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?

That's interesting Duchess. Perhaps I didn't give it enough chance or expected another Love Nina.

Bssh - I think I'll start with the novella. Thanks for the hardcover recommendation. Meanwhile, I nominate this for the best sentence these threads have seen in many years:

"Remus there is a sheep man in Strange Library, so perhaps not for you"

I'm a newbie. Very exciting! Just finished Ian McEwan's Children Act

1. The Winter Crown - Elizabeth Chadwick

This is the second in a trilogy about Eleanor of Aquitaine. It was interesting to read about a period of history I have little previous knowledge of. I enjoyed that Eleanor was a strong female character, but that the times were not supportive of female strength. It is interesting to think what a ruler like that could achieve in modern times. The book and the characters were well written and I will read the third in the series when it is released.

Kangaroo - Tell us about Children's Act. What was it about, how was it written, what did you like about it? We are not letting anyone get away with "I read a book and I liked it" à la Katy Perry .

Cote, I was just about to ask if you would recommend The Istanbul Puzzle. Thanks for clarifying

Cote I (briefly) followed Laurence O'Bryan on Twitter. Hilarious, and not in an intentional way. Every tweet is basically "buy my book". That alone put me off!

CoteDAzur It was great. It was recommended to me as a book 'with really thick pages so you read it really quickly'! Its about a family law judge who has to decide on a case about a 17year old who needs a blood transfusion, but is a Jehovah's Witness. I was a little worried it would be sensationalist, as I work on the outskirts of this field, but it was surprisingly accurate. I was a little disappointed about the ending though...

Finished The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg. Typical Scandi crime fiction really. I enjoyed it but there wasn't anything special about it.

I've started #2 - The Stranger by the same author. It's the 4th in a series of about 7 so I'll carry on with them til I'm done, then have a look at what everyone else has been reading (or the 73 unread books on my kindle) for inspiration!

I can't believe it's only the 3rd of January are there are already 9 pages!

I really enjoyed participating in last year's thread and am definitely in again for this year, hence place marking! I have just started Us by David Nicholls, and am thus far enjoying it. Will be back hopefully in a few days when I've finished it, making it number one on my list for this year.

Riverboat I am also reading US at the moment

I've read 2 so far.

1. We are all completely besides ourselves.

Easy enough to read, but somewhat lacking. It didn't seem to flow very well and I felt that, although in one way the book is all about the protaganist's unique family set-up, the actual dynamics of the family were left unexplored.

I felt ambivalent towards the main character which detracted from my enjoyment of the book. I also think that the author was a bit keen to point out how much research had been done.

The ending seemed pretty crummy to me too and there is no actual plot as such. Wouldn't recommend on the whole.

1. In cold blood

Not a fiction book, but a 'true crime novel', which isn't a genre I'm familiar with.

Surprisingly easy to get into, Capote paints an entrancing picture of 'the American Dream' gone wrong. Won't say any more as I know there's a thread going for people currently reading.

Next book - child 44.

I hope it's not too late to join in? I lurked towards the end of last year and I am hoping that joining in officially will give me a bit of a kick up the arse to tackle the huge backlog on my Kindle. I mostly read crime but am intending to try and read a bit more widely this year. Having said that I am starting with the new Tess Gerritsen - Die Again.

Just finished book 2 (things will slow down considerably once we leave in-laws house where ds is being lavished with attention!). It was 'daughter' by jane shemilt which some others have also mentioned. I thought it was good but in an uncomfortable kind of way....had to read some bits quite fast to find out what was coming. I think it will impact on people differently depending on if/how many/what age children they have themselves. Going to start 'the signature of all things' later...high hopes for it.

Interesting Duchess that you really enjoyed Love Nina and I didn't as I have enjoyed many of the home you have on the last thread

Can't wait to see what my other book groupers make of it. I think, like this thread, it will polarise people.

I thought The Man at the helm looked good though and have put it on my to read list.

I tried We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves last year and hated it so much I just stopped reading about a third of the way through - and that very rarely happens. I ploughed on through The Signature of All Things but in hindsight I could easily have given that up too, totally meh

Sorry Cote I was on my phone!

Train Songs is a collection, edited my Sean O'Brien and Don Paterson. Some brilliant poems (Wordsworth's anti-progress one, Auden) and a few long fairly dull ones.

I am Pilgrim infuriated me too Cote, Mediterranean tides just wrong.

I've read quite a lot of Marakami and would recommend either The Wind-up Bird Chronicles or The Hard- Boiled Wonderland. IQ84 was too lacking in plot for me, I persevered to the end of book 2 and then felt like I'd wasted my time.

Cote, do you like short stories as well as novels set in Turkey? There's a collection by Turkish writer Ayfer Tunc called The Aziz Bey Incident, contemporary stories mainly set in Istanbul, which I really enjoyed. And hopefully the details are authentic - at least they seemed so to me.

I also loathed WAACBO - wish I'd given up on it instead of ploughing through to the end.

It's great to find other people who hated it - I've only ever seen high praise for it so thought it was just me

First book of 2015 for me was Cunningham's Magical Sampler, collected articles by Scott Cunningham which appeared in Llewellyn's Magical Almanac.

While I knew that Scott Cunningham died more than 20 years ago, I hadn't realised he was only 36. I assumed he was much older than that, purely because of the sheer volume of his published works. He was a practising Wiccan and it was his books that did much to bring the religion out of the broom closet, so to speak. He was also highly influential in promoting acceptance of the idea of the solitary practitioner at a time when coven practice was seen by many as the only way.

This book is a collection of short articles on a variety of subjects, including ancient mythologies (individual goddesses and gods, the Greek Oracles, etc), food magic, dressing with power (relates to colours), herbs in Shakespeare, and various other things. It's a very interesting read and Cunningham had an open and engaging style.

athousandssplendidsons I've been toying with 'daughter'...would you recommend it?