here and students' essays. TBH I am also still 'mourning' Eileen and not gripped by either of the books that I am reading!

Thank you Cheerful, I wonder if I had just read too many other WW2 ish stories at the time? I do remember bits, even though I read them nearly 20 yrs ago (the girl putting a frock on, going to the hotel and sleeping with the ships captain to get home; and the bright little girl tied to the table), so there must have been something there! Still, I would prefer the writing of a Noel Streatfeild.

I'm a big Heyer fan Compost, but I don't think Beauvallet is one of the best! My favourites are probably The Grand Sophie and These Old Shades.

I read on my phone mostly- Overdrive (the library app), cheap kindle (am plodding through the Luminaries!); but also library, charity shop, and lends!

6 The Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon

I loved Kavalier and Clay, and I so wanted to love this but.... I couldn't. Overweight, middle-aged writer and professor smokes too much pot, drinks too much, can't finish his novel, can't be faithful, is unexplainably attractive to many women including his most attractive and talented female student....... Yes, it is The Great American Men's Novel again.

Chabon is a brilliant writer, his descriptions were beautifully accurate (a tiny baby ""waving its hands around in the air in a declamatory manner. Its fingers curled and uncurled and struck odd poses like the significant fingers of a stone bodhisattva") and the turn of many of his phrases was truly, cleverly funny (unlike all the silly running around with dead dogs etc).. But I felt like I'd read this all many times before. He wrote touchingly about male friendships but the female characters were just shadowy bit parts.

highlandcoo I agree that Agyness Deyn was very good. Chris is a character that anyone who has read the book would have quite a clear mental image of, so for me it was really central to the film that she came across as true to the character Grassic Gibbon created, and she did.
"Hard-hitting episodes" is spot-on!! I think the film felt more grim than my memory of the book (admittedly from 16ish years ago) because there were long passages of the lyrical, poetic portrayal of land, seasons and character in the book, where on film it is possible to show the landscape more briefly than it can be described in words and therefore proportion of time dedicated to hard-hitting plot episodes compared to description and setting is greater in the film. Have I made any sense at all there?! The internal struggle Chris has with her identity was also one of my favourite themes of the book and I felt it was dealt with quite quickly in the film, but maybe I remember it being a bigger aspect of the book than it really was just because it resonated with me.
Enjoy Satsuki!!

Thanks highland - it is under 3 quid on Kindle at moment so have given it a go.

Posted before I saw cluelessmama's bleak girls' night out

1. At Lady Molly's 5. Casanova's Chinese Restaurant and 6. The Kindly Ones - all by Anthony Powell.

His Bloody Project lovers might also like Burial Rites.

I didn't get on with My Antonia at all, but admit I didn't give it much time to impress me. Still got it, so might try again at some point.

Book 9
Magpie Murders - Antony Horowitz
Thought I’d give one more AH book a go, after the nonsense that was Moriarty. This one is playing with the theme of Christie-esque whodunnits, whilst bringing in a modern whodunit in the sense that a whodunit writer is killed and his editor is now trying to work out whodunit using his latest whodunit to try to work out whodunit. It was kay, except I didn’t really care whodunit and I didn’t like the editor and was sort of hoping somebody might dunnit to her too. I think AH and I will now be parting company. Oh and the ending was utterly stupid.

Book 10
Warm Bodies - Isaac Marion
Half way through this, I realised that I’d read it before and forgotten about it. Oops. It’s the story of a zombie who isn’t quite the average grunting, shuffling blob, who rescues and falls in love with a girl, which causes ‘the change’ in him from typical grunting, shuffling brain-eating blob to escalate. It’s actually really good fun and some of the prose is very effective, but it’s too long and a bit self-indulgent in places. Could have done with more brutal editing.

Satsuki yes give it a try. And have a look at the reviews on Goodreads - the one by Jukka Sarkijarvi is particularly good. Having had a mooch about there this afternoon, it's really made me want to read SS again, which alongside My Antonia would be really interesting.

SS Is not free of violence to be honest! LGG writes lyrically and poetically but at the same time doesn't shirk from showing how harsh life could be, particularly for women at the time. There are some pretty hard-hitting episodes.

There's a fair bit of Scottish dialect too, and the rhythm of his language is what makes the book stand out for me. It's the Scottish equivalent, style-wise, of The Long Song by Andrea Levy. Which is not for everyone but once you get into it it works very well I think. (The start of the book, as a PP said, is notoriously slow though).

Clueless I enjoyed the film and was very impressed by Agyness Deyn. I know she was a model and not sure if this was her first film role but she convinced as Chris Guthrie for me. Pretty good Scottish accent too .. but admittedly as you say not a hugely fun night out!

gettingtherenow yay for My Antonia love! I wasn't the one who first mentioned it last year, I think someone else was reading it, but I enthusiastically endorsed it (and re-read it) as it is one of my favourites of all time; you gave it a beautiful review. Second time around the end hit me just as powerfully. I am not a religious person, but there is something almost spiritually moving (bookwanker alert) about the imagery near the end with them rushing out of the darkness onto the prairie - like Plato's cave.

Don't worry about reading in order - Iirc it's not necessary. I am going to get to Death Comes for the Archbishop this year, finally.

And highlandcoo I will be looking up Sunset Song, thank you! I enjoyed the farming/isolated croft elements of His Bloody Project, so would like more of the same - perhaps less, er, bloody, though?

Name changed but still wanting to take part!

Finished number 7 today Beauvallet by Georgette Heyer. Not the usual Heyer and I was originally dubious but actually quite enjoyed the adventure story - completely ridiculous but I'm injured and confined to the sofa so a bit of daft swashbuckling escapism wasn't completely unwelcome.

Not sure what's next, could probably do with something a bit more substantial.

Ha, I was liking the sound of My Antonia, now your comparison to Sunset Song has made me wonder highlandcoo!! We covered it at school and, while finding it difficult at first and relying on our teacher to explain what on earth the opening section was all about, I had quite fond memories of it. The descriptions of life on the land and theme of the Scottish and English Chris really resonated with me. Then went to see the film last year with friends and realised I'd forgotten just how bleak it was. Not the best girls night out film! Would still be tempted to read it again sometime, but would definitely have to be in the right mood.

Getting there you've reminded me about My Antonia and the discussion on here last year. I've now put it on my wish-list so that I don't forget about it again ... thank you.

This language in this quote :

As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains...And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running.

so reminds me of Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, a book which most of us who grew up in Scotland in the 60s and 70s will probably have read it at school. It depicts a way of life - farming on a croft in NE Scotland in the early 20th century - long since gone. Grassic Gibbon's poetic descriptions of the way in which people's lives are bound up with the seasons and the land are what I recall of the novel, which I haven't read for a long time. I did see the film with Agyness Deyn as Chris Guthrie, last year and she was excellent.

I wonder if My Antonia is similar in that respect?

9. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Already much reviewed but I loved this. Found the first couple of lives hard to get into but after that, I couldn't put it down. So many big themes in this book and I enjoyed all the interlinking with the different lives. English lit students would get so much out of analysing this.

1. The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (author of Room). Set in Ireland in the 1950s, this is about Anna, an 11 year old girl who claims to have lived for the past four months without food or drink (except water). The story is told from the point of view of Lib, the English nurse who is called in to watch Anna for two weeks to prove the veracity or otherwise of the claim. This started slowly, but ended up being quite a page-turner. I stayed up late last night to finish it!

Phoenix I loved A Place called Winter in the end though it was a teeny bit slow to start. I went on to Carol by Patricia Highsmith after that - which kind of worked for me....

1. And Oh My Goodness. My Antonia. I picked up the recommendation here and remember way back upthread (last year...??) seeing debate and mostly good things I think - cant remember who recommended though. But - thankyou!

This will stay with me for a loooong time - I loved it. Rich descriptions of slowly unfolding relationships, descriptions of the Nebraska plains and surrounding countryside that will I will remember forever, the effort and resilience of people in a tough situation carving out a new life in a new place. Community, joy, love, friendship, despair, strong female characters, returning to your roots....and dancing! So much to love - I think for the first time in forever - I will come back to this and re-read. I kind of know I'll have missed bits and will find new things to love....

And yet I can imagine for some it wouldn't work. There isn't a driving plot - life and living it is what's going on here - and emotions and reactions and human responses to learning about themselves and each other.

Despite being written aeons ago it's fresh and beautiful. I found it a huge, huge treat! Did I say I loved it?

Struggling now to find something to follow it with - might try O Pioneers! As usual Ive started with the last of a trilogy....

I find my recommendations all over the place really - my sisters read and belong to book groups and we have similar tastes - reviews - Amazon sometimes, Goodreads and I've picked up some very different things reading through the threads here. I have to be careful though, I read on my kindle and one click ordering is too easy!

I find books through browsing in the book shop or the library. Last year I tried to pick up at least one random book from the library when I visited - by an author I'd not heard of or not read before. I read some interesting books as a result of this.

I also get recommendations from the book group I go to which often leads me on to other things by the same author.