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?

Not sure where I got to with my last list so this is a guessed starting point

8. I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
9. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
10. The Life and Loves of a He Devil by Graham Norton
11. My Autobiography by Alex Ferguson
12. All the Light we cannot see by Antony Duerr
13. The girl in the red coat by Kate Hamer

Enjoyed them all. Highlights in bold.

I thought parts of The girl in the red coat were superb - I was really gripped and thought the two main characters were so good. I really felt their pain. However, bits let me down. Don't want to give any spoilers but I feel this could have been a great novel if the "woo" had been avoided (but maybe I'm just a cynic)

21. The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz. This was an audio book, and a re-read, originally read two years ago. A fascinating insight into the work of a psychoanalyst, some of which I found quite upsetting this time round.

22. My Life in Houses by Margaret Forster. Beautifully written, but emotionally draining in the parts where she talks about her long battle with cancer. I had no idea she had had breast cancer from her mid thirties. More than half her life was spent living under the threat of returning cancer.

I need to read something more uplifting, trying Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. He had better not depress me.

Aahhh, Quog, Bryson won't let you down. He never does. (For more snort-things-out-your-nose hilarity, might I recommend The Code of the Woosters? Also, Rush Oh!, which I think came out last month, and has a wonderful sassy narrator and a generally joyful atmosphere. And, of course, any of the Adrian Mole books.)

I know that I am very new on this thread, so sorry if you have already discussed these two points:

For all of you Austin fans, have you read Longbourn, by Jo Baker which is focussed on the lives of the servants in Pride and Prejudice. The world felt very familiar but the family 'upstairs' hardly feature, although I think the back story on Mrs Bennett made me feel more sympathetic towards her.

Have many of you read We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver? I picked it up for 50p in the RSPCA charity shop today and it looks good.

I've tried to read the Kevin book a while back but didn't get on with it at all. I chucked it.. I thought it was not very good, just too two dimensional. Sorry!
But on the Austen theme, I had to take a couple of flights and needed something easily pickuppable, so I'm on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and it's jolly good.
Before that I read something a bit meatier: Hunters in the night by Lawrence Osborne. Is the kind of book that works best if you know little about it I think so I'll not say too much. Young British teacher goes on holiday in Asia, is not terribly keen on his life in England, meets an interesting American guy living there. The author gets compared to Graham Greene, is very much contemporary though. Recommended. Very good.
Lost count though being underway, I think I read something else as well but I'll look that up later.

Yes I have read it Grey, thought it was vg but will never read it again! Was riveted and horrified. Great read.

I read We Need to Talk About Kevin a few years ago.

Like wilting, I was riveted and horrified. It was very hard hitting, and to be honest, part of me wishes I'd never read it, because I found it very disturbing and some of the more disturbing parts have been very hard to put out of my head.

25 The Invisible Library by Genevive Cogman.

Won't summarise, as it's already been reviewed previously on these threads. I warmed to it enough after my negative comments above to finish it, but I don't think I'll look for the next book in the series. A bit too generic, I thought, I liked the library concept, but none of the rest of it was that original, and the characters/plot didn't carry it along enough to make up.

Anyone who likes this type of fantasy might enjoy Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman, which I though was much fresher (and which appears to be available atm for 0 pounds and 0 pence on kindle ) - it's a bit slower to get going, but much better world building IMO

Grey there was a whole thread about Kevin a couple of weeks ago. Sorry I am rubbish at linking to other threads, but it's in this 'What we're reading' topic. I also bought my copy for 50p, from a charity book and cake sale at work a few years ago. I remember pouncing on it and saying to my colleague 'ooh, I've heard this is really good'. If I had my time again, I'd go back and just buy a cake. My head would be less messed with.

22. Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster

Started this earlier and couldn't help but finish it. Just lovely. Thanks for the recommendation, so funny and enjoyable, and not creepy at all I didn't feel.

Hi all. Feb was a bit of a disaster reading wise but finished The Changeling( book 7 ) by Robin Jenkins. A brilliant but bleak novel set in the 1950s about an English teacher who takes an intelligent child from the slums on holiday with him in an attempt to save him from the horrors of slum life. Beautifully crafted book.

Also read I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammanti. It tells the story of a nine year old boy who makes a shocking discovery during one hot summer in a rural Italian village. Read it in one sitting. It's superb. Anyone with reluctant teenage readers should give this is a try.
Now on The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber. It's enjoyable enough but hasn't gripped me the way previous Faber books have.

Oh and I loved We Need to Talk about Kevin. Gripping. Read it before I had kids though. Not sure how I would feel now.

19. The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison

Penultimate book in The Hollows series sees witch-turned-day-walking-demon Rachel Morgan trying to find and stop whoever is behind the waves of energy sweeping Cincinnati and The Hollows, causing spells to missfire dangerously and the undead master vampires to fall into a deep sleep. Chaos reins as the fragile balance between the Inderlander and humans races crumbles.

On to the last book next.

Still on a bit of a go-slow. I've cut & pasted part of this from an earlier post so I'm up to date with what I've read!

1. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier. One that I'd never read before. I have recollections of watching an old black and white film which I never identified, but having read this, I think it was the Hitchcock version of the story. I absolutely loved it. Gripping from the start and very hard to put down. May have to source a copy to keep a permanent 'dip back into' source.

1. 1536: The year that changed Henry VIII - Suzannah Lipscomb. Henry VIII and his court have always interested me. I've dabbled in reading around the period for a long time and have always been puzzed by his apparent personality change from a sprightly young man, fit and healthy and amiable, to a raging middle-aged corpulent tyrant. Suzannah Lipscomb looks at many sources and comes up with some plausible explanations for this.

1. Mrs de Winter - Susan Hill. I bought this in a second-hand bookshop, read the first page and realised I needed to read the original first. This picks up incredibly skilfully from where Rebecca left off, capturing perfectly the character of du Maurier's writing. Very well crafted story indeed and worth a read.

1. What the grown ups were doing - Michele Hanson. Hanson grew up in 1950s suburbia. The only child of hard-working Jewish parents this gives an insight into the difficulties of being 'different' and the idiosyncrasies of her family.

1. Wits and Wives: Dr Johnson in the Company of Women - Kate Chisholm. This has been a dip in and out of book. A bit heavy in places but puts a new slant on the attitudes toward women in the 1700s, and gives a more compassionate concept of the compiler of the dictionary.

1. The fruit of the lemon - Andrea Levy. I grabbed this as the blurb looked interesting. Faith Jackson's parents came over from Jamaica 'on a banana boat'. She and her brother Carl make their own lives in London, growing up in the 1970s. Disillusionment with friends and employment result in a trip to Jamaica to see family, which gives Faith a renewed sense of self.

1. In the family way - Jane Robinson. This looks at the changing societal attitudes towards illegitimacy from the first world war to the 1960s. I read this as research and found it fascinating. The book looks at first-hand experiences of mothers and children, and also tackles (albeit briefly) the experiences of unmarried fathers. It's heartening to finish the book with the knowledge that we live in more enlightened times, and equally sad and shameful to know how awfully people were treated in relatively recent history.

1. The Shepherd's Crown - Terry Pratchett. I've been putting off reading this. I never wanted to read the last Discworld book. I had to keep stopping to compose myself as not only was I reading it with the knowledge that there'd never be another book, but also there were some very poignant moments in the first part of the story. Reading the introduction/blurb, it is clear that had Terry had more time, he'd have possibly revised bits further - having read all of the discworld books, it's perhaps a little dryer, and raises more questions about characters and events - but it does stand well as a closing chapter.

Thanks Museum, I'll look up the thread but won't read it yet as I don't want spoilers!
Thanks for the warnings re We Need to Talk About Kevin I like books that are really powerful and leave me feeling really affected. So I shall proceed with caution once I have finished my current series.

Well, my exuse for not realising Ruby in the Smoke (my no.22) was YA fiction is because i got the audiobook. Obv not the target audience and didn't really enjoy it. Had makings pf a stonking read but too pacy, lacking in detail, obvious twists. So yeah, glad it's over. But probsbly my dc would enjoy it.

Thanks Sadik, I've just bought Between two thorns I actually quite enjoyed the invisible library...loved the concept but the book did drag a bit IMO.

Grey I think Kevin is a marmite book. I found it really disturbing and one of the scenes still haunts me and makes me inwardly shudder whenever I think about the book. However, lots of people seem to have enjoyed it. It's probably not what I'd call a feelgood book, anyway.

Just re read your last post Grey - I would definitely describe it as powerful and affecting. Hope you enjoy it!

Thank you for all the ghost story suggestions you wonderful bunch of vipers . Cote love the suggestion, hate the 1200 pages to read it. I'm after a ghost story to complete a post I'm writing on the genre and I think I might struggle to make my deadline adding that big of a read. I've picked up M R James, thanks to Satsuki and an even bigger as its free. TooExtra, I should never have looked at your suggestions as I'm now tempted to read Dark Matter too, although Remus hating it might well save me. MamaBear13, thank you for the Joe Hill idea. I did read Heart Shaped Box and can confirm it certainly does meet the chilling requirement. Sadly I hated every person in it, so the book didn't really stand a chance! In truth, the main problem with my post is finding a ghost story I don't hate ...

Book 12: Wilkie Collins' Woman in White which I found delightfully old-fashioned. There were twists I anticipated, but enjoyed no less for the anticipation. I could feel the change in personality as each new hand took at turn at the narration. What especially pleased me was the fact that it remained true to the period, to its restrictions and limitations.

Quog I didn't realise Margaret Forster had had breast cancer. I'll look out My Life in Houses as I've enjoyed everyone of her books I've read so far (not nearly enough of them).

16. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Outstanding reread. I enjoyed this book even better than the first time I read it - since I know how "whodunnit", I could concentrate on the details and WOW those were good.

For those who have been hiding under a rock for the past 10 years haven't read it, TGWTDT starts with a disgraced journalist given the assignment to write the biography of one of Sweden's richest and most important industrialists. Officially. His real (and secret) assignment is to find out what happened to this man's niece, who disappeared from a closed island 36 years ago - the old industrialist wants to know who murdered his favourite relative and has been tormenting him with presents "from her" on his birthday every year since then.

The writing is fluid, investigating journalism sound and detailed, and it all feels real and gritty. The real hero of this book is a young girl called Lisbeth Salander, who is the "girl with the dragon tattoo" the book is named after - she is tiny but aggressive and strong, smart, and socially very inept.

The book's original name in Swedish is Men Who Hate Women, and this is a theme that is weaved throughout the story. Most women characters in this book are sexually assaulted by men they should have been able to trust, and received no help from other men who should have protected them. They had no choice but to take matters into their own hands and do what they had to do - run and hide, or stay and fight tooth & nail. Combined with the statistics on sexual crimes against women at the beginning of each chapter, they give a damning verdict on the state of women's oppression in even Sweden - arguably one of the freest, most equal European:

18% OF THE WOMEN IN SWEDEN HAVE AT ONE TIME BEEN THREATENED BY A MAN.

46% OF THE WOMEN IN SWEDEN HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO VIOLENCE BY A MAN.

13% OF THE WOMEN IN SWEDEN HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT OUTSIDE A SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP.

92% OF WOMEN IN SWEDEN WHO HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO SEXUAL ASSAULT HAVE NOT REPORTED THE MOST RECENT VIOLENT INCIDENT TO THE POLICE.

(Copied/pasted as written in the book - all in capital letters)

I would like to wholeheartedly recommend this book to every one of you. It starts out a bit slow and the myriad members of the Vanger family might make your eyes glaze a bit, but Kindle's X-Ray is there to remind you who each character is. And once you get to about half of the book and the full extent of the mystery is revealed, I dare you to put down this book

I have finally finished Terry Pratchett's Raising Steam, but have lost count of which number book I'm on! I definitely prefer his earlier books for lighthearted reading, and the steam railway seems a bit to real for Discworld, but it was an enjoyable read all the same, and still has some very good lines, if more rambly and less laugh-out-loud funny than he used to be. Don't know how much of that was due to the Embuggerance though.

I have now just started another German Krimi, as well as having Michael Rosen's Alphabetical to dip in and out of.

39. A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backmann.

I had never heard of this book before this thread but lots of you had enjoyed it so I thought I would give it a go and I'm glad I did, lovely book. The end brought a tear to my eye.

Not managed to read the whole thread yet but from a quick glance:

What Matters in Jane Austen / the small things book and Bitch in a Bonnet all well worth a read. I also read a brilliant academic book about Austen's language - can't remember offhand what it's called but will check if anybody is interested. I found it absolutely fascinating.

I absolutely HATED Longbourn - thought it began fairly dreadfully, got worse and worse and that the ending was ludicrous.

I don't rate Joe Hill - have read all 3 of his as people kept saying they got better, but I won't read anymore now.

Had my first DNF of the year. A Greater World by Clare Flynn I must have temporarily forgotten to judge a book by its cover when downloading this. Image of woman in cloche hat gazing wistfully into distance should have signalled not my kind of book. By 34% I'd had enough of the woes of wistful bonnet woman. Dreary and unedifying.