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

she mentions having thrown away a hammer with a broken handle and subsequently used her frying pan to hammer in nails

That's no way to treat a frying pan. You'd think that asking someone you know if you could borrow a hammer for a day or two would be more sensible!

I've got Spark Joy but so far have only flipped through it rather than reading it cover to cover. I particularly like the illustrations showing how to fold clothes.

8. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler

Descriptive non-fiction account of a young American (27-29yrs) living and working for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in Fuling, a town in China. Stories of his time there, meeting Chinese people, teaching and traveling. Probably a bit dated now as it is set at the end of the 1990s but I found it interesting to read about Chinese culture through the eyes of a waiguoren.

P.S. Quog - you are definitely not alone! I also enjoyed the audiobook of Wolf Hall.. And someone else mentioned Narrow Road to Deep North which was one of my favourite books from last year.

10. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante Coming of age novel set in a poor neighbourhood of Naples in the 1950s. The boring narrator is fixated with her joyless, manipulative, but ultimately equally boring friend. She illustrates this by lengthily and flatly sucking the joy out of a long series of non events from their childhood and adolescence. On page 27 they begin climbing the stairs to a neighbour's flat; on page 65 they ring the doorbell. I should have stopped there really, but at that point was reasonably captivated by the scene setting of the neighbourhood. I was even bored of that by the end.

Luckily I also have a fun book on the go: A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French Very funny so far.

I had a plan to move onto a re-read of Winter in Madrid by CJ Sansom because I'm off to Madrid next week and, um, it's winter, and I'm highly imaginative like that. However, when I pulled it off the shelf I decided that although I'd enjoyed it a couple of years ago, it was a bit soon for a re-read, especially when I've got so much new stuff I want to read. Thanks thread! So not sure where I'm going next.

Sadik, I haven't read the book but I did Kondo my underwear drawers in July and they are still tidy [Shock]. Makes life so much easier in the mornings.

Museum - you have totally summed up My Brilliant Friend . I don't know wjhy I pushed through to the end of it.

Many thanks for that great review.

Thanks magimedi at least my reading of it has served some purpose then

So book 7 was The Hearts Companion by Holly Newman. I got it free from bookbub and thought it would be a quick easy read. I have no words to describe how utterly terrible this book is. Terrible faux Georgian dialect, terrible characterisation. Just terrible terrible terrible. Now reading the Crimson and the White. Much more promising.

Museum I read the free opening chapter of My Brilliant Friend a while ago after hearing so much praise. It ended with the cliffhanger of the children entering the staircase. I did not feel compelled enough to click 'buy' - very good to know that I avoided a 30+ page journey upstairs

I am losing my reading mojo None of my unfinished books feels compelling enough. I'd like to read something gripping that is also technically well-written. Tried the opening chapter of 'The Portable Veblen' last night but hated the forced, cutesy quirkiness - squirrels as a major plotline, no thanks. Trying to read Franzen's Purity instead, I'm about half way through. Unfortunately, the main character is really insecure. I feel irritation, not empathy. But you can be sure that she has a great tan and chiseled abs and really pert breasts and will probably have amazing but ultimately unsatisfying sex with the cult leader any page now

cote thanks for the Pamuk heads up, as you know the subject matter will be interesting for me.

I haven't really been reading anything since Room. Just feel a bit meh about everything, so have been reading Casanova again - still on 7%. I have some books arriving in the week though so should get back to it.

Shakeitoff, I read River Town (plus another book about China by the same author) a few years back, and thought they were absolutely fascinating.

Best - at least my underwear drawers aren't a problem - I have 1 sort of everything (choice of black or white in bras, but they just live in appropriately coloured pile), bar socks where I have summer and winter weight I'm actually quite good on 'stuff' - what I need is a book along the lines of 'The lifechanging magic of getting around to doing the decorating and painting over the mouldy bits' . . .

Just saying 'Hi' so I can mark my place. Nothing to add or report at the moment but happy reading everyone!

1. Funny Girl by Nick Hornby. This book focuses on five people who launch their careers with a BBC sitcom in the 1960s. Sophie Straw, the funny girl, is a Blackpool beauty queen (for about half an hour, that is) who comes to London to pursue a career in comedy, which is launched by a chance meeting. The tv show serves as a lens for the burgeoning social changes in the UK, at least obliquely. It was an easy read though not silly.

I've just begun The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness, which I expect will be a quick read.

Museum What about some Hemmingway for Madrid? For whom the Bell Tolls obviously but I also really like The Sun also Rises. There's a cafe just off Plaza Mayor that has a sign in it "Hemmingway never drank here!" which always tickled me.

So happy other people felt the same as I did about Elena Ferrante.

I've just finished A Clubbable Woman by Reginald Hill. I really like his stuff but haven't read one for a couple of years and hadn't read this which is the first Dalziel and Pascoe one. It's a bit of its time (1970) in the sexism stakes - lots of reference to big breasts etc. Probably not his best to start with.

I'm also reading Whose Body by Dorothy Sayers, but struggling a bit to get into this. Again very much of it's time - some outrageous comments about the lower classes and anti-semitic stereotypes.

1. The Versions of Us - Laura Barnett
2. All the light we cannot see - Anthony Doerr
3. Red Rising - Pierce Brown
4. Golden Son - Pierce Brown
5. Flash Boys - Michael Lewis
6. There's Only Two David Beckhams - John O'Farrell
7. Authority - Jeff Vandermeer
8. Blue Monday - Nicci French
9. Mockingjay (reread)

10. Gilead - Marilynne Robinson 11. The Exclusives - Rebecca Thornton 12. A Clubbable Woman - Reginald Hill

17 Nothing is true and everything is possible by Peter Pomerantsev
The author is the son of Russian exiles, brought up in the UK, who spent 9 years in Moscow as a tv producer at the start of the 21C. Initially, it's quite a light hearted book, and has a bit of a 'look at all these amusing foreigners' feel, but a much more serious message comes through as it progresses.

The book only deals with (and only claims to deal with) one very small segment of Russian society. But equally, I think a book about the moneyed classes in the UK and their hangers-on would have interesting things to say about our society.

It reminded me of Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (another book that I would definitely recommend) which deals with life in Bagdhad's Green Zone - you kind of knew things were like that, but you couldn't quite believe in your heart that they really were.

12. Pygmalion - Shaw

13. Not Quite Nice - Celia Imrie - This was ok but a bit predictable and not as funny as I'd hoped.

Frustrated Why not read through this thread for some inspiration?

12. Beloved by Antoinette Stockenberg

At the beginning I thought this novel was going to be similar to Mary Stewart's Thornyhold, that I read earlier this month. A woman whose life is going nowhere inherits a house from a relative and then hears rumours she was a witch, but it turned out to be a slight ghost story and a very dull romance.

'Hemingway never drank here!' Thanks Stokey I will look out for that! The only Hemingway I have read is For Whom The Bell Tolls, and although I was able to appreciate it, it all felt a bit too testosterone drenched for me, or maybe I just read a bit too much of his reputation into it.

I have settled on The Spanish Game by Charles Cumming A modern day spy story that I read long enough ago to have forgotten the main plot points, but recently enough to remember that it's set in Madrid and is very good.

6 (?) Friday's Child by Georgette Heyer, which was meant to cheer me up, but I found it irritating this time round. :(

Now reading Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett, which is doing a much better job.

10. The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge This is the YA book which won the Costa prize last year. Read for next month's book group. It is set in Victorian England and follows the teenage daughter of a rector/natural scientist. I really enjoyed this and its take on the contemporary clash between theories of evolution and creationism. Liked the feminist aspect too which pervades the book. I don't imagine it'd be everyone's type of thing, but I thought it was an interesting easy read and nicely written.

Still plugging away at War and Peace. Have set myself a certain amount to read every day this week so I can finish by the end of half-term...

16. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. Partly inspired by all the earlier talk of Triffids on this thread, and that the (physical) book was on the shelf! Great book, with nary a breath of other worlds in it. A low tech society - not stated but strongly hinted as being atomic survivors - attempts to keep their bloodlines pure by weeding out mutations. Which is fine, until some of their own are found to have some unusual skills like precognition and telepathy. It is somewhat of its time - it taps into the great Cold-war themes/fears of nuclear annihilation and Communist activity. But the overall message I took - the danger of living by the maxim of "watch thou for the mutant" is just as relevant today I think. It sometimes seems like "mutants" - in thought or behaviour today, rather than in any physical attribute - are hunted down just as efficiently, perhaps more so on certain internet forums.

I've had my first book failure of the year - Giving up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel. The childhood stuff at the beginning was tedious (I never enjoy these parts in memoirs) and listening to an actress voice the story of someone else's life felt disconcerting. I think I'll get on better with The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend and read by Caroline Quentin.

10. The Lie Tree by Francis Hardinge. Completely agree with lookingforme's review (and also read for my book group) - I really enjoyed it and have passed it to my 11-year-old DD.

13 The Railway Man by Eric Lomax

This is a formal, self-contained, quiet account of Eric Lomax's experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war, which I found almost unbearably moving at times. I've read a lot about the Second World War, but not really much about this aspect of it; this felt important to have read. His boyhood love of trains provides a backdrop of innocence as Signals Officer Lomax takes in the human toll of building the Burma-Siam railroad, from the perspective of The cruelty and inhumanity of the soldiers' treatment at the hands of the enemy is shocking, but this is contrasted with the POWs incredible capacity for endurance, ingenuity, and continued compassion and generosity towards others whilst in the direst of circumstances. The small acts of resistance and the large acts of forgiveness combine to make this an unforgettable book.

Thanks quog for reminding me I had this! I am continuing with narrow Road with renewed interest now I have read this auotbiographical account.

I have completely lost track of the thread now, but have finished 6. All the Light We Cannot See and 7. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street.

I loved All the Light We Cannot See. I was fascinated by the descriptions of 1940s Paris and Saint Malo most, as I have lived in France quite a bit so they seemed closest to me. I also had a radio I used to listen to through the night as a child and loved picking up foreign language broadcasts I couldn't understand so that element appealed to me too. The way that Marie Laure's reading threaded through the story also seemed quite clever and tied the narrative together thematically, especially towards the climax of the novel where the juxtaposition of the siege and trapped characters with excerpts from 20,000 leagues under the sea heightened the sense of suffocation and drama. The way in which people turn against one another also touched me deeply. It came as a shock to remember how recent these events really were and to think of major capitals occupied and friends, neighbours and children deported. I had a cry to my husband remembering the plaque at DD's Maternelle in Paris from where three girls aged three and four were deported to the camps and killed. I live in a country where people routinely disappear and often turn up dead. This happened to an Italian student while I was reading the novel which shocked me a lot, and then I wondered why I felt shocked that he had been killed but not about the thousands of other deaths and it made me wonder about the fragility of life, the lack of permanence of things we all take for granted such as fair trials and safe policing and the hidden prejudice and discrimination that lurks inside all of us.

After that I needed a light read and The Watchmaker of Filigree Street seemed like a good choice. In some ways it exceeded my expectations: the way in which the main protagonist's opportunities expand and develop and the realisation of his abilities, the clockwork and fantastical details, the fun of Mori as a character. I did find it hard to deal with some of the more in your face anachronisms though. A woman blowing up things at an Oxford college in the 1880s and being allowed to keep her hair short and call her father stupid, the thoroughly modern dialogue and sensibilities, the complete fluidity of the class system. There is more but I don't want to ruin the plot. I also didn't really enjoy the way then the first parts of the book flit between different protagonists. I am really ready for a book narrated from one character's perspective. Is that still allowed?

After a bit of distance, I also think I was perhaps being unfair to Robert MacFarlane. I insisted on plodding through his book and forcing myself to read it all instead of dipping in and out. I think that reading The Wild Places in short bursts when the fancy took me would have been a fairer way to appreciate and enjoy it.

Next is Wolf Hall, and I will also look for the book about helping your kids to love reading that a PP recommended upthread. Sorry, I can't skip back to find the exact title and poster.

Will also try Spark Joy as I am itching to declutter.