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?

43. Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe This has already been reviewed several times. I liked it. I thought it was going to be a one trick book, and indeed the first two thirds follow the same pattern - poor little rich kids and their flaky mummy do life the unconventional way, upsetting some people and getting fleeced by others, with the girls always on the lookout for a new man for their mother. I was just getting bored of this pattern, when the last third changed the dynamic and the ending wasn't what I expected.

23- The Chimes by Anna Small

This book was long listed for the Booker in 2015. Dystopian fiction set at a time when memories have to held in objects and communication is done by instrument and song.
I enjoyed the first two-thirds of this book - the world was interesting and the use of music intriguing. I'm not musical at all so some references didn't mean much to me but I got enough to make sense of the story. It was an unusual idea but the conclusion felt a bit weak to me. There were some things it would have been good to have spent longer on - the Ravensguild, the memory keepers, how the Order was formed. Instead it seemed to race towards the end a bit too fast. It would be interesting to read more by the author though.

I've miscounted so what I thought was no 47 is actually no 50.

Margaret Forster - Hidden Lives Who was the mystery woman who turned up to visit her grandmother in 1936.? Why did her grandmother never speak of her life before the age of 20? Forster writes about the lives of her grandmother and her mother and explores their lives in contrast to her own, and the choices ( or lack of choices) open to them. I love Forster's writing - she's always been one of my favourite authors and I prefer her non-fiction writing. This was a re-read as I'm working my way back through her books.

Those who enjoyed Alan Bennett's Wroting Home might enjoy this.

Thanks for the Penelope Lively recommendation, bibliomania. I haven't read that one but it's waiting on my kindle!

51. Hyperion - Dan Simmons. I found this while looking for an Italian guidebook in a box of books that has been sitting unopened in our garage for the last 4 years. I had read it before but about 10 years ago and didn't remember it very well. It is very good, like a sci-fi Canterbury Tales. It follows 7 pilgrims who have been chosen to visit the mysterious Time Tombs on the planet of Hyperion. Each pilgrim takes it in turns to tell their tale as they travel towards the Tombs. The scope of the book is great, blending the poetry of Keats with political machinations, spirituality and AI. The only criticism is the inconclusive ending, and of course I can't find the sequel

I'm going on holiday a week today so have been stocking up on Kindle fodder. I've bought a Booker longlist His Bloody project - Graeme Macrae Burnett, Olive Ketteridge -Elizabeth Strout which won a Pulitizer prize, her new book is on the longlist too & I've never read her. Also Purity - Jonathan Franzen which hasn't got great reviews, but I'll give it a go on the back of The Corrections.
I'm also considering getting some Italian based books. I have I Claudius, Pliny, E M Forster, The Agony & the Ecstasy, Robert Harris Cicero and the Colleen McCullough Masters of Rome on my short list but not sure which to plump for. I did Latin at school but haven't read much classical stuff since.

69. In the Land of Giants by Max Adams

This is a combined travelogue and historical study by an archaelogist whose book on Oswald of Northumbria, The King in the North I really enjoyed last year. I suppose it's in a similar vein to Robert MacFarlane in that it is the account of seven walks, a sea voyage, exploration of Donegal by motorbike, and a north-south motorbike ride through areas of significance in the history of the so-called Dark Ages. Various stages along the route of Hadrian's Wall are included as interludes between the main chapters, which cover areas like the kingdom of Dal Riata (Rothesay to Kilmartin), London to Sutton Hoo, Falmouth to Mallaig (the sea voyage), Meigle to Canterbury largely by Roman roads (motorbike), and York to Whitby. As well as describing the experiences en route, Adams covers some of the history of the areas he walks through in terms of what the landscape can tell us, old buildings (largely churches) which remain, and anything of note from the few chroniclers of the time (mainly Bede) and archaeological investigations.

Been a while since I last posted in the 50 book challenge thread, so this will be on the long side -

31. Terry Pratchett - The Shepherd's Crown

Last Discworld book he wrote I'm sure this will have been discussed already on one of the 50 book threads this year so I won't go into detail. I enjoyed this.

32. Elinor M. Brent-Dyer - The Coming of Age of the Chalet School
33. Elinor M. Brent-Dyer - A Genius at the Chalet School
34. Elinor M. Brent-Dyer - Chalet School Fete
35. Elinor M. Brent-Dyer - A Problem for the Chalet School
36. Elinor M. Brent-Dyer - The Chalet School Reunion

Comfort reading old childhood books as I was feeling stressed out. The Chalet School being a girl's boarding school, set in Switzerland in these particular books. Easy reading as they're re-reads. They're very of their time.

37. Stephen King - Mr Mercedes

The book opens with an account of a killer, dubbed Mr Mercedes, driving a Mercedes through a packed crowd of job seekers before fleeing and vanishing without a trace. A few years later, one of the detectives investigating the case who's since retired, receives a taunting letter from "Mr Mercedes", and starts pursuing this new lead. More of a straightforward thriller than King's usual style. A gripping read.

38. Kass Morgan - The 100
39. Kass Morgan - The 100 Day 21
40. Kass Morgan - The 100 Homecoming

I picked these up because DH and I have been enjoying watching the TV series based on this (The 100). The TV series, which diverges a lot from the books, is much more enjoyable. At least from an adult point if view. The basic idea is that Earth has become uninhabitable due to global nuclear war, and a remnant of humanity has survived on space stations (the Ark) in orbit. But now, The Ark is failing. 100 juvenile offenders are dropped down to the surface of Earth to see if the radiation has dropped enough for people to survive. But turns out some people survived the nuclear apocalypse after all....

The books are very YA. The adult characters haven't really been developed. The most heavily featured adults are basically authoritarian dictator or loving parent stereotypes with no real characters of their own. Lots of angsting about feelings and love lives from the teenagers. And glossing over some more morally tricky questions. E.g. one character in the books is in detention because she got pregnant without permission. This carries an automatic death penalty for both parents on The Ark, oxygen and food and so on being in limited supply. Yet, abortion and birth control aren't mentioned once in the books. Not even in the context of "I'd rather see both myself and the love of my life were executed than consider aborting this unplanned baby"
Needless to say, by the end of the trilogy, everything has worked out more or less happily, and everyone is living in harmony.

41. Sophie Hannah - A Game for All the Family

Justine and her family move to Devon. All fine, until her daughter comes home from school upset because her best friend has been unfairly expelled, and the school insist the best friend never existed. Justine goes digging into this, and things get more and more convoluted. While it was an interesting read, the whole plotline ended up so far fetched that it was difficult to believe in it at all.

42. Jodi Taylor - A Trail Through Time

Book 4 in the Chronicles of St Mary's. In this one, our time travelling historian, having magically landed in an alternative reality. is chased up and down history by the sinister Time Police, before valiantly overcoming all obstacles with the help of fellow historians to win in the end. Entertaining, as long as you remember to not think too hard about it.

43. Hideo Yokoyama - Six Four

Crime novel. Fourteen years ago, a 7 yr old schoolgirl was kidnapped and murdered despite her parents paying the ransom. The police failed to catch the kidnappers. Fourteen years on, one of the police officers, Mikami, involved with the case is now the police Press Director, and in charge of managing the publicity for the Police Commissioner's visit to try and revitalise the investigation before the statute of limitations runs out. Mikami starts digging into the case after events make him suspect there's more going on than a simple visit. The focus of the book is mainly on the relationships between the police and the press, Mikami and the other police departments, rather than on the kidnapping, although there is some resolution of that by the end of the book.

44. Keigo Higashino - The Devotion of Suspect X

Crime novel. Yasuko lives a quiet life with her teenage daughter, until her ex-husband tracks her down. Things get out of hand, and the ex-husband ends up dead. And then their neighbour, Ishigami, from the next door apartment knocks on the door and asks if they want help disposing of the body.... The book goes on to focus on the cover-up and the attempts of the police detective Kusanagi to discover the murderer. A gripping read.

36 Fire Bound by Christine Feehan
37 A Life Without You by Katie Marsh a freebie from Good reads excellent read.
38 The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale. Received from mumsnet, absolutely loved this book well written the historical details were great. Two young boys murdered their mother. It was very interesting about how a sensational murder was attributed to the penny dreadfuls in the same way that computer games are blamed today. The way that Broadmoor w a s run and how the boys lives turned out.
39 Cat's Lair by Christine Feehan
40 Sovereign by C J Sansom really enjoyable series the books seem to be getting better. Set during Henry the Eigth's progress to York
41 The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremaine given this by mumsnet. A lovely little book. I would highly recommend this as well I found it hard to put down, the cover and the blurb really don't do it justice

Today's Kindle deal looks interesting! 99p for The North Water, longlisted for 2016 Booker prize:

A 19th-century whaling ship sets sail for the Arctic with a killer aboard in this dark, sharp and highly original tale that grips like a thriller.
Behold the man: stinking, drunk, brutal and bloodthirsty, Henry Drax is a harpooner on the Volunteer, a Yorkshire whaling ship bound for the hunting waters of the Arctic Circle. Also aboard is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with a shattered reputation, no money and no better option than to embark as ship's medic on this ill-fated voyage.
In India during the Siege of Delhi, Sumner thought he had experienced the depths to which a man can stoop and imagined he'd find respite on the Volunteer, but now, trapped in the wooden belly of the ship with Drax, he encounters pure evil and is forced to act. As the true purposes of the expedition become clear, the confrontation between the two men plays out in the freezing darkness of an Arctic winter.

Stokey - Hyperion is great. I also liked the sequel, but #3 and #4 in the series were a bit weak imho.

36. Boy - Roald Dahl

The first part of Dahl's autobiography, covering his childhood and adolescence, is every part as tremendous a read as you'd expect. I read this loads as a child and the DC have loved me reading it to them. If anyone hasn't read it then please do!

Finished 75. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith. It was okay - some classic misdirection; you find out more about Robin and Strike. I didn't really enjoy reading so much about violence against women though, even done fairly sympathetically.

20. A Small Place in Italy by Eric Newby. Written by Newby a renowned travel journalist it describes when he and his wife bought a rundown farmhouse in the foothills of the Apuan Alps on the borders of Liguria and northern Tuscany. The book is well-written and not only provides the usual culture clashes but also is of interest as Newby is returning to an area of Italy where he was an escaped prisoner of war in WW2.

21. The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory. A brilliant account of Kathryn Parr's marriage to
    Henry VIII. Philippa Gregory paints the portrait of a formidable women who not only handled Henry's moods and the dangerous Tudor court life but also managed to publish religious works in English in her own name, ruled as a regent whilst Henry was at war and regularly brought the three Tudor children together as a family unit with their father. An enjoyable read about a lesser known figure from
    the Tudor court.

22. The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson. A modern day re-telling of The Winter's Tale. Previously reviewed on this thread and one of the recent MN giveaway reads so have posted a longer review there.

24- Landmarks - Robert MacFarlane

Read based on review up thread. Loved this! He writes so beautifully and poetically about the landscape. Makes me want to strap on my walking shoes and go for a long hike.

72 Unquenchable Fire by Rachel Pollack

One of the Gollancz SF Masterworks series - the intro describes this as 'a very weird book', and I think that's fair comment.

It's set in a future America where (a non-Christian) religion is all pervasive. It's not Handmaid's-Tale-dystopian, though, the religion appears accepted by the vast majority and generally benign. The closest books I can think of to compare it to are Riddley Walker, though it's a much easier read, and The City and The City - it's that same experience of groping in an unfamiliar world to try to place yourself, and figure out what is going on, and how things in this place/time relate to our present.

I liked it a lot, and it's definitely in my list of best reads of 2016 so far, but I can imagine Cote many people would hate it.

I remember reading Unquenchable Fire about 15 years or so ago and loving it then.

I can't remember much detail now but from the fantastical elements I remember I'd agree it's on the weird side.

When I read The City and The City I always read it as a kind of future/alternate Turkey, with Beszel being the more western side, and Ul Qoma being the more Muslim/Middle Eastern side. It's quite heavily hinted with the city names, the appearance of people, the architecture etc and you do wonder now if it wouldn't be too strange to end up with 2 cities, 2 languages, 2 religions in one place. And the solution to conflict? Just ignore the heck out of each other. Certainly better than what's happening at the moment.
Cote Are you still in Turkey? Noticed anyone conspicuously ignoring you?

I'm currently reading Night Vale - A Novelas a bit of light relief. It's alright. Best in small doses and only if you love the Night Vale podcast. It's quite try-hard in places, but i didn't have high expectations and I'm easily pleased so I'm enjoying it. If you're a Night Vale fan it has - not much Cecil. Lots of the man in the tan jacket. Faceless old women living in your house. Angels. Terrifying, deadly librarians.

Stitches I spent a lot of the novel trying to decide whether / how much of the fantastical elements were actually real, or in the protagonist's head. I particularly liked the idea of seeing the world from the point of view of someone who believed fully and truly in their religion as a living entity - much as I guess people must have believed in Christianity in the early days.

I'm now part way through Cursed Child under instruction from dd, who wants someone to -moan-- talk about it with, but by god it's a bit painful. No doubt it's better on stage . . . And irritated that our copy of Riddley Walker seems to have gone the way of all good books.

23. Fatherland - Robert Harris - I have been meaning to read this for quite a while and I enjoyed it. I thought the premise (Hitler won the war) was scarily believable. The book really does follow the maverick cop formula, but in a totally different setting.

24. Defend Your Life - Vitamin D3, A Safe, Easy and Inexpensive Approach to Improving Quality of Life - Susan Rex Ryan. Very interesting book on the benefits of Vit D3.

Daphne - "When I read The City and The City I always read it as a kind of future/alternate Turkey, with Beszel being the more western side, and Ul Qoma being the more Muslim/Middle Eastern side. It's quite heavily hinted with the city names, the appearance of people, the architecture etc"

It's an interesting theory but I didn't get that feeling at all. Yes, "Ul Qoma" does sound Middle Eastern but more Arab than Turkish - Ul is Arabic for the, and there is no 'Q' in the Turkish alphabet anyway. Besźel doesn't sound Turkish, either - there are complicated rules of which letters can follow which, and z would just never follow s.

Aside from the names of the cities, I also didn't notice anything Turkish in the culture, way of life, use of words etc in either City.

""you do wonder now if it wouldn't be too strange to end up with 2 cities, 2 languages, 2 religions in one place"

Turkish language has remained remarkably unchanged over a thousand years of virtually no communication between the Turkic tribes left in Central Asia (Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Uyghurs, etc) and those who have migrated to Anatolia and built the Ottoman Empire and then Turkey, so I really don't think that two languages would suddenly appear in the same city. My understanding of the book is that those two cities are in parallel universes (which overlap or "crosshatch" in certain places) anyway, but I might be wrong.

"And the solution to conflict? Just ignore the heck out of each other."

That sounds like a very British solution. I don't see it happening in this part of the world.

"Cote Are you still in Turkey? Noticed anyone conspicuously ignoring you?"

Yes, I'm still in Turkey. No, I haven't noticed anyone like that. Should I have?

73 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

I imagine it's better on stage . . .

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is £1.99 on the Kindle.

37. High-Opp by Frank Herbert

This is the never-before-published dystopian novel that Frank Herbert wrote right before Dune. The writing style is rather archaic and the casual misogyny is rather shocking, but the plan-within-plan style of intrigue is definitely reminiscent of Dune.

The idea is interesting - This is a dystopian future where there are instant opinion polls about every little decision and proposed laws that are "high-opped" are carried out right away. But of course wording is everything and which side the public will decide for is determined by how the question is worded. One day, a member of the high-opped elite gets "low-opped" and loses everything, leading a popular uprising against the system.

38. Nightfall by Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg

I read this for the first time when I was a teenager and loved it. Again, the writing style is rather archaic and the casual misogyny left me a bit (and that I had not noticed any of it 30-odd years ago), but the story is still pretty good.

This book is about a world that has several suns at least one of which is in the sky at all times, so its inhabitants don't know about darkness. But they have a sacred book that says all suns will go dark and "stars" will come out in the sky on a specific date. On the other hand, excavations at the oldest known settlement shows various cities built on the same spot going back thousands of years, some of which are separated by charred remains.

It is a good story and would make a great film. Maybe as a Star Trek adventure - you know, where they land on this planet just as the predicted date is approaching.