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

I haven't been onto this thread in so long, you had moved onto the next one while I wasn't looking!

27. The Marks of Cain by Tom Knox.
    Interesting if slightly poorly executed thriller about genetics set in the Basque region of Spain.

28. Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie.
    Excellent quick holiday read.

29. War Crimes for the Home by Liz Jensen.
    On Kindle after a MN recommendation. Very, very good. Possibly my book of the year so far.

Book 100 (Yay!) A Raymond Chandler short story collection, 'Killer in the Rain' - This was okay, but not Chandler at his very best. At his very best, he's brilliant.

Ooh - I really enjoyed the Liz Jensen and often recommend her on her. So glad to hear that somebody else has enjoyed one of hers. 'The Ninth Life of Louis Drax' is my very favourite. She's one of v few contemporary female novelists I've been able to tolerate more than just one or a couple of books by.

Gather 'round, fellow bookworms! Amazon has news! Or, possibly, this has been around for some time and I have only just discovered it

KINDLE BOOKS WITH AUDIO COMPANIONS

"Listen on your Kindle Fire or with the free Audible app on Apple, Android, and Windows devices.
Whispersync for Voice Keeps the Story Going
Switch between reading and listening whenever you want
Pick up where you left off
You'll never have to put a good book down"

Unless I have misunderstood something, we can now get the audiobooks of Kindle books we have already bought for free or a small price (much lower than normal audiobook prices) AND audio picks up where we left off on the Kindle, just like the Kindle app's magic

Here are classics such as The Secret Garden, Dracula, The Woman in White, Heart Of Darkness, and Great Expectations >> All free books and free audiobooks.

Here are free classics whose audiobook is for 99p.

And Here are all the books Amazon sells with audio companions at this moment.

Remus - I'm convinced that this is your luck. Thank you for buying a Kindle

Well kept secret isn't it? I found out a couple of weeks ago and got Dracula and The Woman in White .

Not sure how long they will be doing this for - may just be a short promotion for Whispersync. Best to get them while you can.

And Audible is having a daily deal sale this week - worth a look.

Have been a bit bogged down recently in A History of Ancient Egypt by John Romer. Rather more detail that I needed or wanted so it's been a bit of a trudge despite some good writing and interesting detail (possible human sacrifice in the pre-pharaonic era, for example). Not yet finished so not counting it yet, but on the home stretch.

Took a break for (92) The Ides of April, by Lindsey Davis. She has a long-running series of crime fiction set in Ancient Rome starring Falco. This book switches the focus to his adopted daughter, Albia. The change to a female first-person narrative does breath fresh life into the series - if you liked Falco, you'll probably like this. You can see the plot twists a mile away - they must be some of the hoariest old tropes ever used - but it's still pretty entertaining.

(93) will probably be Walking Home by Simon Armitage, the poet's account of walking the Pennine Way. I was wary of this, thinking it a bit gimmicky (he starts out not carrying cash, but asking for hospitality in exchange for poetry readings along the way). In fact it's pretty funny and disarming, in places reminding me slightly of Bill Bryson.

Yep - my partnership with Amazon is well known. My next idea for them is to have Roland of Gilead/Mr Darcy/insert hero of choice here stride out of the Kindle in hologram form and act out some of the scenes from the book with the reader.

Then I will be super impressed!

Roland only works on my Kindle though, because I'm not sharing. The rest of you can have anybody else.

40. We are all completely beside ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler. Nope. Didn't like it. Twist came too early for my liking. I didn't like the way it was written, I didn't like the main character, I didn't like the casual but fairly graphic way animal experimenting was dropped in (although awareness needs to be raised). I didn't like the jumps in the storyline and the retelling of events with hindsight. I didn't like it! :(

MrsCosmol - I just read that book last week, and my main criticism was that the twist came too early. Totally agree.

Yep, agree with you two about that book. I don't think there's been a book on here that's been more divisive.

Thankfully I really enjoyed the previous book, and I'm loving the one I'm on right now. Update to follow in a day or so.

Mountains Of The Mind is 99p on the Kindle until midnight - for the fans of mountaineering books.

(93) Walking Home by Simon Armitage. Like most walking books, it occasionally gets bogged down (boom, boom!) on the topic of the ground underfoot, what the walker happens to be looking at etc. But overall I enjoyed it and doesn't outstay its welcome.

Back to the pyramids.

37. The Gate, Natsume Soseki

Sosuke and Oyone share a simple, lacklustre life in early 20th century Tokyo, contented with living in quiet obscurity, unwilling to engage in any adventure that might rock their boat. Much of the novel is given over to the small details of their mundane routines to the point of being either quite mesmerising - like a wash of cool water on a warm day - or quite boring (depending on my mood). But as the novel meanders towards the end we slowly uncover some heartbreaking clues as to why this young couple choose to live so blandly.

I think I want to read a meatier, lush, dense novel now. Perhaps Byatt's The Children's Book will fit the bill...

BsshBosh any particular reason you are reading so many Japanese novels at the moment? I did the same last year in a run up to a trip out there. I recommend The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki if you haven't read it yet.

Do Japanese novels translated into English ever feel clunky? Literary translation can't be easy between two such different languages.

I read Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto last year. I thought it beautiful, poetic. The translator, I thought, did an excellent job in bringing a lightness and beauty to the prose. If you haven't already read it, I'd recommend

I've only been to Japan once but absolutely loved the country, the culture, the food, the fashions. I started off by enjoying Murakami (my DH is a huge fan so we had all his books) and then I discovered that several contemporary Japanese authors share his delight in the surreal. That led me to explore the older literature. I have no idea whether the translations are clunky or not - the ones I've read seem to retain what I imagine to be the delicacy and subtleness of the original and they certainly read well.

Both The Makioka Sisters and Kitchen are on my to-read list :) Duchess I highly recommend the latter's recent novel - The Lake - which I reviewed above and on Goodreads, if you've not yet read it.

I wish I'd looked at this tread earlier, I shall be following up lots of the books that have been mentioned.

I checked and I've read just under 40 books this year, mostly non fiction.

Here are the ones that I especially liked

Crazy Like Us
Ethan Watters

Madness Explained: Psychosis and Human Nature
Aaron T. Beck, Richard P. Bentall

The Sports Gene: What Makes the Perfect Athlete
Epstein, David

The Coma

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America

The Rhythms Of Life: The Biological Clocks That Control the Daily Lives of Every Living Thing
Foster, Russell, Kreitzman, Leon

Exodus: Immigration and Multiculturalism in the 21st Century
Collier, Paul

From Paralysis to Fatigue: A History of Psychosomatic Illness in the Modern Era
Shorter, Edward

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It
Collier, Paul

My Age of Anxiety
Stossel, Scott

The Liars' Club
Karr, Mary

The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies
Brynjolfsson, Erik, Mcafee, Andrew

Cherry: A Memoir
Karr, Mary

The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World
Spence, Michael

Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health
Dumit, Joseph

The Myth of the Chemical Cure: A Critique of Psychiatric Drug Treatment
Moncrieff, Dr Joanna

Sisterland

At the Edge of Uncertainty: 11 Discoveries Taking Science by Surprise
Brooks, Michael

I'll take a look at that one Bssh, thanks. I've enjoyed the Japanese literature I've read so far, and thought the Yoshimoto particularly beautiful and poignant.

81. A reread of Her by Harriet Lane.

82. Sacrilege by S J Parris. The third in her Giordano Bruno series. This time set in Canterbury. Very convoluted plot of murder, intrigue, betrayal, and much more. Really enjoying these novels.

That should be 82 for Sacrilege...