50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Eight

12 days of Kindle has begun...would recommend The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John Le Carre and also Golden Hill is worth a punt for 99p, pretty good read, despite flaws.

Can’t see anything else I fancy - Rules of Civility is there but was a little bored by Gentleman in Moscow so don’t know.

I have, best, but years ago (when I was a teenager). Can't remember much about it but think I enjoyed it. I think I was expecting it to be a bit more based on the actual British historical samurai, which it really isn't. (It's a historical romp). But there's lots of good stuff about cultural misunderstandings (one of his servants kills himself over a minor misunderstanding, and they're all horrified that he hasn't had a bath in literally months etc).

119 Singing in the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh
An old fashioned whodunit set on a ship. I enjoyed this. A minor gripe is that three central characters had surnames beginning with M, and I kept getting confused between them, but that's probably more the fault of my brain than the writer, so I'll forgive her.

I haven’t best but did get it last time it was on a deal. It looks good.

Tempted by Shogun on Kindle deal of the day. Anyone read?

51. Artemis by Andy Weir

What a disappointment - this is Ramada after Ready Player One, all over again. If you thought The Martian was juvenile (Remus!) don't even go near this one. I guess this is YA but I would just call it crap, personally.

It is about a teenage girl who lives in the first city on the moon. A bit of a rebel, with a limited vocabulary, she gets into a mess, discovers a conspiracy, fucks it all up, then redeems herself (not really). It's all a bit twee and clearly written over a single weekend and with film rights in mind.

76. Someone to Love by Mary Balogh

Regency romance. Predictable, but still an enjoyable light read.

Best
They are beautiful pictures, aren't they? I think I've read the book before, but couldn't resist owning it. A pull out map too! #swoon

87. Death by Gaslight by Michael Kurland

Second in a Sherlock Holmes series which is centred on the activities of Professor Moriarty, with Holmes making only occasional appearances. Holmes is called in to solve a series of murders of aristocratic men - all four initial found in locked rooms with their throats slit. Police and Holmes remain puzzled and the body count rises. Meanwhile, Moriarty is paying little attention until he is hired by the collective representatives of the criminal underworld, who are finding their activities curtailed by the heavy-handed approach of the police in trying to find the killer. Moriarty and Holmes find themselves in an uneasy alliance as the hunt goes on. Good book, quite amusing, I'd recommend this series.

Sorry, The Mysterious Affair At Styles. Rushing.

104 A Fashionable Indulgence by KJ Charles

Life has been a bit hectic lately, so wanted some easy reading. This hit the spot perfectly - a Regency romance with enough plot and depth to keep me nicely engaged. Bit slow to get going, but after the first 20% or so roughly 2nd tier Heyer, (but with gay sex and radical politics).

Remus I have serious book envy at that Scott book. I adore those old photos.

105. Miss Read - A Village Christmas and A Christmas Mouse. Got a soft spot for Miss Read and her observations on minutiae ev3n if the tales are a bit moralistic.

106. The Mystery at Styles -Agatha Christie. In which Poirot is introduced and we ponder how realistic a fake beard made of wool can be. Love it,

I gave up on The Wonder (dull) and hated The Loney (stupid). Burial Rites is far, far better.

Remus that's good to hear. Have asked for book tokens for Xmas so it's going on my list. My heart sank when I glanced at the inside cover reviews of The Good People as saw The Times had described it as "somewhere between ...The Loney and The Wonder."
I was indifferent to The Wonder but positively loathed The Loney. If I was Hannah Kent I would be suing for defamation!

Hmm, well I think I might be a little late for the 50 book challenge for 2017, but at least I'm here in plenty of time to start the 2018 challenge. I've read very little published fiction this year -- my attention span's been all over the place. I've been reading and writing a lot of fanfiction, but I've been noticing a knock-on effect in the quality of my writing, so it's time to start getting back into the published stuff and reading for pleasure.

No clue how many books I've read this year (hey, I've written 300k and played a shit-ton of Skyrim, so it's not like I've been totally unproductive), but the last two I read were:

1.) Assassin's Apprentice, Robin Hobb -- A reread. The first in the Farseer Trilogy, in which a royal bastard is trained in the arts of assassination and magic to become a tool for the king. This starts with Fitz as a boy, and tells much of the story of his early life. Wonderful and beautifully written.

2.) Stallo, Stefan Spjut A boy disappears from an isolated cabin in the 1970s and his mother claims he was abducted by a giant. In the present day, a cryptozoologist captures an image on film that she believes could be a troll, and soon after another boy goes missing. I was a bit disappointed by this. It was billed as a horror novel, but it wasn't really horror at all more a thriller with some supernatural elements. I really liked elements of it -- the matter-of-fact way the trolls were presented, and the cult had such creepy potential, but it was about a third too long. The first person segments from the cryptozoologist's mother's POV seemed completely unnecessary until the end and could have been done away with entirely. Too many characters, too much filler. I enjoyed it, but I was starting to skim a bit by the end.

Currently reading the first George Smiley novel, Call for the Dead, and enjoying it quite a bit.

Looking forward to 2018 now, tbh. I've been contemplating making a list of all the books in the house waiting to be read, but I'm not sure there's enough paper in the world to make that list.

RMC - I thought Burial Rites superior to The Good People, so hopefully you'll really like it.

119. The Good People - Hannah Kent This was a beautiful and heart breaking read. Wonderfully written. The tale of a woman in rural Ireland at the beginning of the 1800's who is left to care for her disabled grandson after the death of her daughter and husband. Surrounded by grief and folklore she believes that the child is a changeling and sets about trying to drive the fairy out with the help of the local wise woman.
All my working life I have taught children with complex physical and learning needs. My colleagues and I have often pondered how these young people would have been received in days gone by. Was a poignant read. Will definitely look out for her previous novel Burial Rites.

Lost track of exactly how many books I have read this year but its about 30 I think. Finished the Surrogate by Louise Jensen yesterday. Great Books. If anyone else has read it any similar books?

140. Kid Gloves, Adam Mars-Jones
I expected to love this account of a man looking after his father, a former judge, in his final years. It's reasonably amusing - the writer is gay and describes his attempts to persuade his homophobic father that it's really okay, as well as his later indignation when his father denounces homophobia in others (oh no - you don't get to claim the moral high ground that easily!) I didn't love his account of the big cases his father was involved with. I've read a lot of cases in my time, so I couldn't shake my sense that he was summarising them all wrong.

I’m reading Artemis, the 2nd book of the guy who wrote The Martian and it’s rubbish. Or YA. I’m colorblind in that range.

There isn’t much science, either. Bah humbug.

Just started The dark is rising by Susan Cooper. Robert MacFarlane is doing a real time read a long on Twitter.

And there was me trying to be so subtle and not let on that I'd noticed.

Garrard - Oh god I know I’m going to annoy myself by continually misspelling this. Like Olive Kitteridge/redge/tridge all over again

The Cherry Garrard is DIVINE - really hope you like it.