50 Book Challenge Part Five

If anyone likes light-ish sci-fi, Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter is 99p on Kindle atm. (Cote, don't read it, you'll hate it.)

Cheerful . I like the sound of Fell. Not many books I know of set in Grange-over-sands. Like a bit of local interest. Will add to the ever growing to read list.

This book is like eating a blackbird

Another review you would only get on this thread

33. The Betrayal of Trust, Susan Hill.

Another Simon Serailler. Background theme to this one is the sordidness of assisted death clinics. I gather that each instalment combines a whodunit, an update on the relationships, jobs, finances and hobbies of the central characters, and an Issue of the Day. Formulaic, but it's a formula that does draw you in.

16. Fell Jenn Ashworth
A woman goes back to the falling-down house she lived in as a child. In doing so she awakens the spirits of her parents, who tell the story of the summer of 1963 when her mother was dying and her father brought charismatic healer Timothy Richardson to try and save her.

My English teacher used to say trashy books were like hamburgers and literature was like a good steak dinner.

This book is more like eating a blackbird or a quail; you think there's nothing there, but the more you pick and pick at it, the more bits of hidden meat you find clinging to the bones.

On the surface, nothing happens. Tim arrives. Netty gets sicker. Future-Annette gets pissed. But there's a lot going on in this book. About how serious illness affects a whole family, particularly children. About hope. About insiders and outsiders. About Grange-over-sands. About magic and how one thing can be something and another, both at the same time.

And it's very well-written - beautiful is the wrong word for something that's all bones and tendons and viscera but ... Yeah. I liked it.

I abandoned Swimming Home about a quarter of the way through a few years ago, PoeticLE, I see it doesn't improve with perseverance!

18. Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

In an attempt to impress her ex-boyfriend, Britt talks her best friend into a hiking trip in the mountains during their spring break holiday.
Things start to go wrong when they drive into a snowstorm on the way to their cabin, and abandon their car to search for shelter in the dark. And then when the cabin they seek shelter in turns out to be occupied by a pair of young men on the run from the police, Britt finds herself in a desperate struggle for survival, and not knowing who she can trust.

It's okay, a diverting enough read, although a bit predictable. It was on the adult shelves in the library but not sure if it's meant to be a young adult book.

Updating my list.

Swimming Home - Deborah Levy - Well, what an odd book. I only read it because it was in the holiday apartment we rented in Nice for the last fortnight. Either put there by the owners because the book is set in Nice/Antibes or abandoned there by a previous holiday renter. Either way, it was such a waste of my time. A British family (writer dad, journo mum, angsty teen and another couple approaching bankruptcy) rent a villa in Antibes for summer and are gate-crashed by a red-haired (her hair colour is mentioned ad nauseum) volatile girl called Kitty Finch.
Every single character is ridiculously unlikable and two-dimensional. They create their own issues, and then wallow in it and refuse help. Kitty Finch was obviously mentally ill and needed professional help, and the only character who recognised this and tried to help (a neighbour) was painted as a nosy old bat! I cannot understand why it was shortlisted for a Booker Prize! The only plus point is that it was short.

The Improbability Of Love - Hannah Rothschild - Another meh of a book. This wasn't as bad as the previous one - at least the characters were three-dimensional and had lives that felt real. I enjoyed the peek into the art world, and the hysteria that can be whipped up around certain pieces/artists. I just felt the book was "very good" rather than "excellent", which is what I would expect from any book that has been shortlisted for an award.

Basically I'm going through a "meh" phase with books. I'd almost prefer having a bad book so I could at least have a good old-fashioned rant like altered

Book 38
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Hmm. Mixed feelings about this one. It’s set in a Yorkshire town in the 1930s, and revolves around a combination of town council business and the personal stories of those the council business will impact on. In places, it’s excellent – some really moving descriptions of a farmer in decline, for example. There’s echoes of both Hardy and Steinbeck in some of the strongest sections. But overall I found it far too long, rather repeptitive and relentlessly depressing.

Ooh boldly I've been wanting to read that for ages, but my library has a massive waiting list. Maybe I shall just buy a copy.

Bringing my list over with favourites in bold and disappointments in italics.

1. City of Mirrors – Justin Cronin.
2. Hideous Creatures – S.E. Lister.
3. The Dark Net – Jamie Bartlett.
4. A Calculated Life – Anne Charnock.
5. 1984 – George Orwell.
6. Angel – L.J. Ross.
7. Under Heaven –Guy Gavriel Kay.
8. End of the World Running Club – A.J. Walker.
9. Made in America: Am Informal History of English Language in the United States – Bill Bryson.
10. Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookshop – Robin Sloan.
11. Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church: The findings of the investigation that inspired the major motion picture Spotlight – The Investigative Staff of the Boston Globe.
12. Reconstructing Amelia – Kimberly McCreight
13. The Wolves of London (Obsidan Heart – Book 1) – Mark Morris
14. Vigilante- Kerry Wilkinson.
15. Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin.
16. Prisoners of Geography – Tim Marshall.
17. A Commonplace Killing –Siân Busby.
18. Snowblind – Ragnar Jónasson.
19. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell.
20. High Force – L.J. Ross.
21. Lock In – John Scalzi.

Best - That bookshop looks really cool!

*quick correction - from pregnancy till her daughter turns 3.

Bringing my list over:

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

Just finished 21. Nobody Told Me - Hollie McNish. This is a series of poems/prose written by Hollie when she first found she was pregnant until her daughter turned 2. This is a truly wonderful collection charting pregnancy and early motherhood and encompassing all the topsy-turvy feelings. I loved reading this. There were so many points where I was nodding along with Hollie. I feel like I want to give this to all mothers, especially those who still have young children. Amazing!

43. The child in time - Ian McEwan. This one has been on my to read pile for a long time. Recommended by my MIL who usually has impeccable taste in books. Have such a hit and miss track record with McEwan. Enjoyed Atonement and Enduring Love. Have hated pretty much everything else I have read by him - Nutshell was a real low point. I remember trying to read this years ago when my DC1 was very young. Couldn't get pass the description of the child going missing. Read it really because I was sick of it winking at me from the pile by my bed. I know I am waffling and not reviewing but to be honest I still can't decide whether I enjoyed it or not!

Thanks for the heads up for Olive Kitteridge at 99p - have downloaded x

Satsuki and Whippet you should go. It seems fairly child friendly, lots of young ones about today.

48. The Blood Doctor - Barbara Vine. I'm a huge Vine/Rendell fan and this is one of my favourites of hers. Not for everyone I admit but I find the themes of heredity fascinating.

Thank you Satsuki & altered I'm really not an expert, having just gone back to playing the piano in the last few years, and taken up the harpsichord in the past year.

Satsuki - That is a gorgeous harpsichord whose 2nd keyboard (the one above) I set to sound like the lute for this piece. Sadly it's not mine. It's one of the harpsichords at the music academy that I go to. We are now in the process of decorating our house, which meant that there is now space but I would like to find a lute harpsichord. If I find one and go "Surprise!" I might not get to enjoy it because DH will no doubt kill me

Yes, I find this music mesmerising too, like Bach's music tends to be imho. I love it! This is just the 1st part of that lute partita. There are 4 more parts. And Bach has written more lute partitas, too. With a bit of luck and dogged determination, I can keep posting lute music for you for many years

best I seem to recall you making me jealous about Hay on Wye before. And I still haven't been. Your ds sounds great. I have a 6 year old eclectic dresser. The teen years are going to be interesting

Whippet still working my way through my last Barter Books haul. Definitely one of my happy places. Even love the signs in the loo. See attached pic!

I've never been to Hay-on-Wye either! We are only about 1.5 hours away so I need to remedy this situation asap but going to bookshops with the 4 yo isn't always easy. Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland is excellent if anyone is up that way.

Ha! He sounds brilliantly stylish!

Yes, impossible without a car I would have thought sadly.
The shirt will go nicely with his favourite trousers, one leg tartan, one leg black .

Your ds sounds great!

Would love to go but we don't have a car and it's a bit (lot) of a faff by public transport.