50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Two

Added both the recs to my TBR list - I'm way over my Kindle budget for January so I'll have to order from the library or wait for a price drop. In the meantime I'm finishing off a very dull murder mystery set in the Cotswolds.

4. The Autumn Throne Have really enjoyed this trilogy. Fascinating watching the movement and wrangling of the English and French court; if sometimes hard to keep up with. From a personal point of view found the observations of Alienor (Eleanor) about raising boys quite amusing. The constant competition is something I can relate to, being a mother of three teenage / almost teenage boys! Add in a preteen daughter too! We are actually heading to the Loire Valley in the Summer so might see if we can visit Fontevraud - Eleanor, Henry II and Richard the Lionhearts final resting place.
Now on to The Heart Goes Last. ( Atwood sorry!) Reading a proper book rather than on Kindle. Only so long I can go without the feel (and smell ) of a book . Anyone else or just me...?

DH has just finished Total Recall, the Schwarznegger autobiography on audiobook and loved it Cote. Surprisingly good was the verdict from him too, and he liked that Arnie reads parts of it himself (and I think he was looking for something lighter after I got him to listen to Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien last) I may give it a go myself as my kindle automatically syncs to have all his audiobooks on!

I've never read Lolita - will see if I can find a cheap copy on kindle. I'm aiming to read a few classics this year. Haven't decided on my final selection of them yet. I've read Austen, Hardy, a lot of Dickens. Never read any Steinbeck though so they are on my list.

Anybody have any favourites they would recommend? Happy to consider modern classics too.

Sadik it may well have been you that recommended it to me, but it's gone 11pm and I've had 2 glasses of wine, so there's no way I'm going back to check. Thanks if it was you! It is indeed cheering

I love The Dud Avocado, Ham, such a cheering book - sadly I've lost my copy somewhere along the way, so haven't read it for years.

Also found Nothing To Envy absolutely gripping and fascinating/horrific.

Funny Cantstand I'm the other way round to you. I loved Dawn French narrating her own novel A Tiny Bit Marvellous but on reflection now, I think if I'd just read it I would have found some of the plotting rather silly and the characters clichéd. I would probably laugh at her reading out her shopping list though.

Best I have something fun and light on the go: The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy - a rec from last year's threads where I was looking for earlyish 20th century women's coming of age stories (this is set in 50s Paris) - about a third of the way through and it's a blast so far.

Slightly less fun:

1. Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick Based on interviews, primarily with 6 defectors from the same North Korean city, but also drawn from many other sources, this attempts to explain what life is like for ordinary North Koreans, mainly focusing on the years of famine of the 1990s. It's hard to believe this secretive dictatorship still exists in the form it does, and the amount of suffering its people have experienced over the last few decades. I learnt a lot from this book.

It's a weird coincidence isn't it happy - the author's name is so similar!

Best - Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography Total Recall might be what you are looking for. Light, fun, and surprisingly interesting. I didn't expect to like it so much.

I need something fun and light to read. The last few books have not been so.

Thanks, Satsuki

My mistake.

Finished 5) How to be Both which I really enjoyed but feel like I need to read again to properly digest.

Still working on Nigel Slater's Toast and finding it kind of a chore to be honest.

Not sure what the next one will be, maybe an easy breezy Georgette Heyer

By the way...if anyone likes crime dramas or thrillers, I'd added this to my wish list on books to watch this year...

Rattle-Fiona Cummins

This is 99p on the kindle daily deal!

A serial killer to chill your bones and a glance into the mind of a psychopath.

Will let you know if it's too terrifying

Iwant I got Dawn French's first novel on audible and just couldn't get through it (despite it being one of the shortest i have in my collection) it was her narration the voices were too much and I couldn't bare it anymore. I could tell reading it myself it would be fine though. But the experience did put me off her for now! (I do want to read Dear Fatty after loving Jennifer Saunders autobiography)

Ok muggle, that makes sense! I have a terrible memory for plots so could perfectly believe that we had read the same book and I had just forgotten some really important bits.

I bought The Princess Bride too. I first read it in the summer after graduating high school when my best friend gave me a box of books and music as a graduation present. I think I will always love it both as a fun book and because of the thoughtfulness of that gift.

happyflappy Gervase Fen is the detective character in that series of books, written by Edmund Crispin.

Invisiblekitten when you typed Gervase Fen, did you mean Gervase Finn? If so, I agree with you - his writing is utter sh*te - certainly on a par with Dan Brown.

1. Lies, Damned Lies, and History by Jodi Taylor

Number 7 in the St Mary's series about time travelling historians. I really like this series. You know what you will get with each book - they go back in time to various historical events, it all goes horribly wrong, but usually ends up ok for the main character. This was more of the same and I enjoyed it! Now reading a short story in the same series, My Name Is Markham, but I'm not counting that as a separate book. Not sure what to read after that, loads of choices, so will browse the shelves of unread books until something grabs me!

Meg - have read "Princess Bride" and seen the film. Both are fab. The film is often on tv - watch it if you get the chance - you'll enjoy it.

Thank you for suggesting "Lying in Wait" Muggle - on my list now.

Have finished Celebrating Life (it was only 200 pages or so). I enjoyed it - I like to read/hear people's faith beliefs.

Have begin "You Can't Hide The Sun" - John McCarthy. Following his 5 and 1/2 years as a hostage John McCarthy went back to the Middle East to look ito the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspective of the Arabs displaced by the Jewish state. If is heartbreaking, and for me shocking that any nation which has suffered as much as the Jewish nation has, is prepared to inflict similar suffering on others. Very, very sad, and an eye-opening read.

I kept up with this thread much better last year, I think! Work is still busy and am squeezing in as much reading as I can around it, but not much time for much else.

1. The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell - This has been reviewed loads before so will just add that I quite enjoyed it as a light read. Some interesting things about Denmark that I didn't know but agree with others that the magazine style got a bit irritating after a while. There were also a few things that she commented on in surprise as though they were unique to Denmark when, actually, plenty of English people do those things too. Unfortunately, my brain is so wiped at the moment that I can't remember what they were but I do remember being irritated by it!

1. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams - Read for work. I love this play. Blanche DuBois goes to visit her sister Stella in New Orleans after their inheritance and family home has been lost. From the start, she doesn't get on with Stella's husband, Stanley, as she doesn't consider him to be good enough for Stella and he views her as a snob. She begins a flirtation with his friend, Mitch, but various things from Blanche's past come back to haunt her.

5. The Heat of Betrayal - Douglas Kennedy

Recommended by a colleague and picked up at the library as it wasn't something I'd normally buy myself. Robin and her artistic impulsive husband visit Morocco with her hoping to have a baby and him working in new art. When he goes missing she is, as always, prime suspect. This follows her journey through the twists and turns of being a suspect whilst also discovering a foreign country and culture.

Very good read that I'm glad I was encouraged to read.

And still no books bought this year

1. 'According to YES' - Dawn French

1. The Princess Bride - William Goldman

A rather silly but very charming fantasy fairytale presented as an 'abridgement' to the original work, with annotations by the author referencing the film and even a cameo from Stephen King. I've never seen the film but this was very enjoyable and an original take on traditional fairytale tropes.