50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Six

Thanks for the new thread. I don't have much to add at the moment as I'm working my way through The Rainwild Chronicles by Robin Hobb. Very much enjoying them! Not sure what to read after them. I've got Snow Crash and The Poisonwood Bible in my to-be-read pile. I'm in the mood for some non-fiction I think but not sure what...

Will update with my full list soon.

Vera books are very good. Definitely not twee.

RMC I namechanged a dozen times before I found one I was comfortable with. It's probably meaningless to anyone else but suits me.

Passme yes Vera does take a while to appear in the first but not in any of the others I read

Thanks ladies! With the last one I read half an Ian Rankin book in the two days before labour and then took a year to finish the rest! I am hoping to be more focussed this time.

I am enjoying the Vera book thus far. I have read that it is a fair while until Vera actually makes an appearance so I will wait and see!

Ooo, exciting Passmethecrisps. Congratulations. I read Jilly Cooper's Polo through both labours. Kept me going.

Passmethecrisps Congratulations and good luck . Will certainly update on Nella's Last War. Nearly halfway through having had to wait in all day while British Gas fixed two leaking central heating pipes under the floor board. Indoor water feature now fixed!
I haven't found the Vera book twee at all. Solid and entertaining but not twee. Will be interested to see what you think.

On another note thinking I am going to have to change my username! It was a trial one when I joined Mumsnet and it's boring the pants off me!

How exciting passmethecrisps - good luck with the birth!

1. The One We Fell in Love With - Paige Toon
2. This Is Where It Ends - Marieke Nijkamp
3. The Girl Who Lied - Sue Fortin

1. Forget You Had a Daughter: Doing Time in the Bangkok Hilton - Sandra Gregory
2. Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
3. Trust in Me - Sophie McKenzie

Currently reading 35. Sisterland - Curtis Sittenfeld and almost finished but thought I would bring my list over

I have nothing to say, but just want to pop my head in so I remember how much of the thread I've read!

Oh I agree, it's the creeping realisation that's a big part of the fun. Hiss boo to the introduction giving it away. Shouldn't be allowed.

Biblio I really enjoyed The Debt to Pleasure as well. It took me a little while to twig exactly which direction it was going in and I was pleased that I'd deliberately not read the introduction to the book until afterwards as it gave away the plot on the second page!

I missed a few - so for sake of completeness:
43. The Sellout by Paul Beatty
44. The Butcher's Hook
45. Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
46 The Power by Naomi Alderman

Currently reading Barkskins whilst being gutted that I missed the deal on Lincoln in the Bardo. That's what I get from not checking on this thread regularly [sobs]

Bringing my list over and updating, although I'm not sure where I got to last ...

1.The Skeleton Cupboard: stories from a clinical psychologist by Tanya Byron
2.All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
3.Where the Eagle Landed: Mystery of the German Invasion of Britain, 1940 by Peter Haining
4.The Sellout by Paul Beatty
5.A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
6.The Great St Mary’s Day Out & My Name is Markham by Jodi Taylor
7.Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
8.Straight by Dick Francis
9.The Universe vs Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
10.The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
11.Ink in the Blood by Hilary Mantel
12.Bitch in a Bonnet: Reclaiming Jane Austen from the Stiffs, the Snobs, the Simps and the Saps Volume 1 by Robert Rodi
13.The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild
14.My Antonia by Willa Cather
15.The Leaving of Things by Jay Antani
16.Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J B West
17.For Kicks by Dick Francis
18.Aunty Ida’s Full Service Mental Institution by Isa-Lee Wolf
19.Purity by Jonathan Franzen
20.The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
21.And the Rest is History by Jodi Taylor
22.Artic Summer by Damon Galgut
23.Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
24.War Brides by Helen Bryan
25.The Girl Next Door by Ruth Rendell
26.The American Boy by Andrew Taylor
27.Absolute Friends by John Le Carre
28.The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan

American Boy Nice period piece thriller with a rather spurious (imho) link to Edgar Allan Poe. Rather contrived ending.
Absolute Friends was going really great until Le Carre starting to lecture, hector and generally self-indulge in expounding his views rather than focusing on his novel.
The Opposite of Loneliness is the much hyped assemblage of short stories and essays by a 20-something Yale graduate with a great future, who then died in a car crash. But she can really write and this book enabled me to get into the mind of a 20-something high achiever, rather than the typical hormonal angst that's all over the place. I'd recommend it.

My list so far, the order has been mixed up but I can't find my last post to cut and paste. Never mind..

1. The Kitchen House
2. The Wangs Vs the World
3. Dark Places
4. Mothering Sunday
5. I'll Take You There
6. The Mountain Story
7. The Maid's Version
8. Rules of Civility
9. The One in a Million Boy

So far a good year with a few of stand-out favourites. 30 from the library and the rest from my Audible subscription. I picked up Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi at the library and really looking forward to this one.
Did anyone else read the 15 Lives of Harry August? I'm listening to it on audible and I am struggling, tempted to give up but have endured >7 hours of it so far.

Hope you enjoy Some Tame Gazelle, cedar. I absolutely love The Debt to Pleasure.

78. The Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell

Third in The Corfu Trilogy. Not as good as My Family & Other Animals, but still a really good read.

79. Join Me by Danny Wallace

Inspired by his great uncle, Danny decides to see if he can get people to join him for no reason. He then has to come up with a reason. I read this years ago and listened to it in audible this time. It was read by Wallace himself which I liked, and you get to hear the official Join Me anthem!!

80.Marrying off Mother And Other Stories by Gerald Durrell

Collection of short stories including one based on the family's time in Corfu. Some of the writing is dated now but still funny.

Thanks for the new thread.

Biblio your post reminds me that its about time I read another Barbara Pym. I don't think I've read Some Tame Gazelle yet so I must look it up.

28 The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
Tarquin is a pompous food writer who uses 20 words when one will do. This book gets darker and darker as it goes on as you gradually realise there is lot more to him than just an over extended vocabulary. It pulls you in.

29 Morgan's Passing by Anne Tyler
Morgan likes to pretend he is someone else. He becomes obsessed with a young couple he meets at the start of the story. He is very funny - the kind of person I'd probably hate in real life - but here his bizarre behaviour and his eccentric family amused me.

Interesting RMC as I started my very first Vera book last night. I wasn't really feeling t to be honest as I think the wee pic of the actress on the front cover was putting me off. I don't want to read anything twee. Are they twee?

RMC, would be interested in hearing how you get on with Nella Last - have been eyeing up her diaries for a while.

Re-read Some Tame Gazelle, by Barbara Pym, one of my all-time favourite books. Lots of cosy tea parties with members of the clergy. She hymns the delight of unrequited love - the simple pleasure of catching a glimpse of the person you have a crush on. You can yearn for a sharp, complex man with none of the downside of facing his scowling face over the breakfast table.

51. The Fifth Lamentation, William Broderick
Investigation by monk into betrayal in Occupied France, fifty years previously. The author was a monk and subsequently became a barrister, so he describes these worlds well. Ambitious range, complex plotting (still trying to sort out some of the plot details in my mind), and I stayed up late to finish it.

I did pay for Pottermore Presents and I was cross to discover that I'd already read most of it on Pottermore years ago!

60. Silent Voices - Ann Cleeves. These are just what I need at the moment. Well written, page turners and relatively easy to keep up with. Out of interest are her other 'non Vera' books any good?!
Need to take a break from the Vera books now to read Nella Last's War - aka Housewife, 49. for book club.

It read very like that. Glad I never bothered with Pottermore then.

If anyone happens to fancy Two Cheers for Anarchism, that is also available (in a more legit fashion than the HP books ) as a pdf - comes up as the first result if you search.

It seems they were basically pulled together from bits and pieces on the Pottermore website rather than actually written by JKR as new work.