50 Book Challenge 2015 Part 1

[Southeastdweller]

Thread one of the 50 Book Challenge.

The idea is to read 50 books (or more!) in 2015.

Who's in for this year?

2 Val McDermid - The Skeleton Road. I enjoyed it, though I guessed the killer well before the end. I like her characters, no dysfunctional alcoholic jazz fiend cliches.

3 The Ice Princess - Camilla Lackberg

I'm in if that's okay?

Starting the trilogy His Dark Materials. A re read from many years ago. Have nearly finished Northern Lights and am finding myself as wrapped in the writing as I was nearly 20 years ago.

I'm also finding my way around the GoodReads app, so looking there and here for future reads.

1. Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest

Book by Wade Davis

This is about the failed Everest expeditions which culminated in the death of Mallory in 1924. It covers a lot of territory and sets the expeditions in the context of the First World War in which many of the men in the book fought. It is heartbreaking in parts and yet exciting too. I found the last chapter in which Mallory's body is found incredibly moving.

I had a quick skim through a book of Polar exploration stories too but it has to go back to the library on Tuesday so won't have time to read it properly so I won't count that.

Next up will be either Mountains of the Mind or Jan Morris' Everest, although I am having a quick skim through India Knights Idiot Proof Diet tonight.

I loved His Dark Materials SylvDP, can't wait for the DC to be old enough to read it.

I also read most of Ann Cleeves last year Sonnet and really enjoyed them.

1. Because She Loves Me - Mark Edwards

This is a psychological thriller about a guy who meets a girl while he is in hospital recovering from an eye operation. Their relationship gets intense pretty quickly but some suspicious stuff starts happening to him. This was a real page turner but the ending was very contrived and unconvincing.

Just finished 1. I capture the castle, bit meh really. Not sure what to go for next, have so many, will decide tomorrow!

Oooh I bought Raven Black yesterday...heard good things

Now starting book 3.

1. Fear Nothing by Lisa Gardner. I enjoyed it but it wasn't anything special, I just fancied something that I didn't need to think about at all
2. The Boy in the striped pyjamas by John Boyne. Very disappointed with this. I found the writing quite tedious (but it is a YA book so maybe that's it, even though I've really enjoyed other YA stuff) and it wasn't very believable re the main characters complete naivety about what was going on. (The book thief was much much better).
3. Flood by Stephen Baxter. I haven't read any hard core sci-fi for a while so I'm looking forward to this. I've also got its sequal, Ark to read at some point. Fingers crossed I enjoy this :-)

I'm on the Good Reads app and am doing the book challenge SylvDP. I think there's a way to add friends on there to see what they're reading and get ideas from.

If anyone else is on Goodreads and wants to be friends on there, I'm searchable by my MN nickname

I got to 39 last year so really want to hit 50 this year.
Have already finished The Incarnations by Susan Barker - highly recommend.

I'm on two.

The first 15 lives of Harry August was one of the best books I read in a long time. A bit like a Time traveller's Wife but I enjoyed it more.

Second was Vivian Against the Apocalypse. Which was good but felt like it was incomplete and there is obviously a sequel coming. I think so many authors are making money from trilogies these days it encourages others to string out stories which don't quite warrant it.

1. Faithful Place by Tana French. The third in a series, each of which revolves around a different member of Dublin's murder squad. This book is about Frank Mackey, who 20 years ago was supposed to be running away with his girlfriend to England, but she never showed up for their rendezvous. It is assumed she left without him until the present day when her suitcase is found on the street where they both lived, Faithful Place.

I LOVED this book. The whole series so far has been good but this one is by far my favourite. Frank is such a lifelike character, and I really felt for him as the events of this book unfolded to an unexpected but satisfying conclusion. Highly recommended, and (though I'd suggest you should) you don't have to read the first two in the series before this one.

Next I'm jumping straight into the fourth book, Broken Harbour.

CaithSith, I am adding The Faithful Place to my list to read. Recently read The Secret Place by Tana French which I think is in the same series and I was wondering which one to read next.

I managed 52 books last year, so I'd like to join again this year please - and hopefully read more.

1. Baby Farmers of the C19th - by Sylvia Perrini. This was an outline of the crimes themselves, with little background info. Interesting bit of history but utterly grim.

2.Lillian's Story, One Woman's Journey through the 20th Century by Sally P Gardner. The premise is interesting (it charts the life of a woman born at the start of 1900 and dies in 1999), but a lot of the characters were too weakly sketched that I was skim reading the end.

1. City of Women by David Gillham. Set in Berlin in WWII it describes a very different war than the protagonist in my book 2 went through. Still bombs dropping, air raids, rationing and loss husbands at the front, but much more frightening with the Party watching your every move.

Number 4 will be a book challenge from DP: a collection of interconnecting short stories by Alan Moore. DP struggled with it and couldn't finish it...I'll give it a go.

1. Downturn Abbey, Ross O'Carroll-Kelly. I love this series of comic fiction, set in (very) modern Dublin. It's aimed squarely at an Irish audience so I'm not sure whether it would make much sense to other readers, and this is not the book to begin with if you're new to the series. But once you get into it, it's laugh-out-loud funny with some brilliant set-pieces.

1. Nemesis, Philip Roth

While his peers fight in Europe and the Pacific during a sizzling summer in 1944, playground director and phys ed teacher Bucky Cantor wages his own war in his local Newark N.J. neighbourhood protecting the children from their fears of succumbing to polio. Along the way he struggles with his own fears about dying and about a God who could allow death to innocents happen.

A wonderful novel with its interesting plot, evocative descriptions and finely tuned characterisations. I scampered through to the end.

I'm going to read Roth's Indignation next.

1. The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman - Denis Theriault

This was awful. A postman opens letters and assumes the identity of a dead poet - with a twist at the end. Mercifully short and completely and utterly unbelievable. Dire. Luckily this was short, more of a novella really. But very, very bad (IMHO).

I'm starting Into the Darkest Corner after lots of good reviews - we'll see...

1. The Man in the Moss by Phl Rickman

The isolated Pennine community of Bridelow, set against a backdrop of a huge peat bog called the Moss, has always been a peaceful place, and one which retains an appeal for those born there who move away. The brewery in the village has provided work for locals for generations and their local pub sells their unique tasting brew. It's a place of balance, of shades, with the old spiritual traditions maintained by the Mother's Union in harmony with the parish church.

The discovery of a two thousand year old bog body is one of the most fascinating finds of the century. But the removal of the ancient warrior sacrifice from the peat is a sinister sign for Bridelow. The brewery is sold to a multinational company, meaning job losses in the village. Tragedy strikes in the form of accidental and other deaths. Scottish folk singer Moira Cairns and American film producer Mungo Macbeth find themselves caught up in a spiritual battleground as zealots, both Christian and satanic, upset the millennia old balance.

Very creepy in places, extremely atmospheric, and with very well drawn characters. I'm nearly through Rickman's backlist now, so will be having to wait impatiently for new novels soon! December is available for 99p on Kindle by the way - that will just leave me with Night After Night to get.

Yes, I'm in.

I've just finished my first:
Foxglove Summer - Ben Aaronovitch. Absolutely loved it. The fourth in the PC Peter Grant series. Carnivorous invisible (but not imaginary) unicorns, anthropomorphised waterbodies, fae/elves, alien abductions and human 'bees' all come together in an incredibly well-crafted book. The way it's written suggests there may be another pending.
For those who enjoy Terry Pratchett this is a must.

No. 2 The Purchase by Linda Spalding
Set in 1798 a young widower and his family move to Virginia to start a new life. He trades a horse for a young slave and this leads to a series of events that changes his family and their futures.

I enjoyed this. The writing is very sparse and no words are wasted. The plot lags a bit at the end of the first section but picks up again. I really enjoyed the two female characters Mary and Bett and their relationship. Would recommend.

Next book will be The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop.

I'll join.

Just finished Far From The Madding Crowd. I didn't remember that Bathsheba is Miss Everdene and Susan Colins who wrote The Hunger Games had used the name for Catniss.

I think I like that link very much .

Cote, I wouldn't have known that Aziz Bey wasn't written in modern Turkish from reading the English translation, although the style rather than the language is melancholy, perhaps slightly old-fashioned. Quite literary writing but not offputtingly so, imho. I read the book because I know the author very slightly; the only other Turkish book I've read is My Name is Red, which I so wanted to like, but actually found it a huge slog.

Be interested to know what you think if you find it in Turkey.

I'll join!
Just reading number 1-Hothouse Flower by Lucinda Riley.

I read all sorts of books-whatever takes my fancy at the time!