50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Two

I didn't mind The Secret History but wouldn't rave about it. Couldn't get past the first chapter of The Little Friend.

I'm on book 2 which I'm quite pleased about. I've already read more this year than all of last year so thanks for the thread.

Book 2 is "The Magpies" by Mark Edwards and I'm about 2/3 through it. Still not sure if I like it! I'm generally just reading whatever I can borrow from friends while I wait to get paid (or get a library card - whichever happens first).

Thanks for all the replies. Def agree about not liking any of the characters; maybe that's the issue. Got loads of other stuff to read at the moment but still is sat on my Kindle winking at me. Maybe one for the summer holidays when I will literally read anything.

The characters in TSH are all unlikeable but that is one of the interesting things about the book - you hate them all but you want to see it play out anyway.

I've had The Secret History on my wish list for ages, but its another one that never drops in price. I thought about using an audio credit to get it, but it is narrated by the author herself, and I don't like her voice (sorry Donna, I just don't). Sounds like I should maybe try The Little Friend instead.

Just lining up books for the future (currently reading a trashy YA fantasy romance dd has out the library).

I don't suppose anyone can recommend a book about Leibniz? (Been looking at Leibniz: A Very Short Introduction, but it's got no reviews at all on amazon, which I reckon is a Bad Sign. And I'd have to buy it new as too recent to be in the library / available 2nd hand.)

Just looked on Amazon and apparently people who buy that load of clap trap also buy Zadie Smith's NW.

Diva- I might try the Sarah Hilary in the background if I'm that way out

I listened to secret history in audible- loved it. She narrates her own!

I read the Secret History and absolutely hated every single one of the characters. I finished and told dh I disliked it. But actually with time I found the characters hung with me and I thought about them often so that is the mark of a good book I suppose. I have read A Little Friend twice. By accident. I was half way through the second time before I recognised the plot. Even now though I can't really remember it.

Tell you what book I really hated on the topic of "women's lives" books - Arlington Park. Holy macaroni did I hate that book. Full of awful characters being awful to each other while pretending to be charming, laughing their tinkly laughs at each other over dinner parties. Yuck. I hated that book so much and deeply resented the hours of my life I will never get back.

I might try and get round to the LF then this year, been on kindle for ages but read Goldfinch first.

1. Girls on Fire - Robin Wasserman

Story of two high school girls bonded together over a joint enemy after a student commits suicide in the woods. Good story that reveals all the secrets and the dark side to high school girls. Didn't particularly like the ending though.

Another book off my TBR list and no books purchased in 2017.

Just checked - Water tower is Little Friend. I think I liked that and disliked History but it was a v long time ago!

I've not read The Little Friend yet and don't remember a water tower and kids in the SH - it's university students.

I can never remember which is which in Secret History and Little Friend. I like done and hated the other. The one I liked had some kids in a water tower, I think, but I can't remember anything else about either.

Yes, I liked The Secret History and found it quite a page turner, so if it's not grabbing you yet it might just not be for you. I enjoyed it but didn't love it and don't suppose I'll read it again. I would give it a good go to get going though, but the style is the same all the way through.

mugglebum Sarah Hilary writes really quite beautifully and certainly knows how to maintain a narrative arc. But I HATED that her twist plays into a Daily Mail trope. Won't read any more of hers.

1. The Raven's Head by Karen Maitland

Another of Karen Maitland's fantastical novels, this one set in 1224 Norfolk where the local Lord of the Manor and the abbot of the nearby abbey are both practising alchemy in secret as rivals in the hunt for the Philosopher's Stone. Lord Sylvain recruits the apothecary's niece in his work, while the abbot makes unpleasant use of the young boys in his charge for his experiments. Into the middle of this comes a man in possession of an intricately carved raven's head which advises him. His attempts to blackmail Sylvain go rather wrong. Very creepy, kind of disturbing, and pretty good really.

Rather randomly has anyone read *The Secret History" by Donna Tartt? Lots of people have recommended it but I been trying on and off for about 18 months to read it and just can't get on with it.

The most I've ever spent on a Kindle book was a tenner on 'Faust's Metropolis' but I did get 1168 pages for my tenner and it turned out (after a slow start) to be one of my very favourite books of last year.

I have nothing to say about anything - just wanting to show that I've kept up with the thread (just) and am still alive. Have slowed down because I'm reading four non-fiction books simultaneously. I need a novel!

1. Night Shift - Charlaine Harris

Have checked amazon and looks like a 3000 page zombie story alright cote

Not generally keen on zombie stories but the collapse of civilisation is a theme I do enjoy.... hmmm

"I loved Peter Hamilton's Night Dawn Trilogy"

Assuming Google is correct in telling me that is the new name of The Reality Dysfunction books:

They started out alright and I quite liked a lot of his ideas (sentient living habitats, the mental bond between the pilot and his ship etc) but I was bitterly disappointed by how it all became a the-dead-come-back-to torture-the-living zombie story. Hundreds and hundreds of pages on how the zombies torture the living, scaping them yada yada. It's been >10 years since I read them but I'm still upset that I spent the time to read them all and it never became anything other than a zombie story (if memory serves well).

weebarra I am enjoying them too and yes, I agree not a difficult read

Edna O'Brien is great Wex , I hope she survives a few more culls

I go both the Hamiltons I have read on offer stokey but they were both first in a sequence, so I guess it was a question of sucking the punter in! I'll probably shell out for the next ones, at least they are not £17.94!!!