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?

Remus I'm a mild Smiths fan, yes. I wonder what Delaney thought of Morrissey stealing some of her lines. She apparently hated attention and there's hardly any interviews of her that've been published.

EleanorRugby - thanks for that, I've just added Nothing to Envy to my wish list. A non fiction account of North Korea should be a good contrast. I'll have a bit of a gap first I think!

I also enjoyed the Book Thief, can't remember it that well now. Enjoyed Harold Fry well enough but felt it was another of those slightly overrated books.

Is it possible to be a 'mild' Smiths fan? I think only unashamed adoration is okay.

Quiz

Not a Smiths fan, sorry.

Just finished Lemon Sherbert and Dolly Blue by Lynn Knight. The tale if three generations if her family, with adoption into each generation, and the sense of family amid the poverty of Chesterfield from about 1880 to 1945. Interesting social history, the sort of book that will be a mine for people wanting detail in the future. A bit like A Child in the Forest. Good characterisation and a real sense of love, so an antidote to the brutality books ( not that it isn't acknowledged). I did want to read to the end, but felt it could have done with ordering better.

6. The Woman Who Stole my Life, Marian Keyes.

I love Marian Keyes so I was always going to enjoy this novel. I love the trademark humour and warmth, particularly embodied in the protagonist's 'gameball' dad. But otherwise it wasn't Keyes at her best for me.

The main character, Stella, was very passive and tragically doormat-esque, which was never really addressed or resolved. She definitely wasnt as darkly compelling a character as Keynes' previous protagonists. The love interest was painted as physically sexy but not romantically dreamy or necessarily 'right' for Stella. The twists relating to the title of the novel came too late in the game, I think they should have been exploited much earlier on.

I'll always read whatever Keyes publishes, but I wouldnt recommend this to someone for their first foray into her oeuvre. Its not her at her best.

Riverboat I felt the same about the Keyes book. I'll always read what she publishes but really didn't enjoy this one. I think her books have changed a lot since her breakdown a few years ago (as you would expect!) they are a lot darker now

1. The Handsome Man's Delux cafe by Alexander MacCall Smith (Spelling may not be right as don't gave book in front of me).

This was a good light read and a perfect antidote after the historical non fiction of my previous book. Its one of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Its more about the main characters than a mystery story - that part was quite slight and took them about two minutes to solve. But lots of funny bits and I enjoyed it.

10. Last Man Standing, Roger Moore. A previous poster recommended it. I enjoyed it as a light read. Not all the anecdotes are brilliant, but they're all told with a kind of artless self-satisfaction that is quite endearing.

Also re-read (by accident - recognised that I'd read it before halfway in) The Slippery Year by Melanie Gideon. It's a series of essays about being in your mid-40s and wondering how you got to this point in your life and why you can't just be straightforwardly happy when life is good. It's not awful, but it's pretty solipsistic. At one stage she's experiencing a powercut of about 24 hours, and warns us all solemnly that we too will live through hard times at some stage in life. There's some humour and self-deprecation in there, but she still comes across as neurotic and quite hard work.

#7 - The Visitors by Sally Beauman - an elderly woman recalls being a child/adolescent witness to the opening of Tutankahmun's tomb. This was not great literature and could have done with losing the melodramatic subplot revolving around the stepmother, but helped while away a fair few happy hours wallowing in the bath.

Bibliomania - I'm hoping that the extent of my "bad times" in my newly entered 40s is limited to a power cut . . . How melodramatic - it doesn't tempt me to read Gideon's book!

1. Three wishes Liane Moriarty - chick lit but deals with more serious subjects such as domestic violence, miscarriage, divorce - it's the second of her books that I've read, the first was The Husband's Secret which I preferred, this one tried a bit too hard in places, but overall a reasonably enjoyable quick read

biblio - That was me

I'm still wading through Alan Turing: The Enigma. It's a great book, but Oh My God is it hard! Don't pick this up unless you are prepared to learn all you ever wanted to know (and much that you didn't) about higher mathematics and exactly how Enigma code was broken. In full detail.

7. World of Trouble, Ben H Winters, the final installment of the Last Policeman Trilogy. For me the whole series fell apart at this stage. Did not enjoy this book. Really the series is a mystery series set against an "end of world" backdrop. The "end of world" element is not really a major element more just background colour. I just don't enjoy mysteries enough to read three in a row maybe. I was hoping for a larger over arching conspiracy type theme and there just isn't one. The whole thing was just not engaging enough. It didn't help that some of the incidents really strained my credulity and I really just got v bored of Henry Palace and his endless obsession with being a policeman... the world is ENDING, look up ffs. I'd recommend you read the first or second one. This is not a series where more than one is rewarding tbh, I probably enjoyed the second one the most.

Now reading World War Z which is miles more engaging, thanks for the heads up cote

Thanks for the recommendation, cote. It's a very sunny book.

To be fair, Dragon, she also has to do some family camping so you can see her sufferings are worse than I've painted them.

Actually, I feel like I've taken a blunderbuss to a butterfly - the book isn't that bad. She just seems to be under the impression that she's making profound universal statements about the way we all live when most people have a bit more to worry about than she seemingly does. No, I don't give myself panic attacks about being first in line to collect my child from school, and no again, for most people I know, divorce hasn't led to a yoga-hard body and a tour of Tuscan hill towns.

I'm just starting book 7 - the book thief

I am nearly done with 'A Widow for one Year'- John Irving.

It's no Garp, The Cider House Rules or Owen Meany but I am enjoying it.

With studying and not having as much time to read I need to pick some more shorter books.

If anyone has read any of these which would you recommend I read next?

H is for Hawk
Prophecy- Peter James
Love in the Time of Cholera
Good Omens- Pratchett/ Gaiman
Atonement- Ian McEwan

Enjoyed Good Omens a few years back

I also enjoyed Good Omens. I read Atonement a few years ago, which is also good in a different, more serious way. Good Omens was a much more light hearted and fun book to read.

'Good Omens' and, 'Love in the Time of Cholera' both worth a read. I hated, 'Atonement' but I hate Ian M generally, tbh.

1. Wild. Cheryl Strayed, I enjoyed this and read it quickly. Some experiences seemed a bit rushed and it was slightly ruined reading a review on good reads by someone who has hiked the PCT and picked holes in many parts of the story. Inspired me to do some walking over the summer!

1. OMG I would die without chocolate. Ellen Parker, short story about cutting sugar from diet, only the author experience and no recipes but inspired me to read further.

1. The narrow road to the deep north by Richard Flanagan. Ah, how to do this book a well thought out review in my general fugue of tiredness. It certainly got me thinking and I love that about books. The ones that don't drift off into the ether but leave you with new ideas of how the world and people work. It's a book about hardship, torture, duty and love amongst other themes, I'm sure. My favourite book so far..

I can't stand Ian M either Remus.

I hated Atonement. The only one of his I liked was The Cement Garden.
I have Good Omens lined up on my Kindle to be read when I finally finish my current book Alone in the Classroom by Elizabeth Hay, which is brilliant by the way! I really recommend it.

Unfortunately I have a chicken poxed child at home who is selfishly demanding attention and slowing me down! So inconsiderate of him.

Finished book#3 The Skull Beneath the Skin - P.D. James.
Enjoyed this one. A murder mystery featuring the lady detective Cordelia Gray, owner of a failing detective agency, taking on a case which requires her to stay on a small island off the Dorset coast. Well written, although the book sagged towards the end IMO and I guessed pretty early on who was the culprit.

Have got through the first 3 chapters of book#4 IQ84 but it's such a mammoth undertaking (book one and two printed together) that I can only manage a short reading session at a time due to the sheer size and weight of it! I will persevere but have sidetracked somewhat onto book#5.

Book#5 The Universe versus Alex Woods. This has been on my tbr list for a while, am enjoying it so far.

Still going with The Help, audiobook, only 3 hours to go woohoo! Feel like I've been listening to this one forever, not that it isn't a good story just lack of time really.

1. Norwegian Wood by Murakami

I am his big fan and this is 3rd book I listened to (after 1Q84 and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage) - all 3 I enjoyed a lot and shall carry on with the rest of his books (11 more to read!). I love that he writes in the first person and each character is presented in such way that I become very familliar with them and created very deep bond with each during listening to the narrative of each book. Most of Haruki Murakami's works use first-person narrative in the tradition of the Japanese I Novel. He states that because family plays a significant role in traditional Japanese literature, any main character who is independent becomes a man who values freedom and solitude over intimacy.

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. Funny, thought provoking, self critical, interesting and easy to read. Well worth it.

antimatter - I like Murakami too - have got 1Q84 and The Wind Up Bird Chronicle waiting on my kindle for later this year.

Have you read anything by Banana Yoshimoto? I read Kitchen by her a couple of years ago and thought it one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read.

And The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide is lovely as well.