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?

Sorry about your dad, Eitak. I think Harry Potter would be a perfect read - anything that will offer you some comfort and escapism.

Thanks, Meg. Will investigate!

eitak sorry for the loss of your dad .

Condolences for your loss, eitak. Harry Potter sounds like a good idea and
you may like the Tales of the City books.

So sorry to hear about your dad, Eitak.

I agree that some books do read better at a particular time of year/place. I love Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes, but I think it reads particularly well in summer for the same reason.

Mind you, there are limits - I can't remember the name of the book, but I read a very powerful book about an airplane hijack and hostage taking many years back on one my first ever flights . . .

(Come to that, if anyone can ID the novel I'd be very grateful, I had in my mind that it was by Peter Carey of Oscar & Lucinda, and it was certainly published late 80s/early 90s, but it isn't him. A central point in the plot is one dual national hostage's moral dilemma about his decision to show his Irish passport and therefore separate himself from the 'target' American and British passengers.)

eitak heartfelt condolences on your loss. Hope you find something suitably engrossing and comforting to read

shakeitoff couldn't agree more about the Mime Order. I raced through the Bone Season but really couldn't care less by the end of the Mime Order.

Satsuki I agree that I'm not sure the humour has aged too well in My Family and Other Animals. I think the problem is that there have since been many more amusing, light hearted autobiographies of a similar Ilk, and they just do it better! DD1 (11) tried with it, and queried why it was funny at all (though this is a child whose humour highlight is Horrible Histories, so it was may be never going to be a hit there)

I'm very sorry for your loss, eitak. I hope you find some comfort in books

I read My Family . . . to DD when she was younger (maybe 8 or 9?). I enjoyed re-reading them, she loved them, & went on to read lots of his other books. But she's very, very into animals & wildlife, which I think makes a big difference, as a lot of the appeal was the animals rather than the funny bits.

Sorry to hear about your dad, eitak. My dad died in October last year. It was an awful time. Reading was a huge comfort.

So sorry to hear about your dad eitak. Hope you find a book that can bring you some comfort.

Barry I've been admiring the cover of The Watchmaker of Pulley Street for a while - you've convinced me to add it to the ever-growing list.

I remember loving My family and other animals when I was 11ish, read it again with DD and we quite enjoyed it, then tried it on animal-mad 11yo DS recently and he didn't get it at all. I think the humour was lost on him.

Really sorry to hear about your father eitak . My Dad passed away last summer. I really miss him but keeping busy (and of course reading!) has really helped. Rereading old favourites like Pride and Prejudice and Jilly Cooper's Rivals has helped me through some tricky times.

I am still wading through I Know This Much is True, still 700 pages to go. I have also started reading a rather enjoyable thriller just to keep me ticking over. The title has gone right out of my head but the hero is Nathan Mcbride. It's the kind of book you buy in an airport, light and forgettable but a nice break from the depressing door stop that I am determined to finish!

Sad to hear that My Family and Other Animals hasn't aged well, I loved it as a child. I think I'll let it stay in my memory and not try a reread.

Thanks everyone for the sympathy and flowers. Decided listening to Harry potter audiobooks is the way forward, always find it interesting what peoples comfort books are.

eitak sorry to hear about your dad. I agree Harry Potter is probably the way to go. When my dad died, nearly 1.5 years ago, I was in the middle of the Game of Thrones books, which admittedly are not exactly comfort reading, but I found it helpful to have a long running saga to fall back on. Also, dad would have hated GoT, so it was something 'separate' from him; I was never thinking I wish I could discuss it with him etc., which I did feel when I tried to read a book he would have loved, which I just had to set aside for later.

eitak and hugs for you. Reading through bereavement is a very strange experience but can be very comforting. I lost a dear friend several years ago and found that cosy mysteries did it for me, but Harry Potter also sounds absolutely perfect.

DinosaursRoar If you're looking for something on the Mitfords, why not read Jessica Mitford's own autobiography? It's called Hons and Rebels and it's utterly fab.

Just finished my own number 24. Freya by Anthony Quinn (who also wrote Curtain Call, which was a hit last year). It traces the friendship of two young women from VE Day through their Oxford years to London in the 1960s. One becomes a novelist, the other a journalist, and their friends become MPs, playwrights, photographers and so on. You could describe it as "old-fashioned storytelling" but that would minimise Quinn's incredible talent for capturing the essence of someone's character, setting a scene, using colour and texture and scent to evoke an era, and so on. I thought it was wonderful--and great on the many undercurrents of female friendship.

OH, also, the Baileys Prize longlist was announced last night! Anyone keen on reading some of the novels? I'd already read A Little Life, Rush Oh! and Girl At War. I've now requested Ruby, Whispers Through a Megaphone, The Book of Memory, The Glorious Heresies, The Improbability of Love, and The Short Way to a Small Angry Planet. Such excitement!

40. The Good Neighbour by Beth Miller

Meh. A woman gets a new neighbour who seems really nice but woman then starts noticing odd things about new neighbour. This dragged at first, got a bit better in the middle but the ending was poor. None of the characters was particularly likeable and there were too many plot holes ( for example no-one mentions going to police or social services which would be the obvious thing to do! It just doesn't even seem to occur to them that it is an option!!). Don't think I'll bother with anything else by her.

I must be the exception re Durrell - My Family is still one of my favourite books as an adult and still makes me laugh out loud!

Sorry to hear your news eitak22

DinosaursRoar I'd start with The Mitford Girls by Mary Lovell, or The House of Mitford by Jonathan Guinness (Diana Mitford's eldest son by Bryan Guinness). They are fairly lengthy but then there were six sisters to get through! Once you're more into it then you should read The Mitfords - Letters Between Six Sisters, edited by Charlotte Mosley (Diana's daughter in law). Not to mention all the stuff they wrote themselves, of course.

Dinosaurs And yes also to Grendels suggestion of Hons and Rebels - though bear in mind it's necessarily a skewed version of their upbringing given Jessica's later views on her family. You could always start by looking at the Wikipedia entries for each sister and establishing if you want to take on a fuller read.

Gosh Chessie 40 books already, impressive!

Eitak. Agatha Christie is my comfort read, took me through my first labour!

18. Secret Smile - Nicci French. A thriller about a girl who has a brief fling with a guy and ends it when he tries to move in to her flat after about 3 dates. He then starts dating her sister, ingratiating himself into her family and spreading it around that she broke up with him. It was readable but not that convincing, I think it lost me quite near the start when the names of the children were Kerry, Miranda and Troy. They just seemed such random names to put together in a family I realise this is a bit of a weird reason for not liking something

Grendels, I'll look forward to your review of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, it's been on my 'maybe' list for a while (otherwise known as my 'when it's cheap on ebay' list).

Started then abandoned 'Fooled by Randomness' by Nassim Taleb. I thought Black Swans (about the impact of randomness and the inevitable failures of economic forecasting/market forecasting) was interesting, despite rather than because of his writing style, but hadn't realised this was an earlier book on a very similar topic.

Currently also reading Public Library by Ali Smith, but finding it a bit close to the bone, so will probably set it aside now for a while and read Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson

Yy interested in Angry Planet too.

I was off work for over a week because of illness so I managed to catch up but mostly stuck to easy books.

1. A kiss before dying Ira Levin - definition of a bot-boiler thriller, very silly silly plot but good fun in a way. Can't see how the same author went onto write Rosemarys baby and Stepford Wives although he was only 23 when he wrote this one.

1. Gilgamesh Joan London - A girl living in rural Australia gets pregnant by a visiting Armenian and then decides to travel to Armenia with her young son just before WW2 breaks out - it was a good read, perfect for someone feeling ill.

8,9,10 - the first three Adrian Mole books, thought the second one was the stronger but all through were a re-read.

11 - Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, part of a book group which we have all been reading very slowly. Not sure what I think of this, will have to think about it

12 - Middlemarch - George Elliot - this is a book I have had in the background since Christmas, should have been the sort of book I hate but I really liked it.

13. High Rise - J G Ballard - wanted to read this before the film came out - loved it.

BadSpella Big love for Middlemarch. I'll never get over how George Eliot makes you sympathise with everyone, even awful people like Bulstrode, just by showing you their human-ness.

Middlemarch has one of the most beautiful written endings ever IMO.

Book 30
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim, recommended by several people on here, iirc. Sorry - can't remember who.

This had some promise but, overall, wasn’t really for me. 4 English women end up sharing a holiday castle in Italy and end up finding themselves and/or love in the process. I actually preferred this book before they got to Italy, which, I suspect, is entirely not the point! Once in Italy, there are pages and pages of descriptions of flowers, which got pretty wearing, and pages and pages of witterings of a silly old woman, which got even more so. Bits of it made me laugh. I particularly enjoyed the sections with the servants, and liked the character of Mrs Wilkins. There was also a wonderful moment when a man arrives who may or may not be what he appears to be (avoiding spoilers!) but overall this was a bit of a disappointment. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t find it particularly ‘lovely’ either.