50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Eight

Thank you for the short books recs!

I went back to the KJ Charles, because I trust Sadik; and either I was in a better mood, or it picked up vastly after the first part which was all sex and sub par Georgette Heyer! I will read another (I am hoping there is a Richard and Dominic one for anyone else who has read 49) A Fashionable Infulgence by KJ Charles

Stitches
Full of unnecessary padding. Once Cote's finished reading it, I'll dig out my review.

Some more short books:
Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe
The talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
The reason I jump by Naoki Higashida

I have had Closed and Common Orbit reserved from the library for weeks and weeks (hurry up slow readers!); absolutely loved Small Angry Planet.

I read the original version of American Gods shortly after it was first published and loved it.

I haven’t read the newer uncut version. Is it very different?

67. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

Big thanks to the many reviews on this thread for the recommendation. I have to say I have no knowledge of mountain climbing at all and I’m very unlikely to ever gain any but this was a compelling read. Reading this book makes you think the people who attempt ( and who do) climb Everest must have to be a little insane. It also gives an interesting account of the dangers and the availability of guides for inexperienced climbers which sounds like a terrible idea but is an available experience if you have the money

Very interesting read and not something I would normally have picked up so thank you for the recommendations and broadening my horizons.

Uncut one, Remus. I’m enjoying it.

Are you reading the original version of American Gods, Cote, or the 'uncut' version. I really enjoyed the original and hated the uncut one. I prefer Anansi Boys even over the original AG though.

The Return of the Soldier.

Ooh yes, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is excellent.
Other short books:
Skellig David Almond
We've had The Adoption Papers Jackie Kay recommended already - brilliant poetry
If you like graphic novels Maus and Persepolis are both amazing.
I'm about to start Rebecca West's The Soldier's Return which is looking appealingly short - will let you know how it goes.

I see Thinking Fast And Slow is also on offer at £1.99 - really worth reading, though can be hard going at times (Kahneman definitely doesn't do sparkling prose, but the ideas in there are worth the struggle).

I'd second A Closed And Common Orbit - I actually liked it a lot more than Small Angry Planet.

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers is on Kindle Daily Deal today. If you liked A Very Long Way To A Small Angry Planet then woŕth getting this.

Also on offer is On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder. I have no idea what this is like but it's 128 pages so might be a short read for people?

Loved American Gods, I do enjoy how Gaiman can twist horror, humour and tenderness so cleverly into a compelling story. Weirdly couldn’t get into the tv series, I should probably give it another go really as the book is great. Anansi Boys is one to read too if you enjoyed American Gods, a lighter read but obviously shares the character of Mr Nancy 🕷

I read American Gods about a month ago and really enjoyed it. I think I reviewed it briefly on here. I don't know how Gaiman's world-building in this book will stack up against a very strict judge (!) but it worked for me - but then I'm sloppy on things like that. There are lots of characters and moving around so it was quite complicated at times (who was doing what to whom and why) but I liked the structure and the imagination.

I read American Gods years ago Cote, but iirc I didn't find it quite as satisfying as I wanted to, but I do often find I prefer Gaimans ideas to his storytelling (and I am enjoying it on TV!). However, it might be partly that I read it because I love Diana Wynne Jones's Eight Days of Luke, which is a similar theme (Gaiman was a friend of hers, lucky man!), and 8 Days is much simpler and more linear (as a children's book), so I might not have properly appreciated American Gods at the time.

I am stuck at the moment, downloaded a KJ Charles as thought from Sadik's rec I would enjoy it (we often seem to like similar things!) but can't quite get into the spirit of it. Any more recs for v short books to inspire time to get that 50? I might try Antigone, but easier would be good!

Remus Hey! I love that book!

Haven't read it in years, mind.

Can anyone remember the lovely poem about Mary as a new mother someone posted ages ago on this thread? Have been trying to search back through the thread for it, but can't find it.

Have just had a lovely indulgent time buying actual paper books in an actual bookshop. Which there is actually space for in my tbr shelf thanks to this thread. So thank you.

I'm just popping back here to say that I'm 10% into American Gods and really enjoying it What did we all think about this book? I certainly hope that it continues as well as it started.

Jackson's Hobbit films make me furious.

112: 112: Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear – AC Bradley
Free on Kindle, and highly recommended. I really enjoyed it (and it made me feel quite clever too!). I liked the connections it made between plays, as well as the focus on what tragedy generally entails and how Shakespeare’s raise different questions about the nature of tragedy and the tragic hero. Superb. I will definitely read this again (with lots of Post-It notes!).

My reading has been at a slow crawl since the summer but is finally creeping back up so I thought I would shamefully sneak back in. I will say that having this thread has helped give me a kick to keep going a few times.

1 Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
2 Stark by Ben Elton
3 Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
4 Capricorn One by Ron Goulart
5 Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
6 The ADHD Effect on Marriage by Melissa Orlov
7 The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams
8 Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett
9 4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie
10 The Sherlock Chronicles
11 A Passage to India by EM Forster
12 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
13 The Queen of Distraction by Terry Matlen
14 The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
15 Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
16 The Truth by Terry Pratchett
17 The Present by Spencer Johnson
18 Age of Ultron by
19 The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor
20 Hiding an Elephant by Kim A Gay
21 Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

22 The Hobbit by JR Tolkien

Read this when I was about 8 and hadn't touched it since. Finally saw all the movies this year and thought I should reread, especially as I plan to give Lord of the Rings a go sometime. I enjoyed it but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I lay the fault for that squarely at Peter Jackson's door! A classic adventure story, reminded me of reading Kidnapped actually, and the book is very definitely better!

111: The Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliffe

This was okay. It’s a children’s book, which I think I read as a child, but couldn’t remember anything about. It was fine for an easy read, but it didn’t inspire me to read more of them.

*Colson not Colin Whitehead (I now feel vaguely complicit in erasing black identities).

Reading 129. In Search of Mary, by Bee Rowlatt
Journo retraces Mary Wollstonecraft's journeys in Norway and Paris, toting her baby. It helps if you know about Mary Wollstonecraft before reading it, as you won't necessarily learn much from this book. In fact, if you want to know more about MW, read something like Romantic Outlaws, about her life and that of her daughter, Mary Shelley. Read In Search of Mary if you want the musing of a 21st century journalist on whether women can balance children and work. It's not bad for what it is, but mainly it's a shallow travelogue rather than what it wants to be, a profound meditation on feminism and motherhood.

161 and 162 A Symphony of Echoes and A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor

Books 2 and 3 in the St Mary’s time travel series. I have read these before a few years ago and currently rereading the series. I do really love this series but it does get a bit weird at the end of Book 3 and into Book 4 (which I’m now reading).

163 and 164 Daffodils and Dry Rot And Frogspawn And Floor Polish by Mary Mackie

The author used to live in a stately home owned by the National Trust as her husband worked there, and these books are tales behind the scenes. Interesting if you like NT places, although they are written/set in the late 1980s and early 1990s so I imagine things are very different now!

Currently reading book 4 in the St Mary’s series and listening to Rebecca on audible, as well as Adrian Mole on audiobook in the car!