50 Book Challenge 2014 Part 2

[juneybean]

Thread 2 of the 50 book challenge. Here is the previous thread...

The idea is to read 50 books in 2014 (or more!)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/adult_fiction/1951735-50-Book-Challenge-2014

What was Sanliurfa like?

15. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult, really good book slightly spoiled by the fact that I guessed the plot twist halfway through the book

I've started, 'Mildred Pierce' by James Cain, but don't think I'm going to be able to finish it. Has anybody read it? There's a very, very annoying child in it but she's so annoying that I'm finding it impossible to believe in her and it's just annoying me, rather than raising my sympathy for her mother, which is what is intended, I think. Anyway, it's not working for me.

Not sure what to read now. Agh.

26. John Kerr "A Dangerous Method". A biographical book about Freud, Jung and Spielrein and their involvement with the psychoanalytic movement. Heavy going, but enjoyable.

Now reading Anne Rice "Interview with the Vampire"

I watched the film "A Dangerous Method" and was sorely disappointed, especially since I expected so much from its director David Cronenberg who previously gave us such psychological masterpieces as Dead Ringers.

Was the book good?

And I thought "Interview With The Vampire" was pretty good when I read it in my early 20s. Not sure what I would think about it now, but suspect it would still be head and shoulders above what passes for vampire faction these days.

20. She is Not Invisible - Marcus Sedgewick

YA novel listened to as an audiobook in the car. Was okay but there was a lot of unnecessary detail and parts were a little tedious. Was nice to have the main character being blind though.

10. Treasure Island - RL Stevenson

Been a madly busy week so not as much time for reading as I would have liked, but thoroughly enjoyed this ripping yarn

Does The Luminaries count as two books? It took me the same amount of time. I am on my eleventh book so far. A tale For the Time Being has been my favourite to date.

I'm reading The Luminaries now. I don't think it counts as 2 books, especially since I counted Anna bloody Karenina as 1 book last year. And that took me a month to read

Cote the book was brilliant, but very much a biography, and not as much of a story add it was hyped up to be. I'm fascinated by psychology though, so it was right up my street.

I've never read any Anne Rice, and set it as one if my Goodreads group series challenges - it's something I always meant to get round to, but never read. I did read Twilight this year though, and disappointed myself by enjoying the story.

Sounds interesting, thanks for the recommendation.

I think you will find IWTW to be much better than Twilight.

15. Instructions for a Heatwave, Maggie O'Farrel.

I quite liked this novel set in the 70's heatwave, about an Irish mother and her three troubled grown up London-born children coming together after their father pops off to buy a paper then mysteriously never comes back. Action spans London, New York and Ireland. Much soul searching, exploration of sibling dynamics, extraction of long-buried secrets etc.

However, I couldn't get beyond 'quite liked'. The book ultimately left me kind of cold. Perhaps because it was so much about sibling relationships, and I'm an only child so it didn't really resonate with me personally.

Cardiff, late reply - Sanliurfa was interesting, but travelling as a lone female, I found this area of Turkey a bit more stressful than the western areas. I wouldn't say I was hassled, exactly, just that I felt a bit uncomfortable and that I stood out more.

To be fair, Diyarbakir was even more stressful. I know a bit about the Kurdish question, but didn't realise I was arriving in the middle of, ahem, some civil unrest - tanks, roadblocks of burning tyres etc.

That said, I spent six weeks in Turkey as a whole and was blown away by the hospitality of people. I like poking around ancient ruins, so Turkey is heaven. Definitely one of my favourite countries.

Cote, have you ever read Barbara Nadel's crime series set in Istanbul? Sorry, not a profound question about Turkish literature, but I really enjoy this series and feel her affection for the place shines through.

1. Where'd you go, Bernadette - Maria Semple

I got this from the library and someone had gone through and corrected all the grammatical errors in pencil which was weird. I enjoyed the book anyway!

Ah, the Lesser Spotted Library Pedant. I don't mind it unless they've corrected wrongly, eg. not understood the subjective form "if he were..." I suppress the urge to correct the correction for fear of ending up in an all-out Margin War.

Back on topic, I'm currently reading The Love-Charm of Bombs by Laura Feigel. Air-raids and adultery. Not bad, but it's written by an academic who can't resist showing that she knows Everything about the subject. Why can't authors just pick the most interesting bits to tell?

Also read Censoring Queen Victoria, about the two men who edited her letters. A bit uncomfortable that one of them, Lord Esher, is being accused of sexually abusing his son based entirely (as far as I can see) on the tone of his letters to that son. Not very far in, but it's part of a whole genre which explains how posthumous reputations are manipulated based on the interests of those still living, which I find very interesting.

I'm finding IWTV much better so far Cote

13. Call the Midwife - Jennifer Worth

I've been watching the latest series so thought I'd read this. Really enjoyed it, need to get the other two as well.

14. Penguin Great Journeys No.4 - The Shipwrecked Men by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca

15. Penguin Great Journeys No.5 - Piracy, Turtles and Flying Foxes by William Dampier

Lots of chatter to catch up on!

16. The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith. Nice easy read, engaging, I didn't guess the end!

Just started reading Reading like a writer: A Guide for people who love books and for those who want to write them by Francine Prose. 2 chapters in and I'm hooked.

18. Life after Life -Kate Atkinson. I had a few false starts with this and couldn't get past the first few chapters for ages. But I persevered and I'm glad I did because it was very good. The chapters on the Blitz were excellent and I want to read more on that, not just London based though.

Not sure I entirely got the ending though.

Book 36 - The 2nd in the Mortal Engines series (YA and a re-read). Am tired, stressed with work and incapable of thinking this week!

1. Apple Tree Yard

10. Railway to the Grave - Edward Marston