50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Three

Book 12
Left for Dead by Beck Weathers
So disappointed with this. Weathers nearly died on Everest in the 1996 disaster, somehow managed to wake up and walk, having been declared virtually dead and then was left overnight in a tent to die alone. Somehow he didn’t die and was dramatically rescued by helicopter, going on to face multiple amputations. So far, so interesting. Unfortunately most of this book was about Beck Weathers and Beck Weathers’ wife and friends, and not much about the man and the mountain, or the man and his recovery. It was spectacularly dull and made me really dislike him too. Fail.

Testament of Youth yet? If not, you MUST.

Agree with Muddler - I read Testament of Youth and Testament of Experience donkey's years ago - and they are wonderful (especially Testament of Youth). Read them if you get the chance.

I've never read any Colm Toibin before, I'm certainly going to add some more of his novels to my never ending TBR list (any recommendations as to what to choose are very welcome!)

Murine - I've got a copy of "Nora Webster" on my "to read" pile - I'll read it after Bone Clock and let you know what I think.

Good for you Cheeful Trying to punctuate my reading with pleasure too!

Just marking place on the new thread. Real Life been intervening more than I'd have liked the last few days. I'm about 70% through The Devil in the Marshalsea which is nicely providing just the level of escapism needed.

Just picked up This Thing of Darkness from the charity shop next to my work for £2. It is a very thick book!

Hurrah, DrDiva!
RMC123 Oh no, I'm not reading anything WW1ish anymore. I am reading books for sheer pleasure, and it is glorious.

Dickens and cleaning the oven at the same time??! Happyflappy were you very bad in a past life?

In other news, my goal in joining this thread was to read more books than the twelve I read in the whole of 2016.
Today is 06 February and I will finish my 13th book tonight.

1. Last Scene Alive - Charlaine Harris

Cheerful- yes I have read Testament of youth and all the Pat Barker; regeneration and Toby's Room trilogies. Think I will have to reread Testament of youth as it was about two years ago. Trying to frame a novel loosely around family experiences in WW1. Really trying for historical accuracy.
Thought that Rebecca West's Return of the Soldier was very powerful too.
If you haven't already read them then My Dear I wanted to tell you and The heroes welcome by Louisa Young are very good. Also Wake by Anna Hope. This one is about the aftermath of the war, from different woman's perspective, set around the time the body of the Unknown Soldier was brought back to Westminster Abbey.
Also need to read All quiet on the western front and Not so quiet.
Got a few factual books to get through first

murine I liked Testament of Mary too, quite unexpectedly moving. I went on to read Brooklyn, which I also enjoyed.

I loved Antonia Forest as a young teen. My copy of The Cricket Term is completely falling apart as I read it so many times!

Tanaqui Oh, hurrah! I thought I was a lone Antonia Forest fan on this thread.

And no, I haven't. I am working my way through all the Forest in my local library reserves - just started The Thursday Kidnapping today. And then I shall have to wait until I visit a friend who is also a fan and borrow her stash. It means I am reading them all out of order, which is something I usually disapprove of.

It is very disheartening falling in love with a new author who is almost entirely out of print.

Happy, oh, Anna Karenina. Sighs. Very impressed that you are reading 50 books in a year and one of them is Anna.

RMC123 I spent the last year doing similar (hence Regeneration.) Have you read Testament of Youth yet? If not, you MUST.

The Testament of Mary is very good, HappyFlappy. It's a short read, hence me already being 80% through, I'll more than likely finish it tonight.
It is unsettling and poignant, with familiar stories such as the wedding feast at which Jesus turns water into wine and Lazarus' resurrection being given a new slant when seen through Mary's raw grief and indifference to her sons claims and his followers, but not disrespectfully so if that makes sense.

I've never read any Colm Toibin before, I'm certainly going to add some more of his novels to my never ending TBR list (any recommendations as to what to choose are very welcome!).

It's funny though, I love a good Dickens TV dramatisation.

17. The Singles Game by Lauren Weisberger

I started this on Sunday, when I was hungover so just needed an easy read. This is chicklit about a female tennis player. It's all very predictable, but I enjoyed it because I like tennis. However, if tennis bores you senseless then don't read this, because there is quite a lot in there about life on the tennis circuit!

Is The Testament of Mary good, Murine? I really liked the look of it.

Just finished Anna Karenina - sometimes you forget what good writing is, but this is a wonderful reminder. I'm starting The Bone Clocks tomorrow - having a night off after AK all day today. Just under 800 pages of tiny font - my eyeballs are aching and ready to pop any minute. I wasn't going to read so much at once but I got so engrossed.

Also Great Expectations (on audio). Not a great lover of Dickens (though obviously grateful for The Muppets Christmas Carol, as Muddler (I think it was) pointed out, but I was clearing a cupboard and found a collection of unabridged classics on CD (thank you Penguin), so decided t listen to them while I cleaned the oven etc. Six days of purgatory and the first is done.

One good thing - when I watched "Dickensian" a year ago I really enjoyed it but didn't recognise the name "Compeyson" as the man who jilted Miss Haversham. But sure enough - there he was near the end of GE. I felt a warm, rosy glow.

20. Death On The Nile - Agatha Christie. Classic Poirot with the usual gathering of a group of suspects all with motives. Great fun - I think I prefer Poirot to Marple, it's all a bit more ridiculous.

remus Not at all! I get so many great recommendations from here and have none to fling in the opposite direction

Desdemona - Remus got us all to read (and love) Into Thin Air

Crossed posts, Satsuki. Sorry - am a pain.

Desdemona - I certainly have! Cote - thanks for making that clear.

The Beck Weathers book is proving a huge letdown at the moment. It began well enough, with the events on the mountain, which are pretty well known anyway, to anybody who's read much about Everest. Unfortunately it then turns into a horribly boring middle section along the lines of 'I was born in 1975 to a man named Fred and a woman called Wilma, in Flinstone, Arizona and I had seventeen brothers and we all lived happily in a camper van with idyllic summer holidays on the beach and then I went to college and I was a bit of a genius and I did some weight lifting too.'

It's just awful. And to make it worse it keeps cutting into sections from his wife, brother, friend etc saying 'Beck was always clever but socially awkward' or whatever, 'And then he went sailing and bought a new radio'. I assume it's SUPPOSED to make us understand where his love for climbing came from, or why he became so driven or whatever or whatever, but it's badly written and dull, and often quite arrogant tosserish as well...No scrap that. It's arrogant tosserish tempered with 'Actual I was really vulnerable and unhappy and lacking in self esteem' tosserish.
Hopefully this will stop soon and we'll hear about his return to 'life' and the long haul of his recovery (and the recovery of his marriage which, quite frankly, I'm far less interested in). Unless it picks up substantially, I won't be recommending it!

desdemona It is very difficult to recommend anything that remus hasn't got to yet, but we all keep trying I've got Into Thin Air to read hopefully soon, looking forward to it

It's a great book Desdemona.

Ha ha, my first time on a thread Cote! And there's me trying not to give away spoilers