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. Deep Hurt by Eva Hudson book 3 of the Ingrid Skyberg series. I like this author for a quick and easy crime read with a strong female lead. She has two series but some characters pop up in both. There is also a standalone book which was disappointing. This was good though.

TooExtra I have Fingersmith on my to read pile, and was already looking forward to it - even more so now. I also have My Briiliant Friend, which has somewhat been damned by faint praise by previous reviewers on this thread. However, it was a Christmas present, and the giver will be expecting to hear my tuppenceworth, so I suppose I better read it at some point.

Finally finished 3. A God In Ruins - Kate Atkinson last night. The last eighth or so just seemed to go on forever, not in a bad way but I was trying to finish to avoid carting two books around on my commute today.

I really enjoyed the book, for me it was really gripping and the characters were hugely sympathetic (with the exception of Viola, but I felt sorry even for her). Don't want to give any spoilers, but I felt that it was an elegiac mourning for the humdrum everyday life denied to so many because of WW2. The twist is not unexpected, but quite hard hitting all the same.

Now onto A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks. I'm a Faulks fan in general but have had this kicking around on my bookshelf since the point in my pregnancy when I couldn't concentrate on books any more. Have also got his latest lined up for later - Where My Heart Used To Beat. It's been feted as the successor to Birdsong which is one of my two all-time faves (the other being Captain Corelli's Mandolin) so I'm quite excited about getting to it eventually.

Hi everyone. Tried to post last night but didn't work. Anyway have finally strted book number 3 'A God in Ruins'. Will leave the Faber novel till January is gone.
Toomature i am not from the Mearns ( bit further south and to the West) and didn't read 'Sunset Song' for Higher. I came to it a bit later and totally loved it. Such a fantastic novel. Beautifully written. Chris Guthrie ( hence my name ) is one of my favourite female characters ever. For those of you who don't know the novel it is well worth a read. Once you get by the dire first chapter it a wonderful read. It is written in Scots but it's quite accessible ( honest). Set just before the First World War and deals with the huge changes that swept across Scotland at that time as well as telling the story of Chris Guthrie.

Ash - have you read Faulks on Fiction ? I've not read any of his stuff before and I think this one could be of interest to me. Apparently Faulks looks at the depiction of character types (hero, villain, lover etc) in classic fiction.

If you've read it I wondered what you (or anyone else) thought of it?

I think I read a review of Faulks on Fiction which criticised him for having a very white English male-centric view of fiction. I do seem to remember that he mentions Austen though. Not read it. Does anybody know it, and think I'd like it?

1. Written In Fire by Marcus Sakey

This was a great end to the author's Brilliance series, previous two books of which I read and loved in 2014. It was a long wait for the 3rd book and it took a while for it all to come back to me, but it was still a great ride!

The tension between "brilliants" (people with extraordinary talents) and the rest of society comes to a head in this last book, with extremists on both sides moving chess pieces in preparation for the upcoming conflict. It sounds like X-Men, but it's done much better - Brilliance series focuses on the political and strategic aspects rather than comic book fun.

I would really recommend Brilliance books as well as Lexicon to those of you looking for well-done and interesting books in this genre.

10. Deep Sea and Foreign Going by Rose George. This was recommended in the last thread (under the alternate title Ninety Percent of Everything). It's based on a long trip the author took on a Maersk container ship, plus additional chapters about other aspects of commercial shipping.

I found it interesting, container shipping isn't something I know much about, and of course it underlies so much of the modern economy. The author is a journalist, and I think the book is a development of a series of long articles she wrote.

I read Lexicon a couple of months ago Côte and thought it was great. Last quarter not quite as strong as the start but still a great read. Have you read anything else by him?

I also enjoyed the first two Brilliance books when they came out so look forward to reading the finale.

Have you read the Southern Reach books? I'm just starting the second but not convinced by them. The first was rather odd.

No, I haven't read anything else by Max Barry. I heard good things about Jennifer Government, though.

Southern Reach - Is that Annihilation etc? I read Annihilation and have the second one on my Kindle. It was very weird, indeed, and I still haven't mustered up the courage to read the sequel.

Glad to hear happy thoughts and reviews of Fingersmith! It's been on my TBR pile for ages, unfortunately I can't remember who gave it to me

On mine too but currently reading Tipping the Velvet. Which is good but less enjoyable than the gripping (and beautifully narrated by Juliet Stephenson) Paying Guests.

Book 4 Never Again by Martin Gilbert A history of the holocaust.
I would recommend this but it's very harrowing. Martin Gilbert was a lecturer in a London university he was teaching a course on the holocaust and it was suggested by his students that they spend 2 weeks visiting the sites to connect in an emotional way. He writes as a diary speaking about the journey, giving details about each village and town of the population before the war and their fate, also recalling the readings he gave to the students. Eye witness accounts etc. I had to read some absolute rubbish at the same time when it became too much. However I will list them separately. I learnt a lot about the Soviet prisoners of war that I didn't know. I have another of his books to read but not yet

Hi onemouseplace, I think you could definitely dip in and out of SPQR, especially if you have a classics background-I think I found it easier to keep a sense of a rough time line and remember who key people were reading it one chunk-I think that's why it took me a while to get through. Hope you enjoy it!

MuseumOfHam hope I didn't put you off My Brilliant Friend! It just wasn't really my thing. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.

I'm onto book 3, Perfume by Patrick Suskind. It's been good so far.

Greymalkin and remus I haven't read Faulks on Fiction actually, might add it to the list which is already much too long

Grifone he has written a time-travellers guide to Elizabethan England but for some reason I am finding it much harder going than the medieval one. It's been on my bedside table to dip in and out of for over a year!

1. I let you go, Clare Mckintosh. I found this a real "stand by the kettle" read - couldn't put it down. The timelines were occasionally distracting but an excellent thriller.

1. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo

All about Marie Kondo's recommended method of tidying homes, with anecdotes illustrating her love of tidying.

The central message of only keeping things that bring you joy makes sense. Although I was a bit dubious about some of the suggestions.

Ditching just about all the joyless letters with statements and bills and payslips and so on seemed a bit trigger happy, although perhaps I'm biased because we're trying to finish off this year's self assessment form for the taxman. And she suggests putting bookcases in cupboards rather than on display. I think the only way this would work in our house would be if we built a cupboard around the bookcases and I like to see my books without opening extra doors anyway Does anyone know how Japanese homes compare to British homes in terms of typical built in cupboard space?

I read Kondo a couple of weeks ago, stich. Some good ideas but a bit bonkers, I thought! I can see the sense in, say, piling up all the toiletries and using them up before buying more, but chucking them all in order to have clear space just didn't sit well with me. Though I am sure I would love the empty space it produced.
I lived in Japan for a while and the houses are minute. Cupboards sizeable.

Eurgh. ^stitch

Yes Cote, the second one is called Authority. I'll let you know how it goes.

Not even if you found 100 boxes each containing 200 cotton buds scattered around your house, big bad?

But yes. Most people aren't likely to have so much toiletries stockpiled that it would quite literally take years to use them up.

2000 cotton buds might be a special case :) stitch. I'm clearly a hopeless case because the thought of throwing something away then having to buy it again, even a few years later, for the sake of having some empty shelves in the meantime, just doesn't feel right to me. I will continue chucking it all in the garage.

Bursting in to say I nearly bust a vein over Faulks on Fiction It was the most male-centric view of fiction I have ever had the misfortune to read. Pride & Prejudice is entirely about Darcy's journey, according to him. With regard to Marian Halcombe in The Woman in White, he remarks that Wilkie Collins points out her ugliness, and remarks that it would be fine, you'd just have to do her from behind. (Not an exact quote).

From time to time I quite like a book that exercises my spleen, so Faulks admirably fit the bill in that regard. I was practically choking with rage.

Can I join? I have been doing this for the last few years. So far have read:

1. The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennesey - enjoyed it as much if not more than Harold Fry, but it doesn't stand alone as a book in itself
2. The Versions of Us Laura Barnett - loved this but found it a tad confusing! Interesting idea
3. A Year of Marvellous Ways Sarah Winman - absolute pants. Loved 'When God was a rabbit' - this was terrible
4. Alice and the Fly James Rice - excellent but unsettling
5. Road Ends Mary Lawson. Love love her. Not her best but still good.

Eagerly waiting for A God in Ruins to arrive!

Will read through thread properly to get some ideas!