50 Book Challenge 2016 Part One

[southeastdweller]

Thread one of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2016, 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.

Who's in for this year?

Oh I'm going to join too! Since changing my commute to by car instead of train I have much less reading time, particularly as I work full time, have a theree hour commute and studying with th ou as well. However, I do also manage to find a LOT of surfing time so going to try to switch things up a bit. I have a few books sitting in the spare room which we picked up from some friends moving back to Denmark so will start with those. It's also my goal to read at least 5 in German!

First book

1. Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Kate Atkinson

I guess this could be accurately described as a multi-generational family saga, but it doesn't really do it justice. The writing is so alive, and packed with jokes, references and allusions, it is fast and witty and just fun to read. It treats personal history with a cool impartiality, but then at certain moments she rips the distance out and you are suddenly more emotionally involved than you realised. There is a sequence involving a WWII air battle that is incredible. So well written.

Have started Gilead on the Kindle for if I'm up settling children, but want to start The Moonstone in paperback as having been holding back on it for ages. Also dug out my Pevear & Volokhonsky W&P, and have it on the bedside table.

I remember loving Behind the Scenes at the Museum but it's a few years since I read it and have forgotten a lot of the detail. Maybe time for a re-read.

I really liked Emotionally Weird which is another of Atkinson's. Human Croquet, not so much.

Greaterthanthesumoftheparts - audiobooks are perfect for car commute!
Have look at listening to them.
Recommendations are here

I went comfort buying books today as a rare shopping trip saw me at a Waterstines so I came home with

Grimm Tales by Philip Pullman
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe
The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

1. The Girl on The Train- Paula Hawkins

I'd actually started another book but revisited this in the bath (the over one's on kindle). I read it when I was in hospital last year but was on so much morphine I'd forgotten most of it . I thought the twist was quite predictable but I liked the style of the book and would read another book by Hawkins when she writes one. Overall a nice enjoyable, easy start to a year's reading.

1. Chance by Peter Dudgeon.

I stumbled across this on Kindle store. It was a 99p bargain so thought I'd give it a go. It was quite a gripping read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The ending leads you right into the sequel which I've just downloaded and that's going to be book number 2!

Oh can I join? Since having DD (she's 2 and a half) my reading has dropped off a lot. I intended to read 50 last year but only managed about 20 after being dragged into a few big books (One Hundred Years of Solitude, and a non-fiction book about the ravensbrück camp in ww2).

Right now I'm reading a book caked blood ties, it's quite catchy but i suspect a bit predictable. I'm going to read The Trial but Kafka next. Then something light to balance it out. You're all tempting me with war and peace though, and I know I can't read that in a week!

whataname I'm going to attempt to chip away at W&P over a number of weeks by reading a bit each night before bed, and have something else on the go for other times. That's the idea anyway!

natasha I liked Life After Life a couple of years ago, first one I'd read of KA's so now going back through her others. Looking forward to getting A God in Ruins in paperback, as BSaM was a bit annoying to read on Kindle, would have been useful to flip back and forth a bit.

Natasha Oh I know exactly what you mean about Denisov's dialogue! It definitely grates a bit. I'd love to know how Tolstoy wrote it in the original but, given that I only know about 5 words of Russian, that's not happening...

Very excited about the first episode tomorrow. Wish it was on tonight as DH is out, so perfect opportunity to watch it. Will be reading more instead - trying to hit a third of the way through.

Satsuki I love The Moonstone (and Wilkie in general tbh - did my dissertation on him). Have you read it before?

whataname I'm doing the same as Satsuki - I'm aiming to read W&P over about 6 weeks (started just before Christmas) and have something else on the go at the same time.

I'm pleased with my progress with The Poisonwood Bible. I'm on page 124 / 614 and I only started it yesterday. It is very good! I'm back to work on Monday so I need to break the back of this book over the weekend or I'll still be reading it when we get to Feb half term. I'm wondering if I'll manage 50 books this year but they won't all be as long as this one.

Count me in too please. I doubt it will be anything too heavy going but I don't read anything like nearly enough and could do with finishing what I start! Looking forward to seeing what people are reading and any recommendations though. I currently have two books on the go - 'The Rosie Effect' and 'After You.'

Muffintopmum - how are you finding After you?
I read 37 pages and is slow going. I loved many other books by this author and had high hopes for this one too.

I'd like to join in too. Think I started and forgot last year, or maybe the year before? Going to aim for 52, that's my good reads goal and I managed it two years out of three.

My first book is The Bone Clocks, so glad to see others recommending it. I'm about half way through and loving it.

Hello,
I'd like to join in too please!

I tend to have two books on the go at a time, one on my kindle, and a paperback to read when sitting by the side of the pool while my DS is having his swimming lesson.

At the moment I'm reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and A Dance with Dragons Part One by George RR Martin. Loving the peculiar children and just getting into the George RR Martin.

Evening all.
I finished my first book of the year last night ( I did start it last week).

How to be brave Fiona Beech
I mentioned in my first post I fell in love with this story I don't know what it was that made me love it so much but I was sad to finish it and would recommend it to everyone.

Have moved on to book number 2 The A List Family, blurb reads a bit like trashy chick lit but I enjoyed her other novel The Pile Of Stuff At The Bottom of the Stairs a few years ago and I've read the sample to this one and so far so good.

1. How to be brave Louise Beech

I like the sound of your first book tenar I have given up on GOT books at present

Tits - re "How to be brave Fiona Beech - I mentioned in my first post I fell in love with this story I don't know what it was that made me love it so much but I was sad to finish it and would recommend it to everyone."

Um.. I'm afraid we'll need a bit more information than you don't know what made you like it it Can you at least tell us what it is about?

Cote- I gave a synopsis and my thoughts on it when I posted yesterday.

Then you realise why so many people don't bother staying on the thread due to sarcastic comments.

Never mind.

Jeepers - Distraction by Bruce Sterling sounds interesting but you can't get it on the Kindle. Not great for a cyberpunk author

"I also liked Maul by Tricia Sullivan. Always nice to have a good female writer in SF who goes for it with some gender politics. "

Not for me. I don't get along well with female authors in general and sci-fi with a political agenda bores me to tears.

"a slightly pre-cyber punk book called City Come a Walkin."

I put this on my Kindle wish list. Thank you for the recommendation.

Let me know if you can think of anything else in a similar vein.

Tits - My post was jokey, not sarcastic.

You could have just said that you talked about it in a previous post. It is a fast-moving thread with many new names so I didn't remember your previous mention of this book. Here, have some

Book 2 A Question of Inheritance by Elizabeth Edmondson. A murder mystery set in the 1950's. It's the second book in a series, though lightweight , it's got a good storyline and rattles along at a steady pace. A new earl inherits and moves into the castle where the heroes are already living. It appears that someone is trying to kill him as various accidents happen. Then someone else dies.
I thoroughly enjoyed it , great fun

Book 1 done. 'An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth. I started last year but had to stop and start a bit due to studying (I'm not counting uni books) as it was recommended on the thread in chat when Tim Peake went to space.

I know cote reviewed on the last thread of last year so I won't repeat but I really enjoyed this book, it was interesting and engaging and has really inspired me. The whole thing of always being prepared for what you want to do is something I'd really love my kids to grasp (I read it on the kindle but think I will get it from the library for ds1 to read). I have never been into science at all but I feel like I want to learn more and more now. Big endorsement for my first book of the year (and my first book on these threads at all) but it might be one of the most inspiring books I've ever read.

antimatter - I'm on p80 and I'm still finding it slow going tbh! I've only read two other Jojo Moyes but I've loved them both - The Girl You Left Behind and Me Before You. I'm going to try and stick with this though and hope it improves. I'm notoriously bad at giving up on books. I think I've read somewhere that You Before Me has been made into a film, so looking forward to seeing it.

Minsmum - I read A Question of Inheritance as my last book of 2015, it's well written for all it's fluffiness. Have you read the first? I really liked that one.