50 Book Challenge 2015 Part 4

[southeastdweller]

Thread four 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 can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

First thread of the year here, second thread here, and third thread here.

Happy reading

My list:

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 25. My Fault - Billy Childish 26. Jonathan Strange and Mr Morrell - Susanna Clarke 27. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury 28. The Turn Of The Screw - Henry James 29. Dark Screams volume 1 - various 30. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishagaro 32. How The Dead Live - Will Self 33. Lullaby - Chuck Paulanuik 34. Remember why you fear me - richard shearsmith 35. The Acid House - Irvine Welsh 36. Ecstasy - Irvine Welsh 37. Revival - Stephen King 38. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson (MFC April) 39. The Rules of Attraction - Brett Easton Ellis 40. Empire of the sun - J G Ballad (MFC May) 41. The QI Book Of The Dead - Various 42. Rage Against the Night - Various 43. Pharmakon - Dirk Whittinger 44. Allotments for Dummies - Sven Wombwell 45. Love, Anthony 46. Rant - an oral history of buster Casey - chuck Paulanuik 46. Damned - chuck Paulanuik 47. Red rising - Pierce Brown 48. Golden Boy - Pierce Brown 49. World War Z - Mark Brooks 50. Burnt Tongues - various authors 51. Dreamcather - stephen king

Highlights for me since the last thread have been remember why you fear me one of the best horror short story collections I've read, rant and red rising

My list so far:

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 & James B. South
7. Black Cat - Martyn Bedford
8. The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman - Angela Carter
9. 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 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 22. The Fear Index - Robert Harris 23. The Sandman - Lars Kepler 24. The Son - Jo Nesbo 25. Grimm Tales - Philip Pullman 26. The Infernal Device - Michael Kurland 27. Druids A Very Short Introduction - Barry Cunnliffe 28. Witch Hunt - Ian Ranking 29. Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman 30. Shamans - Ronald Hutton 31. The Ionian Mission - Patrick O'Brian 32. Personal - Lee Child 33. The Surgeon's Mate - Patrick O'Brian 34. The Evil Seed - Joanne Harris 35. Mysteries of the Druids - W. Winwood Reade 36. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs 37. Night After Night - Phil Rickman 38. Religion and the Decline of Magic - Keith Thomas

33 Right Ho, Jeeves – P G Wodehouse - Typical light hearted Wodehouse novel.

34 The Senator’s Wife – Sue Miller
Meri met Nathan at 36, he moved in a month later and they married the month after that. They move to New England to due to Nathan’s job and buy their first house. Meri is not sure about the new life ahead. Nathan makes all the decisions about the house and buys one because the next door neighbour is an eminent Senator. Meri becomes close to the Senators wife but commits several breaches of trust. An ok easy read.

35 A Vision of Loveliness – Louise Levene
Jane James has had a loveless childhood brought up by a cold, uncaring aunt after her parents are killed. She is determined to better herself and practices her elocution and French turns and dreams of a time when she can be part of the world she sees in and around the West End cashmere shop she works in. Everything changes when she finds a crocodile handbag, leading to a life of part-time modelling, nightclubs and man hunting. Really enjoyed this book. Great descriptions of life in the sixties.

36 The School Inspector Calls – Gervase Phinn.
A gentle story about a small village school, its teachers and children and the village itself.

37 The Shock of the Fall – Nathan Filer
Moving novel about grief and mental illness. Very compelling book.

34: The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen. Just started this, about a 10 year old girl and her religious Father. She is bullied at school and is convinced she can perform miracles. So far so good :)

My list for the 1st half of 2015, on track to reach my target of 50, yay!

1. The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer
2. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
3. The Skull Beneath the Skin by PD James
4. IQ84 by Haruki Murakami
5. The Universe vs Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
6. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
7. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
8. Rumours by Freya North
9. Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson

10. Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch 11. The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend 12. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver 13. Before the Poison by Peter Robinson 14. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton 15. The Country Escape by Fiona Walker 16. Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham - MC Beaton 17. All the Colours of Darkness by Peter Robinson 18. Bad Boy - Peter Robinson 19. Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin 20. The Naming of the Dead - Ian Rankin 21. The Casual Vacancy - JK Rowling 22. Dead Souls - Ian Rankin 23. Saints of the Shadow Bible - Ian Rankin 24. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn 25. The Impossible Dead - Ian Rankin

For the last couple of months I've been mainly working my way through the crime fiction shelves at the library as I couldn't find the charger for my kindle. I've now realised that I can use the charger from my old Nokia Lumia phone to charge it up so am very excited to be reunited with my old friend. 3 kindle book orders are waiting for me - Longbourn, Elizabeth is Missing and The Children Act. Can't wait!

I forgot to bold/strike out my favourites/not faves and am not going to retype it out now!

Suffice to say I particularly enjoyed The Poisonwood Bible, The Help, The Shock of the Fall, Fingersmith and Foxglove Summer.

Wish I hadn't bothered with The Country Escape, TWWWTBFAY, Rumours and The Casual Vacancy.

Bringing my list over -

1. Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne
2. Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh
3. When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
4. The Iceberg - A Memoir by Marion Coutts
5. The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane
6. Holloway by Robert Macfarlane
7. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
8. Academy Street by Mary Costello
9. H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

10. Silt by Robert Macfarlane 11. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson 12. Us by David Nicholls 13. My Family and Other Superheroes by Jonathan Edwards 14. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey 15. Reboot With Joe by Joe Cross 16. Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses by Alison Weir 17. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton 18. The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane 19. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke 20. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Trail by Cheryl Strayed 21. History of the Rain by Niall Williams 22. Sea Change - The Summer Voyage from East to West Scotland of the Anassa by Mairi Hedderwick 23. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 24.The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke 25. The Spirit Level by Seamus Heaney 26. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber 27. Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut 28. Where Angels Fear To Tread by E M Forster 29. Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro 30. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro 31. A Room With A View by E M Forster 32. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith 33. Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party by Alexander McCall Smith 34. Maurice by E M Forster 35. Sisters of Treason by Elizabeth Fremantle 36. The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins 37. Strange Library by Haruki Murakami 38. The Laying on of Hands by Alan Bennett 39. More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Cambell 40. Eeny Meeny by M J Arlidge 41. The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell 42. Sane New World by Ruby Wax 43. Rage Against The Dying by Becky Masterman 44. Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane 45. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr 46. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson 47. Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes 48. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson 49. Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbo 50. Walking Home: My Family and Other Rambles by Clare Balding 51. The Mitford Girls by Mary S Lovell 52. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 53. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell 54. The Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill 55. The Artist's Widow by Shena Mackay 56. Black Sheep by Susan Hill 57. A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson 58. Funny Girl by Nick Hornby 59. Waterlog by Roger Deakin 60. Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming - 5/5 stars. This could so easily have been one of those misery-lit books you see crowding the bookshelves in supermarkets - Alan Cumming and his brother had an appalling childhood at the hands of their violent mentally ill father. But it isn't that kind of book at all. And it isn't a shallow celebrity memoir either (I wouldn't have read it if it was!) What it is is an incredibly positive tale of survival, courage, self-discovery and much more. I loved it from beginning to end.

What comes across so well is his closeness to his family. His mother's story forms a huge part of this book too (it was the basis of the research for his episode of the BBC Series Who Do You Think You Are?).

There wasn't one single wasted word - he is a very talented writer (and read his own book for the audio version so well). I found it an utterly fascinating story, was gripped by every twist and turn, and even admit to shedding a tear towards the end at the family's visit to his grandfather's grave.

Highly recommended.

Having abandoned Dominion by C J Sansom (still feeling pangs of guilt for doing that I'm now giving The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion a go. So far so good - hoping it will turn out to be as good as The Rosie Project.

#31. A Song for Issy Bradley - Carys Bray. I came to this book blissfully unaware of what it was really about; if anything, I think I expected a light hearted family saga. Oh, how wrong could I be? The book is all about grief and the death of a child, set against the backdrop of an English Mormon family. The book is good, but at one point I felt it was so poignant that I literally couldn't bear to keep on reading it. I took a break, went back to it and managed to finish it. It's well written and interesting, but I rather wish I'd never picked it as I found it very upsetting.

#32. The Spinner and the Spindle - Neil Gaiman - feel a bit guilty about including this reworking of the Sleeping Beauty story as it is very short and full of pictures. It didn't do much for me, and I can't really see who its target audience was supposed to be. In my view, it is too oblique for children (well, mine anyway!) and too shallow for adults.

Ok, here's my embarrassingly short list (but I have high hopes for the summer holidays!!) Great ones in bold, bad in italics:

1. Game of thrones - A Clash of kings
2. Elizabeth is Missing
3. Persuasion - second read for book club
4. Game of thrones - A storm of swords part 1
5. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
6. Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
7. Girl on the train (predictable and annoying)
8. The Miniaturist
9. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

10. Do No Harm - Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh. 11. The Martian by Andy Weir 12. The wonderful story of Henry Sugar and six more - 7 short stories by Roald Dahl. 13. The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

An Agatha Christie for the first time in many years. I thought I'd read most of hers when I was late teens / early twenties but I don't remember this one at all. It was quite fun to read an AC after many years but it did seem VERY dated and didn't really keep me gripped. I don't think I'll read another for a while....

Duchess - I'm reading the Rosie Effect at the moment too, I'm enjoying it but not loving it as much as the Rosie Project but that could just be because the novelty element of his personality is gone....

I know what you mean. It isn't a fresh idea any more but I'm still hoping there will be a few laughs along the way.

Thanks Rosehip
I've given up on it

Best 'A Clockwork Orange' is brilliant. Enjoy!

Duchess I really liked the first half of, 'Dominion' but thought the last quarter or so was v silly indeed, so, if even the opening hadn't grabbed you, then you were definitely right to abandon it.

Book 72 - 'Field Grey' by Philip Kerr
This is the third of the Bernie Gunther detective series (set in Nazi Germany) that I've read this year, and, sadly, it was nowhere near as good as the other two. It meandered around a lot, and jumped between times and places so much that it got pretty confusing. Most of it was backstory, rather than active plot too, which was frustrating. If you want to read some Kerr, please don't start with this one. If I'd have read this one first, I wouldn't have ever read another.

I've started no 50 thanks to a recommendation on here
Only ever yours by Louise O'Neill
Very similar to A Handmaids tale by Atwood
Finding the lower case name thing a bit annoying but otherwise loving it

Duchess, I recall you saying at the end of last year you wanted to read that Alan Cumming book and I suspected you'd also really like it when you got round to reading it - one of the best memoir's of the past few years, imo. Do you think this has encouraged you to read more autobio's this year?

Earlier tonight, Ali Smith won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction award for her book, How to be Both, which I couldn't get on with at all.

I'm currently reading Disclaimer, which is very gripping so far.

Remus- I feel more reassured that I gave up on Dominion if it wasn't that great. I do still plan to read his Shardlake novels. They sound more my kind of thing.

Southeast- I thought Alan Cumming's memoir one of the best I have read too. I am interested in memoirs but am wary of them too. I expect good writing, like Alan Bennett's which I think were the absolute best

Here are my numbers 26-30:

26. A God in ruins by Kate Atkinson
    We've discussed this elsewhere - it's a companion volume to Life After Life. A wonderful read - heartily recommended.

27. Alex’s adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos
    This is a book about the joy of maths - everything from statistics and probability to Mersenne primes and Fermat's Last Theorem. I really enjoyed it, though I did get a bit lost once or twice (mainly in the chapter about proving Pythagoras' Theorem with origami - never been good with shapes).

28. The Iceberg by Marion Coutts
    This won the Wellcome prize recently. It's a memoir about her husband, the art critic Tom Lubbock, from the time he was diagnosed with a brain tumour to his death. It's not an easy read - it's beautifully written, but I didn't warm to her as a person. I know that sounds harsh in the circumstances but I'd have preferred less about her and how she was feeling and more about him - I didn't get a sense of his personality shining through.

29. Blood Brothers by Willy Russell
    DD did this for GCSE, so I read it out of curiosity, having never seen it performed. Thought it was quite amusing but a bit schematic. Not entirely sure what the fuss is about but I'm sure it comes alive when performed.

30. A fine balance by Rohinton Mistry
    Several people - some of them on this forum - have said that this is their favourite book, so I decided I must read it. Blimey. What a harrowing read. It's set in 1970s India, at the time of Indira Gandhi's emergency rule which included, amongst other outrages, forcible sterilisation of the poor. Very gripping and enjoyable for the first few hundred pages, but it became grimmer and grimmer as it went on. The last couple of chapters are almost unbearable. I googled what other people had said about it and came across a discussion on the Guardian in which someone said it had left them feeling depressed for weeks afterwards. I can understand that.

That's pretty much how I felt about The Iceberg too, Hackmum

28. Us by David Nicholls

I'm afraid I really disliked this book and skim read much of the second half. It is the story of a marriage and the first half is very much focused on showing the contempt and dissension between the couple and Douglas and his son. I found it hard to read and heartily disliked all the characters. Douglas to me did not appear deserving of the contempt piled upon him. Connie is self absorbed and childish and encourages similar behavior in her son. All really v tiresome. The second half is better as we come to examine their years together and you begin to have a better sense of what went wrong and slightly more sympathy for those involved. Given all that had gone before i found the ending a bit unlikely.

Overall, it's a well written but unimaginative book of a marriage of two opposing stereotypes and to be honest, I didn't find the dynamic interesting or original and it all played out a bit like a bad US melodrama. Next!

14. The Rosie Effect - follow up book to the Rosie Project which I really enjoyed as it was very funny and a bit different. I enjoyed this second book but not quite as much as the first as the novelty of the main character's personality had worn off. He is still very endearing and I do like the other characters too, plus there are some new and interesting characters in this one. A good read but not a great one. I would recommend it if you really enjoyed the first book.

Finished The Land of Decoration (number 34 for me) I really enjoyed it which surprised me as it is quite religious. I think the strong, very likable characters (Father and 10 year old daughter) made me love it all the more.
I was extremely shocked at the level of bullying done by 11-12 year olds. Has anyone else read this book?

Book 22 - we were liars by E.Lockhart.

A smart little book this.
I wish so much hadn't been made of the twist as that's possibly the least interesting element of this book.

The voice and style are what make this book work.
Both extremely in your face ( which might irk some readers).

I liked this one a lot.

I'm not including in my list, books that I read for (academic )work ( though some of these May be used, but that wasn't necessarily my intention in choosing them.

My list c/forward ...

1. Hotel on the corner of Bitter & Sweet - Jamie Ford
2. The Last Tiger: A Novel - Tony Black
3. Pigeon English - Stephen Kelman

4. The Ocean at the end of the Lane - Neil Gaimon

1. The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer
2. Casual Vacancy - J K Rowling
3. Death comes to Pemberley - P D James

8. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

1. Waiting for Sunrise - William Boyd

10. Olive Kiteridge: A Novel in Stories - Elizabeth Strout 11. Lamentation - C J Samson 12. The Scrapbook - Carly Holmes 13. The Poison Tree - Erin Kelly 14. The Stranger's Child - Alan Hollinghurst 15. The Farm - Tom Rob Smith 16. Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett 17. The Wildwater Walking Club - Claire Cook 18. The Cat's Table - Michael Ondaatje 19 & 20. 1Q84 Books 1&2, 1Q84 Book 3 - Haruki Murakami 21. A Place called Winter by Patrick Gale 22. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson 23. Love's Executioner & other tales of psychotherapy - Irwin Yalom 24. First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Claire North 25. The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins 26. Flight Behaviour - Barbara Kingsolver 27. The Hog's Back Mystery - Freeman Wills Croft 28. Hyperion - Dan Simmons

I've emboldened the ones I really loved ...

Duchess, may I be un-MN-etty and offer a big squeezy hug over the back shite. Agree with *Remus/ that Dominion was pretty rubbish - feel no guilt whatsoever! Thank you for the recommendation on Alan Cumming. I like a good biography but haven't been able to find one that wasn't arse-achingly dull or obviously ghost-written. I'd steered away from this assuming it would be a typical misery memoir, so delighted to have the recommendation. On to the to-be-read list it goes ...

Backmum, A Fine Balance is the one book I really wanted to read that I've been unable to finish - and I've tried more than once. It has also entirely killed my love of reading each time. It wasn't even the harrowing nature of the content - I've read similar and worse - it just weighed me down.

Book 29: When a Crocodile eats the Sun by Peter Godwin was a very slow start. The author is a journalist who's grown up in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. He returns as an adult after his father nearly dies and promises to himself that he will visit more often if his father survives. He does so and through his visits tells the tale of Zimbabwe's disintegration under Mugabe, of the author's father's secret history, of his love for his parents and for the country of his birth and childhood, or feeling rootless and terribly sad. It was only when we were allowed into those emotions that the book became alive for me. Prior to that it was just stories - factually correct, - but journalistically reported upon. I really enjoyed this book, despite the fact that I shed tears over the final pages. It reminded me so much of my childhood overseas and the complexity of emotions that arose from that life.