50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Four

It's great fun isn't it. I love Bundle.

I'm half way through The Seven Dials Mystery and it's joyous so far - a complete romp. Has really made me laugh.

It sounds a riot ^Remus* .

Just given up halfway through Patrick Gale - The Facts of Life because I just cba to read any further. Middle class couple get given house, car and lucrative jobs post wW2 and still manage to extract as much doom and gloom from the situation as possible. Nothing remotely cheerful had happened by half time then there was some completely gratuitous and depressing sex which was the signal to me that it want going to get any better.

On to The Seven Dials Mystery which appears to be Agatha Christie does Bertie Wooster. What larks! Jolly good fun and no Poirot or Marple in sight.

Paul Theroux definitely belongs in the arrogant tosser club.

Speaking of tossers:

Book 30
Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire - Eric Berkowitz
Does exactly what it says on the tin. An always fascinating, at times hilarious and sometimes terrifying and shocking account of ways in which different countries and times have judged sex, deciding what constitutes ‘immoral’ sexual behaviour and then how it might be punished. Suffice to say, there were an awful lot of floggings and burnings, a fair few extremely harsh prison sentences and more than a few castrations. There was rum, sodomy and the lash, the odd wanking vicar (remember that stupid bloody alien book I reviewed last year with the wanking vicar, folks?) and masturbation galore. Also I feel I must report that I have never seen the word ‘gonads’ written so many times in such quick succession. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

I lurk here , for ideas about new books to read.

Coming out the closet to give a massive to Satsuki for making it possible for me to get rid of the ads on my Kindle.

Well worth £10.

Many, many thanks.

her weird expanding breasts (which "grow" and "smoothen" when she meets her lover - WTF?) and her mysterious foofoo

This is the best review I have ever read.

EVER!

A Little Life was edging towards my TBR list. I think I'll give it a miss until I'm in the mood for something really grim

PoeticLE I agree with everything you've said about A Little Life.

I read Paul Theroux's Riding the Iron Rooster while travelling in China for five weeks when I was a student - over 20 years ago now . I loved it - but it often works well to read the book when you're in the right country. I'm sure I've read one or two others of his and enjoyed them, but can't remember which ones so maybe not that memorable!

at that review.
Thanks biblio for that, especially because it made me realise it's Louis Theroux whose work I enjoy, not Paul

Loved the phrase "out-Naipauls both Naipauls"

If you really want to see Paul Theroux spleen, I recommend this hatchet job - "the final sub-Conradian wreckage of [the travel] genre".

at the Paul Theroux hate. I didn't realise he provoked anything more than a mild hmmmm. I enjoy his books but they don't set my world on fire. He's....what Dairy Milk is to chocolate

Thanks for that vivid review, Poetic. Not sure I fancy darkness being inserted into my soul at this point in time.

whippet, Paul Theroux does keep me turning the pages, even if I'm muttering under my breath about him. He's just so up himself while being all faux humble. I saw his book about the Deep South in the library, but his phonetic representation of speech annoyed me and I put it back. Might give it a go when I feel in need of a good vent.

14. A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

So, I did take the plunge and read A Little Life. To be frank, while I was reluctant, I was intrigued by the comments on this thread and I wanted to make my own mind up.

Well, I didn't like it. No, wait, it is actually a good book, and the writing is complex and yet accessible - I especially liked how she never really wrote out a description of the characters but let us build them in our heads as the story progressed. It was also interesting how the viewpoints in various chapters changed but the author didn't point out whose head we were in - we had to work it out by clues. Frankly though, I found that annoying sometimes. I had to read and re-read some chapters just to figure out who the blazes the narrator was.

HOWEVER, I did not like the experience of reading it. The life of the central character made me feel miserable. It was like a tiny little ball of darkness was inserted into my soul while reading this book. I felt like a voyeur and I hated myself for feeling like that and still continuing. I raced through the book because I wanted to be rid of it. The climax is supposed to be desperately sad, but instead I felt ecstatic that the book was over! I think my exact words were, "Thank fuck that's over".

biblio, I'm oddly fond of Paul Theroux, both his travel writing and his novels. I'm waiting for his travel book on the deep south of the USA to drop in price. I can't really articulate why I like him though! I think the Mosquito Coast is an excellent novel that says a lot about the state of American society/masculinity and I am due a re-read soon.

Massively on the go-slow at the moment. Have read:
29. My Week With Marilyn - Colin Clark
I really enjoyed this book which consists of the diary of Colin Clarke, third assistant director on the set of the film The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier, an account he wrote about one of the weeks filming that he spent with Marilyn Monroe and a letter to friend explaining why he didn't write about his week with Marilyn in his diary initially (afraid of the fall-out if it became known).
This was fascinating because not only does it give a real insight into the process of film studios, it's somehow rather enthralling to read about Monroe and Olivier from the point of view of someone who had to work for both of them. It's all too easy to see how Marilyn really never stood a chance - very sad.

30. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Screenplay) - J.K Rowling
I'm not really sure why I read this. I'm not even a Harry Potter fan but it was an ebook from the library so I borrowed it. I actually quite enjoyed reading a screenplay and forming my own interpretation of how it might all look. I will watch the film but I suspect it's CGI-tastic and not that good really... Apologies if I'm wrong though.

Speaking of arrogant tossers (admire segue), am currently reading Paul Theroux, The Last Train to Zona Verde

This is a travel writer I love to hate (I don't read his fiction). Every other visitor to Africa is a slack-jawed tourist or a self-satisfied do-gooder, while he alone is humble and intrepid and can See the Truth. He has a lousy time - Namibia sounds interesting but he absolutely hates Angola. His credit card is ripped off and I'm just coming up to the part where he jacks it in and goes home early, which is rather refreshing to read in a travel narrative.

Also read The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. It's a fairly blatant rip-off of The Girl on the Train (oh noes, can our heroine be an Unreliable Narrator?) and Agatha Christie (here is your cast of suspicious characters. Spot my sleight of hand and work out whodunit!). But I was in the mood for something along these lines so it scratched the itch.

YY Cote, I'm with you. Very different to Being Mortal, where the author was always considering how we as individuals and as a society could usefully make changes either in our attitudes or actions.

I didn't think Do No Harm's author was an arrogant tosser. It thought he was a pointless navel gazer. "Ooh look at me. I'm touching someone's thoughts..." etc etc

30 LIon by Saroo Brierley
Reviewed upthread by fatowl. Saroo Brierley was born in India, and then adopted by an Australian couple - this is the story of his early life, how he came to be adopted, and his search for his birth family. A really good read - I bought it having watched the film, as I was interested to see how closely it had kept to the original story, and would definitely recommend both.

35. Sovereign Still loving the Shardlake series and absolutely wallowing in them. Although I have to say I did guess the villain of the piece in this one. On to the next. Keep thinking maybe I should savour them and read something else in between but I just too greedy!

13 Marry in Haste by Jane Aiken Hodge
14 Appletree Yard
15 His Bloody Project
16 Rock Courtship by Nalini Singh
17 Rock Hard by Nalini Singh
18 Woman in Black by Susan Hill
19 4-50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie

Just back from holiday,enjoyed all of these but in particular His Bloody Project and the Agatha Christie

Can't remember offhand who said that they found the Do No Harm writer a bit of an arrogant tosser, but I agree.

LadyDepp I'm currently reading Imperium by Robert Harris. Anyone read it?

I did over new year and did all 3 in a row. I enjoyed them, but found the second a bit of a chore compared to the other two, so if you are not that bothered with Imperium then I wouldn't continue the series.

I have abandoned yet more books and have now started Isabel Allende's The Japanese Lover. Deliberately chosen as an easy read. It's the first of hers I've read in English translation, I've always read her in Spanish before, so it will be interesting to see if her style comes over the same. I'm still mad busy at work and dealing with the house move so physically and emotionally exhausted.

I was enjoying The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan, but some perfectly reasonable really annoying person requested it at the library, so I had to take it back before I was done. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour started to get a bit too god-dy for my liking, so I let it go.

Laughing along at some of the reviews here and keeping up with the thread. I will admit to having read all of the Dan Brown books and feel if you haven't read the non- Robert Langdon ones then you are missing a treat. It is possible for his work to get worse than The Da Vinci Code, but it has to be seen to be believed. Who publishes this turgid tripe and where do I get my contract?

18. Do No Harm - Henry Marsh
Thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and learning about a speciality I knew not very much about. Yes at times as previously mentioned he sounds very aware of his own importance but he also seems to realise that this is due to the way that patients etc view him as a "godlike" figure who can perform miracles. Also enjoyed his insight into how illness and disease can strike anyone, even doctors.

19. Silent Child - Sarah A Denzil

This was a 99p kindle buy and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Emma's son went missing from school ten years previously. His jacket was found in the river and, although a body was never found, it was presumed he has drowned. Ten years on she has built a new life with a new job, new husband and a baby on the way.. until her son appears wandering out of the woods and silent.

I had a few ideas at roughly what was going to be involved but I enjoyed the read and following the twists and turns.

The Game Theorist's Guide to Parenting Another book I now want to read based entirely on the title.

I do not luff you lot. My to-read shelf was overloaded enough before I joined this thread!