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?

Another re-joiner here. Playing catch up as I lost my reading mo-jo a little over Easter as my Mum passed away suddenly and my mind was quite distracted. However I'm now back in reading action.

12. The Tudor Princess - Alison Weir. My first Alison Weir read, although I was familiar with her work as had seen her appear on some historical tv documentaries. I love the Tudor period and this book covered the life of the little-known Margaret Lennox - older sister of Henry VIII. The book had a lot of detail about her early life and her close connections to both the English and Scottish courts. It really highlighted how fickle Henry VIII and Elizabeth I could be and how precarious court life was. Although full of facts I find the writing style quite easy to read and the family trees and inserted illustrations really added to the text. I'd thoroughly recommend for anyone interested in this period.

13. Partners in Crime - Agatha Christie. A much lighter read as it was a collection of short stories featuring the characters of Tommy and Tuppence. I first read this as a teenager - many years ago! I enjoyed the various cases but did find myself thinking of David Walliams and Jessica Raine following the BBC novel adaptations last year. An enjoyable quick read.

14. Tipping the Velvet -Sarah Waters. It was the first Sarah Waters novel I'd read. I picked this up in the library, again after having seen the BBC adaptation a number of years ago. I raced through this quickly -after Alison Weir it did feel quite a light read but Sarah Waters describes Nan's adventures well and it provided a fun snapshot of life in the music halls, arty lesbian scene, seedy 'renters' world and East End 'toms'. I enjoyed it but am not sure I'd rush to read another Waters novel. I'm very happy to be proved wrong though if others have a favourite.

Tipping the Velvet is probably my least favourite Sarah Waters book, Starlight, so I do think it's worth trying something else of hers.

The ones I enjoyed most were Fingersmith, The Little Stranger and Affinity. Particularly The Little Stranger, because I'm a sucker for ghost stories and the big house setting.

Thanks ghost, I'll try one of the others you mentioned.

Sorry about your mum, starlight.

I'm sorry for your loss, starlight

So sorry for your loss, starlight . My dad died suddenly last year, and we all struggled to cope with the aftermath.

My favourite Sarah Waters so far has been Fingersmith, but I did also enjoy The Paying Guests, and The Little Stranger. Have got Tipping the Velvet as an audio book waiting for me to listen soon.

Thanks everyone. Yes the suddenness is quite hard to handle. We were chatting away as normal one day and the next day I had a phone call telling me the news. You then get so caught up in the necessary admin and arrangements that it then hits again once that all slows down. I have two young DC helping to keep me busy and giving me lots of hugs. It is good to get back to normal though and re-joining this thread is part of that.

So I'm giving Sarah Waters another try! I'll post on here how I get on.

Starlight

37. Blood Will Tell - Kyra Cornelius Krammer. This is a history book based on the theory that Henry VIII had Kell positive blood and a personality disorder called McLeod syndrome. The Kell positive blood would be responsible for the miscarriages and still births that his first two wives experienced. Interesting theory but I actually found the book incredibly frustrating. She gives very little explanation of what Kell positive blood is, how it is inherited and how common it is. And doesn't give much evidence that Henry was any madder than any other absolute monarch at the time. She also doesn't give us many alternatives to her Mcleod syndrome theory (again little scientific fact about how it is developed etc), although touches on Narcisstic personality disorder. And spends much of the book just rehashing the facts of his marriages, as well as wandering off topic with a chapter about astrology and medieval medicine. I'm returning to fiction!

16. The Empty Throne, Bernard Cornwell

This continues the Saxon Stories series which I am still really enjoying. Uhtred took a terrible wound at the end of the last book and it seems he will not recover and much of this book is concerned with his quest to find the mystical cure.

England as it was in the ninth and tenth centuries was made up of four smaller kingdoms. The ruler of Mercia (most of central England today) dies, leaving a very desirable vacancy and threatens to ignite a civil war as well as the ongoing battles with the Vikings. Cue lots of political intrigue and treachery with Uhtred at the middle of it all.

I particularly enjoyed the way that Cornwell ages his characters. There are not many of the original cast left, but he develops them well and shows how they have matured and survived the turbulent times. There were some poignant moments where Uhtred sees younger warriors as he would have been seen when he was their age. The younger characters are growing into prominence and I'm keen to find out what will happen to them in the next instalment.

So onto the next (and last published in the series) Warriors of the Storm

So sorry to hear your sad news starlight My grandad died suddenly four years ago and I still find myself replaying that awful day over and over in my mind as it still doesn't feel real.

Sorry to hear of your loss, starlight.

tumble, I've read Thinking, Fast and Slow, but I guess I was thinking more of something relatively easy reading that takes a critical evidence based look at social policy. (This may be the result of my frustration as I get older at seeing the same old - and thoroughly discredited by research - policies turning up on the merry-go-round yet one more time.)

Starlight

The Little Stranger is the only SW book I've even partly enjoyed. Didn't like Fingersmith and was bored stupid by Tipping the Velvet and another one which I can't remember the name of but something to do with Night iirc.

So sorry about your Mum, starlite what a terrible shock I'm glad you are feeling able to begin to get back on track in some way.

Thank you so much for the warm welcome back and the congrats on the baby!

So, here goes...

1. Our Song - Dani Atkins I felt like something easy to read and this was perfect. The story follows two women, Ally and Charlotte. In the present day Charlotte is married to Ally's ex and first love, David. Tragedy strikes and the lives of the women are brought together....again. Each chapter is a different perspective of each women either in the present day or back in the past and shows how each of them end up in the situation they are in today. The story was emotional with a bit of a twist as to how Ally and Charlotte knew each other before. Would recommend.

Starlight I agree with Remus about Sarah Waters I'm afraid. I was bored by Fingersmith and skipped pages throughout Little Stranger. I have The Paying Guests on my shelf but I'm wary to start it! Do you know which book of hers you are going to start with?! I would like my opinion of her books to change!

I've just finished 'Tipping the Velvet' and whilst the easy read suited my mood I was a little underwhelmed. Quite a few people had recommended her novels to me so I maybe had too high expectations.

I wasn't hugely impressed with Tipping the Velvet but then it was her first book. Haven't read Affinity but I've read her others and for me the best one was The Paying Guests, one of the most gripping novels I've ever read.

Book 17 time travellers guide to medieval england as others have given a very good account of this book I will not give a synopsis here.

I really enjoyed this book and liked the alternative view points. I did however find it a struggle to start with.

Onwards and upwards to book 18

35. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

The first half of the book covers the experiences of Jean Paget as a Japanese POW, the second half follows her life after, as narrated by her friend and solicitor. I would say the earlier parts were strongest. I quite enjoyed this. It is a good story in many ways, but I didn't love it. For the most part it was well written, but the dialogue was repetitive and I lost count of how many times characters stared at each other. Emotions were not rendered realistically, so at times they were ridiculously underplayed (a woman is dry-eyed and philosophical at the death of a child for e.g) and at others it veered into the overly sentimental (meaningful relationships developed in a matter of hours). I also was a bit baffled by the narrative point of view - the narrator is an elderly man who it seems has gained a remarkable insight into the personal affairs of his client, through conversations and letters. We find out increasingly intimate details about the protagonist, only just stopping short of her sex life - I had to keep reminding myself who was telling the story as it was so ridiculous that she would have related any of it to him as she was supposed to have done. The lead character is strong, but she is pretty idealised, and there is a latent sexism of a kind which made me uncomfortable at a few points. Casual racism too, in both language and tone. Ok, it's of its time, but there are lots of other books of that time and earlier that don't have this tone. It was interesting and I'm glad I read it but won't rush to read another of his.

I'm 200 pages into Dark Fire, the second Shardlake, and so far it is much better than the first, which I liked but thought was only ok. There's more action and less backache, but still an incredible city stink on every page, but I suppose that can't be helped. I've also started State of Wonder on the Kindle which is slow so far but haven't given it much time yet.

29. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson I really wanted to love this. A young girl and her grandmother spend summers on a tiny island. We are told at the start that the girl's mother has died, but it is never mentioned again. Emotions are dealt with matter of factly, or not at all, and this is what prevents the book from overstepping the line it treads between charm and whimsy. And it is charming, and the nature is beautifully observed. But, and I know this, northern summers on the edge have a rhythm, a rise and fall, that isn't really captured, because this book is really just a series of vignettes, which seem to jump all over the place. It redeemed itself by having an end, the packing up of the island at the end of summer, and that felt right.

Next up, something completely different - the Martian.

26. The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (The Three-Body Problem #2)

This was OUTSTANDING. I liked the previous book (The Three-Body Problem) which was an interesting and original "first contact" story but this sequel was absolutely fantastic. The author could have easily milked a 5-book series out of the themes and original ideas in here, but he chose to amalgamate it all into one stunning & ambitious book with amazing scope and breadth.

The story takes place over about 200 years, while Earth is waiting for the Trisolarian invasion. There is very little technological advancement on Earth, due to sub-atomic devices sent ahead by Trisolarians that mess with experiments. These also keep an eye on everything that goes on, so Earth's only chance for victory is to appoint several strategists with unprecedented authority & access to funds, who are tasked to conceive secret strategies & plans, not share them with anyone, presenting a false facade to the outside, and prepare for the coming war in their own heads (the only place where the alien devices can't look).

It is about human nature, our best traits and our worst, how we would adapt/react to an extinction-level threat, the long-term dynamics, political and psychological struggles to overcome in order to survive as a species. It is also about some of the most fascinating new ideas about the universe and our place in it that I have read in a long while, including a very plausible answer to the Fermi Paradox.

I can't praise this book highly enough. Except maybe to say that I can only compare it to Anathem and Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, which is high praise indeed.

Interesting, Cote - I did really like The Dark Forest, but it didn't quite live up to The Three Body Problem for me, perhaps because I particularly enjoyed the sci-fi-within-contemporary-setting element of the first book. (I also preferred the translators style in book 1 somewhat, and didn't think no. 2 read as elegantly.)

for starlight. I lost my father suddenly last year, such a shock. Glad to hear that you are back to reading, it really does offer a useful distraction.

Welcome back to those who lost their book or thread mojo, or who had babies! Took me years to get back to reading regularly after my dc's were born, I really missed it.

20. Alex by Pierre Lemaitre the second in a trilogy of French crime thrillers. This was a real page turner for me, not as horrific as the first in the series (called Irene). There is a different criminal this time but with some very interesting twists.

21. Get out of my Life by Anthony Wolf - really helpful book about raising teenagers, recommended on MN. One of my dc's has gone from lovely, cheerful, helpful boy to Kevin the Teenager in about 4 seconds. This book explains A LOT. I skim read the last few chapters on drugs and alcohol as thankfully no issues there - yet!

I really enjoyed it cote but reading your review I suspect some of the science went over my head great read anyway, v v interesting.

Which Pierre lemaitre caused horror here last year? I read Alex previously and thought it was good. Would be slow to go there again though as I generally cant read graphic violence Game of Thrones excepted

Be wary ladydepp!

40) Fool Moon, Jim Butcher.
Second in the series, and it's wizard v. werewolves. It reminds me of the books I read in childhood, although the violence is more graphic - it's all about what-happens-next and how-will-he-get-out-of-this? Good fun when you're in the mood for this kind of thing.