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

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
Book 9 - What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty
Book 10 - The Personal History of Rachel Dupree - AnnWeisgarber
Book 11 - The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng.
Book 12 - The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith
Book 13 - Greyhound of a Girl - Roddy Doyle

Read this before giving it to my 10 year old. Beautiful, heartwarming novella. Sad yet somewhat comforting and I'm hoping that my daughter sees the message and enjoys it too. A few holes in the story is my main criticism but not sure how they could have been plugged without losing the simplicity of the tale and what it achieves.

#5 The Rosie Project

I know lots of people are raving about this at the moment but it deserves every word of praise it gets - will be going on my favourite list!

Chillie Mists of Avalon sounds good - will have to add that to my pending list

Book 20. Stillness and Speed Dennis Bergkamp. His autobiography it was very interesting

10 - Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes. Chilling and terrifying. Utterly brilliant. Am still shaking, an hour after finishing it :o :o

#13 Vanity Fair, by William Thackeray
#14 Washington Square, by Henry James- I last read these about twenty years ago, and really enjoyed revisiting them.
#15 Blood, Sweat and Tea- a factual account of life as a paramedic, free on kindle at the moment.

Just starting a new Ian Rankin.

1. The Rosie project. Enjoyed this, nice easy read.

Update:

1. A Pirate of Exquisite Mind - Michael and Diana Preston
2. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell
3. Longbourn - Jo Baker
4. Fever Crumb - Philip Reeve
5. A Web of Air - Philip Reeve
6. Scrivener's Moon - Philip Reeve
7. Dolly - Susan Hill

I enjoyed the Fever Crumb prequels to Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series though they didn't quite come into their own for me until Scrivener's Moon, perhaps because that's the book in which the mobile predatory London starts becoming a reality. I love Fever as a protagonist; geeky, resourceful and prim, she comes alive far more than other action heroines I've come across. I hope Philip Reeve gets around to book 4 in this series before too long.

Next up was Dolly, one of Susan Hill's ghost stories, and it left me underwhelmed. If she's written a ghost story to come anywhere close to the Woman in Black I haven't yet come across it.

Book 8 is Underground London by Catharine Arnold, all about the city's criminal past - a cracking read so far.

Duchess I'm intrigued by what you said about Into the Darkest Corner. Do I dare read it at night while I'm on my own?

1. A possible life - Sebastian Faulks

I suspect this won't be for everyone but I enjoyed it, 5 short stories that all surround the meaning of life, set in the past and future. Not all the characters likable, but I really liked the variety.

Ooh I didn't know about those Philip Reeves ones - thanks for that. I wasn't blown away by the London one, though it's the sort of thing that should be right up my street.

I'm on a go slow again. Have had a headache all week, so not been able to read much.

Minsmum - seriously - are you on book 20 already? That's one every two days so far!

1. The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt - loved this. Totally gripped by it. One of those books that turns you into a bore because you just want to meet other people who will sit around with you going: Wow, wasn't it amaaaazing?
2. Testament of Mary - Colm Toibin - meh.
3. Blue Lightening - Anne Cleeves - nice trad whodunit
4. Blue Monday - Nicci French - bit disappointed. Not quite believable. Nicely written though.
5. The Man Who Loved A Polar Bear - Robert Akaret - non fiction. If you like Oliver Sach's books, this is fun (but sort of sachs-lite)
6. Feeling Good - Dr Burns - non fiction - complete guide to CBT. Had to read this for work. Surprisingly brilliant. Learned loads from it. knew nothing about CBT beforehand and it's fascinating stuff.
7. Skios - Michael Frayn - OK. Farce. Bit silly but good fun.
8. Best American Short Stories 2014 - Great.

Also read a friend's manuscript before publication. Can't say what it is yet as it doesn't come out till next year. But it was absolutely brilliant and will be a massive hit on MN I think.

Next on list:
And the mountains echoed - Hosseini
Americanah - Adichie
The Luminaries

Intriguing!

Woodrunner, I so know what you mean about The Goldfinch

Woodrunner yes I am but it's because I have been going to lots of hospital appointments,not for me . So a fair few hours in waiting rooms and I have watched no tv.
It's not going to carry on.

I thought I'd wait till I got to 10 before I posted on this thread. So here they are:

1. 41 false starts and other essays by Janet Malcolm
2. Lord of the flies by William Golding
3. We need new names by NoViolet Bulawayo
4. Harvest by Jim Crace
5. Almost English by Charlotte Mendelsson
6. The silent woman by Janet Malcolm
7. The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz
8. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
9. Mad Girl’s Love Song by Andrew Wilson
10. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Lord of the flies was because DD is doing it for GCSE, in case anyone was wondering! I can see why it's regarded as a classic but I do think they could surely come up with something that 15 year old girls could relate to a bit more.

The two Janet Malcolm books were excellent - The Silent Woman is about the Sylvia Plath biography industry, which then got me interested in the Andrew Wilson book, which is a biography of the young Plath.

Really liked Americanah, not so keen on We Need New Names, which covers similar territory.

Harvest was excellent, and The Rosie Project was a good, light read.

The Stephen Grosz book (vignettes from his life as a psychoanalyst) is beautifully-written and thought-provoking.

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
Book 9 - What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty
Book 10 - The Personal History of Rachel Dupree - AnnWeisgarber
Book 11 - The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng.
Book 12 - The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith
Book 13 - Greyhound of a Girl - Roddy Doyle
Book 14 - Gangsta Granny - David Walliams

Read with my DD at bedtime. Great story. Sad but with a few laugh out loud moments. I adored the dialogue with HM! Great for reading aloud.

10- Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy - Helen Fielding

Very disappointing! Light fluff but really nowhere near the standard of the previous two. Wish I hadn't bothered paying to reserve a copy now! I wouldn't recommend to fans of the originals.

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
Book 9 - What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty
Book 10 - The Personal History of Rachel Dupree - AnnWeisgarber
Book 11 - The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng.
Book 12 - The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith
Book 13 - Greyhound of a Girl - Roddy Doyle
Book 14 - Gangsta Granny - David Walliams
Book 15 - Twelve Years a Slave - Solomon Northup

I'd learnt nothing about this book before I downloaded it and for most of it thought I was reading historical fiction. The horror of the story is not so much the gruesome detail (that is indeed horrific) but the acceptance by the majority of the people in the book, both free and enslaved, of the slavery situation as a whole. The author is magnanimous in his opinion of people; people can be good or rotten whichever side of the fence they sit. The lack of bitterness is evident despite the glut of anger at the situation. I'm confused and need to think about this for a while I think. I'm heartbroken for some of the females described in this book.

Book 18 - another book about Amsterdam.

1. Death of a Salesman - Miller

10. Whose Life is it Anyway? - Brian Clark

Both re-reads for school.

Currently enjoying number 11 - One Summer by Bill Bryson. So easy to read, just like stepping into a warm bath

Loving all of the recommendations.

Duchess I hated that Elizabeth Haynes book when I read it last year or the year before. Couldn't stand the writing style.

1. I Remember Nothing- Norah Ephron
2. One Summer, America 1927 - Bill Bryson
3. Anthill - E O Wilson

14. Raising Innocence - Shannon Mayer
15. Shadowed Threads - Shannon Mayer

Books 3 and 4 of the Rylee Adamson series, an easy to read urban fantasy series.

Please would people say a bit more about which books they'd recommend?

Hackmum thanks for your comments about the Stephen Grosz. I need to read a few Psych books for work at the moment. Just read Feeling Good which was brilliant and Man who Loved a Polar Bear which was fun. I'll add the Grosz to the list.

Finished no 7 Iron Horse by Edward Marston. Started The White Queen by Phillipa Gregory which has been on my shelf for absolutely ages.

Sorry woodrunner I'd recommend all the books I've read so far, but I'd recommend them to different people iyswim.

I love urban fantasy so the Shannon Mayer books I've read are a very enjoyable series which I found easy to read and I've connected to the main characters, Rylee is a "Tracker" who can locate people, alive or dead, by honing in on them in her head. She mostly finds missing children because she wishes she could have found her sister when she went missing years earlier, but her sister is the only person she's ever been unable to track.

woodrunner, An Examined Life is Mumsnet's non-fiction book of the month for January, and people are posting up questions for Stephen Grosz - answers in the next couple of weeks apparently, if you're interested:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/adult_nonfiction/1958896-January-non-fiction-book-of-the-month-Stephen-Grosz-An-Examined-Life-Post-a-question-to-the-author?pg=2

It's a shame the nonfiction site doesn't get more traffic, as I read a lot of nonfiction, but people seem to post here instead.