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

[Sonnet]

whippetwoman to your last comment!

[AtticusPlatypus]

I've been pondering whether to buy the Booker shortlist too Whippet (£30 from 'The Book People' or c.£33 on Kindle) but I've heard there's an inordinate amount of violence in this year's selection. I'm not completely averse to the odd violent scene but I'm not sure I can take a full six novel's worth so I might be a little selective. I read somewhere that Hanya Yanagihara's 'A Little Life' is tipped to win, and the synopsis makes it sound like a good read, so I might start there...

[AtticusPlatypus]

novels' worth. Gaaaaah. I hate bad grammar, especially when it comes from me.

[CoteDAzur]

Hi all - I just wanted to let you know that there is a book called Gallipoli among today's Kindle deals, which is apparently the definitive book on the Gallipoli campaign although it's written decades ago. I just bought it. If some of you might like to read it more or less together, it could be interesting to share our thoughts on it - from both sides of the war, so to speak.

[wiltingfast]

Gallipoli, that's WW1? Am v stuck into WW2 currently but will check it out... is it very militaristic or does it give political and social context too?

[southeastdweller]

I haven't been impressed with the two Booker long listed novels I've read - The Illuminations and The Green Road, both of which thankfully didn't get through to the shortlist. Have bought the Anne Tyler book and A Little Life as they seem to be more my kind of thing.

[CoteDAzur]

wilting - Yes, Gallipoli was in WWI. Here it is, if you want to check it out.

[tumbletumble]

43. The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen. I though this was excellent - interesting and well explained. It's so depressing to read about how Russia was edging towards democracy in the 1990s and, thanks in a large part to this one man, is now as far away as ever.
    
    
44. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, about a girl called Sophia who spends summers on a tiny Finnish island with her father and grandmother. This is a lovely little book, and just what I felt like after the one above!
    
    
45. Down Under by Bill Bryson, inspired by all the Bryson love earlier on this thread. Fab.

[AnonymousBird]

tumble - Your no. 43, I totally agree with you. Quite a chilling and unsettling read.

58. Villa America
59. Summertime (audio)

Now on:
60. Late Fragments by Kate Gross (get the tissues out..)
61. Soul of Discretion by Susan Hill - Serrailler No. 8 - audiobook. Gutted this is the last in the series, I am properly addicted, done the whole lot in under a year.

[CoteDAzur]

I got that Putin book as a Kindle Deal. Good to hear it's worth reading

[Lilaclily]

no 76

Asking For It by Louise O'Neill

Blimey where to start with this one !
It's categorised in my local library as teen plus and I guess it has a lot to say to a YA audience about going out , drugs , drinking , social media , Friends , family and bullying

But oh my god it's bleak ! Emma , the most pretty and popular girl in sixth form goes to a party and is gang raped . The book covers the aftermath , the fact that she can't remember anything but photos are all over fb and snap chat :-( it's chilling but also interesting in seeing how society , her teachers & parents , struggle to cope with it
The ending wasn't as uplifting as I'd hoped but ultimately shows how poorly some elements of our society deal with rape

It's a book I can't say I enjoyed but it got me thinking which I guess was the point

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Thanks, Whippet.

Book 120 - 'Drive' by Daniel Pink
This was a work read and was pretty interesting overall. It's about developing intrinsic motivation and a sense of autonomy and looking at scientific and organisational studies with this in mind. I found it a bit too corporate in places though, and was disappointed with the 'solutions' section, which didn't actually seem to have any.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Blimey, Lilac. That sounds a bit full on. I honestly believe in teens reading what they want to, and would never attempt to 'police' reads, but I do think that some writers are setting out more and more to be 'issues' driven and that some are therefore pushing to be more and more outrageous/explicit in what they choose to cover. It's a delicate balance, I think, between using literature as a forum of safety for learning about the world, and it all becoming a bit too much. Depends how things are done, I guess.

[Lilaclily]

Totally agree Remus ! Considering the main character is 18 although at school it's very full on

Esio xx

[BestIsWestOfGallifrey]

Disappointed here too.

64 Going with the Grain - Susan Seligson. American travel book about bread eaten in different countries. Ok in parts but the author keeps writing about how everyone loves her and how marvellous she is.

[DinosaursRoar]

48. A Morbid Taste for Bones - Ellis Peters. First Cadfael book. I didn't like it, a bit plodding and too obvious who'd 'done it'.
    
    I've a huge list of books to read and just can't decide what I want next. Still, only 2 to go to the original 50 target. I do feel I should perhaps read a few classics or intelligent books to improve the general tone of my 50 list, looking back, it's all a bit fluffy with a lot of dead bodies...

[tumbletumble]

Dinosaurs, that's the good thing about reaching 50 with 3 months to spare! You can read all the long difficult books that you didn't want to read at the beginning of the year because it would have made you feel like you were falling behind. Or is that just me...?!

[MegBusset]

30. The Wishstone And The Wonderworkers - Hugh Cook
    
    Volume 6 of the classic fantasy series, just fab stuff if you like funny and clever fantasy.

[Calfon]

Lilaclily I haven't read Asking For It but read Only Ever Yours and I have to say I did find it quite thought provoking.

Yes Cedar Jasper Fforde is certainly inventive. I really enjoy him and love his style.

[Honey2006]

41. A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulkes
I didn't think I was going to like this as much as I did, but I absolutely loved it. Five short stories that are vaguely linked into a novel. He writes about an almost complete life. The first is about a fairly dull young man in the 1930s (school teacher and cricketer) who finds himself in the most hellish part of the second world war shovelling the remains (and almost remains) of human bodies in the death camps. It's I think about the way life turns on a decision, a betrayal. Also it does a bleak ending about how his life is shattered by this experience, and then a moment of grace. Very moving.

The second one was the one that stuck with me because of a line in it - the story is about a Victorian boy in a workhouse who makes his way out of it, marries and then has a complicated relationship. It's very coolly written, but there is a line in it about how you never really know your own life until the end, and by then it's too late.

Third one is great too - set in dystopian future Italy about twenty years time, they discover the physical bit in the brain that makes the soul, the self. It's all a bit mundane and is about the atoms that bind us. But still despite knowing that, she is haunted all her life by love, even though it's ridiculous.

The fourth one is Jeanne, the most ignorant peasant in France in Napoleonic times. I liked this one a lot, it covers her whole life but there is a flashback at the end to a moment that transfigures her. I think about it and am not sure what it means.

The last one was the one that moved me the least. So I'm not going to write about it.

Loved this book, it's very existential but with moments of grace and beauty. I'm not sure, it fits in with my thoughts on getting older and what does it all mean in any case.

It's weird, the books that I am not sure about are the ones that stick with me. The easy reads are gone in a heartbeat.

[DinosaursRoar]

Tumble - definately! I'm going to read "Snow Blind" next - which someone recommended on here, but I'm waiting until this evening to start it so I can properly enjoy it!

Honey - sounds like another to add to my "to read" list, which oddly gets longer, not shorter as the year goes on!

[DuchessofMalfi]

I'm adding that one to my list too, Honey. It sounds intriguing, just the kind of thing I like :)

[Ellisisland]

No.38 Lionheart by Sharon Penman

Story of the 3rd crusade of Richard I Lionheart. There is a LOT of historical research in this book so if you are into the facts of this period then you'll love it if you find battle scenes and the political stuff tedious you'd hate it ! Once again Penman has managed to make me develop a crush on a historical figure -as she says in her authors note, there is a reason he was Eleanor of Aquitaine's favourite son!
I have the sequel in my to read pile but it's a doorstop of a book so am reading a Patrick Gale one that I am really liking so far.

For all the Bill Bryson fans a film is coming out of his book A Walk In The Woods starring Robert Redford as Bryson

[gailforce1]

Very sorry Ellisisland but the reviews of this film in today's papers have been poor. Very disappointed as I too was looking forward to this.

[Ellisisland]

gail oh that's a shame. Sounds like it will be a catch it when it's on tv instead type of film.

I love Bill Bryson though. He does the voice tour at the Roman Baths in Bath and it's very good.