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?

omg 20) A French Affair by Katie Fforde; This was terrible. She can write waaaay better than this. Honestly, it read like someone's homework exercise, plodding and utterly devoid of any sense of natural believable plot development or characterisation. Conversations are awkward and contrived. They seem mere vehicles for moving the story along. No effort to make the evolution seem natural or emotionally credible. The "hero" is stupid and unlikeable. The "heroine" love for him totally improbable. There is no chemistry. If this was KF's first book, she would never have been published. Anyone looking for good romance, The Rose Revived and Wild Designs are mountains better than this. She's clearly written far too many books at this point and her creative energy is totally exhausted. Read something else. Not sure how I got through this. Am still in the mood for a good romance though. Any recommendations? Think Jilly Cooper and Fiona Walker type. Humorous and scintillating.

Otherwise, might try Sweet Caress...

I have found the Poldark books. Have read 2 so far, really enjoying them.

Am really tempted to read some Agatha Christie now after discussion upthread, will start with the first Marple. Exciting!

Hmm, I think you lot have convinced me that I need to read some Agatha Christie now. Although DP is telling me I should read all the Inspector Morse books. It's a crime dilemma!

wilting, in terms of romance, I can't actually recommend anything. I would like to know myself! All the books that deal with romance or love affairs that I like are sad, such as The Lover by Marguerite Duras or At Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart.

I'm still not convinced I read a few A Christie books as a teenager & watched some films, but didn't think it was terribly special. Especially when compared to the literary development (towards the gritty & more realistic) of the past couple of decades, I can't imagine that they will have aged well, at all.

I think the 'monster' is supposed to be a bit ridiculous in book 2, Cote. Imagine the ignominious end of a gunslinger dying from a bite from a giant lobster!

Well, I didn't think if was funny. "Ignominious" gunslinger had man flu throughout the book and was as pathetic as DH always gets, anyway

I'll check them out whippet, I can do sad

As for Agatha, I did her to death in my teens. There's no going back

Poor Roland. :(

I think you'd hate Agatha Christie, Cote. I don't mind a bit of Poirot in small doses, but Miss Marple makes me want to stab something (mostly Miss Marple tbh).

Mermaid, reporting back on Love, Nina, the TV adaptation as requested.

I liked it, very gentle humour, quite true to the feel of the book. Helena BC was very understated (and beautiful), the kids were funny and the AB character was turned into a slightly waspish, camp and vain Scottish playwright. I think there was enough AB to be recognisable but in changing the character, they've been able to make him funnier. A nice touch was that Sam Frears has a cameo role as a neighbour.

The look of it was pretty close to what I'd imagined and Nina was like looking at myself at 20! (I'm the same age as the real Nina). I had the same haircut and the clothes were exactly what I'd have worn in 1983.
DH enjoyed it too but he has a very soft spot for HBC.

The only thing that grated slightly with me was Nina's accent but I have no idea what a Leicester accent sounds like.

31 Dark Fire by C j Sansom really enjoyed this much better than the first one

32 Closed Circle by Viveca Sten. A year after the first murder a man is shot at the start of a yacht race. Good fun, easy reading

33 Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner. I was sent this by goodreads to review and it was much better than I expected. A man comes home from a weekend away to find the front door open the place a mess and his girlfriend missing. When the police turn up they find blood, not a lot though. It doesn't get solved quickly, mistakes are made.

34 The Green Road by Ann Enright. I was sent this by mumsnet. I struggled with it, didn't enjoy it my dd loved it however

35 The Lost Tudor Princess by Alison Weir. Got sent this by mumsnet, really interesting history book. I didn't know much about this character and found it very easy to read

Cote - I love fantasy but this is my first cowboy story; I'm reserving judgement for now as to whether it'll be my cup of tea or not!

TooExtra - Oh I feel your pain. That third book is a long time coming, isn't it? Perhaps he had trouble wrapping it all up into the last book and so has had to stretch to a fourth.

Glad you enjoyed it, Best. Nice summary - you might persuade me to give it a go. DH isn't keen, though. Getting stuck into watching Chelsea this week :)

Man flu and ridiculous monsters...I don't know if that sounds awful or intriguing!

32. Eliza Rose by Lucy Worsley - Children's book, read for book group. This is set in Tudor times and is the story of a young girl who, growing up, is told in no uncertain terms that, as the only child of an impoverished aristocrat, the family fortunes depend on her marrying well. It was an easy read but I found it a bit difficult to pin down in terms of target age. It seemed to be written for 8-10 year olds in the main but the word 'menses' was used quite a lot (yes, obviously to be historically accurate, but I don't think many children would recognise the term at all...) and sex and infidelity were hinted at in places. I imagine most children would miss these references completely but it left me wondering what the point was of including them in a children's book. I've given it to DS (nearly 10) to read and will be interested to see what he thinks of it.

33. One by Sarah Crossan My 7th of the 8 on the Carnegie list. This was a really quick read - I read it in a day, which is unusual for me at this time of year, as work takes up a lot of time. It is about teenage conjoined twins, Grace and Tippi, who are going to school for the first time (having been homeschooled previously). I enjoyed it - made me think and was interesting. I was getting a bit annoyed with what I thought was a formatting problem on my Kindle with the layout but, by the end, it emerged that there was a reason for the layout, so obviously the print version would have been the same. It made sense once I got to that point and I felt a bit silly for having been annoyed by it!

Don't listen to Cote! There's no man flu - slow and painful death from blood poisoning perhaps, but no man flu.

Hmm I don't know Roland well enough yet to be sure whether he'd respond to blood poisoning any differently to having man flu; he does react to things strangely sometimes!

1. Good Things in England by Florence White

This is a book of 'traditional and regional' English recipes collected by the English Folk Cookery Association in the early 1930s. I found it fascinating, not only for some of the recipes themselves, but also occasional glimpses into social history - my favourite being the suggestion 'for those who live in out of the way places of the Empire' might procure 'Royal Yeast Cakes ... properly packed for tropical and semi-tropical climate, from the Army & Navy Stores, 105 Victoria Street'.

This has taken me some time to read through, so I need to get on with the challenge as I am falling woefully behind!

I won't hear a word against Roland! Watch out, or there will have to be pistols at dawn.

50 Do No Harm by Henry Marsh.

Reviewed several times previously, so won't bother summarising. OK but didn't really grab me - I found it moderately interesting, but nothing more - a disappointment given how well it's been reviewed generally (in the media rather than on here).

Back to The Martian which I abandoned a couple of weeks back - again I'm finding it moderately interesting but it's not really gripping me.

Um... It sounded like man flu The way he was moaning and whinging, all weak and unsure of his prospects with a giant lobster. A fecking LOBSTER that keeps saying "Dad-a-chum? Dum-a-chum? Ded-a-chek? Did-a-chick?". Ahhahhahhaha

Roland doesn't have man flu! He goes to the other extreme and keeps going until he drops. Oh, I'm going to have to re-read them now and this time keep going. Not sure I'll read The Gunslinger, though - I think all you have to bother reading is "the man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed".

I am having Kvothe withdrawal symptoms. I don't want to read anything else because it isn't Doors of Stone! Grr.

Yes, but then he blows them to smithereens. Have at ye, lobstrosities!

Re the Christies aging well, I think they have, because they are puzzles to be worked out. Generally there are clues and all the potential suspects are introduced early on. Most modern crime fiction is a story with the dectective working out what's happened, the reader just following along and is supposed to be a bit more passive. (Not sure that makes sense!)

The discussion of the Dark Tower series has really made me laugh, esp cote quoting the lobster. I've looked at them on a few occasions and would never have guessed that crustaceans were at all involved. It's reminded me of the ridiculousness that was the end of Watchmen.

They are making a film with the lovely Idris Elba, he is definitely more manful than manflu

Lobster? I think I'm going to have to read it now!