50 Book Challenge 2015 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

Thread six 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. 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, fourth thread here and fifth thread here.

How did you get on this year?

Me too. I'm going to give it another go soon. I rushed through so quickly looking for the good bits that maybe I didn't give it a chance. Perhaps if it had been by a lesser writer I'd have loved it, if that makes any sense.

Remus you have just reminded me, I wanted to read HhhH when it first came out but it was too expensive. I have now added it to my list

Added to my list too in the interests of expanding my reading. Along with Hyperion which Cote recommended.

131. Revelation by C J Sansom. That was a rollicking good story. Serial killer obsessed with the prophecies of the Book of Revelation, involving many real figures from history - Catherine Parr, Sir Thomas Seymour, Thomas Cranmer and many more. Thrilling stuff. But I think I will take a break from the world of Matthew Shardlake for a little while before reading the final two.

Best - I'm planning to make a start on The Road to Little Dribbling this week so will keep you posted with my thoughts. I remember loving Notes from a Small Island so hope this will be as good.

Golden Son is 99p!!!!

Would second HHhH too, really original fascinating book.

This thread is just what I need. I was writing a list of small changes for 2016 and no 7 was read more. In the spirit of continued self improvement ( ) books 1 & 2 will be "stuffocation" and "how to do everything and be happy".

Will need some decent fiction to counter balance

I haven't kept up with posting as much as I should, but I do try to keep up with the thread and have enjoyed it very much. I also find it is great for book recommendations!

I haven't managed to get to 50, I'm currently on number 43 which is The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. I bought this months ago but I have been waiting until I had time to read it in big chunks, as I have loved all her previous books and wanted to saviour this one. As my DDS got a new WiiU for Xmas they have busy playing it and I have had much more time than usual to read.

My dh kindly bought me a £25 Kindle voucher for Xmas and I've been buying some books in the Kindle 12 days of Christmas sale. So far I have bought:
Capital - John Lancaster
Burial Rites - Hannah Kent
All the light we cannot see - Anthony Doerr
Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Travelling to Infinity: My life with Stephen Hawking - Jane Hawking.

I also have my eye on A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson. I loved Life after Life, but I'm waiting to see if the price drops even lower than its current price of £4.99 once the paperback version is released tomorrow (cheapskate!)

Happy New Year to everyone. I look forward to joining the 2016 thread.

Melmoth the Wanderer is £1.20 on the Kindle. Do I want to read it?

102. Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie. A re-read as I'd forgotten whodunnit. I don't think I read over a hundred books in an average year. I read a good lot of short ones this year. Also the rugby world cup meant I didn't watch any television at all for a month and the satellite dish has come off the roof three times with all the storms so I have been mostly television free since November. I have some lovely long books on my shelves for 2016. I have The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, The Bone People by Keri Hulme and The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. I'm probably going to read a thriller to ease me into the new year first though.

Hello, I'm joining as I'd really like to read more in 2016. I read for uni (I'm a postgrad English student) but spend far too much time mindlessly browsing online and don't read enough for pleasure even though I like it when I do. I've just brought a fire and am reading a book about Jimmy Saville I saw recommended on here (true crime books are a bit of a guilty pleasure) and I'm about to start my Christmas gift of House of Leaves. I've got a £40 Waterstones voucher too so am looking forward to some good recommendations on here.

Cote - I read about 30 pages, and decided I could live without reading another 30.

Just finished my last book of 2015, which has taken a while as we had lots of people staying over Christmas - I'm feeling slightly envious of those of you who've had extra reading time this week!

47. Hyperion by Dan Simmons. This was recently recommended by Cote as a good sci fi book for beginners, and I can see why. The amazing thing about it (for someone who hasn't read much sci fi) is the incredible depth and breadth of the author's creativity - there is such a wealth of detail in his future picture of our universe. The characters are interesting too. I really enjoyed this and will definitely get the sequel at some point.

Here's my complete list for the year, with my top five (already chosen for a different thread) in bold.

1. The Children's Book by AS Byatt
2. Us by David Nicholls
3. The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida
4. Daughter by Jane Shemilt
5. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
6. On The Left Side of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
7. The Wrong Knickers: a Decade of Chaos by Bryony Gordon
8. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
9. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

10. Judgement Day by Penelope Lively 11. Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer 12. Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie 13. Aftermath: on Marriage and Separation by Rachel Cusk 14. A Mother's Story by Amanda Prowse 15. Confessions of a Sociopath by ME Thomas 16. Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler 17 I'll Have What She's Having by Rebecca Harrington 18. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini 19. The History Boys by Alan Bennett 20. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins 21. Balancing Act by Joanna Trollope 22. What Maisie Knew by Henry James 23. Pear Shaped: The Funniest Book So Far this Year About Brain Cancer by Adam Blain 24. The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis 25. The First Fifteen Live of Harry August by Claire North 26. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield 27. The Martian by Andy Weir 28. Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson 29. Julia and Julie: my Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell 30. The Hours by Michael Cunningham 31. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 32. Funny Girl by Nick Hornby 33. The Children Act by Ian McEwan 34. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey 35. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman 36. An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris 37. The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir 38. The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer 39. Dead Babies and Seaside Towns by Alice Jolly 40. The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes 41. Alex's Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos 42. The Heart Broke In by James Meek 43. The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen 44. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson 45. Down Under by Bill Bryson 46. Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope 47. Life in a Cold Climate by Laura Thompson 48. So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson 49. Last Chance Saloon by Marian Keyes 50. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff 51. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara 52. Neurotribes: the Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently by Simon Silberman 53. Umbrella by Will Self 54. The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin 55. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald 56. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder 57. Hyperion by Dan Simmons

That's two more than I read in 2014, so I'm pleased

Happy new year to all of you, and looking forward to seeing you on the 2016 thread!

I'm looking forward to reading a few chunky books in early 2016-

This Thing of Darkness (have owned it for years but I kept loaning it out and not reading it)
Americanah
I know this much is true - by Wally Lamb
The Goldfinch
last 3 Game of Thrones

And less chunky:
In Siberia - by Colin Thubron
last two Rebus books by Ian Rankin

and have just downloaded Golden Son for 99p (thanks!) despite not really getting why Red Rising got such great reviews....

tumble - I'm glad you liked Hyperion

Remus - That doesn't sound good. I might give it a miss, then except that you gave up on Cloud Atlas. No, I have not forgotten

So my list below, not all read as I have a fairly long car commute and so I'm a fan of audible.

Interspersed with these we're a few Lee Child and James Patterson books (my guilty pleasure) and a couple of work related books that I won't taint the list with.

Many of my recommendations were from MN - some I loved, some I loathed but all these got finished. One or two didn't and so are not on list.

The Casual Vacancy - JK Rowling
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
The Murder Bag - Tony Parsons
The Establishment - Owen Jones
The Happiness Project - Gretchen Rubin
The Bone Season - Samantha Shannon
After Anna - Alex Lake
The Silkworm - Robert Gailbraith
Tap on the Window - Linwood Barclay
The Kind worth Killing - Peter Swanson
The Wicked Girls - Alex Marwood
The Slaughter Man - Tony Parsons
Apple Tree Yard - Louise Doughty
What Alice Forgot - liane Moriarty
The Girl with all the Gifts - MR Carey
How to Build a Girl - Caitlin Moran
The Amber Fury - Natalie Haynes
One Plus One - Jojo Moyes
The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey
The Last Anniversary - Liane Moriarty
Career of Evil - Robert Gailbraith
The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters
The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
I am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes
The New Girl - SL Grey
Life or Death - Michael Robotham
Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office - Lois P Frankel
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair - Joel Dicker
Born to Run - Christopher McDougall
The Monk who sold his Ferrari - Robin Sharma
The One Thing - Garry Keller
Little Lies - Liane Moriarty

Project - Have you been reviewing the books you read on the thread? I don't remember anyone talking about having read Born To Run - I would have enjoyed talking to you about it

Queen of the Tearling - Erika Johansen
The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters

I liked Queen of the Tearling but it wasn't blow-your-mind amazing. Not sure why it's stood out enough to be made into a film with Emma Watson, but I'm still going to read the next one.

Paying Guests really gripped me. I had to force myself to put it down at quarter past 1 this morning so I could get some sleep. It has a lovely spooky, full of suspense section where the pace is relentless.

cote no I'm totally new to this thread or is there another thread for reviews?

I dip in and out of other reading threads as a lurker which is where many of my recommendations come from (casual vacancy, paying guests, snow child) but born to run was a random choice if my own which I really enjoyed.

Last book of the year for me Book 87 The Secret History by Donna Tartt - really enjoyed it and a great book to end the year on 😄

Got some great reads lined up for 2016 and looking forward to a new thread - Happy New Year everyone

Yay I hit my target of 25 books. My last one was a knitting book.

Project - We review books on this thread. Stick around and you'll see

I found Born To Run very interesting, too, reading it at a time when I was benched from running due to a running injury. It was fascinating to read about this tribe in Mexico whose members run 100+ km in a day for fun, on cardboard for shoes, and never have an injury. The explanation made perfect sense to me and I started running with a conscious mid-foot strike from then on. It was a revelation.

It is also written very well, a lot of fun, and has some very unconventional cast of inspirational characters. I would recommend it to everyone here.

These are my last books for 2015.

71. The Dark is Rising –Susan Cooper. This is the second book in the Dark is Rising books. It is the night before Wills’s 11th birthday when he discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones to be born. He is the seventh son of a seventh son. This is a reread of a book that I have not read since childhood and it is more magical and mesmerising now then it was then. Will with the help of Merriman and some of the Old ones has to find the six signs to stop the Dark from rising and bringing its evil to the world. Wonderful, wonderful book.

72. Winter Solstice – Rosamunde Pilcher. I have never previously read anything by Rosamunde Pilcher and I picked this up on a kindle deal coming up to Xmas. It is not my type of book at all, however it was a nice, gentle Christmassy read. The two main characters are Oscar who has been recently bereaved and Elfrida his friend who move to Oscar’s house in Scotland a few weeks before Christmas. Elfirda’s cousin and niece come to stay as does Sam the recently separated rich, handsome businessman. It was fairly predictable in that everything works out in the end and while I wouldn’t rush to read another by the same author I actually found it quite pleasant. My mother would have loved it!

This was a good year for reading and I am so looking forward to next years's challenge. I think I might start with the new Robert Galbraith next so that should be my first 2016 read. I have vowed not to buy any books for the next three months to allow me to catch up on the pile beside my bed and all the unread books on my kindle. I am going to have a final browse through the current kindle sale to see if there is anything that is on my wish list before midnight tonight and my buying ban comes into force.

Thank you all for your company throughout the year and I wish you all a happy, healthy and book filled 2016.

62. The Bellini Card - Jason Goodwin

This was perfect to end the year with It is the 3rd in the Inspector Yashim series that takes place in the last couple of decades of the Ottoman Empire, with Yashim the Eunuch sent to solve/investigate delicate matters for the Sultan.

1st book in the series (Janissary Tree) won him overnight fame and several awards. This one doesn't disappoint, either. The author is a historian who clearly knows a lot about this era and its customs, and manages to evoke an authentic, almost wistful, atmosphere for these books. Errors ruin a book for me, but I can't say I have noticed any in this series, except some spelling mistakes (which I'll blame the editor for, not the author).

The new padishah Abdülmecit summons Yashim and sends him to Venice to find and procure a rumoured portrait of his ancestor Mehmet the Conqueror (who conquered Constantinople/Istanbul at the age of 21) painted by Bellini.

Sadly, I am guessing that there will not be more than maybe 1 or two sequels after this one, as Abdülmecit was the last Ottoman padishah before the empire was broken up after WWI. I love a good series of historical thrillers.

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Errors in the book (because I can't stop myself ):

what Muslim would seek to buy what the sultan himself had pronounced forbidden?’ The word was harem.
No, actually, the word is haram (forbidden). Harem is where the sultan's women live.

Kayzeri Kayseri

Bayezid Beyazid

Meliha hanum Hanim (= Ms Meliha)

kuymak kaymak

'Olmaz' ' Olamaz '. ‘Impossible?’ Palewski echoed.

I still liked it