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?

Pollyanna with dragons and swords would be just perfect for my mood right now!

Remus - Georgette Heyer's regency books? Pretty much guaranteed a happy ending. Or Anne McCaffrey's Pern books? Dragons aplenty there, but no swords...

Stitches - Doomsday book sounds v interesting, thanks.

Remus - something by David Sedaris?, some of his stories literally make me cry with laughter, particularly Me Talk Pretty One Day.

I am loving the Lipizzaner love too! I thought this was quite a niche interest, obviously not. They were on telly the other night and I was enthralled, DH was like

Cider with Rosie is my all time favourite luffly read. Also Ordinary Families by E Arnot Robertson In my head, luffly must = early 20th century genteel rural England outdoorsy childhood.

My guaranteed cheering up authors are Georgette Heyer, PG Wodehouse, early Pratchett - swords and dragons there! - and Jane Austen. Or you could try some of the other Lord Peter Wimsey novels, Remus. (Was actually going to suggest Miss Pettigrew, but then I saw that was your starting point!)

Oh yes, Wosehouse, and I know they are relatively modern, but I love the Rumpole books too.

I keep meaning to read Cider with Rosie as my ancestors hailed from the next village but never got round to it.

Wodehouse

Remus - how about Gerald Durrell? There are lots of them, all cheery and jolly.

14. Behind Closed Doors by BA Paris. Grace and Jack seem to have the perfect life, but is it really? This psychological thriller didn't do much for me I'm afraid.

10. True grit by Charles Portis. Mattie Ross is a 14 year old girl in late 1800s frontier Arkansas. Her father is shot, and Mattie sets out on a mission to hunt down the culprit for revenge. She looks for a Marshall with 'true grit' to help her in her quest. This book is written in the first person by Mattie. I really enjoyed this book. The humour and toughness of Mattie is brilliantly written and the scene of outlaws and tough living is well set. I'd recommend it.

TooExtra I envy you reading Vanity Fair for the first time! Such a well written book.

Any recommendations from the kindle sale? I've bought:
-Atul Gawande's Better: a surgeon's notes on performance
-Tamar Cohen's The Broken
-Louise Beech's How to be brave

My tbr pile is building up again and I still haven't read my Christmas books so I need to get my skate on. What I could do with is a lovely long holiday where I could get lots of reading done!

I would also go for Austen Remus, probably Pride and Prejudice though also have a soft spot for Emma.

Have read nearly all of those recommendations. Have read all of the Austens at least 15 times apart from Mansfield Park, which might have only had 8 or 9 outings and which makes me angrier every time I read it!

The only one I hadn't come across was Ordinary Families but it's not on Kindle.

Thanks though.

Remus, what about Libba Bray's Beauty Queens? It is a new book but it is Lord of the Flies with beauty queens and it is very feminist and made me howl with laughter. It has the right sort of ass-kicking in it for your current mood, perhaps? It was very clever and very funny.

Do you like werewolves, or is it just swords and dragons? Oh wait - swords and dragons recommendation - Blue Moon Rising by Simon R Green. It has swords, dragons, a prince who is qualified to ride a unicorn and a princess who is not, and who keeps punching people. It's trash, but entertaining trash. If you like werewolfy things, what about either some Ilona Andrews or Patricia Briggs?

My lovely books tend to be LM Montgomery, particularly the Emily series or The Blue Castle or certain Anne books (Anne of Green Gables/of Avonlea/of the Island/Anne's House of Dreams/Rainbow Valley/Rilla of Ingleside, yes, Anne of Windy Poplars/Ingleside, no). I also like The Story Girl, The Golden Road and A Tangled Web - all freely available on Kindle/Gutenberg.

Remus have you ever read DE Stevenson? 1930s-ish author, quite funny and sparky but essentially "safe" reading. I love Mrs Tim of the Regiment which is about the trials of life as an army wife, although my mum gave me The Young Clementina for Christmas two years ago and that was a pretty snuggly read, too.

22. Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfegh. Has been making waves in the States; it's the story of a young woman who works as a secretary at a boys' prison in New England in the mid-'60s. Her mother is dead and her father a neglectful alcoholic. She's very repressed, both socially and sexually. A new colleague at the prison becomes the focus of her obsession, and eventually, the catalyst for a terrible crime. The crime element isn't really the emphasis, though; it's all about Eileen's characterisation (which is incredible, very believable and very uncomfortable to read at the same time) and about the creeping sense of "oh my God, something awful is going to happen but I don't know what." Other people (on Goodreads) have complained about the pacing; I thought it worked really well, but I read it in two sittings so perhaps that helped. Utterly fantastic.

A lovely read - A Month in the Country by J L Carr. It's been years since I encountered a book that I hugged to myself in the same way.

Just checked Remus - it's on Kindle for £1.49. Take a punt!

Remus I head for children's books when I want lovely, particularly The Children of Green Knowe, The Little White Horse, anything by LM Montgomery (snap Cheddar ), the earlier ones in the Little House on the Prairie books Farmer Boy and Little House in the Big Woods and also Alison Uttley's Country Child. I also love Lark Rise to Candleford and Cranford and, of course, Cold Comfort Farm - there is clearly something about old-fashioned rural life that makes me feel very safe!

Also, Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim is 32p on Kindle right now.

Damn this thread. Have just been on Amazon and bought the collected works of E M Delafield and E F Benson at 99p each. I am now stopping and going to do some work!

Can't stop thinking about the 'lovely books' criteria! Wilkie Collins? I seem to remember you saying you'd read all those, though. I've added DE Stevenson to my To Read list now! I've just bought Mariana by Monica Dickens because it was suggested as similar to I Capture the Castle, Miss Pettigrew and Nancy Mitford on Goodreads, despite the fact that it was £8.55 on Kindle. Damn you, Remus! The Camomile Lawn or Part of the Furniture by Mary Wesley might fit your criteria, or what about The Lives and Loves of a She-Devil, Fay Weldon? Or some of these ?

Onemouse - if you love the Little White Horse, have you read The Runaways, also by Elizabeth Goudge? It's on Kindle and it's like a little piece of childhood happiness. I purred with contentment and joy while reading it.

Josephine Tey sounds promising too.

Like the recommendations, though She-Devil not loverly in my book, rather mocking, hate-stirring.. Good but not for this, I'd say.
Also been pondering this category, many kids books would fit, Ballet Shoes even for a nostalgic read? Fried green tomatoes cafe thingey? Like water for chocolate? Chocolat ? A theme here.. Wild if you want a completing s challenge against the odds kind of read. Little Women ? (Must admit never to have read it all the way through but imagine it's lover-ly)

Remus, what about Ellis Peters' Inspector Felse books? I especially like the ones where Dominic is still a young boy, and A Grass Widow's Tale.

No, She-Devil was more inspired by the punch-something comment! But back to the lovely theme - Grass in Piccadilly, Noel Streatfeild? Saplings wasn't exactly lovely but this one is.