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

I think I need to be more discerning in my fiction book choices from now on as I'm reading yet another disappointing novel - I Saw A Man. Have read just four outstanding novels this year so far

What were they southeast?

Duchess - I absolutely hated, 'The Outcast'. I love the fact that books (or anything really) can inspire such strong conflicting emotions. It really does prove the theory that a book is shaped by the reader and what he/she brings to it. :)

Friends, I thought you might like to know that our Yoga topic is now open

Completely agree, Remus.

I have quite a wide and varied taste in books - willing to try most things, but know that there are some genres out there that I loathe but which other people adore. For example, I'm never going to want to read the Game of Thrones novels. That's just put the cat amongst the pigeons on here :o

Southeast - what were your favourite books?

I have been thinking about my favourites so far this year. Would be quite good if we had a separate thread at the end of the year to list our top reads of 2015. And see how many or few compare with everyone else's :)

The GoT books are really not worth the read. I forced myself through two, to satisfy a friend who urged that I'd love them. I didn't. They are badly written, misogynistic and sex-obsessed. I thought they had a couple of interesting characters, but the poor execution and pages and pages of padding were inexcusable.

Book 29 Big Brother by Lionel Shriver.

DH is a big fan and loved this. I've only read We Need To Talk About Kevin and really rated it, so had high hopes.

The writing is crisp and clean. The plot dances along.

But does Shriver, whose own brother died of obesity related heart disease, have anything new to say about Fat? I'm not convinced. That morbid obesity is complex, that morbidly obese people are not Bad People, that good takes up too much air time in modern society - hardly world breaking news.

The only excellent books I've read so far this year were The Night Watch, A Sense of an Ending, Curtain Call, and A God in Ruins. Looking at my lists of this year and last, I realise I'm too easily sucked into heavy marketing - anyone else feel like this? I also don't think much of debut authors (from what I've read).

So I think my next novel will be either The Circle, or The Little Stranger.

No 60
Colette McBeth The Life I Left Behind

Six years ago, Melody Pieterson was attacked and left for dead. Only a chance encounter with a dog walker saved her life. Melody's neighbor and close friend David Alden was found guilty of the crime and imprisoned, and the attack and David's betrayal of her friendship left Melody a different person. She no longer trusts her own judgment, she no longer trusts her friends. In fact, she no longer really has any friends. She’s built a life behind walls and gates and security codes; she’s cloistered herself away from the world almost entirely.

And then, soon after David is released from prison, Eve Elliot is murdered in an attack almost identical to Melody’s. With the start of a new police investigation, Melody is suddenly pulled from her ordered, secluded life and back into the messy world around her. But as she learns more about Eve's murder, Melody starts to wonder if perhaps David hadn’t betrayed her after all...if perhaps the killer is someone else entirely, someone who’s still out there, preparing to strike again.

I really enjoyed this : I thought halfway through I'd guessed who had done it but I was wrong which made it even more intriguing
Love Colette McBeth's Precious Thing too

I know what you mean, southeast. I see a book that appears to be being talked about by everyone and I convince myself I should read it too. I don't need to, and get cross with myself for falling for a marketing gimmick

I loved A God in Ruins too :)

32. The Soul of Discretion - Susan Hill - this is the 8th book in a the Simon Serallier series, in many ways more of a family saga than a detective novel. An enjoyable comfort read but I would say the series has gone slightly off the boil over the last couple of books.

I generally read a mixture of male/female authors and find it very hard to believe that all female authors can be dismissed as not very well written/enjoyable, that is surely a rather sweeping generalisation?

Re my previous post, not trying to upset anyone on our lovely thread, just surprised.

Nobody has said that all female writers are rubbish - just most of them!

"very hard to believe that all female authors can be dismissed as not very well written/enjoyable"

That is not what Remus & I said and it certainly isn't what I meant.

My comment is on a very personal level, and not an objective criticism of women authors' literary talent. Most women authors write what is called "women's fiction", about women's friendships, marriages, children etc. That sort of book interests me not one bit. I already live that life and have zero interest in reading about it in my spare time. Out of the rest, most write heartstring-tugging books about feeeeeliiiiinnnngss which again interests me not one bit. There are very VERY few women authors who choose to write on subjects that interest me AND do it with a bright, clear, non-sentimental, and intelligent 'voice'. That is why I am personally not usually interested in reading books by female authors.

There have been exceptions such as Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, but these are rare and far between.

In between getting back to work after long sick leave and moving house and having no broadband for weeks (that was the most traumatic bit!!!!) I have read
36. Night Circus: Feel in love with this book, the magic, the era, the love story....everything! I wanted it to go and on and on.
37. Sheila O'Flanagan Connections: Sort (silly) stories about different people at a five star resort in the Caribbean. It was light and just what I needed the week we moved house!
38. Everything and Nothing by Ariminta Hall.....reminded me of "Hand that rocks the Cradle" film years ago. Readable and not too tense. Set in London.
39. Now reading The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes by Anna McPartland: Set in Dublin with funny Irish wit about a lady dying of cancer. Shedding a few tears but it is a lovely read.

I am sure I read a couple more books but cannot remember! If I think of them I will put them up.

Hope everyone is well

• Fell ** Short sorry my typing skills have suffered due to not being on line :)

Morning Cote and Remus,

Yes, I guess I do generally prefer family/relationship/historical novels (quite like Hilary Mantel and Phillipa Gregory) and have absolutely no interest in sci fi/game of thrones/post apocolyptic type novels so I guess it does come down to personal taste and subject matter. Going on about feelings is a bore I agree!

Also agree with you Southeastdweller it is hard to be selective when you get pulled into recently published books that everyone is talking about that just aren't that good.

I did a quick tally, and slightly more than half of the books I read are by women. I prefer female voices with an acerbic take on families/relationships, both in fiction and non-fiction - there are plenty of them out there.

Women's writing is not co-terminous with chicklit (and I realize that nobody here actually claimed that).

Oh Remus, you didn't like GoT??? If I recall, the third is where the story really starts to come together. Did you read the one with the Red Wedding?I'm afraid I devoured them .

Cote you're not having much luck! Into the Wild is nothing as good as his mountain book. There is a bit later in the book where he recounts his own effort to climb The Thumb somewhere in Alaska I think which is riveting but otherwise I was disappointed. I must flick through my kindle and see if there is anything I've read recently that might interest you....

Am reading a book about Walmart at the moment. Not bad, but very much their voice and their narrative which is interesting of itself. A lot of it is told in form of quotes from managers etc which works better than usual for that type of thing. Hope to finish it soon.

I must check your list biblio acerbic women are always interesting to me, if they can be funny as well even better ! Is there anyone you'd particularly recommend?

Have to say I hate that chicklit seems to have become a derogatory term. Nothing wrong with reading about romance, love, children, marriage, family, divorce, these are huge topics and perfectly valid subjects for books and readers to explore

No one talks about of books with more "male" themes in a derisory way yet plenty are very poorly written and executed. Bad writing is not the preserve of women alas. I am glad of this thread to weed out some of the chaff!

56. Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

The Met's first and only apprentice wizard in decades is sent off to Herefordshire to investigate the disappearance of two young girls. Since there does not appear to have been magical involvement, PC Peter Grant stays on to offer his services to the local police, who need all the help they can get in the search. But he begins to suspect that things are not all they seemed, and that the invisible friend of one of the missing girls may possibly have something to do with it.

This one feels like a bit of a filler before the hunt continues for the rogue wizard in London, but it was entertaining enough.

wilting - I'd love a recommendation, thanks

"Have to say I hate that chicklit seems to have become a derogatory term. Nothing wrong with reading about romance, love, children, marriage, family, divorce"

The problem with chick-lit imho is not the topics but the light, superficial, and quite often dumb way in which it portrays them. Not that I would read about those topics anyway myself.

"No one talks about of books with more "male" themes in a derisory way"

Yes, they do. I believe you are talking about "dick-lit"

Personally, I'd read dick-lit rather than chick-lit any day. Quite enjoy my Jack Reacher books once in a while.

I think Raymond Chandler might be the closest I get to dick-lit.

40 Into The Wild - Jon Krakauer

This was disappointing. A very long-winded, repetitive, ultimately less-than-enlightening account of a young man's very ill-prepared attempt to live off the land in Alaska, within 120 days of which he managed to kill himself of starvation. I had high hopes for this book because I had loved the author's book Into Thin Air, his personal account of the 1997 Mt Everest disaster, but its only truly interesting part was where he talks about his own climb of The Thumb, as wilting said.

What I got from this book was that Chris McCandless was an affable idiot, and that I must get the DC's youthful energies channeled into some relatively safe sport or hobby before the end of their schooling, lest they find some exciting, romantic, creative, and possibly delusional way to quickly kill themselves.

23. The Wicked And The Witless - Hugh Cook

Book 5 of my favourite ten-part fantasy series. I won't bore everyone with the details but if anyone ever gets as far as digging out books 1-4 of the series then you'll want to keep going!

Re: female writers, I have to agree that sadly very few of the books on my bookshelf are written by women. But I love Hilary Mantel and also Angela Carter who is one of my very favourite writers in the world.

23. the Gathering by Anne Enright. Sat on my bookshelf for years, I think it was a gift. Booker prize winner.

So after reading this book I have the following questions: WHY do so many writers who have amazing skills with words insist on writing about unsympathetic fictional characters with utterly miserable lives? Why do they insist on writing about a terrible family secret that comes to light and has a massive impact on all and sundry? And why do they insist on throwing in a few horribly coarse words and sex scenes which have no relation to the story, and are presumably just there to shock? And why do these books win major prizes?

ARGH - you can probably guess I did not really rate it