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.

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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?

60. Was "The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole" by Sue Townsend. It was alright. Made me laugh in a few places.

Started Louisa Young "My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You" last night, so that will be my next read.

24. Love, Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli

59 A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks

• this book is well written, as you'd expect from this writer, who certainly doesn't lack talent, but I wasn't sure what the point of it was. It consists of five chapters/novellas/short stories (I'm not sure which) concerning different characters in different settings and times. It was a bit like a poor man's Cloud Atlas, but without the link between the stories being made explicit. At the end of one of the stories the central character has a vision or memory of people playing a game with sticks and in a previous story the central character was a keen cricketer, which made me wonder if the main character was being reincarnated, but I suspect that there are just supposed to be common themes to the stories.

Faulks is a very good writer, but with his mix of radio quiz shows, parodies, serious novels and copying the style of other writers (he's written both James Bond and Jeeves and Wooster novels) I feel that he rather lacks focus. I felt that this book could have been better.

50. Transatlantic by Colum McCann. It was good, it didn't blow me away like As the Great Worlds Spins did, but it was good. And interesting, all about the relationship between Ireland and the US.

51. SuperFreakonomics - VERY interesting, and I liked that it didn't have the cheesy extracts about Levitt in between each of the chapters. But, I think Freakonomics was better.

My next goal is to finish all the books I have out from the library, which isn't helped by me taking out more books from the library

So at the moment I have: The Price of Inequality (Stiglitz), The Decay of the Angel (Yukio Mishima), Wolf Hall (Hillary Mantel), Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates - LOVED the movie, so would like to see how the book compares), The Prague Cemetry (Umberto Eco), Visit Sunny Chernobyl (about polluted places), Before I go to Sleep (SJ Watson). For the last one, someone on here had read it, and given it has a similar premise to one of my favourite movies (50 First Dates), I thought I'd give it a try. I also have a book by Camus that my SIL gave me, so I think I'll try and finish that before the end of the year.

42. The Psychic Tourist - William Little

Interesting enough idea - the author meets various psychics, fortune tellers, gypsies etc and tries to get an idea of whether any of it based on reality. Of course it's not, so while it's all entertaining the author comes across as a bit of an idiot. There are some interesting exchanges with true believers, especially of "the world's most famous psychic" who lives in America, Richard Dawkins, and a theoretical physicist who talks about the possibility of a time machine through which we may receive messages from the future.

32. The Butterfly Isles by Patrick Barkham
    Non fiction about a writer who tries to see all 59 species of British butterfly in one year. Really lovely book.

33. Follow me Down by Tanya Byrne
    I'm not sure if this is an adult or young adult novel. Set in a boarding school. Very good.

Book 97 - The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan. Quirky, unusual, experimental little book depicting a relationship through defintions of various words. Definitely unusual

60. The Tiger in the Well - Phillip Pullman. I'm still in two minds about this. It's young adult/teen fiction, and in the same vein as Northern Lights with a strong female 'lead'. Bits of the story seemed quite contrived, rather Poirot/Miss Marple like, other bits were thoroughly gripping.

I've now picked up a huge stack of books from the library so will be working my way through those in the next three weeks.

43. Dark Eden - Chris Beckett

Descendants of a couple left behind on a hostile world try to rediscover civilization. A bit YAish because it is told from the viewpoints of various teenagers but pretty good.

79. Poppy Shakespeare, by Clare Allen

80. The Confusion Of Karen Carpenter, by Jonathan Harvey

81. If You Were Here, by Alafair Burke

82. Perfect, by Rachel Joyce

83. Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson

84. The Emporer's Children, by Claire Messud

85. The Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud

86. The Bad Mother, by Isabelle Grey

87. Tangled Lives, by Hilary Boyd

88. Fathers And Sons, by Richard Madeley

61 "My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You" by Louisa Young . Quite enjoyed this one, thought the ending was a bit rushed though.

Now starting Iain Banks "The Crow Road"

44. Echo Burning - Lee Child

#5 on the Jack Reacher series. Good, light relief.

60 A Sleeping Life by Ruth Rendell

I got this out of the library because I'm not averse to a good murder mystery. Unfortunately it is horribly dated (published in 1964). I was quite shocked at some of the references to race, sexuality, learning difficulties and how women should behave. The terms used would be unacceptable now. I suppose that it shows how far we have come though?

61 Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Another library book, but much more enjoyable. It is an account of the author's childhood in Tehran from 1980 - 1984, when she is aged 10-14. She is the only child of liberal parents and they all struggle with the oppression that follows the Islamic revolution. The book is written as a graphic novel and this works beautifully to convey a child's sense of what is going on.

Book 98 - The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. Quick read - read in 2 days. Very enjoyable thought-provoking novel.

45. Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan

I really enjoyed this book, although it requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. It is a good mix of high-tech (lots about Google etc) and Harry Potter-ish old-school mystery. And it's about books

I haven't read a lot lately (I think I was just thrilled to hit that 50!).

Anyway 3 good books to add:
51 Is it just Me? by Miranda Hart
52 Dear Fatty by Dawn French
53 Gone by Michael Grant

Now reading 54 Waiting for Wednesday

34. The Sacred Vault by Andy McDermott

Nice easy action adventure. Indiana Jones type story, book 6 in a series.

I think the only way I will make it to 50 is if I end up incapacitated for the rest of the year. But I hope to make it to 40 instead.

46. SuperFreakonomics

Very good, especially where it focuses on behavioral microeconomics, like in Freakonomics. Unfortunately, a large chunk of the book is devoted to possible high-tech solutions to climate change. While no doubt interesting info that needed to be published, those were not relevant to this book, imho.

30. After the Fall - Charity Norman 7.5/10
31. Tears and Laughter - David Griffin 6/10 (NF)
32. God is Not Great - Hitchens 7.5/20
33. Witness - Cath Staincliffe 6.5/10

Have read some real 'meh' books recently but loved God is Not Great, it was just a bit too dense for my speed of reading (slow), and the Norman one.

66. Sleep like the Dead - Alex Gray. Dull I wouldn't read another of her books
67. The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick. It was alright.

I'm finding it hard to find books that aborb me at the moment, can you tell?

62 Persepolis 2, the story of a return by Marjane Satrapi

This is the sequel to Persepolis, the story of a childhood, which was my book 61. It continues to follow the author's life in graphic novel form from the ages of 14 to 24.

Marjane's parents decide that she cannot remain safely in Iran and send her to Vienna on her own. Although they do this for the best of reasons Marjane suffers badly from homesickness and with no adults around who really care for her she is very vulnerable, ending up living on the streets. Eventually she returns to Iran and although the trauma she has suffered during her childhood has left its mark by the end of the book she knows that to be truly free she must make her life abroad.

63 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I heard about this book by word of mouth and then came across it accidentally in the library where I work so thought I'd give it a go. I really enjoyed it. It is described on the cover as Willy Wonka meets the Matrix, which is a fairly accurate description. It is set 2044 in a dystopian future. Earth is overcrowded, low on resources and badly affected by climate change. Most people live poor and desperate lives. The one bright spot is an on-line alternative reality, Oasis. The multi-billionaire creator of Oasis, Halliday, dies leaving as his heir the person who can find an egg he has left hidden in Oasis, by following his clues. Solving the clues requires a detailed knowledge of Halliday's obsessions, the films, music and video games of the 1980s, when he grew up. This book is a real page turner and immense fun. I suspect that geeky teenage boys will love it for its portrayal of life as an avatar in an alternative reality, but anyone who grew up in the '80s will enjoy the references to that culture. It would make a fantastic film.

61. Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel. Can't remember if it was a recommend on here (sorry) or from a reasonably new friend who's a bookaholic, but it was a really good read. Keen to read some more of hers now. For lovers of historical fiction, for those interested in the Tudors, its well worth getting hold of a copy. It covers a short period between Henry VIII's divorce of Anne Boleyn and marriage with Jane Seymour. So many machinations behind the scenes, so many people changeable as the weather, so many divided loyalties!

47. Without Fail - Lee Child

Jack Reacher #6. Not as good as the previous ones, I thought, but still a page-turner.

19. The Hydrogen Sonata - Iain M Banks
20. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett (probably more of a novella but an utterly charming story)

99 - Big Brother by Lionel Shriver - audio book. Really good.
100 - The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Didn't enjoy this at all.