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.

Book 104
Morning Star by Pierce Brown
The final instalment of the Red Rising trilogy. I enjoyed this – I really like the characters and their conflicts. I far prefer the verbal sparring and Darrow’s angst though, to the endless pages of, ‘He hit me in the balls and I stabbed him in the shoulder’ stuff, and the even more pages of ‘Spaceship Zap 79 attacked the splendour of Spaceship Uranus Rising with a 7 zillion megatronbeeblebrox force, taking out all of her glorious lights and 7 squillion Blue Luna Ash Men’ stuff. It was far too long and it’s all a bit predictable (I’d seen one particular ‘twist’ coming from about 276 megamillion light years away) but overall this was a really interesting series and I’m v glad I read it. Cheers, Cote!

I hated the time travellers wife felt it was one of those books that was midsole, like station 11.

Tbh I got on ok with the luminaries but I will never read it again. It was an average book imo.

I must be ms grumpy pants cause I've abandoned On Writing too. I did read it years ago and enjoyed it but it has not borne revisiting well at all.

Really what it boils down to, is you should be engaged by the story, buy into the world view, otherwise it's shit.

MISSOLD

I should probably provide a bit of context that I shamefully neglected to mention earlier: Commonwealth takes place over 50 years and its narrative is not always linear. The opening is the novel's inciting event (a Christening party), but the next chapter begins 50 years later and the rest of the book moves between present and past. Patchett said she wanted to do a variation on a birth to death book as previous books were very constrained in time, but she felt it unnecessary to provide bits of plot that were otherwise clear or that readers could supply themselves. I think the book is a bit over 300 pages.

I do appreciate her point on the unnecessary length of some books. I don't think she means all books, as she discussed rereading Tolstoy and James. But I too have noticed this trend, particularly in North American publishing.

That said, I also do read and like long books! The Goldfinch and The Wings of the Dove are two of my desert island books. I also am partial to series, which are basically one long narrative.

I think there are a lot of variables that can affect whether you get involved in certain stories, but I do think there are some that grab you whatever. In fairness, a few months on, I don't know that I would reread the Luminaries; it doesn't have a huge amount of emotional depth, but I enjoyed the experience of reading it first time and what she was doing with it, and never put it down and forgot about it, that's all I want really, and I appreciate when it can be sustained over several hundred pages.

I really liked Time Traveller's Wife until the foot nonsense.

Posted too early -
foot nonsense which I found cruel and unnecessary, although I realise that makes me sound a bit of a loon.

The End of The Affair and The Great Gatsby are two slight books that I love and have so much in them, but I think few writers have the skill to work so effectively in so small a space.

I disliked. The Goldfinch overall, though

Satsuki, that's fine. We all have different tastes...

F. Scott Fitzgerald's talent was incredible. To write Gatsby at 23?

Remus, I'd forgotten about the foot.

Wtf was the foot nonsense? Must have suppressed it am now dying to know!

Wilting - just google the title and feet and it'll come up. It made me very cross!

The foot thing was cruel but I liked it in context as I felt it was part of the shape of the book as tragedy rather than romcom. I agree it was missold.

I didn't realise FSF was only 23 when he wrote Gatsby. I reread it this summer and enjoyed it more than I did as a teen, though I think writing by very young authors often has an intensity that appeals to younger readers- I am thinking of Bonjour Tristesse mentioned above, or SE Hintons The Outsiders.

Amazon heard y'all: The Luminaries is Kindle deal of the day, for £1.39!

Definitely worth a read, especially at that price.

You beat me to it, Cote :)

Did you Luminaries fans know it was being adapted for tv? Hope they do it justice. Adapted well (and I thought Wolf Hall transferred well to tv, surprisingly) it could be compelling.

Link here - announcement from BBC.

Yes I would be interested to see how they adapt it - and I always love to see all the period detail and settings in any case.

Eleonor Catton was only 28 I think when she wrote it; personally I much prefer hearing about people who knocked out a masterpiece suddenly at 50, or 70, much less depressing than a prodigy

Oops, went to look at The Luminaries on the daily deal, realised I have looked at it before and decided it's not for me, but somehow ended up getting the other daily deal book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert . I haven't even read Eat, Pray, Love, and I have no desire to write a novel, so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to get from it. However, I do feel a bit trapped on the stinky hamster wheel of life, so considering creativity in its broader sense can't do any harm.

My feeling is both very short and very long need real skill, but both can be incredibly satisfying. And as Cote says, there are some books (Cider with Rosie, anyone . . .) where 200 pages takes a very, very, very long time.

Halfway through Planetfall by Emma Newman (I've got a little pile of birthday present books) - it's good, but much more heavy that I'd expected based on her fantasy books that I'd read. I was imagining techy-sci-fi & lots of plot, but it's really the exploration of one character's mental illness.

You could just send it back. I've purchased by mistake before and returned the book. I think you can do it from the orders page.

Hated Time Travellers wife and never finished The Luminaries (boring imo).

Meanwhile I'm 70% into The Revenant and really surprised by how much I'm enjoying it

Wilting I actually made a conscious decision to purchase it, just that it was on whim and not usually my kind of thing. And I've got a massive queue piling up, because my reading has slowed right down, so buying books that are not part of the plan doesn't help that any.

I think I need to re-read The Great Gatsby. When I read it as a teenager, it wasn't a book that made a particular impact on me, and when I hear people say it is their favourite book, I always thing "really?".

I will give H for Hawk a try while it's on kindle offer. The sample didn't really give me a good insight, but overall most of the people I've spoken to had recommended it.

I think books are like films. It's fine to have a long book or film if it's good, but my standards are higher (as I'm investing more time in it), so I have less patience for a mediocre long book than a mediocre short book. There's more pressure on the author to deliver something special.

Has my maths gone mad? FSF was born in 1896 and wrote Gatsby in 1924, according to t'internet.