50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Four

10. An Episode of Sparrows Rumer Godden
A neglected little girl makes a garden on a London bombsite. An odd mixture of sentiment and hard reality, rather lovely. Would appeal to all the fans ofThe Secret Garden on here, I think.

In the Land Of White Death - no, not read it but now bought it Remus.

I was unwowed by the flood book last year Remus, so much so I almost didn't bother with The Essex Serpent, which was a far better book.

I'll bring my list over tomorrow but place-marking.

Part 2 not as good, Best, but still worth a read if you can get it cheap. It's pretty much more of the same.

30. Bitch In A Bonnet - Robert Rodi - much reviewed already. Loved it, but did get a bit fatigued towards the end, probably because by then we were on Mansfield Park which is no-one's favourite (apart from the bit set in Portsmouth which is one of the best bits in the whole of JA's writing imho). Will probably read part 2 at some point.

31 Peril at End House - Agatha Christie ok Poirot but I guessed who dunnit fairly early on.

Thought I had read A Place Called Winter because it all sounds very familiar but I must be confusing it with something else as 2015 seems too recent for me to have read it.

Anyone else having problems with the site over the last few days?

Thanks for the new thread. My current reads are not near completion, so just place marking and adding to The Greengage Summer love.

I'm rather behind this year and have only just finished:

14. Pompeii by Mary Beard

This is an exploration of what the excavations at Pompeii tell us not only about the town itself but about the reality of life in the Roman empire in the first century. She divides elements up by subject, so there's a chapter on what the roads and the murals tell us about street life, another on housing, a chapter specifically on painting and decorating, as well as looking at the baths, the games, and the temples. Very interesting read.

Has anybody read A Place Called Winter, yet? Every time I think I'm really liking it, he does something that puts me off again. I'll finish it but it's not constantly calling out to me to gobble it all up.

What a great thread!

My 2017 list so far:

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

My favourite so far was The Handmaid's Tale, followed by Do No Harm and The Days of Abandonment.

Didn't enjoy T2 Trainspotting, which disappointed me as I was a huge fan on Irvine Welsh 20 years ago. Maybe I'm too old now...

Currently reading Hag Seed by Margaret Atwood.

Just checked. Read it last year and liked it, so it was probably me who recommended it. Think others might have read it too - Best, maybe?

Glitter - Please help me to bully Cote into reading some Chandler!

I thought I'd read In the Land of White Death but if I have, it wasn't on Kindle, so have bought it.

Looking forward to hearing what you think of A Boy Made of Blocks, Vistaverde - it's on my possibles list

Checking in, my list so far:

1. The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell
2. Exposure by Helen Dunmore
3. Leap Year by Helen Russell
4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
5. A Place Called WInter by Patrick Gale
6. The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain
7. Three In A Bed by Jessica Benfield
8. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (audible narrator was FANTASTIC)

And now I'm reading two at once, Restoration by Rose Tremain and Days Without End by Sebastian Barry. No audio books on the go, and wondering what to listen to next although I have downloaded The Help which looks promising (I've seen the film but not read the book).

Thank you:

My list to date:-

1. The Kingsmakers Daughter - Phillipa Gregory

1. How to Be Both - Ali Smith
2. The Observations - Joanne Harris
3. The White Princess - Phillipa Gregory
4. The Heart Goes Last - Margaret Atwood
5. Frazzled - Ruby Wax

9. The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair - 30 years after disappearing the body of Nola Kellergan is discovered in the garden of famous author Harry Quebert. Macus Goldman, his former student and also a successful writer sets on a quest to prove his innocence and with a major publishing deadline approaching cure his own writers block. Considering the awards this book has won I was very disappointed. I thought it was over long and as it was originally written in French I wonder if it lost something in translation.

10. Our Endless Numbered Days - Claire Fuller - When Peggy Hillcoat is 8 her father takes her away from her home in London to a remote hut in a European Forest. Once there she is told that the world has disappeared and they are the last two survivors. I really enjoyed this book and especially the subtle story telling.

Now read A Boy Made of Blocks - Keith Stuart

My list so far:

1. Only Daughter by Anna Snoekstra
2. Viral by Helen Fitzgerald
3. The Last One by Alexandra Oliva
4. The Atlantis Gene by A.G. Riddle
5. Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land
6. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
7. ADHD Nation by Alan Schwarz
8. The World's Worst Children by David Walliams

9. Starborn by Lucy Hounsom

Fantasy novel.
When Kyndra comes of age, she accidentally disrupts her village's naming ceremony by breaking an ancient relic that shows youngsters their destinies. When an unnatural storm follows, Kyndra is saved from a near-lynching by 2 mysterious strangers who are able to wield magic powers fuelled by the sun and moon.
Kyndra is then taken to a secret stronghold of secret magic users by her rescuers, who suspect Kyndra has magical potential.
Of course, things don't go smoothly, and there's all manner of exciting goings on before Kyndra can realise her destiny.

I enjoyed reading this.
It's the first in a trilogy, but the author has wrapped up enough loose ends for it to be satisfying as a stand alone read.

Meant to add, I very much enjoyed Greengage Summer, such a good book!

Also, I think I am going to splash out the whole 49p to buy Cote's recommendation as it looks really interesting.

Love this thread!

Thank you for the new thread

Here's my list so far.

1. A Hero of Our Time – Mikhail Lermontov
2. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
3. House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz
4. The Return – Hisham Matar

1. Ragarok – A. S Byatt

1. Stuff Matters – Mark Miodownik

Essentially I have enjoyed reading all of the above...plus the most recent two:

20. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank – Nathan Englander
A collection of short stories about what it means to be Jewish. I love short stories and some of these were very good, but others I didn’t like so much. A mixed bag. One rather disturbing story about a group of pensioners at a summer camp and what they do when they believe they have an ex-Nazi prison guard in their midst!

21. All Creatures Great and Small – James Herriot
A sweet and gentle read about the life of a young country vet in the Yorkshire Dales circa the 1930s. It’s hard not to enjoy this.

Bringing my list over.

1. Dead Girl Walking - Chris Brookmyre
2. Black Widow - Chris Brookmyre
3. The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
4. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
5. A God in Ruins - Kate Atkinson
6. The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
7. Love in the Present Tense - Catherine Ryan Hyde
8. The Accidental life of Greg Millar

1. The life I left Behind - Colette McBeth

10. I Let You Go - Clare Mackingtosh Another Psychological Thiller - I really enjoyed this one. The characters are believable and the scenario compelling. The sort of book you don't want to put down. Definitely recommend.

Hurrah for libraries!
The only other one I've read is The Greengage Summer, which I guess would be YA nowadays - interestingly, that one felt much older than Sparrows does.

Thanks so much Cheerful for your kind offer :) I've just been checking our local library, though, and they have both Diddakoi and Sparrows so I will avail myself of their copies.

I've not read any of Rumer Godden's adult novels either but Tottie was perhaps my first favourite novel as a child. Though it involves one of the main characters sacrificing their life for another - thinking about it now - and the first real villain I'd encountered. Traumatic.

Thanks for info on Name of the Wind hundred pages in and don't know whether to give it up. Started off well enough and now I've read on I'm not sure if it isn't actually deeply annoying and stupid... it's on the Kindle so might start something else in paperback and see how I go.

Keith You can borrow my copy of The Diddakoi if you want - though I would like it back. You can't borrow Sparrows because it's an ebook, but if you liked The Diddakoi, you'd love this. It's interesting actually, particularly in light of that Diane Wynne Jones essay - this is supposed to be an adult book, but the main character is eleven and it reads exactly like her children's books - the only difference so far, as far as I can see, is that Loveday's mother is having sex with men outside marriage - and even then all that's said is that she takes them into her room, though it's clear what's going on.

DrDiva, beautiful poem, thank you. And Cote, that looks like 49p well spent, thank you too.

Cheerful, I'll watch out for your review of the Rumer Godden. The Diddakoi was one of my favourite books when I was a girl (wish I had a copy actually, to re-read - I'll have to see whether I can dig one up) and I read In This House of Brede a couple of years ago and enjoyed it greatly. I hadn't realised how many books she wrote for adults - I will have to get some more of them onto my TBR list.

No idea what number, but:

x. The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler
I knew this was the "original" noir, but I hadn't realised how atmospheric the writing would be.

Cast aside with great force (or would have if it wasn't an ebook)
Be Awesome Hadley Freeman
Bought thinking "well I remember liking some columns by her". I can only imagine that her editors for the columns are supremely good at working self indulgent rambling twaddle into coherent, well argued prose. Sadly they didn't work on the book. Reads like the navel gazing of an terribly self satisfied teenager. Not counting as I couldn't bear to read any more but felt I had to vent.

Marking my place.

1. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets - Sudhir Venkatesh
2. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
3. Alice - Christina Henry
4. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
5. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier (currently reading)

Going a bit slowly. I blame my 8 month old!