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.

Remus - tell me more! What research by Judith Flanders did you feel was unreliable? I don't know enough about history to really be able to gauge her accuracy. I'm not sure how much original research she does - this last book felt like she was presenting other people's research (and I don't have a problem with that in a popular history, once it's properly attributed). I agree that she's not the greatest of prose stylists.

I also finished:

49. The War-Workers, E M Delafield. Published in 1917, it's a real period piece, focusing on a group of female clerical workers engaged in the war effort. She's always strong at portraying how women talk to each other, and there's an amusing portrayal of how the heroic, self-sacrificing leader is really acting largely out of narcissism. But I also felt for this character, who is portrayed as selfish for wanting to do worthwhile work in her own right as opposed to staying at home to avoid distressing her ill father. There's a real emotional blackmail at work to get this character to stay at home.

9 tales of the City Armistead Maupin - read this years ago and was probably too young to appreciate it, loved revisiting it.

10 More Tales of a City Armistead Maupin, the second book in the series

11 The Rosie Project, I had heard a lot about this and needed something to read on a train journey while slightly hungover yesterday afternoon, finished it this morning, loved it, having a daughter who has aspergers I can see her traits and how hard it is to be yourself.

Book 22: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. The descriptive prose is beautiful and the characters so well-drawn that I could see it all in my mind from the word go. Yet I didn't love it. And I was puzzled. Its the sort of book I like and yet I was unhappy with it. There was an emotion in the writing that didn't feel warm. Perhaps it was the writer's grief at having lost her mother being caught up in her writing. (I believe the book is based upon a summer that the author's niece spent with the author's mother). A sadness that those events were now lost to her? I'm probably overthinking it, but I'm at a loss to explain my reaction otherwise.

Book 23: Love's Executioner & Other Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D Yalom which is probably more of a "work" book, but I'm enjoying it nevertheless!

Book 53
'Inside Hitler's Bunker' by Joachim Fest
Gosh, this made for grim reading. I thought I knew quite a bit about the last days of Hitler's regime, but found this both enlightening and terrifying. Hitler is presented as an insane tyrant and a broken and shambling individual, simultaneously, desperately trying to maintain his grip on a situation which was entirely out of his control, whilst failing to understand that it was so. The book examines German itself and the German people as Hitler's victims, but Hitler's final vitriol, his very last statement, continued to urge resistance against the Jewish race. Real food for thought, little of it pleasant. I recommend.

Biblio - I totally agree that she glues together other people's research, whilst adding little thought of her own, but her main 'crime' in my view, was in getting something wrong about Wilkie Collins (who, as regular readers will know, is God!).

18. Shelby Locke - Stepping

Time travel adventure. Steven is having a quiet drink in the pub, when a stranger appears. He tells Steven that he was responsible for preventing the Titanic from sinking on her maiden voyage, and therefore responsible for thousands of deaths caused by a handful of the passengers. Steven is then given the chance to correct his past tampering by once more "stepping" back in time to make sure that this time, the Titanic sinks as it was meant to.
Overall readable and pretty entertaining, although a previous reader (this was a library book) had written in some corrections about the detail and timings around the sinking, which makes me wonder about the historical accuracy (I wasn't feeling motivated enough to check the scribbled corrections in the book myself).

19. Tonke Dragt - The Letter for the King

Young Tiuri is holding a vigil in a chapel the night before he's due to be knighted, when a stranger knocks on the door and asks for help. Tiuri finds himself on a quest to deliver an important and secret letter to a king in a neighbouring land.
I didn't enjoy this much, but I think the target audience for this book is 10 yr old boys rather than adults, and as such, it's on the simplistic side. I daresay a 10 yr old would get more out of it than I did.

I'm plodding through Mountains Of The Mind. Very underwhelmed with it at the moment, as it goes through a slightly fictional account of Charles Darwin's voyage on the Beagle and "travelling backwards in time" while he looks at and contemplates mountains

Oh dear - you must prefer your mountains with added mayhem! :)

I'm desperate for a really gripping mountain disaster.

Hello, have been lurking since January and my to read list is growing daily! Thought I would post my list - nothing particularly original on it, but here it is
1 A Christmas carol & other Christmas writings - Charles Dickens

2 The last days of Rabbit Hayes

3 The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams

4 Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

5 Us - David Nichols

6 Elizabeth is missing - Emma Healey

7 The Five people you meet in Heaven- Mitch Albom

8 Lords & Ladies - Terry Prachett

9 Queen Lucia - E F Benson

10 An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth - Chris Hadfield

11 The Children Act - Ian McEwan

12 Never let me go - Kazuo Ishiguro

Have absolutely loved the last 3 books and am learning to love my Kindle !

Ooh love Anthony is only £1.49 on the kindle.

I shall start that after I've finished the book I'm on now, methinks.

Not posted for a while, so a bit of a catch up:

17. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
18. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
19. Eeny Meeny by M J Arlidge
20. Perfume by Patrick Sunkind
21. Just what Kind of Mother Are You by Paula Daly
22. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
23. Treasure Island by R L Stevenson
24. The Risk of Darkness by Susan Hill
25. Billionaire Boy by David Walliams
26. The Vows of Silence by Susan Hill
27. A Colder War by Charles Cumming
28. Cosmic by Frank Cotterell Boyce
29. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
30. The Vanishing Game by William Boyd
31. Dead Men's Bones by James Oswald
32. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
33. Shadows on the Street by Susan Hill Just about to finish:
34. Betrayal of Trust by Susan Hill

13. The Wordsmiths and the Warguild - Hugh Cook

Part two of his classic fantasy series, lots of fun!

Shadow - Letter for the king is my 12 year old's favourite book , (I haven't read it)

12 The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe , loved it

ladydepp - I'm sure I would have enjoyed Letter for the King a lot more if I was 12 yr old. It's not that it's a bad book. It's just not got much substance in it for an adult reader IMO, and as such didn't really hold my attention.

46. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. I sped through this, really enjoying the stories of Ursula's lives. Fascinated by the premise of what if. ... If one event happens or doesn't happen it can change the whole course of your life, even whether you get to have a life or not. Great writing and I am looking forward to the sequel

Started Look Who's Back by Timor Vermes yesterday and am enjoying that so far.

After that I think I might read Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. Have been meaning to read it for ages.

Remus, I agree that crimes against Wilkie Collins are not be forgiven! I didn't read that book by Judith Flanders, although I liked Lucy Worsley's book on the same subject.

50. Upstairs at the Party, Linda Grant. Was drawn to this as I know the university she is talking about, much much later on, and it was facinating to see it in an earlier, more idealistic incarnation. The plot felt curiously shopworn (significant event affects group of friend their youth; they're revisited years on to see how they got on) but you don't read this kind of things for the plot, but the rather wonderful evocation of a particular time. All those early seventies ideologies - and the physical details, like the scent of long hair smouldering on the bars of a gas fire as someone leans forward to light a cigartte.

Duchess, Oranges is a wonderful book, and surprisingly funny too.

Duchess there is a follow up to Life After Life coming out in early May. It's based around the story of one of Ursula's brothers.

24. I'll Have What She's Having by Rebecca Harrington

Sped through this. Very funny account of author trying celeb diets.

25. Camille by Pierre Le Maitre

Finally part of the Verhoeven detective trilogy and excellent as usual. His writing is superb and am sad this is the last of these books.

26. A Room with a View by EM Forster

Was actually surprised how closely the film stuck to the dialogue. Really enjoyed this.

27. East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Re-reading as I'm going to use this for a book-off competition we're doing at my next book group. This is my favourite book of all time. Based on the story of Cain and Abel, but also has the story of Steinbeck's own family included. I just adore this. The characters and language are beautiful. Will continue to read it again and again.

28. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Fast-paced thriller with typical unreliable narrator. Enjoyable as an easy read but extremely predictable. Wouldn't read anymore by her.

Biblio - I started reading Oranges this morning. Love it so far. She has a good sense of humour.

Provencal - the new one is on my watch list. A God in Ruins about Ursula's brother Teddy. Wonder if this is the same format.

Duchess also on my watch list. Looking forwards to it.

Also loved Oranges but must be 20 years since I read it.

Bibliomania
Thanks for the recommendation I'm going to read Linda Grant's book

Duchess life after life is one of my favourite books as is a room with a view, lived the movie too.

Really looking forward to a god in ruins.

Provençal, I read Alex but while I found it utterly gripping and excellent thriller, I also found it a bit too graphic and couldn't face the others. Is Camille similar?

Hope you enjoy it, esio!

Doubt I'll read the sequel to Life after Life, but speaking of anticipation, I can't wait for Bill Bryson's book, due out in Oct, The Road to Little Dribbling, where he revisits Notes from a Small Island.

I really enjoyed Life After Life but I know views on it were mixed.

I loved Alex and didn't really mind how graphic it was. The first one in the trilogy (Irene) is even more graphic, but still a fantastic book. Camille is by far the least gruesome of the three.