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.

Dragontrainer I like the sound of Cecilia from your review. I am slightly put off by its length though (wuss).

Whippet - am 70% in now, and still really enjoying it. :)

21. The Humans - Matt Haig. A very sweet, gentle read, I enjoyed it.

22. The Martian - Andy Weir. If you understand the basics of science and like reading about space travel and exploration, this book is for you. I could not put it down, and rated it 11 out of 10. This will be one of the very few books I ever re-read.

23. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Fowler. Once the twist comes a quarter of the way into the book, there isn't really much of a story left. Readable though.

24. Kristin Lavransdatter - Sigrid Undset. A very long novel (1100pgs) set in fourteenth century Norway. A story about one woman's life, and how she has to learn to live with the decisions she makes. A Nobel prize winning book, and I loved it.

Working on book 25 - The First 15 Lives of Harry August.

Loads to catch up on! Was travelling over Easter so had a lot of reading time.

35. One Two, Buckle My Shoe, Agatha Christie. Just over two weeks since I read it, and I have great difficulty remembering what happened. It's Agatha Christie - ingenious and unlikely.

36. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins. I enjoyed this and I'm glad it's doing. I though the main narrator's struggles with alcohol were convincingly described, and I thought the murderer was pretty convincing as these things go. There's also a bit of a sub-theme about what it does to you to have a baby, or to not be able to have a baby, which gave it a bit of a depth. A page-turner with a bit of heft.

37. Arsenic for Tea, Robin Stevens. A pastiche of Golden Age crime done for the schoolgirl market. Might appeal more to nostalgics like me rather than to its official target audience.

38. Running like a Girl, Alexandra Heminsley. Non-fiction about running. I found it quite inspirational, although only because I've recently started running (more of a slow jog, but apparently we're allowed to call it running these days, no matter what the actual speed). She made me feel like I could run a marathon.

39. Drunk in charge of a foreign language: The Diary of a Spanish Misadventure, Matt Rothwell. Truly dreadful, but somehow utterly compelling. Englishman goes camping in Spain, initially with wife, but she declares partway through that she's leaving him. Non-fiction. Really, really bad as a guide to Spain - he constantly misses all the sights because he can't find parking, and on the odd occasion he does, he has no idea what he's looking at. It's mainly descriptions of dull afternoons on campsites, playing "Triv" and being kept awake by the neighbour's music. But all too often that's what real life is like. I can't recommend this book at all and yet - there's a regrettable sort of truthfulness about it.

No 34.
more than just coincidence by Julie wassamer

This is an autobiographical true story of a young girl who had her baby daughter adopted at ten days & then by chance met her again when she was 18
It's a good read , easy to read style

40. The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton. Liked the setting, the main characters, the Victorian pastiche. The narrative tricksiness was deeply silly - really, using astrological signs? How embarrassing - and it added nothing to the book.

41. A Million Years in a Day, Greg Jenner. Non-fiction; uses the structure of an ordinary day to delve into the history of bathing, food etc. Rather enjoyed it, but a lot feels fairly familiar from other popular histories.

42. Thin Air, Ann Cleeves. Set in Shetland. Loved the setting and the mystery, but the denouement was a bit disappointing.

43. An Everywhere: A little book about reading, Heather Reyes. Non-fiction. Author decides she might as well make the most of her chemotherapy to catch up on her reading. I thoroughly approve of her determination, but didn't feel there was a huge overlap in the books we read. She has a penchant for weighty French tomes - I felt rather inadequate by comparison.

44. The Ghost Fields, Elly Griffiths. I love her heroine and am intrigued by the various intertwined personal lives of the characters. I thought this outing wasn't quite as memorable as the last, but worth the read anyway.

I said I wasn't going to count re-reads, so will just mention I re-visited The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (had forgotten the frustration of "Let's go to another European city so I can tell another bit of a story that somebody wrote down for me years ago". Kind of takes the tension out of it. And there's something about "It was the sinister librarian!" that makes me laugh. But I was visiting one of the places mentioned, which was fun) and The Secret History by Donna Tartt (it struck me that it's sort of an anti-Dead Poet's Society, which is fun).

"deeply silly - really, using astrological signs? How embarrassing"

Not knowing anything about astrology, I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Who knows, maybe there was something profound there that I just didn't get. Still waiting for someone to tell me what that is, though.

I reckon it's a serious case of the Emperor's New Clothes. Now, I personally am up for a gawk at the Emperor's manly torso, don't get me wrong, but admire it as a fashion statement? I Will Not.

35. Ecstasy - Three Tales of Chemical Romance by Irvine Welsh

An easy read, decent enough but not really gripping, these three novellas are entertaining but lack the depth of some of his other books. It's pretty typical Irvine Welsh fare and I did enjoy it but it's certainky not his best.

Have been on a bit of a junk-food-esque gorge of easy reads at the moment, and thoroughly enjoyable it's been to.

I'm going to give 'revival' by Stephen king another bash next, I think, and then try and get back onto something a bit more challenging.

28. Witch Hunt by Ian Rankin

The sinking of two privately hired boats, one on either side of the English Channel, in the middle of the night comes to the attention of the security services. They realise that a woman they have dubbed Witch has arrived in the UK and the hunt is on. Witch is a terrorist and assassin for hire, one of the best, and with an international conference involving heads of state from across the globe about to take place in London she needs to be stopped.

Not up to the standard of the Rebus novels, I felt, but a good read. There's the recently retired old intelligence hand who has personal reasons for getting involved with the hunt for Witch, two Special Branch officers (who are both a little cliched in their own ways), and the two young intelligence officers (one British man, one French woman) who set off on their own hunt for information across Europe. Witch herself is a blank canvas with very little being given away about who she is and her motivations until the very end.

24. A Wanted Man - Lee Child

Almost exactly the same as every other Jack Reacher novel. Short sentences, uncomplicated thoughts. Very nicely scratched my 'beach read' itch.

Glad it's not just me who was mystified by the use of the astrological signs in The Luminaries. All the critics raved about how clever it was but it seemed pointless to me. (Perhaps it was clever and pointless.)

Clever and pointless might describe rather a lot of literature, hackmum...

15. An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro

Another lovely book by Ishiguro, though having read a couple of his in a row now, with Remains of the Day still relatively fresh in my mind too, I am starting to notice how quite a lot of the devices he uses repeat themselves, and it makes them seem a bit forced/artificial at times.

I was very interested to learn about Japan in the wake of the second world war, I'd like to read another novel about everyday Japan during/just after the war - does anyone have any recommendations?

The worst thing about reading this book was that I looked at some reviews online after I had finished it, and they were all mentioning this big dramatic reveal in the book that didn't sound familiar to me at all. Then I flicked back through my copy and realised two of the crucial pages were stuck together. Oops.

16. Fingerprints - Francis Galton I read this for my degree. It was interesting to see where ideas about fingerprint identification started, however it was very outdated. But it is more than a hundred years old, I think it must have been revolutionary in its time. Definitely worth a read to anyone studying the subject, but probably not recommended to anyone else.

Book 21: A Place called Winter by Patrick Gale. The book moves back and forth in time - doing a slow reveal of the story of Harry Cane. Its first person narrative tells of Harry's years as a young man, his beloved brother Jack, his marriage to Winnie, his subsequent outing, his emigration to Canada to homestead, finally to his treatment in two very varied mental facilities. Initially Harry is a bit of a cipher. He seems like a charicature but - in reality - he just didn't know who or what he was. He started life as simply a gentleman, with nothing else to distinguish him. He has an idea that he would like to farm and increasingly feels his own lack of purpose when his brother trains to become a vet but, until his outing, knows not what to do about it. Homesteading in Canada is hard and physical, but he builds a new life for himself until some unknown (till the end) event means he ends up incarcerated in an asylum. There is a happy-ish ending, in that he is reconciled with the love be belived lost to the war, tempered with understanding that the illegality of homosexuality still shadows his chosen life.

Sorry for the length of the review - I wrote it for my blog and CBA to cut it down!

I enjoyed this - it ranked a very close second to my favourite of his books 'Notes from an Exhibition'.

Not sure what to choose next ...

Hello, hope it's ok to join! I've had lots of tips from these 50 books threads, they're great.

It's unlikely I'll make it to 50 this year as I'm expecting twins in a few weeks but I've done a lot of reading up until now - loads of waiting around for appointments and a bit of pregnancy insomnia have helped!

So here's my list so far:

1. The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan. Really enjoyed this one, lovely prose even though harrowing at times.

1. The Children Act - Ian McEwan. Haven't read a McEwan in ages and this one was typically slow burning and fascinating.

1. Stone Mattress: Nine Tales - Margaret Atwood. I love Margaret Atwood and these short stories were really enjoyable. Quirky as ever but some of them were linked which I liked.

1. We are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler. I really enjoyed her other famous book, The Jane Austen Book Club, but I didn't like this book at all! The narrator wasn't a likeable character and the "twist" sent the book in a bizarre and silly direction.

1. The Complete Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth. Love the TV programme so I thought I'd read some of the stories behind the programme. The book is much grittier than the programme and gives a great insight into 1950s Poplar.

1. The Little House - Philippa Gregory. I've read all her historical novels but this one is a contemporary tale. I saw it recommended on another fiction thread and it was brilliant! Brings the whole "loony MIL" idea to a whole other level. Interesting insight into PND too.

1. The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins. There's loads said about this one already! I raced through it and thoroughly enjoyed.

1. Some Luck - Jane Smiley. Great insight into a family living through the American Depression. Really engaging and it's the first in a series so I'll be buying No. 2 when it comes out later this month.

1. Daughter - Jane Shemilt. A mother searches for her missing daughter. Interesting book but full of working mother cliches and the ending was a bit of a let down. Worth a look though.

10. The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton. Loved this tale of Amsterdam and it's guilds. Again I felt the ending was weak but it was an enjoyable book.

11. Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healey. Again, lots of talk already about this one. I liked this one, narrated by a lady suffering from dementia. I felt the storyline from the past wasn't fleshed out enough at the end.

12. Us - David Nicholls. Just like One Day, Nicholls creates unlikeable characters and dissects their lives. Readable but didn't enjoy it. The end was ridiculous (IMO).

13. Me Before You - JoJo Moyes. Hmm. Cliched and quite depressing!

14. The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion. Loved this one. A story about an unusual love affair! Funny and romantic.

15. The Rosie Effect - Graeme Simsion (sequel to 14!). More adventures with Don Tillman. Not as good as number 1 but I liked it.

16. The Last Anniversary - Liane Moriarty. Pure light entertainment but page turning. A recently single woman gets embroiled in a family mystery.

17. A Spool of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler. Following the Whitshank family through the generations. It's well written but very little actually happens and I just didn't empathise with any of the characters.

I think 18 is going to be What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. I might also get to read Transatlantic by Colum McCann before my Kindle will be idle for a while!

32. The Greengage Summer - Rumer Godden

I really loved this coming of age story set in one hot, strange summer in France. The Grey family are taken by their mother (their father is overseas) to France, but their mother falls ill, leaving them in the care of a mysterious Englishman called Eliot in a provincial French hotel. These days it would probably be classed as a YA book as the narrator, Cecil, is 13 and the story is written completely from her point of view. It was published originally in 1958, which might have been a bit of a shocker for some readers at the time, though nothing by todays standards. The prose is lush and very evocative. I would recommend this. It made me feel young again.

Oops, meant to say good luck with your twins TheEagle. I found I was able to get a lot of reading done on my Kindle during night feeds but I just had one baby to deal with and I imagine two might be a different experience!

Welcome to the thread Eagle I remember having a huge flurry of reading before my first was born but then didn't really get going again. properly until my second was nearly 6 months old. Have been making up for lost time since though

Hi, Eagle. :)

Book 48:
'East Lynne' by Ellen Wood
I really enjoyed this typically overblown and over dramatic Victorian sensation novel. It's long (700 pages odd, although I read it on Kindle so it didn't feel too bad!) and at times a bit too long, especially when the author decides to jump in and interrupt her own characters to witter on at us, but it's a cracking story.

Whippet That book sounds great and just what I need at the moment

Their daily deals seems to be pants or at least not for me. Can we include audibles in the 50 book challenge?

Yes I'm including audio books in my list. I think if you take the time to listen to it then that's the same as time taken to read it :)