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.

Yay new thread

Am also reading JDATE and really enjoying it!!!

Good to hear, Provencal. I have a fairly limited repetoire cooking-wise so always up for new ideas.

19. John Dies At The End - David Wong

You know how I am not a fan of hate and shower disdain on YA? Well, if there were circles within YA like circles of hell in Dante's Inferno, this book would be in the absolute lowest circle of YA - the one for books written by horny teenagers with the maturity of a giddy 4-year-old and the IQ of a carrot.... for other horny teenagers with the maturity of nursery children and single-digit IQs.

Case in point:

“Identification please.”
John smiled. “Assey Cocklord.”
It turned to me, repeated the question.
“Felipe Enormowang.”
“Identification not on database. Please state your habitation sector.”
John: “Your Ass.”
Me: “The suburbs west of Your Ass.”

SERIOUSLY?!?!

It is not just superficial and focused on the usual teenagey concerns - that would be traditional YA which I must admit I now look much more favourably on because of just how God-awful this book was, with its never-ending Ghostbusters theme (continually playing in my head even now), vomit-fest, penis obsession, and ludicrous half-assed attempt at a fantasy plot.

I'm now going on to The Master And Margarita and will shortly start doing my damnedest to pretend that I have never EVER come across this pathetic excuse for a book.

Meanwhile.....

Here are the books I've read so far in 2015, since it seems we are bringing them over to show off

1. Spares - Michael Marshall Smith
2. The Istanbul Puzzle - Laurence O'Bryan
3. Last Man Standing: Tales From Tinseltown - Sir Roger Moore
4. [Re]Awakenings, an anthology of new Speculative Fiction
5. The Martian - Andy Weir
6. Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh
7. A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
8. Ashes of the Earth: A Mystery of Post-Apocalyptic America by Eliot Pattison
9. Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges

10. Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer 11. Flowers For Algernon - Daniel Keyes 12. Running Wild - J G Ballard 13. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer 14: Holy Machine - Chris Beckett 15. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke 17. Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy by Lene Gammelgaard 18. My Inventions by Nikola Tesla 19. The Book That Must Not Be Named for I've already started trying to erase it from my memory

Anyone else getting the impression that Cote didn't really enjoy JDATE?

15. Confessions of a Sociopath by M.E. Thomas. This is a book about being a sociopath, written by a high functioning, non criminal, diagnosed sociopath, and therefore much more positive (I hesitate to use the word sympathetic!) towards sociopaths than a book written by someone who researches / diagnoses / works with sociopaths might be. Raises some interesting moral questions about the position of sociopaths within our society. When I was halfway through I started finding it a bit repetitive (okay, I get that you enjoy manipulating people and feel no remorse or empathy) but it picked up again towards the end, with an interesting bit about how the (currently childless) author would feel if she had a child with the same condition.

Ha ha, Cote That review is brilliant.

Here's my list so far:

1. The Strangling on the Stage, Simon Brett
2. The Shock of the Fall, Nathan Filier
3. Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, M. C. Beaton
4. The Secret Place, Tana French
5. The Sleep Room, F. R Tallis
6. Dissolution, C. J Sansom (Reread)
7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 part 1
8. The Nature of Monsters, Clare Clark
9. The Paying Guest, Sarah Waters

10. The Unwelcomed Child, Virginia Andrews 11. I Think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that, Ben Goldacre 12. The Kill Call, Stephen Booth 13. The Debutante, Kathleen Tessaro 14. Revival, Stephen King 15. The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion 16. Farmageddon, Philip Lymbery and Isabel Dakeshott 17. The Cookbook Collector, Allegra Goodman 18. The Lives of Others, Neel Mukherjee 19. Rupture, Simon Lelic 20. The Apothecary's Daughter, Charlotte Betts 21. Smiler's Fair, Rebecca Levene 22. World War Z, Max Brooks 23. Dawn of the Dumb, Charlie Brooker 24. The Misbegotten, Katherine Webb 25. By the Pricking of my Thumbs, Agatha Christie 26. Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch 27. The Giver, Lois Lowry 28. Northanger Abbey, Val McDermid 29. The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver 30. The Night Guest, Fiona McFarlane

And adding:

31. Trigger Warnings, by Neil Gaiman Short story collections are always a tricky one, and I found this a bit of a mixed bag. A lot of the stories here are short and didn't really grab me, but a couple of the stories made up for that and then some the Sleeper and the Spindle, for example, with a twist on the Sleeping Beauty story that I didn't see coming, and the short story featuring Shadow (from American Gods) in the Peak District for some reason.

32. Keep Quiet, Lisa Scottoline While driving his son home from a movie, Jake makes the mistake of letting Ryan practise his driving on a back road. The worst happens and Jake is caught in a moral dilemma call the police to report the accident, ruining his son's life, or to get in the car and pretend it never happens. Well, it wouldn't be much of a story if he took option A would it? I picked this up from the library as part of a 'blind date' they were running in February -- books sealed in envelopes so you didn't know what you were going to get. It's probably not a book I would have picked up otherwise, but I'm glad I did, as this was a pacy read, with quite a few twists and turns that I didn't see coming. It's a shame then, that it was a bit spoiled by the somewhat convenient ending.

Bugat -5
That Lisa sottoline sounds good I've ordered it from the library - Thankyou !

I'm reading 'quarter past two on a Wednesday afternoon '. By Linda newberry

It's about an 18 year old who disappears & is written from the perspective of her younger sister 20 years on

I seem to be reading a lot of books about missing people

Oops bugrit !

Have also added I'll have what she's having to be reservation list at the library - I blame this thread for my library account being higher than usual ;-)

My list so far, with highlights in bold:

1. Overcoming Depression - Paul Gilbert
2. Stoner - John Williams
3. Easy Microsoft Excel 2010
4. Dress Your Family in Corduroy And Denim - David Sedaris
5. Word 2010 in Easy Steps
6. Watch Me - Anjelica Huston
7. A Single Man - Christopher Isherwood
8. A Taste of Honey - Shelagh Delaney
9. Curtain Call - Anthony Quinn

10. The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin 11. The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton 12. The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins 13. The Illuminations - Andrew O'Hagan 14. This Boy - Alan Johnson 15. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood 16. Interlude - Rupert Smith 17. Clever Girl - Tessa Hadley 18. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes

Now on a biography of Alexander McQueen. It's quite grim but absorbing at the same time.

Here's my 2015 list so far:

Standout books in bold
Books that underwhelmed me in italics

1. Charles Dickens: A Life, Claire Tomalin
2. The Strange Library, Haruki Murakami

1. Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino

4. Nemesis, Philip Roth

1. Indignation, Philip Roth
2. The Dispossessed, Ursula Le Guin
3. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

8. Us, David Nicholls 9. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins 10. Upstairs at the Party, Linda Grant 11. Her, Harriet Lane 12. Whispers Underground, Ben Aaronovitch 13. Broken Homes, Ben Aaronovitch 14. The Miniaturist, Jesse a Burton 15. Little Lies, Liane Moriarty 16. & Sons, David Gilbert 17. When we were Orphans, Kazuo Ishiguro 18. The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer 19. A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki 20. A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman 21. A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler 22. Odysseus Abroad, Amit Chaudhuri 23. A House for Mr Biswas, V.S. Naipaul 24. A Bend in the River, V.S. Naipaul 25. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

Currently reading and really enjoying:
26. Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
27. The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro

Hello there, I'd love to join your thread if I may . I've been lurking for a while but this is my first post. Your recommendations and reviews have been really inspiring and I have a whole list of books I want to read now, thank you!

Anyway, here's my list so far, stand out books in bold and meh ones in italics:

1. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn;
2. Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found - Cheryl Strayed;

3. Late Fragments: Everything I Want to Tell You (About this Magnificent Life) - Kate Gross;

1. We are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler;
2. Life After Life - Kate Atkinson;
3. How to be a Woman - Caitlin Moran;

7. The State We're In - Adele Parks;

1. The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan;

9. The Children Act - Ian McEwan; 10. We Should All be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; 11. Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healey; 12. The Girl on The Train - Paula Hawkins; 13. H is for Hawk - Helen Macdonald; 14. The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway; 15. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou; 16. Animal Farm - George Orwell; 17. The Letter - Kathryn Hughes; 18. Elephant Moon - John Sweeney; 19. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee; 20. The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion.

And I'm currently reading...
21. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro.

Book 42 - 'The Black Eyed Blonde' by Benjamin Black.

Black is the pseudonym of John Banville (of, 'The Sea' fame) and this is his attempt at a Philip Marlowe (Chandler) novel. It's not bad. After a slow start, I quite enjoyed it. It's not Chandler (who is tbh?) but it's believable enough in the way it works the Marlowe character, and some of the prose is decent. It was a bit overblown in places - the beauty of Chandler is that he always knew when to stop, and Banville doesn't always. It felt like a slightly older, more wistful Marlowe, who's maybe become a bit less bitter and a bit more whimsical.

So, not a work of genius, but an enjoyable read. I've read a lot worse!

Here's my list so far:

1. We are all completely beside ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler
2. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote (MFC Jan)
3. Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
4. Portney's Complaint - Philip Roth
5. The Talisman - Stephen King
6. Black House - Stephen King
7. The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton
8. May We Be Forgiven - A M Holmes
9. Daughter - Jane Schmullt

10. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes 11. We Were Liars - E Lockhart 12. Night Watch - Terry Pratchett 13. The Green Mile - Stephen King 14. I Let You Go - Clare Mackintosh 15. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee (MFC Feb) 16. The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak 17. Good Omens - Terry Pratchett 18. Ghost Story - Peter straub 19. The Book Of You - Claire Kendal 20. I Am Pilgrim - Terry Haynes 21. Duma Key - Stephen King 22. The Holy Machine - Chris Beckett 23. We Have Always Lived In The Castle - Shirley Jackson (MFC March) 24. John Dies At The End - david Wong pokes tongue at cote 25. My Fault - Billy Childish 26. Jonathan Strange and Mr Morrell - Susanna Clarke

Favourites bolded.
Hated WAACBO, thought the miniaturist was lacking.

Book 10 - Dissolution. The first in a series about Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer working for Thomas Cromwell and investigating murder at a monastery. Really enjoyed it. A compelling mystery and really interesting historical details. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Ok list so far for 2015:-

1 The Crimson Petal & the White by Michel Faber
2 The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery
3 Risky Business by Amy Andrews
4 Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon
5 Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
6 Countdown City by Ben H Winters
7 The Last Policeman by Ben H Winters
8 World of Trouble by Ben H Winters
9 World War Z by Max Brooks
10 American Gods by Neil Gaiman
11 Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
12 When I Met You by Jenna Forte
13 Sovereign by CJ Sansom
14 The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
15 John Dies at the End by David Wong

Sovereign was boring boring boring and I'd never have finished it if my kindle had been functioning. That's it for me and Shardlake.

I've read other Tom Clancy and liked them. The Hunt for Red October not one of his best imo, final quarter of the book seemed pointless to me and the propaganda is a bit heavy handed. In short it has dated.

Really enjoyed JDATE i've a 5yo and a 4yo so the penis jokes seemed sophisticated and refreshing to me If you like stuff like The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy or Men in Black it's similar sort of enjoyable nonsense, (albeit with more penis jokes). It's a bit comic book in flavour and maybe a tad episodic but overall a thumbs up from me.

Now onto

16 Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke. picked this up on a kindle deal, really hope it hasn't dated...

Book 17 - still alice. Fantastic book very thought provoking.

Adding my list so far:

1.Elizabeth Gilbert - Signature of all Things

1. EF Benson - Mapp & Lucia 1
2. Emma Healey - Elizabeth is Missing
3. M C Beaton - Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
4. Suzanne Collins - Hunger games book 1

6. Ian McEwan - The Children Act

1. Marion Coutts - The Iceberg
2. Amanda Prowse - A Mother's Story
3. Adele Parks - State We're In

10. Sue Townshend - Secret Diary of Adrian Mole 11. Sue Townshend - Adrian Mole: Cappuccino Years had this for years but never got round to reading it. Thoroughly enjoyed it and a vey easy read. Made me chortle out loud in places. A very damning indictment of the Blair years.

Need to read more!

Missed one
12. Gone Girl. Meh.

10. Apple Tree Yard - Louise Doughty.
    Disappointing, not what I hoped for. I didn't like the way it was written at all. It certainly wasn't gripping. I rated it 3 stars but feel that was too generous.

Currently reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. It is fantastic so far.

Crash & wilting - It's perfectly fine for you to love JDATE I'm shocked to my core & quickly scratched you off the list of my MN buddies with a dark, permanent, felt pen. We all have different tastes except some of us who clearly have none

I love Beavis & Butthead (which is my closest point of reference to this wank-job of a text that dares call itself a book) but this.... this book... it was just too awful for words.

I don't know if it's the bitter aftertaste of JDATE that's still messing me up but I'm not enjoying The Master And Margarita, either. That book RUINED me, I'm telling you

Mwaaaahhahahahhahahaaaaa maybe it's the shadow people interfering with you cote mwaaahahahahaaaa

26. Shop Girl - Mary Portas. Covers her life until the age of 20. Written as a series of short scenes from her life, each with a title like 'Oxford bags', 'Sherbert Fountains', 'Choppers', 'Vesta Curries'. It's surprisingly nostalgic and (being of a similar age) so much of it was familiar to me. It's also the story of how her close knit family fell apart, leading to a complete change of direction in her life and is very moving in parts. I particularly liked the latter part, where she touches on punk and the New Romantics, so much a part of my own teenage years.

I forgot about bringing the list to the new thread. Mine so far is:

January

1. Cunningham's Magical Sampler Scott Cunningham
2. The House of Susan Lulham Phil Rickman
3. The Man In The Moss Phil Rickman
4. The Wild Places Robert MacFarlane
5. December Phil Rickman
6. Philosophy & Terry Pratchett ed. Jacob M. Held and James B. South
7. Black Cat Martyn Bedford
8. The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman Angela Carter (avoid like the plague, it is one of the worst books I have ever read)

February

1. Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett

10. Pale Demon Kim Harrison 11. The Watcher in the Shadows Carlos Ruiz Zafon 12. Dracula Cha Cha Cha Kim Newman 13. Gloucestershire Folk Tales Anthony Nanson 14. Llewellyn's 2015 Witches' Companion 15. A Perfect Blood Kim Harrison

March
16. Vanished Kingdoms Norman Davies
17. The Slow Regard of Silent Things Patrick Rothfuss
18. The Magician's Apprentice Trudi Canavan
19. Jingo Terry Pratchett
20. Witches Tracy Borman
21. Skin Game Jim Butcher

I'm currently reading The Fear Index by Robert Harris, and Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

Sovereign was boring boring boring and I'd never have finished it if my kindle had been functioning. That's it for me and Shardlake.

Aww, Wilting, have you been reading them in order? Because Revelation is next, and iirc (been a while since I read it) it's not boring at all. Much better murder mystery than Sovereign.