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50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Four

999 replies

southeastdweller · 25/03/2016 10:17

Thread four 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, second thread here and third thread here.

How're you getting on so far?

OP posts:
SatsukiKusakabe · 16/04/2016 19:18

megbusset I had that book as part of a collection of classics as a child and it was the only one I just couldn't get into. I went back to it several times and it stands out as being the first book I really remember giving up on and feeling annoyed by. It was between The Railway Children and Black Beauty both of which I loved. I wonder what I'd think of it now (I can see it from where I'm sitting!)

tumbletumble · 16/04/2016 19:41

I loved The Children of the New Forest as a child!

Sadik · 16/04/2016 19:45

41 Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss
An account of a year spent living in Iceland with her family (including 2 year old & 6 year old) and working as a university lecturer in Reykjavik.
I was disappointed with this, it started well, but I felt that overall it was very superficial, with too much 'look at the funny way Icelandic people do things' without any exploration of why things might be that way. I also felt that the author didn't appear to have a very broad perspective on British life outside a south eastern middle class academic bubble; plenty of the things she sees as foreign didn't seem that surprising at all to me.

Stokey · 17/04/2016 08:43
  1. The Masked City - Genevieve Cogman The second book in The Invisible Library series sees Irene's assistant Kai captured by the Fae and she has to go to a chaos heavy world to try and rescue him. I actually thought the story here was better than the first book, I quite like the chaotic Venice and her fairytale archetypes. But there's still something that doesn't fully engage me about the series, maybe the characterisation.
SatsukiKusakabe · 17/04/2016 09:44

I am 10% into War and Peace. The chipping away at my big hardback method just didn't work for me, so I am just diving in on the Kindle and going for total immersion. I wanted to read something good and engrossing and I've never been let down by a Russian. I am thoroughly enjoying it so far and even dreamed about it last night which doesn't bode well after only 50 or so pages. By the end I'll be calling myself Natasha Confused

TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 17/04/2016 11:43
  1. A Witch With No Name, Kim Harrison. Finished! I ended up liking the series quite a lot, but a fair few things were dragged across a number of books in a way that was irritating rather than building suspense. As for the final book, the author spent the whole book foreshadowing Rachel's death only for her to survive in the end, and somehow it didn't really work for me. The final chapter was schmaltzy as fuck. So an enjoyable but slightly uneven series.

  2. A Chalet School World, Helen Barber. More Chalet School fan-fic - short stories this time. Much better job of catching my interest! I still think Helen Barber is just a bit too serious all the time - her attempts at jolly japes never quite work.

TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 17/04/2016 11:47

Stokey, I liked the second Library book better too. I hope by the third she'll gave settled into her writing a bit better!

Satsuki, good luck with War and Peace! That's another book that needs a really good edit, IMO! But it's still great, if you could just cut down all the battle exposition.

highlandcoo · 17/04/2016 12:38

Satsuki I'm reading War and Peace too. Exactly a third of the way through. I'm loving the non-war part of the novel but struggling at times with some of the rest.

Agree with TooExtra in previous post. It's 40 years since I read it first at the age of 15, and I recall skipping quite a lot of the war stuff then. Didn't really want to do that this time but I might have to. I've just plodded through Bilibin's chunk written in French and it was hard going!

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 17/04/2016 18:28

Book 47
The Good German by Joseph Kanon
A thriller set in Berlin in 1945. This was everything that the Cumming travesty wasn’t – gripping, pretty well written, unpredictable and human. An American journalist returns to Berlin at the end of the war, finds the woman he loved and a whole load of mystery and danger too. This raises lots of questions about who are the guilty and who the innocent at the end of the war, and about what is acceptable as a survivor, or as a victor. It was meticulously researched and I thoroughly enjoyed it. An uncomfortable but satisfying read.

ChillieJeanie · 17/04/2016 19:39
  1. Death Masks by Jim Butcher

The war between the wizards and the Red Court of Vampires rages on, but Harry has been presented with a means to end it: fight a duel to the death against the vampires' champion. On top of that, Karrin Murphy of the Chicago Police brings him in unofficially to try and work out who or what killed a headless, handless, and mutilated corpse, and someone has stolen the Turin Shroud, apparently for a buyer in Chicago. And as if that wasn't enough, Harry's semi-vampire ex-girlfriend is back in town, and seems to have a new man in tow. It never rains but it pours.

SatsukiKusakabe · 17/04/2016 19:59

highlandcoo and tooextraimmature I have just started on the first 'war' section so we'll see how I fare. Having had a couple of weeks not knowing what to read, I'm really enjoying knowing I've got this to keep coming back to at the moment. That might change. I'm finding it so much easier on the Kindle to click through to all the footnotes and back, it doesn't interrupt the flow as much.

Dragontrainer · 18/04/2016 06:03

Satsuki and Meg Funnily enough, Children of the New Forest is one of the first books I remember abandoning, too! It was recommended to me by a teacher that I loved, and I just couldn't stand the book. May be I ought to see if history mad DD has a better reaction . . .

  1. The Land Where Lemons Grow by Helena Attlee the story of citrus cultivation in Italy. The rave reviews on the cover lured me in - and taught me the truth of that old adage about not judging a book by its cover! So boring despite the good writing and immaculate research.

  2. Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson a good old fashioned spy story where a reluctant agent has to make his way into a highly secure secret base in Siberia. The hero is totally unbelievable in a James Bond kind of way - all women want to fall into bed with him, he can learn any language almost immediately and his ability to survive the might of the Russian army is incredible - but, like James Bond, the book really worked as entertainment.

Sadik · 18/04/2016 08:37

I never got through the Children of the New Forest either, and there weren't many books I wouldn't read as a child.

whippetwoman · 18/04/2016 10:59

Satsuki, I ended up being rather touched by A Visit from the Goon Squad when I read it last year and thought it was rather clever and understated. The PowerPoint part really was the best and struck a chord with me as it's something my DD used to do a lot.

OnlyLovers · 18/04/2016 11:29

12 Black Rabbit Hall. Family drama set over generations of one family living in the hall and another young woman/couple coming across the hall in later years.

It's not brilliantly literary writing or characterisation (the modern-day woman is particularly cliched and sketchily drawn IMO) but the story is compelling. Loss, guilt, family tensions...

13 The Raven's Head, Karen Maitland. A medieval apprentice librarian, on the run with a mysterious silver raven's head. He becomes involved with a powerful and quite possibly mad alchemist and some dubious monks, the White Canons, who are trying to use their art to achieve the seemingly impossible...
This was not fabulously written and for my money meandered a bit too long before getting to the real meat of the story. But I liked the detail of the alchemists' activities.

14 Uprooted: On the Trail of the Green Man, Nina Lyon. Non-fiction on the history/lore of the Green Man and the author's attempts to reinvigorate his cult. She is a supremely annoying writer/narrator, IMO: arch and self-aware to a fault, a bit in love with how 'eccentric' and bohemian her life and friends are; overly fond of dropping smug little hints about her wild youth, and prone to leaving sentences and subjects dangling vaguely to the point where I quite often just didn't follow the point she was trying to make. On the plus side, she meets some funny and interesting people and, if you're keen on the Green Man and associated subjects, as I am, that side of it is fascinating.

15 The Year of the Runaways, Sunjeev Sahota. Follows the intertwined lives of three immigrants from India to the UK and one British Indian woman. They all behave in ways that could sometimes seem incomprehensible, were it not for the way the author shows clearly and convincingly where they're coming from and what is in their lives and histories to explain their actions. Eye-opening, morally complex, moving, sometimes horrifying, anger-inducing... This is both a gripping gripping read and a seriously important book. Read it.

SatsukiKusakabe · 18/04/2016 12:12

whippetwoman I agree that some of it was clever and understated, and the PowerPoint chapter genuinely moving, but overall I was left feeling unsatisfied and sometimes like I was being mined for an emotional response. It might just be a case of the setting and characters not really resonating with me for the most part and it all seeming a bit shallow at times. It seemed like a good one for a book club, lots to talk about on the surface and smarter than your average, but not much that would stay with me. It did give me a leg up out of a reading dry spell though!

I'm tempted to re-read Children of the New Forest after W&P to finally see what it was all about.

pterobore · 18/04/2016 12:48

18 A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
I've read a couple of Bill Bryson's books previously (A Short History and Notes From a Small Island) and I like his tone, in fact I really like his tone and the way he writes. I like how you can be reading along one minute and are then suddenly struck by one of his off the cuff immensely funny remarks.
Anyway this book was about Bryson attempting to hike the Appalachian Trail in the States accompanied by his friend Katz. It should be inanely boring but I love the way it's interspersed with facts, information, anecdotes; I find I learn a lot reading his books. And the for the whole book you get to wonder whether he'll get attacked by a bear too.

Also I'm sure I am really late to the show on this one. But for Kindle users, I found out last week that my husband and I can link our accounts and share our Kindle libraries with each other. This is great for us because although our reading can vary massively (think Stephen King vs Spot's Big Day Out) we do have some crossover and can now share books.

ChessieFL · 18/04/2016 18:49

It's been a while since I updated!

  1. The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous by Jilly Cooper.

This is my favourite of her books, it's got a good mix of characters and not as much horsey stuff as her earlier books.

  1. The Unquiet House by Alison Littlewood

Haunted house mystery - a woman inherits a house from a distant relative. She plans to sell it but when she goes there she gets a feeling that she needs to live there, so she moves in. Needless to say, strange things begin to happen and she gradually uncovers the story of the house's previous residents. It's not a very original story but if you like haunted house books this isn't a bad example of the genre.

  1. Daughter by Jane Shemilt

A woman's teenage daughter goes missing and the story is her trying to find out what happened. None of the main characters were particularly likeable and the ending was really annoying. You still never really find out why events happened in the way they did.

  1. Spectacles by Sue Perkins

This was a funny read and you really can hear Sue's voice coming off the pages (I read it but an audiobook read by her would be good!). However it was a bit disjointed and didn't really seem to have a flow - it was more a series of unrelated recollections.

  1. Appassionata by Jilly Cooper

This was the first JC I ever read and still one of my favourites, despite the fact that the main character Abby is rather unlikeable. This one is all based round an orchestra and a violinist, which I like as an ex-violin player myself, and there's very little horse-related antics.

  1. Score! by Jilly Cooper

Another music based one but this time with a murder thrown in. I think Jilly makes a good effort at a whodunnit and there are still the usual things you expect from a Jilly book - lots of sex, some horses, people falling in love at the drop of a hat, people loosing a stone overnight, etc! Good fun.

Sadik · 18/04/2016 19:32

42 The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord

I got this following Glitter's review of Galaxy Game by the same author upthread. I liked it a lot, interesting, character based rather than tech-heavy sci-fi that explores the way people and societies work. I'll definitely read Galaxy Game, which looks to be a sort-of-sequel.

FWIW there's a comparison to Ursula le Guin on the cover, and although I can see why its there, I'm not sure that it does the book any favours. Although she shares a basic premise with le Guin's Hainish cycle - in that Terrans are only one line of human development, with other peoples sharing initial genetic material but evolved differently scattered across the galaxy - the style is very different.

(BTW Cote, don't read this book, I think you would really, really hate it Grin )

MermaidofZennor · 18/04/2016 21:44
  1. The Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman. Whilst I enjoyed her previous novel, When God Was A Rabbit, I wasn't quite so enthralled with this one. There were some interesting characters, and Sarah Winman writes beautifully but it left me a bit underwhelmed.

  2. The Bolds to the Rescue by Julian Clary. The second novel about the Bolds, a family of hyenas living as humans in Teddington. Just as funny and daft as the first and DS, DD and I have all enjoyed it.

slightlyglitterbrained · 18/04/2016 21:55

Glad you liked it Sadik! I heard about Karen Lord on a Twitter thread from @medievalpoc that I now can't find.

31 (I think). Burned, Benedict Jacka.
Latest Alex Verus book. The book starts with Verus getting warned that the Light Council have just decided his death sentence. It'll be published in a week. And it applies to his apprentices too. The remainder of the book is Alex trying to beg, bargain & deal his way out of it.

  1. Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel. Reviewed quite thoroughly in previous threads so I'll just say, although I enjoyed it, I had to pretend to myself that the flu somehow killed off everyone with any engineering or science aptitude. I mean - the gasoline went off, no more cars? Um, alcohol - moonshiners all died too did they? Or veg oil for diesels.

  2. The Best of All Possible Worlds, Karen Lord. Reviewed above so I'll be lazy Grin

  3. Planetfall, Emma Newman. She also wrote Between Two Thorns, so have been watching this for a while & eventually gave in. Was worth it - the book is all told from the viewpoint of Ren, who is the engineer of a colony founded 22 years ago. She and another member of the colony, Mack, have a terrible secret that they've spent 22 years concealing, with an increasing toll on Ren's mental health. The claustrophobia of being stuck in a small town with nowhere else on the planet to go is a constant theme through the book.

StitchesInTime · 18/04/2016 22:08
  1. Brood - Chase Novak

This is the sequel to Novaks novel Breed, in which rich infertile couples get some very dodgy experimental fertility treatment that basically, permanently unleashes some very animalistic tendencies in the patients. Including cannibalistic desires, particularly towards their offspring. Offspring who've inherited some of the animalistic traits seen in the parents.

The sequel mainly focuses on Adam and Alice, orphaned twins born from the experimental fertility treatment, who've just returned to New York city in the care of their aunt. Complete with packs of feral youths, born from the same fertility treatments, who make a living selling their blood as an aphrodisiac drug to the wealthy, and unethical scientists aiming to capture and experiment on the youths for profit.

An absorbing and gory and fast paced read.

  1. The Medium - C. J. Archer

This was dire. A flimsy YA novel about a teenage medium who accidentally unleashes a demon on Victorian London, who gets assistance from an attractive male ghost. Lots of mooning about ghost boy and torturous, pointless, ghost / human romance, and very little demon hunting. I really should have known better than to pick this up in the first place.

CoteDAzur · 18/04/2016 22:18

"Cote, don't read this book, I think you would really, really hate it Grin"

Um... Let me read the Amazon blurb:

THIS IS A STORY OF HOPE. Grace Delarua, a civil servant with the government of Cygnus Beta, remembers when the Sadiri arrived on their planet.
THIS IS A STORY OF SURVIVAL. Dllenahkh, leader of this small group of Sadiri, remembers the cool strong blues and gentle sunlight of his home world. He also remembers the moment he was told his planet was destroyed.
THIS IS A STORY OF LOVE. Now they must work together to rebuild his decimated population by searching for the last surviving members of his race.
THIS IS A STORY ABOUT FINDING THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS.

Err.. yeah. I'll never read it. Thanks for the heads up Grin

Muskey · 19/04/2016 10:33

book 15 Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone I am probably going to be unpopular but whilst this book is so imaginative I was really dissapointed with Rowlings writting style. I can see why she had problems getting a publisher for this book. It's ok but had I read it when my dd read it I wouldn't have seen what all the fuss was about.

book 16 I am reading Private Peaceful by Michael murpergo (sorry I think I've spelt that wrong) only on the second chapter but loving it. also book 17 Margaret of York the Diabolical Duchess by Christine weightman

Sadik · 19/04/2016 16:33

Glad to hear Planetfall is good, Glitter, it's another one on my when-it-gets-cheaper-on-bay list :)
Currently re-reading 23 Things They Don't Tell You about Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang (I've said I'll lend it to a friend & wanted to re-read in case it didn't make it's way back).