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?

I really feel a bit shamefaced about books 7 and 8 considering I can't even claim to have read them to/with a child: Jill's Gymkhana and Rosettes for Jill by Ruby Ferguson. They are favourites from childhood and my ultimate comfort reads - I've had some sort of lurgy over the past week and was feeling really awful so naturally turned to pony books.

I started collecting the Fidra editions of the republished 'Jill' series and 'Gymkhana' is the first in the series. They've gone back to the original editions and have restored the bits which were edited out of the paperback editions. They haven't got round to publishing 'Rosettes' yet but I chose that one because it was always my favourite.

Now I'm feeling quite well again I shall be back to reading mostly proper grown up books.

Natasha- you've made my day! Used to read many such books as a horse-mad girl, remember those titles now you've mentioned them but would never have otherwise! Shall see if I can track them down. Thank s for the reminder 🐴

19. Robison Wells - Variant

YA novel. Foster kid Benson gets a scholarship to a remote boarding school. But when he arrives, it turns out to be more of a prison than a school. Filled with teenagers that no-one's going to be looking for - kids with no families or friends who might notice they've vanished without a word. No adults in the school, video cameras watching the pupils every move, no means of escape or contacting the outside world. No idea of why the "school" has been set up at all.

Benson spends most of the book trying to figure out how to escape, and find out what's going on - dark secrets behind the school etc. I enjoyed reading this.

Moving I'm glad I'm not the only pony book fan on here, I rather thought I might be.

The Fidra editions of the Jill books have the original Caney illustrations which I love but, sadly, not the original covers.

I also have the first two of the West Barsetshire pony club series by Josephine Pullein-Thompson. There are quite a few other books on the Fidra list that I'm coveting but I need to rein in my book buying somewhat - so I'm trying to resist.

Thanks Muskey - I'm only 21 pages in but am loving The Lost Princess. You are right Alison Weir does really bring the Tudor world to life.

16. The Night Rainbow by Claire King. This is a rather lovely story set in rural France and written from the perspective of a 5-year-old girl, Pea, whose mother is struggling with depression after bereavement.

Book 34
The Green Mummy by Fergus Hume
Another old fashioned who-dunnit, written in about 1908. At its best, this was reminiscent of Wilkie Collins at his most overblown and ridiculous and at its worst it was racist and stupid. Overall I quite enjoyed it though.

My favourite 'Jill' book is Jill and the Perfect Pony! I don't think I've read them all, though - I remember the first one and Jill Has Two Ponies - is that the one where she gets Rapide and hates him? And Pony Jobs for Jill when she's older and is trying to make a living riding ponies.

My reading's slowed up over the last couple of weeks as work's been really busy but have just finished:

15. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante - the third in the Neapolitan Novels quartet. I know My Brilliant Friend had mixed reviews but I enjoyed it and enjoyed this one too. They're definitely slow burners but I like seeing how Elena and Lila's lives develop, against the political backdrop. I have the final one on my Kindle but will read some other stuff first.

Am currently also in the middle of The Tea Planter's Wife but am finding it implausible and the dialogue really badly written. Reading it very slowly as a result. Seriously tempted to abandon it but I get twitchy about unfinished books, so think I will keep plugging away. Am disappointed in it though as I'd thought it would be beautifully written to match the setting! I can't remember who was talking earlier in the thread about matching books to seasons but I do wonder if I'd be enjoying this more if I was reading it in summer...

23. The Secret Seven Win Through

My ds is really enjoying these. This one didn't have so many good clues and detective work as the last one we read, but it was still a jolly good adventure (sorry it rubs off a bit. I even have different voices for "The Seven"). I had to excise a couple of bits - due to ds's sensitivity and my own squeamishness - where a rather bad sort on whom they are eavesdropping discovers one of them, and gives him 'a good box on the ear', leaving a bruise. I thought I managed to skim over it adequately, but ds still got the gist and was a bit shaken by idea of an adult being casually aggressive towards a child, even though Colin was 'proud of it'. There is a quiz at the back which tests your memory of the story and ds got them all, which is testament to how well these books can still capture a child's imagination, after all this time.

My favourite Pullein-Thompson was 'Prince at Black Pony Inn' I've read it I don't know how many times, but it is languishing in my parents' loft at present. I might fetch it 'for the children' when I next visit!

Still tired and a bit ill and plodding through living Danishly. Interested in what I'm finding out about Denamark, but getting increasingly irritated by and tired of the style.

Denmark, Denmark!

28 Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.
A classic analysis of the ways in which human beings make decisions.

Firstly, I felt like this was a very useful book, and I would definitely recommend it to those who haven't read it. Even though I was already reasonably familiar with many of the concepts he writes about, there was still plenty new in the book, and a lot of it is directly applicable to everyday life.

Having said that, I didn't find it a particularly enjoyable read. Compared to, for example, Delusions of Gender (roughly equivalent in 'hardness') I didn't find his writing style pleasing and I definitely had to persevere to finish it. I'm glad I did, though (and the final chapters were much easier to read, which naturally - according to his theories - will bias me in favour of recommending it).

Been trying to get through Thinking Fast and Slow for ages Sadik. Every time I get through a bit I think that was useful, glad to know that, but I don't seem to build up momentum with it. So I'm working on picking away at it gradually.

The most recent non-fiction I read was way easier to read. How We Learn, Benedict Carey. Full of counter intuitive things about how we learn most effectively. Some I was familiar with but didn't know there was research backing it up.

Been ages since I updated last. Thanks to whoever suggested reading The Martian before the film. I actually really enjoyed all the detailed working out in the book, so I can watch the film without gritting my teeth at all the stuff they pass over.

Since last update, I also finished the next few books in the Veronica Roth YA series starting with Divergent.

For a second there I got all excited, thinking you are all talking about Daniel Kehlmann, the author of the fantastic book Measuring The World.

Hah. Remembered why I haven't updated, kept getting interrupted while writing. Divergent, Allegiant & Insurgent were enjoyable enough YA, also read Four which was a short story collection.

However, Between Two Thorns and the following two books which someone recommended earlier were much more absorbing. I liked the world building and character development, and looking forward to the fourth book although tbh you could stop at book three as several plotlines were resolved there.

What else? Started Hammered by Elizabeth Bear - SF series where main character is an ex-soldier in a dystopian future Canada. She was badly injured during service and has experimental prosthetic limbs implanted as a result. It's reasonably pacy and enjoyable. Nice to see a fifty year old woman as main character.

Also read another rec from here, All The Birds In The Sky. I wasn't sure at times whether I was meant to find Laurence really annoying

Think that puts it at 26. Past halfway, according to original goal it should be non-fiction all the way now.

Glad you liked Between Two Thorns, glitter. She's also written a sci-fi novel, Planetfall, which I think I might get with the last bit of my Christmas book token. Hammered sounds good, too.

Currently reading The Dark Forest, the sequel to The Three Body Problem, but not really got into it as yet.

24. Year of Living Danishly Helen Russell

I enjoyed finding out more about Denmark, and liked seeing it from the point of view of uk expats, but the flippant, journalistic style did get a little wearing and it felt about a 100 pages too long. By the time it got to taxes and finances my interest was stretched, but the general Danish lifestyle stuff was good. It was ok for dipping in and out of, but not one to get engrossed in.

I'm 800 pages into the 900 pager I Know This Much is True and am so glad I stuck with it after the slow first 200-300 pages. It has been a proper slow burner but I am really looking forward to the last 100 pages!

I'm also reading a PG Wodehouse I haven't read before, bliss .

45. Riders Jilly Cooper

A reread (for about the tenth time)! I do like her books but prefer the ones that are less horsey. This one is very much of its time, very sexist. Still good fun though.

Ooh - I love Jilly Cooper - Rivals is by far my favourite though!

1. On The Beach by Nevil Shute - I've never read any Shute before and have had this on my shelf for a couple of years, waiting for the right time to read it. I had a quick squiz through previous reviews and see that a lot of people are divided - I personally enjoyed it - I liked his writing style and, while I can certainly see why some people think that how his characters reacted to their post-apocalyptic fate is unbelievable, I found it touching and food for thought. I did sob a good bit of the way through.

Museum, like your DH, I also thought that York was the museum in Behind the Scenes, but in the afterword I read on Friday that Kate Atkinson wrote last year for the most recent reprint, she says that although York is the main character, the book isn't about York. She also says that 'the book is a repository for the past' so Satsuki is right .

Finally finished a bunch of books. #10 a Scandi detective story, #11 non-fiction on marketing and social epidemics, and #12 a really good work-related book that I have slowly been reading over the past 1.5 years. And I read the opening chapter of Elena Ferrante's A Story of New Name and it was so good (wasn't compelled by the opening of the first book), and I've read about a third of it already.

19. HHhH - Laurent Binet

I stayed up till 2am this morning to finish this book, which is high praise indeed as there's very little in life that can keep me awake past midnight. It is an utterly gripping account of the assassination plot to kill Reinhard Heydrich, the 'Butcher of Prague', in 1942; but it's also about the author's experiences in writing the book, and the responsibility history has to tell the stories of those who lost their lives. Highly recommended.

Meg You and I definitely seem to have the same taste in books. I loved HHhH. What else have you loved that you think I might like and may not have come across?

DD1 sent me a book token for Mothers' Day and I've just bought this with it plus yet another book about the Titanic.

Remus you have read so many books that you've probably read everything I have and more! But here are my favourites in the history/non fiction line...

Gaston Rebuffat - all his books but especially Starlight And Storm
Lionel Terray - Conquistadors Of The Useless
Dee Brown - Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Faber book of Reportage
Antony Beevor especially Stalingrad, Berlin and the one on the Spanish Civil War
The Scramble for Africa
Roger Deakin - Waterlog
Anything by Iain Sinclair
Peter Ackroyd - his history of Britain series

I don't know if we have quite the same tastes in fiction,, apart from the Dark Tower, aren't you a Wolf Hall hater? [Grin] I also like rock memoirs and graphic novels...