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?

Bringing my list over, apologies for the epic post in advance!

1. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
2. The meaning of everything; the story of the OED by Simon Winchester;
3. An astronauts guide to the universe by Chris Hadfield and
4. The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro;
5. The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar
6. The Skeleton Cupboard : The Making of a Clinical Psychologist by Tanya Byron
7. Golden Son by Pierce Brown
8. The Hot Zone: The terrifying true story of the origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston
9. The Day Without Yesterday by Stuart Clark ;
10. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan ;
11. Overlord, D-Day and the Battle for Normandy by Max Hastings;
12. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson;
13. Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym;
14. The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood;
15. Brilliance by Marcus Sakey;
16. Agent Zigzag by Ben MacIntyre;
17. Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull.
18. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
19. Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
20. A French Affair by Katie Fforde

and new additions:-

21. After Me Comes the Flood by Sarah Perry; Sorry Grendel I just didn't like this at all. What the hell was it about? A man walks out of his shop, his car breaks down and then he hangs about with some mentally unwell people in a house? And then... it just finishes???? He walks away, pretty much as he walked in. I did like the atmosphere, the birds trapped in the wallpaper, nice sense of unease/creepiness throughout but the characters were hard to distinguish, you get no in depth back story (I do love DETAIL ), there isn't even any flood. I felt it lacked substance ultimately. It seemed to be all about the atmosphereic writing, which was nice, but not enough for me.

22. Dark Eden by Chris Beckett; really enjoyed this, magic world building of a planet which has no sun and the struggle to survive of a group of humans who spring from a lone pair left behind. It did struggle a bit I thought, to fully imagine how exactly such a people would start civilisation again, but the characterisation was good and credible and you just have to accept that the kids go off alone and make shoes/tame buffalo pretty much overnight . Small quibble, enjoyed this, such a visual book, would recommend. Warning, it is a touch YA.

23. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennet; Lovely lovely book. I'm sure most of you have read this already, the Queen discovers reading and, in a pattern familiar to me, becomes wholly absorbed by her new interest, cranky when interrupted and is nowhere without her paperback. She loses focus on her duties and the people around her become concerned. Funny and entertaining. Short too for those playing catch up Would definitely recommend.

24. The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell; Well I finished it. Probably because she got pregnant and I'm always interested in babies. However, the book remained terrible. Cutesy, girly. flippant. Incredibly simplistic. No sense of the nation at all or her own lived experience in it. Overly packaged for the magazine market. Avoid.

Maybe we should tell the Queen about this thread

:o At telling The Queen. Or maybe we should just tell Alan Bennett?

Bringing over my list so far with updates. Highlights (sadly very few) are in bold:

1. Untold Stories - Alan Bennett
2. Levels of Life - Julian Barnes
3. A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled - Ruby Wax
4. An Awfully Big Adventure - Beryl Bainbridge
5. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
6. The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k - Sarah Knight
7. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
8. The Good Liar - Nicholas Searle
9. Passenger 23 - Sebastian Fitzek

10. The Women Who Went to Bed for a Year - Sue Townsend 11. The Driver's Seat - Muriel Spark 12. The Widow - Fiona Barton 13. A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman 14. Nice Work (If You Can Get It) - Celia Imrie 15. Mothering Sunday - Graham Swift 16. This is Me - Michelle Collins 17. Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson 18. Memoirs of a Professional Cad - George Sanders 19. Eileen - Ottessa Moshfegh 20. Olivier - Philip Ziegler 21. Miss Lonelyhearts - Nathaniel West 22. Waist Disposal - Dr John Briffa 23. Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters 24. Not Working - Lisa Owens 25. Straight Up - Danny Dyer 26. Shop Girl - Mary Portas 27. Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith

Just finished:

28. The World According to Danny Dyer - Danny Dyer. Non-fiction book in which the EastEnders actor share his views on topics such as the nature of celebrity, politics, football, and social class. Not all his opinions are well thought-out, but the book is entertaining and thought-provoking in places and I broadly agree with most of what he has to say.

29. Man at the Helm - Nina Stibbe. This is a very poor novel set in 1970’s Leicestershire about two children who set out to find a suitable man for their troubled mother to marry. I wasn't keen on her first book, Love, Nina, and probably shouldn't have bothered with this one, a load of dull and unfunny drivel.

I'm ready for something a bit challenging now so I'm about to start Respectable, by Lindsey Hanley.

Tanaqui two other children's books set in wartime that occur to me are When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and (better) Carrie's War. I don't think either of those are the one you mean though.

Thanks tumble- read Carries War as a very young child and found it bewildering- have reread both aince and enjoyed, but not the heart breaker I can almost remember. Remus, I didn't spot it earlier- probably as hadn't read the original then- so thanks anyway! Have read Goodnight Mr Tom, lovely book, but sadly I am too old to have read it as a child.

Can't seem to pick anything to read next! Spoilt for choice probably,

Tanaqui - I've found this list on Goodreads of WWII children's books. There are other lists on Goodreads of WWII novels, loads in fact. You never know - the book you're looking for might be there?

Children's books on WWII

"Cote I think by cerebral I meant it is more ideas and philosophy driven rather than plot driven"

I love ideas and philosophy driven. Was it remotely realistic? As in, details thought out properly, scientifically plausible etc?

Remus - the "Everest" books my ds has read include:

No Summit out of sight by Jordan Romero (7 summits)
No Shortcuts to the top by Ed Viesturs (Everest plus others)
(Not sure of title) by Chris Bonington

I also liked K2: Life and Death.... by Ed Viesturs

Plus some others he has had out of school library. Sorry I can't remember the titles.

The one I want to read is by Kenton Cool, the title is One Man's Everest. I think he just finished his 12th summit of Everest so a great climber but not sure what he's like as a writer!

Thank you so much Mermaid- I had completely forgotten about goodreads!

wilting Fair enough!! (There is a flood, though. That's what the big thunderstorm at the end is all about. I admit it's not an actual flood but, you know, it brings all the tension about Alex to a finale. Plus METAPHORS )

I know I know! But still. I felt there should have been a deluge of something SOMEWHERE

btw I bought the full set of Elizabeth von Armin's collected works for 99p yesterday just in case anyone's interested in reading more. The Enchanted April was light but you know, so NICE

wilting, I'm fond of Elizabeth von Arnim, but her other books are a bit bleaker in terms of male oppression of the women they marry. That said, The Caravanners is still quite funny about it.

Remus Complications: A Surgeon's Notes sounds really interesting. I will have to look that one up right now. My TBR list is completely out of control at the moment.

55 Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare (2nd in the Infernal Devices series) - on audio again, though not such a good reading

More steampunk fantasy romance, good light entertainment if you like that sort of thing (which I do). Dumps you irritatingly in the middle of the story, though, and I don't have another Audible credit until the end of the month.

However, I've started listening to the HP & the Methods of Rationality fanfic podcast now at work, which is ironically far better read - and there's some ridiculous number of hours of it, so that'll keep me going in the mean time.

On the real books front, I'm enjoying Undercover, but dd has swiped it temporarily.

Thanks LadyDepp - I don't like Chris Bonnington's writing, but will keep the others in mind. Generally I only like mountaineering books with added disaster and tragedy, so if you know of any of those that would be great!

85. How to be smart with your time by Duncan Bannatyne

Picked this up on impulse in the library. Nothing particularly new but useful if only to make me think about what I'm doing with my time!

56 Undercover: The true story of Britain's secret police, by Paul Lewis and Rob Evans
The story of the police spies who were placed long term as infiltrators within activist groups. Easy to read and well written - I followed the whole Mark Stone/Kennedy story a few years back - but it was interesting to read the history of undercover policing of 'subversives' aka domestic extremists going back to the 60s.

56. Beowulf

I'm not entirely sure this counts as a book in its own right, but I had it as a Kindle download so never mind. I might have to get the Seamus Heaney version because either this translation wasn't great, or it was accurate but little thought was given to the poetry of it. Translation was by J. Lesslie Hall.

ChillieJeanie The Heaney translation is lovely to read, but be warned - he makes stuff up. He didn't read Old English fluently himself so relied heavily on dictionaries and glosses - nothing wrong with that per se, but some of his lines are definitely not in the original, or if they are, have a rather different emphasis! Still, I don't think it affects the meaning of the whole as such; just something to know if you're an obsessive

56. A Manual for Cleaning Women, Lucia Berlin. Short stories circling obsessively around the writer's own experiences - alcoholic, three divorces, four children, embittered, unnurturing mother, loving relationship with dying sister. It all sounds very grim, but the stories are full of compassion, colour and even humour. The mother repeatedly sends her daughter suicide notes - "I would have used a noose but I couldn't get the hang of it". It was a bit outside my comfort zone and the stories aren't going to become favourite re-reads, but I did admire them.

AG Riddle's The Atlantis Gene is 99p today. It's one of three, typical sci fi tbh, with a bio/medical twist, cannot speak for the plausibility of the science, but it was good enough for me! I really enjoyed it. If you like this kind of thing, it's definitely worth 99p...

Wilting Enchanted April is definitely the lightest of her books, in terms of the relationships between husbands and wives.

I seem to read a lot but don't get around to updating on here. Anyway, this what I've been reading recently:

29. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell this has been reviewed a lot on here so I won't say much. I really enjoyed this one, although I did feel that the last section of the book almost felt like a different novel. And I wasn't convinced by the final rescue.

30. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields the story of Daisy Stone's live during the 20th Century. Enjoyable.

31. Beloved by Toni Morrison Set in the post Civil War north USA it tells the story of Sethe and Paul D - freed slaves - and her family, and Beloved her dead child. Well written, magical realism.

32. Just Vegetating by Joy Larkcom a collection of her writings on growing vegetables and the different ways this is done around the world. Was a good book for dipping into.

33. Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel Again, I know this has been reviewed several times on the thread. I enjoyed it overall. Although I do have questions about how and what happened to all the bodies when everyone died off at the start. And how things like toilets apparently went on working even though everyone was dead so couldn't man the pumping stations and sewage plants. And also what did the travelling players do for food, etc. But it was a good read if I didn't think about those things too much.

34. A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym Wilmet is a young married woman, bored with not much to do. She tries to become more involved with the local church, volunteering and also with her best friend's brother. Very similar set of characters to some of her other books. Not my favourite but for a book written in the 1950s surprisingly modern in its attitudes towards gay men.

35 The Two Pound Tram by William Newton this is a slight book with a fantasy about two teenage boys who leave home and go and buy a tram for two pounds. There's not much depth to any of the characters but it was a fun read.

I've been reading quite a few books simultaneously, so have finished a few at the same time.

57. Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
Next title in this urban fantasy series, and it's the turn of ghosts and vampire instead of werewolves. The books are a bit one note - supernatural battles all the way, oh no, how can he possibly escape, but oh look, he has! That said, I enjoyed the fact that our hero fought the climactic battle in this volume while clad only in boxer shorts with little duckies on them.

Cedar, I'm a big Barbara Pym fan, but I've never got on with A Glass of Blessings. I just can't connect with it all, for some reason.

34. The Ice Twins by SK Tremayne creepier than I expected from the cover, but slightly marred for me by a lack of differentiation between the two narrative voices- although that did allow a bit of suspense in the last chapter. Also found the letter from the doctor (trying to avoid spoilers!) a bit unbelievable. A page turner though.