50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Eight

Final book of the year:
75) The Epigenetics Revolution: Nessa Carey. Suggested by someone on here. Far too much detail about methylation and acetylation for a general reader of popular science books, and probably not enough for someone with a knowledge of the subject. I found it mostly very dull, which was a shame, because every chapter started off with an interesting premise or case study, but quickly descended into pages of turgid detail.

I'm 150 pages into Marcia Clark's book Without A Doubt (Christmas present) and more than two-thirds of the way through listening to William Gaddis's JR on Audible but I've still got 11 hours to go so am unlikely to finish that by the end of the year!

Well done to everyone on all their reading this year.

Finished book 72 today for my first full year on the thread. List below.

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
4. Girls on Fire - Robin Wasserman

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

72. A Christmas Wish - Erin Green

Flora was left on a doorstep as a baby. This Christmas she goes back to the village to try and discover who she is.

Nice happy easy Christmas read to finish off the year.

Anyone have any kindle unlimited books they would recommend while I have my free trial?

Satsuki I hadn't realised that Dangerous Games covered some common Danielle Steel themes...the correspondent in this book is called Alix Phillips, and yes, there's multiple holidays to France!
Laughing at I Love Dick as your first book of the year, that's a title that's hard to beat!

187. The Book Lovers’ Miscellany by Claire Cock-Starkey

A collection of random facts about books and reading. Lots of interesting stuff but it is short!

188. Scribbles In The Margin by Daniel Gray

Another short one, this is a collection of 50 short pieces about the joys of reading with titles like ‘Reading in pubs’ and ‘Waiting for the next book in a series’. I loved this and would recommend to those on this thread!!

189. The Importance Of Being Trivial by Mark Mason

The author investigates love of trivia and what makes the perfect fact. If you like trivia this is a good read and full of random facts, but it is from 2008 so some of the facts are now out of date.

190. Ex Libris by Ann Fadiman

Last one of the year and sadly I didn’t like it. It’s another one that is a collection of essays about books and reading, but while I agreed with some of her points I found the writing style hard work and I didn’t get some of her references.

Looking forward to next year! Will be starting with either Jacob’s Room Is Full Of Books by Susan Hill, or Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller, as they’re both due back at the library on Saturday!

Here's my final list for 2017, with highlights starred (cba to do so many bolds ). Not sure what I'll start 2018 with, perhaps the Mervyn King book.

1 - The Hacienda: How Not To Run a Club
2 - The Thriling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage **
3 - A Closed and Common Orbit **
4 - How to be a Heroine
5 - Breakfast at Tiffany's
6 - Forty Autumns
7 - The Dark Net **
8 - The Dream Thieves
9 - How to be a Victorian
10 - Europe in Winter **
11 - The Skeleton Cupboard
12 - Poor Economics
13 - Mutton (India Knight)
14 - Development as Freedom
15 - Blue Lily Lily Blue
16 - A Very Expensive Poison
17 - The Year of Living Danishly
18 - The Raven King
19 - What We Cannot Know **
20 - Bitch in a Bonnet
21 - Faulks on Fiction
22 - The Complete Guide to Beekeeping
23 - On Liberty
24 - Wishful Drinking
25 - Being Mortal **
26 - Death's End
27 - Emergency Admissions
28 - Romancing the Inventor
29 - The Signal and the Noise **
30 - Lion
31 - The Envoy
32 - Bad Pharma
33 - Fermat's Last Theorem **
34 - The Descent of Man
35 - The Murdstone Trilogy
36 - The Power
37 - No Way But Gentleness
38 - Prisonomics
39 - The Midnight Swimmer
40 - The Black Gryphon
41 - Just One Damned Thing After Another
42 - Imperial Life in the Emerald City
43 - Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field
44 - Another Day in the Death of America **
45 - Lady Midnight
46 - Red Love
47 - Running Blind
48 - The History Thieves
49 - Two Cheers for Anarchism
50 - The Code Book **
51 - The Underground Girls of Kabul
52 - Wicked Lovely
53 - Reality is not what it seems
54 - Lord of Shadows **
55 - The Demon's Lexicon
56 - Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed **
57 - Do Not Say We Have Nothing **
58 - Snowcrash
59 - Children of Time **
60 - Release
61 - And The Weak Suffer What They Must **
62 - The Ruby in the Smoke
63 - Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing
64 - The shadow in the North
65 - Weapons of Math Destruction **
66 - Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are **
67 - The Lost City of Z
68 - The Many Selves of Katherine North
69 - Sporting Chance (Serrano Legacy 2)
70 - Winning Colours (Serrano Legacy 3)
71 - Narconomics
72 - The Sumage Solution (Gail Carriger)
73 - The Tragical History of Dr Faustus
74 - Captive Prince
75 - Prince's Gambit **
76 - Kings Rising
77 - The Hate U Give **
78 - Eggs or Anarchy
79 - The Box
80 - A Mind of Its Own
81 - The Marshmallow Test
82 - The Curse of Chalion
83 - Paladin of Souls
84 - Algorithms to Live By
85 - Not Thomas
86 - The Hallowed Hunt **
87 - The Threat Level Remains Severe
88 - Things can only get worse
89 - Living NonViolent Communication **
90 - Spectred Isle **
91 - Occupy Me
92 - Rivers of London
93 - NonViolent Communication: A Language of Life **
94 - Penric's Demon
95 - Romancing the Werewolf
96 - Acadie
97 - The Magpie Lord **
98 - Testosterone Rex
99 - A Case of Possession **
100 - Flight of Magpies
101 - The Reluctant Fundamentalist **
102 - Pattern Recognition
103 - The Mother of All Questions **
104 - A Fashionable Indulgence
105 - A Seditious Affair
106 - A Gentleman's Position
107 - I Contain Multitudes
108 - Gang Leader For a Day **

I agree Tanaqui - the first of the KJ Charles book was definitely the least interesting. A Seditious Affair was my favourite - Silas is such a great character.

sigh All the lengthy lists of books is making me wish I'd joined the thread earlier in the year. As it is, I feel very unproductive reading wise this year. Onwards and upwards to 2018.

And just in time for this year...

4.) Red Seas under Red Skies, by Scott Lynch -- Second in the Gentleman Bastards Sequence, and sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora. Thieves and con-artists, Locke and Jean have plans to rob the Sinspire, the celebrated gambling house on Tal Verrar's Golden Steps, but once again it seems other forces cannot resist attempting to manipulate them to their own ends.

Fantasy series so far set in a quasi-fantastical version of Europe (mainly Italy so far). This one involved quite a bit of piratical derring do, although not until towards the last third. I love the depth of detail and inventiveness to the world, although it could perhaps have been trimmed down a little bit. But still, it was a damn fun read. This was a reread, it ends on a cliffhanger, and I haven't read the next in the sequence. I'm kind of itching to, but I prefer to space out my chunky fantasy reads a little, so will read a couple of other books in between.

And that will very likely be my last book of 2017. I wish I'd read more, or that I'd kept a list, but eh. Too late now.

Next up is Gossip from the Forest, by Sara Maitland, a non-fiction work drawing parallels between woodland and fairy tales. Not sure whether I'll start it now or wait until tomorrow to start fresh in the New Year. To be honest, I'll probably start it now.

Last two books completed this morning, bringing my total for the year to 92. Down 18 on last year but I have been reading more non-fiction which always takes me longer. Full list is:

1. Paul Cartledge - The Spartans
2. Rae Beth - The Hedge Witch's Way
3. Terry Pratchett - Mort
4. Phil Rickman - Mean Spirit
5. MJ Carter - The Printer's Coffin
6. Karen Maitland - The Raven's Head
7. Bernard Knight - The Sanctuary Seeker
8. Rachael Weiss - The Thing About Prague
9. Neil Oliver - Master of Shadows

91. Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman - The Daily Stoic
    A short sentence or two from one of the classical Stoics, then a paragraph about the lessons to learn from it. Quite interesting and I've been using it as a morning reading all through the year.

92. Suzy Reading - The Self-care Revolution
    Picked up on a whim earlier this week and I think it might be quite useful. It's that time of year, after all, so I'll be sitting down with it again to work through some thoughts and strategies for 2018.

1. This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson (kindle)
2. Where the Bodies are Buried by Chris Brookmyre (kindle)
3. Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick (kindle)
4. The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy (hard copy)
5. Thank Heaven Fasting by EM Delafield (kindle)
6. 11.22.63 by Stephen King (audible)
7. Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves (Dad's kindle)
8. The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson (Dad's kindle)
9. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (kindle)

Happy New Year everyone!

70. One Shot by Lee Child Jack Reacher. What a guy. Rolls into town, gets to the bottom of a can of worms orchestrated by some extremely bad baddies (but no match for Reacher), still manages to be irresistible to women despite the at best basic hygiene and sartorial regime dictated by his self imposed off grid lifestyle. I'm really enjoying these books.

Back soon with my list.

57. A Gentleman’s Position by KJ Charles. Last of this regency gay romance trilogy, an entertaining read (oddly, the main character from the first book was the least engaging for me, so I am glad I persisted with the others). I reckon that is me done for the year unless I curl up somewhere this afternoon! Happy new year everyone!

clueless your post made me laugh - I read tons of Danielle Steel as a child/teen as my mum had loads and I read whatever I could get my hands on. I had a party piece of making up DS style plots when given a setting or character involving divorce/adoption/missing person/life changing accident/usually all the above. I have never read one as an adult, but I think of them with fondness. Where else would you find Cleveland Donovan, the dashing war correspondent, but by the pool in the South of France in a Danielle Steel novel?

I’m trying to finish the books I started before my eye troubles, so unless I get a hurry on in the next 24 hours m, I Love Dick will be standing proud at the top of my list for the new year

Looking forward to another year of books with you all

43. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Read for work, I suppose technically a re-read but probably 25 years since I last read it and realised this time around that a lot of my memories of it were actually from the films.
44. If I Could Tell You Just One Thing by Richard Reed
Listened to this on Audible and have been dipping into it for months between other books. The author basically asked 60+ successful individuals for one piece of advice, and this book is a series of very short chapters sharing their answers. I found it inspiring, just wish I could remember more of it.
45. Dangerous Games by Danielle Steel
My Christmas present from my Mum, who clearly knows I enjoy reading but not what I like! There's a good story in here but the writing was annoyingly repetitive. My first Danielle Steel book and I won't rush to read another.

MegBusset Haven't been thinking about head start on 2018 thread, but would you think me vain if I confessed to having finished that Danielle Steel book in a hurry because I didn't want it as no 1 on my 2018 list?! Couldn't face looking at it topping the list for a whole year, but not sure which of my massive to read pile will have that honour.

45 books probably puts me in the slow readers club on here, but it's a huge jump from 20 last year and 12 the year before so a it's been a big reading year for me. I've loved keeping up with the threads and getting so many great recommendations on here, look forward to joining in again in the new year :)

Thanks slightly have downloaded the Chris Packham.
126. Vinegar Girl - Anne Tyler Have read a lot of Anne Tyler. This was ok, certainly not her best. This has featured heavily on the worse book of the year thread. It wasn't that bad in my opinion but I suspect it is going to be quite forgettable. Story of youngish woman whose scientist and eccentric father tries to persuade her to marry his lab assistant so he can maintain his visa.
127. The Music Shop - Rachel Joyce Story of a man who only sells vinyl and has the gift to match people with their perfect music. Quite twee, very gentle and sometime humorous. Inoffensive and quite soothing read.

Probably my last post is the year. Wanted to say how much I have enjoyed my first year on this thread. I love to read and I also love to talked about books and pick up recommendations. The reviews on here are often inspired and will try to up my game when I join next year's thread in terms of witticisms! Having a DH who works away and 4 DC's to keep me busy this thread has literally been a life saver. Thank you one and all.
Will be back next year, hopefully with a new, more exciting user name!
And I am delighted to be visiting my favourite book tomorrow, Barter Books In Alnwick. A fitting way to end a great year of reading.
Happy New Year !

Is anyone else reading several books at once to time the endings for a head start on the 2018 thread

Can't remember who reviewed it now but Chris Packham's memoir Fingers in the Sparkle Jar is 1.99 today on Kindle.

My final list for 2017 before I start one on 2018, I managed to just scrape past the 50 mark. Good ones in bold, ones I didn't like in italic.

The Muse Jessie Burton
I'm Travelling Alone Samuel Bjork
Golden Hill Francis Spufford
The Girl Before JP Delaney
Her Every Fear Peter Swanson
The Scent of Death Andrew Taylor
The Breakdown BA Paris
Cold Earth Ann Cleeves
The Ashes of London Andrew Taylor
I Found You Lisa Jewell
Black Widow Chris Brookmyre
The Other Mrs Walker Mary Paulson Ellis
Black Water Lillies Michel Bussi
The Angel Tree Lucinda Riley
Skeletons Jane Fallon
Everything But The Truth Gillian McAllister
A Prayer For Owen Meany John Irivine (yes sorry I know it's a MN favourite)
I See You Claire Macintosh
The Seven Sisters Lucinda Riley
He Said, She Said Erin Kelly
The Storm Sister Lucinda Riley
Need You Dead Peter James
The Essex Serpent Sarah Perry
Where The Bodies Are Buried Chris Brookmyre
The Girls Emma Cline
Never Alone Elizabeth Haynes
The Lie Of The Land Amanda Craig
The Girlfriend Michelle Francis
Love Like Blood Mark Bllingham
The Shadow Sister Lucinda Riley
Watch Me Disappear Jill Dawson
The Hare With Amber Eyes Edward De Waal
Hearts And Minds Amanda Craig
Then She Was Gone Lisa Jewell
Good Me, Bad Me Ali Land
Commonwealth Ann Patchett
Hag Seed Margaret Atwood (can't believe I wouldn't like a Margaret Atwood book, I've loved everything else I've read by her, but not this one)
The Olive Tree Lucinda Riley
Dead Woman Walking Sharon Bolton
I Am, I Am, I Am Maggie O'Farrell
The People At Number Nine Felicity Everett
I Am Missing Tim Weaver
The Dry Jane Harper
Birdcage Walk Helen Dunmore
Autumn Ali Smith
Behind Her Eyes Sarah Pinborough
The Betrayals Fiona Neill
The Minuatrist Jessie Burton
When Mummy Drinks Gill Simms
Magpie Murders Anthony Horowitz
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine Gail Honeyman
Exposure Aga Lesiewicz

52, when I started I wasn't sure whether I'd reach the magic number, I'm glad I have and look forward to starting all over again.

46. The Deaths by Mark Lawson.
Story of four upper middle class families in leafy Buckinghamshire. From the outset we know that one family meets a grizzly end, but not which one. Part satire, part thriller, not hugely successful at either TBH. I don't expect that novels will always have likeable characters I can care about, but when they're all this awful then the plot needs to be more engaging than it was here.

On joining this thread, I never thought I'd get anywhere near fifty books, perhaps reading thirty, so I'm pleasantly surprised at how many I did read.

Thanks to all the people on here for your reviews, which were especially entertaining when the real stinkers were discussed, and which kept me motivated to read as often as I can. See you all on the 2018 thread (although I know I'll never make the 50 next year either).

51. Rushing To Paradise by J. G. Ballard

This was another dissection of psychopathologies, like Ballard likes to do, about a group of eco-activists who start living on an island to protect the albatross from nuclear tests. But their leader has other plans that soon lead to killings and a unique social experiment.

There was a time when I would count Ballard as one of my favourite authors. This book is also interesting, albeit not his best (or maybe I've outgrown his "weirdness"), and I was pleasantly surprised at the feminist discourse that raged through the book towards the end.

I hope everyone had a really lovely Christmas.

I have finally made the 50 and managed a few extras in for luck. I didn't think I'd make it a few weeks ago. The puppy I said I'd consider in the spring materialised last month and isn't so much a bundle of joy as a bundle of teeth. Yours truly is the one left dealing with the carnage.

50. Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I'm only counting this as one as they are all so short it feels like cheating otherwise.

51. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry. Much reviewed already. I enjoyed it but wouldn't rave about it.

52. Enemies at Home by Lindsey Davis. Second in the Flavia Albia series. The character is coming into her own finally. She is tasked with proving a group of slaves did not murder their master.

53. Deadly Election by Lindsey Davis. Next in the series. A decaying corpse is found on the premises of the family auction business. Albia investigates.

I don't think I'll fit in any more this year.

Happy Christmas everyone :) I didn't get given a single book this year (sob) but a Paperwhite from DH so very happy with that :) I have way too many unread books already if I am honest.

87. The Devil in the Marshalsea, Antonia Hodgson

Decently-done historic thriller, set in C18th London. A young man falls foul of a creditor and is thrown into the Marshalsea debtor's prison, which turns out to be a fascinating underworld with its own coffee shops and bars, social structure and mysterious secrets. A fellow prisoner has been murdered and our hero sets out to find out who did it and why. More of a romp than a serious literary book (stock characters and a rather silly plot) but I did think the period detail stood up well, and I learned a fair bit about life in the prison which is all based on contemporary accounts.

I then started reading Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender, which is interesting but quite heavy going (a lot of repetition) so took a break to read

88 Friend Request, Laura Marshall

Standard psychological thriller (cf Into the Darkest Corner, Girl on the Train etc etc). Louise is a twitchy single mother who gets a friend request on Facebook from a school friend - a school friend who died 25 years ago. What did happen on the night when Maria disappeared, and is Louise in danger? Again, pretty standard stuff, and the identity of the killer won't be a huge shock to most. I did like the way that the author layered the various plots - there are several inter-linking mysteries here, and even if you work out who the baddy is going to be early on, there are still potentially some unexpected twists as you work out exactly what is going on.

I'm hoping to finish the Cordelia Fine by the end of the 31st, along with Ann Patchett's Commonwealth, which I am about 2/3 way through and very much enjoying.

90. Night After Night by Phil Rickman

Another re-read, this one on the spooky side. Knap Hall is a former Tudor farmhouse outside Winchcombe, although most recently it was the ultimate luxury hotel owned by an actress and former model whose guests pay for the privilege of mixing with celebrity. After tragedy strikes the house is back on the market but its recent history makes it unlikely there will be a quick sale. Enter a TV production company interested in creating a Big Brother for the paranormal - a mixture of well known people, some sceptics and some believers, will spend the week in an unknown (to them and the audience) house which is potentially haunted to see which side comes out on top at the end. Journalist Grayle Underhill, who has experience of such matters, has been hired as a researcher by the production company and comes to realise that the presence at Knap Hall is not the one the producer is hoping for.

49. The Invisible Child/The Fir Tree Tove Janssen Two Moomin stories sold in aid of OXFAM's 'Invisible Child' campaign. A total blatant cheat read in order to give me a chance of getting to 50 books by midnight on Sunday, these were sweet and inconsequential and I read them over lunch. In my defense, they were one of my Christmas presents. And I've never really been into Moomins, so glad I've read them for general kids' book knowledge. Can't see me reading any more though.

26. A Christmas Carol a freebie from Audible and Amazon Prime. Loved this, beautifully read by a cast of famous names including: Sir Derek Jacobi as Dickens, Kenneth Cranham as Ebenezer Scrooge, Roger Allam as Jacob Marley, Brendan Coyle as The Ghost Of Christmas Past, Miriam Margolyes as The Ghost Of Christmas Present & Tim Mcinnerny as The Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come. A great seasonal listen that really got me in the Christmas mood. I've downloaded Mr Dickens and His Carol as recommended by a PP and available for 99p at the moment & the kindle freebie addition of the original novella so I can read them next December.

48. A Surfeit of Lampreys Ngaio Marsh Golden Age detective mystery. Lord Wutherwood is found dead in a lift. His impoverished brother and his family are the obvious beneficiaries. But could the charming, eccentric Lampreys really be killers? First Marsh I've read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Unlike Christie, where everyone is a potential suspect, this one is mostly full of unlikely or you-really-hope-they-didn't suspects, with a few exceptions, which added to the tension. The mystery itself wasn't that great, but the characters were a lot of fun and it's immensely readable.