50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Four

15. The Three by Sarah Lotz

Four passenger planes crash at around the same time at different points of the globe. There are three survivors - all children - although a fourth adult lives long enough after one crash to record a message on her phone that changes the world. Told in a series of interviews and articles purported to be part of a book written on the tragedies. As the book progresses it becomes clear that these children are changed, which has an impact on the people around them. Quite a creepy book and you never really know what actually happened.

16. The Cold Calling by Phil Rickman

A re-read. Grayle Underhill, known as 'Holy Grayle' for her column on the paranormal and new age in a New York newspaper, comes to England in search of her more academic archaeologist sister who has disappeared after taking part in experiments with the newly formed University of the Earth. Ageing Celtic shaman and ventriloquist Sydney Mars Lewis (known as Cindy) is in search of a serial killer the police don't believe exists, a man who kills at sacred sites such as stone circles and ancient churches. Marcus Bacton, owner of Castle Farm and a believer in the healing power of High Knoll, a neolithic chamber near his home, is concerned with the poor health of his elderly housekeeper who has a healing gift, and DI Bobby Maiden returns after temporarily dying in a hit and run with memories of a cold, harsh place he never wants to return to. Inevitably, all four stories converge, and it's a really good story.

Just checking in to keep up.

Sadly no reading for me. I'm getting my elderly mother's new bungalow ready for her to move into, so I'm straight round after work for a few hours and have been hard at it all weekend. I've laid 2 wooden floors and painted 2 rooms. I've been going wild with a jigsaw and power sander so I can't even listen to audiobooks. I've been listening to a local radio station that I swear only as 20 records that they play on repeat. I get in and get through half a page of a book before zonking out.

I think I need something easy to read so I don't have to think to follow it. Can I count Enid Blyton?

I would also recommend Breakfast at Tiffany's Stokey.

Is the rest of Nutshell by Ian McEwan as bad as the first chapter? I should know better really. The last one of his I read still makes me cross.

In Cold Blood very good. Not read Breakfast at Tiffany's - it doesn't seem to be on Kindle and funnily enough I looked for it in the library yesterday. They didn't have it.

33. Fragile Lives - Stephen Westaby The eminent heart surgeon looks back over some of his most remarkable cases. It's very similar to Henry Marsh's book about brain surgery, Do No Harm so I'd recommend it to those who enjoyed that.

It's a bit of a harrowing read, certainly an emotional roller coaster. I was moved to tears a number of times.

In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's both excellent.

Chessie I haven't read Still Alice but I thought the film was very good - although, as you say, not exactly cheery.

If you've read In Cold Blood then Breakfast at Tiffanys and Other Voices, Other Rooms for Capote, Stokey.

I've finished 16. To Kill A Mocking Bird. I'm sure everyone has read this at some stage or other but it does stand the test of time. The voice of Scout is so strong and it's still very moving.

Started Go Set A Watchman last night and am already finding it dragging a bit. The whole story of the publication sounds a bit odd, I wonder whether she actually did want to publish it.

On the other hand, it's made me want to read some Truman Capote. I think I read In Cold Blood years ago but can anyone recommend anything else? Remus area you a fan or is that my imagination?

31. Still Alice by Lisa Genova

I can't say I enjoyed this, because the subject matter doesn't make easy reading (for me) but it is a book that I will think about for a long time. It's told from the point of view of Alice who has early-onset Alzheimer's disease. I thought it did a good job of portraying the confusion that a sufferer would feel. However it was a scary book to read - my grandmother suffered from Alzheimer's so there's a reasonable chance my mum could get it too (and me of course) and it brought home to me what the future could be like for us.

Now reading Patrick Gale 'A Place Called Winter' - only a few chapters in but liking it so far!

magnificent Leaning Tower of Unread Books

Satsuki, I've read Sisterland and I don't remember a huge amount about it except that (a) there was a suspense-y bit which genuinely made me feel tense, so I consider that to have been well handled, and (b) I didn't like it half as much as The American Wife.

16. Cold Light, Jenn Ashworth

Not as good as I'd hoped. Mean-girls-meets-psychological-thriller-in-flashback. Lola is in her 20s, living a strange empty life, and remembering her friend Chloe who died as a teenager. The local press are making a huge thing of the anniversary of Chloe's death.... but Lola knows there was more to it..... dum dum dum....

Nice depiction of teenage life in a 90s northern town but I thought the plot was a bit flabby. I like Jenn Ashworth and thought it was a shame this wasn't better done, as many of the ideas and descriptions were good.

10. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Alcoholic Rachel takes the same train every day, which stops at the same signal every day, letting her look into the back gardens of the street she used to live in. One morning, she sees something that shatters the fantasy she's been building up around a couple living a few doors down from her old house. A few days later, drunk and angry, she goes out intending to go back to her old road, and wakes in the morning, unable to remember anything thanks to the alcohol, but with a feeling that something bad happened. And then she learns that the woman she'd been watching from the train has gone missing....

The rest of the book follows Rachel struggling to recall what happened that night (the alcoholic blackouts mean she's a very unreliable narrator), and getting obsessive about the missing woman (Megan), intercut with flashbacks told from Megan's point of view, and also from Rachel's ex-husbands new wife, until all is revealed at the end of the book.

It was a diverting page turner and a quick read. Although not an exceptional one.

Just finished 12 The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney. Really enjoyed the first 2/3 but not the final 1/3 as much, though that was probably more because I can't help always hoping for a happy ending for everyone no matter how unlikely! Overall funny and sad at the same time.

spinning no worries, I'm quite interested in rush-oh too

Satsuki - I'm afraid I have started Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett instead of Sisterland, as I have had it on loan from library for weeks and weeks. So far it's very engaging, set in New South Wales in early 1900s, the narrator is the daughter of a whaling captain. I'm about 100 pages in. I read The North Water earlier this year and although the subject matter, on the surface at least, very similar to Rush Oh!, the tone is completely different. Sisterland will have to wait just a bit longer.

Hi rosehip

If you find anything like that, let me know meg

DrDiva, me too and with magazines. 😲🤷‍♀️ Its not the smell though, it's the crisp clean pages..

I don't think Kindles would have bothered me as my parents had terrible books lying around, either trashy Wilbur Smith or long dry tomes of history. The library saved me. And we still have libraries, my local one is excellent. 😄

17. Before the Fall - Juliet West. Based on a true story of a forbidden love affair in 1917 London. Tragic consequences. Quite nicely written and very readable. Not one to keep though - will be recycled back to the charity shop.

18. The Vacationers by Emma Straub. Very easy read about a family holiday in Mallorca following infidelity. Not particularly memorable but definitely readable. Again, not one to keep.

Better go and read a bit more of Sapiens now.

Having long been a reader, and not a poster, I wanted to finally join in having read a recommendation on here for the Adrian McKinty series, which I am enjoying immensely. Huge thank you to however reviewed them - best read of my year!

William Golding?

Thanks for the recommendation, BestIsWest, I've just reserved Night Waking at the library. When I was taking out The Tidal Zone the librarian also recommended it to me actually, I'd completely forgotten!

I really want to read some good fiction.

I mean George Orwell good, Raymond Chandler good, John Steinbeck good, Joseph Heller good.

Maybe there are some classic authors I've missed?

Night Waking is good Murine. She writes very well about small children. This also has chapters on an historical event but it is blended far more successfully with the story.

Me too Murine, but if they did, it escaped me.

I was thought that myself about the cathedral parts of The Tidal Zone, BestIsWest! I wondered if perhaps they were supposed to represent something that's gone over my head (maybe the rebuilding of the family's life, I don't know?!)

I liked the Cathedral chapters better than the rest of the book Murine but I couldn't work out why they were in the book in the first place. Was I missing something?