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

Definitely think she had The Secret History as a strong influence, which is fine. I have no issues with that, but if you're going to do that, then for heavens sake subvert people's expectations and change the ending! Particularly with crime. It's been a while since I read it though, so maybe she did and I'm just misremembering. It's a shame because otherwise I loved it.

Loved the ending of In the Woods too. So creepy the way she writes about the killer...

But yeah, no new plots under the sun. I think I've reached peak-murder-mystery (too many Christies) because I can spot a familiar trope a mile off now.

98. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal - Jeanette Winterson. Astoundingly good autobiographical recollections of her fervently religious adoptive mother and of her search for her birth mother. One of the best books I've read this year. In many ways the first half of the book reminded me of Alan Bennett's Writing Home but with added cruelty. I read Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit when it was first published and I didn't like it and so I've ignored anything else she's written but I may go back and read some more now.

Only two books to go to make it to 100. I didn't manage it last year so determined to make it this year.

#28. What the is normal? - Francesca Martinez. Yes, that actually is the title. In case you don't recognise the name, Francesca Martinez is an actress and comedian. She's starred in Grange Hill and featured in Extras. She kicks out at labels and perceptions of disability in an honest, refreshing and humorous way. Just read it!

I have reached 50! Well, 51 actually.. I only read 34 books last year so feel a real sense of achievement and love the range of books this year, mostly inspired by this fantastic thread.

50. Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know by Ranulph Fiennes (Audiobook)

Wow, what a guy. I feel exhausted just thinking about all the exploring/adventures he has done. Marathons, Everest and The Eiger all over the age of 60 years! Interesting stuff, although I did find my attention wandering through the middle half of the book - too much of Arctic/Antarctic for me.

51. Travels with Charley:In Search of America by John Steinbeck

I love his writing! Just lovely, evocative, thought-provoking reading. Thanks for the recommendation Remus.

Well done, ShakeIt!

Shake - So glad you enjoyed, 'Travels With Charley'. For me, the Antarctic and Arctic bits were the best parts of, 'Mad, Bad' but I am a bit of a polar geek!

56. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. This is a kind of beginner's guide to philosophy, told through the eyes of a teenage girl called Sophie, starting with the Ancient Greek philosophers and ending in the late 20th century. Philosophy is not a subject I know much about, so I think I found this a lot more interesting than if I had studied the subject - many of the names and ideas were familiar to me, but others were new and thought-provoking, although obviously with such a broad scope each one had to be covered fairly superficially. Some bits dragged a bit for me, but overall I enjoyed this.

Now reading Hyperion. Great so far!

Ha! Yes, I thought they might be Remus, hence why I think a lot of the countryside/mountaineering books that are highly recommended on this thread may not be for me..

Finally made it to 50!

50. Hercule Poirot's Christmas - loved this, by far the best of the 3 Christmas murder mysteries I've read this year. It was also a million times better than the Mysterious Affair at Styles which I read earlier in the year, not realising it was her first Hercule Poirot and definitely not her best.

That's probably enough murder for me this Christmas, I think I need a change of genre....

well done lady on getting to 50!

I've made my goal, which was 30.
30. Notes from a small island - Bill Bryson
Next year I will definitely take people's recommendations more seriously. My husband has been telling for years to read Bill Bryson, I've read two by him this year and enjoyed them so much. So dryly funny, and so true about how British life is.

31. The tales of Max Carrados - Ernest Bramah This was a free book from Audible and any Audible members if you just go to the online shop then it's on the rotating advert on the home page and you can download it free. Read by Stephen Fry and whilst less than two hours long, a lot happened in that time and enough to build up a pretty strong character. Basically a bit like Sherlock Holmes, detective novel. Happy to have it for free!

I only found this thread a month or so ago but have read it all & have really enjoyed hearing about what you have all read & have gone on to read some of the recommendations.

I hope there will be another thread for 2016 & I'd love to join in.

Book 84 - The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
A supernatural tale set in post war rural Warwickshire. Not the best of hers I have read but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Her writing evoked wonderfully the era and minutiae of every day life.

Just started Book 85 The Secret History by Donna Tartt

pterobore - I got the free Audible book a couple of days ago. Glad you said it is good, because I wasn't sure whether I wanted it, remembering last year's freebie (or rather not remembering it :o).

Currently reading, and enjoying very much, Sovereign, the third in the Shardlake series by C J Sansom.

Wolfsbane by Rhiannon Held (Book 4 in the Silver series). American werewolf pack receives an envoy from a Russian pack and danger ensues. A bit of a let-down - the main characters from the first 3 books didn't get that much page time and my sister said the ending was really good, so I was expecting big things and it didn't deliver.

I read about three-quarters of The Castle of Wolfenbach, and it started off being highly melodramatic and very funny in a totally unintentional way (people get killed off so easily just because the author wants rid of them) but it's now gone a bit boring. The heroine has entered a convent to get away from her guardian who wants to marry her and we've digressed into a predatory older woman having designs on the hero. Meh. The whole thing reads exactly like the stories written by Jo and Meg in Little Women - alas, she was dead too! And so ends the Tragedy of Something-or-Other. It's probably one of the novels those stories were based on. I will go back to it but I was so hungover on Saturday that I read a bit of Apassionata instead. Abby is such a cow all the time.

Mr Mercedes by Stephen King is 99p on the Kindle.

Thanks Cote, just bought it.

I have made a New Year's Resolution, no purchasing of any books for the first 3 months of 2016 (other than book club), as I have a shelf full plus at least 10 on Kindle!

The recommendations on here are just sooooo tempting!

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery is now £1.99 on the Kindle. Sorry ladydepp

And for anyone wanting to read this year's Man Booker winner, A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, it is currently 99p.

Cote - thankfully I've already read Do No Harm!

And anyway, my resolution doesn't start until Jan 1st

Thanks Quogwinkle. Like Ladydepp I also had vowed not to buy any new books for a few months until I cleared some if the backlog but I have just given into temptation and bought Mr Mercedes and am now going to go and buy the Marlon James book. Where do you see these offers? They don't seem to be in the daily deal lists.

Calvin - I subscribe to the ereaderIQ website. It's free and you can track the prices of books you're interested in. They notify you when the price drops and you can bbc also see a list of daily price drops. Well worth doing just so you don't miss anything worth having :)

Calfon not Calvin . Autocorrect fail.

There seems to be quite a few price drops for recently published books on Amazon Kindle at the moment. I've just bought Sweet Caress by William Boyd for £1.99. Kate Morton's most recent novel The Lake House is also reduced, to £2.39.

Quog - thanks for the tip on the website, looks great, I shall add my wish list to it in 2016!

I have just purchased the last 3 Game of Thrones books for £10 and free postage from Amazon. I needed a little break from reading them but I am now keen to get stuck in again.

Currently reading the Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse, only just started but enjoying the gothic feel and spookiness so far.