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?

35. Dead Witch Walking, Kim Harrison. I'm a great lover of urban fantasy but this didn't quite do it for me. I wasn't gripped by it and I never quite lost myself in the story. Rachel is a witch who quits the supernatural security service and has a price put on her head as a result. Mostly what I disliked was the relationship between her and Ivy, the vampire who quits with her. Rachel is petrified of Ivy and Ivy's response is to tell her she has to change her reactions to stop Ivy biting her - sounded like victim-blaming to the nth degree! Yup, if you get scared and your heart-rate goes up, I will be unable to stop myself, so just don't get scared...um, no. At no point does it seem like anyone really thinks Ivy is being unreasonable, because she's a vampire and can't exercise a little self-control. I didn't like that. They wind up as friends after Rachel has learned not to set off Ivy's triggers - which are all stupidly complicated and not as simple as 'try not to bleed around me'. Once the story moved past that and actually got going it improved, though - I liked the mink bits! Does the series improve?

On the subject of reading large numbers - Chessie, I've never met anyone who reads faster than I do and I am in awe - how do you do it?

And also on the subject of numbers, I was hesitant about joining this thread having read only say 15 books for pleasure last year (more for work). But I used to devour books until my 20s and really wanted to rediscover my reading mojo, the combination of a book group (which I can't make any more, sadly) and the discovery of the joy and ease of audiobooks has transformed my life, seriously! Am on book no.25 so far this year, most though not all audiobooks.

Yes, chessie are you making time for less important things like food and drink?

If I didn't work or have small children I would be able to read so much more, without interruptions! It would be bliss. also if I spent less time MNing

I am a notoriously slow reader so it really is a push for me to make the numbers sometimes. I did read over 100 last year, but set the bar lower this year on purpose as I found trying to get to 100 was quite stressful and it stopped me reading longer books.

Movingonmymind I also read loads in my 20s and I do find that being on threads like this does encourage me to read rather than do other things. It kind of gets you back in the habit. I do get non-reading guilt though. Quite a lot of it!

I wish I could make more time for reading. I think I'll struggle reach 50 books :-(

But to reiterate, it's not a competition. What I've found inspirational about this thread has been other posters' reviews of sometimes weird and wonderful books, a few of which I've gone on to read myself. I never would have done so without this thread. Even reading the reviews alone is insightful (and Cote has almost persuaded me to risk another sci-fi book...)

Yes, cheddar. My main obstacle is my non sleeping cherubs. I barely get an evening sometimes and am too tired at others to concentrate. I read quickly when I'm reading, but end up having big gaps where my mind is too zonked to concentrate, like now.

My dh fits all his reading in on his commute, its nice to have that regular time when you know you will be able to read, I feel miserable when I don't get my reading time.

I miss my commute Satsuki for that reason - a dedicated reading slot!

Yes movingonmymind it's been great to get recommendations. My "To Read" list has never been so long!

To all of you who are grieving I am so sorry for your loss. We have lost both sets of parents and a brother over the past few years and it is hard. Reading can be very soothing for a sore heart.

These are my latest reads:

19. The Holy Machine – Chris Beckett. This was interesting. It is set in Illyria, which is a non-religious utopian type of society founded on logic and science and rejects any form of religious belief system and is a refuge from non-believers from all over the globe who fled their home countries after the spread of religious fundamentalism. The main character is George who falls in love with Lucy who is a syntec (robot covered with a layer of human type skin) and runs away from Illyria to be with her. As the story develops we get to question and think about the nature of belief, fundamentalism, freedom and rights. I quite enjoyed this one and have two other Becketts on my kindle to read which I will look forward to.

20. Locked In – Kerry Wilkinson. This is the first of the Jessica Daniels detective stories. A body is found and Detective Daniels cannot figure out how the murderer got in or out. More bodies are found, mystery deepens and eventually the murderer is caught and so on. It was alright as a story. It was fairly easy and quick but the main character was not as well developed as I usually like in a detective story. I have the second book from the series so will reserve my final judgement until I have read that as it can take an author a few books to get into their stride.

21. The Three – Sarah Lotz. I really wanted to love this but just didn’t. Four planes go down in four different countries on the same day and there is a child survivor from three of the crashes with a suspected fourth child survivor from the fourth crash missing. Conspiracy theories start to abound and there are suggestions that the children are the four horsemen of the apocalypse. This leads to cult leaders and development of fundamentalism etc and culminate in an ending that is for me was rather a disappointment.

I am still listening to HP and The Chamber of Secrets with the kids on the school run and am listening to Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson on the dog walks and around the house. Not sure what paperback and kindle book to pick up next. Will have a browse through my ever increasing tbr pile.

In relation to the numbers I don't think it really matters at all. I think what matters is that we are reading and we are sharing our experiences and thoughts with each other. The only down side to this thread is that I keep getting distracted by what others are reading and adding them to my own wishlist or TBR pile... but that is not necessarily a bad thing either.

I whipped through book 7 The Kind Worth Killing a real page turner with lots of plot twists.

Just finished book 8: The Quality of Silence which I really enjoyed reading. I am a huge fan of Ice Road Truckers so knew the place names and what the ice roads are like to travel. I felt cold just reading this!

Yy, my to-be-read pile just keeps increasing!

Finished The Savage Hunger last night and I'd really recommend it - I couldn't put it down and largely ignored my family all day yesterday to get it finished. Have now started on The Never List by Koethi Zan which I've been meaning to read since it was published and I won a whole load of crime books direct from the publisher - I don't usually read a lot of crime so have a fair few sitting on the shelves, brand new, waiting to be read. I'm not sure 'enjoying' is the right word for it so far, it's rather harrowing, about the aftermath of a Fritzl-style imprisonment chained in a cellar. Lovely stuff for a sunshiney day!

Still plugging through the audiobook of Bertie, a biography of Edward VII - still 10 hours to listen to and I'm only in the 1880s. Getting a bit tedious but I feel I've got too far in to bother stopping!

So that's 11 I've started, and 10 I've finished so far - not too bad but I doubt I'll get to the full 50, there are some fairly weighty tomes on my list (Forsyte Saga etc!)

43. Broken Promise by Linwood Barclay

This was good but I did guess the twist quite early on plus as this is the first of a series there were a couple of things left unresolved which was a bit annoying.

For those asking how I've managed to read so much there's a few reasons:

1. I read very quickly
2. Reading is like breathing to me so it's very rare I don't have a book/kindle with me and I take every opportunity to read - even having a wee I'll read a page! I take book to work and read in lunch break. Take book to DDs swimming and read while I'm waiting. Etc.
3. I work FT but I am very lucky because DH is SAHD so does almost all the housework, which means I have time to read at evenings and weekends.
4. I only have one child age 6 who is relatively well behaved and able to amuse herself a lot of the time.
5. I am a crap wife and mother and spend time reading that I should be devoting to husband and daughter!

Oh and 5. A lot of the books I've read have been quite short - I would be nowhere near that number if I'd read War & Peace or Vanity Fair like some of you have!!

It sounds like you have your priorities right, chessie

18. Girl In A Band - Kim Gordon

I thought this was great and would put it up there with the Viv Albertine and Patti Smith books as the best rock books by women that I've read. Very personal, honest and smart.

Does anyone have a favourite Agatha Christie book they can recommend me? I've read And then there were none and I'm just reading Murder on the Orient Express. But it's got me thinking how much I enjoy her style but she's written so much it's hard to know what to choose.

at reason no 4 (2)! Me too!

pterobore The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is good as are The Murder In The Vicarage and After The Funeral. I find Agatha Christie a very soothing read.

I enjoyed 'Death on the Nile' and 'Orient Express' the most.

Thanks Natasha

another two, both murder mysteries :

14. The Mangle Street Murders - M R C Kasasain - a recommendation from here - murder mystery set in Victorian times, with a feel of Sherlock Holmes. A socially disfunctional private (sorry, personal ) detective, with a new young ward, enlisted to try to prove a man who has been arrested for murdering his wife didn't do so, although ends up proving he did, then new evidence suggests that might have been wrong. Nice and brainless, although a bit 'gritty' about life for the poor of London in that time.

15. A Meditation on Murder - Robert Thorogood - a book from the TV series "death in paradise" - a locked room mystery - a new age guru who runs a retreat on the lovely Carribean island, and is murdered in a locked Japanese tea house with 5 other people, all who were meditating at the time. It's got to be one of those people in the room as there was no other way in and the door couldn't be unlocked from the outside. Very light and easy to read, lots of red herrings, although I did work it out about 2/3s of the way through.