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

114. Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch (Fifth novel in the Rivers of London series)

Back on top form, after a small dip with Broken Homes.

This novel takes Peter Grant out of his comfort zone and into the heart of the Herefordshire countryside. I had thought that, as London is such a major character in the novels, that it might not work away from there, but it did. I didn't miss London at all, Herefordshire being a great spooky and mysterious substitute. Although I did miss some of the regular characters who inhabit Peter's daily existence - Inspector Nightingale, Molly, Peter's parents, etc etc, and the often odd goings on at The Folly.

In this novel, Peter is accompanied by a local Police Officer called Dominic who I think made a good substitute for Lesley (wonder if there are plans for him to appear again?). Beverley turns up as Peter's girlfriend, causing mischief, and adding to the magic and mayhem. I like her, and hope she gets a bigger role in subsequent novels.

There are lots of magical creatures, faeries and unicorns in particular. Lots of humour, adventure, and fun.

I still love this wonderfully quirky and humorous series, but have to say that I dropped a star because the ending was rather rushed, leaving a few loose ends which I hope are cleared up in the next novel, such as what's going to happen to Lesley now? I really want to know, and I hope we're not kept in suspense for too long there.

All in all a great read, and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

73 Touching the Void - Joe Simpson. Gripping true story of two mountaineers alone in the Andes and a close escape from death. Almost missed my stop on the train this morning because I was so riveted.

I'm going to try and finish December by reading non fiction for the rest of the year. Recommendations please.

wilting - "Crimson" is not that really bad, you might like it. I just really liked the first couple of pages, even the first chapter, and then that promise just wasn't carried out. The writing style is so interesting in the beginning but then it all get very tedious, as Remus said.

Then again, I hated Wolf Hall with all my being and many people love it. It even got a Booker Prize So who knows, you might like it. I'm only at 54% atm, so maybe something will happen soon and I will end up liking it, too. Hope springs eternal

Best - Here are my top picks from the non-fiction books that I have read in the last year or so:

The Strangest Man - Graham Farmelo
Confessions Of A Sociopath - M E Thomas
Operation Mincemeat - Ben Mcintyre
Music in the Castle of Heaven - John Eliot Gardiner
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

Best -

I really enjoyed, Fanny and Stella this year, but don't read it if you are at all prudish - it's pretty full on! It's one of my top ten reads this year, I think.

I'm happy to recommend other non-fiction books but it depends what sort of things you're interested in. I like medical history stuff, Victorian stuff, polar exploration and sea-faring expeditions etc, so you may have no interest at all in such things!

52. Edward V: The Prince in the Tower - Michael Hicks. Oh God. This has to be one of the most boring books I have ever read. I am really interested in the whole 'Richard III' as a murderous baddie, and this book, I hoped might shed some light. Instead the majority of the book was taken up with 'scene-setting' - the Wydvilles ascending to power, regional alliances/allegiances to Edward IV, and who did what job. Only in the penultimate chapter did we actually focus on Edward V, and there was next to no explanation/detail as to how he was taken into the tower. The author is clearly in the camp of Richard III did it, but I found little detailed evidence other than many reiterations of old texts which provide the known facts.

My non-fiction recommendations from this year:

Why Be Happy When You You Could Be Normal? - Jeanette Winterson
How to Eat Out - Giles Coren
A Curious Career - Lynn Barber
Bedsit Disco Queen - Tracey Thorn
Not My Father's Son - Alan Cumming

Making note of all these recommendations. Thank you all.

Just downloaded The Old Ways - A journey on Foot by Robert McFarlane.

Like the sound of all those Remus. I have a sample of Jan Morris Coronation Everest waiting to be read too. Just finished Henrietta Lacks and liked that too Cote.

77. Academy Street, Mary Costello A short novel following the life of solitary Tess, from her childhood in Ireland to her adulthood in New York. Haunting and touching. Reminded me of Colm Toibin.

Best - if you haven't already read them, I think you might like Findings and Sightlines both by Kathleen Jamie. They are collections of her nature writings. I preferred Sightlines, but they are both excellent.

Thank you Duchess I will look them up.

Thanks south too. DDS is reading the Alan Cumming one, I will borrow it once she's finished.

Best - I enjoyed, 'Coronation Everest' enormously.

Have you read, 'Into the Silence'? Sorry if you've mentioned it already on here - I forget who says what! I know somebody loved it, but can't remember who. I thought it was superb.

No I haven't Remus. I am planning a raid on the Mountaineering section of the library at the weekend as I thoroughly enjoyed Touching The Void.

Get, 'Mountains of the Mind' if you can find it. Think it's Robert somebody. Really, really good.

just googled Remus and coincidentally Mountains of the Mind is by Robert McFarlane whose book The Old Ways I'm reading af the moment. This is about old pathways and routes such as drovers or pilgrims ways. Very interesting so far.

I really enjoyed The Old Ways, I thought it was a lovely book. Haven't got round to reading any of McFarlane's others yet but Mountains of the Mind is on my list somewhere.

Booke 105 Archangel by Robert Harris

A slightly wash-up, middle-aged former Oxford historian 'Fluke' Kelso is in Moscow for a symposium when he is visited in his hotel room by an old former NKVD officer with a tale of having been at Stalin's dacha on the night of Stalin's fatal stroke and having helped his boss, chief of the secret police Lavrenty Beria, steal Stalin's private papers, among which was a notebook. Kelso decides to spend his last morning in Moscow checking out the story, but what begins as idle enquiry in the Lenin Library ends with a night-time escape from Moscow to Archangel, to find Stalin's last secret.

I was disappointed really. Fatherland was such a good book I was hoping for more of the same, but this just didn't seem to engage me in the same way. It tries for suspense but doesn't quite hit the right note, and frankly the great secret is a bit of an anticlimax. It's an okay book, just not what I had hoped it would be.

115. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. Rather good. The pace did slow a little in places, but good ending.

Pressed post too soon -

116. Untold Stories by Alan Bennett. Probably the longest time I've spent reading a book in ages, although was read alongside others. Really going to miss this now I've finished!

Not decided what to read next.

Just realised my numbering went askew, as I have listed two different books as #51. I have also downgraded my personal target from 60 to 55, so just about on track.

For those of you who enjoyed reading Robert McFarlane and Roger Deakin, I can highly recommend Kathleen Jamie. I'm currently reading 'Sightlines' (as my #54) and it's beautiful.

52. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. This is brilliant - such a clever plot, with the six separate strands combining to draw a picture of what it is to be human. One of my favourite books this year.

I know we've still 2.5 weeks to go until the end of the year but I thought I'd share my favourite books of 2014. I've divided them into newly-published novels I read and old books I read:

My 2014 Top 5 (new books):

1. The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell
2. Mr Mac and Me, Esther Freud
3. The Lives of Others, Neel Mukherjee
4. Nora Webster, Colm Toibin
5. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami

My 2014 Top 5 (old books):

1. The Children's Book, A.S. Byatt
2. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
3. The Blackwater Lightship, Colm Toibin
4. Solar, Ian McEwan
5. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

My biggest literary discoveries this year were Esther Freud and Colm Toibin, neither of whom I'd read before but whose novels, in the main, have captivated me in the way they beautifully and subtly evoke the intricate landscape of both geography and character. Also, Charles Dickens who I've rediscovered and appreciated much better as an adult.

Looking forward to joining the 2015 thread :) I'm going to try and read more classics next year: both old and modern.

86 - Saving Max - depressed me at the beginning but went on to be a gripping "race against time" and ended up thoroughly enjoying it.
87 is ..erm..not sure yet. Will peruse my TR list

Best: I would really REALLY recommend the following mountaineering books:

Annapurna - Maurice Herzog
Starlight and Storm - Gaston Rebuffat
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

But especially:
Conquistadors Of The Useless - Lionel Terray

Also, thank you whoever (Cote?) recommended Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. It will probably be the final book I finish this year and definitely seems to be ending on a high.

Next year I am thinking of plundering my dusty bookshelves for 50 rereads.

Love love LOVE cloud atlas tumble :) so glad you like it.

Has anyone read the new Tennesse Williams biography? A colleague directs plays in her spare time and I'm thinking of buying it for her?? Not sure if directing plays translates into reading huge bios tho! Thoughts?