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

Any more cheapo Kindle recs, please, anybody? I fancy a well-written spy thriller or something of that ilk, and have absolutely no idea what to look for. Not the sort of thing you'd buy at airports, like John Grisham etc. Needs to be not trashy.

cordeliascott I read and liked The Testament of Mary last year. Well written and had quite an emotional impact.

arcadia (one of my favourite plays if that's where your name is from!) could you tell me a bit more about The Vegetarian? What made it so good?

bestiswest God in Ruins does pick up plot wise around the midway point and especially when she gets stuck into the air war, though it is patchy.

satsuki it will sound really pretentious but the book is just an experience that is hard to put into words! To me it felt really original and was beautifully written, bleak and shocking and brutal but somehow inspiring. Hard to describe - you need to read it! It is also a short read more of a novella.

Thanks Cote, I love your reviews of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks. Thought-provoking.

Quog - I also enjoyed the audiobook of Wolf Hall. It took me about a month of driving to listen to it all!

Best - I really enjoyed the audio book of A God In Ruins. Maybe it worked better for me having it read to me (Alex Jennings was a brilliant narrator), because I loved it. Was one of my favourite books of last year. I wonder whether I would have enjoyed it quite so much if I had read it myself.

Sometimes a book just works better for me narrated (like Wolf Hall is at the moment).

I'm struggling with Vanity Fair for a book club. It is relatively easy to read but somehow I don't seem to be making much headway. I have until the 15th to finish it, so I might try having something else at the same time. I hope Becky Sharp isn't punished for being smart and cunning, but somehow I think she will be.

Best - I really enjoyed the audio book of A God In Ruins. Maybe it worked better for me having it read to me (Alex Jennings was a brilliant narrator), because I loved it. Was one of my favourite books of last year. I wonder whether I would have enjoyed it quite so much if I had read it myself.

I just finished the audio version too and I think it was better for me than reading the book. I actually miss it now I've finished it.

Hmm, I've just reached the start of Teddy's war so I'll stick with it. I'm not a great listener so I've never tried Audible or much in the way of audio books. My mind wanders off.

#2 Slade house by David Mitchell.

I loved this book. A boy and his mum are drawn into a haunted house and unusual things happen. This is a short book. It is told by several different characters each with a unique voice. There are lots of connections to other parts of David Mitchell's novel worlds e.g. desiccated embryos is mentioned. It is quite spooky and you really feel for the characters as you realise what is happening to them. I don't want to spoil it for anyone. I must read cloud atlas this year.

3.The Moon in the Gutter by David Goodis. I picked this up on a whim from the library, front cover describes it as 'A Midnight Classic', 'classic piece of pulp trash written in 1956. I really enjoyed this story, only 180 pages long. Not much actually happens but the scene setting and characterisation is vivid and I could picture myself there in the grimy backstreets of Philadelphia. This is the story of William Kerrigan, a dockworker who lives in the seedy end of town and this is described well. Kerrigans sister has committed suicide in one of the back alleys and Kerrigan finds himself unable to move on with his life. His encounter with the beautiful Loretta from 'the right side of town' offers him some chance of escape although we as the reader know this is never going to happen. A great story, I understand it was made into a film with Gerard Depardieu and Natassia Kinski.
Now reading All the Light we cannot see, like a lot of us it seems.

Can't decide what to read next... I fancy a really good exploration or history book, anyone recommend anything?

Meg I'm re-reading The Worst Journey in the World - it is exquisite.

I wanted to like rivers of London- I wanted it to be like Neil Gaiman's American Gods crossed with 8 days of Luke, plus the DL Sayers where Peter goes down to the water below the theatres. And it wasn't!

Ah I love that book Remus but fancy something I haven't read before.

Have you read Ice and the English Imagination by Francis Spufford? Not only exploration but quite interesting. Or Beryl Bainbridge's The Birthday Boys?

Or Captain Scot's Marvel about Birdie Bowers?

I haven't read it but this sounds good.

Lost a T from Scott somehow there!

Or Wade Davis' Everest book, that is amazing and covers history (WW1, colonialism, Bloomsbury) and exploration. Exquisite!

I've just read Scarlett Thomas Our tragic universe. It was a light enjoyable read, a bit disappointing because I thought it would be unconventional, science geeky, smart and weird. That it wasn't but not bad for a find in a holiday let. That's my number 9, not sure what to read next. Got stranded in boring uncle Robert Macfarlane's droning on about whatever.

The Everest one is Into the Silence and is absolutely brilliant. I imagine you've read it already though, Meg!

ChillieJeanie - thank you for reminding me that I have some history type books to read. Have you read any others by Francis Pryor?

Lost my reading mojo atm. Got distracted by a craft challenge which makes books/screens awkward. Local library doesn't do free audiobooks. Not entirely sure what route to take atm.

Can't remember who was talking about Katniss having said everyone who wants to read the series has. I haven't read it yet. The series is on my pile to read. I am in too minds because i barely lasted the first 15mins of the film. Just could not give a damn about the characters. Are the books any better or would I be best to cut my losses and just shove the books on the rehome pile?

Rhu, have you read PopCo by Scarlett Thomas? That might fit the bill of smart, geeky, weird etc. I liked that one but her others have been a bit disappointing, for me.

I thought that Battle Royale by Koushun Takami did the whole "teenagers forced to kill each other" thing much more effectively and grippingly than The Hunger Games did. Although The Hunger Games series does go onto revolutionary themes.

I'll check that one out then, thanks Cheddar. Was Mr Y also a bit disappointing then?

Stitches - Have you read Red Rising?

DD (10) is reading Hunger Games at the moment. Loathe as I am to read simplistic YA, I might have to read it to talk with her about it. (She usually reads in French which I can read but don't enjoy. This one is in English, so can be the first 'real' book we read together.)

well, here's a lesson for you all - don't stick at a book you aren't enjoying because it's a 'classic', you remember liking the film and think you should stick it out until there's some action....

I bring you one to avoid if you've not read it already:
8. Watership Down - Richard Adams - oh I wanted to like this, and in parts, it's beautiful and interesting, having rabbits as characters that aren't cutesy is interesting, it isn't as sanitised as the film was, and life is seen as very hard for wild rabbits. The tales of their god 'frith' and the old mythical rabbit 'El-ahrairah' are interesting stories within the story - and towards the end, it becomes clear the stories of the Watership Down rabbits are being turned into El-ahrairah tales, so that these 'rabbit folk tales' all attributed to this amazing mythical rabbit might well be a mixture of the oral history of the rabbits, so I guess you are expected to look back on all these different stories with a view that a lot of them actually happened to different Chief Rabbits along the way.

Anyway, it's about 25% too long, waffly and dull in parts. It's not really a children's book at all, the children who'd get it would be scared, and it's just too long and dull to hold the attention of a teen reading it themselves. I guess it's a classic because it's such an unusual idea. Watch the cartoon and imagine it was a bit grittier, save yourself 8 hours.

dinosaursroar I loved Watership Down and read it several times from the age of about 10 into teens! The whole world he built was magical and uncanny, a bit Tolkienian with the rabbits own language and folklore. Maybe as an adult it's harder to buy into this and care so much about the rabbits, but it definitely held my attention as a youngster.