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?

15. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson I read this because I enjoyed Life after Life, and I liked this too- a little bit predictable, but well enough done that it didn't really matter. Will read the next.

18. Mother Of Eden by Chris Beckett (Dark Eden #2)

This was a bit too YA for me, but ultimately I enjoyed it. Here, the story continues for the descendants of three astronauts crashed on an unknown, dark, desolate planet they have ironically named "Eden". They now populate several areas with different rules and ways of life, trading with & threatening each other in various ways.

POV changes between characters in every chapter, which gives it a cinematographic feel with the reader as the omniscient eye-in-the-sky. I liked the realistic details like their various units for time like "wakings" (day) and "womb" (9 months), as you presumably would in a place where there is no day or night.

The book is narrated mostly by young people in their teens & 20s so a certain YA feel is perhaps unavoidable but it also deals with some interesting (and adult) themes, such as power structures necessary to keep a population in check & working for the elite. The recognition that cruel societies advance to modernity (natural selection? driving people to work more?) while idyllic egalitarian ones stagnate & live like tribal savages in nature. The sour rise of civilisation on the graves of its victims and slaves.

I would recommend this book but do read Dark Eden first.

Natasha, I find I don't quite like Elizabeth Taylor as much as I want to. I didn't care much for Mrs Palfrey. The only one of hers I really like is Angel, and even that is bleak enough at the end.

I'm going to do a full list of what I've read this year - I thought it would be easier to stop counting, but it's just made me lose track, so I'm back on the numerals again.

Just finished The Outrun, by Amy Liptrot. A memoir by a woman who returns to her childhood home of Orkney as part of her recovery from alcoholism in London. I liked this - more drinking memoir than nature-writing (which is a good thing in my book - I find nature-writing a bit slow and dull). I sympathise with her youthful longing for the bright lights of the bigger world, and then missing home once you've left. It's also not overly sentimental - she's conscious of still being considered an outsider in Orkney though born there, as her parents are English.

bibliomania That's interesting. I've had quite a few recommendations from people who rate ET very highly. I'm about a quarter of the way in with Mrs Palfrey, so can't really say yet. I'll add Angel to my list and give that a try.

Mind you, I quite enjoy bleak. I used to read a lot of Susan Hill - the earlier stuff - and most of that is a bit on the austere side. I didn't care for her detective novels quite so much and I've never read The Woman in Black which is arguably her best known work. I suppose I should make the effort but I'm not a ghost/horror fan.

I can see why people admire her, but she's not for me. I suppose my problem is that I compare her with the likes of Barbara Pym, who always has a shaft of sunlight cutting through any bleakness ("There was something to be said for a nice cup of tea and a cosy chat about crematoria").

TooExtra I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Yes, Becky is fascinating. I also like that Amelia isn't portrayed in a "oh isn't she BORING for being NICE" way; both characters are given their dues in a manner that feels realistic. Did you have an edition with the original illustrations in it? They're pretty marvelous, too.

Barbara Pym is another one I've never read. It seems like she would be a writer I might enjoy - I'm not sure why I haven't read anything of hers before now.

What you quoted sounds very much like the kind of conversation my gran and great-aunt would have had.

Muskey I did enjoy it but I think it's one of those books that's really well written with a not particularly good plot. It was more of a tick box for me as I am trying to get through some classics this year that I feel I should have read, but haven't.

Just started the audio version of Murder on the Orient Express read by David Suchet

Ooh, definitely try Barbara Pym, Natasha! Some Tame Gazelle is a great one to start with.

I've added it on my Goodreads challenge list. Thanks biblio.

Hope you enjoy!

I have not read a thing this week. I've had so little sleep this week I can't concentrate.

Popping on to say Brooklyn by Colm Toibin is £1.99 on Kindle at the moment. I read his Testament of Mary last year and loved it so giving this a try. Recent film seems to have good reviews too.

I think I may finally read Vanity Fair this year, hearing so much love for it here. It's one I've had on Kindle for ages and never got round to.

Just tried and failed to buy Brooklyn. Anyone else had a problem?

I didn't think I did best but I'll just make sure it went through...

No, it's fine. Will it not let you do it?

Book 31
The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth by Katherine Woodfine
The second in a series of children’s detective series set around a luxury department store, clearly modelled on Selfridges in its heyday. I thoroughly enjoyed this. It’s a bit like Philip Pullman’s Sally Lockhart series, but rather more frivolous. An absolutely perfect read for a horribly stressful week!

Tried again and it went through this time. Who knows? Thanks Satsuki

24. The Road by Cormac McCarthy - A well written depiction of the fight for survival in a bleak post apocalyptic world. But the ending disappointed me. Wtf was he thinking? Oh, of course, Hollywood .

25. Amelia Jane Again by Enid Blyton - DS's bedtime story this week. Not the best, but was reasonably entertaining.

Still enjoying Bring Up The Bodies.

I'm tickled by the combination of The Road mixed up with Amelia Jane, Quog

Eitak and Natasha, so sorry to hear about your losses

Love Vanity Fair...agree that Becky in particular is very well drawn. In the end, I felt quite sorry for her-she was doing her best to survive and cling to a better way of life in a time when there were few options for a woman of her station.

I know, it amused me too Sadik :o

Year of Living Danishly 99p today on Kindle daily deals. Sorry I can't remember who reviewed it here, but remember it sounded good!

26 Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson

Sequel to Europe in Autumn. Hard to summarise without giving away the main twist in Autumn, but a sci-fi-ish thriller - imagine China Mieville crossed with someone like Alastair Maclean.

Not the best book I've read this year, and there are definitely plot holes, but still an enjoyable fun read.

I thought Autumn was better - in many ways I think DH could have written a really excellent thriller set in his very plausible near-future world without the sci-fi elements (what Autumn mostly is). I'll look out for more by the same author, though - I think these are his first books.

Sadik At first I read the "DH" in the last paragraph of your post as the standard abbreviation for "dear husband" and thought, "Gosh, her husband writes futuristic thrillers! Cool!" Alas.

25. The Lonely City, by Olivia Laing. Laing wrote an incredible book about the connection between writers and alcoholism, called The Trip to Echo Spring, a few years ago. This is in a similar vein but also entirely its own creature: a book about the experience of loneliness, particularly urban loneliness, where you can be isolated in the middle of a crowd. She brings in technology as well near the end (what the Internet allows: a similar experience, even for people who don't live in cities.) She reflects all of this through the prism of five artists who worked mostly in New York during the last century, including Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, Henry Darger, David Wojanarowicz, and Zoe Leonard. Billie Holiday gets a look-in too. I'd only heard of Hopper and Warhol, but Laing writes so well about visual art that by the end of the book I felt I knew the others too, and wanted to know even more about them. She's incredibly incisive about emotion and creativity, and she writes like a dream. Really highly recommended.

12. The baby making bible by Emma Cannon. This is a guide to addressing your fertility by identifying your Chinese medicine 'type' and rebalancing yourself, through diet, meditation. Acupuncture is also covered, and the book has a guide to improving assisted conception rates. We have been TTC for a while, and this was recommended by someone else on the TTC thread who is now pg. It has made me think about my lifestyle and feel more positive going forward-I would recommend it if any of you are also TTC.