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.

No 41

Lucy Diamond Over You

Read this really quick , is a light holiday read but was quite miserable ( main character gets cheated on )

Here's a synopsis

Josie, Nell and Lisa go back a long way - they were flatmates and best mates in their 20s when life was one long party. Five years later things are now different, but a reunion weekend

I have vowed never to read another Kate A book.

Biblio Can you remember the name of the Lucy W one you mentioned? However, if her books are like she speaks (ie talking about events in the past in present tense), I don't want to read it! :)

I liked life after life although the ending was a bit silly.

New Stephen King book out next month - 'Finders Keepers'. Looking at the synopsis, it doesn't sound great but no doubt hope will triumph over doubt and I shall give it a whirl. Wasn't too enamoured with Revival though.

I think he's got a new short story collection coming out soon.

I must read more of Bill Bryson, I've only read Notes From A Small Island but really enjoyed it at the time.

Oooooh to new SK, but I think that, 'Revival' was proof positive that he's churning them out too quickly.

I will never forgive Kate Atkinson for the seething pile of rubbish that was, 'Human Croquet' although I did quite enjoy, 'Behind the Scenes' when it came out. I read a couple of the Brodie ones, but found them too reliant on clumsy coincidences, and lacking in subtlety or sophistication - did like Brodie as a character though.

Upstairs at the Party sounds right up my street and I recall Bssh also saying she liked reading it. I saw the hardback at the library today but waiting for the paperback to come out in the summer before I read it.

I'm really enjoying reading Amsterdam (Ian McEwan).

Life after life is actually the only KA book I've ever read! The others didn't appeal really.

Loved Bill Bryson's travel books (mostly), found the others a bit hit and miss.

Am a huge Bill Bryson fan, but found the baseball stuff rather wearing.

Oh I didn't even attempt that!

The stuff about Charles Lindbergh was great, but interwoven with v tedious baseball stuff.

I really loved Behind the Scenes at the museum when it came out. Thought it had some real comic and tragic moments in it (all the men disappearing to watch the football during a wedding reception which coincides with England winning the World Cup sticks in my mind). Struggled with the next two Kate Atkinson books and then decided I didn't like her. Enjoyed the Jackson Brodie ones although think that some of the plot points are unlikely. Enjoyed Life After Life a lot.

I read Bill Bryson's 1926 last summer and enjoyed it but did skip some of the baseball stuff.

Another one who AFAIK has only read one KA book. I might give human croquet a bash.

Although I am off on a charity shop spree next week even though dh has made me thin down my library for some good holiday reads so shall see what that throws up.

I still have the last 20 pages or so of life after life to read, have been meaning to read them for a year now or is it two?

I enjoyed BTSATM but much preferred Life After Life. Haven't read any of the others but do have Emotionally Weird downloaded as the main character has my daughter's name which is v unusual so I tend to buy things when I find it anywhere.

Currently reading The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cockburn. It is scary shit.

Book 18

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare.

This is the second book in the YA Mortal Instruments series which I listened to with my 15 year old son.

Where the first book built a wonderfully vivid world and introduced some sexy characters, this follow up is a bit meh. Same old , same old.

Not terrible but if it were up to me I probably wouldn't bother with book three.

No intention here of reading anything about baseball, by Bill Bryson or anyone else.

Remus, the Lucy Worsley book was A Very British Murder. I can't remeber if it used the present tense or not. I feel affectionately towards it, but not least because it pointed me towards Lady Audley's Secret, which was a delightand definitely recommended for Wilkie Collins fans.

51. The Trip to Echo Springs: Why Writers Drink, Olivia Laing. English writer mooches around the US, brooding about six great American male writers and why they boozed so much. Dull, dull, dull. It doesn't help that I don't like great American male writers, and liked her little lot even less by time she'd described their lives. Not recommended.

Funnily I couldn't less about baseball but really enjoyed The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. I also intend to read Moneyball at some point. I also enjoyed the Bill Bryson book.

biblio i read The Trip to Echo Springs a while ago but remember quite enjoying it. Probably helps that I do like some of the authors she mentions.

I'll get my coat...

Thanks, Biblio. Will add that to my list and check out what tense it's in!
Have read, 'Lady Audley' - tis okay but not a patch on Wilkie at his best! If you enjoy such stuff though, you will probably like, 'The Leavenworth Case' which I reviewed down-thread.

Book 54
'The Nottinghill Mystery' by Charles Felix (pseudonym)
Reputed to be the first detective novel, and certainly one of the earliest (it predates, 'The Moonstone' for example) it actually feels fairly modern in places. It's built up of lots of texts, excerpts, extracts, medical records etc, which are then all tied up at the end.

It's obvious very early on 'who-dunnit' and the novel essentially is designed to present all the pieces of the jigsaw, and prove it. I enjoyed it, although it did get rather repetitive in places. It kept me going on my commute for a few days, anyway!

I loved The Art of Fielding Provencal, think it needs a re-read soon

Biblio if you like Lady Audley's Secret, East Lynne by Mrs Henry Wood is in a similar vein, albeit somewhat thicker - lots of good old Victorian melodrama and sensationationalism, together with frankly implausible plotting.

Yes to East Lynn too (have read that this year, as well). It waffles on a bit but it's beautifully sensationalist in the Collins tradition!

16. We The Living - Ayn Rand - novel about life in post communist Russia, the author lived during this period but did escape to Russia. So a very realistic, sad picture of Russia at the time. Told through the stories of Leo and Kira, ex-bourgeois, and Andre, a party member. I found the book fairly hard work but ultimately pleased I perservered and have cretainly learned a lot.

17. Audio book, Lawrie Graham, The Duchess of Prunty, story of Nan who believes Nelson was her father and narrates her story. Recommended as a book but excellent for audio, the narrator was very good.

18. Five Dead Canaries - Edward Marston - basic detective story, easy read.

Provencal, if you do like her chosen writers, I can totally see why you'd like the book. It got some fantastic reviews. It just didn't do it for me.

Dragon and Remus, thanks for the East Lynn recommendation. I've never read it, but for some reason "Dead - and never called me mother!" is lodged in my brain in relation to it. Next time I'm in the mood for some Victorian melodrama, I'll give it a shot (and more Wilkie Collins!)

Having a bit of a non-fiction moment. Just finished

52. The Great Silence, 1918-1920, Living in the Shadow of the Great War, Juliet Nicolson. It looks at how British society dealt with the immediate aftermath of WWI - the grief, the injuries, the demand for employment, the desire for frivolity, the changing role of women. Lots of intriguing vignettes - men with facial injuries being given painted masks, but over time, the aging bodies and unaging masks becoming increasingly incongruous. The author had done a lot of interviews - Barbara Cartland was surprisingly good value. To me it did feel as if it hopped about a lot - from one viewpoint to another in the course of a couple of sentences. But overall it was a lively read.

25: Deirdre Purcell The Winter Gathering. Needed a "light" fix. Found this boring. Second time this year I've read one of her books and it will be the last time. Don't like her characters or story line or even writing method. Sorry for any fans of Ms Purcell but not my cuppa tea!

26: Started a thriller will up date here when finished!

I've sadly given up on Mountains Of The Mind. I really wanted to like it, but ultimately couldn't stand another page of the author's navel-gazing nonsense speculations and tedious history of what some books published hundreds of years ago have said about mountains.

This was the final straw: "Oil painting is an appropriate medium to represent the processes of geology, for oil paints have landscapes immanent within them: they are made of minerals."

Because graphite (pencils) and pigments (watercolour) are not minerals? What nonsense is this?