50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Four

Ashes of London - Andrew Taylor
I picked up this book as it was on offer at Waterstones and I like historical crime fiction. As whitewineandchocolate mentioned, it isn't really a patch on the Shardlake series. Having said that, it wasn't terrible either. What I loved about the book was the description of the older historical St Paul's that was destroyed in the fire. I also really enjoyed the glimpses of Christopher Wren and Hakesby's working life. This relates to my line of work though (I'm an architect). I am not really used to my profession being brought to life in books or other media, so it's always refreshing when I come across something like this! Cat's interest in draughting also brought home to me just how recently the profession has opened its doors to women

Thanks for the heads up slightly - I've just bought The Tidal Zone for £1.79.

Started Gallows View by Peter Robinson courtesy of a PGP related day off work.

Not quite sure if the stuff at the beginning about feminists and the detective's attraction to the academic brought in to assuage the demands of the local feminist body is irony. I hope it is irony.

Just popping in quickly - have been away for a week. Will check what number I'm up to, but have read:

The Cyclist Who Went Out in the Cold: Adventures Along the Iron Curtain Trail, by Tim Moore
An account of cycling from Finland down to Turkey. Okay - removed any lingering fantasy I had about doing the same thing. Bit weary of his would-be hilarious style. The technical details about the bike bored me, but I did like his sense of incredulity at the end at how he had gone from the deep Finnish snows to the Turkish sunshine.

Border by Kapka Kassabova. Bulgarian-born Scottish-resident poet returns to the border area between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. Meets people, including the refugees now crossing, ponders the scars left by the past. I liked this - she's serious about the damage of the past, but it's not an oppressive read. She has compassion for everyone, including the perpetrators. I liked her honesty about when she got it wrong - suddenly panicking about the intentions of her travelling companion and taking off; inviting a Kurdish refugee for lunch only to be horrified to find that he had paid even though he didn't eat anything. Lingers in the mind.

Yes mine isn't recording books I log either. I'm inclined to give it up as I write my list in a notebook anyway.

Can't offer much in the way of reassurance RMC. My GoodRead account seems to do the opposite and doesn't record books I have read. Despite me logging every book I have read on it it has only recorded two in my reading goal. I am not sure how useful I find it actually.

Just noticed that today's Kindle deals include T2 Trainspotting and Sarah Moss's The Tidal Zone - I think both have been reviewed this year on the 50 book threads.

No idea what number I'm up to atm:

Hidden Figures Bought the book but haven't yet seen the film. The book itself is a little uneven from time to time, but fascinating reading. It looks as if the author found it extremely difficult to cut people's stories from the book - understandable, but it means that occasionally someone is introduced during a chapter, given a life history so far, and then vanishes until the end of the book. The book mostly follows the story of three of NASA's female African American mathematicians. It starts during the Second World War, where the need for more engineers and mathematicians led to opportunities for many African American maths graduates, and follows through the founding of NASA through the Space Race. This was a piece of history I had no idea about - I wish I'd heard about some of these women when I was a little girl. It's told mostly chronologically and sketches out the political background at the time to set things in context.

12. Hillbilly Elegy JD Vance
Much reviewed on this thread already. Not a book I would have chosen - I read it for a discussion group. Not that impressed. Several rather facile observations that I would have liked unpicking a bit more. I liked his gun-toting grandmother, and I was interested in some of his less intuitive criticisms of the white working class. But if you're interested in poverty in America, it's not a patch on The Corner (though very different demographic).

No reading update but just want some reassurance I am not alone in this! Was showing a friends the Goodreads App tonight and going through my 'Read' list I have discovered FOUR (!) books which I have now got on my to read pile! Two of them I have rated and reviewed!! But I have absolutely no recollection of reading them!!!?
Anyone else do this or am I doomed ?!

Afternoon all.

I was on the first two threads under a different name, and then totally lost my reading mojo. Am fairly certain it was me and not the books - was under lots of work stress and ended up shelving The Noise of Time (Julian Barnes) and Snuff (Terry Pratchett), both of which I'm sure I'll return to now that I've a little more headspace.

But the book that got me back was:
7. The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith. A financially struggling private detective is hired to investigate the death of a young, successful model. Her death was thought to be suicide, but her brother has suspicions that she was killed. Unsurprisingly, no great shakes on the style front, but as ever from Rowling, tightly plotted, and it raced along, which was just what I needed.

Going to stick with crime for book 8, which will be A Question of Identity by Susan Hill. Tonight I'm going to read this thread through properly for ideas for some future reads.

Welcome to the thread, Still

Finally, finally I have finished The Essex Serpent

1. The Muse - Jessie Burton

1. Gone Without a Trace - Mary Torjussen
2. Flesh Wounds - Christopher Brookmyre
3. Phantom: a Harry Hole Thriller - Jo Nesbo
4. Dead Simple (Roy Grace Series) - Peter James
5. All Good Deeds (A Lucy Kendall Thriller) - Stacy Green
6. The Turtle Boy - Kealan Patrick Burke

1. The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

14. The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry

Much reviewed already I won't go over old ground but I absolutely loved this. I took me an eternity to read it for some reason but I enjoyed every single page. I know some felt that nothing particularly happens but I have to disagree. I was absolutely gripped by all the different threads of the plot and I suspect that the characters will stay with me for some time.

Not sure where to go now with my reading. I bought a bulk lot of Damien Boyd on amazon, have a Peter Robinson and North Water as well as a couple of Denise Mina I bought in The Works for a quid.

Might go and have a look at the Easter sale on Amazon as well. Too much choice!

Welcome Still.
31. First of the Tudors - Joanna Hickson Enjoyable, not a challenging read. Is not going to win any literary prizes but scratched my Tudor itch.!
32. Do no harm - Henry Marsh. Tales of a brain surgeon. Very much warts and all account of the life of a consultant neurosurgeon. He comments on the short falls of the NHS and is honest about his own failures. Left me with the feeling he is probably feared and respected in equal measure.

Welcome!

River I liked it.

invisiblekitten I think just about everybody recommends the Shardlake books!

Welcome to the thread still

I thought I was pretty familiar with Bruce Willis's output but that's completely passed me by, didn't realise they remade it. I'm going to look out for it now.

Welcome Still

Ladies, can I join? I read through the whole thread a bitbits & piecesand thought it looks great. I have been trying to read more this year. I generally am a bookworm but somehow don't end up reading as much as I want.... hhhhmmm MN may play a part in this! but also general tiredness in the evenings.

Shall I post what I've read so far since january? 9 books so far.

1. Bee Wilson 'this is not a diet book'
2. Harry Potter & the chamber of secrets (with DC)
3. Jennifer Weiner 'all fall down'
4. Lauren Sandler 'one and only'
5. Rene and Goscinny the Nicholas Book (children's book)
6. Katja Rowell fussy eating book
7. Nicola Yoon 'everything everything' (YA book)
8. JD Robb 'echoes in death'
9. JD Vance 'Hillbilly elegy'

I've got a few books on the go, a lot more substantial than the above, so will get stuck into this thread if that's OK!

I have briefly watched The Jackal. It was very memorable for the painful, utter awfulness of Richard Gere's accent. I couldn't stick it.

However I would more than happily give the book a go! On a related, purely in my head, note; is The Eagle Has Landed any good?

Bruce Willis & Richard Gere's film is called The Jackal and it's about 20 years old! Here is a pic.

17. Dark Fire - C. J. Sansom - 2nd of the Shardlake books. Set at the stage where Henry VIII is ready to dump wifey 4 for Catherine Howard, Shardlake is asked by an old client to help his neice accused of murdering his nephew (not her brother, the son of a 3rd sibling). Meanwhile, Cromwell wants Shardlake to investigate a possible discovery of the ledgendary weapon of 'Greek Fire'. Much complexity follows. I enjoy this one, and can't remember who recommended the series, but thank you! Nice to read something that's talking about the normal people of the day.

Very happy to see that some of you are enjoying Day of the Jackal. And I'd never heard of the film with Bruce Willis either...

28 Romancing the Inventor by Gail Carriger. E-novelette set in the same world as Soulless reviewed above. Fluffy lesbian romance, enjoyable easy reading.

12. Private, Keep Out - Gwen Grant
Children's book - diary of a girl, the youngest of six, growing up in a pit town after the second world war.
Lucy Mangan described this book as so funny she used to collapse in hysterics reading it as a child. I ... didn't. I did find the structure interesting though. It reads as part series of comic incidents - like a Just William - part memoir, but not at all like a novel. So, for example, one chapter is a description of her having chicken pox. That's it. At another point she says "I don't have any friends". In most novels, that would be a gun over the fireplace that would lead to her making some friends in chapter twelve. But you know in this one that she won't. She's just a fierce, spiky kid who doesn't have friends.
Nice to read a working class story for a change, though. And loads of lovely autobiographical details from Grant who had a similar childhood.

I wasn't aware of the Bruce Willis version, first I've heard of it