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?

By the way, "Yes" to The Luminaries. A great read, really enjoyed it.

Luminaries also gets a thumbs up from me although I think it starts quite slowly.

I struggled with The Luminaries and never got further than a few chapters in.

ok, I'll add yet another massive tome to my poor kindle eyes up The Goldfinch and Bringing Up the Bodies

By the way, Brilliance is 99p on the Kindle today.

I have no idea what it's like but the Amazon blurb sounds good. I bought it:

A 2013 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original

In Wyoming, a little girl reads people’s darkest secrets by the way they fold their arms. In New York, a man sensing patterns in the stock market racks up $300 billion. In Chicago, a woman can go invisible by being where no one is looking. They’re called “brilliants,” and since 1980, one percent of people have been born this way. Nick Cooper is among them; a federal agent, Cooper has gifts rendering him exceptional at hunting terrorists. His latest target may be the most dangerous man alive, a brilliant drenched in blood and intent on provoking civil war. But to catch him, Cooper will have to violate everything he believes in—and betray his own kind.

From Marcus Sakey, “a modern master of suspense” (Chicago Sun-Times) and “one of our best storytellers” (Michael Connelly), comes an adventure that’s at once breakneck thriller and shrewd social commentary; a gripping tale of a world fundamentally different and yet horrifyingly similar to our own, where being born gifted can be a terrible curse.

thanks Cote, just bought that and book 2.

Best I found it slow going for a good few chapters. Then it picks up the pace

I might give it another try then Provençal.

Cote knew what?

mins how was the new Hoffman? I love her stuff,

A Room with a View, by E.M Forster, was my 28th book. I found it dreary for the most part and not at all romantic. But as I liked Maurice, I plan to read A Passage to India in the near future.

I think Lolita is next, intrigued by some vociferous opinions about it on a thread on here.

Southeast I hated Lolita. HH is an awful creation and the way Lolita is blamed for her own abuse is hideous. I didn't even think it was well written

'Maurice' v good and I adore 'Lolita.' But I re-read, 'A passage to India' recently and detested it.

Books 68 and 69 - two literary analysis books for work: about as sexy as they sound, but pretty useful.

45. The Boy That never Was. - Karen Perry
    Ok, didn't really live up to all that hype.
    8/10

46. Driven. - K Bromberg
    8/10

Remus - Do those literary analysis books have names? I'd be interested to hear what they are about.

One was about Robert Browning, and the other about Ibsen (totally outing myself there, if anybody from work is on here!).

Remus what did you like about Lolita? I absolutely couldn't stand it

Finished Gentleman & Players - a great read and kept me guessing right to the end!
Book 41 started: Sister by Rosamund Lupton. A 50p second hand book find. Not sure about it at the moment.

So pleased you liked Gentlemen & Players Sonnet. It's quite unlike anything else of Joanne Harris's that I've read. Some brilliant characters - loved the old Latin master - my favourite :)

G&P added to my wishlist

33. Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. Another story told in poem form. This is a kids' book but is wonderful

31. A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
32. 'Salem's Lot - Stephen King
33. Lexicon - Max Barry

On my holidays and 31 was a nostalgia read for the day before as I mentioned it to someone else on the thread and had to read it again! Excellent book for children, but still tremendously satisfying for an adult. And only 49p on Kindle!

32 was a 14hr Audible listen - not sure how I've left it so long to read Salem's Lot as I'm a big SK fan, but I think it was mainly because I love the Anne Rice Vamp Chronicles so much that I always feel a bit protective of vampires Enjoyed it, though it really is the archetypal vampire novel and chock full of cliches, but I'll forgive it as it's nearly 40 years ok and along with Dracula probably created some of the cliches.
SPOILER ALERT
The one thing that really annoyed me about it was that the introduction to the novel basically tells you who survives - 'a tall man' who writes a book, and 'a boy' who once his character is introduced can only be one person. Because they survive alone, you also then know that all their compatriots probably die. This rather robbed the novel of all of it's suspense and surprise for me! It was still enjoyable though, and worth persevering with.

33 - finally got round to Lexicon! Gobbled it up in a few hours by the pool Very good, hits the ground running and doesn't stop! A good read without knowing much in advance, so I'd definitely recommend.
SPOILER ALERT
I can't quite remember the exact discussions that took place around it, but IMHO it definitely wasn't dystopian! It was set in the present day, with a usual level of technology, and the news articles throughout showed that most of the world was unaware of the skills of the poets, and there were parts of the text that showed that they hid themselves. Dystopia means to me a whole significant change to society in some way. It was very hard to classify really, it didn't feel like Sci Fi (no high tech feel, future setting or aliens) but more like fantasy in style (shades of Harry Potter - secret school of people who can bewitch the ordinary folk), but essentially a thriller at heart I'd say.

What do I like about, 'Lolita'? I think the writing is incredible: it manages to be exquisite and funny and compelling and awful all at the same time, and I like the way that we are dragged kicking and screaming and horribly disconcertingly into Humbert's mind. I guess the horror of it is in the eloquence of the narrator , so that Nabokov is forcing us to reassess everything all of the time.

It's like one of my other favourites, 'A Clockwork Orange' because it presents really awful events/ideas in the most exquisite prose, so that there's a sort of awful (and indeed awe-full) beauty within the horror.

Sorry - I'm rambling!

I just didn't get that at all from it Remus. Found it grubby. Really actively disliked. But maybe I need to read again

But that's the point - of course it's grubby, but it's cleverly, ironically, exquisitely grubby.