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?

57. We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo.
    I started this a couple of months ago but the episodic nature meant I kept dipping in and out of it. It's very bleak at times but it's moving and thought-provoking. There's a chapter near the end in third person plural which I thought was magnificent.

58. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

I've been wanting to read this Christie for ages but couldn't get my hands on a cheap copy. I've not read much Christie & was disappointed by The Body in the Library which I read earlier this year but this was great. It's surprisingly fresh for something which has been copied & ripped off numerous times.

I'm currently reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline which I love. I want to just sit and read. Guess who's counting the hours to the DCs bedtime?

wiltingfast I've never seen Tubridy on the telly but I will admit to picking the book up purely because, many years ago, he romantically pursued a very dear friend. Based on his writing, she was totally right to turn him down.

Bsshbosh I completely agree that Penumbra was over-hyped, I enjoyed it but not as much as I expected to based on the fantastic reviews. (But, I have to admit to hating Rivers of London - I found it over-researched & badly written, a brilliant idea let down by poor execution.) On the other hand, I adored Jonathan Strange & Possession.

51 - Another Elizabeth George Lynley book which I have passed on to someone and forgotten the name of.

52. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler.

I really liked this despite the mixed reviews on here.

I'm burning through children's classics now!

Book 92 - 'Into the High Valley' - the last of the Katy books. I enjoyed this much more than the 4th one, as there's more interaction between characters and fewer descriptions of flowers (although still too many!).

Book 93 - 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm' - I'd never heard of this until I read, 'How to be a Heroine' as mentioned previously in the thread. It was sweet and I enjoyed it, but I skim-read the God bits. The ending was really abrupt though, and there doesn't seem to be a sequel, which is weird as the whole story seemed to be moving towards being a love story, that never actually happens.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is fantastic.

Went to Waterstones yesterday and bought Marriage Material and the first Anjelica Huston autobiography. M.M very good so far.

Book 69 Police by Jo Nesbo

I had had my doubts about reading this one, because I was so traumatised by Phantom that I wasn't sure I wanted to continue with the series. But this wasn't anywhere near as emotionally damaging (except for one of the murders) and is a really good read. There's a killer seeking out and murdering police officers at the scenes of crimes that they had previously investigated but been unable to solve. The murders are quite nasty, as one has come to expect from Nesbo, but there's also undercurrents in politics and also a sense of people's pasts coming back to haunt them in a way that goes beyond this particular serial killer.

42. Nothing To Lose - Lee Child

#12 in the Jack Reacher series and the first that is actually bad. Disappointed.

35. Life After Life - mixed feelings but enjoyed, little slow towards the end.

38. For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemmingway.

A bit of a slow starter but it really had me towards the end. Very captivating.

Overall, I enjoyed reading his earlier books more - The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms touched me more, and seemed more human somehow. The last two I've read - The Old Man and The Sea and For Whom the Bell Tolls - well I can see that he has mastered his style and all by this point, but they leave me colder, overall, than his earlier stuff. In this book, all the stuff with Maria I found quite grating and irritating, I much preferred his portrait of love in Farewell to Arms. But got to give it to him, this book really ratcheted up the suspense and he managed to create this sort of ambience of doom that was pretty amazing.

59. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Sometimes library browsing pays off - I spotted this after reading about it on Flavorwire. I wasn't sure I'd like it but it is not as geeky or nerdy as the reviews suggest. It's for anyone who either lived through the 70s & 80s or has a passing knowledge of those times. It's Charlie & the Chocolate Factory set in a 2044 that wants to be 1984. I loved it. It's a quest n

Man, the new mobile site is really bugging me. Basically, Ready Player One is a quest novel. I think I'm starting to realise that I really enjoy quest novels. Off to find some more.

Che - How did you miss me raving about Ready Player One last year? Quite a few people here read it as a result

Cote - I didn't really start hanging out here until this year. Though I think it took having a copy in my hands and reading a few pages to convince me to borrow it. Rave reviews can kill a book for me because my expectations are too high.

32. Sweet Tooth, Ian McEwan

Serena Frome works as a low-level operative for MI5 in the 1970s. An unassuming young woman of average intelligence but above average looks (which she uses to her advantage to, it seems, sleep with every man she meets), she's unexpectedly summoned by her superiors to be part of a secret mission code-named Sweet Tooth. This brings her into the life of Tom Haley, a young writer, and precipitates the unravelling of her career.

There are many interesting post-modernist narrative devices used in this novel - not least the revealing last chapter - but for me the main characters were simply too dull, too tedious, too flat, so that when the twist came at the end I was like, "So what". I simply didn't care enough.

46. The Shadows in the Street by Susan Hill

47. The Betrayal of Trust by Susan Hill

Still ploughing through the Serrailler books. So many inconsistencies and holes - I guess you're not expected to read them all in one go. I don't think the characters are well drawn, but I did enjoy the last book more than any others since the first.

80. Whispers Underground - Book 3 in Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant/Rivers of London series. Really enjoyable, but taking a short break before reading the next one (on order from library) :)

39. The Universe versus Alex Woods Gavin Extance

The story of a charmingly unwordly, geeky young boy who gets hit by a meteorite, befriends an old man and starts a Kurt Vonnegut church.

I loved it. Funny, touching, nerdy, thought provoking. The first person narration had shades of Curious Incident, About A Boy and The Humans all of which I had immensely enjoyed. And, much like a those books, I loved all the little mathematical and scientific tidbits thrown in, as well as all the literary and classical music references. Great secondary characters, if a few highly improbable relationships, and though it veered a bit close to over-sentimental at times near the end I think on the whole it stayed on the right side of the line.

Would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the books I mentioned above.

35. Mountains Of The Mind - Robert Macfarlane

A reread but it was a few years ago that I read it, before my current mountaineering obsession took hold, so it was good to read it with a much greater background knowledge than I had then. Particularly apposite at the moment as I'm holidaying among my beloved Lake District fells, but unable to get up anything approaching mountain height due to having young children in tow!

48. A Question of Identity by Susan Hill

Am glad to have read the last one and able to move onto more interesting books tbh. The identity of the murderer was obvious from the start. Usual plot holes. Just don't get the high rating for this series at all. Sorry to fans but not for me.

I see them more as family stories, Provencal. I began caring more about the Serraillers than I did about the crimes pretty much from the beginning. I actually cried at Chris's illness (trying not to plot spoil for others), and Simon and his sister Martha's relationship was so touching. I have to say that I don't particularly like Simon - his attitude towards his girlfriends has been appalling, especially Diana.

And you're ahead of me now - I've been taking a break from them to read a different series. Will catch up next week. And I didn't spot any plot holes :o

Sorry Duchess just not for me at all, found lots of repetition and inconsistencies and things focused on then dropped and never mentioned again. I'm pretty good at suspending belief but haven't been able to with these; lots of things just don't ring true. I like Cat and Judith but have no feelings for the rest. Much prefer Pierre Lemaitre and his marvellous Camille Verhoven.

Just started Maria Semple's new book. Hope it's as good as Bernadette.

I keep hearing good things about Lemaitre, have got them on my tbr list.

Have been enjoying the wonderfully surreal Rivers of London series - 2 more to go :)

I adore ROL. They make me laugh out loud and I love the idea (not sure who mentioned it) of Peter Capaldi as Nightingale. There's a new one out in September I think.

That was me provincial. I don't even watch Dr Who but can't help seeing him as Nightingale whenever I read the Rivers of London books.