50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Thread two 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, it's not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

Previous 2016 thread here

1. Before We Met by Lucie Whitehouse
2. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

I'm really not in a reading phase at the moment. I'm getting 4 flights next month so should catch up then. I've just started Interstellar by Greg Keyes.

Just managed to catch up with the thread after a busy day.

Very pleased to hear Cote, that you will try Burial Rites, very exciting as it ticks 2 boxes (women + first book)!!! If the author knew you were reading it she would be quaking in her soft, fluffy boots

I just finished a really wonderful book, Winter's Bone by Daniel Goodrell. I think it's book 4 for me. I loved this short novel about a teenage girl left to look after her sick mother and younger siblings while trying to find her bail jumping father before they lose their home in hicksville America. The setting is bleak and gritty but the writing is beautiful and powerful. Highly recommended.

muskey Persuasion is lovely. I'm going to reread some Austen this year, haven't done for a few years now.

Just remembered that actually I'm on 6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, read to my 4 year old. It is quite a dry read, about the ups and downs of the chocolate making industry, following the owner of a factory as he tries to make a profit in a harsh economic climate. With Oompa Loompas.

Currently enjoying both A God in Ruins and Day of the Triffids.

1. Lawless and the Devil of Euston Square by William Sutton

Campbell Lawless relocates from Edinburgh to London to join the police in 1859. One night shift he is summoned to Euston Square by Worms, one of the gang of street urchins who run errands and send messages for the police, to join the illusrtious Inspector Wardle at the scene of an act of sabotage at Euston Square. Although the body found at the scene is deemed by Wardle to be the culprit, Lawless is not so sure. But he is pleased to be invited to move to Scotland Yard as Wardle's assistant, and over the next few years joins Wardle in investigating a variety of crimes, as well as pursuing his own investigations into the activities of Berwick Skelton, a revolutionary apparently hellbent on a spectactular act of brutal revenge.

I liked this book a lot. Because it takes place over several years you really get the feeling of the scale of change in London in the mid-19th century. There is a lot about Bazalgette's building of the sewer system, the development of the underground, and also the reality of the impact of these modernisations on the poor and dispossessed who live in the streets to be dug up and developed.

11. Treasured Island by Frank Barrett Great concept (travel around the UK on a literary pilgrimage), not very well executed ("sometimes my satnav malfunctions but I switch it on and off and it's fine again". Not an exact quote but close enough).

On the plus side, he gave me some ideas for places I'd like to visit, and kudos for getting up to Shetland. On the negative side, you get more information about parking arrangements and how polite the museum staff are than about the writers or their homes.

Chillie my friend Will wrote that book! I will tell him that you liked it

"6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, read to my 4 year old. It is quite a dry read, about the ups and downs of the chocolate making industry, following the owner of a factory as he tries to make a profit in a harsh economic climate. With Oompa Loompas." - ha, thanks SatsukiKusakabe, made me smile on a wet Friday morning :)

I agree Satsuki, good review! Reminds me of the old review of Lady Chatterley's Lover being of interest to rural readers for its details about agriculture.

waawo

bibliomania that book, read at an impressionable age, taught me everything I know about game keeping on a large estate.

Ah, found you. I've finished my first book of the year (lagging behind a bit ) Tipping the Velvet which I loved. I really like Sarah Waters after reading The Paying Guests when it came out, and bought TtV on impulse for a long train journey. I'll be reading The Night Watch at some point in my year I think.

I have started an audiobook of Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts which is amazing so far, and am reading Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, which was recommended by a friend and I have been wanting to read for ages. It's taking me a while to get into after Sarah Waters but I am enjoying it so far.

Jumping on board if you don't mind.
On book 8 here - "I am Malala". Struggling a bit with this one as I find what happened to her very upsetting. What an inspiration she is though.

Phoenix- also just finished Tipping the Velvet, book 10. For me. I quite it enjoyed it, but was less engaged with the characters than with the Paying Guest. Loved the period dialogue and description but less drawn to the main characters in this one. Still a good read, maybe it was me and I wasn't focussing enough, don't know. This thread has inspired me to read/listen so much more this year. And passes the time on dog walks, steals my sleep of a night time.

1. Plainsong by Kent Haruf,his second in the series about fictional village Holt in Colorado . A bit twee maybe, but I love his writing. It's very precise, little sketches of people, events. Following a small cast of characters in alternating chapters. Old brothers on a farm, little brothers doing paper rounds, trouble with mum, dad the teacher, pregnant girl at school. . Nothing earth shattering but a lovely read. Maybe a bit in the style of Stoner or even Steinbeck but it ain't as good as him though.

On to something a bit more out there, liked the sound of Martin Millar and am now starting on were wolves and Scottish clans, what's not to like? Thanks Remus!

How long did it take him to write Provencal? I presume there was a lot of research work done in the process. According to the blurb at the back there will be another couple of books in the series in the next two years, so I will probably get those when they come out too.

6.5 The Tales of Max Carrados by Ernest Bramah - a short audio book read by Stephen Fry. It wasn't long enough to warrant a whole number on my book list. Not bad, but is quite dated. Apparently Ernest Bramah was a contemporary of Conan Doyle and their respective detective stories unrivalled each other for sales. Interesting, but I had never heard of Bramah until now so maybe he hasn't stood the test of time so well.

1. Sweet Caress by William Boyd. Loved this. It was just my kind of novel. It is a fictional autobiography of a professional photographer working from the 1920s to 1970s, recording some of the century's main events as seen through her eyes. It would appeal to anyone who enjoyed Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. It has a similar kind of feel to it, but doesn't jump around in time/lives. Good detail, well written with a strong female lead character.

Ahh Sadik what do I like, hmm, I like business, popular science and history nonfiction mostly. Read a lot of WW2 last year, 2 bios of Winston Churchill and Max Hastings Battle for Germany. I also tend to like medically related non fiction, loved Bad Pharma, Do No Harm but also The Emperor of All Maladies (about cancer). Tend to like stuff about the financial crisis too, or bios about (REAL ones, not bs PR rubbish) big business figures, really enjoyed the Steve Jobs book for instance and also a book about Warren Buffet, The Snowball. Also read and enjoyed a book fairly recently about Amazon.

God, I read nearly anything so long as I can follow it!

What were your best non fiction reads last year?

Glad to hear the positive report Quog, I picked Sweet Caress up recently on a kindle deal

Rivalled not unrivalled - autocorrect fail

wilting my favourite non fiction from last year was Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - and from your list, it sounds like the sort of thing you might enjoy. I also have The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver waiting on my kindle, but I haven't read it myself yet so don't know if I would recommend.

Wilting - last year I read (from recommendations on here) Let It Go by Stephanie Shirley which I found fascinating - she came to England on the Kindertransport, founded a very succesful IT firm, and then became a major philanthropist after her retirement.

I also liked Georgina Ferry's biography of Dorothy Hodgkin (who I think was the first British woman to win a Nobel prize)

Book 9 The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar (A re-read of an old but neglected friend)
Nice to see the interest this has generated. Wonderfully funny urban fantasy involving feuding fairies, an obese loner, a beautiful but troubled girl, a bag lady who thinks she’s commander of an ancient army and the ghost of Johnny Thunders. Love it!

Sadik and Wilting I love your non-fiction picks and would be interested in hearing more. Bad Pharma and the Steve Jobs bio are on my list and I love good travel books. Basically, I find lots of these far more fascinating than fiction. I love being exposed to new things. Thinking Fast & Slow was gorgeous, I keep recommending it.

Moving, I know what you mean about Tipping the Velvet vs the Paying Guests, I was very invested for part one of the book (TtV) but after things changed and the main character seemed to become quite hard and embittered, I lost the ability to care about her as much. Which is a shame but I still really enjoyed it.

I just don't like Sarah Waters. I appreciate that this puts me in a tiny minority - I read fingersmith and appreciated the twists and turns and page-turniness but ultimately didn't love it. Left it a few years despite my mum urging me to read them all "but they are probably not highbrow enough for you" (how rude) then tried again with the paying guests. Meh.