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 number 15 Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, I enjoyed this book and it was a nice quick read.

OnIlkleyMoor- what did you think of The Shining Girls? I bought it as soon as it came out but I've been too scared to read it because the synopsis made me have nightmare!

37. Diane Chamberlain - Her Mother's Shadow.
38. Dorothy Koomson - The Woman He Loved Before. Loved it, hooked me right in.

17. Penguin Great Journeys No.6 - Life on the Golden Horn - Mary Wortley Montagu

18. The Self-Preservation Society - Kate Harrison

19. Penguin Great Journeys No.7 - Hunt for the Southern Continent - James Cook

20. Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult

Just been on holiday for a fortnight. Was hoping to read a lot more but Professor Layton on the DS got in the way............

#13 The Last Dragonslayer
A re-read. Jasper Fforde YA fiction. V like Thursday Next in style, but young reader friendly and always an interesting take on a topic you think has been done to death (magic in this case).
Onto the next before reading the latest in the series

Cheboludo, I liked The Shining Girls. It's quite graphic in terms of the descriptions of the actual murders and the killer's sexual gratification during the acts, but not hugely extreme, compared to other crime novels and programmes like CSI etc. No-one is kept prisoner or tortured for extended periods- that's the kind of thing that gives me nightmares!

it's not really a suspense novel where someone is trying to escape the killer and you are constantly waiting for them to be caught. There are some other potentially upsetting themes in terms of animal cruelty and abortion, but very minor (occasional mention).

I chose it initially because I am professionally interested in the fate of the radium girls, but that was a minor part.

I also found the details about life in the US during the Great Depression etc interesting. I found the time travel aspect a bit confusing at first, but was an interesting concept - but as a rule I have no interest in fantasy and sci-fi themes.

41. Deborah Harkness "A Discovery of Witches" a friend recommended this. Did enjoy it and it was an easy read.

Ages since I filled in my books. I think I've just read no. 18

15 Quiet: The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain - excellent read.
16 This Boy
17 Sisterhood (forgotten title - about the women in The Cousins' War)
18 Game of Thrones: A Song of Fire and Ice - loved it. I'm going back to read the books to broaden my Westeros knowledge!

Now reading the second Game of Thrones book A Clash of Kings

14. Running Like A Girl by Alexandra Heminsley

Inspired by the runners thread. This is an interesting and funny memoir by a marathon runner. I really enjoyed it. Inspired me enough that I signed up for a 10 mile charity run!

27. Grumpy old Women by Judith Holder. Sent to me 'anonymously' though the post because I am one. I suspect a fellow grumpy old woman (in reality a lovely friend) sent it. Quite enjoyed it, even if some of it was a bit too close to home.

28. 1984 - Orwell. Finally got around to reading this. I can't believe how modern it feels considering it is nearly 70 years old. Scary stuff.

29. Changing Places - Jane Green. I need some chick lit every now and again I'm finding even if it is rubbish.

Currently re-reading Sleeping Beauties by Mavis Cheek who I used to love. It's from the box of old books I found in the loft.

12. Apple Tree Yard - Louise Doughty

The was pretty gripping, but seemed to drift in parts and tailed off a bit for me at the end.

16. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 1/2 - Sue Townsend
17. The Queen and I - Sue Townsend.

Townsend had such a warmth in her style of writing. She'll be deeply missed.

Checking in after a while so can't remember where I got to.

11. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman - Enjoyed this a lot.
12. The Time Traveller's guide to Elizabethan England - Ian Mortimer. Fascinating stuff, but dense with facts.
13. Harvest - Jim Crace - beautifully written, still musing over the ending and what became of all the characters.
14. The Hours - Michael Cunningham - a re-read, one of my favourites.
15. Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood - dystopian not really my thing, but found it reasonably entertaining
16. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell - loved this. So clever. Lots of subtle connections between the stories and a feelgood ending too.
17. Lord of the Flies - William Golding - another re-read. Enjoyed it much more than when I had to read it at school.

Currently on Anna Karenina, a re-read, but planning a break to read Americanah.

12. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

I hate Hilary Mantel now and will never touch another book of hers, ever. Let that be my book report

It got a bit more readable in the last 1/3, but that was still too little & too late.

Thanks OnIlkleyMoor, I don't know why the synopsis affected me so much, I read quite a lot of crime and don't usually have nightmares!
I really like the fact that Lauren Beukes chose to write the murders from the victims perspective so that it's not voyeuristic but is shocking. I think I'll move it up the TBR pile and make sure my DH is here when I read it

17. White Fever: A Journey Into The Frozen Heart Of Siberia - Jacek Hugo-Bader

This was a 99p kindle deal which I picked up expecting it to be an exploration book, but actually it's a travelogue from a Polish journalist who drove across the former USSR in 2008, meeting old hippies, HIV patients, drug addicts and the ethnic Siberians who have been devastated by alcoholism, radioactive contamination of their land, and the wretched "management" of Soviet and post-Soviet regimes. A very sad read.

25. The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough. A short book which very movingly describes a family's goodbye to their dying father. The section about the narrator's marriage is absolutely superb but "the thing outside" didn't work for me.

26. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. This is YA set in 1986. It's a love story between two teenage misfits who love music and then each other. Eleanor and Park are really great characters, they alternate narration so the reader experiences everything alongside them. I loved this book, I read it in one big gulp and it made me laugh and cry more than any other book this year.

27. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
    I was so disappointed by this. I was expecting something as brilliant as Maus or Persepolis but I just thought the prose style was pretentious and distracting. It improved towards the end but I thought that Bechdel was really trying to force her tragic version of her father's life and death so that she could draw parallels with the literature he loved. I'm also reading The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for which is so much more relaxed and unpretentious and therefore better IMO.

Just finushed Book 20 The Luminaries.
I have not read any other reviews on here but personally, whilst I found the story line iIntriguing, I think it could have been cut down by 50%! I am glad it was the Easter holidays otherwise it would have taken me 3 times as long to get through it.

I need a nice quick read now and after a conversation with a friend I have realised that I have never read any Inspector Morse/Colin Dexter books so have just started his first ever Morse Last Bus to Woodstock.

WednesdayNext - I picked up Discovery of Witches in a second hand book shop a couple of weeks ago. I will look forward to reading it now

27 A Clash of Kings by George R R Martin. I really loved it and wonder why I left it so long after Game of Thrones.
However I will read something a little lighter before I start the next one I think

28. The Ghost of Thomas Kempe - Penelope Lively (Junior book listened to audio version.) Didn't really enjoy this. Luckily, I've joined the library in my neighbouring authority and can know borrow adult audiobooks free of charge too so my commute is getting more exciting.

29. Perfect People - Peter James. Enjoyed this. Interesting take on eugenics, recommended for fans of Brave New World/John Wyndham etc

40. The Bookshop that Floated Away, Sarah Henshaw. Non-fic about a young woman who opens a bookshop in a canal boat and travels around the countryside. Her literary flourishes don't quite come off, and there are times I want to shake her (if you need to be subsidized by parents and boyfriend, it's not a livelihood, it's a hobby!) but overall I found it quite engaging. That's one less fantasy I plan to try out in real life.

41. The Road to Middlemarch, Rebecca Mead. One of my favourite things, a reading memoir. She writes really well, and George Eliot is such an interesting woman - really enjoyed this.

42. Animating Maria, MC Beaton. Mindless fluff for a plane journey. Did the job nicely.

43. Cold Earth, Sarah Moss. Atmospheric, although the end is a bit of a damp squib.

Currently near the end of (44) How to be a Heroine, Samantha Ellis. Another reading memoir, very pleasurable.

how has it been a week since I was on here?

Sonnet - sorry, book not posted yet but I haven't forgotten.

Cote - glad to see we agree about Hilary M!

Book 49 - 'Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded' by Samuel Richardson. Absolutely loved this, although it did waffle on a bit in places. Good old fashioned moral high ground fun.

bibliomania I recently read Cold Earth as I love Sarah Moss, but I agree with you about the ending. What a let down!

tumble, it might have been because of you that I read it - somebody on the thread mentioned it, and I liked Nightwaking so went for it. I'm glad I read it, but yes, it seemed like she just ran out of steam and stopped - very underwritten ending.

Thanks to Remus's enthusiasm for The Magic Toyshop, I've got it from the library. It wasn't there when I first looked for it, so I'm currently on another by the same author. I like a bit of Golden Era crime, all pipe smoke and flannel trousers.