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?

Tbh mermaid I was so that it was even suggested that I don't think I was able to listen to it. I think the lecturer was trying to ensure that people would attend his lectures by trying to schock impressionable Young female students.

65 Prudence (The Custard Protocol no. 1) by Gail Carriger
More comedy steampunk, sequel to the Parasol Protectorate series. As the title suggests, not a serious or challenging read, but entertaining, good characters & lots of great steam powered gadgetry.

35. The Amber Fury by Natalie Hynes.
    Grief stricken director takes on job as a drama therapy teacher at school for troubled children, teaches them Greek tragedies and implausible scenes follow. Not convinced by the ending, overall it was okay. For gritty troubled youth I thought The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan was much better, the story drew me in more and I really felt for the lead character.

36. Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn.
    Autobiography of Tracey Thorn, part of Everything but the Girl. I was fairly bored by the first two-thirds and then it picked up towards the end and I liked the last few chapters. Still not sure biographies are my bag. The only one I've loved so far has been Viv Albertine's, which I thought was great.

Trying not to buy any more books atm and finish the piles I have on my Kindle and bookshelf!

Poor Jane. She'd be turning in her grave, wouldn't she, at the suggestion. She came from a more innocent time when sisters thought nothing of sharing a bed. Even men did, I believe. Didn't mean everyone was having sex. Think of Morecambe and Wise back in the 70s sharing a bed, in innocence. No one suggested, or even thought, that they might have been up to something inappropriate for family viewing. I, too, am at the thought that people want to try and dig dirt and make something from nothing for their own gain.

Wow, Cote. I enjoyed your review but that's one book I can guarantee I'll never, ever read!

ShakeItOff, I loved Viv Albertine's autobiography and would recommend Frank Skinner and Michael J Fox's autobiographies, also Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Dead Babies and Seaside Towns by Alice Jolly.

62. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Picked up in a charity shop because although I haven't actually watched the TV series (I have seen plenty of clips on YouTube though) I thought I would give it a try. The first book centres on the violence and intrigue of the court of King Robert Baratheon, who has visited the North to summon his old friend Lord Eddard Stark to be Hand of the King after the death of the old Hand. Stark is an honourable man and the world of King's Landing does not suit him, but out of love and loyalty to his friend he does as asked. His suspicions lead him to look into the circumstances of the previous Hand's death, but his attempts to protect his friend and king lead eventually to war.

I'm really quite impressed with the scale of this series. The story is divided into chapters, each of which is told from the viewpoint of one of the characters so the reader sees a vast world in which different peoples live and die. Life is cheap, death is frequently violent, and aside from a small few everyone seems intent on stabbing each other in the back. I think, based on what I have read elsewhere about the books, that I was expecting the writing to be a bit lacking, but actually I think it's pretty well done. It's a brick of a book though, as are the others in the series. I will probably work my way through them eventually.

104. The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

The sequel to The Rosie Project which I read and reviewed upthread. This wasn't quite as good as the original but I still enjoyed it!

I'm so far behind on this thread! I've been exam marking for the last few weeks and haven't been online much. Ulysses has also taken a bit of a backseat in favour of easy reading after all the marking.

37. Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout - I got this after enjoying Olive Kitteridge. It is ostensibly the story of a teenage girl's affair with her Maths teacher but is actually more about mother-daughter relationships. I like the gentle beauty of much of Strout's writing and the way she presented the relationship from both sides. This was published in the late 90s, when I was a teenager, and I wonder what I'd have thought of it if I'd read it then.

38. My Grandmother Sends Her Regards And Apologises by Fredrik Backman Read this for book group this month - the story of a 7 year old girl and her attempt to complete a letter-delivering-treasure-hunt after the death of her grandmother. The narrative is interwoven with the fairy tales her grandmother used to tell her, which overlap with her real life. Lots of people seem to either love or hate this author, based on reviews of this and A Man Called Ove. I'm not sure what I thought of it - I definitely didn't hate it, it was quietly enjoyable and poignant, but I didn't love it either.

39. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - Not going to bother to review this as I'm sure everyone's read it! I'm trying to re-read/read the whole series before going to see The Cursed Child next year.

Now that exam marking's done, I'm back onto Ulysses. I am enjoying it and finding the density of the allusions and the way they link to each other quite incredible. I'm reading the Harry Blamires guide alongside it, which is really helpful. I don't think I'd appreciate everything that Joyce is doing without it. I'd like to finish it in the next couple of weeks ideally (mainly because I don't think I can take it on holiday!) but not sure if that will happen.

Nothing to Envy is in Kindle daily deals today. Fascinating book about North Korea, highly recommended to anyone with the slightest interest in this region.

29. The Janissary Tree - Jason Goodwin - reviewed extensively here, thank you for the recommendation! Agree not great the sort of book where I'll be telling friends they must read it, but I enjoyed it, and loved the long descriptions of food and cooking in it!

I have just downloaded loads of samples from the kindle sale, luckily lots of time for decisions of what to add to my growing tbr pile

49. Dark Days – Derek Landy. This is book 4 in the Skullduggery Pleasant series. In this book Valkyrie (Stephanie) and co set out to find the Skullduggery’s original skull so they can get him back from the other side. There is the usual bad guy action – this time led by Dreylan Scarab who has just been released from prison. This book has a twist or two and there is a little romance blooming between Valkyrie and one of the other guys (won’t say who in case it is a spoiler for anyone else reading the series). As I said in my previous post I really love these books. We are looking forward to the next one in the series but may wait until the school run starts again. These are read by Rupert Degas and he is an amazing voice actor – really brings the characters to life.

50. Trigger Warning: Short Stories and Disturbances – Neil Gaiman. This is a book of short stories all written by Neil himself and had a mix of fantasy, horror, science fiction etc. Some I was already familiar with such as The Sleeper and the Spindle and The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains but there were a few new ones for me including a short story which featured Shadow from American Gods. There was also a Doctor Who story which I had seen but hadn’t realised had been written by Gaiman. I quite enjoy the short story format but haven’t read many recently for some reason. I enjoyed this a lot.

I aml about 60% through The Stand on kindle and over half way through Neurotribes in paperback so they should see me through most of July. I have also Americanah on audiobook. My kids are doing reading challenges this summer as well with our local library so I will probably read a few of those as well as they do like for us to discuss books together.

The Dark Forest (Three-Body Problem #2) is £1.19 just for today!

I really enjoyed this book & found it even better than the first one.

Remus, is that book Germania by Simon Winder? I gave up on it too. It's frustrating, because every now and then you come across a paragraph which is delightful, but then he just bores on and on.

66. Sisters by a River, by Barbara Comyns.

Originally published in the 1940s, this is a semi-autobiographical novel about an early twentieth century childhood. It was really striking - the tone is light and childlike, even comic, but the events are dark - beatings from her father, bullying by a sister, neglect from her mother. She and her many sisters grew up in a huge house and in some ways led lives of privilege, but their lives were not enviable. The mingling of the light and darkness leaves a strong impression. It manages to be an easy read that still packs a punch. I'm going to read more by this author.

67. One Damn Thing After Another, Jodi Taylor

Reviewed several times on here. Great concept - time-travelling historians; somewhat clumsy execution. Enjoyable enough if you're in the mood.

Do you know much about Indian music Cote? I think they have a different harmonic scale to the "natural" one used in western music IIRC. Your post on Rameau made me think of that.

I've bought a few things in the Kindle sale: The newest Robin Hobb book Fool's Quest which has finally come down to the not particularly cheap £4.99, may reread the previous ones too on hols. I've also bought A Song For Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay, sort of historic fantasy. I loved Tigana. And the third in the Brilliance series by Marcus Sakey Written in Fire, I think the others have been reviewed on here before but it was only 99p. I'm hoping these along with several cryptic crossword books will see me through my holiday in a few weeks.

46. 11.22.63 - Stephen King. The first King book I'd read in about 20 years inspired by another book thread. This follows Jake a teacher who goes through a portal into 1958. But can he change the future by stopping the assassination of JFK? King is just so readable, it's made me want to go back and read some of the others I've missed. I may even attempt the Dark Tower, although it's a bit of a financial investment.

Am now reading Edna O' Brien's The Little Red Chairs for book club. Very sad so far.

30. Genghis Khan & the making of the modern world by Jack Weatherford; I enjoyed this but I have to say my ignorance of Genghis Khan was profound, so every point was new to me. I had no idea of the scale of his achievements or how significant he really was. That said, the book was quite plodding. The people and times do not really come to life, and while the author certainly tells you a lot of facts, I don't get the sense he really understood how GK did it. We go from small tribal warfare involving a few hundred people apparently, to a literally 3 or 4 pages later, being told he had an army of 95,000. Despite having read the book, I don't understand how on earth he did that. Given that we are also talking about the relatively distant past (1200 or so onwards) I am somewhat sceptical of the numbers. The author is very pro Mongol as the founders of our modern world. The book also could have done with some visual aids such as maps, photos of the steppes, the places conquered, what the mongols built etc. So pinch of salt, would not take it too seriously, but for the casual reader interested in GK, I would recommend.

63. Splinter the Silence by Val McDermid

Tony Hill, psychologist and police profiler, is endeavouring to get ex-DCI Carol Jordan off the booze. His talent for seeing patterns raises an odd flag in a series of suicides, and he thinks it might be just the thing to help Jordan take her mind off her cravings. Three women, all of whom have been targeted by vicious online trolls for their public championing of women's rights. Suspicion grows that these deaths may not be suicides after all, but what kind of serial killer wants to keep his crimes hidden?

Stokey - I don't know much about Indian music at all, except for what I hear in my yoga studio. I do know that they have different harmonic scales, though. Rameau also says in the book that "Eastern" music has a different approach to harmony. This was the Western one.

68. Our Spoons Came From Woolworths, by Barbara Comyns

Similar in style and tone to the previous Barbara Comyns, although we're now in the territory of a youthful marriage to a struggling artist - although in truth, he leaves his wife, the narrator, to do most of the struggling. He has decided that the pram in the hallway is the enemy of the creativity, while his wife struggles to keep them all from starving. Any summary of events makes it sound grim, but somehow it doesn't read that way (and there is a happy ending - you find out in the first paragraph, so not a spoiler). Youthful dreams of Bohemia - not as much fun as it sounds for the women involved.

34. The Rise, The Fall, And The Rise - Brix Smith Start

As a lifelong Fall fan I couldn't help but enjoy this, but actually it was even more entertaining than I expected. Brix is a very engaging and honest storyteller and I'd recommend this to all fans of the rock biog.

My DS remarked yesterday that he thinks he's read 100 books this year (his school does Accelerated Reader, so every word they read is counted, and he is a 'millionaire') and I suddenly remembered that I was going to try and do the 50 books challenge. Despite the piles of books lying around I can see that I am doing less well than I thought. So far I have read and finished:

1. The Life and Death of St Kilda - Tom Steel
2. The Ice Twins - SK Tremayne
3. I Let You Go - Clare Mackintosh
4. The Balkan Trilogy - Olivia Manning
5. The Levant Trilogy - Olivia Manning
6. School for Love - Olivia Manning
7. The Road to Little Dribbling - Bill Bryson
8. The Winter Children - Lulu Taylor
9. Lamentation - CJ Sanson

10. The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell 11. The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty 12. A Vintage Wedding - Katie Fforde 13. The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

There seems to be a bit too much easy escapism thriller stuff in this list. Best books on the list were The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy - I have become a total Olivia Manning fan.

Hay Mughals, from what I remember the Balkan and Levant trilogy are three books each, so isn't that six books instead of two? I would count them as six. Good Fortune, Spoils of War etc. Each book in the trilogy counts as one book read, so you're doing better than you think! Redo your list

I remember really enjoying reading Olivia Manning. Would love to re-read if I have time.

Yes Whippet, I completely forgot about that! Yay, have read 17 books! I'm also about to read Doves of Venus, another Manning one.

I was wondering if reading books to children at bedtime counts? I've read lots of Dinosaur Cove and some Secret Seven lately.

Welcome Mughals :) I really want to read Olivia Manning now. Currently working my way through Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet novels.

And yes, bedtime stories do count, as long as they are proper books rather than 10 minute picture books. I'm counting ours anyway. Reading the first Harry Potter to DS, which he's enjoying and so am I :)

Took me a while to catch up- so annoyed that I missed the next 3 body book on sale .

41)The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood I think I came across this looking for the Carnegie books- it is young adult, a first novel, and suffers a little from being overwritten, but I enjoyed the mixture of love, grief and physics, and would definitely read another book by her.

Off to the kindle sale!