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?

Lorna - I just finished our man in havana too! I loved it.

So I am:

29. And the Mountains Echoed

30. Our Man in Havana

31. Waiting for Sunrise and next up:

32. Shock of the Fall (almost finished)

33. The Chessmen (audio)

34. Sleep Tight

'Our Man' is good isn't it Anyone. I liked how he was a bit of an antihero, not a slick James Bond type. Have you read 'The End of the Affair' by Greene? I think that's even better, it's just so perfectly written.

Sorry, that was meant to be to AnonymousBird....butter-fingers me.

Thanks Lorna, for the recommendation, I haven't read that one. Will be adding to the list!

Yes, I thought it was quirky and humorous, but not without it's darker moments and really conveyed a sense of life both as a "spy" and living somewhere like Havana. Loved it. And his daughter was such a minx! I loved Segura and Beatrice as well

67. Carol Ann Duffy "Mean Time". Fantastic collection of poetry

Finished book 41 - Sister by Rosamund Lupton. A light quick read with a twist at the end

Duchess and Provancal - I read and enjoyed Chocolat years ago but disliked three quarters of an orange and did not think much of Blackberry Wine. Loved G&P and would highly recommend it to anyone else who has not read it

68. Anne Rice "Merrick". I really enjoyed this one!

My usual library branch is closed for a few months, so my reading is even more random than usual.

69. An Act of Kindness, Barbara Nadel. Crime fiction, not of the cosy type.

70. The Humans, Matt Haig. Felt like there was a bit too much striving after profundity.

71. The Nightingale Girls, Donna Douglas. Young nurses in the 1940s. An undemanding read - reminded of the Lucinda Andrews books I loved in my teens.

72. Beastly Things, Donna Leon. The usual corruption, crime and nice lunches.

73. Passages, Gail Sheehy. Very dated, although I did feel better about some of the sideways lurches and reversals of my adulthood - interesting to thing in terms of necessary transitions rather than me just getting things wrong...

74. The Wind in the Willows. A reread. Lovely as ever.

75. Kenneth Grahame, A study of his life, work and times, Peter Green. A bit harsh on his family, but knowing a bit more about KG's life definitely throws light on the Wind in the Willows.

76. Inferno, Dan Brown. Yeah, yeah, I know. I thought he did something rather interesting and unexpected with the ending of this book though.

77. A Month in the Country, J L Carr. Written in 1980 but set in 1920. I absolutely adored this - it's gone on my list of all-time favourites. The narrator is in search of healing after the horrors of WWI, but it's done with a very light touch - I laughed out loud several times. Set in the Yorkshire countryside, with an art history/archaeological discovery and a delicate love story thrown in. Short and very, very sweet.

49. Dead Gone by Luca Veste

Disappointing. The shock reveal near the end is obvious from very early on, and the false mystery involving the main detective, his wife and his parents is just pointless - something happened, every character knows what happened but the author is keeping it hidden from the reader in an attempt to create suspense.

It's been a very busy couple of weeks and is likely to stay very busy so I suspect I'll only get another 10-20 books read this year.

MrsCosmo welcome! I'm a big fan of Jasper Fforde (although I will admit that the last couple of b

Whoops! Fat fingers.
....The last couple of books in the Thursday Next series have been terrible. (Imo)

12. Pereira Maintains, Antonio Tabucchi Set during Salazar's dictatorship in Portugal, this is the tale of a journalist who doesn't get involved in politics, but nevertheless ends up embroiled in the goings on in Lisbon at the time.

I really enjoyed it and will definitely look out for more Tabucchi. He has a great way with words (translated so not quite his words), I liked the narrative, it was unusual but didn't try to be too clever.

It is very short so if you find yourself needing an in between reads book, then I definitely recommend this.

11.The Count of Monte Christo, Alexandre Dumas
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 Auste

Cheb I've enjoyed all the Thursday Nexts.

I'm taking a while reading my current book. I am really enjoying it but I'm busy job hunting so haven't read as much. Will post about it shortly

50. The Thirteen Problems - Agatha Christie (Easy reading short story collection featuring Miss Marple)

51. The Secret Adversary - Christie again. (Enjoyed this but a lot of the political stuff went over my head. Would be happy to re-read.)

52. The Secret of How to be Happy - Mark Wilson. Kindle freebie. Very quick and enjoyable read which should, at the very least, make me a nicer person even if doesn't make me happier!

69. Phillipa Gregory "The White Princess"

Provencal I've been really disappointed by the last two I read. I bought First Among Sequels as soon as it came out but it turned out that the first hardbacks are missing all of the footnoter notes which makes the ending dreadfully confusing. Maybe I would have loved it, if I had read the book as it was supposed to be read.

I really disliked all the fan fiction stuff in All Of Our Thursdays Are Missing and it dragged for me. I've just realised there's a later book which I haven't read.

Yes there is The Wiman who
Died a Lot. I just fin them very entertaining and love the world he has created. The punishment meted out to Aornis is so clever for example.

I do agree that the earlier ones were better written but I have enjoyed them all.

34. Duma Key - Stephen King

24hrs worth unabridged on Audible - a slow burner, but satisfying. Not massively scary, but good likeable characters. Only thing that annoyed me a bit was that King seems to have got in to the habit of signposting deaths that are coming "Little did I know that it was the last time that I would ever see her" etc, which gives you a brief shock, but then robs what's coming up of suspense... I don't really understand why an author would do that?!

29. Mad About the Boy - Helen Fielding

I was surprised how much I liked this given the general critical reception. I found it very funny in places and quite moving in others.

Now on the very creepy but fascinating Lolita.

Book 70 - Woman on the Edge of Time
Would love to talk about this, if anybody has read it. I thought it promised so much, but bits of it were really boring and it was very repetitive. I was also really disappointed with the ending.

Oh dear, it's taken me almost a month to get through this book...

31. Emotionally Weird, Kate Atkinson.

Just couldn't get into it. I really enjoyed Life After Life, and after telling that to a friend (who is a massive Kate Atkinson fan) he eagerly lent me this one of hers.

I kept thinking it was going to get going at any minute, but no. There really was very little in the way of plot and direction, way too many characters (none of whom were that interesting)...just, no. Of course the conceit of the book is that you have characters telling the narrator 'this story needs a plot', 'this story has too many characters' etc...so it was very self-aware and all, but it didn't make me like it any more.

To be fair, my reading of this book did co-incide with me getting a new smartphone (after a few months without one) and spending way too much of my commute time playing Candy Crush and Farm Heroes. It did prohibit me somewhat from really getting stuck into the book in a proper way.

Need something that is going to be a surefire hit for me next, to wean me off the stupid smartphone games...

64. The Murder Bag by Tony Parsons. Tore through this in 4 days. Fast paced, well plotted, rather good.

My only query would be - how can a DC in the Met afford a big loft apartment in Central London?

Aside from that, loved the interaction between Wolfe and his daughter, and their gorgeous dog

70. Dr AJ Redding "Mindfulness Meditation" supposedly a history of mindfulness and meditation, but was far too short and lacking in information on the subject - felt more like a few bullet points on the subject.

24. War Crimes for the Home, Liz Jensen. Quite a good read.

35. The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith

Very enjoyable Not great literature, but extremely readable! I like detective novels and this one had a good plot, I didn't guess whodunit, and I think Strike & Robin have the potential to be a good long term team.

I've also started and abandoned The Girl Who Saved The King of Norway - Jonas Jonasson. Really liked the Hundred Year Old Man, but this one felt very laboured and self conscious, and stuffed with political comment which I mostly didn't get at all. Not fun.

Riverboat - I love Kate Atkinson but found Emotionally Weird very hard work. Scenes From Behind The Museum is undoubtedly her best, a cracking read if you can stomach another after a disappointment. Or if you haven't read it already, I thought Life After Life had similarities with The Time Travellers Wife which is simply fabulous and you may well enjoy if you liked LAL.

Not sure I can give you a list of 50 right now but just wanted to add my tuppence worth! Just finished 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' by Susanna Clarke. Took me a month to get through but one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read.