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

Here's my list so far:

1. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
2. Eating Less - Gillian Riley
3. The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty
4. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
5. Vanished Years - Rupert Everett
6. The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life - William Nicholson
7. The House We Grew Up In - Lisa Jewell
8. Sisterland - Curtis Sittenfield
9. Stoner - John Williams

10. Call the Midwife - Jennifer Worth 11. A Tale For The Time Being - Ruth Ozeki 12. Apple Tree Yard - Louise Doughty 13. Life After Life - Kate Atkinson 14. The Quantum Universe - Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw 15. Big Brother - Lionel Shriver 16. The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion 17. Cold Earth - Sarah Moss 18. The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith 19. The Strangest Man - Graham Farmelo 20. The Light Between Oceans - ML Stedman 21. Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts 22. The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer 23. The Baby Diaries - Sam Binnie 24. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman 25. The Sealed Letter - Emma Donoghue 26. The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd 27. Lexicon - Max Barry 28. Tangled Lives - Hilary Boyd 29. Freakonomics - Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner 30. The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt 31. When God Was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman 32. She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb 33. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green 34. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf 35. The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton 36. A Month in the Country - J Carr 37. Alys, Always - Harriet Lane 38. A Pale View of Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro 39. How to be a Heroine - Samantha Ellis 40. This Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson 41. Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys - Viv Albertine

Oh bother I forgot I was logged in under a different name! That's my list above.

And one more to add:

42. A Bright Moon For Fools by Jasper Gibson. An interesting debut, very original. DH loved this but it's not quite my kind of thing.

Okay, so my list:

January

1. The Secret History of the World Jonathan Black
2. Sherlock Holmes: The Will of the Dead George Mann
3. The Black Country Alex Grecian
4. Tha Language of Flowers Vanessa Diffenbaugh
5. Death on the Nile Agatha Christie
6. A Most Wanted Man John le Carre
7. The Casebook of Newbury and Hobbes George Mann
8. Wool Hugh Howey
9. Ghosts of War George Mann

10. A Cat, a Hat and a Piece of String Joanne Harris

February
11. The Mists of Avalon Marion Zimmer Bradley
12. Gone Girl Gillian Flynn
13. The Murder at the Vicarage Agatha Christie
14. Never Go Back Lee Child

March
15. The Witch Hunter Bernard Knight
16. 59 Seconds Richard Wiseman
17. Pagan Britain Ronald Hutton
18. The Reader Bernhard Schlink
19. Let It Bleed Ian Rankin
20. The Complaints Ian Rankin
21. Mindfulness Mark Williams ^ Danny Penman
22. Cross and Burn Val McDermid

April
23. Divergent Veronica Roth
24. Insurgent Veronica Roth
25. Allegiant Veronica Roth
26. Quirkology Richard Wiseman
27. Mortal Causes Ian Rankin
28. Natural Magic Doreen Valiente
29. The End of the Wasp Season Denise Mina
30. The Hanging Garden Ian Rankin

May
31. Broken Homes Ben Aaronovitch
32. The Celtic Realms Miles Dillon & Nora Chadwick
33. The Book of Unholy Mischief Elle Newmark
34. The English Monster Lloyd Shepherd
35. Heresy SJ Parris
36. Dead Witch Walking Kim Harrison
37. The Good, the Bad, and the Undead Kim Harrison
38. Every Which Way But Dead Kim Harrison
39. A Fistful of Charms Kim Harrison

June
40. For a Few Demons More Kim Harrison
41. Where Demons Dare Kim Harrison
42. White Witch, Black Curse Kim Harrison
43. Prophecy SJ Parris
44. Blood Eagle Craig Russell
45. The Magus of Hay Phil Rickman
46. The Glassblower of Muano Marino Fiorato
47. Cockroaches Jo Nesbo
48. The Long Mars Stephen Baxter & Terry Pratchett
49. What Witches Do Stewart Farrer

July
50. Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron Kim Newman
51. A History of Ancient Britain Neil Oliver
52. Snuff Terry Pratchett
53. Everyday Sexism Laura Bates
54. Dead Souls Ian Rankin
55. The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie
56. The Book of Life Deborah Harkness
57. Nemesis Agatha Christie
58. Set in Darkness Ian Rankin
59. Lords and Ladies Terry Pratchett
60. The Eyre Affair Jasper Fforde

August
61. Kitchen Witchcraft Rachel Patterson
62. The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen
63. A Caribbean Mystery Agatha Christie
64. The Falls Ian Rankin
65. Life Lessons from Byron Matthew Bevis
66. Lost in a Good Book Jasper Fforde
67. Treachery SJ Parris
68. The Well of Lost Plots Jasper Fforde
69. Police Jo Nesbo
70. Something Rotten Jasper Fforde

Started on The Fire Witness by Lars Kepler today. Gruesome murders right from the start, as expected.

I got up to 83 on the last thread. Struggling to keep up with the thread now MN have changed the mobile site.

Currently reading "Nicholas Nickleby" which is good but taking a while, and Ian Rankin "Let It Bleed"

Remus I loved New Grub Street when I read it, but that was 14 years ago. How far through have you got?

Thanks, Wednesday. Not v far - only 12 pages or so. The wannabe writer brother character is a selfish twit and it's annoying, rather than amusing, me.

I'd suggest give it another chapter or 2. If you still feel the same way, give it up!

Cheers - will do (but not until I've finished my Titanic book). :)

Marking place. Half way through The Silkworm. Mixed feelings ATM.

38. Terry Pratchett: the Spirit of Fantasy - Craig Cabell. Mixed feelings about this. Interesting to hear someone else's take on the 'background' to stories by one of our greatest fantasy writers, and some good arguments for why TP is fantasy not sci-fi. However, I'm not sure that I agree with all the 'hidden' things that CC has discovered in the books, nor that particular inferences have been made. I noticed a few things (quoted in the text) that to me were obvious nods to popular culture that CC has overlooked. Worth a read if you're a fan of PTerry. Not a good idea to read if you're thinking of getting into a bit of discworld escapism.

41. Marriage Material - Sathnam Sanghera

This was pretty good - a book set in the West Midlands about a Sikh family, that goes back and forth between now and the 60's - 80's, based on an an Arnold Bennett book from the early 20th century called The Old Wives Tale. It was interesting to get an insight into the Sikh culture and some passages are beautifully written. But I thought Sathnam wanted to get some issues off his chest (the decline of Wolverhampton city centre, how small shops have changed) and that this particular kind of novel wasn't the best vehicle for this. I felt the journalist coming in too much and it was a bit distracting - I'd have preferred better character development instead, or a longer book. The main character was a bit of a misery, which got a bit wearying at times, and it was hard to see what his fiancé saw in him.

Next up is the first Anjelica Huston autobiography, or the Alan Johnson one.

Nice review southeast. This book's on my bookshelf - one of many unread books .

Is anyone else here on Goodreads and want to add me as a friend? I'm Bssh there. Or you can tell me your username and I'll add you.

Book 71 The Fire Witness by Lars Kepler

A girl and a woman have been murdered in a brutal fashion at a home for troubled girls. A 15-year-old girl has also gone missing - and a bloody hammer was found under her pillow. Uncoventional and utterly brilliant Detective Inspector Joona Linna from the National Police is sent strictly as an observer to the investigation, since he himself is under internal investigation for his actions in an earlier case, but he quickly gets drawn in.

Lars Kepler is a writing partnership of a married couple who are also authors separately. This is their third novel, and like the others it is a dark psychological tale. They write in the present tense most of the time with very short chapters, sometimes only a couple of pages, but it really holds the attention and although it's nearly 600 pages long I absolutely rattled through it. I only started reading it yesterday morning and I was at work all day.

33. East of Eden, John Steinbeck

This is Steinbeck's tribute to both the Adam & Eve and Cain & Abel stories. It's a family saga as majestic and sweeping as the Californian landscape it is set within and focuses on the fraught relationships between brothers Adam and Charles Trask, Adam's wife Cathy, and Adam and Cathy's sons Cal and Aaron. It is also about Samuel Hamilton and his huge and comparably harmonious family. There is a host of minor characters, such as the Trask family cook Lee, a Chinese man, who are so richly drawn that they could easily star in their own novels. The book is dense and multi-layered - in plot, in themes, in detail, in characterisation - and I had to come up for air many times. I actually slowed my reading right down in order to savour the writing and story. A lush, sprawling soap opera of a novel that I know I will want to read again and again.

I'm bringing my list over, for future reference:

1. The Worst Journey In The World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard
2. The Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice From TheSilence Of Autism - Naoki Higashida
3. Cook With Jamie - Jamie Oliver
4. Music In The Castle Of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach - John Elliot Gardiner
5. The Cuckoo's Calling - J. K. Rowling
6. The Twelve - Justin Cronin
7. Bad Science - Ben Goldacre
8. The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton
9. A Good And Useful Hurt - Aric Davis

10. The Prestige - Christopher Priest 11. The Genesis Secret - Tom Knox 12. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel 13. Dune - Frank Herbert 14. A Colder War - Charles Cummings 15. Persuader - Lee Child 16. Déjà Vu - Ian Hocking 17. Dance Of The Happy Shades - Alice Munro 18. The Sky's Dark Labyrinth - Stuart Clarke 19. The Mote In God's Eye - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle 20. Shock Of The Fall - Nathan Filer 21. Lexicon - Max Barry 22. The Sensorium Of God - Stuart Clark 23. Life After Life - Kate Atkinson 24. 30-Second Philosophies - Barry Loewer 25. Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You - Marcus Chown 26. The Day Without Yesterday - Stuart Clark 27. Mermaids Singing - Val McDermid 28. The Tiger's Wife - Thea Obreht 29. Brilliance - Marcus Sakey 30. A Better World - Marcus Sakey 31. Second Variety - Philip K Dick 32. The Enemy - Lee Child 33. A Brief History Of The Samurai: The Way Of Japan's Elite Warriors - Jonathan Clements 34. One Shot - Lee Child (Jack Reacher #9) 35. The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language - Mark Forsyth 36. The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith 37. Interrupt - Jeff Carlson 38. Confessions Of An English Opium Eater - Thomas de Quincey 39. The Hard Way - Lee Child 40. Bad Luck And Trouble - Lee Child 41. My Idea Of Fun - Will Self 42. Nothing To Lose - Lee Child

highlandcoo - thank you very much for the recommendations, although I've heard of quite a few of them I haven't read any of them! So will have a scout around on Amazon and choose a few to go on my wishlist for my next order. Funny that I'd never heard of The Old Wives' Tale until you mentioned it, then Southeastdweller mentioned it in her post a page later!

I've just finished:

40. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler

Hmm. It was definitely interesting and original, but I didn't love it. Firstly, the twist came a bit too soon for me, I think much more could have been done with that conceit before it was revealed. Secondly, I found the writing to be lacking something - there were some moments that should have been really moving but actually left me rather cold. Then again, maybe that's due to the nature of the narrator and the way she experiences and recounts emotion.

So yeah, it was a pretty good read but not one of my favourites from this year.

43. The Girl With All The Gifts - M R Carey

This was crap nothing to write home about. It isn't portrayed as YA in the Amazon blurb or anywhere else that I've seen, but it definitely is YA. It's full of teenagey truisms like:

• She knows that you can't be a child for ever, even if you want to be.
• Like Pandora, opening the great big box of the world and not being afraid, not even caring whether what's inside is good or bad. Because it's both. Everything is always both.
• You can't save people from the world. There's nowhere else to take them.

... and grating mistakes like:

• They're freaked and exhausted and starting at shadows. So is he, except that he does his freaking and starting mostly inside, so it doesn't notice as much .

Anyway, I digress. This is the story of the feeeelingggs between a child zombie and her instructor (yes, really ). The the first half drags on with chapter after chapter that don't advance the story, sciencey bits make little sense, and the whole pulling on heartstrings was tiresome.

Reading the blurb at the back, I'm not surprised to see that the author writes comic books - this book definitely has the superficial action-movie feel of a comic book.

Just thought some here might like to know that these Kindle books' prices have dropped:

To Kill A Mockingbird................. £0.99

The Signature Of All Things....... £1.90

river I'm currently reading "We are all completely beside..." and I'm finding it dull. Not drawn at all to the main character, maybe that's the writing style. I reckon I've another day or so on that one, and one of the others I'm reading.

I don't have a kindle so can't read my friend's book. Has anyone read "Wendy Woo's Year - A Pocketful of Smiles - 101 ideas for a happy year and a happy you" by Wendy Steel? It's not out in paperback so am going to have to wait it out...

Cote - I wasn't feeling it from the couple of pages I read in the bookshop, and now I'm feeling it even less! Doubt I'll bother with it now.

Book 97 = 'I Survived the Titanic' by Lawrence Beesley. I enjoyed this, one of the first contemporary accounts of the sinking of the Titanic. It was a lovely mixture of English stiff upper lip-ness and fury at the woefully inadequate provision of lifeboats. I recommend it for anybody interested in a basic, eyewitness account.

Remus - Your mileage may vary You can read and enjoy YA so might get more out of this book than I did. Mother-daughter love between a zombie child and a woman scientist/instructor was just too much for me, though, even without the toe-curling YAness.

The present tense thing was driving me mad in the first few pages, which is why I didn't buy it.

Present tense thing didn't grate me as much as in Wolf Hall, tbh. That was just unbearable.

Aghhhhhhhhh - don't mention Wolf Hall. Gods, I hated that bloody book.