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?

49. Let The Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist

I was underwhelmed by this book. Yes, it's a vampire story, it's gritty & real-life-y, talks about damaged adults & growing up in crime-ridden poor neighbourhoods awash in drugs. Still, it wasn't that great, I'm sorry to say.

Meg - Running With The Kenyans was my book #35 this year

I agree with you. A much much better book on this subject is Born To Run by Christopher McDougall.

52. The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz - very political, good, but not as good as "Globalisation and its discontents". It came across as super biased (basically, every US administration has buggered up the economy apart from Clinton's because I was his economic advisor) which makes me wary.

53. Visit Sunny Chernobyl - about visiting the most polluted places in the world. Very interesting as well and uplifting. The author went to a lot of places like Chernobyl, "Garbage Island", the Amazon expecting to find complete devastation, but actually shows how nature repairs itself, e.g. the wildlife has returned to the Chernobyl area. Also shows how complex preservation can be and how wrong the Western Ideal of "Nature" (as an untouched wilderness with no human intervention) is actually damaging and inaccurate, particularly when writing about the Amazon.

54. Before I go to sleep - alright not amazing.

I tried and gave up on Prague Cemetery - too dull. I'm now trying Bring Up the Bodies, but I'm actually finding it difficult to read. I need to wrest Revolutionary Road from DH who has taken it. I also got out "Lean In" by Sheryl Sandberg and "Bad Science". Can't wait to finish work for the year so I can read more.

Honourable mention (not a book, but amazing) - the series called "The Invisible Child" in the NYTimes about a homeless family, showing the inequality in NY and the unintended (you'd hope) effects of Mayor Bloomberg's decisions. For e.g., the ban on large soft drinks - awesome from a health perspective, but for her family one Big Gulp would be shared between 8 children so having to buy a bunch of sodas instead of one big gulp is expensive for them. Also depressing that in one of the wealthiest countries in the world her mother has to steal food to feed her children.

MegBusset - It's terrifying, isn't it? I've ordered Blowing Up Russia (by Litvinenko) which apparently is also excellent. I was doing research on Putin and some of his associates and it is absolutely terrifying that this man in the most powerful (by some reckonings) man in the world. You can trace his influence, or his close associate's influence to a number of conflicts, e.g. one guy supplying weapons to Al Qaeda and so on.
Another good one to complement The Man Without a Face is Godfather of The Kremlin which is about the rise of Berezovsky, who was largely responsible for bringing Putin in, and it shows how much they underestimated Putin. The book was published in around 2000 and basically ends with "So Berezovsky has put this puppet in place and will continue to control the Kremlin". In his dreams ...

Ooh I'll look that up. Imperium by Ryszard Kapuscinski (had to Google the spelling!) was one of my top reads from earlier this year, a horrifying but incredibly well written account of the Soviet empire.

37. Zoo by James Patterson.

All the animals in the world have gone crazy and started attacking humans for no apparent reason. Scary and gripping post-apocalyptic stuff. It reads like it would be a good Hollywood blockbuster.

27. The Idle Traveller, Dan Kiernan. Non-fic. Not particularly well-written.

28. Rosemary's Baby, Ira Levin. Great fun, very 60s. All hail Adrian!

29. The Ancient Curse, Valerio Massimo Manfredi. Meh. Scooby Doo.

30. Heartbreak Hotel, Deborah Moggach. Lovely.

31. Daisy Dooley Does Divorce, Anna Pasternak. I have crowned this worst book of the year.

32. The Other Mitford: Pamela's Story. I've probably read too much about the Mitfords already, but at least this was a different angle.

33. The Pedant in the Kitchen, Julian Barnes. Didn't really tickle my fancy.

34. Please Nurse! Joan Lock. About training as a nurse back in the 1950s. Pleasingly unsentimental - she kicks hard against the ministering angel fantasy.

35. Crusoe's Daughter, Jane Gardam. I do like this author.

36. Dead and Gone, Charlaine Harris. Enjoyable enough.

37. I don't know why she bothers, Daisy Waugh. I agree with the premise - ditch the guilty and enjoy the parenting as much as possible. Felt like an over-extended magazine article and it seems rather unfair on SAHMS.

38. The Poets' Daughters: Dora Wordsworth and Sara Coleridge. An absolute delight.

39. Breakfast at Sotheby's, Philip Hook. Enjoyable mini-essays about the art trade - liked it but I think it would have benefited from a more coherent narrative.

40. Stuff I've been Reading, Nick Hornby. We don't have the same taste in books, but I like reading about people reading (like this thread!)

41. The Clothes They Stood Up In, Alan Bennett. Rather touching.

42. How Many Camels Are There in Holland? Phyllida Law. Not as enjoyable as Notes to My Mother-in-law. A bit incoherent - fitting as there is an underlying dread of succumbing to dementia like her mother. Not as grim as that sounds, but not a laugh a minute either.

43. The Monday Night Cooking School, Erica Bauermeister. A distinctly American streak of whimsy. Rather pat ending. The first few pages describe a little girl whose mother disappeared into books - struck a nerve....

44. The Seven Dials Mystery, Agatha Christie.

23. Mortal Engines -Phillip Reeve

64 Set in Darkness by Ian Rankin

This book didn't really grab me although I have enjoyed the other Rebus books. I think I'm just a bit tired with reading about Rebus drinking all the time and his rather dysfunctional relationships.

65 The Cleaner of Chartres by Sally Vickers

This was okay, though again, I enjoyed her other books more. A major part of the plot was left unresolved which I found rather unsatisfying.

66 So Much For That by Lionel Shriver

Another real page turner from Lionel Shriver. Like her other books, most famously, "We Need To Talk About Kevin" it is sometimes uncomfortable to read but I love her bravery in tackling taboo subjects head on and exploring the dark thoughts we all have sometimes.

The husband in this book, Shep, is a really good man. Hardworking, reliable, a supportive friend, brother, son and husband. He perhaps lets people take advantage of his good nature rather too much, but you love him for it. He has lived modestly all his life saving for what he calls "The After Life", a blissful, early retirement (in his 40s) in a developing country where he can live simply on his savings. He has come to realise that his talented but rather prickly wife doesn't share this dream and is on the point of leaving her when she reveals that she has cancer. As they live in the U.S. she needs him to stay with her so that his health insurance will pay for her treatment.

The book deals with the reaction Shep, his wife, their children and friends have to the diagnosis and doesn't shy from describing the truth of serious illness and how everyone falls short of the saintly sufferer and their supportive family scenario. At the end of the book is an essay by Shriver about how she reacted when one of her close friends had cancer. The book came out of the shame she feels. It is also a book which made me profoundly grateful for the NHS.

I'd have read at least 50 books this year, but haven't because of forcing myself to read "Sepulcre" by Kate Mosse. Fuck me, I am only a few pages off finishing the bloody thing, and it must have had something to keep me going, but I must have read 15 other books (book adultery, to give it it's official term) during and I have to keep coming back to it, in a bid to finish the tome. I might even skim read the last couple of chapters to get the fucker finished k x

Wow, Santa, that's dedication. I have no intention of reading Kate Mosse again, and I feel my life is the better for it.

Santa - your post made me laugh. I've had a book like that recently, forcing myself to finish it through gritted teeth. Did not want to give up on it, but wasn't enjoying it at all.

Sometimes there's just something there that makes you determined to finish it whatever the cost, rather than abandon it (like I normally would).

62. Iain Banks "Crow Road" - enjoyed this one but not as much as The Wasp Factory.

I'm currently reading "Tales of Johan" by David Harris Wilson

44. The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Andersen
45. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
46. Reached by Ally Condie
47. A Girl Aboard the Titanic: A Survivor's Story by Eva Hart

Forgot to update!

38. Tempting Fate by Jane Green

About a woman who has an affair . Not bad, not great either.

Great post Santa, I think we all have those books occasionally, where you've reached a point where you can't give up, but continuing to read the book is painful!

YY I'm having this problem with "the one hundred year man" it's preventing me reading anything else, but I'm stuck with it. Hopefully I'll find some time soon to complete it.

I think 64 may be my limit - the stack of books I have from the library is pretty untouched, as I have an assignment due in.

However, on the plus side, I have two weeks in January to get started on 2041's books.

Last update will be with you in a few days.

101 - This Charming Man by Marian Keyes. Was not sure what to expect with this novel, but found it totally gripping, engrossing, didn't want to put it down. It's a lot more serious and a lot darker than I thought it would be. Gave it 5 stars on Goodreads.

24. I feel bad about my neck - Nora Ephron

YY Duchess , This Charming Man was great and dark. Much more deserving than it's "chick lit", guise.

50. In The Wood - Tana French

I was recommended this murder mystery by a friend whose taste in books I respect, but didn't get on with it at all. It was at least 200 pages too long and the narrator (male murder detective) sounded like a giggly school girl for most of the book - actually talking about his "helpless, snorting giggles", "fresh fit of giggles", etc. Author can clearly write but isn't that good with suspense and doesn't seem to know how men think.

If anyone likes "rude" books, but not misogynistic stuff like "shades of Grey", "The Bride Stripped Bare" and the other one by Nicky Gemmel are worth a read.

64: The Well of lost plots - Jasper Fforde. The more I read, the more I like. Another great romp through the world of literary characters, with loads of bizzarre but plausible (in the context of the book) happenings.

63. "tales of Johan" by David Harris Wilson. It was alright, but hard-going in places.

64. " A Symphony of Echoes" by Jodi Taylor. This was the sequel to a book I read earlier in the year. Loved it!!

42. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf The shortest book that took me forever to read. I find her books quite hard to read and often feel like I don't like them when I am reading, then I will read one line that makes me rethink my entire opinion and her books stay with me long after I have finished. I am still telling everyone I know to read Mrs. Dalloway and that was weeks if not months ago.

I don't think I am going to make my target of 50, but I did want to read Pride & Prejudice to celebrate the anniversary and maybe if I get a few short books in, finish the BFG and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with the DC then I might just scrape in.

Well done to all that have made it, exceeded or just had a great time with new books etc. Are we relaunching the challenge for 2014? I have a busy year ahead so am going to be more modest in my target - maybe 25.