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?

I saw it performed in London a couple of years ago remus, with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, such a wonderful production I don't think it can be beaten, but have never actually read it straight, would be interested to though.

Do you think it won't live up to its predecessor, littlebooktroll. I'm certainly going to leave a bit of a gap between them I think, so I can't make too direct a comparison. Opinion seems to be divided, I've seen people love it and hate it.

Gremlin - now I am very jealous. I would also have loved to see the production with Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondsen, though they were too young tbh.

Remus That is my favourite book :) bar none

The Beckett? I KNEW there was a reason I like you!

1. Philosophy & Terry Pratchett, edited by Jacob M. Held and James B. South

A collection of 13 essays by professional philosophers examining such issues as personal identity, the value of individuality, existentialism, the nature of destiny, the existence of alternative realities, and various other ideas. It's divided into four sections: Self-perception, narrative, and identity; Social and political philosophy; Ethics and the good life; and Logic and metaphysics. All ideas are examined in the light of Pratchett's writings, mainly Discworld, but Johnny Maxwell gets a mention too. I found part one on identity (including an essay entitled "A Golem is not born, but rather becomes, a Woman: Gender on the Disc", to give you a flavour) the most interesting, but all of the essays are well and straightforwardly written.

Right, a bit late, but I finished 'And the mountain echoed' by Khaled Hosseini. I enjoyed it, but it took me a while to get into it. I would recommend it :)
Next is Wifework. Bracing myself!

1. Life by Keith Richards

Irritating, badly written, huge holes, misses out a lot of the interesting stuff, oh so arrogant. Probably good for music purists.

1. The King's Curse by Phillippa Gregory

Really loved this novel about the life of Margaret Pole. Henry comes across as a terrible spoiled tyrant and the scene of Margaret's execution at the age of 67 is terribly moving.

1. the Book of You by Claire Kendal

Genuinely creepy although the ending is a bit naff. Good easy read though, a real page-turner.

1. The Constant Princess - Philippa Gregory. I decided to read this having only just read The Other Boleyn Girl. It was an interesting read but didn't grip me in the same way as the first.

Next book is 'One Wish' Michelle Harrison prequel to The Thirteen Treasures. The lady in Waterstones recommended for my daughter and I quite fancied it so will read it first.

Finished my second book - 8th confession by James Patterson. It didn't truly capture me hence I didn't race through it. I really enjoyed his early works but the last few years they all seem trite and shallow with no true depth to the characters or story line. Don't pay to buy this book is my recommendation.

1. Academy Street by Mary Costello

When I began reading this I thought it reminded me quite a lot of Brooklyn and I was ready to dismiss it as an imitation. However, as I read on I thought that to do that would be to do this novel a great disservice. It stands alone. Whilst, on the surface, it appears to have some similarities to Brooklyn - a young Irish girl leaving home to start a new life in America, settling in New York, and suffering terrible heartbreaking loneliness and homesickness, this is where the two novels diverge and so should not be compared for their content from here onwards.

I found Tess Lohan a very likeable and sympathetic character. Her emotions - her sorrow at the death of her mother when Tess was very young and the youngest child, Oliver, was just a baby were so well portrayed.

What I think this novel does so well is depict the ease at which a family splinters, scatters and is lost, maybe forever. Tess wonders whether the death of their mother was the catalyst for this seeming unrest in the family. Three of the siblings end up leaving for America, three remain in Ireland. The close bond they appeared to have as children is lost. No-one but Claire wants to stay close. Oliver simply vanishes, no-one seems to know where and is lost, never to be found again.

As with so many families they lose touch, become estranged, alienated, and when they do meet again years later they barely know each other and there is little left to say.

It is a very touching portrait of love, loss, loneliness, alienation, of lives lived but not well, not truly happy. It is written with such depth and beauty that by the end you feel such sorrow for the missed opportunities of Tess's life.

Apologies - first line should read "Brooklyn by Colm Toibin ......" :)

4# The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

More a short story than a novel, at around 60 pages, it is beautifully, quirkily presented in an inviting hardcover edition, which is a pleasure to read.

Hard to describe, as Murakami's works often are, but, sparely, a young teenager goes into the city library, is taken down to its depths to find the books he wants, and finds it difficult to leave. Strange and alarming events ensue.

I enjoyed it and, as a Murakami devotee, was glad to add it to my own strange library in any case. It had a lot in it I think, beneath the surface, as the library itself, and was quite a melancholy little meditation on life, death, what it means to read, and the idea of the book itself as artefact; what we gain in the act of reading, and what we stand to lose.

Not a great introduction to Murakami if you aren't familiar with his work, as, while short, it is at the weirder end of the scale and isn't representative of his best stuff. Norwegian Wood is probably a better 'starter' novel.

Remus - I love Godot one of my favourites of all time. Saw the Stewart production and have been meaning to read it straight again.

#4 crazy,sexy,diet by Kris Carr -awful title but good book. Non fiction of a woman diagnosed with cancer in her 20s and how she used nutrition and food to treat it. Interesting contributions from doctors about how little we still use nutrition in conventional medicine.

#5 cruel as the grave by Sharon Penman. After my disappointing fiction reads to start this year I decided to go to author I can rely on ?? second in a series about an orphaned knight serving Eleanor Of Aquitaine. Good story keeps you interested and just a fun read. Ends on a cliffhanger so will need to read the next one now.

Also re read Wolf Hall this week as the tv version started. Have read it several times now and love it. Cannot wait for the 3rd book to be released.

I have just picked up Wolf Hall again for the same reason ellisisland, except I've been stalled on 50 per cent for a few months I was enjoying and actually found it an easyish read, but tired of the style I think, put it down one day and just didn't pick it up again.

I've now skim read the first half again and knocked off a fresh hundred or so pages, as I'm 'between books' so hope to get it finished this time so the tv doesn't overtake me

1. Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet.

Love Agatha Raisin. Easy to read, no complicated twists and turns... Started 4-Brass Ring by Diane Chamberlain

1. The Daughter.

Words cannot describe how much I disliked this book. The 'deep dark secrets' that will 'blow the family apart' are actually totally stereotypical things for workaholic husbands and rebellious teens to get up to. Of course, the main character goes along pretty much ignoring the evidence right in front of her and generally demonstrating unfathomable incompetence as a doctor, mother and human being. Writing isn't great, either.

Now on to Flowers for Algernon, after reading lots of recommendations on here...

4. Schindler's Ark, Thomas Keanally

The book on which the film Schindler's List was based, and which won the Booker prize in 1982.

It took me a while to get into the book, it can be quite dense at times because lots of characters suddenly pop up, have a little side story, then disappear for a while before being referred to again a hundred pages later, so it's quite hard to remember all the names and keep track. I think this was due to the fact the book was pulled together from the accounts and memoirs and interviews of so many different people who had some kind of contact with Schindler - and seemingly not very much from the mouth of Schindler himself.

Other than that, I think the book was excellent. The style was perfect: mostly cool headed, saving the real emotion and stylistic punches for just a few key moments of the book. The story is of course both wonderful and sickening: wonderful in terms of giving you hope and belief in common human decency in the midst of barbarism, cruelty and madness, sickening because the latter by far outweighs the former. It was horribly hard to read at times, I certainly learnt some new things about the atrocities of the Second World War, not least the horrendous reality of the the death marches at the very end of the war, which I had never heard about before And the end of Schindler's story (post war) was very poignant and interesting too.

1. Elizabeth is missing

Unconventional 'whodunnit/mystery'', narrated by an elderly woman with dementia. I felt it was very well written,and that the main character of Maud was authentic and engaging. I didn't find the lead ups to 'flashbacks' clunky/awkward as a previous poster mentioned.

1. Elizabeth is missing

Unconventional 'whodunnit/mystery'', narrated by an elderly woman with dementia. I felt it was very well written,and that the main character of Maud was authentic and engaging. I didn't find the lead ups to 'flashbacks' clunky/awkward as a previous poster mentioned.

Riverboat - Schindler's Ark was one of my set texts for A level English many many years ago :o. Tough book to study in depth, I found it so upsetting I haven't been able to bring myself to reread it since.

Realised my list is wrong as book 2 was a reread of The Hobbit. Book 5 is now in progress - The Constant Princess

1. Do No Harm by Henry Marsh

Collection of vignettes by neurosurgeon Henry Marsh - includes comments on NHS and his work in Ukraine. An interesting read.

1. The Great Gatsby - first read this over 30 years ago and it's still brilliant - a fabulous novel with romance, tragedy and the American dream
2. Daughter by Jane Shemilt - this was so irritating. Female doctor fails to notice what is happening in her own family and what her teenage children are up to. No criticism of the husband's failings though!

4.A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman - Ove is a Swedish Victor Meldrew with an overwhelming desire for things to be right and rules to be followed. Amusing in places, but how the novel will progress is predictable and it's basically the same scenario repeated in different locations.

1. A song for issy bradley - shortlisted for the costa first novel award. This is the story of how a mormon family comes with grief after the death of their youngest child. Written by a former mormon, it gives a detailed portrayal of what it's like to be a teenager growing up in the mormon church in the uk. Some parts of the story are truly hearbreaking and other parts are frustating when Ian puts the church before his wife's grief.

1. Us, David Nicholls

I found the characters stereotypical, lacking in subtlety and nuance: boring scientist father, enlightened mother with a job in the arts, misunderstood son. I still don't understand why the marriage lasted as long as it did. But the travel descriptions were good, the flashbacks were well-managed, it was funny and it was an easy, non-taxing "chick lit" (or "middle-aged man lit") kind of read. In all, it passed the time enjoyably.

Might read The Girl on the Train next.

1. The Voyage Out - Virginia Woolf

This was her first novel and I found it a bit of a slog to be honest because I had to read it so slowly and with such close attention. It lacks the flow and clarity of some of her later novels but is pre her more 'experimental' style that is seen in novels like Jacob's Room and The Waves.
I'm glad I have read it though. Essentially it's about a young woman called Rachel and her aunt and uncle who travel by boat to South America and stay for a few months in a coastal resort, mingling with other British holidaymakers at the local hotel. There, they meet two young men and things develop (very, very slowly). There is a lot of inward reflection and much literary thought and discussion.

Phew.