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.

So, I've read so far this year.

Miss Peregrine 1 very readable if YA, a good YA, Changes in the film got right on my wick tbh

The Circle Orwell meets Google/Age of Social Networks. Did remind me of Animal Farm & 1984 slogans wise. Very American fel though.

The Last Act Of Love read in one sitting, the story of a woman whose brother was hit by a car when they were teens, had me teary from the off. A good memoir by a non-famous person

Take Six Girls Mitford biography, clear bias, writer pro-Diana just like Mary Lovell, but still I'll never not be fascinated by this topic as divisive as it appears to be on here

A Spool Of Blue Thread Letdown. It's very readable but there is no plot, the blurb is misleading, what on earth is it supposed to be about?
Here's a couple. Here's their annoying son. The rest of their children and grandchildren have no personality, meet his parents, was his father a creep? Not really. The end. Why did their car stop? Who knows! Pointless.

55. The Revenant reviewed quite comprehensively by cote up thread, I'll just say I really enjoyed this very readable story of survival and adventure. It was not what I had expected. I will be interested to watch the film to see what they did with it. It was brutal and unsentimental but possessed a warmth which emanated from the vivid descriptions of physical hardship and psychological endurance. It is quite simply written, but evoked the time and environment well. I was surprised it was written so recently in fact - in 2002 - it had the feel of an old western novel from the 50s & 60s heyday in theme and style, which was a good thing IMO, as I like that stuff.

Satsuk - I've never read a Western. Any you'd recommend?

Lost your 'i' - sorry!

Sorry if I've shoved in, but as a western, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is very very good

25. The Things We Wish Were True, Marybeth Mayhew Whelan

A reasonable read about a group of people, linked through an incident that happens at a local pool. It was entertaining enough, though it took close to 85% before the real action happened. The ending was rather predictable too. Not one I'd rave about or recommend strongly, especially as there are a lot of characters, and it took quite a few chapters to work out who was who. That said, the writing did have s Judy Blume quality to it, and I did care about the characters once I'd got to grips with them.

Thanks, Every. Expensive on Kindle, so maybe one to order from the library!

92 First Bite: How we learn to eat, by Bee Wilson, listened to as an audiobook

I found this really interesting, and would add it to my list of top reads this year. Unlike too many of the books I've read recently - which started well then I lost interest - I was dubious to start with, but then really got into it.

As per the subtitle, it's an exploration of the way we learn to eat - as babies / children, as adults, and as a society. My slight hesitation to start with was that there's an element of assumption that as a reader you want to change the way that you personally eat, which I don't particularly (I have a wider interest in the politics of food). However, by the end of the book I felt I had lots of ideas to consider for myself, as well as learning a lot of useful and interesting things generally. Highly recommended.

I've now just started on audio "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" - I've just realised that I can use my audible credits for some of the non-fiction on my reading list that is only in hardback, hasn't made it to the library and isn't available cheap on ebay!

147. Wickham Hall by Cathy Bramley

Light, fluffy, predictable chick lit about a woman who gets a job as an events organiser at her local stately home and starts fancying the son of the owners. I enjoyed it!

I just said to my dh this evening that maybe I ought to tackle Lonesome Dove.

I read this a long time ago, but I think Shane is a good one. This is more of a literary novel, based in the same time and era, but I love My Antonia by Willa Cather.

Riders of the Purple Sage was a best seller in its time and is considered as the one that set the tone for the genre Westerns that followed. I don't know how well it stands up in terms of plot and dialogue now, but iirc it was quite a good read and has some good descriptive passages.

The Searchers, the basis of the classic John Wayne film. It is quite bleak, focusing on the conflict between the white homesteaders and the Native Americans, through the kidnap and subsequent search for, the protagonist's niece.

I also read and liked True Grit earlier this year.

The Searchers sounds interesting. How does it compare to The Revenant?

Satsuki I LOVE my Antonia - you will love Lonesome Dove in that case

Thanks. Have bought My Antonia and got Riders of the Purple Sage for free.

Hmm, cote I'm slightly inclined to say I found The Revenant a more enjoyable read, but it might be because it's so fresh. There is definitely some shared ground - endurance in a harsh environment, the struggle over land and resources, the desire for retribution; the psychological impact of all these things. Also inspired by true events to an extent. I was keen to reread it a few months back but didn't get round to it.

everysongbird I might ask for Lonesome Dove for Christmas - 964 pages! I don't buy paper books very often so may as well get my money's worth.

Hope you like them Remus. I've picked My Antonia up on the Kindle to reread and also Death Comes for the Archbishop which I've been wanting to read for ages.

Have been seeking out some shorter and less demanding reads over the last couple of weeks. Possibilities for OllyB here?

57. Skellig by David Almond Michael has enough on his plate, with moving house and having a seriously ill baby sister, then he discovers a creature in his garage. Beautifully told children's book, exploring love, friendship, flight, poetry, the natural world...wish this had been around when I was a kid, and can't wait to introduce DS to it. Listened on audible, where it is very well narrated by the author - I'm not always a fan of authors reading their own work, but this was just perfect.

58. The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith The person who lent me this said, 'Patricia Highsmith, she's a funny old author, but if you like the film, you'll probably like this one'. I do, and I did. It's been a while since I watched the film, and I think I'd misremembered how dark it was. I was expecting the book to be 90% rich young Americans swanning around the chic playgrounds of 1950s Europe, and 10% psychopathy, but the emphasis was rather more on the psychopathy.

59. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne-Jones Fun and funny children's fantasy with a fairy tale feel to it. Sophie, as the eldest daughter, is resigned to a dull life running her parents hat shop, but after a spell is put on her, goes out to seek her fortune instead, and ends up living with the wizard Howl in the castle of the title. Much magical shenanigans ensue. I was worried at one point it was drifting too far towards the whimsical, but it pulled itself back. I think this is like a children's version of what I imagined Neil Gaiman to be like, but sadly NG didn't do anything for me - this did.

Ham - Skellig is just perfect, isn't it?

Yes, yes it is. And it made me cry on public transport, again

Maybe I should re-read soon. I'll need something shorter after The Luminaries. Getting a bit bored of the horoscope stuff and waffle, but still quite enjoying the story hidden inside it.

Talented Mr Ripley on bbc2 now

I studied Skellig at school - I loved it. Must read it again soon.

148. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

This was the first book of his I've read. I had high hopes given how popular the series is, but I was disappointed. It almost felt like a children's book - the prose is very simple and the solutions to the cases she solves are laughably simple (e.g. she is asked to find evidence that someone is doing something. Her solution? I'll follow them! She follows them,sees them doing whatever it is,case closed). There's no real storyline, just a collection of stories about the cases she solves, with a bit of back story about her childhood. This would be ok if her solving the cases was interesting, but they're too simple.

However, I did enjoy the depictions of Africa, which is as much a character in the books as the people. It was also a short easy read so might suit whoever was looking for short books! And somehow despite everything I said above I didn't hate it and may try another in the series someday to see if they get better. I do have the retelling of Emma by the same author on my to-read list and I'll be interested to see if I have the same view of his writing after that.

Book 106
The Luminaries
Mixed feelings about this one. I really enjoyed the actual story, and thought it was very clever in the way that we saw the same events from different angles/characters throughout, but thought that the long windedness let it down and that there was quite a lot of unnecessary backstory and some really boring pen portraits of characters, that all got very samey. I didn’t see any point at all in the astrology stuff and thought the ending was weak. In fact, I felt rather let down by the ending and even up to 99% of reading, I was expecting to be more positive in my review than I’m now being. Overall though, it now feels as if it was a lot of effort for not much reward – pay dirt, as it’d be called in the mining towns, I guess.

The Guardian review asks an interesting question: "This great, intricately crafted doorstopper of a historical novel, with its portentous introduction, astrological tables, character charts and all the rest, in fact weighs nothing at all. Decide for yourself, Reader, at the end of all your reading, what you think of that: is "nothing" enough?" For me, the answer is that it wasn't.

Chessie
If you are an admirer of Jane Austen, for goodness sake don't read Smith's Emma. It's terrible!

Oh dear

I must say, I've never read a "retelling" of an Austin I didn't find disappointing.

46. Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore - set in San Francisco, a young man who's lost his job ends up taking the night shift at the Bookstore. Discovers there's a sort of mysterious lending library at the shop, starts to investigate with the help of his many successful techie friends. Melting of the old fashioned book world and "google" mindset. Not sure how to explain this without spoilers, but I really enjoyed it. Has the touch of the Dan Browns about it, but in a good way.