50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Three

[southeastdweller]

Thread three 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.

First thread of 2016 is here and second thread here.

How're you getting on so far?

Book 26
The Janissary Tree by *Jason Goodwin
Thanks for the rec, Cote.
Thoroughly enjoyed this who-dunnit set in the Ottoman empire, with a crime-solving eunuch as the central character. It was quite funny and taught me a bit of history. It reminded me of Terry Pratchett’s Disc World books in some ways – there were fewer jokes but the ones there are = funnier than TP’s.

Yay, I'm glad you liked it Remus

By the way re 'Janissary' - It's funny how words emerge in a language. The word in Turkish is Yeniçeri (pronounced Yenny-cherry) meaning "new soldier". And that somehow got into the English language as Janissary. I find this sort of thing fascinating.

So would the 'J' be pronounced in English Cote?

14. In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

This was a mumsnet giveaway book. Nora gets invited to her estranged friend Clare's hen do some 10 years after she last spoke to Clare. The hen do is a weekend away in a remote cottage in a Dark Dark Wood. Things end up going horribly wrong, with a death and an amnesiac Nora desperately trying to remember what happened. An enjoyable read .

15. Techbitch by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza

Imogen, editor of fashion magazine Glossy, returns to work after a few months sick leave to discover that her former assistant Eve has been appointed to turn Glossy into an app. Eve is determined to sideline Imogen, and gets steadily more unpleasant and sociopathic throughout the novel. Eve is such a terrible boss that she almost seems more like a caricature than a proper character. But overall another enjoyable read.

16. Armada by Ernest Cline

I had some problems taking the premise of this seriously. Our hero, teenager Zack, spends lots of time playing an online video game that involves fighting alien invaders with drones. Much to his surprise, it turns out that the aliens are real and threatening to exterminate humanity, the videogame is a training simulation, and the aliens have (conveniently for humanity) accidentally let their advanced technology be captured and reverse engineered by humans.
The story does attempt to address the implausibility of the whole thing, but I was still very throughout almost all of it.

Janissary pronunciation.

Yeniçeri pronunciation. The word starts with y sound and the sound in the middle is ch not s.

Stitches - Armada was awful. I have said a number of times on here that it is comically bad. And I say that as someone who quite enjoyed Ready Player One. What a disappointment that Ernest Cline followed it with this garbage.

It's bizarre. Armada, that is. The basic concept just doesn't make proper sense.

I found my review of Armada from July 2015:

41. Armada - Ernest Cline

I am so disappointed with this book that I can cry. This is the much-anticipated book by the author of Ready Player One which I really enjoyed last year because it was fast-paced, nerdy, had good world-building, and was about a quest in virtual reality.

This books starts out quite OK, too. It turns out that an alien war is coming and that Armada, the hugely popular online space war game, is a pilot training program for fighter drones. The idea is good, even better than its outdated exploration in Ender's Game, but the execution is abysmal. It is not even YA but pretty much a children's book - a boy arcade fantasy with some daddy issues thrown in and some ludicrous plot. It was just awful.

I'm not recommending this, in case any of you are wondering grin

35. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince JK Rowling

Another reread!!

I've had a few busy weeks so I'm still stuck on #5 "A Man Called Ove" and, struggling a bit, on page 50 and it's not grabbing me, worth persevering or not?

Chessie I see you are reading all the HP books one after the other. This is something I do with any book series.

I don't like interrupting a series with another author or book outside of the plot line. I might make an exception for a non fiction book, but wouldn't really like it!

I'm currently on book 4 of 9 in Bernard Cornwell's 'Saxon Stories' and will complete all these before even thinking about what to read next.

Does anyone else do this? I suppose I take this approach because I like to immerse myself in the plot and characters completely. If there is a historical element involved, I'll also go and research the area too.

Ooh Cardiff, I've my eye on I Am Pilgrim! Good to hear a positive review

Grey I definitely do the immersion thing too. Read all the Game of Thrones books one after another

I do the opposite grey I am currently on book 5 of the Saxon stories (it's rather good I must say) and after that I am going to finish the lost Tudor princess by Alison weir then I am reading Harry Potter book 1 and I still have ulyseses to finish and after that I will reward myself with book 6 of the Saxon stories. Otherwise I get a bit too involved especially with Uthred iyswim.

Wilting - I binged on Game of Thrones too!

Muskey - I don't think I could cope with that! It would make me very twitchy. And there is nothing wrong with Uhtred immersion

Thanks for the warnings re: Armada. I won't be reading it. Just bought Ready Player One as a birthday gift for my brother - hope he hasn't read it already. It is exactly the right level of geekiness for him.

The Janissary Tree is 99p on Kindle - sorry don't know if that has already been mentioned. Thought it sounded interesting from your discussions Remus and Cote so decided to check it out - thanks for that.

14. Blackwater Lake by Maggie James novella length quick and easy read. A man who has always been ashamed of his parents' house because they are hoarders begins to uncover secrets about his family and a decades old disappearance, as he clears the hoard after their deaths. I read most of this on a very turbulent flight, and it was pitched at just the right level to keep my mind off that.

Book10 read:Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge
first published in 1935it tells the story of Lady Grace Kilmichael and her summer escape from her stifling husband and her 3grown up children. she feels totally unappreciated by her family and suspects her high flying husband is having an affair. She travels to former Yugoslavia and there she meets Nicholas a 22year old struggling artist. Goes on to teach him during an idyllic summer and the inevitable happens, they begin to fall in love and the book continues to describe the dignity of how grace copes with this, without ever even having any physical relationship with young Nicholas. Beautifully told, a by gone agei imagine and the long descriptions of Yugoslavia,unspoilt and rural, before mass tourism arrived made me rather wistful. I highly recommend this book
Next book to be read is Colm Toibin Nora Webster

Booklover, Illyrian Spring sounds wonderful! I'm putting that on my unrealistically long list.

I haven't read Nora Webster but Brooklyn is superb; have you read it?

I finished no 9 on my list, The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge. Absolutely fab. Dark, intelligent, witty, original, atmospheric. Totally believable place and time, totally living breathing characters, ace pre-teen heroine. Some aspects of the story are fantastical, but she pulls it off utterly convincingly and you just go with it.

I fancy reading some of her other stuff as I loved the writing so much, but going by the descriptions none of her others appeal to me quite as much. Can anyone recommend any?

Reading Grace Jones, I'll Never Write My Memoirs, now. There's a jaw-dropping rider at the back, all the stuff she requires in the way of transport and accommodation etc when someone books her to perform somewhere. She is ridiculous in some ways but I still love her.

fatowl - it's much the same throughout. If it's not grabbing you, I don't think that'll change.

Only lovers, I'm glad my enthusiasm came across! It is a virago modern classics, I picked it up2nd hand from Amazon.no, Nora Webster is my 1st by colm Toibin, onto page 20 and it appears good! Have you read any books by Margaret Forster? Reading a few of her recent obituaries has sparked my interest. Happy reading and good to make contact with someone on this thread(you are my first since joining last month!)

OnlyLovers, I haven't read The Lie Tree yet, but I absolutely loved Fly by Night and the sequel Twilight Robbery, particularly the main character Mosca Mye. A Face Like Glass was also excellent, again a really engaging main character.

Cuckoo Song and Gullstruck Island were both fine, but not at the same level, I'd say.

Currently reading Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon and really not that inspired, interspersed with How to Be Both by Ali Smith, which I didn't expect to like but am rather enjoying.

Aw, I love A Man Called Ove! I really enjoyed the dry, understated wit, and that it was deceptively naively written but actually very emotionally true, and piercing, in the end.

Booklover, no, I haven't read Margaret Forster but am intending to.

Sadik, thanks for that. Might try A Face Like Glass.

Booklover/Onlylovers - I'm reading my first Margaret Forster (I know, a bit late but nevertheless ...) - My Life in Houses, which is really good so far.

Thanks Quogwinkle, I will put that one on my future reading list.I have also had 2recommended by Forster:hidden lives, book1, and Precious lives.