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

Thanks hackmum - that's brilliant. I had no idea. Will get it on Kindle and post a question.

Thanks Anti. That sounds interesting. Is it YA or adult? Sounds like the sort of thing DS1 might like too.

Didn't get very far with the Proust, so have moved on to the terribly highbrow...

#6 Paul McKenna's Hypnotic Gastric Band

1. Getting over Mr Right by Chrissie Manby. Light, fast read but I disliked it intensely. The protagonist was exasperatingly idiotic and the plot was wildly unbelievable. I suspect it was meant to be humorous but it just annoyed me.
2. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty. I really enjoyed this one. There's no mystery but it's an interesting look at the aftermath of crime.
3. The Donor by Helen Fitzgerald. Dark humour with some over-the-top characters. A good, fast read.

1. Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfield. I really enjoyed this!

12. The Heart Broke In, by James Meek. I started off really liking it and by the end, it's not that I disliked it, so much as I felt that it was all tied up rather too neatly. Here's the theme - betrayal - and here's how each character arc is wedged neatly in. But he does take you to some interesting places along the way - from a political killing in Northern Ireland to malaria research in Tanzania to celebs having sex with under-age girls. And if that sounds po-faced, it's not at all - it's done with a fairly light touch and I laughed out loud a couple of times along the way.

Feeling a bit intimidated by my towering heap of library books at the moment. Have to run through some of the smaller ones just to reduce the pile.

Finally finished Monsters of Men.
I think the ending was rally good, perfectly suited to the rest of the trilogy. I did however, get a bit bored on my journey there.
It is a fairly familiar teen fiction story, but told in an original style.
I would recommend it.

My next book is a £1 from the doctors waiting room find - Christipher Brookmyre Country of the Blind

Up to 4 now. Feel behind though.

(3) The Shock of the Fall - read because it won the prize. I liked it a lot but didn't absoultely love it.

(4) Kiss Me First - another first person, which given its not my favourite style, is a bit of a shame. I really liked this though, I thought it was clever and used a good, topical issue. I wasn't overwhelmed with the end, but would definitely recommend it.

Onto no. 5. Not decided what to go for next, but definitely not another first person narrator.

1. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote. This was one of DD's A level books from a few years back. I needed something to read in the bath so grabbed if off her bookshelf. Not sure what to read next, probably a comfort read or something easy.

Finished no. 6 yesterday - The Red House by Mark Haddon. It's a bit weird but I liked it. Not like his other books, really.
Next I'm going to read The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

I was disappointed by, 'Monsters of Men' after the previous two. This one was clearly rushed to be published before everybody forgot the other two, and the writing quality was weaker (as was the author's interest in what he was doing, I think).

1. Stoner - enjoyed this despite not really liking the characters much

5 Private Peaceful - This was one I was reading to the DC. Had me in tears which DC found quite amusing, they really couldn't understand how fiction could make me cry!!

6 The Universe versus Alex Woods - Only just started this one but have high hopes

Woodrunner it's an adult series but my 14 yo dd is reading it and enjoying it. She reads a lot of my books but I make sure I've read them first so I know quite how adult they are. This series doesn't go into too much detail with either the violence or the sex so I'm just as happy with her reading these as I would be watching a 12 film.

10. kalooki Nights- Howard Jacobson

5: Mansfield Park
6: From Me to You, love poems by UA Fanthorpe and RV Bailey
7: The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden

Ploughed through MP feeling grumpy with all the tiresome characters and their trivial concerns. Then about two-thirds through something happened and I found myself actually caring about Fanny and Edmund. She's def not the most exciting of heroines though, even by JA's standards.
From Me to You is full of gentle, quirky poems about everyday life and love (but with some serious bits too - not at all Wendy Copeish)
The Greengage Summer has been on my shelf for years in a lovely hardback edition (prob why I never got round to reading it before). It's a very easy read, a coming of age story about a group of English children who get stranded in France in the 1950s and have adventures including getting mixed up with a jewel thief. All very charming.
Next is The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin, about Dickens' mistress. Want to read it before seeing Ralph Fiennes in the movie!

4: The Siege by Helen Dunmore. Beautifully written but very harrowing - found myself anxiously watching the display on my Kindle to tell me how far through I was, thinking 'it must get better soon...'
5: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. Brilliant. Highly recommended to anyone searching for an account of drug-crazed moral bankruptcy and extreme debauchery.

10. Shirley, by Charlotte Bronte

The title is deceiving: this book isn’t so much about Shirley as an entire Yorkshire community. Shirley doesn’t even appear in the first third of the book!

The bad: The first hundred pages were hard to get through - lots of crap about random unimportant characters and exposition of political background. There are also way too many long winded moralising monologues and asides peppered throughout the novel. I think it would have been a better book if it had been edited down to 300 pages instead of the 500 it was.

The good: There were tons of characters in this book, and nearly all of them just leapt off the page, they were beautifully written and contrasted each other so well. The dual (sometimes triangular) love stories were beautifully done, and the two main characters Shirley and Caroline were both wonderfully interesting heroines. Bronte’s angry feminism especially throughout the first part of the book certainly left me feeling very fortunate to be a woman in the 21st century rather than the 19th…

1. Room - Emma Donogue

Read it before on my kindle but was given a paper copy so thought I'd read it again before passing it on as I thought it was very good.

1. The Buddha in the Attic - Julie Otsuka

Wasn't sure about this to start with as it is written quite unusually - tales about lots of people but it is written in the first person as "we". It was about a group of Japanese "picture brides" who travelled from Japan to the United States in the inter war period to marry Japanese men who had already migrated there who they had never met. It ended with Japanese immigrants living on the west coast being forcibly moved inland after Pearl Harbour. It was really interesting and something I knew nothing about. I usually want books to have a "proper" story so was a bit surprised I enjoyed this so much as it is lots of snippets of different people's lives. Highly recommended for something that is a bit "different".

11. Marriage Material - Sathnam Sanghera 8/10

It's good to hear you gave Marriage Material 8/10 dexter

I have it on my to-read pile along with The Boy with the Top-Knot. I went to hear the author talk last year and found him really engaging. Very amusing about his family. Looking forward to reading his books when I finally get round to them.

Finally finished Number 4!

1. Pride and Prejudice by Austen
2. The Coming Race by Bulwer Lytton whatshisname
3. The Foundation Pit by Platanov
4. What Matters in Jane Austen? By John Mullan

This was a great non-fic read. I really enjoyed it. It asks 20 questions about JA - what is the right way to propose, do people have sex etc. It is scholarly enough but really accessible. Conversely following all the earlier Mansfield Park discussion it has made me want to re-read it.

Not sure what is next but I have Animal Farm in my bag or maybe The Three Musketeers.

Shirley always makes me think of Nice Work by David Lodge.

11. Rosie Hopkins Sweetshop of Dreams. Pure chick lit but enjoyable enough. Am off work with gastroenteritis so I needed something soothing and all my comfort re reads are on the top floor of the house.

Going to try The Stand next as it's been on my kindle for a while.

So far:-

Book 1 - Carrion Comfort by Dan Sims
Book 2 - A Perfect Proposal by Katie Fforde
Book 3 - Loot, Inside the World of Stolen Art by Thomas McShane;
Book 4 - Wool by Hugh Howie
Book 5 - A Feast For Crows by George RR Martin - Game of Thrones
Book 6 - A Dance with Dragons, Part 1 and predictably
Book 7 - A Dance with Dragons, Part 2

and

Book 8 - The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes. I enjoyed this much mroe than I expected. I like her early stuff but for me her later stuff was too predictable and shallow. She is back in form with this one though. It will encourage me not to dismiss her so quickly in future!

now reading

Book 9 - The Rosie Project. It was 99p on kindle yesterday and I snapped it up!

I am really enjoying keeping track of my reading like this! And it's a good way to see what other people are enjoying. My choices remain very random though...

#20 - The children of green knowe. by LM Boston. An old favourite of mine from my childhood. Dh is reading it aloud to Ds, I couldn't resist re- reading it myself. An apt book for these weather conditions as the story happens to a background of flood s, snow and storms.

AnneWentworth if you are on a Jane Austen theme at the moment have a look at Longbourn by Jo Baker.

I am an Austen fan and don't usually rate spin-off fiction but this is an honourable exception. It's basically Pride and Prejudice told from the servants' point of view which an interesting idea. Lots of detail about what life was like below stairs, the characterisation is very good and it stands up as a novel in its own right. I recommend it.

1. The Real Katie Lavender, Erica James. 4/5