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

It's taken me over a month but I have finally finished 5. The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane. I can only compare it to finding yourself stuck with the most boring guest at the party, who having piqued your interest with a mildly interesting idea then proceeds to drone on at you for the rest of the evening, repeating himself and displaying an unhealthy interest in rocks and skinny dipping as he goes.

It was fine in very small doses but did feel very repetitive and rambling. It is really just a stream of conscious travel diary, and to my mind not of much interest to anyone except Robert MacFarlane.

Now on to 6. All the Light We Cannot See.

Anyone read Lean Out www.amazon.co.uk/Lean-Out-Dawn-Foster-ebook/dp/B019FPLKBI/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1454404103&sr=8-1 ? Just seen it discussed on MN feminism chat, sounds quite refreshingly realistic.

altered - I'm reading Robert Macfarlane's Mountains of the Mind atm, and struggling with it. Bits are interesting but it seems to be taking me for ever to get the kindle to move up a percentage. Hoping the next chapter is more interesting than the previous one. Could be on this one for a while.

Interestingly, though, I did quite enjoy The Wild Places (and do remember the many episodes of skinny dipping in icy lakes :o).

"I can only compare it to finding yourself stuck with the most boring guest at the party, who having piqued your interest with a mildly interesting idea then proceeds to drone on at you for the rest of the evening, repeating himself and displaying an unhealthy interest in rocks and skinny dipping as he goes."

I love this thread

Incidentally, those are not far off from my thoughts on Mountains Of The Mind, which was the only Robert McFarlane book I have read. It's not looking likely that I'll ever read another one.

10. The Horse And His Boy - CS Lewis

I don't think this has dated quite as well as the first two Narnia books; the comparison between the dark and untrustworthy Calormenes and the blond, fair-skinned Narnians - not to mention some of the stuff about girls - is definitely of its time. Plus it does annoy me when anyone heroic has to secretly be of noble lineage. Still a fun read but I'm looking forward to the latter books in the series which I loved when I read them as a child.

Wasn't Aravis a tomboy type who despised Lasaraleen Tarkheena for being too girly? I can't remember much of her story. I want to read it again now!

Yes Aravis is a tomboy but still has to be rescued by a boy and her friend is all 'oh shoes and dresses and parties', and Aravis and Queen Lucy just want to talk about room decor like girls do.

13. Things can only get Feta by Marjory McGinn. Just a light Kindle read that I bought last year after returning from a Greek holiday. Two journalists decamp from rainy Scotland to sunny Greece for a year, aiming to get to know Greece and the Greeks (and sell some feature articles.) Reasonably funny, there are a couple of darker moments, many linked to religious occasions and deaths, that lend a feeling that the author may be getting closer to being accepted, despite being a foreigner. There's also a lot of their dog pissing while standing on its front legs. Hey-ho.

Book 4 - this book could save your life by A M Homes
It probably won't. A book about a reclusive self absorbed man who, through a series of increasingly outlandish misfortunes learns to reconnect with life, with people and with his family. It's a great premise but the book just didn't engage me at all. The characters are two-dimensional stereotypes and it's hard to care about them. In a character driven book that's a problem.

16. The Masked City, Genevieve Cogman. Sequel to The Invisible Library. I really liked this. I agree with a pp on a previous thread that I almost enjoy the concept better than the actual book, but it's such a good concept! And I squeeed with fan-girl excitement when I realised that Irene had attended the Chalet School (I Googled - it's true!). Vale as a Sherlock Holmes avatar didn't work quite so well in this one - he addresses Irene as 'Winters' throughout, which I realise is to replace Watson, but Holmes, being unfailingly courteous with members of the fairer sex, would never have addressed a lady so. IMO! But it was still a great read.

Tenar, have you seen the film of Like Water for Chocolate? Its years back, but I seem to remember liking it a great deal (I think I read the book after seeing the film).

One of my favourite films, Sadik. Though that was way back, wonder how it would stand up to viewing by the cynical 40something I am now
Seem to remember loving the book also, doesn't it have al the recipes? My revisit both.

Quogwinkle, tumbletumble and wiltingfast, if you are generally interested in books about the human condition, have you read Oliver Sacks? He was a British neurologist practising in America, who sadly died last year.

My favourites of his are The man who mistook his wife for a hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, both have fascinating, in depth case histories and are well worth a read.

Too extra I enjoyed the Invisible library, mainly for the concept, like you-I found some of the prose a bit clunky. How does the Masked city compare?

Loved Like water for chocolate too

Elle - no I haven't tried any Oliver Sacks, yet. Thanks for the recommendation. I do enjoy books about psychology etc. The mind is a fascinating place. I think, given my life again, I would love to be a psychologist :)

2 - The Life and Loves of a He-devil by Graham Norton. Celebrity autobiographies/memoirs aren't usually my cup of tea, but I picked this up cheaply as a Kindle deal. A very quick and fun read, you could really hear Graham's voice coming through. It is his musings on various subjects rather than his life story. I read this fairly quickly, so maybe I should read more from this genre, in a shameless attempt to read 50 books by the end of the year!

1. Music and Silence by Rose Tremain. I have read quite a few of her books and loved all of them, and this one didn't disappoint either. It is set in 1629-30 and tells the story of Peter Claire, a young English lutenist who goes to play in the orchestra of the Royal Danish court. There are various intertwining stories of other characters at court and the English family of Peter Claire. They are set both in the present and past, and told in the first and third person, yet it never gets confusing. I really felt that I was transported to the 17th century, a great read.

I'm thinking of being daringly radical and dropping the numbering of the books I've read. It puts me off posting because I have to go back and check the last number.

Loving the Robert McFarlane reviews - I felt like I was in a minority for disliking The Old Ways.

Re-read The Bronte Myth by Lucasta Miller. Apparently it's a metabiography (new word I learned today) - it examines how the sisters have been portrayed over the years. I find it really interesting, the way the stories we tell about others reflect our own preoccupations and biases.

Also read The Alice Behind Wonderland by Simon Winchester. The title is somewhat misleading, at it mainly fleshes out the background to Lewis Carroll's famous photograph of Alice Liddell in rags. I'm not sufficiently enthralled in the chemical processes behind Victorian photography to have really relished it, but he writes well, and it was under 100 pages.

Elle I have read The man who mistook his wife for a hat and really enjoyed it. Will add An Anthropologist on Mars to my list.

biblio you rebel!

That's me, tumble, pushing the envelope!

Just finished:

7. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Lovely read.

I'm going to start another novel tonight:

1. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

I read Oliver Sacks' autobiography recently, very interesting (although I have to say I found him rather annoying at times).

Book 16
The English at the North Pole by Jules Verne
As a history of arctic exploration, this was fascinating, but as a story, it was less effective. What I also hadn’t realised is that this was only the first part (it did seem to go on a bit!). I did really enjoy sections of it, but it was rather repetitive – not sure if I’ll bother with the next part or not.

I've not seen the film of Like Water for Chocolate, but I've been reading the reviews on Amazon and it sounds amazing so I intend to soon.