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?

1. The Letter, Kathryn Hughes. Got this one as it was a kindle deal so didn't expect too much. Story of two women, thirty years apart. Tina in the 1970s finds an undelivered letter in the pocket of a suit and sets out on a quest to find the recipient. Honestly don't know why this book received so many 4/5 stars. Was ok but not particularly well written, the characters were a bit one dimensional, either good or bad and no inbetween and it all felt rather contrived by the end.

Started A Man Called Ove for my next book.

I loved Harold fry too! I've got The Letter on mine as it was on a deal so will leave that one now, started We are all Completely beside ourselves last night...

1. The extraordinary story of the Fakir who got trappen in an Ikea wardrobe by Romain Puertolas

This is the story of a Fakir who is s bit of a con man who travels to Paris to buy a new bed of nails from Ikea. In Ikea he gets stuck in a wardrobe which is being shipped out and it's here the story of the Fakir's travels around Europe and the people he meet begins.

The book has been a bestseller in France. I don't think its quite bestseller material and admit I was seduced by the title when I bought it. The story is sweet and quite funny with some serious moments as the Fakir is meeting many illegal immigrants in the countries he visits.

I give it 3 stars

I would love to join. I am just about finished "Personal" by Lee Child. I love crime/action thrillers and hope to get through all I have waiting to be read this year.

Ooh, some interesting recommendations already - have ordered 2 books from the library, Last Man Standing based on Cote's description and the Dead Sea Scrolls book that Molly liked.

Library near me just opened after a refit, so I have rather too many books on hand already, but never mind...

I'm frustrated with the book I'm reading - Killing Floor by Lee Child.

I'm not gripped by it and its quite predictable. I'm half way through now so don't want to just give up on it! Getting behind on achieving 50 books this year if I don't get a move on though!

Loving all these recommendations and have set up a goodreads account and added many of the books from my shelves already :) I'm also searchable by my MN username - would be good to have some friends on there.

Oh hope I didn't put you off fredfred, I'm always very aware everyone has very different tastes in books and I'm hard to please.

Saying that just finished number 5, A man called Ove and loved it. Won't bother giving a description as a pp already has but it was funny and sad. Very human and had to sniff back a few tears during it. Definitely my favourite so far and would recommend to others.

. [sorry placemarking as getting back into this thread]

Ooh I'm also on goodreads, trying to use their reading challenge and friends would be good my username is sothisis_30.

Currently reading The Maze Runner, it's young adult and pretty average. Aiming to get back into some heavier reading this year. Love Ian mcewan, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro etc but a real mix of everything.

Golem and Djinni is £1.49 on the Kindle at the moment.

1. [Re]Awakenings, an anthology of new Speculative Fiction

This was a haphazard collection of poorly edited first stories from aspiring writers. It took me a couple of stories to realise this, and then I pushed through, expecting to find a good story in there, but it was all in vein. Gah. Not a huge loss at £1.43 but still...

Finally

1. Overcoming Depression - Paul Gilbert

A practical and valuable book about using CBT to help overcome depression (and challenge negative thinking). As he says in the introduction, the book isn't a cure-all but I recommend this if you think you need to change some unhelpful thinking, as well as CBT on the NHS if you can get it (from personal experience).

Number 2 finished Into the Darkest Corner. Quite compelling but also a bit frustrating - I won't elaborate further in case anyone is planning to read it

Number 3 Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud - something completely different!

1. Us, David Nicholls

A great start to the year. I feel like a lot of the books I read in the last few months made me fall in love with them in the first half, but dissapointed me in the second half or with the ending. This book did the opposite - it was a slow burner that I think got better and better as it went on.

I loved the bittersweet quality of the novel and the character's story, particularly the ending. There were some really beautiful and touching moments throughout. Overall, a great read and I'd definitely recommend it.

Book number One finally done: 'Cold' by Ranulph Fiennes. This is about some of polar expeditions but also reflects on previous explorations, and on cold in general. I enjoyed it.

Will remain on a go-slow for a while now, as I only have non-fiction to read, unless anybody can recommend any good, cheap Kindle fiction.

1. The Old Wives' Tale - Arnold Bennett

This was a reread; I studied it as part of my English degree over 30 years ago. I loved it then and I loved it again this time round. Bennett relates the contrasting life stories of two sisters brought up in the Potteries in the 19th century. If you like Mrs Gaskell, George Eliot and similar writers I highly recommend this novel. His observations of human nature and relationships are superb.

1. The Case of the Pig in the Evening Suit - RR Gall

Given to me by ds for Christmas. The first in the Dumfries Detective trilogy. I was brought up in the small Scottish town of Dumfries and it was really enjoyable to read a crime novel set in such familiar surroundings. Gall uses local expressions, but not enough to put you off; they add to the originality of the writing style. Light but readable, and I will be looking out for the following two books in the series.

1. The Light Years - Elizabeth Jane Howard

The first in the Cazalet Chronicles; a reread as I work my way through this series again in preparation for reading All Change, the fifth and final book which came out a year ago. An absorbing family saga but so much better written than most of its kind. Perfect for curling up with on a miserable January night.

1. Indignation, Philip Roth

In 1951 straight 'A' student and atheistic Jew Marcus Messner leaves his over-anxious family far behind in Newark N.J. to enrol in a conservative, pastoral college in Ohio. There he has to learn how to negotiate a series of frustrating, bewildering and at times elating relationships as well as deal with his fears over being enlisted as a frontline soldier in the Korean War.

I found this novel to be gripping, moving and in places laugh-out-loud hilarious. I absolutely loved this and want to read more Roth! His descriptions of both the emotional and physical landscapes of his characters, combined with the elegant flow of his prose are amazing.

Going to read Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed next.

southeastdweller do you know if that book is available on the kindle? It sounds like something I should read.

Still on book number 1. Taking me a while as other things keep cropping up. Speaking of which, I should probably get back to the report I'm writing as part of my phd instead of being on here.

Hi Faith - yes you can get it on Kindle - it's £8.07 at the moment.

Remus - Re cheap & good books on the Kindle:

Anthem by Neal Stephenson is £1.00 (awesome book)
The Miniaturist is £1.80 (apparently very good but I haven't read it)

Just finished no2 in cold blood. Really enjoyed it up until the arrest and then it just seemed to dwindle into nothing? Could have cut out the last third and I'd have enjoyed it more!

Number 3 will be shock of the fall, Nathan flier

Ive got some course books I SHOULD be reading as well, so they might have to take priority for a while!

I enjoyed the shock of the fall - thought it was really well written and quite moving.

Liked In Cold Blood too...but agree it tailed off a bit at the end. The sceptic in my wonders if, as the facts after the arrest are more 'recorded' there was less scope for, ahem, poetic license, so it seems a bit colourless compared to the rest of the book.

Book 3 the talisman by Stephen King
A decent enough read - very much a 'safe' bet, hardly groundbreaking, but an enjoyable story with good writing.

Reading Portney's Complaint now. Not sure what I make of it yet...

Just finished #1 - Look who's back by Timur Vermes. Hitler wakes in Berlin in 2011 and takes the country by storm on TV and You-Tube as he comments on Germany today. Read in German so may have missed some cultural references, but often very funny and lots of well researched details

#2 Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa

A beautiful, moving, sad and warm book. It was impossible to put down. Tells the story of a Palestinian community moved from their village and follows their lives over the next 40 years. It's a difficult read that had me in tears a few times, but each character is so richly drawn that you are pulled in to their stories. I loved it.

Now to pick #3!