50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Eight

Mine too Glitter- and thank you all for the short recs (however, foolishly am now in the middle of Riddley Walker!).

I am sorry you have been unwell Satsuki, I hope you are well recovered now?

I couldn't get into that series Stitches, but I am told it gets better!

73. Thief’s Magic by Trudi Canavan

I just wrote a long post about this that my phone has lost and can’t face writing it out again

But briefly, light fantasy (magicians etc), first in a series, okay read, but a bit annoying in that it’s taking a long time to get anywhere, and has 2 main characters leading such different, and separate, lives that it almost felt like reading 2 separate and unconnected books at times.

I'm having an unsatisfying end to the year. I have started and discarded Germania by Simon Winder, which I found too rambling and insufficiently robust for a proper history, and not light or funny enough for popular history/travel writing.

I also started The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood but it's not really grabbed me yet so I've put it to one side. Currently re-reading The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, which isn't as good as I remembered, but I love that era and that part of the world so will probably plough on for the evocation of time and place.

Basically I'm waiting until Sunday, when we'll put the Christmas Tree up, and I will feel justified in dusting off Dickens The Christmas Books again.

Thanks for the recommendation glitter - looks right up my street.

Sunbolt and Memories of Ash by Intisar Khanani
Short but perfectly formed fantasy (the first book is only 153 pages, the second a little longer). Some relatively standard fantasy tropes (magic highly regulated, orphaned teen protagonist hiding her talent while getting involved in political intrigue) - but well written - decent characterisation, well paced, and the main character is interesting and mercifully the author has decided that teenage girls are capable of staying focused on a task without having to swoon over unattainable males every five minutes. I also found the description of places very evocative.

If you're looking for a quick and enjoyable read for the end of the year, the first book is currently 99p on Kindle, the second £3.49. It's a trilogy but the third book isn't out yet.

I have been unwell and had some continuing eye problems so read nowhere near as much as last year, and many more unfinished.

Fell off the list so hauling myself back on. Reading Into Thin Air. Off to catch up.

With you on that one, Cote. There's usually a good selection in the 12 Days of Kindle - I don't usually check on the day itself but from Boxing Day onwards :)

MegBusset, the Maconie book looks interesting, thank you, have added to my list.

132. The Waters of Eternal Youth, Donna Leon
More moseying around Venice trying to solve the mystery of whether a girl fell into the canal or was pushed.

Currently on 133. The Hypnotist's Love Story, Liane Moriarty
Woman falls for man who has a stalker. I don't know if the story will darken, but it's surprisingly sunny so far.

I’m disappointed with the current selection of crapola in various Kindle book sales on Amazon.

When does the Christmas sale begin? That one usually has good books.

Keith Yeah, I am. Haven't got very far though.

You are right Remus - I don’t think it was a twist really, just a horrid inevitability about it all... but most of the reviews I read afterwards didn’t see any of it coming

I was just surprised I hated a book that was generally well respected by so many but there was truly nothing in this book for me to recommend to anyone. Not a single redeeming feature.

Exactly!

I enjoyed reading Endless Numbered Days too. It's like a very very fucked up version of Little House in the Big Woods

I liked Our Endless Numbered Days and didn't think 'the twist' was even supposed to be a twist. I thought it was supposed to be predictable, and supposed to be depressing.

I wouldn't rave about The Dry and I disliked the contrived ending, but I liked the evocation of place and time.

Oh no plus3 I've got Endless Numbered Days to read next, I thought it had been reasonably well liked. I hope I'm a bit keener than you on it, and on the plus side I picked it up FOC at a book exchange.

these threads ought to count towards one of the books

I've read worse! Eight threads by 1000 messages at, say, an average 100 words per message = 800,000 words. Quite a big book!

Hi everyone - lurking throughout the year, and have kept up with all your lists (adding constantly to my huge reading pile...) here is my list. Hoping I will hit the 50 before the end of the year...! Lots of YA fiction as both my DC take on my recommendations so I felt I should reciprocate theirs.

1. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
2. A whole life - Robert Seethaler
3. A monster calls - Patrick Ness
4. The Loney - Andrew Michael Hurley
5. The Princess Diarist - Carrie Fisher
6. Holes - Louis Sacher
7. The trouble with goats & sheep - Joanna Cannon
8. The girl on the train - Paula Hawkins
9. Ghostwritten - David Mitchell
10. The versions of us - Laura Barnett
11. All quiet on the western front - Erich Maria Remarque
12. The reader on the 6.27. - Jean-Paul Didierlaurant
13. Where’d you go, Bernadette - Maria Semple
14. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
15. The keeper of lost things - Ruth Hogan
16. About Grace - Anthony Doerr
17. The house on the strand - Daphne du Maurer
18. When breath becomes air - Paul Kalanithi
19. Vinegar Girl - Anne Tyler
20. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
21. The pursuit of love - Nancy Mitford
22. The clever guts diet - Michael Mosley
23. One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
24. We are all completely beside ourselves- Karen Joy Fowler
25. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
26. Holding - Graham Norton 27)Everything I never told you - Celeste Ng
27. The hunger games - Suzanne Collins
28. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
29. When God was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman
30. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 32)The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry
31. The Lord of the flies - William Golding
32. Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett
33. Cheer up love.....- Susan Calman
34. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
35. The girl with all the gifts - M.R Carey
36. 5 ingredients- Jamie Oliver
37. Burial Rites - Hannah Kent
38. Our endless numbered days - Claire Fuller
39. The Reason I jump - Naoki Higashida
40. Stories of your life & others- Ted Chiang

Special mention to our endless numbered days - I cannot tell you how much I hated this book ... saw the twist coming in every depressing, predictable detail. Miserable book.

I so enjoy this challenge - these threads ought to count towards one of the books ..

I thought The Dry was okay but nothing special, but others seem to rave about it. I like female authors btw

Just checked out The Dry.

First book by a female author. What can go wrong?

Was just coming to give you all the heads-up on The Dry!

Are you enjoying it, Cheerful?

I'm on a go-slow; struggling to find anything I can engage with, and work is very stressful at the moment, which isn't helping.

The Dry is currently 99p on Kindle.

52. ^The Long Road From Jarrow* - Stuart Maconie

Needed something easy and enjoyable after the concentration demanded by Riddley Walker, and this fit the bill nicely. In 1936 the Jarrow marchers walked from the north east to London in protest of the loss of their livelihood ; in 2016 Maconie walked in their footsteps, examining and contrasting the state of Britain then and now, with many a detour into interesting sites (and quite a lot of pubs) along the way. Maconie is an erudite and entertaining guide who wears his knowledge lightly and is passionate about the plight of working-class people in the 1930s and present day.

Keith I'm reading the Lehmann at the moment! How funny!