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

Thanks for that, Cote. Incredible.

Isn't it? Mesmerizing.

38. broken Harbor. - Tana French
    Very very long!
    7/10

39. A dark and twisted tide. - Sharon Bolt on
    Love this author
    9/10

21. Lost For Words, by Edward St Aubyn.

A satire on the politics of the Booker prize, too short to make much impact and not that funny but I liked his writing as far as it went and will start on his Melrose books later in the year.

Now have two books on the go - one for my course on sign language, and The Hive (a MN giveaway).

25. The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue. This is an easy read which still took me quite a long time because I've had a really busy week. It's set in 1864 and based on a true story of one of the earliest divorce cases in England and the very early days of the women's movement / feminism. I enjoyed it.

Halfway through! Yay!

Have just bought Lexicon and will read it after I finish my current book

Just finished 19. Sisterland. I enjoyed it, but in hindsight it did meander around an awful lot, loads and loads of detail in areas that weren't strictly necessary for the plot line, but I didn't find it boring at all. 7/10.

Next is the girl who never came back....

Book 59 - another Edmund Crispin - The Case of the Gilded Fly - didn't enjoy this anywhere near as much as the others. Overwritten and lots of v silly padding bits.

Nipping in before the thread closes!

49. The Moving Toyshop, Edmund Crispin
50. Making it Up, Penelope Lively
51. Reconstructing Amelia, Kimberley McCreight
52. Lolly Willowes, Sylvia Townsend Warner
53. The Library of Unrequited Love, Sophie Divry
54. Family Secrets, Deborah Cohen (non-fiction)
55. Life after life, Kate Atkinson
56. The Kingdom of Men, Kim Barnes
57. Birds of the Air, Alice Thomas Ellis
58. My Canape Hell, Imogen Edwards-Jones
59. Evil under the Sun, Agatha Christie

All a bit meh. Need to get stuck into some meaty non-fiction, I think.

wilting - I forgot to say this before: Yes, I've read and loved Cryptonomicon. It is exactly my kind of book! Let me know if you have read anything else like it. The same author's Anathem is similar to Cryptonomicon in some ways. It's more complicated & brainhurty, though. I would also heartily recommend Diamong Age, also by Neal Stephenson.

Lexicon is a bit good. I'm half way through. I laid in bed reading it this morning instead of cleaning the house

Book 39 A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison

Book four in The Hollows/Rachel Morgan series. Rachel learns that her ex-boyfriend has stolen an ancient artifact which has the potential to upset the power imbalance between the werewolves and the vampires. He has also invovled the son of Rachel's pixy business partner Jenks. She and Jenks set out to the rescue. Some of these plots can get a bit convoluted, and Rachel has an annoying tendency to rush in without thinking things through, but it's as entertaining as the others.

Make that three books on the go - took out The Fast Diet Beach Book from the library earlier. The Hive is quite fun so far.

28. Love Nina, Nina Stibbe.

Took me a while to get into it, but I did love it by the end. V amusing how anti-mumsnet the whole family/nanny situation was.

57. Philippa Gregory "The Kingmaker's Daughter". It was a good storyline but I found the narrator to be unbearable at times. She seemed to be a whiny child with no independent thought or backbone, who never grew up. The alternative perspective on the Cousins' War was great though, and the ending was brilliantly unexpected.

58. Max Barry "Lexicon". Frankly awesome. Great recommendation Cote. It was brilliant on every level. A grown up dystopian novel, with a really great premise. My only gripe was that I guessed one of the twists very early on, but I can hardly blame the author for that.

Oh, and I'd have liked more on the use of their theories and social networking because that would be highly relevant and an interesting addition, but I guess he couldn't cram too much into the one book without ruining it

40. The Silent Wife A S A Harrison
    Very disappointing, kept waiting for the big twist that never came
    5/10

41. Faithful Place. - Tana French
    Ok 7/10

I'm glad you liked it, Wednesday If you have read anything like it (not YA), please share.

The premise is taken almost entirely from Snow Crash, including the Babel connection and ancient 'basewords'. Lexicon develops the idea further imho and makes a great read in itself, but Snow Crash has a much better developed mythological angle. You end up believing that is exactly what happened in Sumerian times & worshipping Neal Stephenson because he must be a minor God to think up such a story.

I don't think it's dystopian, though. Can a story that takes place in present day ever be called "dystopian"?

Present day stuff can deffo be dystopian, I think - dystopia is the opposite of Utopia (ie imperfect and misery-inducing, rather than idyllic), so there's no time scale implied in the definition.

Well, I think we can all agree that the world is imperfect and always was so every single book ever written would be dystopian by that definition.

Not at all.

Needs to be an imagined world, not a real one; pretty much everything needs to be imperfect; there is usually (but not always) dysfunctional (or corrupt) governance and so on. 'Pride and Prejudice' wouldn't be dystopian, for example! :)

Is the OP going to do thread 3? I would but don't want to tread on his or her toes.

Do it, South! I'm sure Juney won't mind.