50 Book Challenge 2015 Part 2

[Southeastdweller]

Thread two of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

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

Previous thread here

27. The Hollow, Agatha Christie. I think this is one off her better ones. She's drawing from the same pool of stock characters, but these one sparked into life rather more than usual, and there are some surprisingly good feel-good moments. Enjoyed this.

28. Dearest Jane, by Jane Torday and Roger Mortimer. This is the third in the series of letters from a father to his children - the first, Dear Lupin, was a big hit, the second Dear Lumpy, less so, and I hadn't come across any publicity for this third one, which came out last year. If you enjoyed the first two, this is more of the same. The letters are affectionate and funny. The daughter contributes more to the book than her siblings, pulling it together as a biography of her father. This is probably a mistake - her prose just doesn't stand up to her father's, so I skimmed a lot of what she wrote.

I have a few non-fiction historical ones lined up: have started The Elizabethans, by AN Wilson. Intrigued that he started in Elizabethan Ireland (I'm Irish) and interested by his point that the Troubles are ultimately rooted in Elizabethan events. Not impressed by his argument that the English were trying to introduce Renaissance and Reformation values into Ireland, to Irish resistance, and the current peace is attributable partly to Ireland now being secular (post child abuse scandals) so at least we all share the same values. Only half a millenium for us to catch up, eh, Andrew? I don't mind a bit of controversy, but this seems to me to be a rather poor analysis of the conflict as well as ahistorical in terms of the timing of the peace agreement and the abuse scandals.

Also reading Queen Victoria's Stalker by Jan Bondeson and want to start Georgian London by Lucy Inglis.

LOL @ my most popular review on these threads

Welcome to the thread, Todays.

Our local Waterstones has a window display of Robert MacFarlane books. It made me smile to think of his readers on this thread.

bibliomania - I read the Hollow a while ago, I remember it being a very good one. It's amazing how many books Agatha Christie churned out, yet there's a high percentage that are actually very good.

Mary I agree she has a pretty good batting average!

Robert Macfarlane was on Mariella Frostrup's open book on Radio 4 last Sunday. I missed it but will catch up on iplayer. Anyone else planning to read his new book?

Is it Landmarks, duchess? There is a lovely article by him on the Guardian website just now, about the preservation of wild language. Quite interesting.

I have to finish The Old Ways before taking it back to the library in a few weeks and then I think I'll be Macfarlane-d out for the time being, but who knows

Yes it's that one, Soot. I think I'll wait a while and then put my name down at the library for a copy.

Like you, I've read quite a lot by him recently and am in need of something different. Although, having said that, I've got Mountains of the Mind hovering on the short list :)

I'm going to listen to RM doing a talk on his new book tomorrow :)

22. We Need To Talk About Kevin -Lionel Shriver. Been meaning to read this for years. Distressing, disturbing, devastating, it took me a while to get into it but by the end I was fascinated and couldn't put it down.

After that and Into Thin Air, I need something light and cheery next.

Biblio just picked up the first Merrily Watkins book on Kindle for £1.49.

Book 37 - the 11th Lemony Snickett
I've burbled on below about how great these are, so nothing more to add here! 2 more to go.

Re: Robert McFarlane - lovely to see the love for him, both here and in displays. However, I've decided that actually I'm only interested in him on mountains. I haven't got the patience for all the slow and lingering contemplation of leaves etc.

Still loving, 'John Dies At The End' but it's on the Kindle, so I'm only reading it to and from work. It's completely bonkers, but oddly gripping.

The longlist for the Bailey's Women's Prize for fiction was announced today. I hope Sarah Waters makes it to the shortlist.

bestiswest I found kevin unputdownable. Hated the film though. A poster on another thread pointed out the similarity to Lolita (I've forgotten who wrote it) in that the reader's view of kevin is shaped from the perception of a flawed adult.

Yes, I can see what they mean Clash' thinking about it although it is years since I read Lolita.

13. Elizabeth is Missing - lots of other reviews upthread but I enjoyed this, told from the perspective of an 82 year old woman with memory loss, the story flicks back and forwards between 1946 and present day.

I found Kevin unputdownable as well. Very disturbing and the ending of it completely floored me. I just hadn't seen that coming at all, although in the context of the book it did make perfect sense.

Southeast - I just had to look up The Life of a Banana by P P Wong. Was amused by the title, and it actually looks like one I'd want to read. Will have a look and see if library has it. So thanks for the link :)

omg kevin, fantastic read but will probably never read it again. One of those books that just sucked me in and spat me out

having kindle issues :( so still struggling gamely on with sovereign. >sigh

I have Kevin on my Kindle which is still very much functional, thank heavens. Not sure how I'd cope without it and will no doubt get to it at some point. I'm currently struggling through Climbing High by Lene Gammelgaard who was on Scott Fischer's Everest expedition. I thought it would be interesting to read the story of Into Thin Air from someone else who was there at the time, but I'm fast coming to the conclusion that she is an insufferable navel-gazer with a rather optimistic view of her own philosophising.

Meanwhile, since my respectable middle-aged RL friends would drop dead with shock at the mention of 'drugs', it is to you that I turn with the hilarious news that many party drugs are now legal in Ireland until midnight on Thursday thanks to a legal loophole. I wrote about it here but clubbers and others with a sense of humour seem to be on short supply on In The News topic

Thanks for the link Southeast. Like Duchess I'm also intrigued by The Life of a Banana.

Just completed book 21 (review below). Now beginning V.S. Naipul's A House for Mr Biswas which so far is a remarkably well-written, well-paced, funny novel. A real modern classic.

22. Odysseus Abroad, Amit Chaudhuri Nothing much happens, plot wise, in the Amit Chaudhuri novels I've read; his novels tend to be more mood pieces and meditations on ideas, of which plot and action are mere accessories.

His latest story unfolds on a warm July day in 1985 when a young, intensely interior, aspiring Bengali poet from India awakes in his room on Warren Street in London, potters around, gets irritated by his noisy neighbours but at the same time is afraid of silence, half-heartedly attends his English tutorial at UCL then goes north to Belsize Park to meet up with his uncle ("a hermit in a dressing gown"), who lives in a basement bedsit. The two men walk together chatting, buying Indian sweets, dining at a curry house, returning to the nephew's room.

The uncle is actually quite wealthy, financially supporting the family back in India, with an interesting past that slowly comes to life as the novel progresses. In fact, it was the elderly uncle's story and ruminations (alongside memories of the nephew's parents' stay in London back in the 1950s and again in the early 70s) that entertained me so much and enabled me to truly enjoy the novel.

A tender, beguiling, at times very funny exploration of loneliness, displacement, homesickness, race, inter-generational friendship, shared memories, literature, poetry, family, London seen through Indian eyes... As a Bengali myself, I really enjoyed all the cultural references.

best, hope you enjoy it! I get pretty nervous if people read a book based on my recommendation - I won't be insulted if you hate it!

Bssh, I found A House for Mr Biswas a challenging read, but I'm glad I persevered - I still find myself thinking sometimes of how his wife's family married off their daughters (no idea why that stuck in my head so clearly).

Interesting legal loophold, Cote. I have a fond if surreal memory of my very straitlaced parents being persuaded to try magic mushrooms by some hippyish friends, just before they (the mushrooms) were made illegal. My mother was seeing pixies crawling up the chimney. I think it was more the power of suggestion rather than anything else, but it was possibly the strangest evening of my life.

I found We Need To Talk About Kevin unputdownable too. I did guess the ending - for some reason it was really obvious to me and I knew it from early on. Surprising, as I'm usually rubbish at guessing twists. Agree with Wilting's description "one of those books that just sucked me in and spat me out" - exactly!

at biblio's mother and the pixies!

11. Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer. I found this heavy going tbh. It is really interesting, but his writing style is so dry and factual that I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped to. I needed a bit more human interest.

12. On the map - Simon Garfield A non-fiction look at the history of maps. It was full of interesting facts, and the narrator was not too dry. I'm not a map fanatic, but I enjoyed this.