Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

50 Book Challenge 2014 Part 3

999 replies

Southeastdweller · 01/06/2014 10:31

Thread 3 of the 50 book challenge. Here are the previous threads...

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

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

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/adult_fiction/2000991-50-Book-Challenge-2014-Part-2?

OP posts:
DuchessofMalfi · 16/06/2014 21:15
  1. Margaret Beaufort, Mother of the Tudor Dynasty by Elizabeth Norton. 4/5. Been reading this slowly for several weeks. Fascinating and detailed study of her life.
mum2jakie · 16/06/2014 21:52
  1. Finally finished Lexicon by Max Barry (from a recommendation on here - thanks.)

Found it quite hard to get into initially but enjoyed it overall. I remember some debate on the last thread about the category that this falls into. FWIW, I would describe this as a dystopian novel, rightly or wrongly.

There was also some question about whether this was set in present day times or the future. It does actually give a time at the end of the book. (The last news report states that the original Broken Hill disaster happened in 2019. P.383 in my hardback copy.)

ChillieJeanie · 17/06/2014 08:59

Book 45 The Magus of Hay by Phil Rickman

This is the twelfth book in Rickman's series featuring Merrily Watkins, vicar ofa small parish in the Herefordshire countryside and diocesan exorcist for Hereford. She is called in by a police officer she has worked with many times before to have a look at the home in a tiny hamlet near Hay-on-Wye of a man in his 90s found dead in a nearby tributary of the Wye. The house includes a library of the occult and esoteric, and evidence that the man was a practitioner of chaos magic. Although the death itself is not suspicious, a local young policewoman takes it on herself to investigate the man's background and just what went on at this remote home, as does Merrily. At the same time, a pagan couple Merrily has encountered before are setting up a bookshop in Hay itself, and discovering that the shop they are renting has a bit of a sinister past. Then the policewoman disappears.

Rickman is a very prolific author - 12 in this series, two books so far featuring Dr John Dee, and a series of stand alone novels whose characters sometimes make an appearance in the world of Rev Watkins. I really enjoy his novels and last year, having picked up the first in the Watkins series in a bookshop in Hay, actually read the 11 that had then been published in just over a month. He always has this pagan/occult interest in his novels as far as I can see and handles it very deftly with an awful lot of knowledge and clear research.

Sonnet · 17/06/2014 09:18

ChillieJeanie - I fancy reading these. I have just been on Amazon trying to work out the first one. I have narrowed it down to : The Remains of an Altar OR The Fabric of Sin - can you confirm which one is first or let me know if I have got it totally wrong Grin - thank you

Sonnet · 17/06/2014 10:11

Ah - I believe it is Midwinter Of The Spirit?

Sonnet · 17/06/2014 10:16

I have just purchased - The Wine of Angles and Midwinter of the Spirit.

Can't wait to read them - just have to finish Rivers of London first Grin

CoteDAzur · 17/06/2014 10:57

tumble & mum2 - I'm glad you enjoyed Lexicon Smile

Molly - I may have oversold it in my enthusiasm, sorry. Do read Snow Crash and let me know what you think. It is more 'out there' than Lexicon (more in the future, social & political systems all different etc) but the whole idea of controlling people with ancient words is explained much better in Snow Crash. It draws on Sumerian legends & real artefacts and weaves together a surprisingly plausible explanation. I reached a "WTH? Shock" point when I read in the book how Hammurabi is depicted as receiving a 1 and a 0 (binary code) from the Sun God in the stele of the Code of Hammurabi and saw in the picture that it was true.

Is anyone else going to read Lexicon? I'd like to discuss a few parts of it but am worrying about spoilers.

Nessalina · 17/06/2014 11:25

Yeah, Lexicon is on my list if you can resist spoilers a while longer!

CoteDAzur · 17/06/2014 11:59

OK, no worries Smile

ChillieJeanie · 17/06/2014 12:06

Hi Sonnet. The first one is The Wine of Angels. That's when Merrily and her daughter first move to Ledwardine and before she becomes diocesan exorcist (which happens in second novel The Midwinter of the Spirit). It really got me hooked, hence reading them all in just over a month! It's also the most use my Kindle has had, since I couldn't easily find the rest in the shops and thought another trip to Hay was probably a bit excessive just to search for them.

mumslife · 17/06/2014 12:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Sonnet · 17/06/2014 14:26

Thanks ChillieJeanie - I have purchased the first two
Mumslife - thanks for the tip. I have earmarked it to read on my holiday next month Grin

moonshine · 17/06/2014 19:48
  1. The Lewis Man - Peter May 7.5/10 I enjoyed this more than the first in the trilogy but am not driven to read the last one - yet.

  2. Lexicon - Max Barry 8/10

Really enjoyed this one and, for my part, it definitely fits into 'conspiracy fiction'. mumtojakie I read this on my kindle and the news report at the end dates the original incident as 2011, so very much in the past! I felt there's a ready-made film script there as the structure was very cinematic. I can see it starring Matt Damon and Chloe Grace Moretz (from Kick-Ass), with a cameo appearance from Derren Brown ;-)

  1. The Killer Next Door - Alex Marwood 7.5/10 Really enjoyed the first 2/3 of the book as the structure made it very intriguing but felt it lost momentum. Still a good and somewhat chilling read.

  2. Shakespeare - Bill Bryson 8/10 I won't hear a word said against Bill - love him!

mumslife · 18/06/2014 09:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mumslife · 18/06/2014 09:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Provencalroseparadox · 18/06/2014 11:00
  1. Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris - bit of light relief after Bovary and before book group choice of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. I like Joanne Harris's style, the prevalence of magic and her use of the senses. Her books are quite formulaic though. Strangers, misunderstood people coming together. The power of secrets and the way gossip affects perceptions. I enjoyed but need a break from her now having read 3 this year.

So onto Maya Angelou

bibliomania · 18/06/2014 11:04
  1. Lost for Words, Edward St Aubyn. Okay. Mildly amusing.
Provencalroseparadox · 18/06/2014 11:05

Moonshine I enjoyed the Lewis trilogy.

Provencalroseparadox · 18/06/2014 11:07

Mumslife we read The Husband's Secret for book group. It wasn't for me

mumslife · 18/06/2014 11:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CardiffUniversityNetballTeam · 18/06/2014 12:56

I have been away for so long the old thread had finished!!
I am back now though, the reason for my protracted absence was that it took me nearly a month to read:

  1. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

But it was worth it. It's not often I read thought provoking literature but I'm glad I did. It's no surprise, if not a sad fact that a lot of Steinbeck's themes are still so relevant today; unemployment, low wages, migrant workers.

Am going to aim for something a little fluffier and lighter next I think.

Provencalroseparadox · 18/06/2014 12:58

Mumslife I really loved LAL funnily. Everyone else said "ooh no Behind the Scenes at the Museum" is better but, while I liked that, I was more moved by LAL.

Let me know what you think re THS. I'll be interested in your views

WednesdayNext · 18/06/2014 13:37
  1. John Milton "Paradise Lost". I'm glad I've finally got round to reading it but wouldn't say I really enjoyed it
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 18/06/2014 16:42

I seem to be on a go-slow again.

Book 65 - 'Fever Crumb' by Philip Reeves. YA - I enjoyed it.

Re: 'The Grapes of Wrath' - amazing book but one of the few books I've found truly brilliant but will never be able to read again. I felt as if I'd been stripped and flayed and bulldozed by the end of it. Devastating.

CardiffUniversityNetballTeam · 18/06/2014 17:35

Yes, Remus. By the end I was pretty distraught. I think I just sat there staring into space for a while after I'd finished it.