50 Book Challenge 2015 Part 3

[Southeastdweller]

Thread three of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2015, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. It's still not too late to join, any type of book counts, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

First thread of the year here, and second thread here.

I agree with CoteDAzur about IancEwan's latest. Not at the same level as his previous ones, though perfectly executed, as always. And, yes, ending not quite believable.

I haven't kept track but amongst this year's:

Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Woods. My favourite so far this year. By the same author The Godless Boys. Interesting concept but annoyingly done.

The Fever Tree by J McVeigh was good, apart from the dialogue which didn't ring true to me.

The Murdstone Trilogy by Mal Peet had a fantastic beginning but petered out a bit and became samey, which I thought was a great shame.

Now reading Euphoria by Lily King about a female anthropologist in the 1930s. A good read so far.

(I've been lurking on and off so far.)

Books set in Berlin: The Innocent by Ian McEwan. Very good indeed.

I've also read The Girl on The Train and thought it better than expected, well written, even if the plot was ultimately a bit daft.

Remus I bought a second hand copy of East Lynne the other week from a National Trust book sale. I was saving it for my summer holiday and would love to know if it's any good.

31. Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri

Snapshots of Bengali immigrants in the USA. Some insightful and often moving writing here but I am getting fed up of novels that jump from one character to the next and you don't hear anymore about the person you have been reading about before. I want progression and development, not to be left wondering all the time.

I am now reading The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden and enjoying it more (because it's not jumping around probably).

Thanks, Margo - I really, really dislike Ian M though.

Whippet - I'm about half way through it now. I'm actually really enjoying it, but it is VERY Victorian, if that makes sense! We've got the evil cad, the delicate young woman left in dire straits, the noble fellow, the evil stepmother type etc. It veers into melodrama fairly frequently, but I rather like that. My only complaint so far is that occasionally the author intrudes and gets in the way of her own story, but that's a product of its time too, I guess.

Remus - then you'd definitely not like The Innocent. It's v good but disturbing and if you don't like jus style that'd be torture.

Never been able to get into Ian McEwan.

Book 34 - Remember Why You Fear Me - Robert Shearsmith

This is a bumper collection of 24 horror stories and four novellas by the author, some previously published, some new. This was just the job for a week which involved a lot of train travel.

I enjoyed the stories very much - they are dark, quirky and funny in places and not a dud amongst them. The fact that it's a British author adds to the appeal, for me. He has some really original ideas and his writing style is very accessible.

Possibly one of the best horror anthologies I've read - recommended.

I am determined not to buy any new books this month - have a few that have been sitting on my kindle for a while now that keep getting displaced by recommendations from this thread!

Whippet I totally agree with you about stories that jump about. This was my problem with And the Mountains Echoed and also Life After Life (although that jumped in a different way - in time rather than between people). It's so hard to get into the story and the characters.

I like to get deeply involved in a book so that I really care about the characters.

I loathed, 'And the Mountains Echoed.' One of the worst books I have ever read. I hated it from the first couple of pages, so goodness only knows why I dragged myself through the whole damn thing, other than that it was a MN freebie and I therefore had agreed to review it. Dreadful book.

15. HHhH - Laurent Binet A non-fiction book about Heydrich and Operation Anthropoid. The story was mingled with the authors musings on the best way to write non-fiction. I enjoyed this, and was impressed by the authors level of research.

whippet have you read Lahiri's first novel The Namesake? Still my favourite books of hers and though she focuses on three characters there is more sense of depth and continuity. Don't know why I'm explaining this to you as I am sure you've read it!

I'm currently reading Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun. Goodness, it's an amazingly good book and she writes so well. A definite modern classic of the future.

whippet I really agree with you about novels that jump around in time/between characters. Particularly when you start a new chapter and it's impossible to tell for the best part of a page which character it's referring to. Just frustrating and lazy, poor writing IMO.

I now refuse to buy any book where a present-day character is researching her grandmother's life/has found an old letter telling a story from generations ago/any other crappy time-slip cliche.

One of the reasons I like 19th century fiction I think, as well as classic writers like Steinbeck, Bennett, Wharton, Conrad etc from the 20th century, is that they start at the beginning and tell you an absorbing story till the end with no mucking about

bella4024 - I brought HHhH a couple of weeks ago, thought it sounded really interesting!

A few short books -
29. Lazy Days by Erlend Loe
A family holidays in Germany. The wife loves Germany, the husband loathes it and spends his time obsessing about writing plays for the theatre and dreaming of Nigella Lawson looking at photos of her in her cookbook sure that she is trapped in a horrible marriage to Saatchi (a bit before his time here).
Not Loe's greatest book, but the usual oddball dialogue which I like and LOL moments.

30. Weird things customers say in bookshops by Jen Campbell.
    Downloaded to my kindle after Duchess's review and really enjoyed it. Short and amusing.

31. Pear Shaped by Adam Blain
    Saw this book written by Adam Blain about his journey with brain cancer recommended by his wife and other Mumsnetters and downloaded it. Only 3 pounds on Kindle and self-published.
    I have never bought a book about illness before, but this one is very funny despite the very serious subject matter. Adam describes his journey from diagnosis to today and though harrowing, he is such funny writer there are plenty of laugh out loud moments. I also really like the way he tackles all the charlatans offering alternative treatments for very ill people. An important book in many ways I think and especially the end chapters are beautiful and poignant. Recommend it!!

16. Maggie and Me by Damian Barr. An autobiography covering his tough childhood in a fairly rough area in Motherwell, a difficult experience for a gay, bookish boy with glasses amongst the macho men. He also had a bit of an obsession with Margaret Thatcher, not a popular figure in his hard drinking, working class neighbourhood. He suffered at the hands of his mother's boyfriend, but escaped to university and became a successful journalist and now writer. It's funny and sad and horrific and ultimately uplifting, and he tells his story with a complete lack of self pity, I really enjoyed this book

Pinkglow It was so interesting, it was probably my favourite book I've read so far this year! I was really routing for the characters even though I already knew how it ended. Although, it does presume a fair bit of previous knowledge but nothing a quick google couldn't provide.

tessiegirl
I'm re watching game of thrones at the moment before series 5 starts and was considering reading the books so please let me know what it's like :-)

No 33
The Gospel according to Drew Barrymore By Pippa Wright

^Esther and Laura have been best friends since they were seven, when Esther was chubby and Laura was already perfect. So much has changed since then - school, boyfriends, drink, experimental hair-dye, university, jobs, London, babies - and their friendship has changed just as much, but they are still close, still inextricably linked to one another.

So when Esther is told that Laura has gone missing, she leaves everything behind - including her husband and small child - to fly to San Francisco and trace her friend's last movements. All she has is an email from Laura: 'I'm channelling Drew Barrymore, as ever. The Gospel, right?'

In trying to understand why Laura has disappeared, and what on earth Drew Barrymore has to do with it, Esther needs to look back. Back at the secrets woven into their friendship and the truths she's avoided facing for so long^

thought it might be too chick lit for me but it was a really warming quick read

Remus thank you for the summary of East Lynne. It sounds fun actually so I am looking forward to reading it now (despite the fact my copy has very small print and it looks long).

Thanks also to Bssh for the recommendation. I haven't read that one yet and it looks good as long as it doesn't jump around

I am glad I am not the only one who finds books that jump around annoying tumble and highlandcoo give me a nice linear story any day...

#18. Cecilia by Fanny Burney. Very much of its time (18th century), with what at times is a totally alien mindset to today. Cecilia is rich, beautiful and pure - though her wealth is subject to the proviso that she will forego it should she marry and her husband not take her maiden name. Obviously, she falls in love with a man whose family prohibit him to change his name, triggering many trials of her virtue. I really enjoyed this, as I have had a penchant for earnestly moral heroines ever since my Gran introduced me to Georgette Heyer many moons ago! It is a real doorstop of a novel at just under 1,000 pages, but the sheer escapism of a society so different to ours really worked for me - and left me very grateful for the freedoms of life in the Western world in the 21st century!

Book 18 : Kingdom of Shadows -Barbara Erskine

This is one of those time slip books that pp were complaining about
A modern woman inherits a castle in Scotland and starts going into trances about one of her ancestors who lives there during the time of Robert Bruce. In the modern era as well as these visions of her ancestor, the main character has to deal with several people wanting to buy the castle off her including her husband who has lost a lot of money in the city and needs the cash from the sale to avoid bankruptcy.

Right I did enjoy this book in the sense that it was easy to read and a page turner but my main issue with it is the sections at in the past are interesting with great characters and real historical detail that makes a great story. The bits set in the now just got on my nerves! The main character is a drip who needs a man to be able to cope with anything and just spends the whole book running away from her annoying husband and never once just tells him to get lost ! There are a lot of male characters in the present time and all of them are ignorant and pig headed that they too just annoyed me! Ultimately I think the bits set on the past were so good the author should have stuck with that and not bothered with the present setting.

14. Stephanie Laurens - Tangled Reins

A Regency romance. A nice easy read but all very predictable. Our hero and heroine overcome awkward plot devices to be blissfully united and ready to live happily ever after by the end of the book.

15. Stephen Lloyd Jones - The String Diaries

A very good read and thoroughly absorbing. Hannah and her family are on the run from a long lived shapeshifter, Jakab, who's been obsessed with her family for generations.

16. Sheila Hancock - Miss Carter's War

If you're interested in British social history after the second world war, then this is a good one. Marguerite Carter starts working as a teacher after the second world war, and the book follows her life up until the beginning of the 21st century. Just about every major social change in that time period is touched on. It's also pushing a pro-Labour message very strongly, so ardent Conservatives might not like it as much.

17. Yelena Black - Dance of Shadows

Dancer Vanessa starts studying at an exclusive ballet academy to search for clues to her sister's disappearance. It all gets a bit silly with dance rituals to summon demons and so on. There's a sequel but I'm not going to bother with that.

21. The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye

Epic novel set against the backdrop of the Raj. I remembered it from the TV series in the 1980s, which I loved, and felt it was a good time to read it being a little bereft after my latest re-reading of The Thorn Birds. Found the book hard going at first, mainly because I just couldn't get my head around the protagonist's character and motivations. Ended up rather enjoying it - certainly the last third of the book was really interesting and the story swept me away. A good read but not a read again I think like my other blockbuster faves.

22. Aloft by William Langewische

Third outing of this book for me and I think it may be my favourite non-fiction book. It's a series of essays by pilot and journalist Langewische on flight. Felt it needed a reread after recent events and enjoyed it as much as ever. It's beautifully written and highlights really how safe flight really is, despite the news (and my own personal fears).

23. All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

Enjoyed this novel about two sisters, depression, suicide and the nature of love. It's sad but still uplifting in some ways and has a lot about how much you should try to save someone when they just don't want to live. It's a quick read. Recommended.

14. Basil - Wilkie Collins. I love Wilkie Collins and although I enjoyed this, I can see why this is not one of his better known books. This tells the story of Basil, a young man from a good family with a very proud father who is very dismissive of anyone who is "new money" and cannot trace their family back hundreds of years. Rather improbably Basil sees a young girl whilst travelling on an omnibus and falls in love with her at first sight. She is the daughter of a linen draper and obviously far below his family in terms of status and class. Even though he knows his father will probably disown him, he marries the girl (with some conditions imposed by the girls father). The book starts with Basil telling us that he has been disgraced and cast out by his father, so we know right from the start that the marriage does not end well. There are the usual array of " baddies" and we slowly discover what has happened. Being a very practical and overly sensible person myself I found it so hard to feel sympathy for Basil, I mean what kind of person marries someone they hardly know and expects to live happily ever after??!!

15. Guards Guards! - Terry Pratchett's. This was a book group choice as I would never have chosen a Pratchett book to read as fantasy is really not my cup of tea. However I actually rather liked it. It is number 8 in the Disc world series but I hadn't read the first 7 and still enjoyed it. It tells the story if Captain Vimes and his motley crew of men who make up the night watch. Someone uses magic to summon up a dragon to seize power and the book tells the story of the night watch and their attempts to stop them. I was surprised by how funny this was, especially the scenes with the Elucidated Brethren which reminded me of a Monty Python sketch. I am really glad that I read this and even though I'm not in a hurry to read anymore I would still consider reading others in the future.

Have just started number 16 - Merivel: A man of our time by Rose Tremain. I have high hopes for this as I loved Restoration, so I hope it doesn't disappoint.