50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Five

85. The Greedy Queen:Eating With Victoria by Annie Gray

This is a sort-of biography of Victoria (it covers most of the main events of her life) but by looking at what and how she ate. There’s lots of detail about how food, cooking methods and presentation changed throughout her reign. I discovered she liked lamb chops and whisky! I think I learnt more about general food prep during that period than I did about Victoria herself though.

31. The Serial Killer’s Daughter - Lesley Welsh

Suzanne barely knew her father. When she dies and she is given his diaries she begins to discover she didn’t know him at all.

Fairly okay book. I felt as if a lot of the “twists” were a little silly but was an easy enough read and I quite enjoy reading about serial killers and their motives etc according to the author!

32. Then She Was Gone - Lisa Jewell

Ellie Mack went missing when she was 15 and everyone believes she ran away. Her mum Laurel believes different and when she meets a new man and his daughter is the image of Ellie she sets out to discover exactly what happened to her daughter.

I was absolutely hooked on this one! One of the twists was fairly obvious but it was the unravelling of the past that made this book interesting!

39. My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella

Katie is struggling to get by in her admin job at a London branding agency, and envious of her boss Demeter’s perfect life.
Katie’s dreams are shattered when she gets made redundant, and has to return home to Somerset to help her dad set up his new glamping business.
But when her old boss Demeter and her family book in for a holiday, Katie starts to realise that nobody’s life is as perfect as it seems from the outside and from looking at their Instagram.

A good holiday read, entertaining and quick to read, with a cast of mostly believable characters. This was so much better than the last Shopaholic book I opened (and abandoned unfinished).

@Dottierichardson - I love Jasper Fforde. The Thursday Next series (of which The Eyre Affair is the first) are a fun, escapist read. You definitely have to suspend disbelief, but once you do you'll soon find yourself wanting to book jump and work for SpecOps as a LiteraTec. The Nursery Crime series are also set in the Nextian world and are a good tongue in cheek read.

I'm waiting..........patiently for the next instalment in the Shades of Grey series...... which look like they are never coming. I've been waiting since 2009!and my patience is wearing thin, so Mr Fforde, or his literary agent, if you lurk on or around these reads.........please, please, please can we have the next instalment

Daphne similar issues re: Philip K. Dick, some interesting ideas but some attitudes hard to take. Although I remember enjoying The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch that was ages ago.' I read The Man in the High Castle recently and thought it fell quite flat. Or maybe it's just that alternative history was a new concept when the book came out and now it's practically a genre, so didn't have the impact it might have had?.

Fen sounds brilliant see that the American reviews compare her to Kelly Link and Karen Russell (enjoyed their stories in the past) also loved the first para about the eels. So have added to wish-list.

Saw you had Jasper Fforde on your list but not highlighted. Is he not worth reading? I have The Eyre Affair on my wish-list, but wasn't certain about it. The description online sounded enticing, but I'm way over book-buying budget. Don't know if you know them but I liked Fowler's 'Bryant and May' series sounded as if it might be a similar kind of book?

Argh.. My ipad has eaten my list so I have no idea what number I'm up to, or which books I reviewed last. I'll just go randomly backwards until I catch up with myself!

(Wild guess at numbers)

25 The Man in the High Castle - Philip K Dick
26 The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde
27 A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding - Jackie Copleton
28 The Hanging Tree - Ben Aaronovitch
29 The Furthest Station - Ben Aaronovitch
30 Electric Dreams - Philip K Dick
31 The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
32 Sing, Unburied, Sing - Jesmyn Ward
33 Fen - Daisy Johnson

Despite loving Bladerunner and the recent Electric Dreams TV series, I'd never actually read any Philip K Dick. And now I have, I'm really conflicted about him. His ideas are amazing, but I could not get on with his style of writing. At all. One story in the Electric Dreams collection describes a woman (a wife, of course) as "her breasts quivering with excitement" and I have tried my hardest but my stubborn breasts will not quiver with excitement alone. Overall, great ideas, dated, slightly dodgy writing.

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding A grandmother is grieving for the loss of her daughter and grandson in the Nagasaki atomic bomb, and blames a man from their past. When a mysterious man arrives on her doorstep claiming to be her thought-to-be-dead grandson, we learn more about what happened before the bombing and the reasons for family rifts. The parts about Japan were really evocative, although I did spend much of the book willing the grandmother to just bloody talk to this mystery man and stop leaving us in suspense!

The Bloody Chamber was ok. Fairytales retold with kick arse female leads, and all of the adjectives known to mankind. It did get quite repetitive after a few stories, though.

I think Sing, Unburied, Sing has been reviewed a lot on here and like most I.. can't say I enjoyed it, but it is a brilliantly written book. Parts of it were really harrowing, and the 'mother' was frustratingly shit but sadly probably very accurately drawn. Loved Jojo, Richie just about ripped me to shreds emotionally.

Fen was a complete random find. A short story collection based in the fens. Plenty of strong (and weird) female characters, beautiful writing and so creepy and unsettling. A bit from the blurb: "This is a place where animals and people commingle and fuse, where curious metamorphoses take place, where myth and dark magic still linger. So here a teenager may starve herself into the shape of an eel. A house might fall in love with a girl. A woman might give birth to a, well, what?" That kind of book. I love the way Daisy Johnson writes, and thought the 1st half of the book was excellent, unlike anything I've read for a while, in a very good way.

16. The Escape (John Puller #3) by David Baldacci

This was another solid thriller in the Puller series. Puller's brother escapes from prison under odd circumstances and he investigates what happened as well as what put him behind bars in the first place.

I still find this series far more interesting than Jack Reacher books. It is the perfect beach read.

84. The Mermaid And Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gower

I think if I had come to this before the discussion upthread I would have been disappointed due to all the hype. However I agree with the majority of posters upthread - it wants to be literary but isn’t really. Some of the sub storylines seemed to melt away - the storyline about Polly (the black girl) just stopped with no real resolution. I also didn’t really like any of the characters - they all felt quite flat and one-dimensional to me. There were also a few bits I found quite crude and unnecessary. However I did like the writing style and the sense of place and time. I would probably give something else by this author a go.

78. Reader, I married him. - Tracy Chevalier Stories inspired by Jane Eyre and reviewed here fairly recently I think. Not a huge fan of short stories and as usual this was a hit and miss collection. Some of the links to Jane Eyre were very slender. In the main it was more like stories inspired by marriage, or more specifically the line which was the title of the book.

I feel like such a slowcoach (and very lowbrow) compared to others. Here is my updated list - gems are highlighted!

1.Mythos - Stephen Fry

1. Origin - Dan Brown
2. The Mitford Murders - Jessica Fellowes

1. The Magus of Hay - Phil Rickman
2. Innocent Traitor - Alison Weir
3. The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood (audio)
4. Land Rover:The story of the car that conquered the world- Ben Fogle

Burial Rites is based on the true story of an Icelandic murderess, the last woman to be executed in the 1800's. It was a fascinating read.....and a beautiful book with it's black edged pages. It is reminiscent of Alias Grace in content but sufficiently different to still be interesting.

Animal - oh god, what a dire book. I wanted to like this, as I generally like Sara Pascoe, butI just couldn't. It was self indulgent and felt like it was written by a teenager. There were some highlights (few and far between) when she wrote well, but overall it was not good.

Friends of the Dusk - formulaic escapism set on the England/Wales border. Hereford has been through more Bishops than I've had hot dinners! Fun to read!

Hello everyone, I've not been around much as I was a bit slow reading the Cherry autobiography.

Here's my list so far (highlights in bold):

1. Biography of Queen Eliz II - Sally Beddell Smith
2. The Betrayal - Helen Dunmore
3. The Witches - Roald Dahl
4. 2nd in the Quartet but can't recall name - Elena Ferrante
5. Infinite Home - Kathleen Alcott
6. The Aviator's Wife - Melanie Benjamin
7. Ghosts of Everest - Hemlebb, Simonson
8. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
9. American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld

I've also got The Secret Barrister on reserve at the library.

I often find you have to be in the right mood for certain books and if they catch you at the right time can turn into proper favourites
Agree with this Shake, and I use it to rationalise abandoning books that I think I "should" like. Better to come back another time.

Currently finishing We'll always have Paris: trying and failing to be French, by Emma Beddington. Account by an English woman of marrying a Frenchman and moving first to Paris, then to Brussels. I was expecting one of those "And that's when our quaint peasant neighbour taught me to make the perfect cassoulet" accounts, but this is much more honest. Paris is hard - people are hostile, and she's struggling to take care of small children. Just because you fulfil a fantasy of moving to Paris doesn't mean you become the fantasy version of yourself that you pictured living there, swanning around all chic and soignee. Everyday life is just harder - back in London, she wanders around Marks & Spencers delighting in the sheer familiarity of everything. I recognise the Brussels she described - I live there for a while. People think of it as bland and bureaucratic, but there's a surreal edge to things, and beer with everything. Overall, a memoir of expat life that transcends the genre.

Taking a reluctant short break from This Thing of Darkness in order to read The Silent Companions for an unexpected book club I’ve decided to go along to.

Not all that impressed so far. On the very first page the author uses ‘leeched’ when she means ‘leached,’ and in the same scene uses ‘hello’ which I don’t think was in common use as a greeting at the time the novel is set. Writing is so-so.

Am I being picky? I’m being picky. And unfair. I’m judging it by This Thing of Darkness’s standards.

77. In the days of rain- Rebecca Stott
This was a recommendation from this thread. A brilliant memoir of a daughter's time in the Exclusive Brethren Cult in the 1960's and 70's. She wrote this to fulfil a promise to her father who was attempting to complete his memoirs before cancer took his life. It attempts to explain how a fringe religious order became a cult, how unlikely men were persuaded to carry out orders they would never normally consider, and also how hard it is to come to terms with life outside the Brethren. Recommend.

Ooh, I've got The Secret Barrister on reserve from the library although there seemed to be a long queue ahead of me.

Glad you're enjoying the Secret Barrister Scribbly - I keep recommending it to everyone I know!

Wray Delaney has a new book due out next Feb for those of us who list Almond a one of our guilty pleasures!

Quickly bobbing on to say thank you to Sadik for curing my giant audiobook funk with The Secret Barrister. Really enjoying it so. Love all the bits of historical detail too.
Sadly An Almond for a Parrot went the same way as the previous six? seven audiobook DNFs. Not my cup of tea, although now at least I understand the maypole reference.

44. JD Oswald - Dreamwalker

A young boy called Errol finds himself an outsider in his small village - he looks different from the other children and has no idea who his father is. What no one including Errol knows is that his mother was the heir to the throne of the Twin Kingdoms and his father a prince of an enemy country. He was born in secret as his mother died and hidden by Morgwm the Green, a great dragon mage. Morgwm's own son, Benfro, hatched on the same day and seems to take after his mother in his magical skills. And the future of life in the Twin Kingdoms rests in the hands of this pair of unlikely heroes.

Ah, well it explains why I thought the story has no adult depth - it’s a children’s book! Still, Michael Sheen’s narration was worth it and it’ll be a good audiobook for long car journeys with my two boys.

I may try Possession again in the future. I often find you have to be in the right mood for certain books and if they catch you at the right time can turn into proper favourites.

Yes shake His Dark materials is children’s/teen. She’s read the trilogy so should be ok with it if more of the same.

Also dnf Possession. Love, sex and poetry - how was it so incredibly dull?!

Just finished Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks. I quite like Faulks (apart form his penchant for sex scenes) so have no idea why it took me so long to get round to this one. I feel ambivalent about it, to be honest. I found one of the subplots so harrowing I put the book down 30 pages before the end to recover myself. What follows after that is dull, though. I found the romance cold and felt no real engagement with Charlotte. And her endless conversation with the artist about Proust I just skimmed. But I did feel educated by the time I reached the end. Birdsong is undoubtedly superior : it's a long time since I read it, mind. I did prefer this to Where My Heart Used To beat which I found very dull. Books about war ought to be moving and others have done it better , I feel.

@ShakeItOff2000 I also abandoned Possession, and a couple of the others listed.

Tanaqui take your point re: popularity, list make more sense seen that way - although thought it hilarious that elsewhere is advertised as guide to summer reading - can't see myself lounging with Nigella!
26 The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan. The fictional diary of Sarah Crowe, a blocked author who moves to an isolated house in Rhode Island after the death of girlfriend Amanda. Sarah finds a hidden room in the dank ‘unwholesome’ basement and in it a manuscript by the previous tenant – who committed suicide. The manuscript is filled with legends about the nearby, ancient ‘red tree’: supposedly the site of disappearances, suicides, sacrifice and more…Then Constance turns up to rent the attic and everything, including Sarah, starts to fall apart.
If I’d seen this in a bookshop I’d never have picked it, it has the worst cover ever, also the edition I had was a pain – the ‘manuscript’ sections are printed to mimic typeface and so pale I had to read under a strong light. This is technically horror/weird fiction – a little bit Lovecraft, a dash Shirley Jackson – there’s a list of influences included. I’d never heard of Kiernan but fans include Jeff VanderMeer and Neil Gaiman which is why I chose this. It’s not ‘jump-out-of-your-seat’ or ‘gore-fest’ horror, it’s the unsettling, slow-moving kind, which is about all I can cope with, so that much was okay. I gulped down the first half of the book then slowed right down. I really couldn’t decide if I liked the rest of the book or if the ending wasn’t just a bit hackneyed. There’s a metafictional element (and references to other Kiernan stories which I had to look up) which didn’t totally work for me - or maybe just wasn’t in the mood for. Also, didn’t help that I saw the ‘twist’ coming. But partially satisfied my ‘haunted house’ craving.

Satsuki - I expect you’re right that it is YA (or even children Fantasy, Piggy). I’ve never looked for it in a book shop or Amazon and picked it for an easy going Audible listen that had great reviews. Some minor violence in it, I’d class it as similar to the Dark Materials trilogy. Is that YA or children’s fiction/fantasy?

I’ve read 30 from Best’s list and at least two abandoned (Possesion, I capture a castle).