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?

62. The Pure in Heart (Simon Serrailler Book 2) by Susan Hill. Really enjoying this series so far.

63. The Skeleton Cupboard by Tanya Byron. A very interesting account of how she became a clinical psychologist.

Ok Remus this will be a first. Rereading a book I disliked first time around. Adding to list

Would be interested to hear your thoughts - I think you have to be willing to suspend your disgust and read Humbert as a literary figure, who is not only completely unreliable but also a spinner of words. View him through the eyes of an analyst, not a parent, if you can.

Wilting The Sparrow, been oh such a long, long time since I read and enjoyed this book so much.
Thank you for the reminder. Well written and pushes the boundaries of SF in the way it so needs to be pushed.
Looking forward to re-reading (just know the shock factor will still be there because of the characterisation).

Interesting re: Lolita read this numerous times before being parent. So erudite isn't he Humbert? And doesn't he love himself? Thinks he's so attractive? Hate him, how can he feel emotions the way I do? Such a powerful novel, if you can let it in

Book 50: Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron by Kim Newman

Set in 1918, thirty years after the first Anno Dracula. Since his ousting as Prince Consort in Britain, Dracula has found a home and power with Kaiser Wilhelm in Germany. The war is raging and the German and Austria-Hungarian forces are set for their big offensive. In the skies above France, Allied fighter pilots are doing battle with a formidable force of enemy fliers, led by Manfred von Richthofen, the Bloody Red Baron.

The world Kim Newman has created is full of famous (and lesser known) literary vampires, along with well known historical figures, some of whom have also turned. His own creations are really very good, and both books I've read in the series so far are terrific reads. This edition has a brand new novella as well called Vampire Romance, featuring a significant gathering of vampire elders and a school girl who comes to realise that vampires are nothing like the romantic figures she reads about.

Ah delighted to have reminded you brices! Thought it and the sequel were really exceptional books. Must dig them out for a reread too.

The original Dracula is actually vg chillie, did you ever read it? Much more readable than I expected.

I read Dracula years ago wilting and it is very good. Mind you, I did have a major rant about the Francis Ford Coppola film version of Dracula as a result. Bloody awful film version, that one.

I also read Dracula The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt a few years ago. Dacre is Bram's great grand-nephew. It was interesting as a sequel, not as good as the original and there are some major changes in plot lines, but it was a reasonable read.

It's years since I read though. Pre-kids and I still intensely disliked

Duchess - are any of her other books worth reading? G&P was so atmospheric. I could smell the chalk dust, see the dust motes and feel the old fashioned shabbinees of the school and as for the twists - fantastic piece of story telling.

23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Sonnet have you read Chocolat? I loved that

Sonnet - I haven't read that many of Joanne Harris's books, but I think G & P is far and away the best. I liked her short story collection Jigs & Reels (apart from one odd sci-fi one which didn't appeal).

Chocolat is lovely - a beautiful novel, but didn't particularly enjoy Five Quarters of the Orange or Blackberry Wine. Haven't read the sequels to Chocolat yet - on the tbr list.

28. The Tiger's Wife - Thea Whatshername

Terrible disappointment. One of New York Times' "10
Best Books of 2011" and given to me by a friend from her own collection so I really wanted to like this, but I failed. Written by a girl who looks about 15 from her photo on the back cover, I found the story silly and was skipping whole paragraphs to get to the end of it. I don't know what NYT were thinking.

I haven't quite finished Book 70, but should do v soon and will be interested in the opinions of anybody who has read it. It's, "Woman on the Edge of Time" by Marge Piercy, and three quarters of the way in, I still have very mixed feelings about it. Bits of it are really interesting and with other parts I'm struggling not to yawn before the paragraph ends.

31. When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman. This should have been my kind of thing, but didn't really work for me for some reason. 'Too much' plot, perhaps?

Maybe I need to re-read Lolita. Haven't read it for years. Have just added The Luminaries and Brilliance to my kindle too. You lot are not helping me reduce my 'to read' list!

How have I missed this??

So far this year I have read (in no particular order):

1. Alison Weir - The Princes in the Tower
2. David Loades - The Boleyns
3. Joanne Harris - Chocolat
4. Daniel Keys - Flowers for Algernon
5. Mark Forsyth - The Elements of Eloquence
6. Jo Baker - Longbourn
7. Karen Maitland - The Owl Killers
8. Deanna Raybourne - Silent in the Grave
9. Peter Ackroyd - Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem

10. John Harwood - The Seance 11. Joanne Harris - The Lollipop Shoes 12. Jasper Fforde - The Big Over Easy 13. Robert Edric - Devil's Beat 14. Susannah Dunn - The May Bride 15. Hugh Dennis - Britty Britty Bang Bang 16. Voltaire - Candide 17. Pamela Hartshorne - Time's Echo 18. Douglas Adams - The Salmon of Doubt 19. Jasper Fforde - The Well of Lost Plots 20. Stuart Clarke - The Day Without Yesterday 21.Terry Pratchett - Raising Steam 22. Joanne Harris - Peaches for Monsieur le Cure 23. Robert Edric - The London Satyr 24. Pamela Hartshorne - Memory of Midnight 25. Deanna Raybourne - Silent in the Sanctuary 26. Jasper Fforde - Something Rotten

Currently reading:
27. Stewart Lee - How I escaped my certain fate...
28. David MacGibbon - Elizabeth Woodville
29. Anne O' Brien - Devils' consort

(I also have a pile with six others to read but will save that for later!)
Going to peruse the thread now and see what catches my eye.

Welcome Mrs. Are there any from your list you can recommend?

Finally, I have an update:

11. The Count of Monte Christo, Alexandre Dumas. I gave this 5 stars which is rare for me. It was just brilliant. All the right ingredients for a mystery. I thought the plot was sublimely hatched and really enjoyed the way it unfolded. It is a huge book but I do not regret one page.

10.Meltdown, Ben Elton

1. The boy in the suitcase, Lene Kaarberol
2. Jamaica Inn, Daphne du Maurier
3. The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
4. The shock of the fall, Nathan Filer
5. Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte
6. What Matters in Jane Austen?, John Mullan
7. The Foundation Pit, Andrey Platanov
8. The Coming Race, Edward Bulwer Lytton
9. Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen

Duchess and Sonnet I like (not loved. Blackberry Wine) and actually disliked Lollipop Shoes

Southeast - difficult!

I do like Joanne Harris (Sorry Proven) - I like the way the magical elements play a part in the everyday. However, of those I've read so far, these have been tops:

1.Stewart Clarke 's "Day Without Yesterday"(this was the third of a trilogy I started on last year). Makes great scientists past feel very human; they're clever people for all their faults, and there's a lot of information on how they related to each other.

1. Jasper Fforde's "Big Over Easy" was remarkably silly. A sort of surreal world in which nursery rhyme characters are real. I don't want to give away the plot other than it revolves around Humpty Dumpty.

(A friend introduced me to JF's work, and every time I read it I enjoy the bizarreness more and more)

1. Pamela Hartshorne's "Time's Echo". A woman living in York begins reliving the memories of a medaeval woman. Compelling. (I did also enjoy her other book listed above, but it's much darker, and very disturbing (To the point where I had a nightmare about it).

1. Daniel Keys's "Flowers for Algernon" - scarily has potential to be real. Sad and interesting.

1. Peter Ackroyd's "Dan Leno.." I have read this before but not for a good few years. Cleverly woven tale of dark Victorian times.

I didn't enjoy Candide much. I've read Don Quixote which is sort of along similar lines and found that far more entertaining. The end part of Candide seemed to be very much a nod to wrapping the story up sharpish.

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Mcintyre is £0.84 on the Kindle

Mrs - I was disappointed by that trilogy (read the 3rd book Day Without Yesterday just 2 weeks ago) - found it without any real insight and got a bit angry when I noticed several little mistakes.

If you like that kind of book, I would recommend The Strangest Man about Quantum Theory genius Paul Dirac, and Measuring The World about the world's greatest mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss.

MrsC I do like Joanne Harris but really disliked The Lollipop Shoes

29. Our Man in Havana -by Grahame Greene
30. A Pale View Of The Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro. I poddeled along reading this book, thinking how very interesting, all about Japanese culture, the bomb to hit Nagasaki, post-war issues....then bam! there is a sudden realization about what's happened (or not happened!) It's not even a twist, more of a coming together of all the dark shadows that thread through the book. It's quite subtle. Excellent.

Abandoned 'Me Before You'; life is too short for books and characters who you couldn't care less about.