50 Book Challenge 2014

[juneybean]

Hopefully nobody minds me starting this thread.

The idea is to read 50 books in 2014 (or more as many people have achieved this year!)

Please also check out our group on Goodreads if you're stuck for ideas of what books to read!

www.goodreads.com/group/show/59438-the-book-vipers

Sounds like you're living it, Cote!

BoF - I don't really read biogs tbh, unless they are about Scott, Shackleton, Mallory etc!

BOF - Yes, now you mention it, there seems to be a very subtle undertone of sexism or even misogyny running through them, more noticeable as the series progresses. I've got another two or three of them in my TBR pile so I will try one more later in the year and if it doesn't improve I will probably give up on them. A shame really, because the crime element of them is really readable.

Ok I need to update my list!!

2 - watch over me - Daniela sacerdoti
3 - Apple tree yard - Louise Doughty
4 - two times twenty - Bethan Darwin
5 - in the beginning - Catherine Dunne
6 - something like love - Catherine Dunne
7 - Cambridge blue - Alison Bruce (I really really enjoyed this, off to try another of this series)

1. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

1. Rubbernecker. - Belinda Bauer

An aspergic boy discovers a murder. Very enjoyable 8/10

1. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.

Loved it, bit deeper than what I've read recently but fabulous writing and really enjoyable to immerse myself in. Much preferred it to 'the secret history'. Now already on to 'I capture the castle'

1. Victor Hugo “Les Miserables” – I did enjoy the story of this, but found some bits annoying – especially the 4 chapters on the inner workings of the French sewerage system, which seemed totally unnecessary and irrelevant to the story. On the whole though, it was good. Reading it has helped me through the trauma of watching the musical over Christmas!
2. Diane Setterfield “The Thirteenth Tale”, which I loved. I loved the story and the writing style of the author.
3. Anita Shreve “The Lives of Stella Bain”. An easy read which I got through in two sittings. I did enjoy most of it, but some parts were a bit disappointing. I felt she didn’t really explain the transition between the first and second part of the book at all.

I’m now working on Germaine Greer “The Female Eunuch” and still reading through the Vickie Johnstone poetry on my Kindle app. I think I’m nearly done with that though, so a pleasing start to the year!!

Ooh abgirl that is in my pile to read.

Have just finished A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore, very good, dark, sweary and funny, thanks to ThursdayLast for recommending it.

'The Graveyard Book' is v lovely, I thought.

Number 11 finished - a guidebook to Amsterdam.
12, 13 and 14 now all on the go at once, as they are all dip in and out books.

1. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Audio book, read by Jenny Agutter. Really enjoyable, couldn't fault the narration. I loved the story, which was quite different in places from the tv adaptation, which did take quite a few liberties with the book.

Just started book 4. The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel. Enjoying it so far.

Oh Remus I loved "The Graveyard Book", I wanted it to never end.

Duchess what did you think of the plot of the novel by comparison to the TV version? I couldn't believe how much was missed out of the TV version, and the things they seemed to have changed with no real reasoning why!

Wednesday - it was strange the things they decided to change for the tv adaptation. I think it would have been better if it had been a series, there's so much detail in the novel and too much got left out.

I don't understand why they changed the story about Margaret's twin, or reduced Aurelius's story to virtually nothing. I found his story very moving, and it actually made me cry. In the novel he's such a lovely kind man, and yet in the tv version he was reduced to a homeless loner living in the ruins of the house.

I'm still very surprised that this novel so very nearly passed me by. If it hadn't been for the tv adaptation and a subsequent nomination for it as our bookclub read, I wouldn't have even heard of it. I'm usually aware of books people are talking about, whether on Goodreads or elsewhere, but I nearly missed this gem.

I've got her next book, Bellman and Black waiting on my kindle. Hope that one is a good one too.

Book 8 Single by Saturday Catherine Bybee

7 The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Finished no 4, Madensky Square by Eva Ibbotson. A 99p kindle book i have enjoyed- the story is of a dressmaker's shop in Vienna pre First World War.

I agree Duchess. Some of the things they changed were completely pointless: they didn't add anything to the story, just took away from it IMO. I was prompted to read it after seeing it on TV and because it's the Goodreads group read of the month for February. the change of the story with Margaret's twin really annoyed me, and I though Aurelius in the story was just as important as the story with the Angelfield girls. Very strange.

You'll have to let me know what her other book is like if you read it first!!

1. Vickie Johnstone - "Travelling Light" - a collection of poetry. It was okay, but I wasn't really bowled over by it.

I'm also reading Jodi Picoult "The Storyteller" alongside the Germaine Greer, but I highly suspect that the Picoult will be devoured first.

1. David and Goliath - Malcolm Gladwell
2. The Lost Continent - Bill Bryson
3. Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet - MC Beaton

1. The Goldfinch
2. Kiss Me First

5/ Apple Tree Yard - really enjoyed it, page turner.

I am also going to count the books I am reading to the children too.
3) Boy in the dress
4) The BFG

Book 1 - the Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
Book 2 - The Blackhouse - Peter May
Book 3 - The Universe Versus Alex Woods.
Book 4 - Mad About the Boy
Book 5 - My Life - David Jason
Book 6 - Paper Towns - John Green

My first John Green novel and I'm slightly disappointed given the rave reviews of his work. I didn't particularly care about the outcome and the wiser than their years life analysis annoyed me.

I'm still ploughing through The Luminaries and have decided to read it one chapter at a time because the alternative is to simply give it up.

6. The Knickerbocker Glory Years: The Great British Book of How Not to Eat, by Martin Lampen. Mini-essays on British food. Bucolic countryside on the label, an orange-coloured lump coated in breadcrumbs inside the packet. Amusing in small doses but somewhat indigestible if consumed entire.