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 45
Dorothy Koomson
That Girl From Nowhere

Koomson's latest, absolutely love her

Clemency Smittson was adopted as a baby and the only connection she has to her birth mother is a cardboard box decorated with butterflies .

She accidentally meets up with her birth family when she moves to Brighton .

Great novel , couldn't stop reading it , koomson's usual twists and turns always keep me hooked

I've read a few reviews in Amazon saying people didn't enjoy this as much as her others but I did

53. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. My first Mitchell novel, and I loved it :) If you were a teenager in the 80's you'll find yourself smiling whenever you recognise the cultural references - I remember all the music Jason Taylor listened to, the films he saw, the terrible fear of the Falklands War and Margaret Thatcher's reign and so much more.

I think I'm going to have to read that David Mitchell one - seems like a nice one to ease myself into his more 'trickier' books.

Currently reading Losing It by Helen Lederer, which is OK so far. Hope to finish it on Tuesday so I can start Life After Life.

Ooh, Red Rising sounds right up my street, thanks cote.

Am currently reading world war z and enjoying it so far.

I have downloaded cloud atlas to my kindle, but may save it to read on holiday in July.

Just finished and enjoyed number 22, The Drop, a short-ish story by Dennis Lehane.

It's a crime thriller about an ageing bartender, caught up in mob activity, who suddenly finds himself a dog owner. I believe it's already been made into a film, and it's a little like Galveston, by Nic Pizzolatto.

I decided that would be the one to ease me into David Mitchell's books too, southeast. I bought Cloud Atlas when reduced on kindle recently and will tackle it this year after putting it off for so long

30. Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Wow - This was very good! It started out OK, still quite impressive re originality & world-building. Then a grand revelation and we are in the land of Lord Of The Flies and Ender's Game, with more than a hint of Game Of Thrones, and it is all about a new world (universe?) order, political systems, injustice, cruelty, war and strategy.

All ye lovers of YA, come check out what fiction featuring young people can be when it is NOT dumbed down Read this and then we will talk about how Wool compares (i.e. very poorly), for example.

I have spent all morning holed up at home, having sent DC out with DH under the illusion that I'm working to read through the last 20% of it and I'm grieving that it's over. I'm still in that world, so brilliantly crafted in so much detail, exploring so many inconvenient issues about power, politics, justice, how empires rise and fall etc.

Very much recommended, in case you were wondering

'Black Swan Green' is the only David M I've managed to finish. It was okay - I liked the time period stuff - but I don't remember anything much actually happening. I seem to remember feeling as if it was all a bit pointless and feeling rather cheated at the end. I doubt I'll bother with him again.

Just got a huge hulk of a history book out of the library, about Berlin 1945. I may be some time!

Back at work after long term sickness so probably won't have as much time to read now. Noticing that everyone seems to be reading Disclaimer by Renee Knight on my flights now. Has anyone read it?

Right -
36 (I think) The diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield.
Really enjoyable. Reminded me of Bridget Jones Diary but much more enjoyable. Realised that BJ Diary is a bit of a rip-off of this book.

37. The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice
    Loved this book and will pass it onto my 14 year old DD. Reminded me of I Captures The Castle but better IMHO.

38. Faithful Place by Tana French
    Oh dear God this story went on and on and I cannot remember enough to review it properly it was so boring. Have liked some of Tana French's other books so disappointed.

39. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
    I am currently on a bit of a mission to re-read classics which I read in my youth and get a bit of an old age perspective on it Always love Jane Austen and controversially at least within my circle of friends also really love Fanny Price.

40. Wild - Cheryl Strayed

I know loads of people have already read this. For some reason I loved it, even though nothing amazing happens and the writing isn't that great. I just ended up really rooting for Cheryl. I still don't know why?!

Now reading The Heart of the Matter by Graham Green. It's very good, but taking me ages for some reason.

little I recently put in a reservation for Disclaimer at my library so I'll be reading it at some point over the next few weeks

32. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – Marina Lewcka

I had been meaning to read this book for years, really glad I finally got around to it as it is very funny.

Sisters Vera and Nadezhda have been feuding for years, but when their 84 year old father decides he is going to marry Valentina, 36, they must join forces to try and stop him.

Thanks to Duchess of Malfi for the following recommendations.

#18 The Sea by John Banville I enjoyed this one. I'd saved it until a weekend away on an island thinking the sea would feature strongly. It's an important element of the novel but the story is really about several relationships of the protagonist - he and his parents, he and a family who holiday at the same place, he and his wife and daughter, he and residents of a boarding house. It's well characterised, and an enjoyable read.

#19 Academy Street by Mary Costello I loved this one so much I'm sorry it's finished! It's a beautifully written book about an ordinary, shy Irish girl who just gets on with a hum drum life. The writer really helps you get into Tess's head - you see perfectly her perspective and understand her thoughts. She has more than her fair share of heartache but the story never gets maudlin. Thank you Duchess, this was a cracker.

I'm really loving this challenge. I've managed to now fit in some reading time every day, whereas before I'd intend to read, but never get round to it apart from on holiday. Because of your recommendations, I'm now reading books that might have passed me by. My life is so much richer so thank you to all of you.

thelittlebooktroll, sell Fanny to me (now there's a sentence that sounds wrong). What endears you to Fanny Price?

59. H is for Hawk, by Helen MacDonald. Thumbs up for this one, although I'm wary of nature writing. She writes well without being showy, and crucially, she's ambivalent about nature - both her hawk's killing of small animals, but also about the meanings attached to it (England is still England despite the migrants, eh? Well no, these animals were migrants in their turn). She also writes movingly about her loneliness - human hands were made for holding other hands, not just for holding hawks. There's a lot going on here, and a lot of emotional honesty. Worthy of the plaudits.

21. The Slaves of Solitude - Patrick Hamilton - had been languishing on my kindle since the end of 2012 (!) and I noticed it mentioned by Bibliomania so decided to finally read it. I thought this book was extremely well written and often 'hit the nail on the head' regarding emotional issues. The story of a boarding house and it's inhabitants during the Second World War and the stifling atmosphere. If you like Barbara Pym I think you would appreciate this one although it is quite sad.

Really pleased you enjoyed them, Olly

Meanwhile, I have bit the bullet and downloaded the Golden Son, the sequel to Red Rising for a price hitherto unseen in my Amazon account

Thanks to Red Rising and now this book, I have done practically nothing for the family this weekend. Today, at DS's birthday party, I actually considered spending some time on the toilet to read some more of it

I haven't been this drawn in by a series since... well, I don't remember when the last time was. #3 in the series isn't out until next year, apparently. Not sure what I will do until then.

Book 62 - 'Vengeance' by John Banville, writing as Benjamin Black
I read one of Black's earlier this year, his version of a Philip Marlowe case, and enjoyed it. This, though, was not v good at all, I'm afraid. It had a lot of padding, and the story itself was very slight. It also fizzled out at the end without really finishing. Very disappointing.

Gosh, haven't posted for ages - i've had a bit of a lull in reading.

27. Hercule Poirot's Christmas - Agatha Christie - one I'd not read before and quite good - lots of misdirection and people not being who they are claim to be. Nice, fluffy and easy to read.

28. The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern. Not sure what to make of this. took a while to get into and by about page 50 i was ready to abandon, except it's the book this month of the book club I've been asked to join so felt I had to stick with it, by the end, I was really enjoying it. It's set in the end of the 19th century, the Circus in question is a mysterious circus that turns up unannounced and opens from sunset to sunrise. the circus is secretly a venue for a competition between two people who have been trained in magic. It's a well written book, I was annoyed that noone was asking the question earlier "what happens to the person who loses?". I would recommend it, but only if you are prepared to stick at it.

I need to find some more time to get reading again - Cote - i'll be adding Red Rising to my 'to read' list!

Red Rising sounds great. Have just bought the Kindle version for 99p

37. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Helen Simonson A retired Major falls in love with a Pakistani shopkeeper and along the way has to contend with the petty gossips of their village and families. A tender, slow-burn of a novel that was slightly marred by an hysterical ending.

41. The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene.

I didn't expect this novel to be so sad. It's set in a British colony of an un-named African coastal town during WW2. The spare and concise writing somehow manages to be extremely good at conveying the emotions of the main character Scobie, Chief of Police. It really did conjur up another era, and what it meant to be British at a difficult time in history. A strangely moving novel which I am very glad to have read.

21. Katie McGarry - Pushing the Limits

Romance type book where the emotionally traumatised heroine comes to terms with the demons in her past with the help of troubled bad boy who is actually wonderfully good but misunderstood. Awful. I don't recommend this. I picked this up at the library because I've been a bit stressed lately and was after some lighter reading, but I should really have left it on the shelf. I suspect it's a YA novel that was mis-shelved in the adult section.

22. Tanya Huff - The Enchantment Emporium

This, on the other hand, was a very enjoyable read. Allie Gale inherits a junk store from her grandmother, and finds all sorts of magical trouble brewing, with Dragon lords, sorcerers and a dash of romance thrown into the mix. Much better for a bit of escapism.

Book 63 - The Sign of the Four - Arthur Conan Doyle

I thought I'd read all of the Holmes stories/novels so have no idea how this one had passed me by, or, indeed, if I'd read it before and simply forgotten all about it.

In the grand scheme of how much nonsense is published nowadays it was okay, but it is really not Doyle at his best imho. It felt like it had been written by some sort of Conan Doyle machine at the Ministry of Detective Fiction - in fact, I'm sure I'd read some of the lines before, in other stories. It felt formulaic and a bit tedious in places. And Watson in love didn't do a great deal for me either, sadly.