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

8. This Charming Man, Marian Keyes

A re-read for me. I think this is probably my favourite book by Marian Keyes. The structure is ingenious, peeling away the superficial layers bit by bit to reveal the ways we can distort reality and hide the truth from ourselves. The three protagonists compliment each other perfectly, I love the charm and humour of the Bridget-Jones style Lola character, but it is the slowly-revealed heart of darkness in the centre of the book with Marnie that really makes this what it is.

I haven't read any other authors who can combine such dark subject matter - in this case domestic violence and alcoholism - with such readability and - somehow - warmth and humour. It really is amazing how she does it.

Also, the final page is just perfect. A little cheesy, OK, but the book has earned that by the time it gets to that point. I actually cried when I finished it this morning, and it wasn't even the first time I read it!

14. Elizabeth is Missing. Elderly lady with Alzheimer's becomes convinced her frien Elizabeth has gone missing. Intertwined with this is the story of her adored older sister who went missing just after the war. Complex and poignant, but a tad too long.

riverboat I read This Charming Man a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. It's very dark and quite menacing in places. Marian Keyes is an author who deserves better recognition than as a writer of chick lit.

1. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I picked this up in a charity shop and wanted something quick and light to read before my next book club meeting. It is the story of a pensioner who receives a letter from an ex-colleague. She writes to tell him she is dying of cancer and he decides to walk from his home in Devon to her hospice in Berwick-on-Tweed to "save" her. I found this an easy read but I wasn't gripped by it and the whole premise just seemed so implausible to me. I can't really understand why it has such rave reviews on Amazon. Maybe I'm just a hardened cynic!
2. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. About a young girl who goes to work as a governess and her relationship with her charges. Not a lot happens to be honest! It is a very second best to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall which I read years ago and loved.

I've just started The Miniaturist, am only 14% in, but enjoying it so far.

Hello newcomers

9# The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.

I liked this, it was really fun to read. It is a series of six interlinked narratives that span the life of Holly Sykes, a couple are from her own perspective, and the rest are from others as her story intersects with theirs. Holding it all together, is a fantasy plot that is foreshadowed throughout the book before taking centre stage in part five. The pay off is a bit unsatisfying, and, well, a lot bonkers.

Some of it is honestly barely readable in its third-eye, chakra-ingressing, transubstantiating, black wine drinking madness. But, I went along as I was invested enough in the characters and the story by that point to care about where it was all going. And it was all going a bit post-apocalyptic, as it turned out. Not sure how convincing I found it, but there was a lot to think about in this book and much of it well written.

Interestingly, a lot of the problems you might have with it are preempted by the author in the course of it - he has characters saying things like "a book can't be half fantasy any more than a woman can be half pregnant" and ruminates a bit on the nature of writing and reviewing and the 'avoidance of cliche'.

Another issue I had with it is that the voices of the different first person narratives aren't distinct enough - you are aware of the presence of the writer in all of them, they all have a very similar way with figurative language, to the point that you can get a bit metaphor-sick at times, however good they are. Mitchell seems so self aware though, that it could well be intentional, the question is, does this winking to the reader absolve him of these things? For me, a bit, yes.

I found it one of the more engaging things I've read recently, and just mostly good, assured storytelling. It is the first David Mitchell I've read, so looking forward to exploring his others.

I've now got, 'I am Pilgrim' to read (read three pages in Waterstones ages ago and not v impressed but it was in the library, so I thought I'd give it a go for free!).

Also picked up, 'Do No Harm' which looks interesting.

And a charity shop copy of, 'Warm Bodies.' I imagine that this will be very far from great literature but I enjoyed the film, so I suspect it'll be a perfectly satisfactory hour in the bath sort of read.

'The Martian' has got a bit more interesting now the other astronauts etc have been introduced. The ridiculously adolescent language is still annoying me though - he's clearly far from stupid, so why does he need to talk like an idiot?

I was really disappointed by American Gods, it committed the cardinal sin of becoming boring and I gave up.

I have World War Z, The Martian and The Book of Strange New Things waiting for me, looking forward to weighing in on them after the reviews here. I'm currently on Testament of Mary.

Number 6 finished - Gone Girl. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it but felt compelled to read it to the end. Was quite disappointed with the ending aswell - unpredictable but quite an anticlimax too.

Just about to start girl on the train

12. Dracula Cha Cha Cha by Kim Newman

The third in the Anno Dracula series, this one is set in 1959 in Rome, where Count Dracula is about to marry a Moldavian vampire princess and return to ascendancy as King of the Vampires. A vast number of elder vampires are in the city for the wedding, along with vampire reporter Kate Reed, who is also there to see the ailing former head of the Diogenes Club Charles Beauregard. He's now over 100 and dying, with his vampire companion the elder Genevieve by his side. But there is a threat to the visiting elders. The Crimson Executioner is killing elder vampires, and Kate sets out to uncover the ancient force responsible.

Also includes a novella Aquarius, set in swinging 60s London. Kate is drawn into the investigation of the murders of two human party girls, both found virtually drained of blood. The murders look set to ignite the rising anti vampire feeling in the city.

I really like this series. Newman incorporates all sorts of other literary characters along with a host of vampires from film, literature, and legend, so there's a lot to pick up - handily there are explanatory notes at the back of this edition!

Books 2 & 3 were both disappointing but maybe that's because they've been hyped quite a lot.
2 - 'Apple Tree Yard' by Louise Doughty. I enjoyed trhe story, a successful woman having an affair with a man who is far from what he seems. I found this disappointing because I was expecting more of a psychological thriller and didn't really feel this was. 3 - 'The Miniaturist' by Jessie Burton. Many reviews already on here but I think I'm in the minority as I found it so dull and desperately wanted to finish so I could move onto something else (We were Liars). 'The Miniaturist' is a book group read as otherwise I think I would have given up.

Please may I join, if it's not too late, followed with interest for a bit last year and need a bit of a kick up the backside to get off Hay Day and get back into reading. Can remember two I have read, sure I have read more but can't remember so will stick with those ones.

1 The Darkest Room - Johan Theorin, slightly supernatural scandanavian book, not strictly a detective one. Listened to an abridged version on Radio 4 and really enjoyed it, it is the second in the Oland quartet, I have read the first one Echoes from the Dead but can't remember if it was before or after NYE.

2 Tripwire - Lee Child, bought a load when they were going cheap, a bit meh.

Currently reading The Men in the Boat which is about the mens USA rowing team who won gold in the 1936 Olympics.

I feel exactly the same way as you about The Miniaturist, Candy, though I've still 100 pages to go.

Welcome Five

10# The Testament of Mary

This was a short, sharp, shock. At a little over 100 pages, it had the feel of a meaty short story, or a stage play. The events of the gospels as remembered by Mary, this is a portrait of a mother in mourning, trying to cling to the truth of her grief over the devastating loss of her son, as all the while a mythic significance begins to attach itself to his life and death.

A beautiful, moving book, Mary's account is imbued with a simple poetry that strips away the usual imagery of the sacred mother, and in its place creates a woman who is powerfully human in feeling and memory. Thoughtful and gut-wrenching.

Is that the one by Colm Toibin soot

If so I listened to it as an audio book read by Meryl Streep and was blown away. Both by the book and her magic.

Book 7 Blood Family by Anne Fine

This is a YA book that I listened to with my DS.

It tells the story of a young boy who is locked away in a flat with his mother and his subsequent attempt to integrate into society.

The narrative is told by many accounts including lots of professionals trying to help him so you get a sense not only of the horror the boy has lived through but also the care system that tried to help him.

Good read. Well written ( if a little sanitised).

Yes, wordfactory, that's the one. I could imagine it being very well suited for reading aloud, it had a mesmeric, repetitive quality to it. I may even have read bits of it aloud to myself

I am very tempted to see if I can locate the Streep audiobook at the library now. She might do a better job than me.

I did think that 'mother of God' might have been missing from her repertoire, but no, Meryl's covered that one too

15. H is for Hawk - . Helen MacDonald. What a fantastic book. Probably the best book I've read in a while.

Devastated and depressed by the death of her adored father, the author, who has been obsessed with hawking and falconry since childhood decides to take on the training of a young goshawk, Mabel.

Interwoven with this is the story of T.H. White, author of The Sword in The Stone and his own attempts to train a Goshawk, the subject of a book, Gios, which devastated the author as a child.

The writing is just beautiful and the descriptions of the goshawk and the countryside are stunning. Some may find the book bleak in parts especially when she looks inwards during her period of depression but I found it all very moving. It did feel at times that the story of T.H.White might have been written afterwards and slotted in but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

A beautiful book and well deserving of the awards it has earned its author.

Double digits at last.

10. The Handmaids Tale - A re-read for me this time and I enjoyed it more the second time around. Don't get me wrong I loved it the first time around but I was only about 17 at the time. I forgot what a passive character Offred was and it also jumps about a bit so by the end of the Novel you have the complete picture so any questions you have do get answered at some point.

having read a few 'heavy' books, have gone for light and fluffy for book 7 - M. C. Beaton, Death of a Gossip - the first of the Hamish MacBeth books. Nice and cosy murder mystery for anyone who's feeling a little drained by reading lots of emotionally changed and/or complex books.

About to start The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory, the story of the White Queen's mother - this involves lots of European history and the start of the war of the Roses - an area of history I know nothing about so might not get this done by the end of next week.

Anyone else starting to look for thin books to help make up the numbers?!?

Pinkglow - I just re-read Pride and Prejudice having last read it at around 16. It's amazing how much more of the story and the emotional side I got this time round (particularly how clearly Darcy was very shy and socially akward), I think there's lots of 'classics' I read when younger that I probably didn't get the emotional deepth and really understand why they were so good with so little 'life experience' of my own! I might add the Handmaids Tale back on my list - I seem to remember not really liking it when I read it as a teen...

Bloody hell, things have moved on a bit while I've been with JS&MN! finally managed to plough through it and can cross it off the list. Feel a bit disappointed by it tbh after the reviews it was given!

On to number 7?! I think dexters final cut Jeff Lindsay. Looking forward to this one!

Late to this, I know, but, here's my list so far:

1. Georgiana Darcy's Diary - Anna Elliott. A modern continuation of Pride & Prejudice. A moderately short read. The style and language it's written in weren't bad at all, quite a light read but not bad (especially considering it was a free Kindle book on Amazon).
2. Lady Susan - Jane Austen. I'd never read this one before. Loved it - quite different in style from her other books. Amazing to consider she was so young when she wrote this one.

I'm also reading several others - at work, home, etc. Grimms Fairy Tales, East Of Eden, A Portrait of Dorian Grey, and The Home and The World (which I've put aside for now as it's a bit heavy going).

telephone - I might add those too to my 'to read' list - have you read 'Death at Pemberly'? I hated that as a continuation of the P&P story because it just felt like the characters didn't fit how we'd left them (except Lydia, she nailed how Lydia would grow up!).

(Also so glad there's someone else who's not in double digits!)

FivegomadinDorset - firstly, I think you should give yourself that extra book to your list! And would you recommend the first in that series? Will I be very scared? (am a coward)

Welcome to new joiners

Mary - definitely looking for thin books to make up numbers! I'm still on 7 (and 8 and 9) but have read some fairly weighty books in there. Need to find thin/fluffy books I think. I am in awe of those who are in double figures already.

Having said that, nextish is Jonathan Strange. Looking forward to it after the reviews on here. What did you find disappointing, Admiral?