50 Book Challenge Part Five

Remus I loved the wanking vicar, he did it so nicely though, a very everyday perfunctory wank. It added to the creepiness because everyone else on the base was so obviously not wanking or doing anything release-worthy at all. And what else is there to do when there's no booze and a packet of crisps cost like £500 anyway? No no I thought it was great. The slowness made the creepy weirdness wtf is going on even more satisfying. And his emails to his wife were so great, he was so crap at it. Several times I shouted Fucks Sake in the car at him. Love a character that makes you right properly cross.
I could have listened to another 19 hours of that book.

Gosh it has been a very long time since I updated!

I will go back and read but here is my update

23. Death Sentence - Damien Boyd

The last of my Damien Boyd marathon. In this one, our clean cut protagonist has to tie together several seemingly unconnected murders / freak deaths. Based on law suites against the MOD for exposure to asbestos during the Falklands and caving it was another interesting read.

I hope when the next one comes along Nick Dixon might develop a bit more substance. He is just too good to be true at the moment. I like my heroes just a bit flawed.

I have moved on to Adrian McKinty's The Cold Cold Ground and I am enjoying it thus far. Set in Belfast during the troubles of the early 80s it is a police procedural in challenging circumstances. So ordinary detective cases set in an extraordinary setting.

How can we forget your 'wanking vicar' review, Remus?

And now I feel sullied and need something 'lovely'. Sigh.

My review:
The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber
Long (stupidly long) and often v boring. Why did I persevere? Because I kept waiting for something to happen, but, other than the world pretty much falling to pieces (which we learn of second hand), nothing much really did. It was like a long fumble of perfunctory foreplay, and no climax. I don’t recommend it, but I quite liked the aliens. And if I live the rest of my life without ever having to read again about a preacher masturbating, that’s fine by me.

Scribbly
You liked the wanking vicar book?!!! You have brought back incredibly painful memories by referring to The Book of Strange New Things. I cannot tell you how much I hated that book.

Book 50
A Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer
This was bad, although there were no wanking vicars. I only finished it because I was desperate, but had guessed the murderer and method very early on indeed, and then the rest of the novel was just an attempt to divert attention from that. Shoddy, lazy and stupid.

oh and all the Kelsingra characters too (dragons + keepers). I could have done with a big character map tbh

Stokey the last book features pretty much all the characters from the Assassin, Live Ship, and Rain wild series. Its been years since I read the first ones so quite frequently I just had to contend myself with having a vague memory of the characters as I needed to crack on to find out what becomes of Bee, Fitz and the Fool.

45. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Semi-autobiographical novel about a girl called Jeanette, adopted by an evangelical Christian couple and follows her through puberty as she starts to question her faith and desire to become a missionary particularly in the light of her realising that she's a lesbian.
I read this years ago when I was a teenager and it was particularly fun re-reading the copy I picked up in Oxfam as it had been used as a GCSE or A-level text and was filled with scribbled notes in the margins by an angsty young woman who had obviously read it very earnestly. Some great characters, particularly Jeanette's mother who is horrifying and hilarious in equal measure.

46 The Dark Circle by Linda Grant
Set in 1950s. Follows two twins in their late teens, Lenny and Miriam diagnosed with TB and sent to a sanatorium in Kent, free on the newly created NHS.There they meet a cast of characters (staff and other patients) and learn 'the way of the patient' - basically to give up all autonomy over to the regime of the sanitorium while they wait for the new antibiotic cure from the States.
Some great characters and really well written although the ending felt a bit rushed. Probably my most enjoyable read from the Bailey's short list but I think part of this was to do with my personal interest in the history of the NHS and respiratory medicine.

47. Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb
    Final instalment of the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Cant believe I have come to an end of this sixteen novel saga. Have spent many, many enjoyable hours in the company of these characters and feel really quite sad that this may be the end.

48. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
    Peter Leigh is an English pastor who is sent to become a missionary to the native population of a new planet. While he is there and trying to establish his ministry with the Oasians he continues to communicate with his wife Bea who has stayed on earth (which is going to hell in a handcart).
    LOVED this book. Listened to the audio book and the 19+ hours flew by. Creepy and beautiful and thought provoking. Went out and immediately bought his book Under the Skin.

49. Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore
    Poetry collection. Mixed bag. Mixed bag of subjects and mixed bag of my reactions to them. Some pages I've folded over to go back to as a few of them were wonderful and definitely will be reread.

I adore Robin Hobb Boldly - i didn't realise the last one had been released. I may have to do a mega reread of the previous 8 before embarking on it, or at least the two in that trilogy.

I haven't read any Catherynne M Valente Grifone, is she YA?

I've had a filthy cold so have been consoling myself by reading in bed ( a lot)

30. Gone Without a Trace - Mary Torjussen. Page-turny thriller. Hannah come home after a business to find her partner has moved out, but has also erased every trace of himself from her life. We follow her investigations to find out why, but is she reliable? Recommend if you like that kind of thing.

31. Sea Stirred - Caroline Williams. this is the story of a teenage girl's first love. Not normally my kind of thing, but it's well written. Martha (nearly 13) is on holiday in Cornwall with her extended family - none of whom are close in age to her - & meets a boy next door. It captures the awkwardness of being on the cusp of teenager hood & the mother daughter relationship.

Has anyone read Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente? I started it at the beginning of the year and had to leave it aside. I am on my second attempt but am still struggling. I have just finished part one and am trying to convince myself it will come together. Right now it is all over the place and a bit bonkers! Should I continue?

24. A Court of Wings and Ruin - Sarah J. Maas

A quick, trashy read after Seveneves. Latest instalment in a series - more of the same really but didn't enjoy it as much as previous book. The author is churning out 2 books a year at the moment with 2 series running concurrently and I feel like this book suffers because of it. Bit bored of the sex scenes too. We know the main characters have a super satisfying sex life, it was brought to our attention in the last book. Don't feel like I need to read about it anymore when it would have been more interesting to develop other characters/plot points. I will probably read the next one but only because I don't like to give up. Hope it's better than this effort.

25. Assassin's Fate - Robin Hobb
The final in the Fitz and the Fool series. I love her writing and have enjoyed all previous books in the series. Her world and character building are brilliant. I feel quite bereft at the end of this. Will have to console myself with the Rainwild or Liveship
Chronicles instead.

25. How to Help Your Child With ADHD by Beverly Davies

This is quite a short book - just 150 pages. It covers background on what ADHD is, diagnosis and treatment, and moves onto chapters on parenting, home life, behaviour, impact on the family, school and growing up. Each chapter contains some stories from affected children and parents, and gives some tips and strategies.

Not sure how applicable this is for us - our paediatrician thinks that some other issues may be at the bottom of things - but some useful things to think about and try out.

16. The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain.

The first part of the book looks at the blossoming friendship between Gustav and Anton, two boys growing up in WW2 and the immediate post-war period in Switzerland. Gustav is self-possessed, restrained, repressed even; while Anton is more emotional and volatile.

The second part switches back to the lives of Gustav's parents and their early relationship, considering how choices and sacrifices they made affected them and others.

The third part brings us to Gustav and Anton's adult lives, and how their relationship endured and changed through the difficulties they experienced, and how they made sense of their own and their parents' pasts.

Beautifully written. Lovely sense of place and time evoked throughout. The characters of Gustav and his mother in particular were complex and very believable. Only bit I didn't love was the ending - while fitting, it seemed just a little bit rushed, and I'd like to have seen it unfold a little more.

Anyone on audible, Lady Midnight by Cassandra clare is available free today. Not great literature, but entertaining if you like ya light fantasy

I won't bother, LadyDepp. It's an article stretched into a book. Waste of time.

Cote - MN has been promoting a new Biddulph book about girls, I'm not sure whether to try it as I hear very mixed reviews of his books. The kindle sample was pathetically short and gave me very little idea of whether it would be useful. These parenting books always seem to be masses of padding with one or two insights.

19. Catastrophe 1914: Europe goes to war by Max Hastings. I finally finished listening to this almost 30hr audio book. I knew embarrassingly little about the start of WW1 before listening to this book, hopefully I won't forget it all too quickly. Mostly interesting, occasionally dull, and often very hard to listen to (Narrator often reads a letter written by some poor young sod, then tells us about his terrible death soon after). Hastings argues that WW1 was pretty much inevitable and lays the blame squarely on Germany. I still can't get my head round the number of casualties.

21. Raising Boys by Step Biddulph

This had some good insight but very few and far between, lost in hundreds of fucking pages of "Stories From The Heart", complete with a cutesie heart drawing I don't know why so many friends were raving about this book over the years.

33. The Nix by Nathan Hill. I loved this, one of my favourites so far this year, and the best thing about it was I had absolutely no expectations when I started it. It's a big book, around 650 pages and it flew. There are a couple of central characters, namely a fairly miserable professor in an American university, and his mother Faye, from whom he has been estranged for a many number of years after she left him and his father in small town America. The book covers 1968 to 2011 (I think..) and location moves from small town, to Chicago, to Norway.

34. A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny. Book 2 of Inspector Gamache. I liked books 1 and 2, and keen to keep going. Nice to know there are 10 more Gamache books waiting for me.

I have started Under the Udala Trees by Chinela Okparanta on Audible. The narrator is reading too slowly! But I am willing to keep going with it.

Started reading Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. Don't know much about it and actually I can't remember what I have even read so far. May have to start over..

Just popping in to say 'Hello' and to say I tried and failed with two Barbara K books - far too slow and boring at the start, and I couldn't be bothered to invest more time on them.

I'm reading and hating a Georgette Heyer who-dunnit. Ordinarily I wouldn't bother finishing it, but need something lightweight at the minute, so I'll see it through to the bitter end now.

33. Lion by Saroo Brierley

The tale of a five-year-old boy from a poor village in India who one day boarded a train alone, ended up in Calcutta, and who did not find his way home for twenty-five years. This is Saroo's own story, which was made into a film recently. He was found on the streets of Calcutta and eventually adopted by an Australian couple, growing up in Tasmania. Eventually, after months of searching on Google Earth, he identified the town where he was born and was reunited with his mother and siblings. His memory for the detail of this little place in India which he left by accident aged five was astonishing and although it's a very short book the story is quite fascinating.

42 Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

Excellent account of the car-crash that was the Coalition Provisional Authority that ruled Iraq following the war in Iraq and fall of Saddam Hussein. A pretty spectacular story of incompetence, political place-men & unbelievable naivety. As one interviewee put it "I'm a neo-conservative who was mugged by reality".

A re-read, but I found it well worth re-visiting. One can only hope that the author is somewhere embedded in the Trump administration, and will write a similar book on the experience.

24. Watching Edie by Camilla Way

Psychological thriller.
Before - Edie and Heather were friends as teenagers, before it all went horribly wrong (details of this aren't revealed until the end of the book).
After - Edie hasn't seen Heather for about 16 years. And then Heather reappears when Edie really needs someone. But why is Heather back in Edie's life and what does she want?

This did not end up where I thought it was heading. And the ending was grim and unsettling. Not sure how I feel about this TBH.

Museum and Joyless - Lacuna is still on my too read pile after I abandoned it about 5 (or may be more ) years ago. Not in the mood for books I can't get into at the moment. Life is too busy and I need an immediate escape rather than a slog.
53. Silent Child - Sarah A Denzil. Easy read thriller about a woman whose son goes missing / presumed drowned and then reappears half naked and traumatised 10 years later, just as she is about to give birth to her second child.
Full of inaccuracies, and the timeline was bizarre but I did keep reading, even if it only took 24 hours.

MuseumofHam thank you for saying how slow the start of The Lacuna is. I tried it some years ago and didn't make it very far before returning it to the library, but have loved some of her other work more recently. I'll give it another try.

Ontopofthesunset the Shardlake books are very different to Winter in Madrid which I found grim with a capital G. He’s written another - a bit more modern & whose name I forget - which I simply found very dull. I think he needs to stick with Shardlake and I believe the good news on that subject is there's another one in the pipeline.

My books 22-24 are Artic Summer by Damon Galgut, Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith (thank you Cote for nudging it up my TBR list) and War Brides by Helen Bryan. I found the first two excellent reads, in different ways. The first is about E M Forster's travels to the East - India predominantly (twice) and Turkey. I felt Galgut captured the complexities of India and Indians beautifully and affectionately. I found myself liking Forster and wanting to read his books, despite having seen the films first. Also wanting to read more by Damon Galgut. The second has already been well-reviewed by Cote and I concur - falling somewhere between thriller & police procedural, it's more a wonderful work on the nature of Russia and Russians (and all the other nationalities that made up the USSR). The third was a lighthearted bit of fluff containing a couple of glaring factual errors and so annoyed rather than provided relaxation.