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

I'm reading Ananda Prowse, A mothers story
Has anyone read it ? It's really gripping so far

Bssh thanks for the recommendation on the Naipaul and the Chaudhuri. They've both been added to the ever increasing wish list.

I hit a speed bump with my previous book number 11 - a work-related read. I'm still reading it, but had to read something to break it up:

11. The Scrapbook - Carly Holmes: weak bit of nonsense about a grandmother, mother and daughter (who is pregnant with - presumably - her daughter) with references to witchery and women acting crazy for love.

12. The Poison Tree - Erin Kelly: about clever, nice Karen who loves first a sister and then her brother, falls in with their bohemian life, gets caught up when it blows up in their faces, but is keeping a secret. Nice twist, although the ending is weak. Very readable though and one I'd happily pass on to someone else, unlike the previous one.

#9 The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Think this was recommended on this thread. It was a bit flawed - longwinded in parts, and some of the descriptive paragraphs were a bit meh. However, completely drawn in by the story and characters. Can't think of the last time, if ever, that I've gasped out loud when reading a book. As I was coming up to the ending I was worried it might finish poorly but ended well. Really enjoyed it.

No. 10 Finally finished The Plantagenets by Dan Jones. It was enjoyable but long. Non fiction, but his narrative style is very easy to read so it reads like a novel. Nice eye for the freaky bits, and the bloody. .
He's written a follow up, the Hollow Crown, which I shall read too. Later.
First a bit of crime, picked up the first DCI Banks as that was recommended here somewhere and I need something bite sized.

biblio - I would give much that I hold dear to have a memory like that featuring my parents!

"I have a fond if surreal memory of my very straitlaced parents being persuaded to try magic mushrooms by some hippyish friends... 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."

Have you actually witnessed this? That would be so funny now (probably not on the night in question, with you presumably as a child watching your parents go on a wild trip for hours).

It probably wasn't the power of suggestion, by the way. I could write a book about the stuff I saw with my own eyes and lived through (in my head) during the one time I ate a box of mushrooms I bought from a perfectly legal shop in Amsterdam. Another memory that is funny to talk about now but certainly wasn't then.

16. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls - David Sedaris - a collection of essays about, well, random stuff. Really liked the wry humour, but what I wanted was a book that drew me in (i.e. a good dose of escapism.) This was much more the sort of thing that would be best read in chunks. I think it would be a perfect book to commute with but not so much for curling up cat-like on a sofa for a couple of hours.

1. The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden - Jonas Jonasson. A book group choice by the author of The Hundred Year Old Man. Having quite enjoyed his first book I really didn't engage with this one and was very pleased to finish it. Identical style, plot etc and it just felt rather repetitive and dull. It seems to have a huge number of fans on Amazon, perhaps just not my cup of tea.

Moving onto We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas which I am hoping to enjoy a lot more, that is what reading is for after all!

I'll be interested to see what you think of A House for Mr Biswas, bssh. I read The Mimic Men some years ago and found it so bleak (though well written, of course) that I left Naipaul alone after, have always wondered about going back for Biswas, it being often described as a masterpiece.

13# Waiting for Sunrise, William Boyd

I can't really be bothered to review this, so I guess that sums up my feelings! It was ok...the setting was promising, Vienna on the Eve of the First World War, psychoanalysis, espionage, but it just didn't really take off, and felt the ending fell flat and was unsatisfying. A lot of intrigue which did sporadically keep me going and was quite good fun, but all the threads were ultimately too neatly tied up, too quickly. Every time I thought it was getting good, bam, all goes dark, and he's back in his room with his notepad, indulging in a dear diary moment. A lot of superficial engagement with some interesting ideas, without anything really insightful. Characters not realistic. Interactions with women were delineated in a kind of sub-James Bond waffle. The protagonist couldn't speak to a member of the opposite sex without noticing the swell of a bosom, a tiny waist, or stirrings somewhere. I mean, really.

Next up The Quiet American, Graham Greene, paperback, so I need to choose something for the kindle. Think it will be the Moonstone, I've been looking forward to it for some time. I am expecting these two to be treats

12. Agatha Raisin and The Wellspring of Death - MC Beaton.

Short-ish book, just under 300 pages. Described as a black comedy - I suppose it was a bit funny in places, there were a couple of bits that made me snigger childishly but no more. Fairly standard detective novel, not terrible, not brilliant.

mumslife
It's really good ,very well written , I've nearly finished it & only started it yesterday !

Anyone intrigued about the terrific book of The Casual Vacancy and hasn't read it yet, may like to know it's currently just £1.19 on Kindle.

Is it really good, Southeast? Reports on here have been lukewarm at best IIRC. What did you like about it?

Oh, I witnessed it alright, Cote! But not as a scared child - I was in my 20s, and had come home for the weekend. Wikipedia has just informed me magic mushrooms were only outlawed in Ireland in 2006, so it was well before that. I treasure the look of guilt and mischief on my mother's face - this is a woman who will sip a small sherry at Christmas and consider that the height of debauchery.

17. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullogh

Book group read but this is an absolute favourite of mine. It's just a wonderful book and one I can read again and again.

biblio - Weren't you tempted to try some yourself? It must have been some sight, your parents staring at imaginary patterns on the wall & talking about the meaning of the lines in their hands etc. And the pixies climbing up the fireplace, of course

There was none left! I think I was given the jar they'd been kept in to see if I could scrape any last bits out, but there wasn't enough for a single pixie.

"but there wasn't enough for a single pixie"

This is now my favourite phrase on MN, ever

17. Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy by Lene Gammelgaard

This is an account of the 1996 Everest expeditions so masterfully told in Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, written by a Danish woman who was in Scott Fischer's group.

I was sorely disappointed by this book. I don't know how much of it is due to English not being her native language and how much of it is because, well, she is just not a very intellectual & profound person, but the book comes off as written by (1) an adolescent who (2) had no idea what was going on around her. Her lack of perspective on every aspect of the disastrous expedition is staggering. Her juvenile writing style with emphasis on how she felt about stuff including everyone around her and exclamation marks galore made my teeth itch.

Oh and (you're going to love this, Remus ) the entire book is written in the present tense. Seriously.

Cote - I got all excited when I saw an Everest book that I hadn't read, but you've out me well and truly off. No you are NOT 'walking up the mountain' you stupid woman. You WALKED up it, some time ago and THAT IS WHY IT IS NOW HISTORY YOU IDIOT. Sorry but this present tense business makes me furious!

Have also been put off re, 'Seven Years in Tibet' and don't think it's one I fancy.

I do quite fancy one little pixie though.

'Put me off', not, 'Out me off'! Rage made me unable to type.

1. B is for Burglar - Sue Grafton

Re reading for some light relief I think I got to about G last time, I like them, but cheesy but fun.

I read Mr Biswas a few years ago and really enjoyed it

Been meaning to post all week!
Finished Book 15 - Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. ( I avoided all reviews unless read on this thread )Overall I really enjoyed this book. I found it engaging and a real page turner. I liked Ishiguro's prose style and the way the reality of the children's situation was revealed as the book progressed. The story to me was disturbing, it gave me a lot to think about and will stay with me for a long time! I read so many books but only a very few stay with me this and this one of them. After saying all that I have to be honest and say I had my frustrations with the storyline. Right from the start I could not understand why the children were so compliant. Why did not even one of them consider escaping from the farm? There was no rebellion against what the future held? What's this because they were clones? Because they were not emotionally developed in some way? So yes it did raise lots of questions. I am now interested to go online and read others reviews of this.
Bk 16 is the moonstone by Wilkie Collins - having had a busy few days I am finding this a slow start. It certainly isn't dragging me in like the previous book dead