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?

Have read Pyg. Will check out the other, thanks.

Pygmalion audiobook is good-narrated by Geoffrey Palmer and Anton Lesser.

"something cheery and lovely" - I think Eat Pray Love may be the only book I've ever read that could fit this description.

20. Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich - a bit silly, with a very improbable plot involving plague infested fleas . But there's still something about this series I like, and plan to see it through to the end.

1. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James Just finished this, and I'm not really sure what I thought to be honest. I think I enjoyed it, but I'm still a bit confused about what actually happened and am in the strange position of quite wanting to read it again but at the same time not being entirely sure I can face it! The dialect wasn't a particular problem for me, and I definitely enjoyed the brutality, violence and bleakness of the setting. The biggest issue for me was actually the comparisons to Tarantino I had read because all I could think of throughout was that this is a book that the author wants to be made into a film.

It's taken me a month to read as well, so I am very behind and off to pick something shorter and lighter from my to-read pile!

31. Dear Enemy, Jean Webster. I know I am supposed to be reading Vanity Fair but I had started this and just wanted to finish it! This is the sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs, narrated by Sallie, Judy's college roommate, now installed as Superintendent at the John Grier Home (the orphanage). Judy and Jervie now administer the Home and want it to be thoroughly modernised and for the children to learn how to have fun. Sallie takes frivolous hold with the assistance of a certain Scotch doctor with a mysterious past. This is a bit beefier than DLL. Sallie is just as merry and bright as Judy, but she is absolutely sure of herself and refuses to be dictated to by any man. Judy is more poignant and touching, but I would rather have the relationship of Sallie and Sandy than that of Judy and Jervie.

Feeling nostalgic now, Cheddar. Devoured those books as a teen. And forgotten all about them. Sigh!

"Something cheery but lovely"...Love in a Cold Climate or The Pursuit of Love? Or a bit of early Jilly Cooper, perhaps, such as Prudence or Imogen? The Making of a Marchioness? But only the first one - the second part is gloomy and depressing, but the first bit is lovely.

Moving, they're free on Kindle!

Free? Am there already 😄 Thanks, oh happy days!

Yy cote I think you do have to bear in mind how much we take for granted after another hundred odd years of science and progress, and really getting to grips with these theories which were then still emerging.

It is fair to say though it is clumsily done in some respects, and I think he had more of an eye on the social commentary he was trying to make with the codependency between them, rather than the details of how it functioned and came to be.

I'm a little disconcerted to find I don't have anything to offer in the way of "lovely" recommendations, remus, though I just finished reading

18. Well Done, Secret Seven to my 5 year old, and it does have a jolly exciting finish. Though there is an early incident where a kitten is in mild peril and someone has stolen the biscuits from their treehouse, so it might not be suitable after all. (I thoroughly enjoyed this revisit to my childhood reading, unlike others of Blyton it largely still stands up, and it had ds enthralled from the start ) Also read 19. Aristotle by Dick King Smith.

And 20. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett an amusing diversion, less than 200 pages - a rumination on reading and writing using the Queen as the catalyst for it, I suppose.

Remus, have you read The Red House, EE Nesbit? It's for adults but links with The Story of the Treasure-Seekers and The Wouldbegoods. V v v comfort reading!

Cote - Eat, Pray, Love Gods, know. I read a page and loathed it.

have read all of those Cheddar.

9. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, JKRowling Audiobook read by Stephen Fry - fantastic plot, revealing more back story and plenty of hints for what is to come. Love Fry's narration too.

10. Sword Song, Bernard Cornwell Book 4 of the Saxon Stories Uhtred the protagonist has grown in reputation and maturity and he has become a formidable war lord. The Danes are arriving in ever greater numbers and
there are a lot of well written battle scenes that keep the tension going. This is definitely a series where each book wants you wanting more.

So... straight onto the next book The Burning Land

Well, I don't really read luffly books. Eat Pray Love is all I've got

But I need luffly. Or to hit something - had I better settle for that instead?

Mama, To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most overrated books I've ever read. I agree the first half is slow and I'd add boring. There's a good and timeless message in the book but in general I found the book dull, apart from the trail scene. The film isn't much better.

Sorry - trial, not trail.

Pride and Prejudice? All more all less ends luffly and happy ever after.
Amd it's a great read!

I read To Kill A Mockingbird at school as a teenager and wondered even then at such a perfectly dull and uninteresting book achieving enduring international acclaim.

Instead of luffly, how about a murder mystery?

Game of Thrones books might suit your current mood

Moving - I've probably read P&P 20 times at least! I love it but need something I haven't read before.

Hate Game of Thrones. So badly written and misogynistic. I like the dwarf but that's all. Managed two but don't want to read any more (although I would quite like a dragon and a sword).

You'll go read Pollyanna again, won't you?

I realise P & P is my only lovely book
All doom and gloom, challenging life stories and twisty thrillers here. Not sure why.