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. Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery

I picked up the complete works of L.M. Montgomery on Kindle for next to nothing a while back and have been steadily re-reading the Anne series. I never read the last two (Rainbow Valley and this one) when I originally read (and re-read, and re-read) the series as they were out of print then. Rilla is Anne's youngest child and the book centres on her life and reactions as gradually all the Ingleside boys go to the front, as well as her budding romance with Ken Ford.

There were some great bits; one of the Ingleside boys has a loyal dog who waits at the station and meets every train in case he is on it coming home which really got me. The rest of it was pretty meh though: Rilla herself isn't a particularly inspiring heroice, her romance is barely mentioned and is just dull, there is far, far too much war talk (ok, there needs to be a certain amount of anguish given the setting, but it just got boring) and there was very little of the comic element that was very evident in the earlier books.

I'm glad I've finally read it, but I won't be rushing to read it again when I do my next re-read of the series in about 10 years no doubt!

1. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje.

It's the story of a nurse taking care of an anonymous patient in a ruined Italian villa as the second world war draws to a close. The writing is very poetic with some beautiful turns of phrase, but the characters all felt very distant to me.

Sooper I found 7 Killings really hard going. Sections of it dragged on and on and it was a much longer book than it should have been

1. Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre.

Essentially a fairly standard linear historical novel about Venetia Stanley, later Lady Digby, and her husband, Sir Kenelm Digby, but with added intentional anachronisms, the conceit being that Kenelm Digby in some way hears echoes of the future (though for some reason almost entirely from the late 20th/early 21st C), hence knows the words to Bowie songs etc.

There were things I did like about this book, but it didn't really work for me. I felt it would have benefited from being about half the length, and the anachronisms didn't really add anything. They were never meaningfully explained (I'd actually been expecting a 16thC take on steampunk when I bought it), nor done with a light enough touch to be magical realism. The main focus of the novel is Venetia Digby's attempts to retain her beauty as she ages and the parallels with modern cosmetic surgery and other treatments, and on the whole it was all a bit heavy handed and over obvious.

I only realised when I got to the end that there was a set of 'notes and questions for reading groups' included - always the indicator of a novel with pretentions.

Yay, I've actually completed a book - admittedly, a very short one. I'm still ploughing through War and Peace but I took a little break from it to read Antigone by Jean Anouilh.

It's an updating of Sophocles and was written and first performed in the forties during the Nazi occupation. It deals (amongst other things) with civil disobedience and tyranny which were obviously hugely important issues at the time. Anouilh had to adopt very convincing opposing arguments to get the play passed by the German authorities and also convince the French that it was addressing their situation during the occupation.

It's a very interesting and moving play and I'd really like to see it in performance now. I'm also planning to read Seamus Heaney's version of Sophocles: The Burial at Thebes later in the year - it will be interesting to compare the different versions.

I hate having disappointing reading weeks...

1. A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled - Ruby Wax.

Too much repetition from her first book on this subject, and too much about the author's experiences - a little bit of Ruby goes a very long way.

1. Levels of Life - Julian Barnes.

Un-involving short book about the history of ballooning and how it's linked to photography, and the second part describes the author's grief at losing his wife. This was too cerebral for me, though I do like his fiction.

Now on Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson, which so far seems more up my street.

3. Two Brothers by Ben Elton
My second Ben Elton book. I recently read and enjoyed Time and Time Again so looked for another of his to read.
This is the story of two brothers growing up in Germany in between WW1 and WW2. They are a Jewish family, but one of the boys is adopted so isn't a Jew. It really highlighted to me how little I know about this period when Hitler became chancellor. It's an eye-opening read and shocking at times. It had me in tears at some points. I loved the afterword that described how some of the story is inspired by his own family's story.
I really enjoy his writing and will look for more to read.

1. The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain by James Fallon

This is about a neuroscientist doing research into psychopaths, who then discovers his brain scan is also that of a psychopath. I liked it for the very detailed explanations about the brain - how it works, which parts control what, the mechanisms, hormones (serotonin, dopamine...) etc - but the parts about himself and his life were not as interesting and insightful as M. E. Thomas's brilliant book Confessions of a Sociopath.

Hrafnkel I thought Moriarty was a decent read. Maybe not as unexpected as Horowitz might have hoped, but it was good to see his treatment of one of the minor characters from one of Doyle's stories and the psychological impact of feeling himself to have been shown up by Holmes.

Guthriegirl, I loved the Crimson Petal. It is, in fact, one of my favourite books. I also liked Under the Skin although it put me off eating chicken for months. So I would give Book of Strange New Things a chance. It is too long but I loved thinking about all the themes and ideas and my DH and I had lots of discussions about it. I'm afraid I don't remember the wanking, as mentioned by Remus, so I don't think it's a major plot line. Although even if he did, surely ministers are just men and therefore will behave like any other man?

3. Instrumental by James Rhodes.
What a book! Autobiography of James Rhodes, concert pianist, his story is one of child abuse and its aftermath. His voice comes through the words and it is moving and honest. But it is also a book about classical music and its ability to reach and engage us. Each chapter has a recommendation to listen to and a little blurb about the composer. I love music but have never really got into classical music. Now I am very much looking forward to listening to some classical music, maybe even a live concert. It was a tough read in places but I am very glad I did.

Shake I have no problems at all with men of the cloth doing whatever they wish to themselves - I could just have done without reading about it in several pages of boring detail. :)

Books 6 and 7 are two travel guides, one on Ireland and one on Germany. Trying to make some decisions about this year's holidays, but, as usual, going round in circles a bit at the moment. Both guides were interesting, but I'm still mostly drawn to Germany, I think.

natasha my DD performed a piece from the former for LAMDA and was in a version of the later.

She loved both!

Eric Wow! I'm very envious; I would love to have played Antigone. I'm too old now, sadly. It's a special play for me because my dad once played Creon and my mum was Ismene - it's how they met.

I am a big Heaney fan, so I'm very curious to see what he did with it.

Talented families! I have loved Antigone since doing it for French A level. Was lucky enough to see Electra at the old vic last year (?) with Kristin Scott Thomas, a necessarily physical performance which she carried off with great aplomb, all the more so considering she's in her fifties and was acting the role of a woman considerably younger and did so convincingly.

Wandering off the point there....
Anyway, wouldn't be up to reading Antigone in French now, sadly!

Wandering off the point there.... Not really, it's all Greek tragedy, innit?

I don't know Electra, at all. I'm going to add it to my 'to read' list - thank you for the idea.

I bet you could still read it, you know. Even I can read French (very slowly and with the help of a good dictionary!) but can barely string a sentence together if I try to speak.

Greek tragedy fans: the Oresteia is brilliant.

KST was fabulous in Electra.
One of my favourite performances of 2015.

Just finished number 2. We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler.

I must say it was really very good. I don't want to say too much about it as I think going into it completely blind and knowing nothing at all made it all the more powerful. I will say that there is something of the Kate Atkinson in her writing style which I enjoy. It is darkly witty. It addresses some big and serious stuff head on, but didn't feel overly preachy or difficult to read.

I genuinely think it has changed the way I think about some things and made me think carefully about some aspects of my life. I suspect it is a book that will stay with me for some time.

Continuing to follow my alphabet of new authors challenge I am now looking for a G. Might have a look back through this thread and see if anything looks promising

Keepers you've just reminded me that I have Beside Ourselves on my kindle. I've read enough so I know what the book is about and love Kate Atkinson, so perhaps I'll read that after God in Ruins and Murakami's running book.

Oh, I loved We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves! I thought it was absolutely brilliant - so interesting and unusual. It started off like any average book about someone who doesn't get on with her family, and then BAM! But I picked it for my book club to read and they mostly hated it. Although it has become very obvious that my book club and I have very different tastes.

Onemouse, Little Dog Monday makes me cry every time! I actually really like Rilla of Ingleside, not so much for Rilla herself but for all the war chat.

1. The Invasion of the Tearling, by Erika Johansen. Sequel to Queen of the Tearling. Decent fantasy, not brilliant. Queen Kelsea is trying to work out how to stop the Mort invading, and much of the book is taken up by her strange fugue states where she enters someone else's life. I liked the bits with Lily much better than the Kelsea bits, which were mostly a bit muddled and dull. It ended with a cliffhanger, so I'll probably read the next one anyway.

Hi everyone

Hope you don't mind me joining. I completed the challenge in 2015 but ran out of steam in terms of posting on the threads.

Just about to choose book 5 for 2016 having completed the following over the last few weeks:

1 The Promise - Robert Crais Crais fans will love this. He's had a lot of time to develop his characters and obviously has a fantastic team of editors. Snappy narrative and likeable, extraordinary main players mean The Promise is a real page turner.
2 A man called Ove - Frederik Backman Even more wonderful than I was expecting having seen/received lots of recommendations. This made me laugh and cry.
3 How I lost you - Jenny Blackhurst The premise - a mother who killed her baby and then receives a photo of him having grown up to become an older child - drew me in but this was pretty dreadful. The characters were unlikeable and the plot gratuitous and unbelievable.
4 Cold Killing (DI Corrigan series book 1) - Luke Delaney One for fans of Peter James and Mo Hayder, this South London crime thriller features gory murders, a main character who identifies with those he hunts and plenty of misdirection. I imagine the story wrote itself but it was enjoyable enough.

cheddar your book club are clearly fools

I have chosen The princess bride by William Goldman for book 3 and my letter G author. Spent more then I usually do but really fancied something a bit light and silly as January is a tough month for me.

Tiresomely I have washing up and clothes folding to do before I can get started. Life can be annoying sometimes.

So far this year, I have really enjoyed Viv Albertine's autobiography Clothes, Music, Boys and I am liking The Junior Officer's Reading Club which was lent to my DS, who sometimes wants to join the Army, by a friend. Have also finished the last Michael Connelly, The Crossing, which was well up to scratch, and something else, that was so unmemorable I can't remember the title.

1. Grief Is The Thing With Feathers by Max Porter.

I imagine others will have covered this one before, and it's been reviewed a lot in the papers, so I'll be brief. This is a short essay/novella, dealing with the grief of a father and his two young sons after the death of his wife/their mother.

I'd recommend this unreservedly; it's a very short read, almost like reading a long poem, and I found it incredibly moving. It's also a very beautiful book physically (a friend lent it to me, but now I'm very tempted to buy my own copy, even in hardback).