50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Two

The latest novel by Markus Zuzak is on the Kindle Daily Deal today. I'm not sure if I would like it or not so I've had a look at the reviews and was very amused by one review that gave it 5*'s with the heading "It is a book." It goes on to say "Bought it for my wife. She doesn't seem to like it much." Great review dude!

I am jealous of Hot Tub Book Club. Do you all have the new waterproof Kindles for it? It would be just the excuse I need to 'splash out' and buy one

waterbird it’s actually better if you don’t try to read too much into it. It’s about the symbiotic relationship between the main characters and the general “wtf is it all for anyway” of existence. You miss a lot of the comedy reading it. I watched it live with amazing actors and was riveted, and I’ve only read it after seeing it so don’t know how I would have responded to it cold on the page.

13. The Magicians by Lev Grossman

When I finished this book I wondered if Mr Grossman had a similar system to Piggy from this thread, but instead of a random number generator providing the next book to read, he has a random book generator throwing out combinations of successful books with which he must create a mash-up novel.
If this is his system, then the two books Grossman received with which to create his book project were The Secret History and Prince Caspian.
The first two thirds of the book are set in an East coast preppy college of magic. The cast of characters and the introspective, ironic, self-loathing, alcoholic louche ambience that Tartt creates so beautifully in The Secret History are reset in a special private college that does fancy tricky magic instead of Greek.
The magic is clever, much more believable (if one can believe one type of wizardry over another) than pointing a wand and shouting some bastardised Latin, but it is so so much less fun. There is almost no joy in this book which I think is rather a shame. Instead everything feels like hard, boring and rather pointless work. The magicians themselves hardly seem thrilled at all by the possibilities they have at their fingertips. Instead they drink a lot and have sarcastic arguments or angry sex with each other.
The final third of the book Grossman woke up and realised he now had to do Narnia and so thrust the boring, miserable numpties into a steroid and testosterone pumped fantasy world. Some pretty cool battle magic happens here, plus talking animals and a really really creepy baddie. I quite enjoyed this section minus the centaurs keeping a sort of sex-corral of fuck horses.

It’s definitely a magic book for grown ups, but apart from a few moments where you get the reading tingles of ‘what it were really possible’ it’s really quite a miserable read. Can’t decide if I'll keep going with the series. Probably not.

scribbly - I thought HTBC was an excuse for you to lie in the bath reading for hours but am amazed it is a real thing albeit not yet a success.
Waterbird - I think you have summed up the pivotal points of the play in your third paragraph. Plenty of tedious discussion lies ahead...
A J Finn - The Woman in the Window have finished this one (no.23). Again about 200 pages too long but superior to a lot of the other psycho thrillers. I can't help thinking it will make a good film - especially the final scene in the snow on the roof. I feel as if I have been eating too much chocolate by bingeing on psycho thrillers and need something wholesome but not worthy.

I admit I haven’t read Waiting for Godot, Waterbird, but I think it might be wise to brace yourself for disappointment.

Lost track of the number but I'm currently reading the play "Waiting for Godot" for a course and it is driving me up the wall!
What I want to know (and hope to find out by the end)
Who is Godot and why are they waiting for him? What's the relationship between the two protagonists? And what's with this "Lucky the Pig" all about, and how did he get to that situation?
These characters seriously need to get a life.

Sorry Hot tub book club was disappointing Scribbly. Setting sounds amazing but as I have said before and no doubt will again, book club when no bugger reads the book gives me the rage.

This article has just appeared on Facebook. Apparently Dan Mallory a.k.a A J Finn has responded to the New Yorker article. He admits lying, blaming his lies about cancer on his bipolar disorder.
Lots of the comments on FB are " I don't care, it's the best book ever!'
bbc.in/2DWnuRZ

Hot Tub Book Club was for a second year running a great disappointment, in terms of a book club in a hot tub.
Last year everyone had read the book but nobody got in the hot tub (I wanted to, brought my costume and everything, but would have been discussing the book wetly by myself). This year we got in the hot tub there were lit champagne flute holders and music but no one had read the book.
Next year will be the year when the two factors required for a successful HTBC will occur.

17. The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman

I found this hard to read, not just because of the horrifying content, but because there was lots of descriptions of street names and people related to so-and-so and I find my mind drifts a bit when I read paragraphs like that. I didn’t feel the need to pick up the book every chance I got. That said the story is almost unbelievable. What that man went through in WW2 and then survived boggles the mind.
I think I need a break from reading about the holocaust for a while. That’s the third one this year.

Angielou Liz Nugent is one of my favourite authors! Lying in Wait was her best I think. Skin Deep made me feel a bit uncomfortable, the character was so well written. Thanks for the reminder, I must reread her!

After the last great recommendation, any suggestions for my next Audible credit? Currently thinking of either 'Death in Ten Minutes', or 'Rise Up Women!' - but has anyone read 'Why We Get the Wrong Politicians' which feels like it could be quite apt right now.

So far I have read

1. How To Stop Time by Matt Haig
2. Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
3. Killing Eve by Luke Jennings
4. Power by Naomi Alderman
5. Unwanted by Kristina Ohlsson - current read

23. How To Be A Heroine by Samantha Ellis

The author revisits her favourite books, reassessing her original view of the heroines. As with most books about books, the enjoyment comes from how well you know the books under discussion. I really enjoyed the bits relating to books I was familiar with - I didn’t always agree with her conclusions but enjoyed her writing style and the elements of personal memoir.

24. What Alice Knew by T A Cotterell

This wasn’t what I expected from the blurb. I was expecting a psychological thriller based around a husband going missing, but it’s more about how a married couple cope with a big event (can’t say much more without giving away spoilers!) so I was disappointed.

@ScribblyGum I also need more info on hot tub book club!!

That article is fascinating.

10. Snap by -Belinda Bauer There is nothing wrong with this detective story - grumpy rule breaking DI, tight wound DS, criminal fencer with a heart of gold, nice pacing, a couple of scary moments...but maybe that is the problem, it doesn't add up to more than the sum of its parts. I enjoyed it and it raced along, but it did feel a bit "painting by numbers". I'm surprised it was on the Booker longlist, but at least it played by the rules of the genre, unlike his Bloody Project which I am still not reconciled to!

Hot Tub Book Club sounds like a unique experience scribbly, enjoy!

*5. Anna - Niccolo Ammaniti
*
Picked this up in the "new books" section of the library.
It's a post-apocalyptic dystopian story set in Sicily and translated from the Italian.
The premise is that humanity has been struck down by a virus, the Red Fever. It only affects adults though, so they are all dead and there are only children left alive. The children contract the virus when they hit puberty, so there is no-one left alive older than 13/14.
The main characters are the titular Anna and her younger brother Astor. This is their survival story. It is set mainly four years after the virus has wiped out the adults, but there are flashbacks to explain their situation.
I thought it was great, several scenes are, as you would expect, very reminiscent of Lord of the Flies. The voice of Anna and the other children felt very authentic. The only reason I would approach this book with caution is that I found the ending deeply, deeply unsatisfactory.

So do the books go into the hot tub with you Scribbly?

Hot Tub Book Club Scribbly 🛁 the mind boggles!

Don't your books get all soggy Scribbly?

12. Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain's Underclass by Darren McGarvie listened to on Audible.

Many thanks to MuseumofHam for recommending this. If George Orwell had grown up in Pollock in the late 20thC and become a rapper before taking to essay writing, I reckon this is the book he would have written.

Polemical where it needs to be (particularly when discussing the 'poverty industry' - and having tangentially been involved in this in my younger days I agree 100%), but also far more nuanced and thoughtful than the title suggests. A stand out, and even more enjoyable because of the the excellent reading by the author (though I may be biased on that one as I'm a total sucker for a Glaswegian accent).

1. Bird Box by Josh Malerman. I whipped through this post apocalyptic (but thankfully not too gory) thriller/horror in a couple days of days and enjoyed its tense, claustrophobic atmosphere. This was well worth the 99p price point. Having read a few reviews I was prepared to be disappointed by an open ended conclusion but was pleasantly surprised that more 'closure' was offered than I'd been expecting, although I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if there isn't a 'Bird Box 2' in the offing. I'm now off to borrow my sisters Netflix account so I can watch the movie.

9. Diamond Fire - Ilona Andrews 10. Sourdough - Robin Sloan 11. Omens - Kelley Armstrong

My review of The Magicians will have to wait until tomorrow as it has come around again, oh yes, tonight is Hot Tub Book Club night.

1. The Return Of The King - JRR Tolkien

Final part of LOTR and my favourite, I think (though I had forgotten how long the book goes on for after the Ring has been destroyed). It just can't be beaten for an epic of world-building, with tremendous storytelling and a hugely satisfying, if poignant end.

For the next book I'm taking a break from my rereads as my library reservation of Erebus has arrived - looking forward to it as it's had some good write-ups on here.