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

Sonnet - I really like Love in the Time of Cholera. I thought it was a really interesting idea.

Book 35 Heresy by SJ Parris

I had been looking at this series for a while, but finally came across a copy of the first in a charity bookshop and decided to give it a go. Very well written, good story, I think I will go on to the rest of the series. It's set in Elizabethan England, with the narrator an exiled Italian former monk who has been excommunicated after he fled his monastery under threat of the Inquisition. He is recruited by Sir Francis Walsingham as part of his spy ring and sent to Oxford to uncover a Catholic conspiracy. A series of fairly nasty murders occurs which Giordano Bruno investigates and inevitably his own life is threatened in the process. I enjoy CJ Sansom's Shardlake novels so am not sure why it has taken me so long to get into these ones, but they are in a similar vein.

I hadn't seen any reviews skin, but I did enjoy it.

51. Ian Rankin "The Black Book"
52. "Weird Things Customers Say In Bookshops"

Both good. This wasn't my favourite Rankin, but enjoyable nonetheless.

34. Thank you, Jeeves by P G Wodehouse I needed a decent unabridged audiobook to listen to while doing housework so picked this up. I loved Fry & Laurie's Jeeves & Wooster as a young girl but, surprisingly, this is the first I've read. It was exactly as you'd expect - hilarious and dry and full of ridiculous problems that only Jeeves can solve. Though it is still a shock to hear or read the n-word in older books. I listened to half and read the second half as my batteries died

Sonnet - I am so sorry that I still haven't posted more books to you. Haven't forgotten but work is crazy at the moment. It's half term next week, so should be able to do it then if I can't before.

I'm on the look out for recommendations again, by the way, folks. Be warned!

18. Finished no 18, A Golden Age, Tamima Anam. Good but a little slow in places, not sure I would bother with the sequel.

19. Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen

Man, it was a slog to get through this. Always thought it was a book that I should read, but wish I hadn't bothered tbh!

18. Mad about the boy by Helen Fielding. Hmm. I did enjoy it and I did laugh out loud a couple of times, and it was very easy to read. But a gratuitous overuse of the expression "Gaah!!!"...

19. is going to be Sisterland.

Over a week since my last one - I am definitely on a go slow here.

Book 54 - 'Evelina' by Frances Burney - I liked this a lot, on the whole, but it was rather long and self indulgent in places. Some of it was really funny though (for anybody who has read it, the monkey bit had me roaring!) and I liked the character of Evelina far more than I liked Pamela (see below).

I still fancy fiction and don't actually have any now. Not in the mood for non-fiction, for a change. My next two books will be work related though and both will be re-reads. One of them, I'll probably manage to read before the end of this evening, if I don't waste too much time on here!

Sorry - it was book 55, not 54.

43. 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. This was an audiobook borrowed from the library. It's quite short, and I listened to it split over two days. Didn't actually like it very much - 3/5 - found it quite hard going.

35. Beauty by Sarah Pinborough This is a re-telling of Sleeping Beauty but with appearances from Red Riding Hood, the Beast and Rumplestiltskin amongst others. Although there is no subtlety in these tales I do enjoy them (I'm a sucker for a fairy tale rewrite) The supposed erotic scenes aren't really and don't add much to the novels. One thing about the trilogy as a whole, Beauty is the last and apparently the last one to have been written but it takes place first. This re-ordering doesn't work at all, I found myself reading the first published book (Poison) thinking there was an obvious back story (this back story is the plot of Beauty which I would recommend you read first). I sound more critical than I mean to be, I did enjoy this and will read Charm (Cinderella).

36. The Son-In-Law - Charity Norman
    Listened as an audiobook which was fantastically well read by four different narrators which really bought the story and characters to life. Loved it and am disappointed to finish it.

37. Harry's Mad - Dick King Smith
    Bedtime reading for six year old. Started off slow. Enjoyed the last few chapters more.

38. Miss Marple's Final Cases - Agatha Christie
    Selection of short stories. Easy bedtime reading to dip in and out of.

24. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. An enjoyable story.

20. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller

A lot more fun than Pride And Prejudice

44. Weird things customers say in bookshops by Jen Campbell Very funny 5/5.

I think I've just read book 21....I'm slow this year because I've read some thick books.

19 GOT Clash of Kings
20 The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith - loved this. I think JK Rowling's storytelling shone through and her grasp of individual characters transfer very well to adult novels. Can't wait for the follow up.

Book 36 Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison

Rachel Morgan is a witch in 'modern day' Cincinnati - a genetically engineered virus killed half the world's human population forty years ago and revealed the existence of witches, werewolves, vampires, pixies, fairies, etc in the aftermath. She is in law enforcement chasing down supernatural criminals, but dissatisfaction with her role at the Inderland Runner Services leads her to leave and set up her own runner agency alongside a vampire and pixy. Trouble is, the IS don't just let people leave so she has to find a way pay off her contract with IS and get them to lift the contract they have on her life.

This one is a re-read but it has been a few years. Rachel is a bit annoyingly self-involved, but it's a good story, reasonably fast paced and the world created by Harrison is surprisingly normal in spite of the magic!

Book 56 - A Doll's House - Ibsen (Re-read): Gods, I love Ibsen! :)

33. Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis. Finally.. took me ages but busy with exam and essay and all that too. FanBloodyTastic. Brilliant. This man knows his research, paints his characters in all dimensions, fiobles and all. The horror of war and its aftermath. A Great Book.

So, after that I was spread out on the sette yesterday and tried some light relief.. Outlander By Diana Gabaldon...? I thought it was YA after a page or 2 but then it got sort of trashy? Don't know if I want to continue, might be a bit too light after the big one.

I have After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405 by John Darwin lined up.
That might tickle my fancy a bit more.

Ooh I have that book in my To Read list. Thanks for the review

45. Brighton Rock - Graham Greene. Another audiobook, borrowed from the library, read by Samuel West. Enjoyed it very much.

Ok i'll be brave and say it out loud. I don't think audio books count.

Doshusallie, may I ask why you think audiobooks don't count?
IMO, abridged audiobooks or book at bedtime / radio adaptations don't count as they aren't the full book but an unabridged audiobook will take longer to listen to than to read as we read faster than the actor would speak. If I'm listening to the full book, why on earth would that not count just as much as reading it?

I wish we had an edit button! I say the above re audiobooks with only half an audiobook on my list this year so I'm not being defensive, just genuinely curious.