50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Five

[southeastdweller]

Thread five 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.

The first thread of 2016 is here, second thread here, third thread here and fourth thread here.

How're you getting on so far?

59. Eligible, by Curtis Sittenfeld

Couldn't sleep last night so was awake from about 3am reading this. It's the latest in the series of modern rewrites of Jane Austen. I've tried 2 in the series previously and gave up a couple of chapters in. This one I did finish. I enjoyed the family bickering. It's all a bit unnecessary to rewrite Austen, and obviously if you know the source, there aren't going to be many surprises. But within those limitations, it's enjoyable enough.

25. Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz - I picked this up in the library and I rather liked it. It is Horowitz's second Sherlock Holmes book, I haven't read the first one. It reads like YA to me, and although it's not a patch on Conan Doyle it kept me interested and I rather enjoyed it. Light, fun and forgettable.

Having inadvertently read 3 of the Carnegie Medal shortlist I have just put 3 of the others on hold with the library- they didn't have The Lie Tree or Ghosts of Heaven, so does anyone know if either of those are worth real money?! And also, amused to note that 3 of the (8?) books had the word lie or lies in the title- synchronicity, or are readers of ya untrusting of the world and likely to be drawn in by the word?

91. Behind Closed Doors by B A Paris

Psychological thriller about a woman who appears to have the perfect life and husband. I really enjoyed reading this but there were too many unexplained things at the end.

I don't think The Lie Tree is a patch on some of FH's other books, Tanaqui. Fine as a read-from-the-library, but I wouldn't say it was worth buying new.

Which are the three you've read? I've read The Lie Tree, Lies We Tell Ourselves (which I thought was excellent), and The Rest of Us Just Live Here (great basic idea, but I didn't think the book really lived up to it).

I was disappointed with The Lie Tree, although haven't read anything else of hers to compare it to.

Book 69
Mary by Vladimir Nabokov
A Nabokov I’d never read before, this was his first novel (it’s more like a novella, as it’s very short). It’s set in Berlin and focuses on a man remembering his first love and coincidentally facing meeting her again after many years. Beautifully written, of course, but ultimately I didn’t love this. It didn’t really go anywhere and felt rather like a very small portion of sorbet – it was pretty enough but I’d have probably preferred a chip butty.

Book 29: Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman. I enjoyed this, way more than I enjoyed Good Omens and have added American Gods (thanks Remus ) to the TBR list. I'm pretty sure this one's been reviewed not long ago, so I'll stop there.

Books 30 & 31: two short stories from the St Marys series: When a Child is Born & The Very First Damn Thing, as well as A Trail through Time. More light-hearted tat from Jodi Taylor.

Book 32: Headhunters Jo Nesbo. My first scandi novel which I found a bit disappointing. Top notch recruitment guy ends up competing with actual hunter of men (ex-special services kinda guy). Interesting ideas, but I thought both were cocks which was never going to go well

Book 33: Strange Weather in Tokyo Hiromi Kawakami. A lovely read about two lonely and introverted people and the relationship which they build up to over the years. It's a sad story though as he is 30 years her elder, so she is left alone once more after his death. Beautiful, sparse writing.

Cote I've only just seen your question on the last thread over my "time running out" comment. Nothing worrying, at least, not that I know about! I think I'm feeling rather grumpy about things in general, and people who waste my time and take advantage of my good nature in particular. I'm wanting to tell people to fuck off rather more than usual and wonder if it's to do with my approaching 60th birthday. Who knows? I'm handing over a fair bit of my salary to my favourite therapist atm, so hopefully we'll get there

I'm off to book club tonight where I've managed to read a little over half of the World according to Monsanto. If you want to be lectured over what evil chaps Monsanto are, how they've influenced varying regulatory bodies etc, do give it a read. Me, I'm wondering why anyone could still be clueless on the subject and have hated it wasting my valuable reading time. I can't even count it as I'm soooooo not going to finish it I'm extra pissed off as the person who pushed for the book did so whilst realising he was unlikely to have time to read the book (due to the on-going saga about his marriage breakdown which we have listened to interminably) but wasn't worried as he'd studied Monsanto for his degree all those years ago!

One hugely bright spot is the upcoming wedding of my daughter at the weekend to her long-term boyfriend. They've been hugely independent, organised it all themselves, are wonderfully relaxed about everything and I'm very much looking forward to the whole weekend of celebrations as I think I've finally managed to organise my entirely hopeless family!

Oh dear, have just read back my Monsanto/book club rant, I'm really living up to my name there ...

Thanks for the opportunity to rant

"Me, I'm wondering why anyone could still be clueless on the subject . . . " I felt exactly the same about The Establishment by Owen Jones - surely none of this is news to anyone who is remotely likely to read the book. (I did skim to the end hoping to find out what all the fuss was about, but wished I hadn't bothered.)

Congratulations on the wedding, btw, enjoy :)

42. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Last part of the Hunger Games Trilogy. It's readable with some good moments, but I'm not keen on the direction the plot takes.

43. The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey

1920s crime novel about an investigation into the death of a man in the queue for the theatre. Offensively of its time in places (like the inspector's hunch that a "Dago" must be the culprit). It's an OK read but not really my thing.

44. Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge

Gorgeous children's book about four children who run away from their grandmother and end up living with their formerly estranged uncle. It's full of magic, nature and love, and the bees are brilliant. I wish I could crawl into this story and live in it.

45. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

A chance meeting on a train has murderous consequences. It's a very tense novel and you really get inside the protagonists' minds.

46. A Taste of Magic by Tracy Madison

I was disappointed by this novel about a woman who discovers she has magic powers that manifest in her baking. I knew it would be a fluffy read, but I love food-related magic in books and this just didn't make the most of it.

30. Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon. Excellent, thought-provoking, well researched book about children born into various marginal groups including deaf, autistic, schizophrenic children, children who commit crimes and children born of rape. The author interviewed families of many children who turn out to be different from themselves, how do the families cope with children with disabilities as well as the history of the treatment of the various groups and how it is today in the USA. I found it hard-going in a psyche/emotional way and therefore read books 31 and 32 as light relief at the same time. Provoked many discussions with my DH on the nature of disability, of mental illness, eugenics, what it is to be a parent, what we expect of our children. Highly recommended.

31.Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham.
Oooh, love some Veronica Mars, a young private eye investigating cases. This read like a TV script and therefore if you liked the TV series, you'll (probably) like this.

32. Fool Moon (The Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher. This has been reviewed on this thread already. Wizards and police investigate werewolves goings-on. It was fine, exactly what I expected. Not as humorous as the Rivers of London series but I'll still read the third.

I have also been underwhelmed by Neil Gaiman having read American Gods, NeverWhere and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Don't think I'll read anymore of his, I didn't hate them, they were just 'meh'.

😘 to Joyless, I personally enjoyed your rant!

Dinosaurs It's lovely to find someone else who's enjoying the Peter Grant series Foxglove Summer is on my list and I'm really looking forward to it, especially the Lesley stuff Although I think I'll need to re-read the end of book 4 to remind myself what happened. I found that I liked the first 3 books much more than Broken Homes, so I hope Foxglove Summer is a return to the good stuff.

Neil Gaiman is an odd one for me too. I really struggled to read American Gods, didn't like Neverwhere at all, loved Anansi Boys, The Ocean at the end of the Lane, and The Graveyard Book. Really loved Fortunately the Milk, as did the kids.

Speaking (vaguely!) of Chris Riddell , his Ottoline series is great. I want a Mr Munroe.

satsuki I have those to read to them, we are currently reading The Worlds Worst Children by David Walliams which we are all loving

Love a good rant, Joyless!

ShakeItOff I also found Far From the Tree excellent and very interesting.

49. The Summer Book, Tove Jansson
    Reviewed earlier in the thread. I read this as a child so was curious to see how it held up. I totally missed the bit about Sofia's mother having died on the first page, so that rather changed how I read it.

50. Memory, Linda Nagata
    Oddly, though I enjoyed this at the time I now remember little about it. It felt like fairly standard fantasy novel.

Tenar - if you like food related magic, you might enjoy Robin McKinley's Sunshine. The protagonist is a baker by trade, and although she doesn't really do much specifically food related magic during the book, baking and the bakery figure prominently.

I admire a good rant also Joyless. Rant away. The wedding sounds brilliant though. How nice.

I think Coraline is a lovely book but I have also been distinctly underwhelmed by the Neil Gaiman I have read. I so want to like him!

I also want to read Far From the Tree since a good friend recommended it but it's so huge and heavy. I have been tracking it on Kindle but it remains at a consistently high price.

I've noticed that I don't get as many price-drop notifications these days. The price of ebooks has increased a lot and remains fairly high. It's harder to get the bargains, but I do enjoy hunting them out.

Daphane - I felt that Broken Homes read like a book he wrote to move the overarching story forward, rather than a story in its own right with the overarching story going on in the background (if that makes sense). Foxglove Summer is more of a story itself with the other stuff going on in the background. If the weather heats up, read it!

Reposting my message I accidentally posted on Part Four....

15. The Actual One by Isy Sutie. A Mumsnet Book of the Month giveaway. An amusing read, more like an extended standup session rather than a meaty read but enjoyable. Thinking of the large papier-mache penguin she made for a boyfriend which she transported on a bus made me smile and remember daft things I've done in the past when I was younger and had the time!

16. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. As I'd been a little underwhelmed by Tipping the Velvet on the advice of fellow readers on this thread I decided to give Sarah Waters another go. I definitely enjoyed this more. I thought the relationships between the characters was less obvious and much better written and having different storylines running throughout the novel made it more compelling. The setting during WW2 in bomb-attacked London described the uncertainty of ordinary people's lives unable to make long term plans and having to cope every day with the threat of further bombs.

17. The Marriage Game by Alison Weir. After enjoying The Lost Princess I decided to read one of Alison Weir's novels. The Marriage Game tells the story of Elizabeth I's reign paying particular emphasis on her relationship with Robert Dudley and the protracted marriage contracts which her councillors tried to negotiate in order to form important alliances to protect England. Weir suggests various plausible reasons for why Elizabeth was reluctant to fully commit to marriage with either Dudley or one of the suitors but instead continued to imply that she was ready to marry and managed to play this 'game' throughout her reign. Earlier in this challenge I'd read Philippa Gregory's 'The Virgin's Lover' describing these events from the point of view of Dudley's wife Amy so it was particularly interesting to read the events from a different standpoint. Weir effectively describes both the frustration of Dudley and Eluzabeth"s chief advisers, who tirelessly worked to set up these negotiations.

Foxglove Summer was my favourite of the Peter Grant books to date.

I also liked Far from the Tree a lot - got it out of the library here, would that be an option for you, whippetwoman?

Sadiq, I quite agree with you on "The Rest of us just live here"- a good idea but didn't quite come off. I also read 5 children on the western front, and One- both okay but none felt really "fresh" iykwim.

I am still on hold with the library for the others so I might have to finish an awful beach read I started but don't want to finish!

41. Lab Girl - Hope Jahren. Part memoir, part scientific text book made accessible. This is the life story of a female scientist, her lifelong collaboration with a colleague, her struggle against mental illness and the fight to be accepted in a field dominated by men interspersed with chapters on the science of trees.

I loved the science chapters, I was a bit less keen on Hope's own story but it is well told and some of the writing about her mental health during pregnancy is very moving.

Vanderly, It's funny you mention H is for Hawk because it reminded me of it in the way the story of the authors mental breakdown is set alongside the more factual taming of the hawk.

Joyless Sometimes a heartfelt "Fuck off!" is exactly what people need to hear. Congratulations for your DD's upcoming wedding.

92. Between You And Me by Lisa Hall

Another psychological thriller covering domestic violence. Chapters alternate between the point of view of wife and husband. Good, although I did guess the twist!