50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Two

I really liked Life after Life and interesting to read people's thoughts about God in Ruins. They echo over reviews I have read which really put me off reading it.

4 - The Good Girl - Fiona Neil Having really enjoyed The Betrayals last year I thought I would try another book my the same author. A light and quick read telling the story of Romy who is as the title suggests causes no problems at home and is a straight a student at school. When Romy gets herself embroiled in a scandal her mum is quick to blame her new boyfriend but it gradually becomes apparent that Romy is not the only member of the family to be keeping secrets. Not quite up to the standard of The Betrayals but still an enjoyable read.

Now on to The Child by Fiona Barton

(1) Witch is When Life Got Complicated by Adele Abbott
(2) Witch is Where It All Began by Adele Abbott
(3) Coming Clean by Kimberly Rae Miller
(4) Die Last by Tony Parsons
(5) Restaurant Babylon by Imogen Edwards Jones
(6) The Sugar Men by Ray Kingfisher
(7) The Hospital by Barbara O'Hare
(8) Fade Out by Rachel Caine
(9) Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
(10) Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
(11) Would You Like Some Magic With That by Annie Salisbury
(12) The Ride Delegate by Annie Salisbury
(13) The Magdalen Laundries by Lisa Michelle Odgaard

This is a novel based on true events and although enjoy isn't the right word it is a good read until the end. I felt the author captured it emotion and situations perfectly through out the book but tried to tie it all up in a happy ending which was a bit hard to believe.

Ha ha satsuki that's exactly how I felt watching, much a I imagine running a marathon must be... Just keep going you can finish it. The book is only a couple of hundred pages and yet the movie just drags and drags.

Ye gods the Benjamin Button movie. I think I aged forwards backwards and sideways during that nightmare. It just went on and on. Brad Pitt has made a lot of long dull films, and if you don’t find him attractive, as I don’t, it can really be quite trying.

cheerful I didn’t love God In Ruins to be honest, and thought lots of things didn’t work - and much preferred the wartime parts to the present day sections which were dull and often flabby - but I did think what she did with Viola was clever; the prolonged build up made the moment later on have more impact. It is one of the few things that really stayed with me from the book. So while it wasn’t a huge favourite I admire the ideas she was exploring with it, the myriad effects of war, and the fact that men like Teddy were just as flawed and complicated as anyone else, The ending yes - in a way it was in keeping with the themes and I see what she was doing, but those types of endings are always unsatisfactory, aren’t they, whatever the reasoning. I’m looking forward to her next one.

10. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F.Scott Fitzgerald really enjoyed this. Very funny and sad. Much better than the movie.

remus I will have to check out Anansi Boys. I have Good Omens and Ocean at the End of the Drive in my tbr pile first though.

The ending really annoyed me too Cheerful - hated it. But loved Life After Life.

Oh, I know, Satsuki, but we did have to spend an awful lot of time in her head.

I wasn't quite sure how I felt about the reason for her being such a cow. I mean, it did make perfect sense, but at the same time, you found out about it so late that I'd already spent most of the book going "But she has such a lovely dad! Why does she hate him so much?" So my disbelief was already fairly embedded.

There were parts of the parenting-Viola storyline that I thought were really well done - like when they're all "We shall let her be a free-range child like we were!" and she just wants to spend all day in her room - that produced a wry smile. And I liked that the early Viola was recognisably a non-screwed-up version of the later one - you could see many of her faults there, but also that she was basically a normal, slightly weak child. And I liked how you could see his way of trying was to take her on long boring nature walks, which was so completely the wrong thing to do, but very believable.

I dunno. I felt like Life After Life was a really plausible mix of lovely Edwardian idyll and plausibly fucked-up messy family and big "Let's kill Hitler!" themes of inevitability and power (and lack of it). And A God in Ruins was just ... small and petty and depressing. Which I know was the point, but that didn't make me enjoy it any more.

And the ending bloody annoyed me too.

11. Rose In Bloom by LM Alcott Like Cheerful, what struck me about this is how readable it is, for a book almost 150 years old. It is preachy, and there are annoyingly good bits that don't get expanded (like the somewhat ungrateful women she houses; such a realistic flicker it would have been lovely to "see" as well as hear) but it is quite surprisingly feminist, despite ending in happy marriages.

Crampton, I loved The Remains of the Day as well. Yes, Stevens was a naive and pompose arse, but I think that at least partly due to the times and circumstances he found himself in. I found it heartbreaking.

5. Death in the Clouds but Agatha Christie. Poirot's on a plane from Paris to London, when one of the passengers is found dead, with a poison-tipped dart in her neck. It borrowed heavily from Murder on the Orient Express, with the murder happening in a closed environment, and apparent strangers being revealed to have hidden connections. Still, good fun figuring everything out though.

viola was meant to be awful though, and had her reasons, and as such was very well drawn.

I loved Life After Life, but didn't like A God in Ruins at all. Hated Viola so much. Someone on Twitter was recommending Behind the Scenes at the Museum too, might see if the library has it.

I thought The Remains of the Day was an excellent book, but didn't find Stevens an easy character to spend time with at all. Characters you're supposed to think are misguided/mistaken are hard to pull off well, I think, especially in first person.

I haven’t seen the film but was very underwhelmed by the book / just found it really boring and didn’t get any of the emotion that others get from it. I’ve given up with Ishiguro now - I loved Never Let Me Go but haven’t enjoyed anything else of his I’ve read.

The film was very beautifully done, I thought. Long time since i last saw it but quite fancy watching it again.

I suppose if we all liked the same books then we would be the boring ones wouldn't we, Remus?

Anyway, not decided what to read next. Have got a couple of library books out, so probably one of them.

I loved the film southeast and saw it before reading the book - didn’t enjoy the book as much, so interested in what you think.

Meanwhile I’m 70 per cent through This Thing of Darkness and trying to make it go slow as I’m nearing the end and know I’ll have a huge book hangover when it’s finished. So hard to not just keep reading though.

I bloody hated that bloody boring butler, I'm afraid.

1. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

This was a reread. I first read it when it won the Booker Prize in 1989. I don't think I fully appreciated it then, but this time I thought it was poignant and rather sad.

Yes, Stevens the butler can be a tedious, pompous old fart. He can also be incredibly naive, unobservant and irritating. That is rather the point, I thought, revealing his faults, miguided pride, ignorance.

I enjoyed the slow reveal of his life, the misunderstandings, unintentional comic moments, and episodes of great sorrow suppressed for professional appearances.

He is emotionally repressed, only finally reaching full understanding of how empty his life really has been, and is, as old age approaches. Beautiful writing. Looking forward to reading more Ishiguro.

Anansi Boys well worth a read - Gaiman's best by far, in my opinion.

I finished backwards Rob Grant. It's the 3rd red dwarf book. Actually it was the 4th to be released but it followed on from the second so it's the 3rd in the series. It was ok, it was only written by one of the two men who wrote red dwarf and the previous 2 were written by both and you could tell. I wont bother with the last one.

I'm just starting number 14 the warsaw anagrams Richard Zimler.

Just finished American Gods, book number seven.

Really enjoyed it, much more so than the first time I read it. Will read more of Neil Gaimen I think - the only other ones I've read are Good Omens with Terry Pratchett which I enjoyed and The Ocean At The End of The Lane which I can't remember...

On to Nix now.

Yes I have it wishlisted murine it sounds good. I have to say I didn’t get into her crime ones, but it’s not a genre I really like anyway.

I totally agree with you on A God In Ruins and Life after Life, they're wonderful! There is a new Kate Atkinson coming out this year, Transcription (I think), that I'm very much looking forward to.

Thanks Satsuki and Southeast. Tempted to download them now but was being very strict with myself about trying to get through the too read pile. Tempted to look on awesomebooks.com and see if I can pick up second hand copies. Life after Life is a paper copy and I feel the need to own these books. Doing my Special 'I have found a new book / author I love' dance!