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

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain is 99p on Kindle today. A fictionalised account of Ernest Hemingway's years in Paris told from the PoV of his wife, I thought this was good and read it in conjunction with Hemingway's own A Moveable Feast. I went on to read Orwell's Down and out in Paris and London as well for a different take on Paris in the 1920s.

I really enjoyed The Paris Wife -recommend that, especially at 99p!

So far I've read this year:

1. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
2. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
3. The Lewis Man by Peter May
4. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
5. Do no Harm by Henry Marsh
6. A Man called Ove by Fredrik Backman
7. I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
8. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

Enjoyed every one - mostly recommendations (all?) from this thread so thank you.

Now reading All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr Pleased to be a bit ahead of the challenge but that's because I got a head start on a New Year holiday! Slowed down bit now.

Cant see Paris Eife for 98p kindle, showing &6.99

I'd also recommend The Paris Wife. Read it a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. It is definitely 99p, in today's Kindle daily deals. Also, Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood is 99p. I haven't read that one, but could be interesting to compare.

I'm seeing The Paris Wife as 99p in todays Kindle daily deals too.

Ok. that is weird, I can see it now from my iPad, but wasn't showing on phone earlier, operator error, probably! Looks good.

Book five "I let you go". Thoroughly enjoyed the book. The first twist at the midway point actually made my jaw drop. It's very cleverly constructed. Perhaps one twist too many though.

A God In Ruins - Kate Atkinson Well, I really struggled to get started with this and almost gave up more than once. It picked up around 35% in with the start of Teddy's war and I became more involved with the characters and by the time I finished it, this morning, on the train, I was sobbing.
It's good in parts, as was Life after Life. Not for those who don't like books with feelings. This means you Cote .

Message received loud and clear, Best

Can someone who has read Authority (Southern Reach #2) reassure me that something about the area in question will happen at some point? I'm at 26% and a bit tired of the rather boring life story of the new director who calls himself Control.

God cote I'm note entirely sure, it's a year or two since I read it. I rather suspect the middle book is focused on context, as in what was happening around the Area, rather than going back in. I think you have to wait for the third to go back in. But my memory for these things is nothing as good as yours. But I really seem to recall, book two is very centered on Control and his relationship with his mother and his struggles to understand the organisation which controls the Area and Ghost Bird.

Has Ghost Bird popped up yet?

There's been a first interview with Ghost Bird. I am now at the beginning of the second interview with her.

Why on Earth would I want to read a whole book about some guy's relationship with his mother? He wasn't even a character in the first book. What a disappointment.

We do learn some new stuff about the Area but this book has nowhere near the fantastically mind-boggling story & style of Annihilation (SR #1).

14. Inquisition by Alfredo Colitto

Described as "a brilliant thriller to rival CJ Sansom". I wouldn't go that far, although the issue might have been in the translation. It got better as it went along, but the writing wasn't great at the beginning.

Set in 14th century Italy during the trial of the Knights Templar, it starts with the perplexing murder of a Templar - found with his hands cut off and his heart turned into a block of iron. The body was found in the rooms of a fake student, himself a Templar, who goes to university physician Mondino for help in the hunt for the murderer and to find out how it was done. But they are themselves being hunted by an inquisitor, who is looking to root out and destroy any Templars he can find.

7. The Pale Horseman, Bernard Cornwell (Saxon Stories #2)

Really enjoyed this, although it didn't feel much like a book in it's own right, more a continuation of the first book in the series, The Last Kingdom. However, the characters are developing nicely, in particular the relationship between Uhtred, whose loyalties remain conflicted, and Alfred, King of Wessex. There are a lot of battles and fight scenes but they are written convincingly and are in no way gratuitous.

I like how none of the characters appear wholly 'good' or 'bad'; each have likeable and admirable qualities, but also plenty to dislike about them too.

As Cornwell says in an interview, ultimately these stories are about the creation of England, the integration of all the smaller kingdoms and our nations grass roots.

So with barely a pause for breath, I am moving onto the third in the series, The Lords of the North

Well cote possibly you should stick it out but I'm not sure as tbh, the second book is as much an explanation/context you ever get third book goes right back to surreal and boggly

Well, I guess I'll have to push through #2 to get to #3. You can tell by the amount of time I'm spending on MN that I'm not looking forward to going back to my Kindle, though.

Just finished number 4 Landline by Rainbow Rowell

I raced through this. Likeable characters and a nice idea with main character basically phoning a past version of her husband. Wasn't the most gripping of plots and I sometimes felt like more could have been done with the setup, but I got a little hooked on the characters which is why I read through it so fast. The ending wasn't quite what I hoped for but overall and nice enjoyable read.

Was going to read 13 minutes by Sarah Pinborough next but am going to tackle a long time must read instead - To Kill a Mockingbird. I know, shocking I've not read it yet.

Gone with the wind is still getting dusty on my shelf.

Reading all your reviews I'm starting to think I'm perhaps not reading the same sort of stuff on the same intellectual level as the rest of you. Perhaps me feeling too tired to tackle anything harder than a quick read or YA is a poor excuse.

Just bought The Paris Wife on the 99p deal

Sometime ago a poster recommended 'The Year of the Runaways' by Sunjeev Sahota - I thought I would let the thread know it is £1.99 on Kindle.

It gets a bit weirder towards the end Côte. The area moves closer to them and you find out a bit more about the ex-director, who led the last expedition. But none of the far-out stuff from book 1. I quite liked finding out more from Control's POV, the paranoia and Big Brother-ness of it, but it is quite distinct from book 1.

Year of The Runaways is a great read about Indians living in England ( and their lives in India). Well worth it.

Book7 read Mr Mac and me by Esther Freud. Set in Suffolk in 1915 and narrated by 11 year old Thomas Maggs and story interwoven with the real life character of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Glaswegian artist and architect. The book slowly grew on me and I loved it by the end.
Next book is Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim. Have you read it?

Thanks Stokey. I'm pushing through with it, if only because I have to for book #3.

Meanwhile, I realized that Orhan Pamuk has a new book out called Kirmizi Sacli Kadin - "red-haired woman". You would normally say Kizil Sacli which would translate as "red-headed", but this title says that her hair is actually the color red.

Anyway it's apparently about the '80 coup d'etat & its aftermath, the Turkey's odd cultural tug-of-war between East & West etc so I might give it a go soonif I can get my hands on a copy.

Remus how lovely to see someone recommend The Worst Journey in the World. A truly remarkable book. I hope it never goes out of print.

16 Spark Joy by Marie Kondo. I would think it is fair to say that I'm probably not the no.1 customer for this sort of book. I have low tolerance levels for pseudo-spiritual-hippy-bullshit, and I nearly gave up and threw it across the room when she mentions having thrown away a hammer with a broken handle and subsequently used her frying pan to hammer in nails.

However, I persisted, as it was lent to me by a friend whom I love very much, and actually I felt that I came away with some useful tips. Not only that but I also had a big clear out of my desk (said friend lent me the book in the first place because reading a review of Life Changing Magic provoked me into recycling two binbags of clothes - though I'm not sure then pressing on me a selection of her rejected clothes was equally helpful ).