50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Four

Then thank you Remus

I owe you a great debt of gratitude.

I returned a kindle book for a refund for the first time ever last night: The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel. Bought it and began reading, thought "hang on, this is dire",so returned it. It was only a 99p one as well.

Others I've read recently:

19. Golden Hill Francis Spufford already reviewed on here a few times I think, I greatly enjoyed this.
20. Them Jon Ronson Journalist Jon Ronson's account of his meetings with extremists in the early 2000's, including a KKK Grand Wizard, David Icke, Omar Bakri and the survivors of Ruby Ridge (must admit I had to google this because I didn't remember it). Very interesting, disturbing and wryly funny in places.
21. Raven Black Ann Cleeves The first in the Shetland series, a good page turner of a murder mystery conjuring the atmosphere of the Shetland Islands very well. I realised I'd watched the tv adaptation for this and could vaguely remember whodunnit but still liked it and read it in 2 days.
22. The Tidal Zone Sarah Moss Adam, a stay at home parent working on a history of Coventry cathedral, gets a phone call from school informing him that his 15 year old daughter has suffered cardiac arrest. A very good read, which depicts Adam's fear, isolation, and the hospital atmosphere well, as well as gender bias and heritage. Only thing I disliked were the chapters describing the cathedral, I didn't feel they added much, though I learnt a lot. I've never read any Sarah Moss before but will definitely be seeking more of her work out.

spinningheart I read and enjoyed a couple of Curtis Sittenfeld novels so would be interested in a review of Sisterland.

Book 24
The Painted Dragon by Katherine Woodfine
The 3rd in the series of children’s detective novels set in a Selfridges-esque department store in Edwardian London. This was okay. I’d have loved it as a child but some of the dialogue was a bit unrealistic and it was v similar to the other two. All pretty formulaic, although the characters are fun and a couple of bits made me smile.

Happy I think I might have been one of the original Bitch in a Bonnet pushers. All the recent talk of it on here is making me think I might re-read it, as I'm struggling to find anything I fancy at the moment.

My update.
Audio - Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights (yes - I'm back into the spoken classics again). I have also just finished Saturday by Ian McKeown which I really enjoyed - much better than The Children Act. (Printed book no 30 - I wish I hadn't wasted so much time on that Alison Weir sh!te)

This brings me to 11 audio (I abandoned "Number 9 Dream" - I found too complex to listen to, but I'll try to get a "proper" copy, because I love David Mitchell).

Currently have begun 2 books - 12 Years a Slave, and Bitch in a Bonnet. Enjoying both of them - especially the second. I think I needed something light and engaging after that bloody awful Alison Weir.

I can't remember who first recommended Bitch in a Bonnet, but to you, and all of the others who confirmed your recommendation, I bob a grateful curtsey. It is just what I needed.

I remember once my sister reading something from my pile, and being hmm when I got upset because I hadn't read it yet. Please tell me I am not the only one!
You are NOT the only one Diva!

There is nothing quite like a virgin book . . . that fresh scent, those pristine pages, that uncreased spine . . .

I MUST be the first to read my new books. And I hate people borrowing out of my pile without asking, even though they are family, and we live in the same house, and I will always say "yes" (looking at you Mr Flappy). I just hate to come across one of my books in an unexpected place when I think it's safe with all its fellows in the magnificent Leaning Tower of Unread Books at my side of the bed.

1. The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
2. Our Endless Numbered Days by Clare Fuller
3. Ready Player One by Ernest Kline
4. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
5. Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
6. Still Life by Louise Penny
7. A Country Road, a Tree by Jo Baker
8. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
9. Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

20. All We Shall Know by Donal Ryan. I read this in less than a day - 2 bus journey's worth - and enjoyed it. I like Donal Ryan's writing, (hence my MN name) and his characters. In this story the relationship between Melody, the main character, and her elderly father was particularly poignant and was my favourite aspect of the book. If you enjoyed Spinning Heart, I recommend this. I also read his A Week in December but I preferred his others.

I'm still listening to This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell.

Next ... I have so many out from the library at the moment and I feel like I'm reading against a deadline because I have renewed them so many times. I'll have to decide between Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, The Maid's Version by Daniel Woodrell (he wrote Winter's Bone), Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld and The Bricks That Built the Houses by Kate Tempest. Tough decision.

southeastdweller I have to say I've been a bit bemused by the raving about The Establishment. I read it and was very much 'so what in here is meant to be news to anyone' (but I am possibly old and cynical). And I quite liked Chavs in a polemical journalistic rant sort of a way.

14. Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher. I picked this up for 99p after it was reviewed on here, and I'm glad I did as it's well worth a read. As others have said, she manages to write in an entertaining manner about some very traumatic events.

I remember finding The Joy of Sex on my parents' bookshelf

Cheerful

Yes best - I was saying to dh the other day that it's good for the kids to have books on display they can get intrigued by and pick up. They are only little but already get books down and look at the covers. I read a load of classic sci fi, western novels and Danielle Steel (!) that I wouldn't have come across otherwise if my parents hadn't had them on a shelf.

Phoenix - Thanks for that. I hadn't realised that A Place Called Winter was inspired by a real person.

It was more about books being less readily available because everyone else had Kindles IYSWIM. I probably wouldn't have got my mitts on Lady Chatterley's Lover at 14 had DM had a Kindle in 1977.

Oh yeah. Insist your partner packs enough books, or it could be dangerous to reading matter.

I once went on a three-week walking holiday - including long train journeys there and back - with seven friends and was a bit to discover I was one of only two of us who'd packed a book. Even DH - who usually takes more books than me - was too worried about how heavy his rucksack would be halfway up a mountain.
Anyway, on the train home, he got so bored with nothing to read that he insisted on me chopping up my book so he could read the bit I'd already read. (It wasn't really a holiday with much reading time as it turned out, as we'd arrive in the next mountain hut and fall asleep. And we were in France, so he couldn't buy a book at the station.) Anyway, since he's a much faster reader than me, my book ended up in several pieces by the time we got home ...
Not really sure what the point of that story was now I've got to the end ...

1. Amsterdam - Ian McEwan
2. The Noise of Time - Julian Barnes

1. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
2. Saturday - Ian McEwan
3. The Vegetarian - Han Kang
4. The Passion - Jeanette Winterson
5. There but for the - Ali Smith
6. The Sellout - Paul Beatty

Now reading The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood which I love already after 30 pages.

It's been a long time since a read a Rebus book, but it has stuck in mind that people 'inhaled noisily' with great frequency.

You are making me think back to pre-kindle holidays. DH prides himself on packing light, which always meant he didn't have enough books, so by about day 5 he'd be eyeing up my books before they were even out of my hands. I remember towards the end of one holiday he declared he didn't want to come down to the pool because the only reading matter left available to him was my copy of Women's Running magazine, which he didn't want to read in public, so sat and stoically read on the balcony. Kindle has solved all that.

fascicle yes I notice things like that too. In one of the Shardlakes the word 'stink' came up so often it felt like every other word and though I enjoyed it as a whole it was so irritating. It didn't happen as much in book 4, so he had obviously located the Febreze. The other thing that winds me up is the use of dead metaphors - like a bottle of beer said to be "sweating" - it has lost all its freshness so why put it in?

best I'm sure we would have enjoyed it and nodded along. I'm glad I didn't have a Kindle then, too, but then I have a real appreciation of books as a physical presence I'm one of those page-sniffers cote was talking about

25 Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande
Much reviewed on here, I can only add that I found this really excellent; thoughtful and well written. It feels very relevant to me as I'm in my late 40s with elderly parents, my DM recently decided to refuse chemo for cancer (fingers crossed she is still well atm) and my DF has had two eye operations both risking pretty much total sight loss, so we've been having a lot of the sort of conversations that Dr Gawande describes. (Much more with my DM than my DF - perhaps culturally it's easier for women - or perhaps it's just because of family history.)

I wrote a long, very emotional post about being glad Kindles didn't exist when I was a teenager or I suspect my reading would have been a lot more limited but then thought better of it. Count yourselves lucky.

No 32. Dark Fire - C.J.Sansom - Shardlake 2. Excellent. Full of period detail and better that the first Shardlake.

DM has been nagging me to read these for years. Not sure why I was so resistant really.

the thing about lending books reminded me - if I buy a new book, I want to be the first to read it while it is pristine. I remember once my sister reading something from my pile, and being when I got upset because I hadn't read it yet. Please tell me I am not the only one!