50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Five

Happy Birthday Chessie

OH and DS like to buy me whatever book is most prominently displayed at the supermarket. Got Still Me by JoJo Moyes for mother's day - don't think they had a clue that it's the third in a trilogy and I haven't read the others.

Happy Birthday Chessie

58. My Name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout Woman wakes up in hospital to find her estranged mother sitting in her room. Memories of her childhood get dredged up and have an effect on her current life.

Torn between thinking this was brilliant, but also that I didn't enjoy it very much. It style was very unique, but I started to find it irritating as it went on. However the author was able to say an awful lot without very many words on the page and captured the feeling of wandering thoughts. One that will sit with me for a while before I can decide how I feel about it.

Many happy books ones, Chessie

For birthdays and Christmases, DH and I now almost invariably give each other the books we've specified. After over 20 years he's completely unable to remember what my taste is in anything else, which has led to some, ahem, interesting gift choices. Much better to sacrifice the element of shock surprise in favour of something you actually want, in my experience anyway.

Sigh. I am bout 100 pages fro the end of Dissolution and finding it a rattling read.

But , I have an unfortunate problem with whodunnits. I called the killer at page 182 and am now pretty sure I am right. I have the same problem with films and TV programmes.

It doesn't half take some of the fun and surprise out of things!

I won't say who it is on here (obviously!) but will let you know if I am right tomorrow...

We've just bought Ready Player One on DVD to watch tonight. Loved the book and enjoyed the film at the cinema.

I usually get books - my dps just ask what I want, but my dd is very good at choosing (we have similar tastes, & also she's good at remembering things I've mentioned).

My ex-H is much more hit and miss, but does sometimes come up with a real gem - he gave me Ready Player One, for example.

Happy birthday, Chessie.

I'm reading and enjoying a forensic science book that a friend has passed on. I'm going to Waterstones tomorrow and haven't bought real live books for ages, so think I might deserve a splurge. What should I be looking out for?

AliasGrape I'm also struggling a bit with TTOD so have set it aside to read some dross as I'm incredibly busy and under a lot of stress at present so think it is my headspace that isn't right, not the book. I'll pick it up agan in a month or so when things calm down and hope it'll be a book of the year like "Magimedi* thought.

Happy Birthday Chessie - good book haul!

Piggy my DH is simply directed to my Amazon wish list!

Happy Birthday chessie !

Do people who get thoughtful book gifts specify the books they want? I can't imagine getting actually good books form any of my family if they were left to their own devices!

Happy birthday Chessie 📚, A Book Of Book Lists sounds interesting.

Piggy Jung Chang wrote a biography of Mao, a brick of a book, which I was gifted signed and in hard back over a decade ago and has sat unread on my shelf ever since, maybe I'll get round to it in my retirement! She's also done one about a Chinese Empress and another three daughters of China one due out this October called Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister
She seems to be plowing the same furrow some what!

Thanks for the new thread, enjoying it a lot.

1. This is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay
2. Normal People : Sally Rooney
3. Wundersmith, The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
4. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
5. The unexpected Joy of Being Sober by Catherine Grey
6. Eve of Man Giovanna and Tom Fletcher
7. On Palestine Noam Chomsky & Ilan Pappé
8. My Name Is Lucy Barton Elizabeth Strout
9. I Am Pilgrim Terry Hayes

27. The Subtle Knife Phillip Pullman.
28. The Lady In the Van by Alan Bennett.
29. Sophia Khan is not Obliged by Ayisha Malik. Romantic Comedy. Basically the Muslim Bridget Jones. London dating in your 30s. Gave me the same warm and fuzzies as that did years ago. But the last third of this was different and much more about who Sophia was becoming than who she’d end up with. Loved it.

Happy birthday, Chessie! Sounds like a great day already.

Pepe I agree with you about Big Little Lies - the book was OK but the TV show was far better.

In other news, it is my birthday today and my family obviously know me well - my presents are almost exclusively wine, chocolate and books! I have received the following books:

A beautiful Folio Society edition of Rebecca
Revelation, Heartstone and Lamentation by C J Samson
A Book Of Book Lists by Alex Johnson
Amateurs In Eden by Joanna Hodgkin (this is the book about Larry and Nancy Durrell that was recommended on here recently)
Isabella of Angouleme part 3 by Erica Laine
Titanic Voices: Memories From The Fateful Voyage

That lot should keep me busy for a while!

I've just finished This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson & it has to be my 'read of the year' so far. It was a real 'ripping yarn' but so much more than that as well.

I was particularly taken with how the author addressed Fitzroy's bi-polar disorder. Thompson kept it so much in its time & how frightening mental health issues must have been when you had no knowledge of what they were & nor did anyone else.

I find it hard to believe that it all happened less than 200 years ago. It made me aware of how far & how fastwe have come in terms of science.

piggy I was also on team Darwin & loved the way he was with his children.

To those of you who are finding it hard going at first I'd urge you to push on - it's really splendid.

I don't object to Liane Moriarty when I'm in the right mood, but the TV adaptation of Big Little Lies is a hundred times better than the book, in my opinion. The views! The interiors! The clothes! The sex! It's what chick lit should be and never is, in my view. Complete escapist fun.

30: Truly Madly Guilty - Liane Moriarty

A friend has raved to me about Liane Moriarty's books and, although I missed the TV adaptation of 'Big Little Lies', I heard the novel being praised to the skies on 'A Good Read', so thought I'd investigate. I chose this one of her books fairly much at random (charity shop purchase).

The main action revolves around two couples: cellist Clementine, her husband Sam, and Clementine's childhood friend Erika, who's married to Oliver. A single shocking event (no spoilers) is the central plot point.

This is a big chunky book with a rather chicklitty cover and it turned out to be OK, but I wasn't as consumed by it as I'd hoped and expected to be. It was quite well-written and often funny, though. I can totally see how TV or film could come calling, because it would translate perfectly to the screen (and maybe will). I'd happily read another Liane Moriarty - as a holiday book perhaps - but maybe this wasn't the best one to start with. Anyway, onwards!

I remember that decumus! They stopped letting them take books because they were too civilised to each other and swapped books and had intelligent discussions! The first series really was a very different beast!

Jung Chang also wrote a biography of Empress Dowager Cixi, that looks pretty fascinating, Piggy.

I liked Wild Swans too, although it was an age ago that I read it. It appeared in the very first series of Big Brother, you know, back when they were allowed to take books in with them. /totally pointless trivia.

Come on here to mark my place and to say a) outing myself as a Wild Swans lover. I learnt so much from it. I may be biased because of Jung Chang's connection with my alma mater but I remember devouring it when it came out. Did she ever write anything else?

and

b) yes, TTOD is livened up ,I think, by Darwin, I felt guilty when I read it because - flaws and all - I was more Team Darwin!

Fortuna, I feel no sense of despair or foreboding when you appear on these threads. You can't be Widmerpool!

Thanks for the new thread southeast.

My list so far:

1. Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
2. Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence
3. The Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher
4. The Mistake I Made by Paula Daly
5. The Magicians by Lev Grossman
6. Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
7. An Argumentation of Historians by Jodi Taylor
8. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
9. The Darkest Secret by Alex Marwood