50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Four

Mind if I join you? Always nice to chat with other readers, see what everyone is reading and get some recommendations.

So far in 2017 I've read the following:

1. The Year of Living Danishly - Helen Russell
2. The Spring of Kasper Meier - Ben Fergusson
3. The Supremes at Earl's All You Can Eat - Edward Kelsey Moore
4. Dark Corners - Ruth Rendell Book Group Read
5. Solitude Creek - Jeffrey Deaver
6. The Promise - Robert Crais
7. I'm Travelling Alone - Samuel Bjork
8. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
9. Butchers Hill - Laura Lippman

I'm currently reading My Name is Lucy Barton, which I thought I would enjoy a lot more than I am, as so many people have recommended it to me. It's only short though, so I don't feel too robbed of my reading time

My next start will be Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi for book group. Has anyone read this? Any good?

39. The Keeper of Lost Things read it in a day. Really struggling to see how this got so many 5 stars reviews on Goodreads. Found it full of cliches and never grabbed me. Predictable and boring. Can't bring myself to deliver a proper review. Hate telling people not to read a book but Passme I wouldn't bother. Only up side was it took hardly anytime to read.

Oh good!! Are you in the enviable position of having lots of unread Heyers left to you?!

Thoroughly enjoying The Grand Sophy so far!

cheerful I've had very little reading time too, and also having spectacle problems which is driving me crazy. I've had a disappointing patch and want to read something good.

It's ok chessie not everyone who liked it is deranged It's a quiet, thoughtful, look at being a fish out of water and how people are affected by places. It is also quite short and you read so quickly you will not even notice it

Glad you got the Kindle charging cable sorted.

Happy Easter, everyone. I'm very jealous of all of you who get extra reading time at Easter. We're away with the one-year-old, and holidays ain't what they used to be. Really only get to read when he's asleep
...

Oh dear, I have Brooklyn on my tbr list...

My dp loved Brooklyn but I thought it was really boring and didn't finish it. He liked The Loney too, so is clearly deranged.

That sounds really good Tarahumara. I have added to my kindle wish list.

fortuna The Bell Jar is one of my favourite books, I reread it last year after a long gap and it still stands up so well. So witty and unsentimental despite its dark subject, just love it.

20. Kickback - Damien Boyd

Same as! It just occurred to me that having been set thus far in the climbing scene, medics and golf courses and now horse racing, these books sit firmly in the 'middle class crime' genre. I had a peak at the next one which is set in a boarding school.

I will likely fire on and read the rest of these - back to work on Monday sadly so will likely slow to a crawl reading wise. I need easy readers and these are it.

Love The Bell Jar, Fortuna. Glad you solved your kindle nightmare, Stitches!

20. All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews. Set in Canada, this is written from the perspective of Yolandi, a middle aged woman whose older sister Elfrieda, a concert pianist, is in hospital following a suicide attempt. This is a very moving portrayal of the relationship between the two sisters and their other family members. I absolutely loved it - a highlight of the year so far.

Happy Easter, 50 bookers! wish me luck in not killing my mother in law

Thanks to alteredimages for pointing out that the kindle charging port is a standard micro USB one. I managed to find a compatible charging cable when we stopped at a motorway service station.

Panic over!

I've only gone and read another one! I'm back on a roll.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - A young woman in 50s Americas trying to find and understand her place in the world and a changing society. Plots her descent into depression and her struggle to recovery.

I read this without having a clue what it was about, other than it being cited as an important feminist work. Before you ask, I have spent a long time living under a rock. I loved it and devoured it overnight. I could really identify my angsty teenage self with the content. I wish I'd read it back in my college/uni days, but back then I was studying languages and bogged down with weighty foreign tomes and had little time for work in English. I feel robbed and cheated that I'd missed out on it then. It's a real coming of age book.

I quite liked Brooklyn by the end.

Ladydepp I think that's fine

Hmm. 41% is a long time robbery underwhelmed

I found Brooklyn too boring to even write a review about but I know others have loved it.

Brooklyn is one of the kindle daily deals today. I know people on this thread have enjoyed and recommended it. It doesn't look like my kind of thing so I will resist on this occasion. Speaking of not my kind of thing, just abandoned this one:

DNF. The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin Pompous dull sci-fi, with the much used premise of being set on a world that feels a bit medieval and fuedal. It is somewhat prone to earthquakes, and some folks, who aren't very popular, can control them with their minds. Big chunks annoyingly narrated in second tense - no, I will not imagine I am a humourless miserable middle aged woman, afraid that's too much of a stretch for me . Just before page 100, someone started telling a folk tale (shudder) and that's when I decided to abandon, before the lutes came out.

Will do Passme. Started last night, according to my Kindle I am 41% off the way through. Underwhelmed at the moment!

These Old Shades was the first Heyer I ever read- I was about 12! Devil's Cub never matched up to it.

Actually, I think my love for Heyer might be why Shardlake didn't quite come alive for me- the language just felt too modern.

Stitches, I hope you found a charger! Mind you I have just mumsnetted for over an hour- could've read loads instead!

24. The Wild Ways (Book 2 in the Enchantment Emporium series) by Tanya Huff.

Urban fantasy series following a family of witches in their adventures. A bit incestuous: cousins marrying cousins and what seems to be polygamous relationships but still the story barrels along and doesn't take itself too seriously.

25. The Magician by Raymond E Feist.

Audiobook of this classic fantasy book. All 31 CDs of it! Very much in the mould of handsome kings and beautiful princesses, goblins, elves and dwarfs where the goodies are good and the baddies are bad (for the most part). Somewhat old-fashioned but fairly entertaining for the commute and the narration was good.

I have also enjoyed the first two books of the Simon Serailler series. I loved someone's earlier description of middle-class crime- so true! 🤣

Oh no, Stitches, disaster! I hope you have enough charge to last the holiday or that your PIL have one you can borrow.. 🤞🏻

I bought Keeper of Lost Things on a whim off Amazon rmc. I will be interested to hear what you think of it