50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Five

Scribblygum - fair point re arm loss haha. There is, however, something off about this detective series - especially given Susan Hill's reputation in other genres. I don't know how she can write in such a turgid way when I have read a few of her recent short novels which are masterly in comparison.

Re TTOD I hope I haven’t put anyone off! The research and detail is impressive, the depiction of the attitudes of the time and the beginnings of scientific advances we take for granted now (not just evolution) is really interesting, and there are some fantastic and interesting stories in there. I really enjoyed the author’s postscript where we find out what happened to the various real people. But yeah, descriptions of sea voyages and storms etc are not my bag, and the book covers SO MUCH and there are so many characters and different settings and I just found it hard going for those reasons. But ultimately was glad I read it.

43. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou I grabbed this at the station before a long journey because my phone battery was flat (otherwise I might have actually finished TTOD ). Definitely a lucky choice, it's one of my standouts for the year so far.

It's very much in the vein of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Theranos was a 'unicorn' tech start-up, run by 22 year old Stanford dropout Elizabeth Holmes. It aimed to revolutionise the blood testing industry with a home testing machine that would make the whole process quick, painless and cheap. She attracted billions (literally) of investment funds from the great and the good. The only problem was that the tech didn't work, and continued to not work.

Carreyrou is an investigative journalist at the Wall Street Journal - following a tip-off, he started poking around at Theranos and found an unbelievable web of fraud, lies and intimidation. His book is absolutely gripping, and the writing more than lives up to his investigative journalism skills (not always the case with such books).

I've said it before on here but I really enjoyed The Green Road too.

(Still haven't read TTOD so can't comment. It's on the never-ending tbr pile, though)

Sadik - I believen there is another thread, on another site, for the likes of you.

Just to say, I'm not even going to attempt This Thing of Darkness. Long accounts of sea voyages usually make me want to hurl myself across the room, never mind the book.

That's good to hear welshwabbit. I bought The Green Road at the same time as you and was equally disappointed to see it was not universally loved! It's still languishing amongst the TBR on my kindle but you may have helped to boot it up the list a little as I definitely like the sound of it from your review :)

43. The Green Road by Anne Enright

I bought this on a Kindle deal (obviously) and immediately afterwards someone on this (well, a previous version of this) thread said they hated it. So I was a bit trepidatious, but I liked it. A family saga told over 25 years, focusing on each member in turn, and culminating in a big reunion at the end. I liked some parts better than others - my favourite was the section about Dan in New York, although I also enjoyed the part about Constance, which I felt captured the feelings of a mother who holds everything together, but who is first in no-one's thoughts. Some lovely writing and I liked the focus at the end on the mother, Rosaleen, who was an infuriating, interesting, real character.

@BakewellTarts when you reviewed The Blade Itself in an earlier thread I felt the need to revisit the First Law Trilogy and I devoured them all again in quick succession. Easily my favourite fantasy series! Hope you enjoy Before They Are Hanged

I didn’t get round to looking at the synopsis of This Thing of Darkness, when I saw the conversation about it being on special offer on kindles.
I haven’t even got round to checking if the library have it in stock.

(Runs away and hides in disgrace)

Ok, I HAVE to try This thing of darkness. I'm starting to feel left out .

I've given up on This Thing of Darkness - do I get drummed out of the thread? (Though I may come back to it in the winter when I have more reading time - right now it just never hits the top of the list, so have moved on to other things.)

Hi everyone. Hope you had a good half term. We were away and so had plenty of time for reading. And I had some good reads.

#49 Knife Creek the eighth book in the Mike Bowditch Mystery series by Paul Doiron. I am a fan of these. Interesting murder mysteries with rural Maine as a main character (they have such a strong feeing of place). This one starts when a partially buried baby’s body is found. Which is linked to a cold case of a missing girl.

#50 Spinning Silver bought as this has been nominated for this years Hugo’s. I think if I had a vote this would get it. A retelling of Rumpelstiltskin but this is a grown up fairy tale. Three very strong and distinct heroines. I really enjoyed it. (And yeah got to 50).

#51 The Consuming Fire fun space opera from Scalzi continuing his Interdependency series. Snarky and amusing. looking forward to the conclusion.

And now I've started #52 Before They Are Hanged the second in the First Law trilogy. Three distinct stories Glokta in the South defending Dagoska. West in the frozen North facing Bethod. And finally Jezal, Ninefingers, Bayaz, Quai, Longfoot and Ferro journeying in the east. So far it’s turning out to be another good read.

To be fair pencil losing an arm does sound like it might be a big deal. I think I'd be mulling hard if I lost one of mine.

33. This Things of Darkness Harry Thompson

Finally finished! I’ll be honest and say I found this a real slog at first, but really enjoyed the second half and then was able to appreciate the detail that went into the whole if that makes sense? Fascinating story and I learned a lot, much of it very sad.

grrr - just lost long post
Curtis Sittenfeld - Sisterland (57?) - quite engaging saga of dysfunctional family life & whether psychic ability exists. The heroine and her husband are too good to be true & this book could have lost 200 pages as it weighs in at over 500 but I would risk another one by this author.
58 Convenience store woman by Sayaka Murata - boring account of a neuro-atypical/ autistic woman only interesting for the insight into the strangely formal cultural restrictions of Japanese life.
59 Everything you do is wrong - Amanda Coe - wry family saga heavy on the horrors of adolescence. Well-written with some good similes - one character makes her own muesli & is described as sifting it through her fingers like a vegan miser.

60 Easy Cooking by Mary Berry Mary is still churning them out. Some good photography as Mary appears as an elderly dress-up doll in different outfits for Morocco etc.

DNF Susan Hill - THe Comforts of home - a Simon Serrailler case. Read a couple of these some years ago and now know why I didn't carry on with the series. 50 pages in and nothing has happened except for Serrailler losing an arm and mulling over past cases.

1. Red Dragon, 4. The Silence of the lambs and 5. Hannibal by Thomas Harris

1. A Caribbean Mystery Agatha Christie I don't think this is the best Miss Marple book but I still enjoyed it a lot.

I remember reading my first Blyton, Five on a Treasure Island. I was sitting on a window ledge in the school library, aged around 6 or 7, and I had a dizzying sense of falling headlong into the book. It was the start of a love affair.

After all the talk about Lethal White, I got it out of the library and I'm enjoying it so far. You don't go to J K Rowling for taut, economical prose, but sometimes you're in the mood for something more sprawling and gossipy. I rather enjoyed the account of Robin's wedding. Both Robin and Strike are being incredibly childish - have a conversation, people.

Queequeg is such a great character. I was very sorry to see him drown!

Yes, I wish there had been more about him. The first few chapters, where Ishmael meets Queequeg, were great. Then they go aboard the Pequod and it suddenly turns into a completely different book.

26. The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink. This is a quirky book written from the perspective of a young American woman, Tiffany, living with her new husband Stephen in various European cities. They do things like birdwatching (including rescuing the wallcreeper of the title, and keeping it in their flat for a while), environmental activism to save the rivers, and shagging other people. It's a bit strange but I really enjoyed it.

Pepe my next Stephen King will be The Shining, but I'm also eyeing up Different Seasons and Cujo. I will definitely get around to The Stand at some point: it has been recommended many times.

Remus I think you might be right about And the Mountains Echoed- such a shame!

I've snapped up Schindler's List in the Audible Daily Deal this morning.

18. Gideon's Vote by J J Marric. Potboiler thriller published in 1964. Random jumble sale read. Not recommended but I did finish it, eventually. 'challenging' sexual politics, reminds me it was 54 years ago.

I can’t remember my first Enid Blyton but I do remember that we used to call in to the local newsagent on the way home from school for sweets. One day I noticed that he had a rotating stand of Blytons and I worked out that if I saved my sweet money for 2 weeks, I could afford one. I must have been 7 or 8. It would have been the Famous Five or one of the Barney adventures, I identified strongly with George.

I would say this book is VERY focused on GCSE floralso may not be all that useful to you

Thank you.

I am spitting feathers, I treated myself to the The Strawberry Thief at full price - something I never, ever do. It's 99p today

I’ve still only read a few Stephen Kings - Misery, The Stand, 22.11.63 and It. It stood out for me so far, I’m even contemplating a re-read.