50 Book Challenge 2013 -The Sequel!

[CardiffUniversityNetballTeam]

Morning all,

As the old thread here is nearly full, I have created a shiny new one for your delight and delectation.

Sign in and update your progress here!

I'm Cardiff and I've nearly finished book 16, so I'm very behind as to be in track we should be approaching 25 by now. Where is everyone else up to?

39 The Long Weekend by Veronica Henry
40 Time's Echo by Pamela Hartshorne (fantastic timeslip novel. Quite spooky with haunting scenes which gave me shivers. Very well written).

41 - now reading Joyland by Stephen King

Well I sort of stopped reading for 6 weeks and not being able to get into anything. I finally started again and just finished no 35 World War Z - Max Brooks. I saw the film last week and really enjoyed it and so read the book. Really enjoyed it.
Hopefully it won't be another 6 weeks before I can start the next one

19. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - OK
20. The Innocents by Francesca Segal - OK
21. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - OK
22. The sick rose by Erin Kelly - OK
23. Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussman - Great
24. War of the Worlds by HG Wells - Fantastic 25 What have I done by Amanda Prowse - Good 26 The Hive by Gillian Hornby - Fair to Poor 27 Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle - Average 28 The fault in our stars by John Green - Great 29 How to be a good wife by Emma Chapman - Good, scary! 30 Capital by John Lanchester - Good romp.

Book 66 - Persuasion by Jane Austen. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get round to reading this novel. Just delightful :)

Thanks Duchess, I'll have a look at that one!

28. The Secret Speech - Tom Rob Smith

This is the sequel to Child 44, the first thriller to be longlisted for the Booker Prize, iirc. I really enjoyed Child 44, despite the shortcomings of its plot, because it was such a brilliant insight into Stalin's Soviet Russia, not to mention the transformation of detective's relationship throughout the book. This sequel is not as good, imho. It's written to be an action movie and the insight that has made Child 44 great is just not there.

Child 44's film is coming out next year, apparently.

50. Roald Dahl - The Twits
51. Mhairi McFarlane - You Had Me At Hello
52. Eoin Dempsey - Finding Rebecca

48 - The Casual Vacancy - JK Rowling. I really enjoyed it. i was surprised by how good it is.

Finished book 31, "Before I Met You', which was okay. It was gripping in some parts, but predictable in others.

About to start book 31, which is Stuart Hill "The Prince of the Icemark", a prequel to a trilogy of books I came across whilst studying children's literature.

Recent name change but this is Mixed. Taken forever to read my latest book so thought it was about time to update completely. Just finished,

29. Adam Bede by George Eliot Depressing but some fab writing but often very flowery.
30. The Return if the Soldier by Rebecca West About shell shock. Very short and I enjoyed it.
31. HHhH by Laurent Binet Didn't work for me, about Heydrich's assassination.
32. The BFG by Roald Dahl
33. Poirot's Early Cases by Agatha Christie
34. Working Class Cultures 1890-1960 by Joanna Bourke
35. History: a very short introduction by John Arnold
36. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D H Lawrence I will say it again. I love this book!!!
37. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
38. Alice by Eva Hanagan
39. Love on the Dole by Walter Greenwood
40. The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpugo
41. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
42. Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
43. The English German Girl - Holocaust related but incredibly powerful and if you can cope with it a must read.
44. Gone girl by Gillian Flynn
45. The hundred year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared
46. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
47. Victorian Feminism by Philipa Levine
48. Fifty shades of grey by E L James

1. Murder on the links by Agatha Christie
2. Emma by Jane Austen
3. Call the midwife by Jennifer Worth
4. The tenant of wild fell hall by Anne Brontes
5. The Lighthouse by Alison More
6. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
7. The mysterious affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
8. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone by J K Rowling
9. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Duchess - I Persuasion. I regularly dip into chapter 23. Makes me smile ALWAYS.

31. Martian Time-Slip - Philip K Dick
32. The Witches - Roald Dahl
33. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
34. The Worst Journey In The World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard
35. James And The Giant Peach - Roald Dahl
36. The Children's Hospital - Chris Adrian. Not quite what I was expecting and took a while to get into but actually very well-written and moving by the end.

I introduced myself at the start of the first thread I think but haven't posted anything else.

I am on book 32 I think, which is The Blind Man's Garden by Nadeem Aslam. It is the third book I have read by this writer ( though not this year) so I have high hopes for it being good. I am only a little way into it and finding it very difficult to sit down to read in peace with the children home from school.

It's set in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the months following 9/11 and follows the lives of two brothers who enter Afghanistan to care for civilians but end up at a Taliban camp.

I have included a few Radio 4 Books at Bedtime/ Books of the Week and audiobooks in my list of books I have read as I tend to listen during the day if I am busy and do most book or kindle reading at night (unless I get a rare child free day when I have nothing else planned). They are my favourite days, as I snuggle up with plenty of tea and chocolate if it's cold out, or I lie on a blanket in the garden if it's sunny and it always feels like a decadent treat. In the pre-kids days I took all that for granted!

I have read a mixture of fiction and non-fiction so I will look over my list and see of there were any particularly good ones I can recommend.

29. Boys From Brazil - Ira Levin

Brilliant premise, told by an expert mystery author. I watched the film when I was a teenager, then researched cloning for my biology class a looong time before Dolly the sheep. This is in Amazon's Kindle summer sale so i thought it was the perfect time to read the book.

Cote you will be pleased to know I'm taking Ready Player One on holiday with me.

You are in for a treat. Enjoy

42 The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I now feel overwhelmed by the emotions I have from the writing in this book. The characters felt so real to me, and I didn't want to let them go. Very hard to finish and no idea what I can read next. Wow! Just discovered John Green and hope others will give this book a go.

37. A Perfectly Good Man - Patrick Gale. I loved this, there was a moment half way through when I suddenly realised a major plot point, flicked back to confirm it and cried. I had to re-read some of the chapters as soon as I'd finished it because it was so good.

38. The Summons - John Grisham. I've struggled to read this and broken off several times. Even though it is a pacy thriller, I just didn't care about the storyline. I've concluded that it is 'too male' for me and it was a relief to finally finish it.

Galaxymum - I know what you mean! I know some reviewers have said it is unconvincing and contrived etc, but it completely sucked me in and I actually had to re-read several sections as i went along and the day after I finished it, I re-read the last bit....

31. A Tale for the Time Being - enjoyable, though rather longwinded in sections, but it's a Man Booker Longlist candidate, which I only found out after I had started it, so perhaps I should not have been surprised.

32. Just about to finish Falling in Honey which I am rather enjoying as a light summery read, though the main character is rather annoying in her naivety. But loving the descriptions of a Greek Island and its inhabitants and history.

Book 67 The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. Very entertaining novel. Would make an excellent summer holiday read.

Book 36 The Dinner - Herman Koch. I had vague idea of the premise of the book but I found it to be much more than I expected. It was very well written the story flows but I found it utterly horrifying.

You wonder what you would do in the same situation and hope to god that your decision would be different, at least I did.

I would highly recommend this book and know that it will live with me for a very long time.

49 - The Saint Zita Society - Ruth Rendell.

Meh

literally just finished 27) her fearful symmetry. read it much slower than normal (busy/headaches) but i really really enjoyed it.

28. one moment, one morning - sarah rayner. again, ive heard good and bad reviews of this one so cant wait to get stuck in

InLove I enjoyed that too although I think we are in the minority!

I liked HEr fearful symmetry. It is set close to where I live which gave it an extra edge for me.