50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Four

DrDiva That was really evocative.

Hello, new thread! I've read the first page of Passage to India 3 times but life (including toothache) has intervened. Think I'll come back to it.

Glad you like the poem! I am a big Dorothy Parker fan. Such beautiful and poignant imagery of real experience.

Just marking my place. Am 17% through my current book.

That is wonderful, DrDiva

, DrDiva. Love that, thank you.

Ooh I see today that In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic by Valerian Albanov is down to £0.49 on the Kindle!

I think it was recommended on a 50-Book thread (how else would it have landed on my Amazon Wish List?) so there you go

drdiva

DrDiva that is beautiful

ooh, new thread, thank you! Not read anything new for a while! Here's my list so far:

1. Sword Song - Bernard Cornwall
2. The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry
3. House of Cards - Michael Dobbs
4. Sparkling Cyanide - Agatha Christie
5. The Moving Toyshop - Edmund Crispin
6. Crow Hollow - Michael Wallace
7. Moving - Jenny Eclair
8. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
9. Rather be the Devil - Ian Rankin

It's far too 'murder mystery' heavy really! Currently reading one of the Last Kingdom series. Finding it hard going as I got it out of the library and it's a really big hardback copy - so it doesn't fit in my bag and I'm not reading when out and about.

Still no brain for a sentence of my own, so for those reading Testament by Colm Toibin:

Prayer for a New Mother by Dorothy Parker:

The things she knew, let her forget again-
The voices in the sky, the fear, the cold,
The gaping shepherds, and the queer old men
Piling their clumsy gifts of foreign gold.

Let her have laughter with her little one;
Teach her the endless, tuneless songs to sing,
Grant her her right to whisper to her son
The foolish names one dare not call a king.

Keep from her dreams the rumble of a crowd,
The smell of rough-cut wood, the trail of red,
The thick and chilly whiteness of the shroud
That wraps the strange new body of the dead.

Ah, let her go, kind Lord, where mothers go
And boast his pretty words and ways, and plan
The proud and happy years that they shall know
Together, when her son is grown a man.

Shiny new thread
Finished two books this past week...
8. The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman 1920s, a small boat washes ashore on a tiny island off the south west coast of Australia. Inside are a man (deceased) and a baby, who are found by the island's only residents - the lighthouse keeper and his wife. The plot of the novel revolves around what happens next - "This is a story about right and wrong and how sometimes they look the same". I really enjoyed this, got completely absorbed in it.
9. The Skeleton Cupboard by Tanya Byron Got this on Audible after seeing it recommended on here, thank you! It was as fascinating, and more gripping, than I expected and was well narrated as an audiobook.

Thanks, Wilting. It's all sounding a little too much like Shirley Jackson for my liking too. Might not bother with it.

Wow! New thread already! Here is my list so far with faces in bold.

1. Christmas Days - Jeanette Winterson
2. Fate of the Tearling - Erika Johansen

1. The Wine of Angels - Phil Rickman
2. Midwinter of the Spirit - Merrily Watkins
3. The God Instinct - Jesse Bering
4. The Edge of the World - Michael Pye

1. The Light Years Elizabeth Jane Howard
2. Marking Time Elizabeth Jane Howard
3. Peter's Room Antonia Forest
4. Run Away Home Antonia Forest
5. The Thursday Kidnapping Antonia Forest
6. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
7. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding Julia Strachey
8. Good Evening, Mrs Craven Mollie Panter-Downes
9. Unpublished manuscript

Thanks for the new thread - currently reading Rumer Godden's An Episode of Sparrows.

Yeah Remus, ATF is v atmospheric but not much actual plot if I recall. Others on the thread liked it tho.

New thread yay

Thanks for the new thread. I'm fetching my list over so I can keep track. I think my list of books I've started and cast aside may be longer.

1. Dictator by Robert Harris
2. Conclave by Robert Harris
3. Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
4. Murder As a Fine Art by David Morrell
5. Longbourn by Jo Baker
6. The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly
7. The Owl Killers – Karen Maitland
8. When she was good by Laura Lippman
9. Company of Liars by Karen Maitland

Currently reading policy documents for work. Sadly not a thriller and cannot be abandoned.

Thank you for new thread, southeast

I am really behind in posting my books. Have read another 5. Now that funeral etc are behind us, might have the brain space to concoct a sentence or two!

Have just found this thread and I love it!

I have always been an avid and fast reader but my consumption really dropped off last year as I discovered R4 podcasts – the Archers, Desert Island Discs, In Our Time etc – and started listening to them on my commute rather than reading. I am going to read more in 2017 though because I really miss it and 50 books sounds achievable so I'd like to join in. My 2017 books so far:

Night Wakings Sarah Moss (slow burn, grew to really enjoy it)
Golden Hill Francis Spufford (excellent holiday read)
Swing Time Zadie Smith (loved this)
Holding Graham Norton (don't bother)
The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood (re-read for book club, everyone should read this book!)
NW Zadie Smith (even better than Swing Time, I think)
A Quiet Life Natasha Walter (underwhelming)
Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche (wonderful, highly recommended)

Coming up next:
A Whole Life Robert Seethaler (for book club)
Commonwealth Ann Patchett
The Last Picture of Sara de Vos Dominic Smith

I have given up Amazon and am reading real books bought from two independent bookshops, one near work and one near home!

I've found the bee poems in my Sylvia Plath collection. I have read them before, though didn't remember them - and rather delightfully, I can see when I read them last, as the first one was bookmarked with an allotments leaflet from Cambridge City Council, where I kept my bees in the mid 1990s :)

Here's my list to date, with highlights starred. After making a bit of an effort to read more fiction last year, so far this year 14 out of the 22 have been non-fiction (though 3 of my 5 highlights were fiction if you include Lovelace and Babbage).

1 The Hacienda: How Not To Run a Club
2 The Thriling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage **
3 A Closed and Common Orbit **
4 How to be a Heroine
5 Breakfast at Tiffany's
6 Forty Autumns
7 The Dark Net **
8 The Dream Thieves
9 How to be a Victorian
10 Europe in Winter **
11 The Skeleton Cupboard
12 Poor Economics
13 Mutton (India Knight)
14 Development as Freedom
15 Blue Lily Lily Blue
16 A Very Expensive Poison
17 The Year of Living Danishly
18 The Raven King
19 What We Cannot Know **
20 Bitch in a Bonnet
21 Faulks on Fiction
22 The Complete Guide to Beekeeping

Just marking new thread . . .

And thank you for the Bee Poems.

I've just got After Me Comes the Flood from the library, but it's not currently calling to me. Anybody read it?

Also checking in, my list so far:

1. Frog Music by Emma Donaghue
2. After the Crash Michel Bussi

1. The Kept Woman Karin Slaughter
2. American Gods Neil Gaiman
3. Everyone Brave Is Forgiven Chris Cleave
4. Detour from Normal Ken Dickson
5. The Comfort of Strangers Ian McEwan
6. Our Endless Numbered Days Claire Fuller

I've nearly finished Golden Hill and Them by Jon Ronson too, I'm enjoying both of them.

My list:
1 Word Play Gyles Brandreth
2 Case Histories Kate Atkinson
3 How To Be A Tudor Ruth Goodman
4 How To Be A Victorian Ruth Goodman
5 The Brontesaurus John Sutherland
6 Miss You Kate Eberlen
7 Full Dark, No Stars Stephen King
8 The Company Of The Dead David J Kowalski
9 Lies, Damned Lies, And History Jodi Taylor
10 One Good Turn Kate Atkinson
11 The Mermaids Singing Val McDermid
12 Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
13 The Brontes Brian Wilks
14 When Will There Be Good News? Kate Atkinson
15 The Etymologicon Mark Forsyth
16 Five Go Parenting Bruno Vincent
17 The Singles Game Lauren Weisberger
18 Bitch In A Bonnet Robert Rodi
19 Me and Mr Darcy Alexandra Potter
20 Lois on the Loose Lois Pryce
21 The Mistletoe Murder and other stories P D James
22 D is for Deadbeat Sue Grafton
23 E is for Evidence Sue Grafton
24 The Marvelous Misadventures of Ingrid Winter J S Drangsholt
25 The Forgetting Time Sharon Guskin
26 The Last Kiss Goodbye Tasmina Perry
27 Fat Chance Nick Spalding
28 Started Early, Took My Dog Kate Atkinson
29 First Bite: How We Learn To Eat Bee Wilson

I am currently reading Gold Fame Citrus and not sure how I feel about it yet - the first few pages didn't grab me at all then it improved slightly. It's due back at the library by Thursday so will have o either finish it or give up by then!

Thread 4 already! I am almost finished Cloud Atlas so will try and pop back soon to update with my latest reads.

Thanks, South.

Here's my list. I think I set the bar too high by beginning with two absolute corkers, and nothing but re-reads is likely to live up to them now. :(

1: The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry
2: Fatherland Robert Harris
3: Stasi Child – David Young
4: Golden Hill – Francis Spufford
5: American Gods – Neil Gaiman
6: The House by the Lake – Thomas Harding
7: 84 Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff
8: The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street – Helene Hanff
9: Magpie Murders – Anthony Horowitz
10: Warm Bodies – Isaac Marion
11: Ashes of London – Andrew Taylor
12: Left for Dead – Beck Weathers
13: The Burning World – Isaac Marion
14: Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science By Richard Holmes
15: Ghosts of Everest: The Search for Mallory and Irvine – Jochen Hemmleb
16: An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth – Chris Hadfield
17: Measuring the World – Daniel Kehlmann
18: The North Water - Ian McGuire
19: Berlin: Portrait of a City - Taschen
20: It Stephen King
21: On her Majesty’s Secret Service – Ian Fleming