Please or to access all these features

What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Five

991 replies

southeastdweller · 09/05/2019 22:08

Welcome to the fifth thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2019, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, it’s not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The first thread of the year is here, the second one here, the third one here and the fourth one here.

OP posts:
FortunaMajor · 17/06/2019 23:47

Ham Different series! I'm neck deep in the Matthew Bartholomew Chronicles, the medieval monk equivalent to Midsomer. Not sure how C14th Cambridge has any residents left this late in the series. My go to easy read. They are getting samey but I like the characters.

I read the first in the Thomas Chalenor series and wasn't that keen. It felt like a cheaper rip-off of Shardlake.
Important person's bitch, check.
Life afflicting injury, check.
Trusty sidekick, check.

UtterlyPerfectCartoonGiraffe · 17/06/2019 21:55
  1. Something Rotten, Jasper Fforde
2. The Lonesome Bodybuilder, Yukiko Motoya 3. Vox, Christina Dalcher
  1. Suicide Club, Rachel Heng
5. Birdbox, Josh Malerman
  1. The Psychology of Time Travel
7. 11:22:63, Stephen King
  1. Futures and Fantasies, ed John Joseph Adams
9. The Bees, Laline Paull 10. The One, John Marrs 11. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Stephen King 12. The Terror, Dan Simmons

13 The Talisman, Stephen King
14 This Thing of Darkness, Harry Thompson
15 Me, Tomoyuki Hoshino

I feel like I’ve got through some epic tomes in the last month! Continuing my accidental 5 book streak of only reading books starting with “The”, I read *The Talisman”. It goes on FOREVER but it’s a classic King normal vs weird, strange people-creatures and a massive over arching save-your-mum-and-a-world storyline. Great read, but I had to skip a few chapters near the end so I had enough energy to eat and sleep Grin

This Thing of Darkness was another huge read which had me shouting at the pages at (the blatantly of-the-times) racist parts skipping a few boring parts, falling in love with both Fitzroy and Darwin, wanting to know more about Fitzroy’s meteorological findings and overall just angry at the entitlement of the times and the horrific ways they treated other peoples and lands. Very worth a read if you’re interested in the time period or areas covered.

Me is a Japanese novel about lack of identity and the fear it can bring. It was definitely an interesting concept, especially in a society like Japan where traditionally fitting in was a very good thing. I guess this book is asking what would happen if you fitted in so well that you could literally become someone else and no one would notice. Unfortunately (intentionally?) the characters and situations become quite samey half way through and the conclusion feels very dragged out and weird.

And thanks to these threads I have a huge tbr list! Great to read all the reviews!

fishonabicycle · 17/06/2019 11:43

Sorry about the formatting 🙄

fishonabicycle · 17/06/2019 11:41

Right. My list so far:
tombland, c j sansom:

in her shadow , mark edwards:

the return of captain john emmet, elizabeth speller:

the hunting party, lucy foley:

normal people, sally rooney:

A closed and common orbit, becky chambers:

The other lives, Adrian Walker:

Snowblind, Ragnar Jonasson:

The seven deaths of evelyn hardcastle, stuart turton:

No escape, Lucy Clarke:

From the storm, adrian walker:

Dark pines, Will dean:

Fragrant harbour, John Lanchester:

The mortal word, Genevieve Cogman:

Middle England, Jonathan Coe:

White Nights, Anne Cleeve:

Sapiens , Yuval Noah Harari:

The Wych elm, Tana French:

Red Bones, Anne Cleeve:

The Salt Path, Raynor Winn:

The Outcast, Sadie Jones:

The flower girls, Alice Clark Platts:

Daisy Jones and the six, Taylor Jenkins Reid:

Scrublands, Chris Hammer:

The taking of annie thorne, Tudor:

Blue Lightning, Anne Cleeve:

Rotherweird, Andrew Caldecott:

The underground railway, Colson Whitehead:

All at sea, Decca Aitkenhead:

Little, Edward Carey:

Mad Blood stirring, simon mayo:

Cruel acts, Jane casey:

The familiars, Stacey Halls:

Dark Water, Anne Cleeve:

The only story, Julian Barnes:

Little Darlings, Melanie Golding:

The amateur marriage, anne tyler:

the 13th tale, Diane setterfield:

Post mortem, kate london:

a thousand ships, natalie haynes:

The snakes, Sadie Jones:

We the survivors, Tash Aw:

MuseumOfHam · 17/06/2019 11:11
  1. English in 100 Words by David Crystal The author has chosen 100 words which he believes illustrate particular points in the development of the English language, through two millennia of invasions, migrations of people and cultural influences. The words are set out chronologically in order of first appearance in the language, and I found the earlier sections more interesting and less subjective. This was an easy read but felt like I was absorbing lots I didn't know.

  2. A Conspiracy of Violence by Susanna Gregory Thomas Chaloner mystery book 1. Set around the same bits of London that will be familiar to readers of Shardlake, but a century later, this was an all action thriller. Really all action. It gave me action fatigue, the symptoms of which include becoming beyond caring about any of the characters or what actually happens. Given how I was bemoaning the slowness of the last Shardlake, it may seem there is no pleasing me. There is, but not with this. The dialogue felt too contemporary, and I didn't get a good sense of time and place. I see Fortuna has recently read #21 in this series, and I do see how it could become a fun, quick historical fix, just not for me.

  3. The Hidden Ways by Alistair Moffat This was beautiful. I loved it. Alistair set out to walk along a selection of Scotland's ways which are no longer travelled for their original purpose. That purpose could relate to invasion or conflict, or to some obsolete industry or occupation. Some are now completely vanished and the clues and traces need to be sought for, while some have been reinvented, e.g. a train line now a cycle path. He manages to tie up Scotland's history and landscape (which are of course really inseparable anyway) in his beautifully written prose, balanced with just the right amount of detail about how he got caught on barbed wire or where he ate his cheese sandwiches. May emerge as a top read of the year.

  4. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson A beautifully crafted slice of gothic suspense. We know from the start that most of Mary's family are dead, and that she lives a sheltered and eccentric life in the grand old family home with her two remaining relatives. Although Mary is an unreliable narrator, we piece together with growing horror what happened in the past, as events in the present become more extreme. Not a comfortable read, but a good one.

YesILikeItToo · 17/06/2019 10:41

Last year I was on the thread just for the book lore, but this year I'm taking the challenge to heart, and the inevitable consequence is that I've been picking shorter books. But Neal Stephenson has a new book out *Fall, or Dodge in Hell" and that's not something I'd normally miss. It's around 900 pages long, it's taken me a week to read a third of it, so I'm just adding this to stay on the thread. Back soon...

StitchesInTime · 17/06/2019 00:36

45. Humans by Tom Phillips

Subtitled “A Brief History of How We Fucked it All Up”.
As described, a brief run through historical mistakes people have made. Entertaining and informative, but not a book that left me feeling very optimistic about humanity’s future prospects.

46. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fck by Mark Manson*

Or, more accurately, the art of deciding what to give a fuck about (values, goals etc) and what not to give a fuck about.

47. The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Sequel to The Magicians.
Quentin is now one of the kings of Fillory, and he’s starting to get bored. So when he gets the chance to set off in search of adventure, off he goes.
I enjoyed reading this. There’s a lot of flashbacks to Julia’s backstory filled in as well. The ending was slightly downbeat, so I’m interested to see what happens with Quentin in the final book in the trilogy.

48. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

I loved reading this one.
Foundling Lazlo Strange has spent most of his life working in the Great Library of Zosma, searching for any texts that will let him learn more about the mythical lost city of Weep in his spare time.
And then one day, a band of warriors from Weep ride into town, asking for volunteers to help them with a mysterious problem they need solving. It’s an opportunity not to be missed for Lazlo, and one that turns out to be stranger than he could have imagined.

49. The True Queen by Zen Cho

Set in the same world as Sorcerer to the Crown.
Muna and her sister Sakti wake on the shores of the enchanted island of Janda Baik, with no memory of anything but their names.
When Sakti vanished during a journey to England via Fairyland, Muna is left to navigate Regency England alone. It’s not long before she’s dragged into Fairyland plots.
I enjoyed reading this, although I like Sorcerer to the Crown better.

InMyOwnParticularIdiom · 16/06/2019 19:48
  1. Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Story of a fictional 70s band, told in the form of a rockumentary transcript. This gripped my attention and I found myself picking it up whenever I had a spare moment (aka an episode of Fireman Sam). The format made it an easy quick read, like reading a play, and the love stories embedded in the bandmates' stormy relationships were compellingly bittersweet. Ultimately won't stick in my mind, but a solid 3*/5 page-turner.

BakewellTarts · 16/06/2019 19:06

Oops fallen off the thread...too busy irl.

Finished #52 Before They Are Hanged really good fantasy series and I particularly liked the ending of this one and the final book in the trilogy Last Argument Of Kings is on my wish list.

Moved onto another teen distopia (yes also reading this with DD1 again) #53 Secondborn, #54 Traitor Born and now on #55 Rebel Born. Quick reads but an interesting idea well done. A futire society is ordered so that the Firstborns have everything with the Secondborn serving them and having no autonomy over their lives. The books follow Roselle an artiscratic Secondborn and her struggles in this society.

@CoteDAzur I enjoyed Head On too, interesting world which is sadly easy to see happening.

CoteDAzur · 16/06/2019 17:05
  1. Head On by John Scalzi

I really enjoyed this loose sequel to Lock In, further elaborating the near-future where a widespread virus has caused masses of people to end up with Locked-in Syndrome. Robotic "threeps" (play on Star Wars' C3PO) are invented so that these people can interact with the world, as in Bruce Willis's film Surrogates.

Among many consequences of this paradigm shift where the world adjusts to millions of locked-in patients walking/talking among us as androids is a new sport that is played with threeps, in which the goal is to rip the head of the "goat" in the opposite team and throw or carry it across the goal line. When a player dies as his threep is beheaded during a game, one of the two detectives on the scene is a threep himself.

This was a fascinating world built in convincing detail, exploring the possibilities of a world where humans might interact via machines. I would definitely recommend this book and its prequel Lock In.

Piggywaspushed · 16/06/2019 15:18

It's puerile really. the film just reveals how clever Richard Ayoade is, comparatively. He put sweetness back into its core.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 16/06/2019 15:08

I couldn't read Submarine (love the film). I thought it was really unpleasant, and I'm not particularly a prude.

Piggywaspushed · 16/06/2019 14:59
  1. Submarine by Joe Dunthorne. I have seen and enjoyed the charming and quirky Richard Ayoade film. The book is a) very different from the film in nearly every way, as is often the case and b) lacks its charm. I don't really like rude books and this was a bit embarrassingly graphic in places, in a rather juvenile way. One of those rare cases of the film being better than the book.
Sadik · 16/06/2019 12:10

I really liked Uprooted, & have Spinning Silver on reserve from the library. I enjoyed the first few of her Temeraire books, but got bored with the series after that (I know others have enjoyed all of them).

StitchesInTime · 16/06/2019 11:56

virginqueen I read Uprooted a year or two ago and loved it. It’s the only one of Novik’s books I’ve read so far.

Sadik · 16/06/2019 11:50

46 Widdershins by Jordan L Hawk
Victorian era paranormal who-dunnit romance - withdrawn & socially awkward academic specialising in ancient languages is approached by handsome PI to translate a mysterious book implicated in a murder, with predictable results. Fine as a light read, but I prefer more humour in this sort of book, I doubt I'll read more in the series.

  1. The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy by Mariana Mazzucato

This was really excellent - a pretty dense read (even on the last page I was going back & re-reading sentences), but well worth the effort, one of my best reads so far this year.

The key message from the book - and one that cannot be made too often - is that economics cannot be divorced from politics. The way we define key economic concepts is always underlaid with political choices, no matter how apparantly 'scientific' and neutral they are made to seem.

In neo-classical economics, which currently dominates conventional economic thinking, value is by definition equal to price. If someone will pay money for something, then it has value. (The classic illustration of the sometimes problematic result is that a polluting accident requiring costly clean up will show as a growth in GDP - gross domestic product.)

Evidently, in the wider world, 'value' has a rather different definition. And in fact earlier schools of economics have had very different theories of value, and different opinions on what is within the 'productive sphere' and what is simply extracting value without producing. (A classic example here is the distinction between a farmer, who carries out work which creates value, and their landlord who gains rent without engaging in productive activity.)

Mazzucato revisits these older theories of value, and uses them to demonstrate that choices made within the economy are heavily driven by the dominant values framework. She spends a fair amount of time discussing the financialisation of the economy - not to argue that all financial services are value-less, but that we need to distinguish between those that genuinely add value (perhaps providing long term finance to industry) and those that simply extract 'rent' (high volume computer driven share trading might be an example).

She also talks about the ways in which public sector is never seen to create value - despite the fact that in the real world most of us would consider hospitals, schools, roads etc to have value - and the way in which these stories about 'wealth creation' vs 'unproductive spending' have come to dominate.

I don't agree with all her conclusions (I'm less optimistic about the public sector than she is) but the framework she lays out sets the ground for conversations about exactly what we want the economy to achieve for us as citizens, and how we want it to be done.

toomuchsplother · 16/06/2019 09:02

66. An American Marriage - winner of the the Women's Prize and deservedly so. This book looked at the breakdown of a young black couples marriage after the husband is accused of a crime he didn't commit.
67. Know No evil - this one I read for an up coming blog tour so can't say too much yet. Police procedural, if you are a fan of Ann Cleeves this one might be for you
68. Remembered- Yvonne Battle Felton - longlisted for the Women's Prize. Story of Spring and her son who is dying on a coloured ward in Philadelphia after being accused of running a streetcar in to a store front. As he dies Spring sets about telling him his history. Excellent book that tells the story of a plantation of mainly women slaves that take control of their futures by making sure no more children are born into slavery. Echoes of Toni Morrison - recommend.
69. Out Little Secrets - another upcoming blog tour. Crime drama set in Edinburgh, looking at gangland culture and bent police.
70. Lowborn - Kerry Hudson - this is fantastic. Author grew up poor, in a household with an single mother with alcohol and mental health issues. There was a stepfather who popped up in their lives occasionally and when he did this meant moving. Hudson attendees numerous schools, was sexually abused, had two abortions by the time she was 18. Much of her childhood was spent in B and B's and living on emergency loans from the government. She writes this to look back at the towns she grew up in, to see their issues and if they have changed. She is also trying to come to terms with her own past. Recommend

ChessieFL · 15/06/2019 21:36
  1. Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

One of DD’s books about two girls at a boarding school in 1934 investigating the murder of one of their teachers. Despite being aimed at tweens I still didn’t guess whodunnit!

  1. On Rereading by Patricia Meyer Spacks

A good idea - writing about rereading books she loved, hated and read at particular times in her life - but it didn’t work for me. The writing style was very dry and almost like a textbook, and I hadn’t read most of the books she writes about.

  1. The Overdue Life Of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms

Got this free as a Kindle First deal. Glad I didn’t pay for it! Amy’s husband returns three years after he left her to look after their kids for the summer. Amy goes off to stay with a friend in New York, gets a makeover, goes on dates etc. Predictable and Amy was very annoying.

  1. Into The Blue by Robert Goddard

Listened to this on Audible, this is another of Goddard’s best. In this, Heather disappears from a mountain in Rhodes, and her friend Harry tries to find out what happened to her by following clues from the photos she left behind (it was written in the late 80s!).

  1. Pigeon Pie by Nancy Mitford

Gradually working through her complete works since buying them on daily deal a while ago. This is one that is particularly of its time - it was written at the outset of WW2 and is a comic novel about Nazi spies disguising themselves as British. Doesn’t read very well now we know the outcome of the war.

  1. Finding Grace by K L Slater

Psychological thriller about a missing child. The storyline wasn’t very original and it wasn’t very well written but it killed a few hours on a train.

  1. Valencia and Valentine by Suzy Krause

Another Kindle First freebie. The blurb says it’s ideal for fans of Eleanor Oliphant, but Eleanor did have a hopeful ending whereas this one is just sad really. It’s also rather confusing to read as the time period it’s set in isn’t made clear - it is all explained at the end but it does make it tricky to follow going along.

  1. Forget My Name by J S Monroe

I was attracted by the premise of this - a woman turns up at a cottage claiming she’s forgotten her name and everything else about herself, but is convinced she lives there. The couple who do live there disagree. Unfortunately it’s all fell apart quite early on because everyone starts behaving very bizarrely - the couple of live in the cottage take her in, and on her first night there she goes to a pub quiz! Why not? It’s the first thing everyone does when they’ve lost their memory, isn’t it?! It just gets progressively more bonkers from there - I was quite gripped though simply to see where it was going to end up!

  1. Around The World In 80 Novels by Henry Russell

Does what it says on the tin - descriptions of 80 books that are particularly representative of the countries they’re set in. Gave me a few to add to my list!

Sadik · 15/06/2019 19:45

I'd differ from Biblio and say all the Provincial Lady sequels are worth reading - I like the one in America just as much as the others.

The book now sold as 'The Provincial Lady in Russia' was originally titled 'Straw without Bricks: I visit Soviet Russia', and isn't a Provincial Lady book as such, but rather EM Delafield's own reportage. I think it's a fascinating read, but it's quite different to the other books.

virginqueen · 15/06/2019 19:40

StitchesinTime
I really liked Spinning Silver but I think Uprooted was even better. It's the same idea - turning a fairy tale on its head and having a completely new take on it. I hope she writes more

PepeLePew · 15/06/2019 09:10

After a run of Anthony Powell and non-fiction, I feel in need of a really good and lightweight modern novel - I keep eyeing up various psychological thrillers but I know I will be disappointed. I’m tempted by Worst Case Scenario, bibliomania - thanks for the review.

I’m also happy to see the Viv Albertine love. I must have bought ten or more copies of her books as gifts for friends - they are the perfect “be comfortable with middle age and angry with the world” books in my view.

Meanwhile, I’ve finished off two books I have had on the go for a while...

66 Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier
This purports to explore the essence of what it means to be female. The first half is a highly entertaining review of the different components of the female reproductive system, what we know about them, and what we don’t know and the second section is more focused on hormones and the effect they have on us (or not). It’s part science, part memoir, and for the most part was engrossing. Angier is a well respected science writer so I was surprised there weren’t more references. In places her views get in the way of a dispassionate assessment of the evidence - she is not a fan of HRT - and although I mostly enjoyed the style it was somewhat overblown in places. I am glad I read this - women’s bodies are amazing and there is so much we aren’t taught about them in school. One for the sisterhood, for sure - have left it in dd’s room in the vain hope she will pick it up!

67 The Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman
Seven lectures from the sixties by the celebrated theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. His genius lay in part in his ability to communicate about science and these lectures are excellent, as he explains to a public audience how we understand the universe and what we know about the laws of physics. There’s philosophy and humour and almost no maths, and although they aren’t entirely easy reads they are very accessible to non-scientists if you’re willing to go carefully through some sections and think about what he is saying. The lectures themselves are on YouTube, and I enjoyed watching some of them and reading along. I feel smarter now; I have had the second law of thermodynamics explained to me several times but this time I actually understood what it means, in a way that will stick.

StitchesInTime · 14/06/2019 18:06

virginqueen what did you think of Spinning Silver?

I saw that in a bookshop today and was quite tempted by the look of it.

virginqueen · 14/06/2019 12:59

Just dropping by to update.

  1. Circe by Madeleine Miller
  2. In the Month of the Midnight Sun by Cecilia Elebach
  3. My Criminal World by Henry Sutton
  4. Stoner by John William's
  5. Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey
  6. Reservoir 13 by John McGregor
  7. Spinning Siler by Naomi Novik
FortunaMajor · 14/06/2019 12:10

Thanks Biblio I'll definitely look out for the wartime one.

bibliomania · 14/06/2019 11:45

Fortuna, The Provincial Lady Goes Further is more of the same, and enjoyable. The ones where she goes to America and Russia aren't great. But best of all is "The Provincial Lady in Wartime*. Definitely recommended.