50 Book Challenge 2015 Part Five

[southeastdweller]

Thread five 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, third thread here, and fourth thread here.

Happy reading

I have a terminal illness and my life is short. I used to trudge through books I was bored by but now I definitely give up on them if they've not grabbed me!

Oh Gerty not sure what to say really but I hope reading is helping you in some small way

Reading is my wonderful escape :)

Gerty that is tough. Are you at home at least?

Just read Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, which I've often seen recommended on here. I expected to like it - I enjoy slightly quirky older books - but it really didn't do it for me, I just wanted to shake all of the characters.

It was kind of an anti-Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, I suppose, and Lorelei and her friends definitely appeal to me more.

Remus, I really like the Mortal Instruments series, but I have to say that I only read them from no. 2 onwards, having seen the film of no. 1. If I'd started with City of Bones (which I've subsequently read), I can't imagine having continued with the series. I do like a trashy romance, though, and they absolutely hit that spot for me (and she even almost - though not quite - manages to make her bad-boy hero feminist friendly).

wilting yes, at home... Lots of time to read. I'm used to the fact of my health now so am making the most of the days when I can.

I hope this thread is if done use to you too Gerty Honestly, showing my age here now, but isn't the Internet GREAT

Hey and Sadik I like the occasional trashy romance too!! Do you have any author you keep an eye on? I still re-read Jilly Cooper!

Gertie - so sorry to hear that.

Book 134
The first Merrily Watkins novel - can't remember the writer and cba to look it up, because this book was stupid. It had a couple of interesting characters and got mildly diverting for a bit in the middle, but I hated the beginning and really hated the end and there was a lot of ridiculous stuff in the middle too. One of the best characters dies, largely as a plot device, which was even more annoying. The main character is a PITA, it's got loads of nonsense about praying and some really embarrassingly awful country bumpkin dialogue. I do not recommend it. Sorry to whoever recommended it but this book was absolutely not for me. I only finished it because I was desperate.

And I'm behind too. This year has NOT been a good one, reading-wise. I've given up on loads and wasted too much time finishing books I haven't enjoyed. I need a couple of really good ones to see me through to the end of the year now.

Gerty - I don't know what to say, but I'm glad you find comfort in reading. Do you have a favourite genre? I love a good thriller/crime novel.

Thank you all. I love modern classics and contemporary fiction, the odd chick lit!, the odd thriller, quite eclectic tastes really. The key thing for me is engaging characters, no matter how awful the characters are - so long as I can understand them and their motives...

I'm only on pg 189 of Faber's Crimson Petal but am gorging on all the wonderful descriptions. I liked his last novel but haven't read anything else by Faber. But I understand that each of his books are so different from one another. What a writer!

86. The Spirit Box by George Mann

As the German zeppelins rain down bombs on London, Dr John Watson finds himself summoned by Mycroft Holmes to reunite with his old companion, as Sherlock Holmes comes out of retirement to solve three unexplained deaths. An MP has drowned himself in the Thams, following delivery of a pro-German speech in the House. A soldier calls for surrender to Germany before feeding himself to a tiger. A suffragette renounces women's liberation and later dies under a train. But is there more to these apparent suicides than meets the eye? And what is the connection with the mysterious Spirit Box?

Not quite a Conan Doyle, but Mann is a writer I like (his main series is steampunk) and it was a good read.

no 85 Rachel Abbott Sleep Tight

Another quick easy to read thriller. , a bit predictable but I still enjoyed it

When Olivia Brookes calls the police to report that her husband and children are missing, she believes she will never see them again. She has reason to fear the worst; this isn’t the first tragedy that Olivia has experienced.

Now, two years later, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Douglas is called in to investigate this family again, but this time it’s Olivia who has disappeared. All the evidence suggests that she was here, in the family home, that morning. But her car is in the garage, and her purse is in her handbag – on the kitchen table.

The police want to issue a national appeal, but for some reason every single picture of this family has been removed from albums, from phones, from computers.

And then they find the blood…

Chillie Quite fancy that - have read and enjoyed a couple of his Steampunk books.

It's the second Sherlock Holmes one Mann has written Remus. The first was The Will of the Dead and did have some steampunk elements, whereas this one is more straightforward Holmes. They both include Sir Maurice Newbury and some other of his characters though.

55. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell

Perfection. This exquisite book is the story of a Dutch clerk sent to Japan in late 18th Century to work at the Dutch trading concession bordering Nagasaki and a young Japanese midwife. The author being David Mitchell, it is also the story of humanity's best vs its worst, corruption, greed, and slavery as well as courage, integrity, and understanding. Clash of cultures and mentalities. The dawn of science and the crooked path that doctors took to unlock the secrets of the human body. The beauty and fragility of life. Injustices and cruelty people inflict upon each other. And the strokes of luck (fate?) that shape our destinies.

It's historical fiction at its best and I can only compare it to This Thing Of Darkness.

I bought Thousand Autumns a few weeks ago at 99p in the kindle daily deal. Have been waiting for the right moment to read it. It sounds wonderful. Something to get completely immersed in. Reading your review, Cote, makes me want to read it soon :)

Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge

A young girl wakes up, apparantly from a fever following an accident; her memories seem to be unreliable, and her younger sister is terrified of her. She's insatiably hungry, and sheds dead leaves from her hair. The book follows her as she figures out what has happened, and why.

I always like Hardinge's novels, so I wasn't surprised to enjoy this one. The plot is less outrageously tangled than in her other books, but her characters are as good as ever, and the alternate-history 1920s works well.

Duchess - That's when I bought it, too Definitely read it soon.

I don't know what I can read now that will not be a huge disappointment in comparison, though. I feel bereft at the loss of that world Mitchell crafted. All those characters I got to know so well

Btw, I switched between audio version & Kindle book and must say that audiobook is fantastic. Whoever the voice artist is, he is brilliant with various Japanese and Dutch accents.

Have bought, 'The Will of the Dead' on Kindle - looking forward to it.

Is the 1000 Autumns really on a par with, 'This Thing of Darkness,' Cote? Really, really? They have it in the library, and I suppose I 'could' give it a go, albeit reluctantly!

Remus - Start reading it with the low expectations that you already have and I am sure that you will like it Seriously, I think you will agree with me regarding the similarities with This Thing Of Darkness - tales in distant lands that take place in early 1800s, differences and difficulties between people of very different cultures, greed & corruption, decency & dignity, slavery, etc.

It is also very well written, brilliant in detail and execution. Pure pleasure to read even in the beginning when there really isn't much happening and Mitchell is just setting the scene.

Every single character is so individual and so memorable. Pretty much all of them get their moment, where we learn about their lives and struggles.

Also, after about 50% or so, the plot really picks up and you just have to find out what happens next. I couldn't put it down over the past 48 hours ---and barely spoke to DH & DC-

Okay - will pick it up next time I'm in the library.

Cote - 1000 Autumns is one of my all time favourite books, it really was difficult to get into another book after that one. I may need to read it again soon! I assume you've read some of his others? 1000 Autumns is my fave but I loved Cloud Atlas too.

I think the only books I've read recently that I loved almost as much are The Narrow Road to the Deep North and All the Light we Cannot See.

I'm reading The Gift of Rain right now and really enjoying it.....I think it was recommended by someone who also likes David Mitchell.

95. Problems with People: Stories – David Guterson
    I found this collection of short stories to be very average and rather dull. Thinking back, there’s not one specific story that stood out for me or that I can particularly remember, whereas the George Saunders and Joyce Carol Oates stories I read before this book are still going round my head.

96. The Orchardist – Amanda Coplin
    Agggghhhhh, I should have listened to Southeastdweller and given up because life really is too short to read this book. I am more like tumble and cote in that I can’t give up on a book once I have started it.
    My advice is do not read this! Well, unless you want to read a book where nothing happens, the characters are dull/annoying/spineless, oh and did I mention that nothing happens? It took me ages to read this irritating book because it started out ok but then it got worse and then it got beyond worse and then I didn’t care and couldn’t be bothered.

Set in the USA at around the time of the advent of the railways, it is the story of a lonely man, an orchardist, still mourning the mysterious disappearance of his sister many years previously. When two heavily pregnant young girls steal some fruit from his market stall it sets off a train of events…tragedy…blah,blah, blah…

Sorry to hear about your illness Gerty

Cote, I really want to read a Thousand Autumns too! I did love This Thing of Darkness so anything as good as that would be wonderful.
I love this thread for good recommendations

Remus, I know you don't like Dickens (which is wrong, obvs) but do you like Trollope? You may well have read them but I enjoyed The Way We Live Now and Can You Forgive Her? Or some Thomas Mann, such as Buddenbrooks or The Magic Mountain. Probably more suited to you than Phil Rickman