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50 Book Challenge 2013 -The Sequel!

807 replies

CardiffUniversityNetballTeam · 16/06/2013 11:05

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?

OP posts:
WednesdayNext · 25/09/2013 16:18

How was the White Queen juneybean?

Book 48 "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" - I loved it.

Book 49 will be "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

MrsCosmopilite · 25/09/2013 16:34

Did it!

Because of time constraints I had to abandon my original #46 ('Behind Closed Doors by Amanda Vickery). So, after I reshuffle, I reached my target.

  1. One of our Thursdays is Missing - Jasper Fforde. Wonderfully confusing, engaging and attention-holding. However, not recommended for those that have not read JF before, or that don't like fantasy - this was essentially a book about a book about a person...

  2. The Man who loved Jane Austin - Sally Smith O'Rourke. I found this in the holiday cottage. It was rubbish. A nod to time-travel and romantic novels but pappy, lightweight nonsense.

  3. Book of the Dead - Patricia Cornwell. Typical holiday reading for me. Dr Kay Scarpetta on the trail of a killer. Lots of twists and turns, lightweight but in a good way.

  4. When God was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman. I'd heard this mentioned, and thought I'd give it a go. I really enjoyed it. The author sums it up as 'a brother-sister love story' - which it is, but not in any horrible way; it's the story of the loss of growing up.

  5. Emotionally Weird - Kate Atkinson. Rather like #46 this is a story within a story, but it's also a story about two stories, both of which are the story... If I hadn't read JF first, I'd have been totally floored by this. As it was, I loved every page. Cunningly clever, captivating and engrossing.

I do have some more books lined up, but I started back at college this week and we have absolutely TONS to do over the next six weeks. As and when I read anything else I'll add it.

juneybean · 25/09/2013 17:37

WednesdayNext I enjoyed it, I do like Philippa Gregory's books, the only downside was trying to remember who was who when their titles kept changing!

MegBusset · 25/09/2013 19:18
  1. Now Wait For Last Year - Philip K Dick

This was really good, better than Martian Time-Slip which was the last PKD I read. Typically mind-bendy and sad but also kind of hopeful too.

DuchessofMalfi · 25/09/2013 19:48

Book 82 - The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson. Rather too long, I thought. Could have done with some good editing but over all there was a good story in there. Did get a bit confusing at times with some similar names. Loved the trial part, and the ending was good. Glad finally to have completed the trilogy.

CoteDAzur · 25/09/2013 21:03
  1. Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin

A bit meh, not to mention badly dated in most of its aspects, from dialogues to patronising attitudes to women.

highlandcoo · 25/09/2013 21:14

juneybean I also read The White Queen recently and enjoyed it, although having just watched the TV adaptation in a sense I just re-imagined it all over again while reading the book.

Are you planning to read the others in the series? I've just read The Red Queen (disappointing) and The Lady of the Rivers, the story of Elizabeth Woodville's mother Jacquetta, which I thought was excellent and the best of the Cousins' War novels so far. Now have The Kingmaker's Daughter waiting, but I think I might have a bit of a break from PG tackling that!

highlandcoo · 25/09/2013 21:14

before tackling that!

juneybean · 25/09/2013 21:29

I haven't seen the tv show yet I purposely avoided it until I had read it, I have got The Red Queen here to read and have the others on my kindle so will get onto them soon! Grin

mumslife · 26/09/2013 12:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

greenhill · 26/09/2013 21:19

cote I see exactly what you are saying about Rosemary's Baby, but I felt it worked well specifically as a period piece about entrenched attitudes to women ie as a vessel: the pregnancy paranoias being just a little too heightened, the worry of the husband working so hard, was he up to no good? etc. As a companion piece to Stepford Wives I though that Ira Levin was quite clever about getting you inside the woman's head and deliberately excluding you from what the men thought.

Congratulations to everyone who has made it to 50 and beyond Smile

Technically though, I'm marking my place as I'm reading 3 books at the moment and will drop off the thread otherwise Smile

ruthie48 · 27/09/2013 08:37

Any books by Alexander McCall Smith. Not just the Private Ladies Det. Series but all his other serial books. Fabulous!

CoteDAzur · 27/09/2013 17:03

Actually, I thought his ladies' detective agency books were silly and tedious.

Do you think you are on a book recommendation thread, by any chance? Smile

moonshine · 27/09/2013 17:38
  1. March, Women, March - Lucinda Hawksley 6.7/10

Non-fiction about the early suffragette days.

  1. The Ladykiller - Martina Cole 6.8/10

I have always wanted to try a Cole novel and actually quite enjoyed it! An easy read.

  1. The Emperor of all Maladies 8/10

NF book about cancer, as recommend on this thread (an earlier version).

  1. Until You're Mine - Samantha Hayes 7/10

  2. Margaret Rutherford - Dreadnought with Good Manners - Andy Merriman 7/10

A gentle non-sensational bio.

  1. Apple Tree Yard - Louise Doughty 7.7/10

I know lots of people have been lukewarm about this but I really enjoyed it far more than the other similar ones - really enjoyed her writing style.

CircassianLeyla · 27/09/2013 18:47

No. 36 Blood Red, Snow White by Marcus Sedgewick

Book club read. I really enjoyed this. It is part fact with a large dose of artistic licence. It is centred on the Russian Revolution and coincides with my non-fiction reading for uni and it is clear that Sedgewick has read parts of the same book.

PerksOfBeingNorthern · 28/09/2013 09:41
  1. Lesley Thomson - The Detective's Daughter
  2. Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code
  3. Jade Goodmore - Forget-Me-Not
  4. Jill Mansell - Don't Want To Miss A Thing
  5. Roald Dahl - Boy
  6. St Johne Greene - Mum's List
  7. Michael Morpurgo - Private Peaceful
  8. Kazuo Ishigaro - Never Let Me Go
MegBusset · 28/09/2013 16:36
  1. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

Gripping, though harrowing eye-witness account of the spring 1996 climbing season on Everest when 12 climbers died (people being incompetent or generally horrid eg clambering over dying climbers on their way up).

DuchessofMalfi · 28/09/2013 21:49

Book 83 - Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. Absolutely delightful. Beautifully written, and poetic. I want to read more of her work.

penguinpaperback · 28/09/2013 23:21

The Kitchen book keeps popping up in my Amazon recommends lists.
I think I shall have to buy it. Thank you for your thoughts after reading it DuchessofMalfi. Smile

hackmum · 29/09/2013 14:36

Cote d'Azur: "Anna bloody Karenina - Leo Tolstoy"

Feel my pain. I have been on War and Peace for the last month, though actually it feels like my whole life. I have read 1100 pages and have 350 left to go, ie the length of a normal novel, but I do feel as if, somehow, there is a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel.

There's loads of stuff I'm looking forward to reading when I've finished it.

CoteDAzur · 29/09/2013 14:44

I do feel you pain. I actually shivered a little when I read your post.

Good luck. I haven't picked up my Kindle for days after I finished Anna Karenina. Never thought anything could come between me & my Kindle. I'm half way through a book about running now. It's very quick and easy, just what I need right now Smile

InLoveWithDavidTennant · 29/09/2013 22:54

this thread keeps dissappearing from my threads im on so apologies for not updating for ages. didnt read for 2 1/2 weeks as i took a break to watch some boxsets but im making up for it now Grin

  1. city of bones - cassandra clare. enjoyed very much. during the first half i prefered the film... but by the second half, i prefered the book.

  2. harry potter #1 - j.k. rowling. have never read hp before but have seen all the films. an easy read as i knew the story.

  3. city of ashes - cassandra clare. liked this very much. i love the fact that it pretty much continues where it left off in book 1. cant wait to read the others.

  4. harry potter #2 -j.k. rowling. halfway through. again, a quick read as i know what happens

ive set aside a pile of books that make up my 50 for this year and it looks so daunting that i dont think im going to make it. im having surgery in november so thats going to set me back too. ah well... at least i tried!

juneybean · 30/09/2013 11:22
  1. War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
MrsCosmopilite · 30/09/2013 23:57
  1. Havoc, in it's third year by Ronan Bennett. Quite strange, but equally quite gripping. In a nutshell, the tale of a coroner (in the 17th century) investigating a suspicious death.
MrsMaryCooper · 01/10/2013 07:47
  1. A Lesson in Dying - Ann Cleeves . Quite murder by numbers but OK. She's done a lot better.
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