50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

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?

27. The Liar's Tale and Other Fibs by Lannah Battley Collection of 10 SF stories written over several decades, mostly imagining worlds where different rules apply, or alternative versions of reality where history has taken a different turn. The author is someone close to me, so I'm finding it almost impossible to review objectively. Suffice to say I really enjoyed!

Remus, there's a boxset Kindle edition of the first 3: The Chronicles of St Mary's boxset Vol 1 for 3.95 if you think you'll like them. I got the first one yesterday, then noticed the boxset and returned it.

Thanks, Glitter - am bloody awkward though, so no guarantee that I'll like them! Will just try the first one initially.

www.mrbsemporium.com/index.php/info/reading_spa

This is my Christmas present

Finally finished all 1600 pages of Draco Veritas (thanks Tanaqui for the push to actually read the Draco trilogy) so back to 'proper' books now.

Still waiting for Do No Harm to come in for me at the library, sadly, as I've got a long train journey at the weekend, so it'll probably be a re-read next. Feeling like non-fiction right now after so much Draco, so I think maybe either Granny Made Me an Anarchist by Stuart Christie, or Interesting Times by Eric Hobsbawm

14. H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald. True story of how the author dealt with the death of her father whilst raising and training a goshawk. I had mixed feelings about this. I had to read it in two goes, as I got bored about a third of the way in. I picked it up again a while later and was glad to find that the story started to move on after the halfway point.

15. Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healey. Overall I was disappointed with this. It started off pretty well, with a respectful insight into dementia, and two interesting plot lines to follow, but after the first quarter the plot began to drag and I found that I was slogging through it somewhat. It perked up a bit towards the three quarters mark, but was generally a bit frustrating to read.

16. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North. Harry August is born, lives, dies, and then is born again, living his life over and over. As his lives progress he tries to find out who and what he is, and to connect with others like him. As you might expect, all does not go to plan. Absolutely loved this. Clever premise that's well-executed.

bibliomania I don't think it really matters too much if you read the Dresden files out of order. The stories do build on each other though, more so the further through the series you get. You would get away with it more with the early ones, but if you don't mind spoilers then each book does work on its own - there's a brief back story thrown in when needed.

45. Side Jobs by Jim Butcher

A collection of short stories centred on Harry Dresden, including his first outing when he was still a trainee PI and in which he meets Karrin Murphy for the first time while saving a runaway girl from a troll, plus a story from Thomas' point of view. Some are better than others, as you would expect.

Thanks for all the kind words about my War and Peace review - it was quite hard to distil it all down into something reasonably brief and coherent, after the work of reading it I was tempted to just put 'good' but pleased I made the effort, especially if it's got a few people almost wanting to read it

Highlandcoo the last 400 I did manage to read quite quickly, partly because I was able to put a lot more time in and I wanted to see how all the stories played out, and also, admittedly, I didn't spend quite as long pondering some of the theorising as I had earlier on as it did seem a little repetitive at that point. And, yes, I have the Pevear/Volokhonsky edition, and I really like the translation, it feels authentic and enjoyable to read. I did try another version on the Kindle (Aylmer Maud?) which I think was the popular one for a long time, but didn't get on with it as well. I liked having the French in the text, and the Russian names, and I felt the Maud version lacked a certain poetry. I very much felt immersed in it. I had read and loved their translation of Anna Karenina, which is why I stuck with them for W&P. I posted a (I think!) New Yorker article on one of the early threads about the different translations, it was v interesting.

bestiswest you've almost made me want to read In Plain Sight, but I still don't think I will - while I think it's quite important to know what went on I don't know if I want to go there at the moment! Good review though.

Think there was a Le Carre in the May Madness sale, Remus

Five - That looks amazing.

Not sure if I can cope with another Le Carre yet, Satsuki. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was so unrelentingly bleak and I feel the need for something cosy!

I've had one of the reading spas Five. It was really good, all very civilised and gave me lots of good ideas for novelists to look out for.

Try Our Kind of Traitor Remus,

Monty I think frustrating is exactly the right word for Elizabeth is Missing . I wondered if the author had deliberately made it so, to replicate the experience of trying to communicate with someone with dementia, but I'm not sure.

I really didn't like Elizabeth is Missing. I get that the author may have tried to introduce an element of frustration because the central character has dementia, but it's a huge risk if it is in danger of frustrating the reader to the point they want to hurl the book out of the window, which is what I wanted to do (if it hadn't been on my Kindle

Chillie, thanks for the response. I've just heard that book 2 in the series is waiting for me in the library, so I'll try to read sequentially for now but see how it goes. I don't mind spoilers too much - it can be interesting to go back and fill the gaps afterwards.

All the talk of War and Peace has made me wonder if I should try. Whisper it - I haven't read any of the Great Russians, or the French either.

Currently reading two fairly similar books, Rising Ground by Phillip Marsden and In the Land of Giants by Max Adams. Both non-fiction - middle-aged male authors wandering around remote bits of the British Isles thinking about the past: the former concentrates on Cornwall and the Neolithic, and the latter on the North and the Dark Ages. I have a large appetite for this kind of thing and it seems to be quite the fashion these days, eg. Robert McFarlane. Of the genre, I think Charlotte Higgins was best - she wandered around looking at Roman remains, but was very thoughtful about the unknowability of the past, and questioned way certain past epochs resonate with modern concerns now.

I've downloaded the first couple of St Mary's books as a little light relief.

Good to see a couple more people trying out Jodi Taylor's St Mary's books. If you like them, I take full responsibility for the suggestion. If not, I blame my brother (who's a big soft tart!) for the recommendation

1. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

2. The meaning of everything; the story of the OED by Simon Winchester;

3. An astronauts guide to the universe by Chris Hadfield and

4. The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro;

5. The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar

6. The Skeleton Cupboard: The Making of a Clinical Psychologist by Tanya Byron

7. Golden Son by Pierce Brown

8. The Hot Zone: The terrifying true story of the origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston

9. The Day Without Yesterday by Stuart Clark ;

10. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan ;

11. Overlord, D-Day and the Battle for Normandy by Max Hastings;

12. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson;

13. Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym;

14. The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood;

15. Brilliance by Marcus Sakey

16. Agent Zigzag by Ben MacIntyre

17. Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull. This wasn't quite what I expected (a business memoir on Pixar), it was more of a how to lead and run a creative company and keep it doing what it does best. Certainly interesting in parts but definitely more of a managerial how to than an account of Pixar itself (although you do learn a lot as he uses Pixar examples to illustrate his point. I think it is a vg book of its kind, it is just not really the kind of book I wanted to read! My fault entirely but being me, I read it anyway... TBH I've read way worse.

18. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr; Hmmm. I found this rather simplistic and plodding. I've no issue with back and forth in time narratives or separate chapters for separate perspectives, but it wasn't particularly illuminating to the plot or characters. Plus I really thought the characterization in general was rather bland. I know the main protagonists were teenagers but surely that is no excuse? And I felt I was constantly waiting for something to happen. I thought the diamond part of the story was just ridiculous. And you get no sense of the horror of WW2, esp as it was towards the end for the Germans in Berlin and the east. In fact both the main characters seemed quite remote from it.

Is this YA really? I mean, even the way the author revisited absolutely everyone of note at the end to tell us what happened to them was surely a little childish. All that said, the prose itself was good with some visceral images. I did enjoy that element. An ok read only for me overall though.

Not sure what to read next. Something light and easy I think... hmmm Would love a good travel memoir, any recs?

Oooh, my favourite travel book is The End of Elsewhere: Travels amongst the Tourists by Taras Grescoe.

Not quite travel but The Worst Journey in the World is a fantastic non-fiction book about the ultimate journey - Scott's Antarctica trip.

15 The Happy Prince and Other Tales, Oscar Wilde

I listened to this short collection on a free audiobooks app. There were five short stories, all with some kind of moral message and tragic outcome.

1. The Happy Prince
2. The Nightingale and the Rose
3. The Selfish Giant
4. The Devoted Friend
5. The Remarkable Rocket

I remember some of these stories from childhood and it was wonderful hearing them again, especially 'The Selfish Giant'. I found 'The Nightingale and the Rose' really evocative I might have cried a bit it was such a beautiful and sad tale.

The language and the vocabulary used is gorgeous and creates incredibly rich and vivid imagery. This would have mostly been lost on me when I was younger, so I'm thrilled to have revisited these again.

29. The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick - the fifth one I've read from the 8 on this year's Carnegie shortlist. It's hard to describe what this is about - it is written in 4 quarters which, apparently, can be read in any order. I didn't fancy skipping about all over the place (and sort of like reading something the way it's been put together by the author) so read it in the order it was printed in. I didn't think much of the first quarter and was wondering what on earth it was all about but I did really enjoy the other quarters and the first one made more sense after I'd read the others. I'm not sure what I think of the whole idea of interchangeable quarters - it sort of worked but I couldn't help feeling it was a bit of a gimmick, aimed at winning a prize. I'm also confused as to why a book that was published in 2014 and shortlisted for a major prize that year is being entered for the Carnegie 2 years later.

I failed abysmally at trying to go into a bookshop to but one specific book, ended up with two more which wasn't too bad. DH still raised his eyebrows.

looking I have that Marcus Sedgwick on the 'to read' pile by my bed for over a year. I must make a start on it soon

LookingForMe, I quite fancy that Marcus Sedgwick now. I have an unread one by him on my Kindle called Midwinterblood that I bought because it was cheap. I might give that a go first.

Read a few more and am now psyching myself up for Gone with the Wind.

36. Recipe for Water - Gillian Clarke
Beautiful and accessible poetry mainly about the countryside/landscape from the Welsh National Poet Gillian Clarke. I loved these poems and have read them all a number of times over.

37. The Humans - Matt Haig
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I found it all a bit silly, particularly the plot (an alien takes over the body of a university professor after a world-changing mathematical breakthrough to suppress the information) plus the device of being able to examine the traits of human behaviour from an alien point of view wore a bit thin about 1/3 of the way through. On the other hand there were some good insights into 'human' behaviour (quite a funny one about reading) and it was basically a rather sweet hopeful book. Plus I really like Matt Haig for some reason. I would like to go to the pub with him for a pint and a chat. I think he would be brilliant company.

38. Some Hope - Edward St Aubyn
The third Patrick Melrose book and my least favourite. The rest are all excellent though.The brilliant writing didn't manage to over-ride my loathing of all the rich, soulless yuppie characters in the way that it manages to do in the other novels. Mothers Milk, which comes after this and which I read out of sequence some time ago, is very well written.

39. Brave New World - Huxley
I started off disliking this, then I liked it a lot, then I really didn't like it again, then I got confused about whether I liked it or not. I can't work out if it's brilliant or if it's ridiculous. I think it's probably brilliant. And even though I studied The Tempest for A-Level I didn't connect it to the Brave New World of the title. It was ahead of it's time but it's hard to judge it now as so much has come after it.

Please can someone tell me if they think Brave New World is indeed brilliant?
Cote, what do you think?

whippet - I thought Brave New World was a great book when I read it as a teenager in 1980s. When I reread it in 2013, I thought it had not aged well at all. Or my recollection of it from when I read it as a teenager was overly generous. I found it to be badly written, superficial, even slightly silly. Unlike 1984, which I admired more after a recent reread than I did as a teenager.

I really enjoyed Brave New World.

Book 57
The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie

I liked the beginning of this but was turned off more and more as it continued. I love Poirot and I thought having a nice but dim narrator worked reasonably well too but the whole thing was pretty labourious and the ending was silly. Not recommended