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?

Right, I've been trying and failing to get into a book for a couple of days, have abandoned as I've just remembered I picked up Janissary Tree when it was on Kindle monthly deals ages ago and have decided I'm giving up and reading that instead. Hopefully it'll be as wonderful as so many on here are saying!

Well, don't get your hopes up too high - I wouldn't call it "wonderful", really, but it's interesting and authentic (with well-researched details).

Not wonderful - but definitely fun.

meh, has to be better than the dross I've been slogging through. I really have to get more ruthless at abandoning crap books, I really only get half an hour a day to read, it needs to be on somehting that grabs me.

Yeah Dinosaurs it's not a profound life changer, just a good fun read, hope you enjoy. I'm with Remus in that book 2 is now on my wish list but I will only get if the price drops.

I'm meant to be packing right now to head off to the land of dodgy WiFi for a few days, but hopefully I'll get some reading done there.

64. Her Brilliant Career, Rachel Cooke

Series of mini-biographies about women forging career paths in the 1950s. I loved the introduction and first chapter about Patience Gray. I like Rachel Cooke's writing - her enthusiasm and the way she kept alluding to fairly amazing back-stories in passing. Not all of the subsequent chapters were as compelling. It's legitimate to talk about the subject's personal lives, because it's interesting to see how they combined love lives, children, and professional commitments, but the chapter on Jacquetta Hawkes, for example, was almost entirely about her love life and not about her work as an archaeologist. I did end up with a massive list of books I want to read as a result.

Gave up on *Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson" - a book of short essays derived from her blog, describing her struggles with anxiety and depression and her joy in taxidermy. It was all very whacky but to me, unfunny.

29. The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin; I enjoyed this, it really brings to life the time and era. You get access to the sultan, the harem, the eunuch star, as well as foreigners in the city. The characters were great, credible and real. As for the mystery, yeah, well, they'are all a bit the same to me. The reader is led up a garden path and eventually you're told what happened. Typical unlikely at times fantastical plot. It was the descriptions of life and place that I really enjoyed. From this perspective, it is much better than the Shardlake books which (to me) are quite plodding in comparison. Overall, yes, would recommend!

Have finally caved and just bought Seveneses at the extortionate price of £6.99 ; roll on the holidays 21 sleeps not that I'm counting !

64 Stasiland Stories from behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder, listened to as an audiobook
An account of the (Australian) author's time living in the former East Germany in the late 90s, interspersed with conversations with people who resisted / came up against the regime, and with former members of the Stasi.

I have mixed views on this, but overall I'm glad I stuck with it. The stories from the people she interviews are absolutely fascinating. The down side was that I often found the author's commentary irritating.

On the whole it's not a big issue, but I also found at least in her early interviews with ex-Stasi men, she was so busy making her moral disapproval clear, that there was little chance for their stories to come through, kind of the opposite of giving them enough rope to hang themselves.

103. The Other Child by Lucy Atkins

Woman gets pregnant and moves to America to marry a man she barely knows. When she gets there strange things begin to happen. This had a good writing style but it was very obvious early on what the twist was, and there were too many red herrings just left unexplained at the end.

Ooh wilting, Seveneves is such a brilliant journey! I wasn't too keen on the last 1/3 or so but would love to talk to you about it when you are done with it.

Definitely

51. Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither – Sarah Baume
There was some good descriptive writing in this novel about Ray, a loner who adopts an unwanted and unpredictable dog. It’s definitely not plot driven, which I imagine some might find off-putting. In fact it’s a rather sad and drifty, descriptive sort of a book. I liked it, and appreciated that the author has talent, but I didn’t love this book. It just lacked something which I can’t really define.

52. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
As I read Tom Sawyer a few weeks ago I thought I should read this too and I didn’t regret it. I loved travelling down the river with Huck and Jim on the raft as they get into, and out of ,some tricky and downright dangerous situations. The end of the novel, where he meets up with Tom again is a brilliant set piece and very funny, but the slavery issue is more than a little troubling (to put it mildly).

53. The Penelopiad – Margaret Atwood
This is short, so I read it in a day. It’s the tale of The Odyssey told from the point of view of Penelope, the wife of Odysseus and I found it surprisingly good and not at all what I expected. Very readable and interesting to boot which makes for a good combination.

I’ve found it hard to concentrate on reading recently with all the Brexit events so I have turned to YA and am reading The Wolf Wilder, which is very good, and Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane. All the books above, and the two I am currently reading are from the pubic library, either ebooks or physical books. Using the library makes me feel ridiculously happy for some reason

Whippet - I've struggled with reading during Brexit crisis as well, I couldn't tear myself away from the news for the last couple of weeks, finally getting my reading mojo back.

27. I read and enjoyed number9dream by David Mitchell, not my favourite of his but I think he is such a fabulous writer and his inventiveness and amazing use of language carried me through. The story centres around a young Japanese man searching for his long lost father in modern Tokyo. Mitchell adds in his usual crazy characters and flights of fancy. Quite a lot of violence too! Some of the scenes of boys playing football had me crying with laughter...

Wilting and Cote - I am currently reading Seveneves as well, absolutely loving it. I picked it up from the library on a whim and I'm so glad I did, I'm finding it absolutely gripping. I'm into the last third now so it will be interesting if I share your drop in enthusiasm Cote.

I think that the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn probably only exists because of how troubling Mark Twain found the slavery issue wilting It's so clever how he uses Huck's innocence to expose the hypocrisy of the adult world, but the irony is so on the nose at times I remember wincing reading some of Huck's observations, and the constant battle between what he feels to be right versus what he is told is right just highlights how contaminated the society of the time was by the shame of slavery. You can see the progression of Twain's consciousness of this between TS and HF; I'm going to reread both soon, I think.

I agree the news has taken over a bit of late for me. I'm looking forward to the holidays now to get a bit more reading time. I'm 70% through State of Wonder and it has picked up considerably, but hell's teeth (I'm also reading Shardlake) it has slowed me down! The first 48% (!) really dragged but I have a feeling I will be glad I perservered, looking forward to finally washing it out of my hair though. I've spent far too long in the jungle, I read War and Peace quicker

30. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. As others have said, I have been feeling very unsettled and sad over the referendum result, but a book set in WWII has helped put things into perspective somewhat!

Thank you to those of you who recommended this book, which I enjoyed very much. It is beautifully written, the two protagonists (Marie-Laure and Werner) are very engaging, and the 'Sea of Flames' diamond brings in an extra dimension of mystery to overlay the tragedy.

I'm loving all the Seveneves love on this thread atm Looking forward too talking about it, too.

38 State of Wonder Ann Patchett

A doctor working for a large pharmaceutical company is sent into the jungle to find out what happened to her dead colleague. In doing so she has to confront her past, represented by the brilliant but uncompromising mentor who trained her. Difficult to review this, it was almost like two different books. The first half I found so slow-moving (and it was deliberately so, I think, for the plot, but even so) and dull that I nearly ditched it numerous times. It was only montyfox saying upthread that the second half picked up that kept me going! And it does - from the halfway mark it becomes really interesting and absorbing and the book I signed up for. But then I was ultimately disappointed with some aspects of the ending - the medical/scientific research stuff was good and interesting and I felt it got left up in the air when I would have liked more of it, and it faded into quite predictable, cliched territory and I was disappointed it went there. I did ultimately enjoy it and am glad I stuck with it, but rather than quite snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, I was left with a slightly bad taste in my mouth. I would read another of hers but not for a while. Cracking on with Sovereign now.

Fahrenheit 451 £1.99 on Kindle. Get it before they destroy it

First Shardlake also 99p if anyone has yet to succumb

Ok should have done this in one post but got overexcited. For anyone who's interested in the Kindle sale, I've bought:

Hotel du Lac Anita Brookner 1984 Booker winner, new author to me
Pompeii by Robert Harris
Prodigal Summer Barbara Kingsolver - liked Poisonwood, gave up on Flight Behaviour, trying this!
Postcards from the Edge Carrie Fisher
And George Macdonald Fraser's memoir of the conflict in Burma, he wrote the comic Flashman novels, interested in his story and this period still.

Also in there is Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides which I would recommend - excellent and huge
God of Small Things Arundhati Roy - not a favourite for me personally but a good book, well-written, and I have good friends that love it so who am I to stand in your way?
On Beauty Zadie Smith
Red Rising - I already have this tbr - recommended highly on here.
All the Light We Cannot See - I'm looking forward to this after tumble's review above.
Place of Greater Safety Hilary Mantel - on my tbr
Off the top of my head I saw Bennett, Christie, Jonathan Franzen, Phillippa Gregory, Marian Keyes, Bernard Cornwell as well.

omg loads of drop alerts this morning

Have purchased the following:

Clothes Clothes Clothes, Music Music Music Boys Boys Boy by Viv Albertine here

Left Neglected by Lisa Genoa here

A Better World Marcus Sakey here (book 2 of 3)

Written in Fire is also 99p here

and am considering this one about Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Infidel - a memoir of the Somalian Dutch politician.

Whoo hoo

Have purchased Hotel du Lac too, just could not resist! Thanks Satsuki!

Can also heartily recommend Middlesex.

I know wilting there were so many I couldn't contain myself and spammed the board

I was considering Ayaan Hirsi Ali too - been interested in her story and courage in telling it for years, might just go for it.

I bought:

• The Little Grey Men by BB (childhood classic);
• The Brontes by Brian Wilkes (enjoyed the recent bio of Charlotte, so interested in reading more)

Bad Food Britain: How a Nation Ruined its Appetite

• Waiters to the Rich and Famous: Confessions of a 5-star Beverley Hills Server (I did hesitate before posting this here, but we can't read lofty tomes the whole time).

Ah, happy days with the Kindle summer sale!

I have enjoyed purchasing the Hilary Mantel, the book on Alexander Von Humboldt called The Adventures of Nature (I got this for my dad for xmas and he enjoyed it) and Ruby by Cynthia Bond. A lot of the other good ones I have already purchased and are sat on my Kindle as yet unread

But Fahrenheit 451 is one of my top three favourite books of all time!

I really enjoyed all of State of Wonder and didn't mind the slow first half at all Satsuki. It's made me very keen to read the rest of her novels. It's funny how we all like different things. I thought your comments on Huck Finn were very astute by the way.