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?

Congratulations Tessie, welcome back to the thread

Best - will you be watching Love, Nina? I've got mixed feelings about it. Whilst I enjoyed the book immensely, I'm just not sure how enjoyable it will be translated to tv. So much of the humour was in the wide-eyed innocence of Nina' s letters home and I suppose because so many of the characters were real eg Mary Kay Wilmers, Alan Bennett, Claire Tomalin etc, they've had to fictionalise them to a certain extent, changed names and so on. So, essentially, that's a wholly different story. It may be very good, and I dare say Helena Bonham Carter wouldn't have done it if it wasn't.

Yes, I know what you mean Mermaid. I 'll definitely be watching though. I wonder if the characters will be recognisable.

Joyless - Yes to her telling not showing. She clearly hasn't been in any of my descriptive writing lessons recently!

Best - will you report back with what you think of the first episode. I might watch it on catch up if you think it's good :)

Congratulations, Tessie :)

48 Bad Science by Ben Goldacre.

I liked this much more than I expected to - I only picked it up because dd had it out of the library. I used to read BG's Bad Science columns way back in the Graun, but these days I find him annoying, even when I agree with him (kind of like George Monbiot, he just sets my teeth on edge). However, the book was definitely more than a collection of the columns, and I thought the more general chapters on research design, probability, ways in which negative research gets 'lost' were really interesting and well written - more so than the specific chapters on homeopathy/nutritionists et al, which were a bit too much shooting sitting ducks to be gripping.

I'd love to see someone writing about social science / economics research use and reporting in the same easy to read and amusing way that BG writes about medical research & Cordelia Fine writes about neuroscience/feminism. (If anyone knows any authors, point me their way!)

I will Mermaid, I think it's on next Friday.

Fell off the thread for a bit there!

65. Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones. One of my favourite books - Sophie and Howl rock! I especially like the way that Sophie spends most of the book as a grumpy old woman and Howl still falls in love with her.
66. Gay From China at the Chalet School, Elinor M Brent-Dyer. Also an old favourite and a great antidote to the crap that was Portnoy's Complaint.
67. What Katy Did, Susan B Coolidge. Katy finds herself through the medium of, um, Pain. Some of the lessons ring a bit harshly to a modern ear, but I still love it.
68. The Chalet School Christmas Book, assorted authors. Short stories - fan fic.
69. Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth. Book club choice. Crap. Utter wankery about wanking, written by a wanker. Fuck right off to the far side of fuck with this one! Disgusting misogynistic drivel. Portnoy, the narrator, spends the entire book whining about his parents and his longing for privacy in which to wank.
70. The Diviners, Libba Bray. YA urban fantasy, set in the roaring twenties in New York. Started slowly, but I liked the period touches - I read Bill Bryson's 1927 recently and it touched on many of the same stories by way of detail. Then it really got underway with some great supernatural goings on. Slow burner but I really liked it! There's a sequel but I'm waiting for payday to buy it. Honest.

TooExtra you have me actually LOLing at your review for Portnoy's Complaint. I've been feeling I should really read more 'Great American Writers' and Roth was featuring high on the list. I shall certainly avoid this one

Book 26: Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray. The individual grief felt by the family at the loss of young Issy is deftly depicted. However, Bray clearly has issues with the Mormon church, as every church member is shown as uncaring, self-absorbed, pompous, overtly-pious, ignorant ... you get the picture. Apparently there isn't a kind, understanding or thoughtful one amongst them, which seems unlikely and that from an agnostic teetering on the edge of athiesm.

Dp loves Roth but and liked Portnoy a lot, but your review is great, Cheddar. I've never read any Roth but can't be doing with literary wank-fests (see my earlier comments on wanking priests in the wank-fest that was The Book of Strange New Boring Wanking Priest Things).

Have an extra rogue 'but' there.

NCed and dropped off this thread ages ago, but I have been missing it, so am back.

58. the Unfixed Stars, by Michael Byers

A fictionalised account of the discovery of Pluto. Glacially slow, not much really happens (or else it happens so agonisingly slowly you don't even notice it's happening), but oddly compelling even so.

Congrats on the baby Tessie and welcome back.

These are my latest:

34. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J.K. Rowling. This is the 6th book in the series. Harry finds an old text book which he uses for his potions class. The book was the property of the Half-Blood Prince who has written his own spells in the margins and Harry uses them against the advice of Hermione. The identity of the HBP is not revealed until near the end of the book which also has some of the darkest and saddest moments in the books to date. In this story Harry also learns more about Tom Riddle and his background and he will need to use this information in the battle which is coming. Stephen Fry narrated.

35. High Rise – J.R. Ballard. Reread this earlier this year and forgot about it until I was putting it back on the bookshelves. This was an odd reread for me. I loved it first time round but this time I found it much more disturbing and upsetting and I am not sure why. I still think it is an amazing book but the experience of rereading it did not bring me the pleasure I was expecting.

36. Apple Tree Yard – Louise Doughty. I started this and didn’t really think it was for me but I persisted and am quite glad I did. Yvonne is in her 50s and has an affair with a man she meets in Westminster. Later she becomes a victim of sexual crime and there is tragic fallout from that. I found the court scenes very believable particularly how women who are victims of sex crimes are treated and portrayed as the perpetrator. This was an audiobook read by Juliet Stevenson and the narration was excellent. I suspect the paperback would not have kept my attention so well.

37. The Gunslinger (Dark Tower Series) – Stephen King. Finally got around to reading The Gunslinger. I have all the books on kindle for ages and one of my reading objectives for 2016 is to finish the series. Book One done and dusted. I loved it.

We have now moved onto the last Harry Potter on the school run. I am still slowly working my way through Neurotribes by Steve Silberman in paperback and am reading London Falling by Paul Cornell on kindle.

I must make sure I update more often!

61. Fat Planet: The Obesity Trap And How We Can Escape It by David Lewis
    Non-fiction about how we're all getting fatter and why. Some interesting experiments and insights into what shops and restaurants do to get us to eat more, but some parts got a bit too heavy with stats.

62. The Girl With No Past by Kathryn Croft
    This was labelled a gripping psychological thriller, but it wasn't really. It was also misnamed as the girl did have a past! The main character was a bit wet and made some stupid decisions. The main problem was that there were only 3 potential 'baddies' so it was easy to work out early on which one was the baddy.

63. Europe: In Or Out? Everything You Need To Know by David Charter
    Read this to give me some more info about the referendum. Still not sure which way to vote but at least I have a better idea of the implications!

64. Pandora by Jilly Cooper
    A reread. This is my least favourite of the 'Rutshire Chronicles', but it's still readable. It's set in the art world, which I'm not particularly interested in, and none of the characters are likeable. It also brings back hardly any of the characters from earlier books - Rupert Campbell-Black is in it very briefly and that's about it.

65. Making It Up As I Go Along by Marian Keyes
    I love Marian. This is a collection of her journalism rather than a novel. I read it all inb one go and really enjoyed it, but probably better to dip into as a few pieces were a bit repetitive when read together.

66. The Mistake I Made by Paula Daly
    This is a retelling of Indecent Proposal. In order for this to work the main character needs to be likeable and she just wasn't. The main character is a physiotherapist and there were lots of technical descriptions - I read afterwards that the author used to be a physiotherapist so was clearly showing off her knoweledge but I just found it annoying as it didn't add anything to the story and I found it distracting.

67. Pier Review: A Road Trip In Search Of The Great British Seaside by Jon Bounds
    I like travel books and the idea behind this one was a bit different - visiting every pier in England & Wales. However, piers are all a bit similar after a while, and at least half the piers they couldn't even go on because they were shut. I did finish it, but was bored by the end.

68. Daughters of Eve by Lois Duncan
    YA book originally written in the late 70s and updated. A radical feminist teacher persuades a group of female students that they're being oppressed by men, with violent results. I think this one was of it's time and even with the updating it didn't ring true in today's world. I think it should have been left as it was so it could be read as a product of its time.

69. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
    This is a fantasy/sci-fi/horror book based around some real vintage photos. I loved the photos and the descriptions of the peculiar children, great concept. Now reading the sequel, Hollow City.

Have also got Behind The Scenes At The Museum on the go as an audiobook - I have read it before but years ago so nice to revisit it.

17. A Face Like Glass, Frances Hardinge. In the underground city of Caverna where master craftsmen and women create extraordinary delicacies with unusual effects, people are born with blank faces. Expressions must be taught, and how many Faces you are given depends on your social standing. Into this world comes Neverfell, a young girl with no memory of her past and a face so full of emotion it causes panic and fear to all who see her. I enjoyed this a lot and kept coming back to it in favour of other books I'm reading at the mo.

25. Straight Up - Danny Dyer. Readable memoir from the EastEnders actor, he came across as decent and unpretentious. Lots of swearing in this but I didn't mind.

26. Shop Girl - Mary Portas. Another enjoyable memoir, but it only covers her life up until she was 22. A good read as far as it goes.

I'm in the mood for something dark and nasty now so taking a break from Man at the Helm and going to start Career of Evil.

hi all, can I rejoin even though I've not been following the chat at all? I completely lost my reading bug since before Easter - it's taken me that long to read 2 books. (Last year was reading one or two a week). Stopped even being interested in thinking about books. Anyway, think I'm over the worse of it and not sure I'll read 50 this year, but hoping I can rekindle and interest in reading!

18. Death Decends on Saturn Villa - MRC Kasasian - not the best in this series about a hateful Victorian private detective and his ward, but mindless enough for me to finish at least!

19. The Cold Calling - Phil Rickman - I don't normally 'do' woo, but this was entertaining mystery woo! A policeman is revived in hospital after being officially dead for 4 minutes when a nurse with 'the gift' puts her hands on him and summons him back. There's a serial killer "the green man" who appears to be killing people in a ritualistic way in 'woo significant' places, but the police aren't all that interested in seeing connections between the crimes when pointed out by Cindy, a cross dressing Welsh Shaman. The previously dead policeman who was hiding from smalltime gangsters and bent coppers turns out to be the person who can solve it. It's actually very good! I'm not a fan of woo, but this is so late 90s 'New Age' nonesense, it's lovely!

After some nice none taxing but interesting reads to keep me going.

49 The New Spymasters: Inside Espionage from the Cold War to Global Terror by Stephen Grey

An exploration of how spying and intelligence gathering has changed over the period, to what extent it has made a difference at the micro and macro level, and where it might go in the future. Really good - measured, thoughtful and not at all gung-ho. I'd definitely recommend it.

71. Mad About The Boy, Helen Fielding. Bridget Jones no 3. Set 20 years on, Bridget is now a widow with 2 children just starting to date again. Like the curate's egg, it was good in parts - the parenting bits, Roxster - but I loathed Mr Arsehole Teacher, the Hedda Gabler script where she thinks it was written by Chekov, the magic fast weightloss, the way it was expressed in pounds, not stone, and the ending was exactly the same as book 1. Oh, and Mark can't have died in a car crash or anything boring, he has to have been a Great Man saving the country - shades of grandeur! I was really annoyed with her being attracted to a bossy rude wanker who just takes over her life. Grr.

Sadik responding to your comment I'd love to see someone writing about social science / economics research use have you read Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman? It's about behavioural economics - more about the research than the research use, so possibly not quite what you're after, but I would highly recommend it.

Welcome back to the thread, Tessie, ghost and Dinosaurs!

23. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. Recommended upthread by whippet and several others. This is about a pharmacologist, Marina, who is sent to the Amazon jungle by her boss to report on the progress of group of scientists developing a fertility drug, and find out what happened to her colleague who was the last person sent to check up on them. It's excellent - original, intriguing and unpredictable, with an interesting cast of supporting characters. This is the first book I've read by Ann Patchett, but I'm looking forward to trying more of hers.

tumble I recommend trying Bel Canto next. A fictional account of a hostage situation, but as far away from Diehard as you can get! Very original and intelligent.

I love Ann Patchett's writing, having stumbled across her at Hay Festival a few years ago when I'd bought a ticket to see another author and she was taking part in the discussion too. She's a warm and engaging speaker as well as a really good writer IMO.

48. Rising Ground by Phillip Marsden. Non-fiction. Travel writer writing about his own patch. Buys house in Cornwall, does it up, wanders about moors, creeks, islands etc and talks artists/historians who used to live there. It all sounded very nice - certainly the life of a freelance writer came across as very appealing, but how one earth can he afford it? Does his wife beaver away at some unmentioned job in between doing picturesque things with the children? I enjoyed it, although it outstayed its welcome by several chapters.

I wonder if the trend for years in Provence/sejourns under the Tuscan sun have given way to this hyper-localism (McFarlane et al): not sure if it's a publishing trend or a trend in the books I pick up.

TooExtra I agree with the Mad about the Boy hate. Also confusing, as I read the newspaper column she ran about BJ post-books, and it was a much funnier scenario, pregnant and not knowing if it was attributable to Mark or Daniel. In particular I hated the wish-fulfilment fat-magically-disappears part.

Congrats on your new production, Tessie!

Biblio - yes, she winds up at about 9 stone 3 or something, after having 2 kids in her 40s, and doesn't seem particularly worried about her body, because losing weight magically gets rid of a wobbly tum/stretchmarks/stuff. She must have had Mabel aged 46 or thereabouts, which is pretty damn rare, too - I think she's 51 in the book, and Mabel is quite young, possibly even pre-school. It just didn't ring very true that a) she would magically lose all that weight very quickly and b) that she wouldn't have any other issues with her body, but maybe I'm projecting a bit! I also really hated in the original 2 books how crap she is at her job at all times, particularly the interview with Colin Firth, and then that came across again with the Hedda Gabler stuff. I want a heroine who can actually do a job well!

Totally agree - and she describes herself as repulsive when she's fat and desirable once she hits the magic number on the scales, whereupon a hot younger boyfriend suddenly appears. I understand that it's meant to be her subjective view, but Helen Fielding doesn't subvert it the way she did in the original books (when BJ was seen as attractive by men even when she considered herself fat, and was told she looked "gaunt" at the weight she thought she wanted).

The ditziness was considerably less adorable at this age of her life.