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.

Just finished

#10 Rivers of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh

It's a complex story and a gripping read. The plot has a few interwoven threads, but the way they author evokes the chaos, constraints, smells, noises of the times holds your attention all the way through.

I read this as the second in a trilogy. The first Sea of Poppies, I read a good few years back so didn't really get much continuation so would say that this works as a standalone. The third part comes out in May so I'll be interested to see how that picks up the story.

Thanks to SouthEastDweller , ClashCityRocker, and DuchessofMalfi for their recommendations for some shorter reads. Think my next one will be We Were Liars by E Lockhart

Wow BshBosh, a powerful recommendation for *Americanah", I have added it to my watch list

Have never read any Robert Harris either, have added Fatherland and Pompeii to my watch list too thank you Chillie and Provencal!

Still reading Rendezvous with Rama and really enjoying it and its powerful depiction of man's first encounter with evidence of life elsewhere in the universe. Have already decided I will have to reread more Clarke!

14. Girl in a band by Kim Gordon. I had enjoyed Viv Albertine's book a while back and though this is very different there are of course some parallels. It was alright, not spectacular though she does a lot of name dropping ha! She's obviously still heartbroken from her breakup with Thurston Moore so it was a painful read. Interesting woman, but I don't get the sense that I got to know her well. Recommended if you are into her music and art. Not so much if you don't know who she is.

wilting - I read Pompeii and was quite impressed by how dull a book Robert Harris could make out of one of the most epic and impressive natural disasters in the history of humanity

Now I have wrestled the computer back from DC's I can make a list but will have to start at 4

1. The Boys in a Boat
2. A is for Alibi
3. B is for Burglar
4. Stig of the Dump
5. The End of your Life Book Club

19. Blood Beneath the Skin - Andrew Wilson

A decent biography of Alexander McQueen, it's very readable but not as deep as it could have been due to too much reliance on press cuttings and not enough interviews with friends and family. The fact that the late designer didn't leave behind any letters, diaries or emails (or the author had no access to them) was another problem.

Provencal thank you. So my African authors to read list includes Dinaw Mengestu, Teju Cole, Caryll Phillips, Buchi Emecheta and more Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

I'm halfway through The Buried Giant. Ishiguro's writing is impeccably fluid and graceful as usual. I'm finding myself drawn in by the questing story; the landscape is vividly portrayed; the question of whether it is better to remember or not is thought provoking.

OllyBJolly my DH loves those two Amitav Ghosh books. I've not read them but as a fellow Indian Bengali I feel duty-bound to do so . Thanks for reminding me.

Cote I think you and I might be never the twain shall meet on the books front as I found MN & JS extremely dull but loved Pompeii. But but but also loved Into Thin Air and very much enjoyed Hyperion which I think you recommended.

I love seeing the way we influence each other (or not) on this thread.

I'm going to give The Luminaries a go over Easter - will be travelling for a week and it seems a good chance to get stuck into something meaty. Not a book I would normally go for but enough enthusiasm on her to make me give it a shot.

Currently on another Agatha Christie. There's something very comforting about such an enormous back catalogue which you can just dip into at will, no worrying about reading them in the proper order or remembering characters.

I loved The Luminaries - the writing is just exquisite.

Pompeii was indeed incredibly dull. A real achievement, considering what an apocalyptic event the book was leading up to. Even the description of the actual eruption was meh.

Provencal - Yes, I recommended Hyperion. Maybe you can just take my recommendations on sci-fi from now on

13 Short Stories by Philip K Dick is free today.

Just bought, 'Into the Wild' and got the free Dick stories - thanks, Cote.

32. The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling)

A good story, interesting tale of murder set amongst the London literary world. I liked it in the main, but not nearly as much as The Cuckoo's Calling.

I think it could have done with some heavier editing. The story could have been told in at least 100 fewer pages. I started to get a little bored with how slowly the plot moved in places, and came close to skimming sections.

And I lost count of the number of reminders that Cormoran Strike has a prosthetic leg. I hadn't forgotten that from the first novel, nor how it happened, and really didn't need the reminders on nearly every page that his job is strenuous and he doesn't look after his leg properly. I think perhaps the reader could be trusted to understand that without hammering the message home quite so frequently. It started to become irritating.

Next up - Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party by Alexander McCall Smith. Never read any of his books before. Quite amusing so far.

And then, Maurice by E M Forster :)

34. The White Devil, Justin Evans -- After being expelled from his school in America, Andrew is sent by his despairing parents to board at Harrow. It quickly becomes clear that all is not well when he witnesses the death of another pupil and others point out his remarkable resemblance to Lord Byron. When more people begin to fall sick, he realises he has to solve a historical mystery before more people die. This is a ghost story, with one or two truly creepy moments. The underlying historical mystery was compelling, and the ghost itself chilling but it lost steam in the final push towards the ending.

35. Her, Harriet Lane -- When Emma's lost wallet is returned to her by a stranger, she has no idea that Nina knows exactly who she is, and holds her responsible for an (as yet) unspecified event in the past. This grabbed me straight away, and I found it a well-written portrait of two women, one harassed and tired mother, trapped in domestic drudgery, the other polished and manipulative. A shame then that I found the reveal disappointing (and not altogether believeable) and the final twist a bit predictable.

Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle is up next.

Me too! Just got them both
Because obviously I need more unread books on my Kindle!

Just got the free short stories, cheers cote

Right book 27 - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray bradbury

I wanted to like this book, and I was really looking forward to reading it. Lots of people recommended it to me as a classic and i maybe had too high expectations...

But it was a bit....meh. It all felt very under-developed and I kept waiting for a 'wow' moment but it just didn't happen. It was, dare I say it, a little bit boring...I'm somewhat disappointed in it, although the ideas are interesting.

33. Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party by Alexander McCall Smith.

Short and quite amusing. Not read any of his books before but perhaps will add to the long list

23. The Sandman by Lars Kepler

Fourth in the series featuring Detective Inspector Joona Linna. It possibly could be read as a stand-alone novel because there are parts of the back story given to make it understandable, but probably best to see the four as a whole.

A young man called Mikael is found wandering injured and seriously ill on a railway track. Thirteen years previously, he and his sister disappeared without trace. Their bicycles were found beside a lake near their home in Sweden and it was assumed that they had drowned. Seven years ago, they were declared dead.

Linna had always believed the children to have been victims of Juerk Walter, a terrifyingly prolific serial killer Linna had captured who is kept in strict isolation at a maximum security psychiatric hospital. As the hunt for Mikael's sister begins, Linna knows he has to find a way to get close to the man who took his family from him, and who wants Linna dead.

This is a gripping series. Linna is an exceptional detective but still quite a credible character, and the killers created by the writing duo Lars Kepler in this and the other books do manage to get under your skin in a slightly disturbing way.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00NOPQU2K/ref=s9_ri_mh_bN7gvP_g351_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=mobile-hybrid-1&pf_rd_r=1XV9QX97TYYRNP99AMJC&pf_rd_t=30901&pf_rd_p=586956027&pf_rd_i=341689031
The Girl on the Train is £1.79 atm on kindle. Tempted to give it a go at that price

Sorry about messy link - on phone app
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00NOPQU2K/ref=s9_ri_mh_bN7gvP_g351_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=mobile-hybrid-1&pf_rd_r=1XV9QX97TYYRNP99AMJC&pf_rd_t=30901&pf_rd_p=586956027&pf_rd_i=341689031 trying again

Sorry will give up now

Duchess Thanks for the heads-up.

27. The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro In 6th or 7th century Britain, a mist of forgetfulness has descended upon the land, causing concern to an old married couple Axl and Beatrice on a quest through a world of ogres and dragons to reunite with their long forgotten son, who may or may not exist. Along the way they encounter Arthurian knight Sir Gawain, are attacked by various monks and monsters, team up with a vengeful Saxon warrior, and become embroiled in a plot to kill a powerful she-dragon. We also uncover Axl's heroic story.

Undercutting these adventures is the half-remembered, half-forgotten memory that an awful genocide once decimated the country, that indeed bloodshed is still around the corner despite appearances suggesting peace.

The questions that surface through the mist: Is forgetfulness (historical or intimate amnesia) a necessary condition for peace? Does life retain meaning without shared memories? But at the heart of the novel lies, for me, the tender, gentle love story of the elderly protagonists Axl and Beatrice.

A mesmerising, meditative, thought-provoking novel. I was swept away by it.

I can recommend The Girl on the Train...but only at that price or getting it from the library!