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?

Oh Margot - is that a Chalet school reference?

Please will someone link to the Chalet School thread? Margot, I am in the middle of The School By the River by Elinor M Brent-Dyer and adore the CS series, but I've never read New Beginnings. Is it good?

39. For a Few Demons More, Kim Harrison. Book 5 in the series. This one was a bit more confused, I thought. Rachel is all over the place after Ivy kisses her, so she runs straight out and bites Kisten using fake fangs, and there's a fight over the werewolf focus, and Rachel arrests Trent at his wedding. I got really bogged down by the description of Kisten giving Rachel an edible teddy, from an expensive Victoria's Secret type shop. I had to Google edible teddies and what they are made of (fruit roll-ups or rice paper, apparently), and then spent a lot of time boggling about why Rachel would actually be pleased to receive as birthday gifts from her boyfriend a) an edible teddy and b) fake vampire fangs so she could bite him and he could get off on it. I mean, they aren't exactly presents for her, are they? Says a lot about what she meant to him, IMO. And why would an expensive shop sell edible teddies, FFS? Aren't they trashy novelty items?

Welcome margot

When people go back and forth about a book it always makes me intrigued to read it to see what side I would fall on!

Though with the Martian, having read it. I could really see both sides.

Hundred pages left of HHhH. Child off school with chickenpox, so no nap time to finish it. Thinking of sticking and dvd on this afternoon

Is an edible teddy like an edible bear, or like edible underwear?

"as brief as it can possibly be--and it's STILL 800+ pages long! I thought of it as a wry joke."

It's not a funny one. I found it quite painful tbh.

The only reason it's 800+ pages long is because it bloody repeats everything. Multiple times. And through the confused brains of cokeheads who, let's be honest, clearly didn't have much to start with.

I have read & enjoyed Will Self's Umbrella which is written entirely in stream-of-consciousness alternating between three characters, without paragraphs or punctuation. I'd like to think I don't have a problem with unusual styles or difficult books. This one was just badly done imho.

Welp, no one can change your taste, Cote! I just didn't think "Brief" was quite as inexplicable/perverse a choice of title as you suggested it was. (Also: am fascinated by your repeated assertions that you disliked the characters because they weren't very bright. Trying to think what your reasoning must be; I thought it was pretty illuminating about how children's minds can be twisted early on, like Bam-Bam, whose parents are raped in front of his eyes and who then gets hooked on cocaine by his gang handlers. Whether he has a lot of brains or not doesn't make much difference, surely. He's only a little boy when it happens to him, and we can infer that the adults in the gang, like Weeper and Josey, must have similar stories. Plus, for what it's worth, I think Josey is a genius. Those political machinations are worthy of Frank Underwood!)

Finished no. 29 last night: Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff. It's a YA book (and probably for the younger side of the YA scale) but deals with major issues including gendered violence, honour killings, social justice, and so on. Maresi, the main character, lives in a fantastical realm (it's the old fantasy-world-as-medieval-Europe scenario) on an island called Menos, under the protection of the Sisters of the Red Abbey. Men aren't allowed on the island, although the sisters trade with fishermen. A girl called Jai arrives at the abbey fleeing the murderous violence of her father, who is coming after her, and the sisters have to defend themselves. Maresi is also approaching the time when she should be apprenticed to an older sister, and part of the book is about her emotional journey from fearing death to learning what her gifts are and how she can contribute to the world around her. If I had a DD of the right age (seven to twelve or thirteen depending on reading level), I'd definitely give it to her; it's so full of powerful women and it's not "man-hating" at all, despite the violence that is brought by men in the second half of the action. Lovely stuff.

Edible underwear. I had to look up underwear teddies as well because my idea of sexy underwear is clearly underdeveloped, and they're like lacy leotards/bodies/playsuits. I always thought they were babydoll nighties but now I am better informed - and the thought of someone trying to eat a whole leotard off me is the least sexy thing I can imagine.

I think I would find it hard to fake enthusiasm if DH bought me an edible leotard for my birthday.

Yeah, dying to read that too cote

Has anyone cracked and bought Morning Star ?

How they can justify £9+ for kindle books is beyond me

wilting It's because E-books have to pay VAT whereas printed books don't so i guess they don't reduce them as still want to make same amount of profit? i agree with you, i never spend more than a $5 on an e-book.

"Edible underwear"? What have I missed?

"your repeated assertions that you disliked the characters because they weren't very bright. Trying to think what your reasoning must be"

I haven't said a single thing about disliking characters. In fact (not that I expect you to remember this) I have said many times on book threads that I don't have to like characters to enjoy a book, and expressed surprise that others apparently need to see likeable characters in the books they read. See here, here, and here, for example.

I disliked the book, and that was partly because it was mostly focused on the very limited thoughts of uneducated dumbos with a heavy coke habit. That could have been OK if the book was intelligent. It wasn't. Whatever it wanted to say was said in the first 50-100 pages and the rest was a lot of rambling.

Another reason I disliked the book was that there wasn't much of a plot and all these characters kept talking about the same (very few) events.

I thought Papa Lo was an interesting character. Maybe a book as Papa Lo as the narrator would have been a better one.

Cote - the edible underwear is mentioned in TooExtraImmatureCheddar's review of For a Few Demons More by Kim Harrison earlier today.

Apparently one character gives this to his girlfriend (I assume she's his girlfriend anyway) as a birthday present.

Thanks Stitches. I need to read the thread more carefully before posting

wilting - No, I haven't bought Morning Star yet. Seveneves is going very nicely, though. I might have to re-evaluate my policy of waiting until books I really want to read fall under £5.

Oh no, Cote - we're definitely just not going to agree on this one! It's a polariser, that's for sure. But thanks for defending your opinion, it always feels oddly healthy to have a strenuous disagreement about a book.

What's your favourite book?

Loving the Brief History comments, Cote. Have just read them to dp, who maintains that he wants to read it.

A friend has just given me all of the Hitch-hikers' Guide books to re-read. I haven't read them since about 1984 or so - will I be captivated or disappointed, do people think?

29 The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu. The sequel to the Three Body Problem.

Enjoyable sci-fi, though I found it a little more predictable than the first book. Still well worth reading, though, and I'll be interested to see what happens in the next book.

A different translator to the first one, DD has also read them, and didn't like the style of this translator anywhere near as much. I didn't feel so strongly, but I do think that it came out as a more 'conventional' read, and I wonder if it could be because this translator has smoothed over some of the differences between English and Chinese styles of writing.

I've been thinking of re-reading Hitchhikers this year too, Remus. I got them all on Kindle for DH last year who'd never read them. He enjoyed them, found couple in the middle of 'trilogy' bit samey though iirc.

I read a thread on here recently where people were posting favourite quotes and it made me think how good it was but that I'd probably forgotten most of it.

30 A Little Life by Hanya Yanagahara I loved this. It is a 700 page book and I read it over a weekend - couldn't put it down. It is the story of 4 friends (male) who meet in college and end up living in NYC. It ends up being more the story of one of them. I found it to be very moving/insightful about the nature of friendship. Also the narrative was just so compelling. I would love to hear from anyone else who has read this. I'm about to do a search to see if anyone else has read it and commented.

I've been stuck on Hard Work by Polly Toynbee for 4 weeks!!! Very interesting but appropriately titled! Easy read next!

JoylessFucker - afraid I'd absolutely advise you to avoid The Tea Planter's Wife. Unless it redeems itself in the remaining 250 pages, of course. I've temporarily abandoned it, as it was annoying me too much, but will go back to it at some point soon just to get it finished.

Canyouforgiveher - I have A Little Life waiting on my Kindle. You've tempted me to start it but I think I need to get next month's book group reads out of the way first.

Have just finished 16. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson which I got because it was cheap on Kindle and I've meant to read it for years. I love the way she writes. This was a quick and easy read - I really enjoyed the semi-autobiographical narrative blended with mythology. I need to think about this one in terms of analysis though - my brain feels half-asleep as it's the last week of term and I always find her books make me think lots. I imagine I will keep thinking about it for a good few weeks.

25. HHhH by Laurent Binet

Wonderful, unforgettable, book.

Original, humane, meticulous, and utterly gripping account of 'Operation Anthropoid', the plot to assassinate senior Nazi Reinhard Heydrich, 'The Hangman of Prague', by the Czech (and Slovak) Resistance fighters Gabcik and Kubis. Interwoven with the factual events is Binet's commentary on the nature of his endeavour; to write a historical 'novel' that respects its subject, taking into account the danger of reducing real people to characters in a story, and the significance of the choices made in the process of researching and retelling history. I learned many new things about this period, and visited again the sheer horror that never fades; that of The Final Solution and those who perpetrated it.

23. Traitor by Rory Clements

Book four in the John Shakespeare series. This time round, the Spanish are after an optical instrument that gives the English an unassailable advantage at sea, along with the man known as 'The Eye' who carries it, and its inventor, Dr John Dee. Shakespeare is sent north to fetch and keep close guard on Dee, but finds that the Earl of Derby is dying, probably of poison. At the same time, Shakespeare's adopted son Andrew finds himself in danger in Oxford, and Shakespeare must choose between his duty to his queen and his love of his family.

Satsuki - yay for more HHhH love, and a beautiful review!