50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

Thread six 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, fourth thread here and fifth thread here.

39. This Thing of Darkness, Harry Thompson. A fictionalised biography of Robert Fitzroy, captain of the H.M.S Beagle. It covers his travels around the coasts of Patagonia, Galapagos, and New Zealand, and his friendship with Charles Darwin, who accompanied him on the Beagle for its second trip, making some of the discoveries that led to The Origin of Species on the way. A brilliant book.

It covers so many huge topics - religion, science, politics, colonisation - without focusing too much on any one of them. Thompson also manages to portray certain aspects of the story (emotions, nautical life, family life) without feeling the need to break down every little thing and spell it out for you, which is refreshing, as some authors can't help but explain themselves. Especially with feelings. That might be one reason why Cote liked this book

This is right up there with some of my favourite books, I'm so glad I read it. Thank you Cote and Remus.

So glad you enjoyed it, Monty.

Dino and Tan - thanks for the recs. I'm not a fan of Patrick Gale, I'm afraid. Not sure about woo!

It was wonderful.

Meant to say: Thanks biblio, it's very exciting! Once I've unpacked it'll be time to find a cosy book corner...

Satsuki I read Brideshead Revisited a long time ago and really enjoyed it. I can't recall vast swathes of it now but I know I liked it a lot.

I have almost finished reading Bonjour Tristesse which is a bit of a cop out really as it's such a thin book but but God it's good. I'm now wishing it was longer!

41. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy - audiobook. I LOVED this. I saw the film a few years ago, found it absolutely terrifying but brilliant. McCarthy is an incredible writer and this modern day western is gripping and heartbreaking. The narration is excellent and really brings to life the dialogue of this story of a drug deal gone very very wrong. I will be watching the film again soon....Javier Bardem plays the scariest baddie I've ever seen.

49. Company Man by Joseph Finder

This author is a new favourite for me, for when I need a Jack Reacher sort of book, but somewhat meatier. I can't say I liked this book, though - it was painfully slow in the first half or so, only picking up in the last 20%. Moving on...

Monty - I'm glad that you enjoyed This Thing Of Darkness. It truly is a singular book, and you are right, its neutral tone even when narrating shocking and heartbreaking (true) events was one major reason why I liked it so much.

78. Eileen – Ottessa Moshfegh
On the Booker Shortlist and rather addictively readable, despite the frankly unlikeable character of Eileen and the rather implausible denouement! It still kept me reading till the end.

79. Noonday – Pat Barker
This was ok, and it’s already been mentioned up-thread so I don’t have anything to add except that suddenly and unexpectedly right at the end, as my teenagers would say, my ‘feels’ went into over-drive.

80. Nine Lives – William Dalrymple
An excellent book exploring the lives of nine different individuals and the religions that they practice, in India, Tibet and Pakistan. I really did find this fascinating. Every chapter was interesting ranging from a female Jainist monk, an exiled Buddhist soldier/monk, Sadhus and worshipers of the goddess Tara who live in the burial ghats of Tarapith.
It's made me really want to go to India and explore some of the shrines and temples. One day...

96. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, J K Rowling and others
Not the same experience as reading the books, but interesting to see the grown-up characters. The theme of yearning for a father's love is an interesting counterpoint to the theme of maternal love in the original series.

97. Byron's Women, Alexander Larman. Short bios of his mother, half-sister, lovers, and daughters. I'm read a few accounts of his awful treatment of Claire Clairmont (she had his illegitimate child, he took her away and wouldn't let her mother see her, despite all her pleading, and then child died at the age of 5, away from both parents, in an Italian convent) but knew less about the other women. It works well as an account of women's lives in the Georgian/early Victorian era, and what happens when they were of aristocratic stock but fell from respectability. They mostly seemed to marry/get impregnated by bounders who treated them horribly. Makes you glad for modern law, modern medicine and modern mores.

57. Stoner: A Novel by John Williams - Got this on a Kindle deal a couple of months ago. The story is about the life of William Stoner, the son of Missouri farmers, who goes to college in 1910 at the age of 19 and discovers a love for literature, eventually becoming an English professor. It's quite a gentle story and there's nothing particularly striking about it, but it's somehow memorable. The story follows Stoner all the way through to the end of his life, and leaves you with a, perhaps inevitable, feeling of sadness at the idea that, after everything, life just ends, whether or not you made mistakes and had the life you might have had.

58. Blood Brothers by Willy Russell - Another re-read for work, as I'm teaching this again this year, for the first time in a few years. It's set in Liverpool in the 60s/70s/early 80s and is about twins, Eddie and Mickey, who are separated at birth when their mother gives Eddie away to a woman she cleans for, as she can't afford to keep both of them, in addition to the children she already has. It's interesting as a story about class, but also the idea of nature vs. nurture. Reading it soon after re-reading A View From The Bridge made me focus on all the Greek tragedy elements that both have in common.

87. The Celtic Revolution by Simon Young

A very entertaining read, looking at the ancient Celts and their effect on the whole of Europe. Young argues that it was the activity of the warlike bands of rampaging Celts which helped Rome develop into the empire it became, that they 'saved' Christanity in Europe by preserving it and preaching it as the tides of paganism came and went, and that the myths and legends that grew around the idea of Arthur helped to shape the medieval world for the development of the modern mind.

Morning Star has dropped to £4.99

Is it worth it???

Yay! I've been waiting for its price to drop for so long

50. Buried Secrets (Nick Heller #2) by Joseph Finder

This was quite good - a sort of Jack Reacher book with more brains & technology. I enjoyed the story and the narration.

Thought you had it read cote

No, it's a matter of principle I ain't giving 9.99 for a Kindle book.

44. The Last Battle - CS Lewis

Last of the Narnia books, and leaving aside the casual racism against the Calormenes, it's an exciting enough finale to the series.

The Simon Young books sounds good, chillie. (I think we both liked AD500 by the same author?) I've ordered it.

Currently reading 98. Faithful Place, by Tana French. Crime fiction set in Dublin. The story harks back a crime committed in the early 1980s, which has come to light 22 years later. I'm really enjoying the main character's reflections on how the country changed over that time. Even without the murder, it could probably work as literary fiction in its own right, along the lines of Anne Enright. Having a murder dropped in always helps to pick up the pace.

Just catching up after a slight absence. I love Brideshead Satsuki, I keep thinking I must watch the TV series one day.

Also enjoying the WW1 lit conversation. I did do All Quiet on the Western Front at school as well as Goodbye to all That. Both great books that I must reread. In fact, I love everything I've read by Robert Graves.

62. The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson, I think this was reviewed a couple of pages ago and I pretty much agreed. Good anecdotes but a bit inconclusive.

63. Tuesday's Gone - Nicci French. Crime thriller investigating the death of an anonymous man who turns out to be a conman. themes of mental illness run through it, and has a decent conclusion. It is the second in the "freida Klein" series, and does harp on a bit about stuff that happened in the previous book, so while not essential, it's probably best to read them in order.

64. Olive Ketterdige - Elizabeth Strout. Again has been reviewed already on this thread, 12 short stories all somewhat connected with the flawed heroine Olive Ketteridge. I liked it, although got very confused by the ending as in the Kindle edition there was an extra chapter that I thought was part of the book but actually was a taster for her new book.

65.The Secret - Kathryn Hughes - a cheap Kindle buy for a bubblegum read for my hungover brain at the weekend. A couple Beth and Michael have a son in urgent need of a kidney transplant and neither of them are a match. Why does the Grandmother refuse to reveal who Beth's father is? The book is split between the present day and 1976, it's an easy read.

And am now reading The Gospel of Loki, a retelling of Norse mythology form Loki's point of view by Joanne Harris.

44. Yes Please by Amy Poehler.
    Autobiography and general commentary on life by comedian Amy Poehler. I love her in Parks and Recreation. This is an entertaining light read if you like this sort of genre. I liked it better than Tina Fey's Bossy Pants, or maybe I like Amy Poehler more. So much energy and drive, I feel quite lazy!

45. Foxglove Summer (PC Peter Grant Book 5) by Ben Aaronovich.

My least favourite of the series so far, still fairly enjoyable.

Just finished a really not v good book which I've currently forgotten the name/writer of and cba to walk upstairs and find out. Needless to say I won't be recommending it but will add my review later.

Thanks for the heads-up re Morning Star. Just bought it.

I quite like Simon Young's style bibliomania. He's a good story teller, both entertaining and informative. He certainly provided some ways of looking at the Celts that I hadn't really considered before - the Arthurian section in particular.

I got my numbers wrong, quoting two 19s. So I've just finished book 22

22. A Year of Marvellous Ways, Sarah Winman

This book is a little bewildering, in as much its very descriptive, almost poetic but doesn't really tell you anything. I'm not sure of the point of the story and I've already forgotten the ending when I read it two days ago. Maybe by reading it at bed, or reading it too fast I didn't give it justice. There were some lovely moments but overall not one I'd recommend. It just felt a bit pointless reading it.

This months Kindle sale has started - does anyone have any recommendations?

That's rather how I felt about it too, NeverNic. She can write really well - beautiful and poetic, but it was somehow empty and I was disappointed by it.