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

No 53

Gill Hornby The Hive
I was really looking forward to reading this as the storyline sounded right up my street - a gaggle of school mums fighting and bickering around PTA fund raising

However it introduced too many characters, too quickly and I didn't get time to know them. I didn't really care about them. Bits were really funny but it was too sterotypical for me, Bea was a nonsensical character!

34. Crash - J G Ballard

I was a bit disappointed by this, especially since I was a big fan of the film directed by David Cronenberg. The book is repetitive and doesn't ring real at all, whereas the film made it all seem ridiculous. Yes, it is still written by Ballard and so is good, but not as good as I thought it would be.

She had great material with the school gates theme in The Hive, and I agree the execution was lacking, esio. I do think she showed promise, though, and took out her new book from the library this week.

Book 23- the Red Road by Denise Mina.

I'm a huge fan of Mina and rate The End if the Wasp Season as one of my favourite crime fiction books.

The Red Road finds her on great form as usual.

Several story lines carefully crafted centred around two murders on the night Dianna was killed.
The lead character is a refreshing change a working class woman DI, happily married, no drink problem.

I think it's about time someone made this series for the telly.

I just realized that I've made a mess of a crucial sentence below in my review of Crash. It should read as follows:

The book is repetitive, doesn't ring real at all and makes it all seem ridiculous, whereas the film was eerie and felt plausible.

40. Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley
    Hadn't read the book, only watched the TV series so about time. Loved it. Are there any other books by Mary Wesley I should read?

41. The Wine of Angels (Merrily Watkins) By Phil Rickman
    I had seen it recommended here, but found it quite boring. Vicar moves to village with her daughter and some sort of mystery from the past which I just couldn't get in to. Also thought all the stuff about her daughter very boring. Yawn.

42. My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises by Frederik Backman
    For those who loves A Man Called Ove, this is Backman'a new book and it's wonderful like a fairytale. The protagonist is 7 year old Elsa. When her crazy grandma who was her best friend dies, Elsa is left with letters grandma left for her to deliver to various people to say she is sorry. Elsa goes on delivering the letters to various characters who touched her grandmas life and we get to know them and their stories. The character of Ove is her and all of Backmans characters seem to be a bit different, outsiders in life with a story to tell. Just like A Man Called Ove, this book is really funny, but also deep and sad and Backman has a gift for making me feel so many different emotions just from reading one page or even paragraph. I cannot praise this book enough. It's just wonderful. A genius writer whose books just seem to hit me straight in the heart.

Book 74 - 'The Language of Jane Austen' by Norman Page
A scholarly study of Austen's sentence structure, vocabulary choices, dialogue and use of letters, amongst other things. I loved it - but it did make my brain hurt a bit in places, and I had to get the dictionary out a couple of times! Recommended, for anybody who's an Austen buff.

Duchess - really glad you enjoyed, 'Dissolution.' The whole series is v well worth a read.

#34. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - a re- read of an old favourite after many, many years. My over riding feeling on reading this is to marvel that I have never before clocked just how horrible Mr Rochester is; talk about playing psychological games!

#35. Some Luck by Jane Smiley - a family saga based around the fortunes of a farming family from the US. Each chapter represents a year of the families' life. There was a good book lurking in here, but there were just too many characters and perspectives to really get involved with any one. The format of a chapter per year also slightly hampered the narrative. There are two more books in the trilogy, but I'm not sure I'll be bothering.

17. American Smoke - Iain Sinclair

Slow going, this one, though I enjoyed the journey; it's ostensibly about the Beat writers who inspired Sinclair as a young writer, but like all his books it twists and winds across continents, through time, dreams, memory and sometimes outright fantasy. I did enjoy it but not the easiest one for beginners to his work.

Remus where did you find The Language of Jane Austen - was it a library book?

I like the sound of it - am a big Austen fan - but even on kindle it's over £25 .. too much!

I got it in an academic second hand bookshop, HC. Sorry.

ABE Books have got it for a couple of quid.

Cheers Remus - have just ordered it. Would rather give ABE Books the money anyway.. thanks for the recommendation

44. The Body In The Library byh Agatha Christie

The body of a glamorous blonde is found one morning in the library of Gossington Hall, home of Miss Marple's friends Dolly and Arthur Bantry. No one knows who she is or how she got there, but she had been strangled. When she is identified as a dance hostess at a seaside hotel, Miss Marple and Dolly Bantry head for Danemouth to see if they can find the killer.

This is one of my favourite Miss Marple tales. There's much more going on than in some of them, and the variety of characters encountered in a seaside hotel adds more interest.

southeastdweller
really interested to see what her second is like as I agree she did show a lot of promise just missed the mark for me

what is it called ?

chilliejeanie - love love love that book, one of my all time faves :)

esio It's called All Together Now, about how a choir can change a community for the better. It's about I expect to start it in a couple of weeks time .

My 38th book of the year was Funny Girl, by Nick Hornby, brother of Gill.

This is a mildly amusing novel about the adventures of a northern girl who moves to London and, rather incredibly, quickly becomes a TV star on popular show. His writing on relationships is as astute and witty as ever, but I think the book would have been more enjoyable if he'd focused more either on the 'girl' of the title, or the personal lives of the main crew and her co-star of the show. I also felt the story ran out of steam 2/3 of the way through.

24 The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell. I thought this was a beautifully written novel with different perspectives and narrative which didn't seem to be just there to be clever but actually added features to the overall story. I felt very emotional reading about Esme's life - my mum had worked at an old fashioned "asylum" and she cared for the elderly whose stories reflected Esme's. I thought it showed some fascinating research but I did want to read more about Esme's life in between.

25 Big Little Lies by Lianne Moriarty - my first read by this author who is often recommended on this forum. Wow! Great structure and very observant of playground politics and parents. I enjoyed this a lot, and couldn't put it down. Definitely will read her others. It was subtly above other best selling thrillers. She has a great pyschological grasp of her characters.

Now reading White Teeth for a course and I Let You Go in between.

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you know that DS2 was born safely last week. He's gorgeous and I'm enjoying lots of newborn snuggles. My reading has taken a back seat for the moment but I guess that's inevitable for a while. I'll update once I've read a few more books! Hope you are all doing well.

Congratulations! Enjoy your little baby

Huge congratulations, Atticus. :) :) :)

Many congratulations, Atticus :)

Congrats, Atticus