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 love Cloud Atlas (so much that I got tired of reading "It makes no sense & there is no connection between the stories" and wrote a thread analysing it ). His other books that I have read (Ghostwritten & The Bone Clocks) were good but not anywhere near Cloud Atlas in greatness IMHO. 1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is, and without literary acrobatics & style changes to show off his prowess as an author. It is just sublime. I started and abandoned two books yesterday. Not much can live up to it

Have now added Thousand Autumns to my to-read pile. I loved Bone Clocks and Ghostwritten.

Great to hear good things of 100 Autumns! Bought it in kindle deal there recently, think i will read it next....

You might like Pandora's Star Cote i say cautiously, best sci fi I've read in ages.... it's a bit too dear at the mo, but it comes down to 99p or so every so often.

I'm still engrossed , really it is vg.

For anyone who liked Hyperion and Red Rising I think they would like this... huge world building, great characters, engrossing story.

Gosh – not been on here for ages so looking forward to re-reading and catching up…..

My books read since last posting:

Book 62: The Cypress Tree by Kamin Mohammidi - Memoirs of the authors flee form Iran. Rather disappointing as I was looking forward to an insight into how the real people of Iran lived and coped not the privileged few

Book 63 Joanna Trollope – Balancing Act - not read a Joanna Trollope Aga Saga for years. Was okay, a story concerning a family business and the family dynamics. Can’t remember much about it so says it all really.

Book 64 Animal Farm by George Orwell I have not read this since a teenager . A great read in one sitting. A fun yet cynical look on beginnings of a society. All animals are equal. Fantastic read.

Book 65 The Islanders by Pascal Garnier A short but fascinating novel and the length doesn't detract from the depth of characters or the plot. A strange tale, often chilling but also had is moments of humour.

Book 66 The House At Worlds End by Monica Dickinson
Book 67 Dora at Follyfoot – Monica Dickinson
Book 68 Flambards – KM Peyton

All fondly remembered from my childhood and enjoyed again just as much in my 40’s. A nostalgic rainy weekend well spent

Book 69 The Glass Room – Ann Cleeves - A Vera Stanhope novel, the fifth I think. I have enjoyed her previous novels (and loved the Shetland series) but this one didn't seem as good. The plot was very interwoven but I think the main reason was that I did not engage with the location or the main characters.

Just started Book 70 Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton. Bought it as a £1.99 kindle deal of the day. A dark and haunting thriller.

Gerty, so sorry to hear your news. Sympathy to you and Duchess too

53. The Lighthouse Stevensons, Bella Bathurst. Non-fiction account of the Stevenson family, four generations of whom (including, reluctantly, Robert Louis) built lighthouses all around the Scottish coast. Fascinating detail about the difficulties of weather, location, technology etc which they had to overcome.

54. Sister, Rosamund Lupton. Beatrice flies home from New York when her younger sister Tess goes missing. Tess is found dead, the police insist it's suicide, Beatrice is determined to prove otherwise. I found this irritating beyond belief. Clunky dialogue, annoying conversational style explained by narrator supposedly writing a letter to her dead sister, lots of red herrings followed by a twist flagged up ages before it happened, the narrator dropping in her thoughts about literature with no relevance to the plot (she is supposedly a Cambridge English grad but has a very shaky grasp of punctuation)...I could go on but won't. You get the picture.

55. Animal Farm, George Orwell. Short and powerful. I love the subtitle "A Fairy Story'.

56. The Magician's Nephew, C S Lewis. A comfort read. The beginning of the Chronicles of Narnia. Dated but still a great story.

57. The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood. Stan and Charmaine live in their car in a dystopian, post-economic crash America. They sign up to enter a new community where everyone spends one month in jail followed by a month working, in return for a perfect home and lifestyle. Things start to go wrong when they become curious about their 'Alternates' - the couple who live in the house during their month in jail. Interesting themes about what motivates humans - love, sex, power? - and suggestibility. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did - there's a lot of wry humour in it which I really enjoyed. This was only my second Atwood novel but I think I'll look out for more.

I love the sound of Thousand Autumns. Definitely going on the wishlist.

I finally remembered the two missing books I've read this year. They were Elizabeth is Missing and the latest Number One ladies detective agency (I should give these up but they only take a couple of days to read).

I was completely stuck post Career of Evil, knowing nothing can compete. But I've just finished

24. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene - a man selling vacuum cleaners and living in Havana is made an informant. With no idea what to do, and what he's doing, he basically makes it up as he goes along. Some of his lies come true and before he knows he's being taken seriously by the British Government. Quite funny in places, but I'm not sure I fully understood it all, perhaps I was looking into it too much. Reminded me of Catch 22 (which is far superior).

I feel at a loss with books lately and have now started Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson.

Can I ask what everyone's favourite classic is? I don't mind a more modern classic (like from 1920-70). I spend a lot of time fiddling around trying to find a new book to read (or listen to) and then just end up going back to an author I already know!

I read Capital last year and really loved it

Remus - I loved the Merily Watkins series BUT the first book is by far the worst. From memory it just seems to set out the background to the series. I seem to remember enjoying another book recently that you hated

Welcome Gertyboo and I am so sorry to hear of your situation. You will certainly get plenty of reading inspiration from this thread and I hope it provides an escape of some sort.

to Duchess and Ladydepp - having lost my own Father suddenly and unexpectedly almost 6 months ago I know what you are going through.

Here is to reading and the comforting distraction that it brings

Sonnet , those Follyfoot farm books were my favourites when I was younger !

Mine too Esiotrot2015 - loved them just as much now

I also loved the TV series - I think I was a little in love with Steve

I liked Follyfoot too, but Flambards even more. I re-read the first one a year or so back when DD had it home from school.

I'm currently working my way through books that have been sat on my bookshelf unread for ages, deciding whether to actually read or to get rid of. The charity shop pile has Small Earthquake in Chile (written from too biased a right wing view IMO) and a book about Cuba (same problem but from the left). Now reading The Modern State by Christopher Pierson which is definitely not light reading, but feels very timely in the light of the legal moves re. data collection.

87. The Demi-Monde: Winter by Rod Rees

I think this is the best of the bunch I picked up at the Reading Spa, although I've just started The King in the North today and that's pretty interesting so far.

The Demi-Monde is a computer game, in effect. It's a cyber-killing field, a virtual training ground for the US military where 30 million digital-Duplicates live and die. The Dupes are led by some of history's most vicious tyrants and war is a constant. Somehow Norma, the daughter of the US President, has got herself trapped in there, and Ella Thomas is sent to find her and get her out.

I was a bit wary to start with because Rees kept throwing in characters' thoughts in a way that would quickly become irritating, but he stopped that fairly soon. He does have a tendency to gloss over some elements, so we're just told briefly about a lucky series of coincidences that gets characters out of a tight spot, for example. But I really, really enjoyed this book. It's the first in a series so no doubt I will be picking up the rest in the near future.

Whippet have never managed to get more than a few pages into Trollope. I find it all a bit tedious and unwieldy - am I giving up too easily? If it is anything at all like Dickens, I want no part of it though!

"Sonnet" Book 2 may be a work of genius, but I suspect I'll spend the rest of my life never knowing.

23. A Vein of Deceit - Susannah Gregory. This is one of a (long) series featuring monk/physician Matthew Bartholomew. Set in Cambridge in the 1350s, this particular tale deals with a series of suspicious deaths, and some underhand dealings by one of Bartholomew's late colleagues. The plot was okayish, but there were a number of anachronisms which I found really annoying - people talking about nihilism (the term, afaik was not common parlance until C19) and the use of the word 'snide'. Having said all that, I'd probably read more of the same. Interesting that the monks seemed to have so many freedoms at this time.

24. The Fourth Bear - Jasper Fforde. Loved this. I've encountered Sergeant Mary Mary in other books by JF. This is the tale of a disappearing Goldilocks, a fourth bear, a murderous Gingerbreadman (homicidal maniac), GM gone wrong, illegal porridge dealing, Jack Spratt's second marriage, and living next door to Punch and Judy. I can't explain it, but it's well worth a read.

Ah yes Steve

at Remus & Esiotrot2105

Book 70 Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton : Set in harsh dramatic landscape of the The Falklands and with fascinating descriptions of the wildlife. It’s three years since Catrin’s two sons were killed in a tragic accident caused by a moment of carelessness by her close friend, Rachel. The anniversary of the accident is approaching and it seems as if Catrin might commit an act of revenge. In the meantime a small child has gone missing to joint another two who have gone missing in recent years. Are they linked?, Is Catrin involved?. A great quick read and a recommendation for anyone liking psychological thrillers.

Currently on a self imposed book purchase ban - so doing a similar thing to you Sadik

I have a pile of purchases from the charity shop in an unread pile so need to decide which ones I will read and which ones I will never get around to I also have some random fiction on my kindle. I hopefully have enough to keep me going to the year end (possibly beyond)

112. The Bronte Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects, Deborah Lutz. Non-fiction - using various artefacts to shine light on the lives of 19th century women in general and the Brontes in particular. Enjoyed this.

113. (Weird coincidence, Sonnet) a Monica Dickinson book I read many years ago, One pair of Feet. An account of her year spent in nurse training back in 1942. Amusing and unsentimental - a useful corrective to the Lucilla Andrews books I also gobbled down in my youth.

114. Engel's England, by Matthew Engel. He visits the different regions of England and tries to sum up their character. Not bad, just a bit plodding - over 500 pages and it felt like it.

(All non-fiction, Sadik so you're not alone).

Currently on Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and absolutely loving it. I was put off the Bronte's by the silliness of Wuthering Heights - I'm clearly an Anne B woman rather than an Emily one.

Gerty, sorry about your health situation, but I can enthusiastically support the idea of enjoying a big pile of books at this time. Sorry for those who've lost loved ones too.

Book 135 - 'March Violets' by Philip Kerr
The first in his Bernie Gunther detective series. I've read and enjoyed several of these this year (and only hated one of them!) but have read them completely out of order. This establishes the character and, whilst not the best I've read of his so far, I quite enjoyed it. There's a revolting rape scene at one point that I could have done without though. This is published as a huge volume with the first three in the series in it, so I'll be following it with 2 and 3, which I've also not yet read.

bibliomania: The Tenant of Wildefell Hall is surprisingly good, isn't it? I had very low expectations of it, as Anne is generally seen as just hanging on the coat tails of the reputations of the other two Brontes, but it's a damn fine read in its own right.

ptero, my favourite classic authors from that era are Graham Greene (but I see you don't need me to tell you that) and Virginia Woolf.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is probably my favourite of the Brontes' novels, closely followed by Agnes Grey. I think they're fascinating in the way they explore the role of marginalised women in the society of the time.

I do like Shirley, too, though, and the portrayal of the Luddites. Definitely can't be doing with Wuthering Heights.

(To be fair, I am guilty of reading novels with one eye on the economic and social history content - I like Mrs Gaskell's novels for this reason)

Should have been Monica Dickens in my last post, not Dickinson (and no apostrophe in Brontes plural. The shame).

Seems I'm not the only fan of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It's interesting to see Emily and Anne having such different takes on what it's like to fall for a wrong 'un: gloriously romantic v. poor life-choice. The introduction to my Kindle version was clearly written by an Emily fan, and is very apologetic about the feebleness of Anne's efforts by comparison, which seems harsh.

ooh.. I have One Pair of Feet on my bookshelf Bibliomania and not read it for years....fancy a re-read now.

Agnes Grey is my fave Bronte Novel

78. Capital - John Lanchester. Really enjoyed this, will look forward to the TV series. Sorry to hear your news Gertie.