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?

highland - agree with you My Dear I Wanted To Tell You is most definitely not in the chick lit category. As I recall, it goes into quite a lot of depth about the early work of plastic surgery on soldiers with horrendous facial injuries post WW1 and doesn't shy away from mental health issues and marital problems. Was quite a harrowing read, but very very good. I will read THW soon too.

I think Louisa Young did her research so well on WW1 and wrote an incredible novel. I've read a few and the only other one which I think compares is Susan Hill's Strange Meeting.

Am really enjoying Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, ditto Dicken's biog by Claire Tomalin, thanks for recommending them on here!

Book no 1. Stephen King - Mr Mercedes.

Detective novel from Mr King, first of a trilogy about a retired cop. Enjoyable enough although I did find it slow in the middle and it could have done with being about a third shorter. You are told who the protagonist is almost immediately and it becomes a bit of a cat and mouse chase so I don't think it built the suspense as well as it could have.

1. The Hours - Michael Cunningham

This won the Pulitzer in 1999 and although I have seen the film I didn't realise it was based on a novel until it was read and discussed on the 2015 thread! Very good quality, thoughtful writing about Virignia Wolf and the inner thoughts and lives of the women, and men, caught in certain moments in time from Wolf herself, via the 1940s to the late 1990s. It all tied up in a way I wasn't expecting.

On to some Faulkner now.

Wobblystraddle - ds is 10

His recommended list is list below as author series : Title(s)
Rick Riordan Kane Chronicals: The red pyramid. The throne of fire. The Seroent's Shadow
Rick Riordan Heros of Olympus: The lost Hero. The son of Neptune. The mark of Athena. The house of hades. The blood of olympus.
Rick Riordan Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The sword of summer - this is his new series and the first book but as well written as the other series.
The hunger Games series
Maze Runner series: Maze Runner. Scorch trials. The death cure. The Kill order.
Divergent Series: Divergent. Insurgent. Alliance. Four.
Mark Walden Earthfall series: Earthfall. Earthfall - retribution.
The Hobbit.
He is trying to convince me to re-attempt the Lord of the ring series but he has no chance.

His reading wish list includes:
Two towers
The last two books in the mortal instruments series
James Herbet's '48 - this is under discussion
He has also expressed interest in Orwell's 1984

He is a weird child

These are the books I bought with my Christmas money. I'm just reading the Pratchett one, so that's my first book of the year. Also got given some graphic novels (do they count?) including Saga book 4 and Fables 17.

I also have plenty of other books to read or re-read, including a few audio books.

I have just looked through my wish list reading pile/in progress pile of books. I have at least 6 books in progress I think I am going to have to be strict with myself and finish some of these before I move on to other reading. Although lets be honest i will probably read according to mood. So the aim of finishing before the end of the year might be more realistic.

1. Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow (Peter Høeg) - Miss Smilla (who is, I have to say, a fantastic hero) wants to know why the little boy who lived downstairs, whom she had befriended, fell off a roof. And goes to some lengths (and depths of cold) to find out. I struggled with this to be honest, alternating between wanting to know how things come out, and being less than bothered about some of the "baddies" who are a bit cartoonish IMO. The ending though is just something else - no spoilers, but I still can't quite believe that people would go to the lengths they did for the eventually revealed purpose. I rated this two stars on Goodreads, some of the descriptive writing (mostly about snow and ice) is fantastic.

Next book is Austerity Britain 1945-51 by David Kynaston. We moved house in November and had a big cull of books; we're moving again in June and want to be rid of a few more that are currently on the "still want to read" pile! Also, I've mislaid my Kindle lol so limited to the remaining books in the house anyway!

Elle: it was the cryptography element of Cryptonomicon that first interested me; Cote, my memory may be faulty, but iirc there are some longish sections involving the main protagonist, Turing and Rudi the German mathematician? Slightly: Between Silk and Cyanide just added to the long term want to read list :)

I'm in! Hello all.

1. Rivers of London' by Ben Aaronavitch. Started it last night. Not my usual thing at all (detective story involving ghosts!), but it was recommended by a friend and four chapters in I'm liking it a lot. Think its going to be a quick read.

Next up - The Book of Night Women by Marlon James - female slaves planning a revolt on a Jamaican sugar plantation in the 18th century. Looking forward to that, as read his book that won the Booker this year and it was marvellous.

I enjoyed Rivers of London - and will read the next one when it comes up cheap on a kindle daily deal.

One I enjoyed recently was The Shock of The Fall - very moving but also funny and a quick read because you get involved. I'd put it in the same class of book as The Curious Incident if you enjoyed that you'll probably like it.

Two non fiction recommendations from me are 'Do No Harm' by Henry Marsh - about brain surgery and 'Forensics: The anatomy of Crime' by Val McDiarmud which is a history of forensic science and very interesting if that is your sort of thing.

I'd like a good historical fiction if anyone can recommend one (I love the Shardlake books, and Wolf Hall, and also like anything with a good female protagonist).

I'm going to try for 2016. Lots of books waiting to be read....here's hoping I can find the time.😀

Just finished The Darkest Secret - new Alex Marwood on Kindle. very good. If you like beautifully written, psychologically astute thrillers, read this. Grim though.

Now off to read How Music Works by David Byrne which I hope is more uplifting (non fic)

Who has some recommendations for uplifting and funny books? Nothing too beach-ready - I like to get stuck in. Is the latest Bill Bryson good?

Can I add to the discussion on cryptography by recommending The Code Book by Simon Singh (non fiction)? I read it years ago, but I seem to remember it was very good (although not quite as good as Fermat's Last Theorem by the same author).

1. White Line Fever - Lemmy

With the sad passing of the legendary rocker last month it seemed a good time to read his autobiography which has been on my TBR list for ages. It's just as much fun as you'd expect - basically lots of hell-raising (and hair-raising) anecdotes on the joys of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll.

I'm going to have a go at reading ONLY books I already own or that are free to get.

I have made a start on my first book, The Great Gatsby, as I have been neglecting my more literary reading for a while 14 years since I finished MA. I've decided to try and read some of those books I really should have read years ago. DD is doing this for her Lit A Level, so as good a place as any to begin.

Loving the writing so far .

So up for this! Better get that Kindle charging...!

What a great idea to do an A - Z challenge. I read as much as I can, so I shall aim to work through 2 for each letter this year..... only problem is I am currently only a few pages into The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, (a mighty tome,) and I think that may set my total for the year back a little.

I'm in! I've just started a girl like you by Gemma burgess. I'm determined to spend less time on me iPad this year!!

Kinky, Great Gatsby is a great book, much better than that Leo do C film!

Perfect timing I hardly read anything last year so my New Year's Resolution is to read more. I started Marie Kondo's "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" yesterday - hope it lives up to expectations!

I'm in! Only got to 27 last year.

1. The bone clocks by David Mitchell.

I've no idea what will be next as I was given a monthly book subscription for christmas, will find out my next on the 14th.

I'm joining the challenge, I'm a member of Goodreads and it helps me to keep track of what I've read. I plan to read books already on my shelf.....I am guilty of buying too many books and dread to think how many I have.......and will try to resist buying new ones except for any chosen by my work's bookclub which I don't own already.

kurri you asked for historical recommendations. One of my 3 books currently on the go, is The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzch. It is set in small-town Bavaria in the 1650s, and has some similarities with the Shardlake books, in that it's a pacy murder mystery which allows the author to explore some of the concerns of society at that time, in this case superstition and fear of witchcraft vs learning. The main protagonist is the hangman, who is likeable and has integrity and a sense of justice but it's shunned by society. My only gripes so far are the title: I'm tired of the proliferation of books which describe women by their relationship to a man and his profession, plus so far she's by no means the main character; plus about halfway through the main characters perform a totally unnecessary exhumation just to get some evidence that they basically already had, which was quite annoying. Apart from that, very much enjoying it so far.

I'm in - marking place! Just finished the versions of us by Laura Barnett, which I loved

THank you MuseumofHam- that sounds like just my kind of thing