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.

Another Merivel fan here, Eleanor :). I loved Restoration and couldn't wait to get on with Merivel too.

And I bought Fingersmith earlier this week following a recommendation on here. So many books to read :o

Enjoy it GetHappy
I've started no 43

Linda kavanagh
The Secret Wife
Laura Thompson is getting married. The university lecturer has got her man, her dress and her hopes of a long and happy life with stockbroker Jeff. But the man of her dreams isn't all that he seems, and before long dark clouds are gathering on the horizon... Sadly, Laura has little option but to end her marriage. But leaving Jeff doesn't bring an end to the heartache. In fact, the nightmare is only beginning. Jeff seems to be everywhere, and his vindictiveness knows no bounds...A bewildered Laura finds herself cornered and vulnerable as her life spirals out of control. But the seeds of Laura's present dilemma may well be rooted in her past, a past she knows little about. And that lack of knowledge could lead to her downfall, or even her death. What can Jeff possibly know about her past? And how can Laura fight back, when she doesn't even know what she's fighting for - or why?

Really enjoying it so far
Half way in & can't wait to find out what happens

esiotrot2015 - you are a super fast reader!!

Weekend off work so I've been reading loads while kids entertain themselves

Here's my 21-25:

21. Father Ted: the complete scripts by Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews I didn’t realise such a thing existed until someone started a Father Ted thread in Chat and someone else mentioned the scripts. Obviously I had to have them immediately (though from an Amazon reseller – the book doesn’t seem to be in print).

If you’re a fan, this is just wonderful – the full scripts, including some scenes that were deleted before filming. There’s also a little introduction to each episode by the scriptwriters.

It’s just as funny in print as it is to watch – I was helpless with laughter by the end of the first episode.

22. New Welsh short stories by Francesca Rhydderch and Penny Thomas
    I went to a launch event for this recently so thought I’d buy the book. Really enjoyed it – if you’re Welsh and/or you enjoy short stories, then it’s worth a read. Not much more to say.

23. H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
    Beautifully written memoir interweaving the writer’s account of training a goshawk with her feelings about her father’s recent death and some interesting thoughts about the writer TH White, who also wrote a book about training a goshawk. Wasn’t sure I’d like it (am not mad about the idea of domesticating wild animals) but it’s a compelling read.

24. Outsider: Always Almost: Never quite by Brian Sewell
    This is volume one of the memoirs of the art critic Brian Sewell. More interesting than you might think. There’s a lot about what it’s like growing up gay in the mid-20th century, being the only child of a single mother and about his experiences working for Christie’s, the auctioneer. I found the passages on art (e.g. identifying fakes or valuing works by famous painters) fascinating. Christie’s seems to have been a dreadful place to work in a lot of respects – they couldn’t be bothered to handle works of art properly so were forever dropping paintings and damaging them. Amusingly bitchy in places. Might well buy volume 2.

25. Granta 131: The map is not the territory
    The usual eclectic mix of stories, poems, photography and non-fiction. There are quite a lot of pieces about the Middle East – I particularly enjoyed Janine di Giovanni’s article about visiting Iraq before and after the war, and Raja Shehadeh’s piece about his mother’s death in Ramallah. I find Granta an excellent way of educating myself about things it would never otherwise occur to me to read about.

24. Running Free - Richard Askwith - a combination of a manifesto to get people off treadmills and into the countryside and some really lovely description of his interaction with nature during his runs. A slightly bizarre choice for me as I am not really a runner and certainly have no intention of running through nettle patches and brambles in order to realise that I am fully alive. I didn't like the smug and judgemental feel of his campaign to get people out of the gyms/commercial aspects of running, but loved the bits about his early morning runs. It has made me think a bit more about doing things more slowly to fully appreciate them/their surroundings instead of just rushing on through to an end goal.

25. After the Crash - Michel Bussi (I think!) - in the days before DNA testing, one baby is found in the wreckage of a place crash. Is she the grand daughter of a rich, well connected family or of a poor, socialist family? This was billed as being like the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It really, really isn't! It is a passable and very readable thriller, but as the story developed part of it made me feel very uncomfortable and I had guessed the substance of the main twist very early on.

34. The Evil Seed by Joanne Harris

This was her first novel I think so she hasn't really got into her stride, but it's a decent read. Alice thinks she's jealous when she has an adverse reaction to Ginny, Alice's ex-boyfriend Joe's new girlfriend. But her suspicions grow as she encounters some of Alice's sinister friends. Hunting around, Alice finds a diary written half a century before in Ginny's wardrobe. The diary tells the story of Daniel Holmes, his friend Robert, and Rosemary, the mysterious woman who bewitches them both. Slowly Alice begins to realise that there are darker forces at work than she thought.

36. The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell

This took me a long time to read but I was hooked, despite the jumpy time periods. However, I did feel that the strange fantasy happenings jarred with the seemingly ordinary events at first, but later got used to it and it does all come together at the end. I felt some irritation with the last section set further into the future, but once again got into it and wanted to find out what happened, despite it not being too believeable

It's not my favourite of his novels and, I felt, not as good as Cloud Atlas, though somewhat similar, but he is a great story-teller, so I give it a thumbs up.

I am really struggling to find time to read at the moment. Am jealous of esio!

17. Crown of Midnight - Sarah J. Maas
    The second in a series of YA fantasy novels. I really enjoyed the continuation of this series, it was a gripping story. I'm looking forward to the next one.

18. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
    Finally finished this epic doorstopper! This was a lot less boring and difficult than I thought it would be, and I actually really enjoyed some parts of it.

27 - The Paying Guests – Sarah Waters
Set after WWI, Frances and her mother are living in genteel poverty, the result of poor investments made by her now deceased father. They have sold when they can and the only way to make ends meet is to take in lodgers, the paying guests of the title. I really enjoyed the book and at times couldn’t put it down.

28 - The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith
Cormoran Strike is a private investigator asked to look into the case of a model who fell to her death from the balcony of her Mayfair apartment. The Police are treating the death as suicide. I thought this was a great book with a good plot.

29 - The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell
Set in Edinburgh in the 1930’s, Esme upsets her family by being unconventional and out spoken. Over sixty years later Iris Lockhart receives a letter informing her that she has a great-aunt in a psychiatric unit who is about to be released. Iris has never heard of Esme Lennox and her grandmother, Esme’s sister, had always maintained that she was an only child. This was a real page turner and I read it in a day.

26. Lisa Gardener-Love You More: The crime appears open-and-shut: Pushed to the brink by an abusive husband, state police trooper Tessa Leoni finally snapped and shot him in self-defense. But Tessa isn’t talking–not about her dead husband, her battered face, or her missing six-year old daughter. Now, Detective D.D. Warren will have to race against the clock to unearth family secrets, solve a murder and save a child. Decent enough once I got into it. The first half annoyed as me the police kept coming up with stupid random reasons and scenarios.

Still here, still making my slow way through Suitable Boy (loving it so far) but interspersing the reading with some of DD's (The Borrowers and the first Harry Potter which 6yo DD and I are reading together - my first ever Harry Potter).

26. The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway - a snapshot of a few days in the lives of three individuals in war torn Sarajevo. All three characters are affected by a cellist's commemoration of the 22 victims of a shell attack by making himself - quite literally - a sitting target by playing a cello piece at the site of the attack for 22 days. When I started this book, I wondered what had possessed me to download it to my kindle. It felt like it was a bad translation of a book originally written in another language - I often find translations come across as being quite portentous in the way they are translated. However, now I have made it to the end, I find that the book was incredibly powerful and engaging. I'm not sure where the tipping point came, but I have a huge pile of chores to catch up on having sat down for a quick coffee break and instead having finished the whole book!

Ooh, Dragontrainer, that's good to know as I also downloaded it recently.

49. Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbo

Having never read a Jo Nesbo novel before, I didn't know quite what to expect. It's very short (at just under four hours) - I listened to it this morning.

In brief, it is the tale of a fixer (or hitman) who has been hired this time to kill his boss's wife. It all goes horribly wrong - about as wrong as it could get, and it just keeps getting worse.

It's a fast-paced story, well-written, and with some really good characters and insight into the criminal underworld of Oslo. I think I would be tempted to try another Jo Nesbo novel on the strength of this.

Finally, though, a word about the narration of this audio book by Patti Smith. I know I am very picky about audio book narrators and have been known to send them back if I can't get on with the narration. Patti Smith was a competent narrator, but lacked expression, making the story seem flat where the pace should have been fast, thus killing off much of the tension. Not sure if I could have listened to a longer novel narrated by her.

Linda Kavangh's A Secret Wife was really good
Lots of twists & turns that kept me guessing until the end

#17 The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark

I didn't have high expectations* of this and chose it because I have a weekend away in Arran this week. I love Arran, and could follow all the places mentioned so that may have clouded my judgement.

It tells the story of two women, separated by generations and linked by the island. It's an engrossing story beautifully told. There are bits, mostly early on, which are a bit over-written with too much flowery description but that seems to drop and the book gets into its stride. There are some surprising twists and turns so won't say too much and give anything away. I was completely captivated. Loved it.

I also bought the Audible version, which is read by the fantastic Siobhan Redmond, but listened and read the same bits.

*due to unfair prejudice about celebrities that write books.

24. The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis. Recommended up thread by Clash, this is about the hedonistic lives of a group of US college students in the 1980s. I found it strangely compelling.

Olly I was interested to hear read your opinions of The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle as I've just read it myself. I agree it was better than expected (and I am very tired of time-slip novels and only read it because of my book group).

I have fond memories of Arran and thought KW's description of the island was excellent. She obviously knows and loves the place. It made me want to go back as soon as I can.

There was one section in particular where she strayed into Mills and Boon territory for a couple of pages, and that badly needed to be edited out IMO, but on the whole she writes pretty well. It wouldn't be my typical choice of book but I'm glad I read it.

Book 56 - 'The Mystery of a Hansom Cab' by Fergus Hulme
Another 19th century early detective story. This one is Australian, set in Melbourne, which made a nice change from the usual Victorian London. A body is found in a hansom cab, and all the evidence points to the murderer being a love rival. This is a detective story, though, so 'all the evidence' doesn't necessarily MEAN all the evidence!

There are plenty of twists and turns, and some nice little comic touches.

I enjoyed it but it is a product of its time in that it blathers on too much at times - a couple of pages about piano music was one example of stuff that could have been culled without any impact on the plot, and to the improvement of the novel overall.

If you like detective stories, Victorian stuff, and don't mind a bit of waffle too much, you'd probably enjoy it.

19. Do No Harm - Henry Marsh Really interesting look at neurosurgery. I enjoyed reading about something totally different. There was a good mix of positive and negative anecdotes. I would recommend this.

Summer nearly here, so will begin my 50 books to read. All recommendations welcome (sorry not a fan of chic-lit).

Some of my recommendations - roll-on summer, can't wait to catch up on my reading..

Wild Swans (Jung Chang)
The Secret History (Donna Tartt)
The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
Memoirs of a Geisha (A.Golden)
The Secret Scripture (Sebastian Barry)
Sophie’s World (Jostein Gaarder)
The Gulag Archipelago (Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn)
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Eyre)
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
A Horseman Riding By - Series (R.F. Delderfield)

great recommendations..can't wait to check these out.

Love the typo of Jane Eyre instead of Austen. I wonder which novels our favourite literary heroines might have actually written? Personally, I like the idea of Elizabeth Bennet writing 50 Shades under a pseudonym.