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?

23. Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut

The novel is written as the autobiography of former artist Rabo Karabekian who is looking back over his life while the current quite life he leads is being shaken up by a guest. It's about war, art and life and skips between the past and present.

The writing is typical Vonnegut; clever, funny, surprising and moving and the characters are all brilliantly alive and real. I really enjoyed this novel and found it thought-provoking and difficult to put down.

cote you mean you make all your life choices without reference to the stars?

29. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

Very late to this one, picked it up in the sale (think 99p). I didn't get it first time round as I broadly agreed with the thrust of his arguments I didn't feel the need to go deeper - preaching to the converted if you like. However, it was definitely a worthwhile read - he is particularly good on the misrepresentation of science and scientific practice in the media. The sections on HIV and MMR were excellent, and furthered my understanding of issues I thought I already knew a lot about. It's just a shame he doesn't allow for the existence of the people who must actually be his target market - rational, logically-minded humanities graduates. I took it on the chin though

30. Dear Enemy by Jean Webster

I have to say this was a bit of a disappointment after Daddy Long-Legs. It was just as well written, with wonderfully drawn characters and in some ways a much more interesting story, with the main character implementing changes in the orphanage of which she has been appointed supintendent, with the help of a grumpy doctor she just doesn't get on with (you can see where this is going...), but while the relationship development is delightful, there were things in it which spoiled it for me. Reading reviews before a few mentioned that it included discussion of Eugenics and that some of the language and opinions had to be ignored as of its time,so I went into it prepared to do that's. There is a certain amount of black humour and irony, and the lead character is portrayed as being earnest in her work but frivolous in her opinions. But even so, after several instances of children with disabilities being described as 'defectives' and ''abnormal' I just couldn't give two hoots about the romance, and at the end their being together seemed at the expense of too much unhappiness all round.

*superintendent
*that

35. Daughters of the North, by Sarah Hall. Published in the UK as The Carhullan Army, but I borrowed a copy from a work colleague that she'd got in the US. Set in Cumbria in a not-terribly-distant future of ecological crisis and flash flooding. The UK population has been centrally registered and rounded up into urban centres, and women are forcibly fitted with contraceptive coils. One woman, known only as Sister, decides to escape her town and journey into the fells in search of a legendary women's collective that lives outside the law at a farm called Carhullan. She finds them, but tensions are growing within the group: its leader wants to militarize in order to lead a revolt against the central government. It's one of the few books I've ever read that engages with the idea of gender equality on a deep and serious level: what women can do when their socialization to please has been stripped away. It's hugely thought-provoking and written with a kind of dense precision (attention to detail, but only the important detail) that fits the story's subject matter extremely well. I utterly loved it. The cover describes it as "like a Handmaid's Tale for the 21st century", which is a good way of selling it.

36. A Month With Starfish, by Bev Jackson. A Twitter friend of mine asked if I'd read this; it's her friend's book about a month she spent volunteering on Lesvos. It strikes a balance between journalism and memoir that I thought very effective; it also brings the refugee crisis into sharp relief. I find it very easy to switch off when I see televised images of disaster, but much harder to do so when I'm reading personal accounts. Jackson's book is clear-eyed about the difficulties that aid organizations are facing in Lesvos, but also incredibly hopeful and compassionate about the situation, and the volunteers and refugees that she meets. It's also surprisingly funny.

1. Ms Smilla's feeling for snow

Scandinavian detective story

1. A Shepherds life : James Rebanks

nicely written account of a shepherd's life in the Lake District

1. My family and other animals: Gerald Durrell
2. Prince Caspian: CS Lewis
3. The SIlver chair: CS Lewis
4. The White tiger : Amitav Ghosh
5. Morse
6. On Chesil beach; Ian McEwan
7. Saturday; Ian Mc Ewan

10. The ChIldren Act: Ian Mc Ewan 11. Piet Oudolph: Planting a new perspective 12 Piet Oudolph: Dream plants for the natural garden 13: Piet Oudolph:Landscapes in landscapes 14. Beth Chatto 'the gravel garden'

I am just about to read 'A little Life' Hanya Yanagihara I expect everybody else has read it

funny - I haven't read A Little Life yet. I bought myself a copy last week. I want to finish the Shardlake series first before tackling g this one. It seems as if I'm reading one lengthy book after another atm :)

"cote you mean you make all your life choices without reference to the stars? "

Not only that but, well, let us say that there was a time in my teens & early 20s when (young and harsh) I would ask people I meet their thoughts on astrology and strike them out in my mind as dumb if they voiced any interest/belief in it

By the way re Bad Science: I just too this photo at a second-hand bookseller on the street in Turkey to show a British friend who is a fan of this book. In the middle, you can see Bad Science translated as "Lies About Healthy Living". I'm very happy to see that it has become so mainstream as to have made it to a street vendor in Turkey

I suppose I approached it from a literary symbolism perspective rather than a Mystic Meg perspective; put it this way, I'd be very surprised if Eleanor Catton actually believed in astrology in that sense

And @ "Lies About Healthy Living"

Satsuki Ben Goldacre has recently made another chapter of Bad Science available that wasn't included in the original book as he was being sued for libel. Link here: badscience.net/files/The-Doctor-Will-Sue-You-Now.pdf Sorry for some reason I can never convert links to text on MN

My Berlin book has picked up a lot since reaching the 20th century, but it's so long. Am still only on 30% and I have to keep putting it down because there's only so much Nazi brutality I can take in one sitting.

29. Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton. DS's first Famous Five story. I enjoyed it too. They haven't dated too badly. Still really good adventure stories.

30. Heartstone by C J Sansom. Book 5 in the Shardlake series, which just keeps getting better. This one centres around a mystery at the time of the sinking of the Mary Rose.

Next up, Lamentation, the last one.

How old is Ds Quog? I'm trying to get Dd1 age 6 to read her first chapter book solo but she's not showing much enthusiasm. She thinks she can't do it bit I'm pretty sure she can. I was thinking something like the Famous Five would be good as the adventure would draw her in. I loved the Famous Five at her age. The other one I loved was The Valley of Adventure.

Thanks grifone I just checked and that chaper is included in the edition I downloaded so they must have updated it.

Stokey I think the Secret Seven are a little easier going than the Famous Five - they seem easier for my ds (5) to follow when I read aloud. I would recommend My Naughty Little Sister series, and some of the Dick King Smith animal ones as they seem a bit simpler plot wise, and shorter to build her confidence, my nice got on well with those as first chapter books.

I saw The Luminaries in a second-hand shop here for 50p - did I blunder not buying it? If it's still there tomorrow should I get it? My House is FULL.of books, mostly crime, as I'm a blogger, and I really shouldn't be buying any more!

24. Chocolat by Joanne Harris

I really enjoyed this story of a woman and her young daughter arriving in a French village and causing a stir opening a chocolate shop/ café. The writing is lovely and the village and its people are really vividly brought to life. I loved the touches of magic that lifted the book and its protagonist, Vianne, out of the ordinary. It got darker in places than I expected, with topics such as domestic violence and prejudice towards gypsies touched upon.

Tenar have you seen the film? I love it!

crimeworm The Luminaries for 50p sounds like a bargain!

Stokey I'd suggest The Magic Faraway Tree for a 6 year old, or the simpler Roald Dahl books. My DC are 6, 8 and 10 btw.

Stokey if reading a whole novel is just too daunting how about the type of books, such as Horrid Henry and Dirty Bertie, where there are 3 or 4 self contained stories with very short chapters in each book. DS read these at 6, and has just recently, at nearly 9, graduated onto independently reading Harry Potter and David Walliams.

20. The Dark Monk by Oliver Pötzsch the second in the Hangman's Daughter series. Pacy murder mystery set in 1660s small town Bavaria. Featuring a murdered priest, ecclesiastical riddles, Templar treasure, highway robbers, medicines and poisons, this moves along at a great pace. It's not high literature, but it's well researched and highly entertaining, with an interesting afterword from the author. This series is plugging a gap for me in the exciting historical adventure mystery genre until the next CJ Sansom comes out. I already got book 5 when it was 99p - now watching books 3 and 4, but they might actually be worth the £3.98 they're currently priced at - and that's high praise from me (skinflint).

Also DS1 loved Captain Underpants around that age. The cartoon-y style makes them very accessible.

crimeworm Yes, get it! 50 p - would be a crime not to! (I'm a blogger too...wonder if we know each other?)

YY to Horrid Henry for a six-year old - dd especially liked the stories with Moody Margaret. She loved the Rainbow Magic books by Daisy Meadows too, which aren't much cop as literature but built up her confidence as a reader. By the time she was seven or so, she was loving the Agatha Parrot series by Kartjan Poskitt and the Mr Gum series (both hilarious and highly recommended) and now at 8 she is working her way through Jacqueline Wilson.

I was an Enid Blyton fanatic, but dd hasn't got into them, except for the Faraway Tree books they read at school. It may be because I keep pressing ancient tatty charity shop versions on her.

Stokey - I'm reading chapter books to DS, who is nearly 7. He's dyslexic so is a very long way off reading chapter books for himself. He will get there eventually, but in the meantime we're enjoying the stories together. His brain is ready for the stories but his reading skills are still with Biff, Chip and Kipper, which he's a little frustrated with :)

Horrid Henry is brilliant for early readers. They got DD interested and also Rainbow Magic. We have also enjoyed Amelia Jane (which DS likes too), and The Magic Faraway Tree.

Stokey like Quog I was going to recommend the Folk of The Faraway Tree too - all three of mine have loved those books. Another hit with all three at that age was the Jill Tomlinson books about animals (The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark, The Penguin who wanted to Find Out etc) which have only rudimentary plots to follow and well spaced text! Littlest DD (who will be seven in the summer) also loves the books that have lots of pictures to text but which still count as chapter books. So, things like Ottoline (Chris Riddell) or Violet and the Pearl of the Orient (Harriet Whitehorn) or Oliver and the Seawigs (someone Reeves). They've got pictures without which the books wouldn't just be the same but also have quite chunky bits of text - perhaps a way for your little one to get more confidence? My eldest DD loved the awful Rainbow Fairies at that stage of reading too, but the littlest found them all a bit meh (thankfully!)

And on the subject of more adult books:

#14. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown which details the life of one of the American rowers who took a gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (The book is badly named as the Boys in the Boat as it really only goes into depth about one of the crew of rowers, which the pedant in me found disproportionately annoying). For me this was a book of two halfs. The bits dealing with the actual rowing and the grueling training left me cold. However, the parts dealing with the rower's life and the historical background to the Berlin Olympics were fantastic. It really gave a flavour of life during the depression and the amazing propaganda machine that Goebels oversaw for the Nazi dictatorship. I'd recommend this if you're either a rowing buff or are willing to skim read the chunks dealing with the number of strokes per minute required of the team in freezing conditions . . .

#15. I Saw a Man by Owen Mears The story of two neighbours in a leafy London suburb who live through cataclysmic events. I found it impossible to understand why one of the characters acted in the way he did and this meant that the whole novel was flawed for me.

#16. Gone to Ground by Marie Jalowicz Simon As recommended upthread, an account of a German Jew's life without legal papers in the Second World War. I found this absolutely gripping, not least because I was surprised to not particularly like the author and I usually want to like an underdog. But then again, before I hoik up my judgey pants, I think (as the author herself acknowledges) it would be quite hard not to be scarred by what she endured - all in all, the author's apparent snobbishness and lack of generosity of spirit to those who tried to help her are nothing to the wrongs that were done to her, her family and friends, and who knows what she would have been like had she been left to live a life in peace?

Glad you enjoyed Gone to Ground, Dragon. And glad I'm not the only one who found the 'writer' pretty annoying at times. The book about Berlin that I'm reading at the moment says little more than a thousand 'U boats' survived in the city to the end of the war.

You'd probably like this book too. It's called Faust's Metropolis - if you read it I'd recommend (having struggled at the start!) skipping the intro and the first 15% or so. It really picks up once it gets to about 1900 or so. I'm 40% in now, and finding it fascinating and horrifying in equal measure.