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.

[BsshBosh]

Thanks for the new thread South.
I'm currently reading Americanah. My goodness, it's good. It rates alongside books by Franzen, Tartt, Z.Smith, Lethem etc.

[ClashCityRocker]

Can you turn one-click off on amazon

It is not helping my tbr pile!

Just too easy - oh, that's only 3.67 - must get that!

....twenty books later, and DH is regretting letting me use his Amazon account...

[BugritAndTidyup]

The Night Watch was very definitely my least favourite Sarah Waters novel, and I've read them all. My favourite was the Little Stranger, mainly cause I'm a sucker for ghost stories and that style of setting. Then Fingersmith, then Affinity. Tipping the Velvet was okay, but a bit disappointing after Fingersmith.

[thelittlebooktroll]

23 Naive Super by Erlend Loe
25 year old Norwegian faces a bit of an existential crisis. Ponders about the meaning of life while befriending a little boy next door, throwing a ball around and hammers a lot. Sweet short book. Difficult to review but enjoyable.

24. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
About Nigerian Ifemelu who after university goes to study in America and ends up writing a blog about race and the many issues black people face in America. Really loved this book. Loved the way the author creates and gives life to her various characters in the book, the humour, warmth and many interesting points this book raises about raise, culture and expectations and opportunities in life. This book will be one of my 2015 favorites.

25. We have always lived in a castle by Shirley Jackson
Bought this after seeing it reviewed on here. Creepy book which gave me weird dreams. Excellent

[ChillieJeanie]

21. Skin Game by Jim Butcher
    
    15th in the series featuring Harry Dresden, Chicago's first and only wizard PI who is now the Winter Knight to Queen Mab. She is using Harry's skills to pay off a debt and must help a group of villains break into the vault of Hades, Lord of the Underworld, in the Nevernever. Leading the raid is Nicodemus Archleone, one of Harry's most despised enemies and a man who is certainly not to be trusted.

[esiotrot2015]

I read The Girl In the read coat in a day
It's brilliant but not for the faint hearted
I cried at the end

[Pinkglow]

BugritAndTidyup - The little Strange has been my favourite as well. I have the night Watch on my shelf where its been for about two years now and I've never picked it up.

Book 16-Affinity by Sarah Waters - loved the Victorian atmosphere and the prison setting. I thought for most of the book that it was good enough to keep reading. Not blowing me away but perfectly good. But didn't see the last 50 pages AT ALL so I can look back now and see how it all built it up.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I dragged myself through about 200 pages of, 'The Night Watch' feeling v bored. I didn't bother with the rest, and wished I'd abandoned it earlier.

[MollyMaDurga]

13 Roy Porter Disease medicine and society in England 1150 - 1860
14 Joris Luyendijk Dit kan niet waar zijn: onder bankiers
Short medical history, was alright but would have loved a bit more blood and gore..

And the Dutch one is by a reporter who wrote a blog for the guardian about the city; who works there, how, how did the crash happen and can it happen again? The scariest book I've read in ages. . Depressing too. It will be out in English later in the year.

[riverboat1]

Bringing over my list from the last thread and adding numbebr 12...

January

1. Us (David Nicholls)
   

2.A Dog's Purpose (W. Bruce Cameron)

1. The Road Home (Rose Tremain)
   
2. Schindler's Ark (Thomas Keanally)
   
3. What If (Randall Munroe)
   
4. The Woman Who Stole My Life (Marian Keyes)
   

February

1. Rivers of London (Ben Aaronovitch)
   
2. This Charming Man (Marian Keyes)
   
3. Further Under the Duvet (Marian Keyes)
   

March
10. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingslover)
11. The Making of a Marchioness (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
12. The Last Anniversary (Lianne Moriarty)

I read the Moriarty since I was unexpectedly at my parents' house and saw it there, mum had got it in some set from the Book People. I had read a couple of her more recent books and really liked them, so I thought I'd give this a whirl. It didn't really grip me as much as her newer books though, but it got better towards the end and I liked the unexpected twist on the very last page. And nice to have a non-traditional romance outcome for one of the characters.

I've been mostly reading quite lightweight books recently (Poisonwood Bible excepted) due a very sad event in my personal life and just not, but think I need to read something a bit weightier now.

[Rugbylovingmum]

Bringing my list over too - I hope that is okay.

1. The Fault in Our Stars (3*)
   
2. The Hobbit (4.5*)
   
3. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (4*)
   
4. The Rosie Project (3.5*)
   
5. The Cuckoo's Calling (4*)
   
6. The Miniaturist (4.5*)
   
7. The Woman in White (4*)
   
8. Killing Floor (4*)
   
9. The Shock of the Fall (4*)
   

I'm now reading The Wine of Spirits and listening to Dissolution (Shardlake).

[whitewineandchocolate]

11. We Are Not Ourselves-Matthew Thomas - story of Eileen O'Leary, the daughter of an Irish immigrant in New York in the 1960s/70s. Apparently a debut novel fought over by publishers. The book is in two halves, the story of Eileen and her family, then a twist half way through. An accomplished novel but I felt it lost its way in the second half and became a bit long winded rather than thought provoking.
    
    I agree with a number of other posters, Night Watch is definitely the weakest of Sarah Walters novels.

[CoteDAzur]

I'm 62% into John Dies At The End and this is the passage I just read:

Look at the bright side. At least it's not a workday.
My phone rang.
I would like to pause for a moment, to talk about my penis.
My penis is like a toddler. A toddler - who is a perfectly normal size for his age - on a long road trip to what he thinks is Disney World.

Seriously, Remus? THIS is what you liked after you gave up on The Martian because you found it juvenile?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I made it all the way to the end of. 'The Martian' actually. :)

I think I'd become immune to penis description after reading the shite that was, 'The Breakfast of Champions' which had at least one penis on every page.

Honestly - stop reading it. You will HATE it. I've there's nothing at all that's engaged you by now, you really, really won't find anything in the final 30% or so.

[ClashCityRocker]

I must admit, the thought cote would hate this did cross my mind when I read you were reading it...

Besides, there's plenty worse penis analogies out there...

Ok, the book is pretty indefensible... But it's fun!

[CoteDAzur]

I'm not giving up now. I've invested too much time into this crap book.

I have Breakfast Of Champions on my Kindle. A guy I hugely respect had once recommended it to me. Now I'm worried about the penises on every page

[CoteDAzur]

I might adopt the phrase "I would like to pause for a moment, to talk about my fanjo" for frequent use on MN

[tessiegirl]

Finished We Were Liars and I am sooooooo disappointed!!! I was left thinking 'what was the point?!' I read the 'twist' and wondered if that was actually it or there was going to be another one it fell so flat! Maybe if I was a teen it would have shocked me more?

Am undecided what to read next....

[TheWordFactory]

Bringing over my list...

1. Far From the Madding Crowd.
2. Me Before You.
3. Country Girl.
4. City of Bones.
5. Rebecca's Tale.
6. Dear Thief.
7. Blood Family.
8. Nineteen Eighty Four.
9. How To Build A Girl.

10. The Beautiful and the Damned.
11. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.
12. Daddy Love.

And just finished book 13 The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R Carey.

A zombie apocalypse book. I haven't read one before (though I've watched World War Z and I am Legend). I assume that most narratives like this are told from a survivor's point of view, but TGWATG is structured so that much of it is told by Melanie, a child zombie, which provides an interesting take on humanity, the collapse of civilization etc. The scenes where Melanie first encounters the outside world are wonderfully fresh and sweet and life-affirming.

And that's the most interesting thing about the book. The character who tells us most about life, is actually dead!

Apparently, TGWATG was written by a screenwriter, who penned the screen play at the same time as writing the novel. It will make a brilliant film.

[bookwormbeagle]

Book 14. The Miniaturist - this has been reviewed lots of times so I won't go into details but I liked this book.

Finished The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (description on thread 2) on the audiobook version. Very glad I persisted with this one - the narrator took some getting used to - as it's so beautifully written. Would recommend.

Book 15. The Country Escape by Fiona Walker was a bit meh, and I struggled to finish it. Fairly standard chick lit rom com that is nowhere near as good as her early books. I have fond memories of kiss chase, french relations etc and wish she'd introduce some likeable characters for a change .

Book 16. Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham. An easy read detective novel. Needed to read something lighter after the miniaturist and Poisonwood. This fit the bill perfectly!

[bookwormbeagle]

Next up will be Wolf Hall on the audiobook for when I'm cooking/cleaning and either Longbourn, Elizabeth is Missing or The Children Act on my kindle. I also have a few library books to work my way through so think I may have to renew them. Of if only to have more time to read!

[Provencalroseparadox]

My list:

1. Life by Keith Richards
   
2. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein
   
3. The King's Curse by Phillippa Gregory
   
4. The Book of You by Claire Kendal
   
5. The Constant Princess by Phillippa Gregory
   
6. We Were Liars by E Lockhart
   
7. The Soul of Discretion by Susan Hill
   
8. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre
   
9. The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon
   

10. Risk Wise: Nine Everyday Tales by Polly Morland
11. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
12. Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence
13. The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language by Mark Forsyth
14. The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene
15. One Night Markowitz by Ayolet Gundar-Goshen
16. Vanessa and her Sister by Priya Parmar
17. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullogh
18. Diary of a Nobody by Weedon Grossmith
19. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
20. This House of Guilt by Helen Garner

Just finished This House of Guilt. Given the reviews I'd seen of this I expected it to be amazing but it was very similar to other books I've read in the same vein. It's a shocking terrible story about a father in Australia who drove his car into a dam and left his children to drown in it but the book doesn't really offer any insight other than a blow by blow account of the court case.

Now started The Far Pavilions.

[bibliomania]

Love that fresh thread smell

30) Georgian London: Into the Streets, Lucy Inglis. Non-fiction. Organised region by region across London. Some enjoyable stories, a fair amount that felt quite familiar. I think the author isn't a professional historian - the book developed from a blog - and while I'm not qualified to say, she may have taken some of her sources too much at face value. At the start of the book she names Defoe as an eye-witness to the plague. As was said at the end of the last thread, Journal of a Plague Year is a great book, but it's not eye-witness testimony.

31) I'll Have What She's Having by Rebecca Harrington. Inspired by thelittlebooktroll from the last thread. Author tries out various celeb diets. Felt very blog-like, but I love this kind of thing and gulped it down with glee. It may have inspired me to borrow Gwynneth Paltrow's cookbook from the library....

32) A Caribbean Mystery, Agatha Christie. Not one of the greats.

33) I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen, Sylvie Simmons. The first chapter, about his forebears and childhood, is dull, but then this became pretty compelling. Loved his years on Hydra (why am I not living a Bohemian life on a Greek island with a poet? Although Amateurs in Eden by Joanna Hodgkin is a brilliant corrective as to why that might not be as much fun as you'd think).

[Provencalroseparadox]

I have Gwynnie's first cookbook. There are some really nice recipes in it