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?

49. Rivals by Jilly Cooper

Another reread. This one is all about TV franchises. I like it better than the horsy ones as I'm more interested in TV than horses! Some likeable characters in this one as well.

My dh is now reading HHhH Remus, my book of the year so far too.

And hate to break it to you, but it is a trilogy of 5. Maybe leave Mostly Harmless for if you ever forget the last 4 again!

I doubt I'll ever get to number 5!

31 Fever and Spear, part one of a trilogy (Your Face Tomorrow) by Javier Marias, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa.

Mixed thoughts on this one. It's tremendously discursive and really more a vehicle for a series of musings on identity, truth and human relationships than a linear story.

It felt like a rather old fashioned book to me - the experience reminded me of reading CP Snow or Durrell's Alexandria quartet (ironically, given that one of the characters is rather rude about the latter) - though that could just be because I tended to read novels of ideas much more when I was younger.

Overall I found it an interesting book, and well worth reading. I'm not sure I'd have felt that way though if I didn't have an interest in Spain and the Spanish language (I used to live there). I'd have loved to also have the text in Spanish - it must have been a challenge to translate, and I think it was really well done.

For light relief I read it interspersed with a re-reading of Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey - romantic-tragedy fantasy that these days would no doubt be marketed as YA.

Actually, for those that don't know it, I think I'm rather doing down Magic's Price - it was published in 1989, and as with other ML books was pretty groundbreaking for its time (gay heroes not being that thick on the ground in fantasy or I guess elsewhere back then). The trilogy still stands up well to (re)reading IMO, more so than her Arrows of the Queen series.

27. Where'd You Go Bernadette? By Maria Semple

This book was a lovely surprise for me - it didn't look like it was in my wheelhouse at all but I really liked this. Teenager Bee tries to piece together the events leading up to her mother's disappearance en route to Antartica, through a collection of correspondence, and produces a story about what it is to be an outsider, and the destructive effects of a buried talent. It was filled with spiky humour and whilst I laughed out loud at several points, so spot on was the social satire, it was also quite affecting.

Getting on properly with The Luminaries now.

Satsuki, I"m so glad that you ended up liking Bernadette, which is a favourite of mine.

15. On Beauty, by Zadie Smith Aside from a subplot that was tired even 10 years ago, I very much enjoyed this book's satire and humour and humanity. I'm looking forward to reading her new book later this year.

Next up is Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's The Nest.

Since all the brilliant Agatha Christie recommendations I've decided to have a stint of just reading her books. I picked up a few for just £4 on audible. I feel like I cannot read anything more taxing than this at the moment. My little cat died four weeks ago and this week another of my cats had a large operation. I find that how feeling often relates to what I feel like reading.

11 Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
I'm lucky that I know the plots of no Agatha Christie books so could enjoy this book with no prior knowledge. It's a Poirot book set on the Orient express (obv) where one of the passengers is stabbed to death in his cabin. Thankfully Poirot is there to solve the mystery with one of the most unusual murderers I've ever read.

12 Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Not an entirely different set up to Orient Express, this time set on a boat on the Nile. I don't know how she does it but I didn't have a clue who the murderer was in this one either. Enjoyed Orient Express more.

13 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie now this one was really interesting, not set on a vehicle or public transport but in a rural setting where Poirot has decided to retire to. Roger Ackroyd is murdered but there are so many red herrings and evidence that don't match up that it'll leave you scratching your head as to who the murderer really is.

14 The Woman who walked in sunshine by Alexander McCall Smith the latest in the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. The mildest case I think I've ever read in this series but enjoyable all the same if only to send yourself to Botswana and only have the worries if red bush tea and a little white van.

Ooh, just wobbled from my pledge to buy no new kindle books until I've read all those waiting unread - hoping HhHH is as good as you've all cracked it up to be!

12. The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North The life of a film maker told by those around her. This was basically readable fluff that tried to have something to say about the sacrifice of self to create great art. It was fine as a page turner but my life would have been no poorer had I never picked it up and I doubt I will particularly remember it in a year's time.

13. The Etymologican by Mark Forsyth A canter through the origins of words and phrases commonly used in the English language. This would have made the perfect book for whiling away a short commute, as it was brilliant in short doses but slightly wearing if consumed in a long sitting.

Bringing my list over to this thread:

1. The Ice Twins
2. The Taxidermist's Daughter
3. Us
4. The Tempest
5. Hamlet
6. 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
7. The Revenger's Tragedy
8. Disclaimer
9. The Little Paris Bookshop

10. The Lie Tree 11. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 12. War and Peace 13. The Exclusives 14. Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories 15. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay 16. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit

Have been reading quite a bit over the Easter weekend so am now adding:

17. The Tea Planter's Wife - finally finished this. Mentioned this briefly on the previous thread but found this a disappointing read. I'd expected some beautiful writing based on the setting and it didn't live up to expectations. The dialogue was really bad and grated on me. I also found much of it completely implausible, from the way characters spoke to each other and things they did - not just the big plot things but even minor actions just didn't seem realistic. The book skipped around and there was no subtlety in introducing hints/ideas either. Really annoying.

18. Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley - a group of my Year 10s are reading and reviewing the Carnegie shortlist in preparation for me taking them to a Carnegie award event organised by another school, so will be working my way through the list over the next couple of months. The Lie Tree is one of them so I've got a bit of a headstart and this is another. It's set in 1959 and is about a (fictional) group of black high school students in Virginia who are the first to try and integrate a white high school after the Supreme Court rules for an end to school segregation. The story focuses on one of the black girls, Sarah, and a white girl, Linda, whose father is anti-integration. The sub-plot is that the girls find they are attracted to each other and are trying to deal with these feelings as well as their feelings about race. When I read the synopsis, I wasn't sure how necessary the sub-plot would be and thought it might detract from the main issue. However, I think it worked and raised some interesting questions about to what extent we have equal rights now. Will be interesting to see what the kids make of this.

Book 40
A Very British Murder by Lucy Worsley
This was disappointing. It’s exactly my sort of thing – a look at murder and how the English have responded to it since early Victorian times – but it provided me with very little that I didn’t know about already, and hadn’t read about before, and probably better. I thought Worsley was very over-reliant on Judith Flanders, and since I don’t rate Flanders much anyway, this meant that her scope was really narrow and she didn’t dig any deeper than Flanders had already done (and since Flanders is pretty narrow anyway, this wasn’t very deep at all). This could have been great – but it wasn’t.

I need something good to read. Am having a disappointing run.

HHhH is still cheapo on Kindle btw, if anybody is interested after reading all the positive reviews.

Currently reading helter skelter by curt gentry and Vincent buglosi. It's a true crime book about the Manson murders in America. I know nothing about this case, so enjoying knowing nothing and being led through the case by the book. It's really good so far but was a bit worried I'd give myself nightmares last night!

I'm always reluctant to suggest anything to you remus because you've read bloody everything so much but have you tried Robertson Davies? The Cunning Man or any of the trilogies.

Looking - my yr 9 dd really enjoyed Lies We Tell Ourselves. It was one she passed on to me to read, & I thought it was well done.

Thanks, Satsuki but I can't find him on Kindle. Might be going to a load of secondhand bookshops tomorrow, so will have a look there.

21. A Dance With Dragons 2: After the Feast by George RR Martin

The second part of the fifth instalment of A Song of Ice and Fire. After a couple of slow books this starts to get things moving again, though it did still feel a bit too sprawling in parts. I really liked the chapters about my favourite characters but wasn't so bothered about others. I've had a gradually growing feeling over the series that some of the sex, violence and nudity is a bit gratuitous and some scenes in this, though they wouldn't have been too bad by themselves, did tip it over the edge into "too much." I'm feeling relieved to have read all the books so far, but glad I have done as I have enjoyed them over all. I hope the next book is the last though as I don't know how many more twists and turns I can take before I stop caring who ends up on the Iron Throne.

book 12 Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue thanks to you lot Bill Bryson has become my go to guy when I want something different to read. I really enjoyed this book as it was both informative and funny. There were a few errors which annoyed me ever so slightly eg some of his translations of irish Gaelic and Welsh. (My mother is A Gaelic speaker and I have more than just a passing familiarity with Welsh). I was also a bit surprised that Bill in his list of pub names mentioned " Tumbledown Dick" without knowing who tumbledown dick was supposed to be. (For those of you who don't know he was Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver who succeeded Oliver Cromwell as head of the commonwealth for a few weeks before the restoration of Charles 11). Apart from these minor errors I found this book fascinating. Just the thing if you want to stretch your mind without having to work very hard at it. If you like the perfect British Bank Holiday book for curling up with chocolate when the weather is rotten

Remus I'd second Robertson Davies ; love his Cornish Trilogy. Should definitely be in the library, can't believe it's not on kindle

I spent the holidays at MIL's. No internet + flights there and back = lots of reading time. I ended up reading the two books I had selected for the trip plus a few on my Kindle:

#17 How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
#16 Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker
#15 It's OK to Have Lead in Your Lipstick by Perry Romanowski and Randy Schueller
#14 a Scandi crime novel
#13 The Story of a New Name: Neapolitan Novels, Book Two by Elena Ferrante

The Dale Carnegie book was a bit cheesy but I'm interested in how self help became the huge thing it is today and wanted to read one of the original blockbusters. You could easily repackage the advice and it felt totally timeless but the examples were really dated. I enjoyed the early chapters of Pinker's style guide but the latter half was lots of really dull lists and the book as a whole lacked structure. The book on cosmetic chemistry was something I was interested in last summer, I just wanted to finish it.

And Elena Ferrante's novel was brilliant. The first half was incredibly good, difficult to put down, and I felt I learned something about myself as well. The second half was a bit more breezy, she covered a long period of time, with less attention to detail, and meticulous attention to tiny shifts in moods and thoughts is why I liked the book. Ferrante is like a Neapolitan version of Edna O'Brien and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - it's a coming of age story with lots of cultural shifts and changes in the background.

Sadik Good to hear your DD enjoyed it - will be interesting to see if my group agree - I teach in a boys' school and sometimes gender really affects what they like/don't like. Doesn't always happen though, so hard to predict! Has she read The Lie Tree? I really enjoyed that one.

FrustratedFrugal I also like the Neapolitan series. Finished the third recently and will be reading the last one soon. Agree with everything you said!

Cornish is my favourite too, wilting. He is the one author that no one ever seems to have heard of irl and I can never understand it. I once worked with a woman who seemed to inhale books and he was the only new author I managed to introduce her to. He seems a well kept secret, shame he's not on kindle.

Looking - no, I don't think she's read the Lie Tree. She knows I like Frances Hardinge, so I'm sure she'd have brought it home for me if she'd borrowed it. Have you read any of her other novels? I love Fly by Night/Twilight Robbery, Mosca Mye is one of my absolute favourite children's heroines.

I'd be interested to hear what your boys think of Lies We Tell Ourselves (and the other Carnegie books).

Wondered why the other thread hadn't updated! Need to read and catch up, still not read much but hope to catch up soon.

19. Lord Of The Flies - William Golding

I quickly re-read this for book club, taking a (regrettable) break from Seveneves. I'm happy to report that this favourite from my teenage years has aged rather well, and that despite my aversion to YA. Great analysis of human (mob) psychology. And of course "lord of the flies" is the literal translation of the word 'Beelzebub', one of the names of the Devil from the Bible.

Bringing my list over from the other thread:

18. Mother Of Eden by Chris Beckett (Dark Eden #2)
19. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
20. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
21. The Time Machine by H G Wells
22. The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
23. Hot Zone - The Chilling True Story of an Ebola Outbreak by Richard Preston
24. Dissolution by C. S. Sansom
25. Limitless (The Dark Fields) by Alan Glynn
26. High Heat by Lee Child

1. Authority by Jeff VanderMeer8. Rivers Of London by Ben Aaronovitch
2. Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David K. Randall
3. Ancillary Justice by Ann Beckie
4. Written In Fire by Marcus Sakey
5. The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain by James Fallon
6. The Day Of The Triffids by John Wyndham
7. Wolves by Simon Ings
8. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

Lord of the Flies = one of the best novels ever imvho, Cote. So glad to hear that you still approve of it.