50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Eight

Thanks for the heads up bibliomania I have been reading the dark is rising according to schedule on my own so I'll head over to the Facebook group

A comparison of international legal remedies for torture.

Mine was ‘The role of the central executive in memory updating’. I do still have the printed bound copy somewhere!

My dissertation was on Project Management and its Application in Libraries. Yawn

Mine was the changes in the blood supply to the liver of lampreys during metamorphosis. A bit niche.

64. One Way Only - Gwen Grant Further adventures from the Private Keep Out girl and her family, in which she enters a beauty contest, crashes a motorbike, almost drowns in a frozen-over pond and loses a pet mouse

I'm on The Dark is Rising readalong on Facebook, if anyone wants to join in. First time I've done it. People are posting photos and songs that match the mood. Enjoyable.

noodle, and all other Covid sufferers - sympathy and best wishes. Am peering anxiously at today's LFT as I've got a volunteer shift booked later at a local centre and they are incredibly short staffed.

I agree with you, noodle, about The Dark Is Rising. My teens loved it aged around 11 but I think now they'd be both too young and too old. It's actually a very beautiful and atmospheric book but quite slow moving and reflective in places. Not at all young adult fiction paced, and I suspect they'd just be bored at this point. But so good when you come back to it as an adult.

Looking at mine right now, as weirdly I found it in a box yesterday.
"Policy responses to financial exclusion in the UK: do they do enough to tackle inequality?" (Spoiler alert: they didn't then, and don't now).

Undergrad was on interwar poverty and female criminality in Britain. I loved that dissertation.

Mine was on the impact of the Norman Conquest on crime and punishment. No idea where it is these days.

Mine was something about the economic theory of worker co-operatives. My lovely auntie typed it for me.

Having a second bash at The Thursday Murder Club and finding it quite enjoyable this time round.

Oh, and it’s probably saved on a floppy disk if anyone has any method for reading those any more!

My dissertation (undergraduate, I haven’t done any higher degrees) was about depictions of the Empress Livia in her own lifetime. Although she’s written up as the poisonous grandmother of I, Claudius by historians a couple of generations later, in the art of her own period she was a paragon of Roman matronly virtue. By the way, don’t touch the figs.

Thank you biblio, Terps, Piggy (amazing name change!) and Cornish for the well wishes. I was feeling v sorry for myself but this thread is, as always, a balm.

TattiePants I agree with Terpsichore that The Dark is Rising is quite old fashioned, but if your 15 year old is a fan of fantasy or SF and willing to temporarily suspend cynicism and disbelief, he might love it. Alternatively he might need to wait til he's 30 and then he'll love it

My thesis was about how cells stick together if anyone is interested.

63. A Game of Soldiers - Jan Needle 3 children find a wounded Argentinian soldier on the moor during the Falklands War.

I remember watching a TV adaptation of this on the special telly on a trolley at school. It was in primary school so must have been made very shortly after the Falklands War. This is a very short but powerful book aimed at children, I haven't read it in years and very much enjoyed going over it again.

My dissertation was done on a fancy golf ball wotsit typewriter which was so state of the art when my Mum got it, that all the neighbours came to look. For some reason (possibly connected to arcane technological necessities connected to golf ball wotsit) the paper it's typed on is strange shiny glossy stuff. Almost like photographic paper.
(Compulsory Military Service in Spain should anyone ever fancy some light reading )

@sadik I started 84K this year but just could not get into it, I might give it another go at some point as I loved The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.

@Welshwabbit I thought Rodham was brilliant too, it was one of my favourite reads this year and just made me think about how much more Hillary Rodham might have achieved than Hillary Clinton.

101. Circe by Madeline Miller

Much reviewed this year so I won’t go into detail about the plot. I’d been looking forward to reading this as it sounded right up my street but I found it just ok. I think that a large part of that was due to finding Circe herself really, really irritating. I didn’t think I was someone who needed to have a likeable character to enjoy a book but maybe I am. That said I found the depiction of early motherhood when her son was born to be one of the more realistic depictions in literature, as I also had a screaming baby who had to be constantly attached to me!

102. Wizard and Glass by Stephen King

The fourth in the Dark Tower series, which seemed to divide opinion a bit on here recently. I was in the (mostly) ‘loved it’ camp, although by the end of part one I NEVER wanted to hear another riddle in my life. I really enjoyed the back story and although I knew where some of the story was going I was still pretty shocked when we got there. I also loved the references to other King works and a certain classic film which happens to be one of my favourites. I’m reading a couple of other books before starting book 5 but can’t wait to read that one too.

103. Pines by Blake Crouch

This is the first in the Wayward Pines series which was adapted for TV a few years ago. Agent Blake wakes up after an accident in Wayward Pines, an idyllic town in Idaho. Although it seems like a perfect American town Ethan starts to question this when he cannot make contact with his boss or family and is unable to leave . I’ve read a few books by this author and this premise was as intriguing as his others. I thought I’d left it long enough after watching the TV series but it all came back to me as I started reading, which is a shame.

Currently listening to The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham and reading The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker.

Thanks for advice. I did wonder whether they were more suited to slightly younger children. @2022HereWeCome DS loves Derek Landy (Skullduggery and Demon Rd). I already have the Pierce Brown series so that's a good shout for him to try next.

Sorry to hear that noodle hope you don’t feel too bad with it.

Exit by Belinda Bauer This was my first Bauer and it wasn’t at all what I’d expected. I’d expected a superior thriller - and whilst this was diverting, it wasn’t thrilling, more a jolly walking sticks comic cosy caper plus pathos. Some of the reviews compare it to Thursday Murder Club, which I really rated, but I’d say it has more of an A Man Called Ove kind of vibe. Perhaps I read it too soon after Thursday, or perhaps because it read like a different genre from what I’d expected, despite it being lighter and brighter than I’d imagined, I was a bit disappointed.

@TattiePants no 'the dark is rising series' is aimed at a younger audience - I think I was about 11-12 when I read them. For a 15 year old I would recommend the 'Red Rising' series by Pierce Brown or even the 'Demon road' series by Derek Landy.

Hope you get through OK noodle. What a bummer.

Oh noodle, I'm sorry

TattiePants I'd say so, but with the caveat that it might perhaps seem quite old-fashioned nowadays.....maybe that's just me, though? What do others think? It seems to me the kind of book I devoured in my childhood (60s/70s - when the series was written, in fact, although I didn't actually read it then!).