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?

[Hrafnkel]

I've read three books so far.

Moriarty, by Anthony Horowitz. Lots of references to His Last Bow; a typical Holmesian mystery. Some interesting twists, appealed to my love of Holmes and also of Horowitz, but not the best thing he's written, unfortunately.

1. So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Jon Ronson. I hadn't read anything by him before but I found it thoughtful and interesting. I'm definitely going to read more non-Fiction this year, something fairly new to me as an English teacher.

1. The Ice Twins. Read about it on this thread; cheap in tesco. I love a psychological thriller; lovely setting an the plot reminded me of a Barbara Vine. Recommend as a lightweight read.

I'm now reading Born to Run (more non-fiction about my hobby) and have God in Ruins lined up - Kate Atkinson is me favourite writer so I'm quite excited about that

[TripTrapTripTrapOverTheBridge]

Remus The Book of Strange New Things is a brilliant book! It's about faith and relationships more than anything (and maybe Peter almost seeing himself,and the Oasians seeing him as, a messiah. It's not meant to be a big eventful book

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

We will have to disagree, Tripp. I thought it had the potential to be a good book, but it wasn't.

[SatsukiKusakabe]

hrafnkel have you read what I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami? I thought it was a great book, but I say that as a non-runner!

[Muskey]

Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea A really enigmatic book. it is probably the hardest book I have ever read. If I hadn't known it was the prequal to Jane Eyre I would never have known until the end.The story is the early years of Edward Rochester marriage to Bertha/Antoinette Mason (Mr Rochester changed her name to Bertha because she looked like Bertha ). I didn't get the sense that Bertha was mad (pissed off yes mad no).The blurb on the book says " one of the works of genius of the twentieth century" I don't agree with this at all. It was a page turner but I am not sure if I enjoyed it. If you want a challenge give this book a go if not just walk on by

[Chillywhippet]

For a while I have been thinking that everyone was raving about Born to run by Michael Morpurgo, a story about a greyhound puppy who gets rescued by a small boy. My kids loved this book.

I heard the food programme about running and food and realised that your Born to run is a different book

Hmmm might just get those new trainers out of the box

[alteredimages]

Sorry you're still stuck with Jerusalem, ProvencalRose. I am stuck too. Far too much musing in The Wild Places. I can't even bring myself to turn on the kindle.

Let us know if Jerusalem picks up. I read and loved Zealot last year so was pondering buying Jerusalem.

[Hrafnkel]

Satsuma I've heard of the Murakami but never read it. I've actually never read any of his books though I always mean to.

Chilly, dare I say...I don't really like Michael Morpurgo. I actually met him the other week and he was really nice but I think his books are a bit worthy and dull. Sorry.

[Provencalroseparadox]

Altered I'm really disappointed but there are too many characters who appear as a 'big' figure and are murdered 2 lines later. It's a very odd style and I'm not getting a sense of the city and its history at all. It feels like a glorified list.

I need to get it finished and then I have q couple of Agatha Christie's for light reading!

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Muskey Wide Sargasso Sea one of the most critically overly rated books in literary history imho. I found it really disappointing. Basically the writer's agenda seems to have been to make Rochester look like a monster, in order to grind some sort of feminist post-colonial axe, without actually thinking about whether her story actually worked either in terms of credible plot or characterisation. I didn't find it challenging, quite the opposite - I thought it was just really 'nothingy' overall, I found it a complete anti-climax, having been led to expect something really innovative and profound.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Excuse gaps and errors in punctuation there - wasn't concentrating properly. Naughty, Remus.

[Movingonmymind]

Satasuki- love rhat book! Fanatastic combo of philiodphy & running. Highly unususl but strangely fitting. Refreshing how he intersperses hardcore running commentary with reflections on ageing, his favourite reads etc with a real lightness of touch. I do like Born to Run also but find it longwinded at times so dip in and ouf of it. Still on the go sfter over a year whereas i devoured yhe Murakami in one sitting almost!

[westhighlandterrier]

Hope I can join in too! Signed up specifically to join this thread.

Hoping to finish two soon -

1. Orchestrated Death by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (audio book) and
2. Tap on the Window by Linford Barclay.

Hoping to pick up lots of tips for others to read as well.

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Guthriegirl (nice name!) if you are a huge Sunset Song fan, can I ask, are you from the Mearns yourself? And did you study it for Higher English?

[Muskey]

Remus very well put. I so wanted this book to be more than it was. So many people have said how good it was but I just did not "get it". All I got was that everybody in it were angry and/or jealous (at themselves, at each other and anything else.)

[Canyouforgiveher]

5. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

bit of a cheat as I am rereading it (or rather listening to it) but i love that book-concept is the heroine lives her life over and over again with different outcomes each time and eventually with some foreboding as to what can happen. She is born in 1910 so it gets really interesting. I found the descriptions of the Blitz so interesting on this reading (we are watching Foyle's War for first time so it fits)

[Canyouforgiveher]

should have said that I have ordered The God In Ruins (has one of the characters from Life After Life which is why I re-read.

[Sonnet]

Just started my January book group read (yes I do leave it to the last minute) The Entrantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie and finding it slow going. Think it maybe me as much as the book as I can't seem to concentrate on anything!

[Sonnet]

I enjoyed it too Canyouforgiveher but it does get a mixed reaction. Our book group was split 50:50 between love and hate!
I re read it last year before reading A God in Ruins and enjoyed it just as much 😄

[Movingonmymind]

Is that the pne eith the brother, Teddy?
I neatly gave uP on it but enjoyed it in the end, having ploughed on.

[Movingonmymind]

Sorry for typos!

[southeastdweller]

Just about to do the new thread

[southeastdweller]

After just a couple of weeks, this thread is almost full so come on over to the new thread

[SatsukiKusakabe]

Just to point out re: wide sargasso sea Antoinette is only 'mad' from Rochester's perspective, so if she doesn't come across as mad when you see her side of it that's perhaps the idea. Rhys isn't necessarily 'fleshing out' the background to Jane Eyre, she is challenging it. He names her Bertha, he calls her mad and demonises her - analogous with the colonising of land, drawing of new boundaries, giving new names to existing places etc.

I found it a dull read too, but it was its originality at the time, the concept of 'writing back' against the accepted history of a place and people that was innovative and for which it was admired.