50 Book Challenge 2014 Part 4

[Southeastdweller]

Thread four of the 50 Book Challenge.

The idea is to read 50 books in 2014 (or more!)

Here are the previous threads...

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/adult_fiction/1951735-50-Book-Challenge-2014

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/adult_fiction/2000991-50-Book-Challenge-2014-Part-2?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/adult_fiction/2094773-50-Book-Challenge-2014-Part-3?msgid=49151537#49151537

OfTheTwilight - Have you read anything else by William Gibson?

I thought, 'The Little Stranger' was better than the others of hers I've read, but I didn't like the others at all.

I read her tedious book, Fingersmith, about six years ago and it put me off anything else of hers but I'm intrigued about The Little Stranger having just read some glowing Amazon reviews.

I love Fingersmith! It's probably my favourite Sarah Waters, I love all the twists.

39. The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume Two - Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill

I just love this comic series more and more. So many ideas, references and jokes crammed in, just a delight to read.

Hi Cote, I have recently read Neuromancer, which was also really good. I wish I had hot round to reading William Gibson much sooner. He really is a brilliant writer.

I think 'The Little Stranger' is well worth a read South, I found it a real page turner. I have not fancied any other of Sarah Water's books though.

OfTheTwilight - I was a big fan of William Gibson & read all his books up to and including Pattern Recognition. His earlier books were brilliant - Neuromancer, Idoru, Mona Lisa Overdrive, etc - but imho he had a lobotomy while writing All Tomorrow's Parties (his first bad book) and Pattern Recognition was very sadly way below his standards, I thought. He is getting old

Neal Stephenson has consistently been much better, imho. Please read Snow Crash and The Diamond Age to start with. Cryptonomicon and Anathem are also brilliant in a more brain-hurty way. If you liked Pattern Recognition, you will love these.

SouthEast - I loathed, "Fingersmith." I thought it was laboured and trite, and that she was so busy grinding the lesbian axe that it got in the way of the story. Nearly everybody I've spoken to, including my dp, loved it, except one dear colleague whose comment was, "If I want to read Victorian fiction, I'll read the proper bloody stuff instead of this nonsense!" It's nice to see another person who doesn't feel the love.

Having said all that, even, "Fingersmith" was better than the crap that is, "Nightwatch" which I couldn't even finish. I forced myself through about 75% of it, hating every word, and then decided life was far too short - I wish I'd listened to myself after 15 pages!

Do you think you'll give her another go, Remus?

Never! :)

Hi Cote, I did really enjoy Neuromancer but I did prefer 'Pattern Recignition'. I liked the spy thriller feel and I preferred the characters.
I do agree that Neal Stephenson is fab though. I read Diamond Age a few years ago and Anathem earlier this year ( it will also make an appearance in my top 10 of the year). I am actually half way through Crptonomicom. As I type. It is good but I am beginning to wonder how all the stands will come together.

91. Heather Huffman "Throwaway". Meh. It was genuinely awful - too far-fetched and none of the characters had any substance imo

44. The CV Book (2nd edition) - James Innes

Picked up some good tips but as it was written two years ago, some of the info's out of date and there was some repetition also. I found the 21 sample CV's at the end from people who work in different kind of industries to be really helpful.

Last night I started The Children Act and enjoying it so far.

Oh Lord, I'm really struggling with The Little Stranger. It's so tedious, I'm speed reading just to see if it gets better. It's not a chilling book at all, just very dry and bland, though the descriptions of the big crumbling house are terrific. I'll persevere but am skipping through the pages so should finish it very quickly despite being 500+ pages long.

Southeast I really enjoyed The Children Act; the characters and story still linger in me.

45. Dracula - Bram Stoker

This was my first audiobook and brightened up many hours of back-to-school supply preparation, cooking, housework, and walking about town. The book was interesting and well-written, I thought, and follows closely the film Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The book is a compilation of diary entries, telegrams, etc and so suits spoken narration well. The voice artists used in this audiobook are also superb - I can't say if all audiobooks are like this.

I have made zero progress on The Prague Cemetery and am considering giving up on it - a rare honour I have previously bestowed only on Catcher In The Rye, which was a book clearly so forgettable that I had to look up its name by Googling "book read by serial killers"

41. The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters

I just couldn't get into this book and found myself speed reading just to get to the end. The descriptions of the crumbling house and estate were magnificent - Waters certainly has an eye for detail and I lingered over these - but the author didn't build up the "creepy" atmosphere sufficiently enough to induce any sense of slowly developing fear and suspense. It was all incredibly tedious and dry. A bit "ghost-story-by-numbers". Moreover, I found the plot unfurling much too slowly and I found some of the characters (especially the doctor) irritating beyond belief.

Cote I was just thinking I should re-read Dracula. Am going to start on a re-read of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe first though as the entire collection just arrived this morning for my DD (will read them before her as she's still getting through Malory Towers).

Book 79 Sacrilege by SJ Parris

The third in the series centred on Giordano Bruno, former monk, accused of heresy by the Catholic church, and spy for Elizabeth I's spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham. A former love of his has arrived in London in search of Bruno. Her husband has been murdered and she is the only suspect. Bruno travels to Canterbury to clear her name, and inevitably stumbles on a bigger conspiracy.

71. Dust - Hugh Howey 4*

I read Sacrilege a couple of weeks ago, Chillie. Loved all the twists and turns. Have a feeling that Sophia will turn up again in a later book.

Currently ploughing through The Goldfinch - need to have a good run at it every day, otherwise I'll still be reading it at Christmas :o

Treachery is on my reading pile on bedside cabinet - looking forward to that one - set in Plymouth, this time.

Bruno is going to have to go to France at some point I suspect Duchess.

Realised that my list was missing one of my books so am actually on book 56 not 55. Reading a big one though so it's going to take some time - Edward Rutherford's London. Only 3 chapters in but enjoying so far.

Dracula is a great read. If I remember correctly, it's a bit of a cheat in that you never really find out how Jonathan Harker escapes from Dracula's castle, but the whole thing is so atmospheric that you've just got to go along for the ride.

Work pretty demanding at the moment, so can't manage much more than fluff.

96. The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs, Christina Hodgkinson. All very mn mumslit, but well done of its kind. A memorably horrible sex scene made me regret I was snacking on chocolate while reading.

97. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Winifred Watson. I know this book has lots of devotees, and it is endearing to see Miss Pettigrew coming into her own. But I can't get past the awful men, including the ones that are held out as romantic heroes. One man physically shakes a woman, but that's alright, she deserves it and secretly likes him asserting his dominance. Another does come across as rather great, but the heroine thrills to the "hint of brutality" he emits. Oh yes, a bit of anti-semitism too. It's of its day and it's not really fair to judge by modern standards, but it inhibits me from fully succumbing to its charms.

98. I remember nothing, Nora Ephron. Slight pieces, but enjoyable. I particularly liked the first piece, when she talked about the memorable people she'd met and things she'd done, but how she couldn't actually remember any of them. All those famous rocks shows she went to, and spent wondering about where they would go and eat afterwards. A fitting farewell.

Have just started (99) The Wrong Knickers: A Decade of Chaos, by Bryony Gordon, which suits my mood very well at the moment.

Update:
Finished book 61 - A Crown of lights by Phil Rickman
62 - Pargeters by Norah Lofts
63 - Somewhere to Hide by Mel Sherratt
64 - Behind a closed Door
65 - Fighting For Survival

Not sure now between The Farm by Tom Rob Smith or The Silkworm...

Provencalroseparadox I loved London by Edward Rutherford, read it at least twice if not three times. I picked up "Paris" by him from a charity shop the other week which is currently waiting to be read

Scrap that - going to start Heresy by S.J Parr. Reading this thread and seeing references to Sacrilege and Treachery (Thank you Chillie and Duchess for the reminder) reminded me it was siting on my kindle