50 Book Challenge 2014 Part 3

[Southeastdweller]

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?

I enjoyed Cuckoos Calling but actually preferred The Casual Vacancy. Am aware this puts me in a minority

A re-cap just for me to keep track:
1.Jamaica Inn -Daphne Du Maurer
2.The Oak Apple - Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia
3.Before I Go To Sleep - SJ Watson
4.The Machine Gunners -Robert Westall
5.Charlotte Grey -Sebastian Faulks
6.The Twins - Saskia Sarginson
7.The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
8.The Hangmans Song -James Oswald
9.River of Destiny -Barbra Erskine
10.Burning Bright - Tracy Chevalier
11.My Family and Other Animals - Clare Balding
12.Cold Granite - Stuart McBride
14.The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul -Deborah Rodrigueze
15.Harvest - Jim Crace
16. The Night Rainbow
17. Cuckoos Calling
18. The Light Between Oceans - M L Steadman
19. The Personal History of Rachel DuPree by Ann Weusgarber
20. The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filet
21. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
22. Last Bus to Woodstock Colin Dexter
23. White is for Witching
24. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
25. The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin
26. The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves
27. Love in the time of Cholera
28. Love Hunt Fiona Walker
29. I am a Pilgrim (amlost finished!)
30 - Instructions For A Heatwave - Maggie O'Farrell - An interesting read because of the interplay of family relationships.
31: We Were Liars - E Lockhart.
32 - Trespass by Rose Tremain
33 - The End of Mr Y.
34: The Lie by Helen Dunmore
35 The Unknown Bridesmaid by Margaret Forster
36 Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
37 - Wine of Angels
38 - The Rosie Project
39 - Telling Tales - Ann Cleeves

Sonnet no, I haven't tried Barbara Erskine, but it sounds like I should give her a go. I will seek some out.

Book 49 What Witches Do by Stewart Farrer.

This first came out in about 1971 and it focuses entirely on the Alexandrian Tradition of modern witchcraft. Farrer himself was a journalist who was asked to write a book about Alex Sanders, founder of the Alexandrian Tradition. Farrer began his involvement with Sanders as an interested agnostic, but by the time he had finished writing the book he had been initiated into Sanders' coven and was preparing to set up his own. He went on to become a highly influential writer on the subject of modern witchcraft.

Sanders was clearly very much the showman and enjoyed his publicity and notoriaty. It seems that he saw himself as both witch and magician, although since the Alexandrian Tradition is very heavy on formal ritual I wonder whether it would be more accurate to describe him as a ritual magician first and foremost. I know less about the ritualised, formal witchcraft so this was an interesting read. I have to say, though, that I prefer what I have read about more eclectic and solitary practice than this account of coven traditions.

The Preface by Farrer's widow Janet is interesting. Quite an illuminating look back at Sanders from the point of view of someone with several decades of study and practice of witchcraft under her belt (the preface is dated 2009) as opposed to the slightly starry-eyed new convert that Farrer must have been when he was writing.

I liked Casual Vacancy too, Provencal. Big epic drama of a novel, wish JKR would write more like that.

Interestingly, when I read the Harry Potter series, years ago, I thought the weakest of the series was the second one, Chamber of Secrets. But she got back into her stride for the third and rest of series. So maybe Silkworm is a dip and the third will be better? She's a good storyteller, so hope it picks up. I thought Strike such an original character I would like to continue with the series.

38. Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jerome
39. The Forgotten Seamstress - Liz Trenow
40. Moondust - Andrew Smith
41. One Step Too Far - Tina Seskis
42. Three Men on the Bummel - Jerome K Jerome

23. Blue Lightening (Shetland series) by Anne Cleaves, usual detective type story. I can't believe how much my reading has slowed down, will need to seriously catch up in the Summer holidays. Fault in our Stars next, I have already read it but my daughter is insisting I read it again for my book group choice.

Cote, who's talking about dystopian novels?

I don't agree that I was using the word implausible to mean doesn't exist here and now though that certainly is part of it I guess.

I thought The Silkworm was an absolutely cracking read, even better than the first one.

Dystopian discussion was before your time, wilting. It went on for a while

I've got a long wait for my copy from the library, hackmum :o. I'm probably just being over cautious, as I was planning to use one of my Audible credits for the audio version, but am not so sure now :)

I really liked, 'The Cuckoo's Calling' even though I'd expected not to, so I was looking forward to, 'The Silkworm.'

I felt cheated by it, to be honest. The ending felt like a cartoonish cliche of the, 'Cue: evil cackling,' kind, and the writing was pretty shoddy in places. It needed some serious editing and a visit from the Punctuation Police. She really, really needs to learn how to use semi-colons, and to not rely on peppering her sentences with adjectives to pad them out. She writes a lot of sentences along the lines of, "He walked up to the big, brown, wooden, rectangular door and knocked on the old, gleaming brass knocker," etc.

On top of all that, the characters (other than Strike and Robin) were little more than cardboard cutouts, and the whole Robin/Matthew thing is so boring and repetitive. Such a shame - Strike is great but without better editorial involvement, she's going to be selling him (and herself) short imvho.

22. Ship of brides, jojo moyes, really enjoyed this, a 9.
23. Can't anyone help me, true story of child abuse, fairly horrific.
24. Is Gone by Michael grant, the first in a series of 6 books, have downloaded them all so that should keep me quiet for a while....

I really liked The Cuckoo's Calling too so I've been looking forward to the new one. Disappointed to hear you don't like it Remus. Do you think she's rushed it?

I really do, Best. Had she been able to get away with the pseudonym for longer, I think she'd have taken more time over it.

Dystopian discussion was with me, but I think I'm coming round to Cote's point of view. For the love of books, don't tell her though.....

I've got Cuckoo's Calling on Kindle but not got round to trying it yet. I'm determined to finish all the rebus novels before trying any other crime

There was a phrase in Cuckoo's Calling about someone being a maniac that struck me as being lazy. It really irritated me.

But I do like Robin and sort of like Cormoran.

Remus: I know a lot of people take Rowling to task for her poor writing style, but I've never really noticed it, which is odd as I'm normally quite alert to that kind of thing. I think I just get so absorbed in the plot I rarely notice the writing. Also, I'm always in awe of how clever her plots her, how she weaves so many different strands together - that's true of the Harry Potters as well as the Cormoran Strikes. I tend not to expect crime fiction to have the qualities of literary fiction - I just expect it to rattle along and keep you guessing, which she does.

Hack - I don't want it to be literary fiction (the Gods forbid) - I'd just like her to write in well controlled and correctly punctuated sentences. :) I think I quite fancy Strike though, so she must be doing something right.

Dystopian discussion was with me, but I think I'm coming round to Cote's point of view. For the love of books, don't tell her though.....

I don't know why that posted twice.

I'm still working through Life After Life. Some bits I've enjoyed - the many ways she died during the blitz, the split between how her life wood have been in England and the same life had she gone to Germany, and the parts at the beginning but other parts have bored me, and even the good pays were lacking in something. I'm hoping that will be resolved by the end but also doubting that it will

22. Dead Man's Grip by Peter James

Easy read murder mystery/crime thriller. Another donation from my dad. It seemed very similar to the last one of his I read though. Same characters, same places, just the murderer had a different name, method and motive.

So today is the halfway point. I was aiming for 50 for the year so I'm going to need to pull my finger out a bit in the second half of the year.......and try and stop reading so many books of more than 500 pages!

heh heh Remus

Have Life After Life on my kindle, it seems to generate v mixed responses though? How are you liking it Wednesday?

Life After Life generated mixed response at my book group. I really liked it though