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?

Best, I'm so glad that you enjoyed Lab Girl! I agree that her writing about her pregnancy, particularly the first two trimesters, was so moving. Jahren recently wrote a blog post about the massive wildfires in western Canada and their impact on plant life; I can link if you'd like.

27. Hope Is The Thing With Feathers, by Max Porter. This slim book focuses on the emotional aftermath of the unexpected death of a wife and mother, the grief of which is anthromorphized in Crow. The POV switches between her husband, sons, and Crow, and its format is poetic, drawing from Dickinson and Hughes. The woman who sold me the book told me that is was quite beautiful and very, very sad. It is.

whippetwoman- I've been enjoying my non-fiction reads this year and had some birthday Amazon vouchers left over which I put towards the £10 I paid for Far from the Tree. The most I have ever paid for a Kindle book. But I've been watching it for ages and the price has never come down and even the second hand copies are more expensive than the Kindle version. I also find reading big books easier on the Kindle as I'm not so aware of their size!

Yes, please link Vanderley
Sounds interesting.

41 History of the Workd in 101/2 Chapters - Julian Barnes

Collection of short stories all loosely linked to Noah's ark, all very different.
The story of the Ark told from the viewpoint of an insect, a Victorian lady who climbs mount Ararat, a former astronaut, a cruise ship hijacking etc. Some better than others.

I particularly liked the story about the wreck of the Medusa and the fight for survival on the raft.
The half chapter is a discourse on love, sorry to say it was boring.

Also agree that POA is the best HP. Think I am due a reread.

I loved Grief is the thing with Feathers, Vanderley, so beautiful (both the writing and the physical book).

26. Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor
First of the "St Marys" books. Was recommended this series by a RL friend, as this week my Dad had an op felt I needed something none-taxing. Basically, St Marys is a historical research institute with a difference, as in, they've invented time travel and they go back to observe what really was going on, while being super careful not to get involved or change anything. There's also some bad guys who come from some point in the future who are also jumped back and forth in the time lines, but they are trying to nick stuff and keep trying to kill the St Marys lot.

It's all a bit silly with a very stupid sex scene, and completely zero attempt to do science (which is fine as I don't think the author could do it well anyway), there's a very jolly feel to it, and too much "we're all crazy here!!!" attitude, but ok if you are after fluffy escapism. I think I'd have abandoned it if I was in a different mood, not sure if I'll read any of the others, but then towards the end of the book it got better and I realised the bulk of this book was just setting the scene/backstory/history for the rest of the series, which are the books she wants to write. If the others are like the last 1/3 of this book, then they are probably a good (albeit fluffy & silly) read.

My DS is also reading HP #4 at the moment!

93. The Missing by CL Taylor

Another psychological thriller, from the point of view of a mother whose 15 year old son has vanished and she's trying to find out what's happened to him. It was ok but I found it a bit hard to get into and I didn't really like or care about any of the characters. Not as good as his/her previous books which I enjoyed.

29. Journey Without Maps - Graham Greene

Account of his journey on foot from Sierra Leone to Liberia in 1935, accompanied by his cousin (with whom he was possibly having an affair) and an assortment of local guides and carriers.

Greene is a sublime writer and even though he admits to being thoroughly fed up by the end of the journey - he had no previous experience of travelling in Africa and it turned out a lot less glamorous than he thought - it's an entertaining and fascinating account of a country at a crossroads between the traditional way of life and 'civilization'.

Sorry, Sadik.

Book 70
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
A re-read, but it must be a dozen years since I read it and I’d forgotten everything about it bar the opening. This was another book of two halves. I really loved the first half – a really interesting, beautifully written portrayal of an eccentric family and their developing relations with a pair of American brothers. Unfortunately I started to dislike the narrator in the second half (once she falls in love) and from that point on, I thought it got sillier and sillier and increasingly dull. By the end, I was really disappointed.

Just bought an ENORMOUS book about Stalin, so I may be some time before my next review!

24 The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah

A new Hercule Poirot novel, well new to me or rather not as it has been on my audible app for 2 years now and only just finished listening which says a lot. Very fussy, too complicated and not a patch on Agatha.

Good luck Remus!

My DS ias just finished Chambers of Secrets - he's only 6 so not encouraging reading any further in the series yet - bit too scary, although he does seem to have a love for all things Horrible Histories right now so hopefully that'll distract him for a while (he has more of a reading bug than me at the mo!)

I'm trying to decide what to read next, I've got a Kindle full of your various recommendations and really can't justify buying any more for a while!

Hope Jahren's brief thoughts on the Fort McMurray fires are here, in the most recent entry: www.flyingbooks.ca/blog/

Sadik, I agree about Grief, though I do think the UK edition has a better cover than the North American one. I've already passed it on to a friend so he can marvel at its beauty, too.

The next few days are going to be disgustingly hot here, so I'm planning to spend lots of time in cool places reading H Is For Hawk and perhaps Foxglove Summer, which this thread has reminded I own. Thanks!

34. White Nights by Ann Cleves Second in the Shetland series. A very readable and enjoyable character driven traditional murder mystery. I have visited Shetland several times and I think she captures the feel of the place well. Going back to the discussion about reading books at the right season, this is set during the simmer dim, and it felt right to be reading it during these light Scottish nights. However, I read the first in the series, set in a dark Shetland winter, on a sun lounger on a Costa a couple of years ago, and quite enjoyed the contrast!

My DS is never going to read 50 books. He's not a finisher completer, more of a dipper. Horrible Histories and other books of factoids are perfect for him. He's currently browsing an illustrated Mandarin dictionary! He chose it in Waterstones today. Strange boy.

Ooh thanks Museum you have reminded me I have the first Shetland book on my shelf....or maybe I need to leave it for a winter read!

MuseumOfHam - I enjoyed the Shetland series, and that the first two books she manages to use the environment /climate so much in the stories (think the 3rd doesn't have the same feel).

tessiegirl - the weather's going to be miserable enough this week to read something wintery...

58 The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester

This is the story of William Smith, the orphaned son of a village blacksmith in rural Oxfordshire, who developed a fascination for rocks and fossils, became a surveyor, and came to realise that the placement of fossils in the strata of the earth meant it was possible to predict what types of rock may be below. He started out when he was working at a coal mine in Somerset and eventually created the first geological map of England and Wales, which still hangs behind a huge pair of blue curtains at Burlington House in London. It was Smith whose ideas and field study advanced the development of geology as a discipline in the early 19th century. In his lifetime he was both overlooked, due to his social status, and in his later days honoured, and the creation of the map is an astonishing achievement for one man. There's a picture of Smith's map on the inside front cover of the edition I have, and a 2001 map produced by the British Geological Survey at the back for comparison. It demonstrates not only the accuracy of Smith's own work but also what a thing of beauty Smith's map was in comparison with the modern version.

27 The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman - lots of pp have already reviewed this book, just to say I'm in the "enjoyed it" camp.

Dinosaurs we aren't in the UK so where are its hot hot hot!!

Chillie The William Smith book sounds fascinating. I saw an exhibition of his maps earlier this year in The National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. Some of them were quite beautiful. Adding to my TBR list.

I haven't posted my reading list for a while. Here is an update:-

47. Shop Girl by Mary Portas. The first of her autobiography taking us from her childhood through to the early years of her working at Harrods. She writes really well and I enjoyed reading it. Looking forward to the next volume.

48. The James Version by Ruth Dugdall. A novel examining the events 20 or so years later following the murder of Maria Marten the Red Barn, as recounted by her stepmother to the Rector.

49. Six Tudor Queens: Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen. A novel by Alison Weir, the subject of which is self explanatory. Very long and very detailed. I enjoyed it but it has taken me a month to read it.

50. The Universe versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence. Reviewed on here before. Loved it.

Apologies for lack of highlights, kindle thought that request was the thin end of the wedge