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

4. The First Casualty - Ben Elton. Enjoyed it

Almost finished 5) The Engagements - J Courtney Sullivan. Loving it!

Number 2 finally in the bag - May We Be Forgiven. Really enjoyed it despite being slightly taken aback by the speed and violence with which it got started. Much more life affirming than I originally expected. Now for a little light relief with The School at the Chalet which I found in a charity bookshop. I need to get a couple more books under my belt this month if I'm going to have a hope of making 50!

Finished Exodus by Julia Bertagna (YA) number 6? Or 5, can't remember.

Third of the way through number 7, Daughter of Smoke and Bone (another YA)

I finished last year with 56 and am currently reading number 7 of 2014.
So far:
Marriage Material - Sathnam Sanghera - enjoyed this, although ending was a little rushed

All the birds singing - Evie Wyld - interesting time perspective as you moved backwards to the event which triggered the protagonist's arrival in UK.

Mad About the Boy - no surprises here, but relaxing read, no brain required

Apple Tree Yard - enjoyed this

The Husband's Secret -irritating characters and the secret was obvious

Me Before You - read for my book club - easy read and had an interesting discussion about it

This year I want to read the Costa nominations and also Booker short lists for 2013.

9. Dulcie Domum's Bad Housekeeping, Sue Limb. Published in 1990, and an early-ish version of mumlit.

Shanghai I was very surprised by All the Birds Singing - found it strangely addictive yet quite harrowing - glad I read it though!

I've two more to add to the tally:

Longbourn by Jo Baker - a version of Pride and Prejudice based on the below stairs lives of the Bennett family's servants - enjoyable romp

Maggie and Me by Damian Barr - an autobiography which partly looks at how Margaret Thatcher impacted on a kid growing up in the 80s in a dysfunctional home who also has to deal with the fact he's gay in an unsympathetic environment. That might make it sound a bit worthy, but the author comes across as really likeable so even though it is not at all a lightweight subject matter, it is still very readable.

A little(!) behind on the approx 1 book/week target, but both books I have read have been quite long:

1. The Girl who played with fire by Steig Larsson.
2. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest

I'm going to read some shorter books now, with the intent of catching up a bit, so will not be tackling The Luminaries any time soon .

I've also done very well not buying any new books since 8 January, so almost 3 weeks, which is a bit of a record for me in the era of the kindle.

Have now started The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves, I have read almost all of her Vera Stanhope and Shetland books, but this is one that has escaped me up to now.

bibliomania oooh, I was addicted to Sue Limb's Dulcie Domum column in the Guardian several decades ago - I didn't know there was a book - will def look out for it. The column always reminded me of an even earlier and very genteel sort of mumslit - The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield.

Still ploughing on with book number 5, here - Mansfield Park, thanks to joining the Book Vipers and trying to do the Magic Square thingy. Agree with the comments above about Fanny Price being a very dull sort of heroine. Longing for some Bronte-style passion or George Eliot's moral dilemmas.

Definitely joining in, and hoping that in May the lively Mumsnet readership might take an interest in my debut novel, out with a hardback splash from major publisher. Won't say the title - not everything is about publicity. Exciting times, and great reviewing on here. See you on the Goodreads group too.

Currently reading & Sons by David Gilbert - brilliant writer, obtuse plot, but that doesn't seem to be stopping me enjoying it.

Just finished The Mirror by Richard Skinner - two novellas. The second, The Velvet Gentleman, is really good - elegant and original and witty about the composer Erik Satie, in the afterlife. Worth the ticket price.

Book 9: Ghosts of War by George Mann.

I've been having a bit of steampunk splurge. This one is the sequel to Mann's Ghosts of Manhattan and set within the same alternative historical world. Most of Mann's novels are set in a London under the artificially extended rule of Queen Victoria. The two featuring the Ghost are set in 1920s New York and feature a playboy, Gabriel Cross, who throws lavish parties and lives a life of decadance while trying to bury the real him, who was badly affected by his experiences in WWI. He also has a crime-fighting alter-ego, The Ghost. In this one, he joins forces with a police officer and an English spy as he investigates brass raptors which are carrying people off the streets, and also a cabal of senators and businessmen who are plotting to turn the cold war between the US and the British Empire hot.

I really enjoy Mann's world of coal-powered cars, mechanical creations, and good old-fashioned detective work. He's very inventive and an engaging writer.

ChillieJeanie I've never read steampunk - and hadn't heard of it until someone on MN bookclub mentioned it - but would like to give it a try.

Which of Mann's books would be a good choice to start with?

MrsPeahen I'm intrigued - give us a clue, go on . Maybe on Goodreads?

1. A Pirate of Exquisite Mind
2. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
3. Longbourn
4. Currently engrossed in Fever Crumb - the first in the prequel series to Mortal Engines

1. The Waste Lands - Stephen King (Dark Tower pt 3)

Am beginning to really love this series, this was a tremendous read, the best of the series so far. Just hope the quality doesn't drop as it goes on. Going to have a breather with mountaineering book before I pick up part 4.

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
Book 7 - We Are Water - Wally Lamb
Book 8 - American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis

Really struggling to process this. Clearly an incredibly harrowing read given the extent and the detail of violence described but more disturbing was how singularly materialistic and shallow every single character was. The writing technique served only to emphasise this and it took me a while to see what the author was trying to achieve. Won't say much more because of spoilers but there's a lot to talk about re this book and not many answers to be had I think. Hugely polarising work.

highlandcoo His main series centres arouns Sir Maurice Newbury and Miss Veronica Hobbes who investigate crimes alongside the police, so the first in that series is The Affinity Bridge which sets up the world in context so that would be an obvious place to start. Recently The Casebook of Newbury and Hobbes came out which is a series of short stories if you wanted to dip in a toe.

froglet, you're absolutely right. It reminded me very much of EM Delafield - in tone it's like The Diary of a PL, but the plot (being tempted into adultery) is very like the same author's The Way Things Are, which I also recommend.

The way the narrator harks back to tags of her Oxbridge literary education reminds me a little of Barbara Pym, and I'm also reminded a bit of Letters of a Fainthearted Feminist. So lots of ingredients I like, and I enjoyed the read, but ultimately it is just a magazine column in book form.

Currently going backwards and forwards between two books, both due back at the library shortly. The first is The Monuments Men by Robert Edsel, a non-fic about trying to save art treasures during WWII, soon out as a film. It's quite interesting, although there's not much of a narrative arc, just a list of things that happened. And there are a couple of lapses that are either American/English mistranslations or just poor copy-editing. He has a scene set in the English countryside and I think he's trying to hit a note of hope stirring after war, with the character being surrounded by green shoots. What he actually says is that this person is surrounded by sprouts. Well, could be, but I don't t hink that's the mental image he after.

The second is A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon. Nearly 1000 pages in hardback and quite dangerous to read in bed. Her books are quite immersive once you sink into their depths, although I'm not quite there yet with this one.

Onto book 6 now so nicely on target for 50 this year.

1. The Dinner by Herman Koch
2. The Midnight Rose by Lucinda Riley
3. The Undesirables by Dave Boling
4. Matilda by Roald Dahl
5. Flying Under Bridges by Sandi Toksvig

6 is I Am Malala which can I be really mean and say is a bit dull so far?

Finished 5) The Engagements by J Courtney Sullivan, which was fabulous. The narrative revolves around various people in different time periods, and their relationships. I really recommend it.

Now onto
6) Wake - Anna Hope

Finished 5, the love life of Nathaniel p by adelle Waldman. Clever people in New York have sex and then think about it. Way too navel gazing for me, literally no ending but well written.

Now reading the tigers wife, by tea obrecht. Not sure what it's about yet but it's engaging me.

Thanks CJ. I might go for The Affinity Bridge as the first in the series.

I love Victorian fiction and also enjoy authors who set their work in that period - Michel Faber, Sarah Waters, Michael Cox, Jane Harris for example - so hoping steampunk might suit me too.

Book 4 The mangle street murders. Victorian crime that borrowed more than a little from Conan Doyle but very enjoyable

Highland Coo? Have you read Philip Reeves' Mortal Englines series? It's YA but steam-punk-ish and v entertaining.

1. Agnes Grey (Anne Bronte). It was great! Charming, simple, great first person voice, nice love story. A little one-note, a little pious, cant help comparing it unfavourably to Jane Eyre at times, but still a really nice read overall.

I have until tomorrow morning to decide whether to read Shirley (Charlotte Bronte) next, thus continuing with my Bronte kick OR have a Bronte break and read something else. Can anyone enlighten me as to what to expect from Shirley?