50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Four

Remus If you like Noel Streatfeild, have you read A Vicarage Family? It's her autobiography of her childhood, and it's utterly fascinating. Less ... Well ... Fictional than her children's novels (which yes, do get a bit samey) but still very recognisably her. Well recommended.

Updating my list:

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

I enjoyed Hag-Seed, I've enjoyed all of the Hogarth Shakespeare so far. Shylock is My Name was probably my favourite though.

All the Noel Streatfeild elements are basically the same, even the adult one Saplings I read a couple of weeks ago. Did you ever read the Gemma series? Annoying show off child palmed off by rich actress parents in US on dowdy religious UK family and the plain unshowoffy British kids get transformed and help to transform the eponymous Gemma. But I loved them all.

Go Set a Watchman just isn't all that good, which I imagine is why the agent rejected it or whatever and told her to develop the childhood bits. My son bought it for me and even though I knew it was written first I had to keep reminding myself that the characters weren't Scout or Atticus from TKAMB but much weaker drafts who formed the basis for S and A.

I think if you're half way through I don't think you will ever fully enjoy winter but I suppose it's one you will have to finish. Nothing much changes about The character after half way, I don't think so anyway!

Cote - I wish you'd give him a go. Please try The Big Sleep and report back. If you hate it, I will try not to judge you (but might die a little inside).

Muggle - am at about the half way point with Winter. I do like some of it a lot, but am finding myself increasingly frustrated with Harry which is then frustrating me, because I want to like him.

Book 22
White Boots - Noel Streatfeild
Oh dear. Regular readers will know how fond I am of Ballet Shoes and I bought this in the hope that it would be a lovely ‘cake book’ whilst life is really busy. No such luck. Ballet Shoes was written in 1936, and this one published in 51, but it’s essentially the same book, except in a far inferior version. Poor but goodhearted family – check. Helped out by more affluent people. Check. Pompous little show off. Check. Petulant prima donna. Check. Brisk and brusque nanny with a heart of gold. Check. And yadda, yadda, yadda. I paid 79 whole pence of ready English money for this. Reader, I was robbed.

I should learn not to post from the train.

RMC, if you liked The Silkworm, you will like the others RG bookstoo. They're better.

I'm a bit nervous about reading Go Set A Watchman. I've heard so many poor reviews. My Dad liked it but we often disagree.

25.The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith Really enjoyed this. Easy to read, well written and a page turner. This was the second book in the series but really didn't matter that I hadn't read the first. Will certainly read more. Reminded me of Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series which I really enjoyed.
Book club tonight - discussing The Essex Serpent , will be interested to see what others thought.

I love To Kill a Mockingbird but haven't read Go Set a Watchman yet. DS1 asked for it for Christmas so I'm waiting for him to finish it so I can borrow it!

Gustav Sonata is brilliant EmGee

I have just finished Alison Weir's "A Dangerous Inheritance". It was awful. I could kick myself for persisting because it was so grim. It took me over a week - every time I decided that I'd had enough something historical happened that maf=de me think "Ooh. This could be interesting!" But it wasn't. I have a few historical biographies by Weir, and thought a novel would be good. It wasn't;t and never again.

Have now started "Saturday" by Ian McKewan. So much better.

Stokey definitely reread TKAMB before you read GSAW.

Good to see Rumer Godden on here. I remember reading and loving Kingfishers catch fire years ago. Recently read Black Narcissus and enjoyed it but wasn't so keen on Breakfast with the Nikolaides.

My list is as follows (in bold the ones I particularly enjoyed):

1. The distance between us - Maggie O'Farrell
2. Nora Webster - Colm Toibin
3. Balancing Act - Joanna Trollope
4. Natural flights of the human mind - Clare Morall
5. Everything I've never told you - Celeste Ng
6. Secret Slave - Anna Ruston
7. After you - JoJo Moyes
8. Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver
9. Apple Tree yard - Louise Doughty

Currently reading Before the Fall - Juliet West. Picked it up at a book fair for a euro so no pressure on it being a great read! On the TBR pile are the following: When Breath becomes Air - Paul Kalinithi, No more Harm - Henry Marsh, The Gustav Sonata - Rose Tremain, Half of a yellow sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The little friend - Hanya Yanagihara.

Also reading Lady Lollipop by Dick King Smith with the kids after finishing (and loving) the Sophie books :)

I TKAB at school age 13/14 I think, mid 90s.

Dh was given Go Set A Watchman by work so thought I should reread TKAM before reading that - he will never read it as only reads sci-fi.

I definitely did TKAM pre GCSE, maybe even at prep school so age 11 or 12. I wonder what age group it gets taught to these days.

Remus- I've finished and loved A Place Called Winter , it took me a while to get into though how far have you got? It's in one of my top books for the year already😀

30. Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins

A giant sand/salt dune has covered most of the southwest USA and those who didn't manage to escape in time are having to make do in their own colonies. Our heroes are Ray and Luz, who have to move on after an encounter with a strange child. I really didn't like this. The writing style is hard to understand with lots of small disjointed sentences and at times I found it really hard to follow what was going on. None of the characters were likeable and some events were described in unnecessarily (imo) crude detail. I wouldn't recommend (Cote especially one for you to avoid as it's a first novel by a female author!)

Wow! As per usual im struggling to keep up.

Carrying my list over:

1. C is for Corpse - Sue Grafton
2. D is for Deadbeat - Sue Grafton
3. The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country - Helen Russell
4. The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well - Meik Wiking
5. E is for Evidence - Sue Grafton
6. F is Fugitive - Sue Grafton
7. Code - Kathy Reichs

Still reading Lolita which i'm enjoying (not sure its the right word but am finding it engaging and mordbidly fascinating). Just reached part two.

Having gone back to work am finding time to read a lot harder - must try harder.

I agree TKAMB adult, though I'd call it crossover. Like Jane Eyre isn't YA despite having a teenage heroine.

Interesting about TKAMB. I think it is an adult novel, and the child's point of view doesn't make it children's literature, but it does definitely make it accessible to young adults. Rape/KKK/attempted murder/actual murder. Not for kids, I would say. It's one I would be loathe to reread as an adult though as I fear it wouldn't have the depth it seemed to have when I read it first time, and the faults would stand out more.

cote, download a sample and start with a different Chandler if the title doesn't appeal - don't be seen off by the word "lovely"

Bringing my list over for new thread - highlights in bold

1. It -Stephen King
2. Swing Time -Zadie Smith
3. Pandemonium – Daryl Gregory
4. The Mirror Crack’d from Side to side – Agatha Christie
5. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd -Agatha Christie
6. The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry
7. How to be Both – Ali Smith
8. The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson
9. The Word for World is Forest - Ursula Le Guin
10. The Merchant’s House – Kate Ellis
11. Commonwealth – Ann Patchett
12. The Year of our War - Steph Swainston
13. No Present like Time – Steph Swainston
14. Wishful Drinking – Carrie Fisher
15. Wolf Winter – Cecilia Ekback

I just finished Wolf Winter, which I'd recommend. It's set in Swedish Lapland in 1680 and follows three main threads - a mother Maija who has just moved there from Finland, her daughter Frederika who is a teenager and becoming a bit woo, and the new priest. It's incredibly descriptive and atmospheric, it made me feel very cold. And there is a also a murder mystery aspect as well as historical part.

I've now started To Kill A Mocking Bird which I haven't read since school, so at least 25 years ago. Does this count as children's fiction going back to the discussions of the last thread? If so it's quite sophisticated.

Great initiative, I think! I won't enumerate everything I am on to read, just will say I'll start from this list www.templatemonster.com/blog/100-must-read-books/ - motivating and inspiring literature :) Don't know whether I am able to read all these books, but I promise I will try.

11. The Dark Net by Jamie Bartlett

This book has been extensively reviewed on here, so I won't go into it except to say that I really enjoyed it.

Bringing my list over:

1. The North Water by Ian McGuire
2. The Snowden Files: Inside Story Of The World's Most Wanted Man by Luke Harding
3. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
4. The Cambridge Companion to Handel by Donald Burrows
5. Revelation by C. J. Sansom (Shardlake #4)
6. The Mask Of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
7. The Ladybird Book Of Mid-Life Crisis
8. The Schirmer Inheritance by Eric Ambler
9. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgkin Burnett

" Please help me to bully Cote into reading some Chandler!"

Haha that will be a "No" from me

Nothing good will come out of me reading and bitterly reviewing a book called Farewell, My Lovely, for example, whose blurb starts with the phrase "Eight years ago Moose Malloy and cute little redhead Velma were getting married..."