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

Finished book 17 - the light between the oceans. Very sad book...
TurnOverTheTV - I will add The Husbands Secret' to my 'to read' list
Remus The Moving Toyshop' sounds fascinating!

Think I will read The Personal History of Rachel DuPree by Ann Weusgarber as number 18.
iamstegosorous - you may like Jump by Jily Cooper too.

16. The Dark Tower - Stephen King

Final one of the series, and didn't disappoint as a series finale. Will be a while before I get so drawn into a fictional world again, I think.

Sonnet - if you send me your address, I'll happily stick it in the post for you.

Meg - did it not make you want to re-read the whole series immediately? :)

Remus... yes, but I would never make my 50-book target - I need to stick to shorter books for a while!

34. Gervase Phinn - Trouble at the Little Village School
35. Diane Chamberlain - Keeper of the Light
36. Diane Chamberlain - Kiss River

Book 29 The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina

Another police novel, based largely in Glasgow. A young woman is brutally murdered in her home in a Glasgow suburb, while in Kent a notorious millionaire hangs himself from a tree in the grounds of his home. Mina cuts between the son of the millionaire and the police case rather than focusing just on the police activity, also looking a bit into the impact on the people who are on the edges of the case and whose lives are affected by it. It could maybe have done with going a bit further along those lines because the coverage seems a touch superficial, but it is an interesting inclusion.

#12 where'd you go Bernadette?

I really liked it. I quite like epistolary novels it seems and I thought the characters were well written and developed. And the level of detail was excellent.

13. A Week In December by Sebastian Faulks.

This was okay, different from the sort of thing I normally read. I suppose it's a character study. It's set in London, just before Christmas and culminates at a millionaires' dinner party. There are an awful lot of characters, some of which seem a bit surplus. It is very cleverly written and in places laugh out loud funny. My favourites characters were the female tube train driver, the reluctant teenage Islamic terrorist and the billionaire hedge fund manager who never laughs.

Finished number 14, Andrew Taylor Scent of Death set in New York during the civil war, highly recommended.

Now trying Brooklyn by Colm Toibin which looks like a nice quick read!

Thank you Remus - would love that. I will pm you my address

No prob! :)

Just finished The Personal History of Rachel DuPree. Picked up secondhand for 50p it has been on my to read shelf for a while. Set in the South Dakota Badlands and told from the perspective of a Negro woman. They live a life of extreme hardship made worse by a recent drought. Set against the 1917 race riots and war in Europe it makes a very thought provoking novel. Well worth a read.

Had a slow reading start to the year but picked up a bit now. Book 19: The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filet

17. Prisonomics by Vicky Pryce

14. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris. Amusing
15. My Animals and Other Family- Clare Balding
16. The Blackhouse - Peter May Enjoyed it
17. Itch Rocks - Simon Mayo
18. The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion Okay
19. Let the Right One In - John Adjvie Lindqvist Loved it
20. Dolly: a Ghost Story - Susan Hill Bit disappointing

30. A Commonplace Killing by Sian Busby. Feeling a bit bad about saying I didn't much like it, considering the circumstances in which she wrote it. It's not a difficult read, but I found myself not warming to any of the characters and thought the detective a bit dull.

Does show how far things have come in Police work, though.

20. North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell.

I was in the mood for something period-y after reading Longbourn, so I picked up North and South which was a charity shop buy that has for many a year sat unread on my bookshelves, looking intimidatingly long.

But I LOVED it, and sped through it in about 4 days I think! Very difficult to put down. It was totally addictive, wonderful Pride and Prejudice-esque love story, great and interesting social background and insight into the differences between living and working in the rural south of England vs London vs the industrial north at the time. Margaret, the main character, was a total joy, with plenty of other well-drawn peripheral characters to interact with. This was my first Gaskell, but I have just added the rest of her novels to my Amazon wishlist.

I'd highly recommend this book to any Austen fans. I'd say the main differences between the two authors are that Gaskell is a little bit more heavy-weight in terms of going more into the political/social background of the novel, and she's also less witty than Austen, she can't touch her for that sly humour that Austen does so well. But otherwise I found in Gaskell a lot of the same elements of style, characterisation and fantastic romance plotting, that I loved so much in Austen. Exceedingly readable.

I am putting 'North &South' on my list to re-read after your enthusiastic endorsement Riverboat1. It is about 15 years since I read it and loved it at the time.

My two most recent books are the best ones I've read so far this year.

19. The Strangest Man: Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius by Graham Farmelo. This was recommended by Cote on last year's thread and I would also strongly recommend it. A well-written and fascinating mixture of physics, history, politics, philosophy and the personal biographical details of a very unusual man.

20. The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman. A real tear jerker. I loved this.

Finished the Shock of The Fall last night. A fantastic book, although sad, poignant and thought provoking. Heartedly recommended.

For book 20 think I will start The Luminaries.

15. Demon Barber, by Lynn Barber.

She's a very good writer and interviewer but I underestimated how samey an anthology of interviews would be to read.

tumble - I'm glad you liked The Strangest Man Please let me know if you find any other books like it.

Will do

I think that may be hard though. I've never read a book like it!

Book 30 The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin

Rebus gets dragged into a turf war in a very personal way after his daughter is badly injured in a hit and run. At the same time, he is investigating an elderly man accused of being a WWII war criminal. Complex and convoluted a plot as Rankin usually has it, but deftly handled and definitely draws you in.

18. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

I've name-changed since the password reset. I'm AntiJamDidi.

36. Ninety-eight - Shannon Mayer
    A contemporary romance about a young woman who has decided to settle for someone who is 60% right for her, but then she meets her 98% man and the difficulties begin.

37. The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion
    I really enjoyed this book. Don set about trying to find himself a wife, but then he meets Rosie, who is completely unsuitable for him, but they end up spending time together anyway.

38. The reason I Jump - Naoki Higashida
    This is really, really interesting. It's written by a 13 year old boy with Autism and it answers a lot of questions about children with Autism. It's given me a much better understanding of some of the things I see in the pupils I teach who have Autism. It's fascinating to see how we can completely misinterpret actions because we have such massive differences in the way we experience the world.