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.

back from a bit crap holiday (not terrible, no interesting/amusing stories, just not great), so to the shiny new thread here's my list so far:

1. Whispers Underground – Ben Aaronovitch
2. The Monogram Murders – Sophie Hannah
3. The Crow Trap – Ann Cleeves
4. An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth – Chris Hadfield
5. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
6. The Affair of the Bloodstained Tea Cosy – James Anderson
7. The house on the Strand – Daphne du Maurier
8. Watership Down – Richard Adams
9. Broken Homes – Ben Aaronovitch
10. Telling Tales – Ann Cleeves
11. Agent Zigzag – Ben McIntyre
12. Night after Night – Phil Rickman
13. The Last Kingdom – Bernard Cornwell
14. The Mangle Street Murders – MRC Kasasain
15. A Meditation on Murder – Robert Thorogood
16. The Pale Horseman – Bernard Cornwell
17. The Curse of the House of Foskett – MRC Kasasain
18. Death Descends on Saturn Villa – MRC Kasasian
19. The Cold Calling – Phil Rickman
20. The Versions of Us – Laura Barnett
21. The Hungar Games – Suzanne Collins
22. The Master of the Priory – Annie Haynes
23. Mean Spirit – Phil Rickman
24. The Thirty-Nine Steps – John Buchan
25. Foxglove Summer – Ben Aaronovitch
26. Just One Damned Thing After Another – Jodi Taylor
27. The Ocean at the End of the Road – Neil Gaiman
28. After me Comes the Flood – Sarah Perry
29. The Janissary Tree – Jason Goodwin
30. The Constant Princess – Philippa Gregory
31. Holy Island – LJ Ross
32. Dissolution – C J Sansom
33. The Wine of the Angels – Phil Rickman
34. The End of the World Running Club – Adrian J Walker

and the holiday reads:
35. Sycamore Gap - LJ Ross - murder mystery in North East, follow on from Holy Island. Body found inside Hedrians Wall that was approx 10 years old, tied into a group of old murders.

36. The House By the Lake - Ella Carey - The book alternates between present day and 1930s. In the present day version, an American woman is asked by her grandfather to go back to German to his old family palace (which he'd failed to mention prior to this) to get something from under the floorboards after he saw the photos in the paper of the Paris apartment sealed for 70 years. What he left there, he doesn't bother to tell her, nor why the apartment photos stirred memories. So, with no effort to aquire this info, nor finding out if anyone owns/lives in the old family home now, she gets on a plane to Germany. Wanders about while failing to ask who owns the building. Then has complex feelings for the sexy, rich, successful (and frankly unprofessional) German lawyer. The 1930s story is a lot better and far more interesting, a French woman is limited in Parisian society given her family's scandelous past, meets a German man who is struggling with family pressure and the changes to his society as Hitler gains power, although the ending of the 30s story doesn't feel like it fits the rest of the story. Mindless summer read, light and fuffy if you want something non-complex.

37. The Secrets of Gaslight Lane - MRC Kasasian - Another of the Victorian "personal dectective" (not private) book, silly fun.

BTW - has anyone seen anything good from the September monthly Kindle deals thing?

My full list so far:

1. The Return of the Discontinued Man by Mark Hodder
2. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
3. The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman
4. The Inner Guide Meditation by Edwin C. Steinbrecher
5. Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz
6. Worlds of Arthur by Guy Halsall
7. Celtic Tree Magic by Danu Forest
8. Lawless and the Devil of Euston Square by William Sutton
9. Where Witchcraft Lives by Doreen Valiente

10. The Mangle Street Murders by MRC Kasasian 11. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle 12. The Quest for the Wicker Man edited by various 13. Britain BC by Francis Pryor 14. Inquisition by Alfredo Colitto 15. Stonehenge by Mike Parker Pearson 16. Prince by Rory Clements 17. Ever After by Kim Harrison 18. Britain AD by Francis Pryor 19. The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison 20. The Witch With No Name by Kim Harrison 21. Johnson's Life of London by Boris Johnson 22. The Curse of the House of Foskett by MRC Kasasian 23. Traitor by Rory Clements 24. The Heretics by Rory Clements 25. A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow 26. Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbo 27. Make Me by Lee Child 28. Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell 29. Storm Front by Jim Butcher 30. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher 31. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher 32. The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz 33. Summer Knight by Jim Butcher 34. Death Masks by Jim Butcher 35. Blood Rites by Jim Butcher 36. Dead Beat by Jim Butcher 37. Burned by Benedict Jacka 38. Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher 39. White Night by Jim Butcher 40. Small Favour by Jim Butcher 41. The Hay Diet Made Easy by Jackie Habgood 42. Turn Coat Jim Butcher 43. Changes by Jim Butcher 44. Ghost Story by Jim Butcher 45. Side jobs by Jim Butcher 46. Cold Days by Jim Butcher 47. Skin Game by Jim Butcher 48. Boudica by Vanessa Collingridge 49. Runemarks by Joanne Harris 50. Friends of the Dusk by Phil Rickman 51. The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek by Barry Cunliffe 52. Great Britain? by Richard Abbot 53. The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley 54. Uprooted by Naomi Novik 55. The Poison Belt by Arthur Conan Doyle 56. Beowulf (translation) 57. Ghosts of Karnak by George Mann 58. The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester 59. Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary by JRR Tolkien 60. The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman 61. The Long Cosmos by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter 62. A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin 63. Splinter the Silence by Val McDermid 64. Death Descends on Saturn Villa by MRC Kasasian 65. Temeraire by Naomi Novik 66. What's Left? by Nick Cohen 67. The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod 68. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor 69. In the Land of Giants by Max Adams 70. SPQR by Mary Beard 71. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers 72. The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris 73. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett 74. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne 75. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory 76. The New Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko 77. A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin 78. Quiet Impact by Sylvia Loehken 79. The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner by Terry Pratchett 80. Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

Here's my list:

1. Why be happy when you could be normal? by Jeanette Winterson
2. Skellig by David Almond
3. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
4. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
5. The Skeleton Cupboard by Tanya Byron
6. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
7. Fat Chance by Nick Spalding
8. The Exclusives by Rebecca Thornton
9. The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett

10. The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe 11. Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver 12. Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss 13. Romantic Outlaws: the Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon 14. Behind Closed Doors by BA Paris 15. H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald 16. The Night Rainbow by Clair King 17. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 18. Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges 19. Heat Wave by Penelope Lively 20. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness 21. Things We Have in Common by Tasha Kavanagh 22. Bitch in a Bonnet by Robert Rodi 23. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett 24. The Tent, the Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy 25. All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner 26. The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds 27. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson 28. A Year of Being Single by Fiona Collins 29. Travelling to Infinity by Jane Hawking 30. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 31. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy 32. Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Marukami 33. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers 34. The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge 35. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett 36. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas 37. Black Water by Louise Doughty 38. Outline by Rachel Cusk 39. Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller 40. An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks 41. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante 42. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall 43. I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

And adding my latest one:

44. Life Moves Pretty Fast by Hadley Freeman. A homage to films of the 1980s, this makes some interesting points about the representation of women, black people and social class in Hollywood movies, and why it has in some ways got worse in the last 30 years. It's also a great read if you're a fan of Dirty Dancing, When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride, Top Gun, Ghostbusters, Coming to America, Pretty in Pink etc etc. This was a hugely enjoyable nostalgia trip for me.

Dinosaurs - I am resisting buying anything else, but have had a quick look at the monthly deals. There are two Patrick Gale novels - Notes from an Exhibition (I have read and enjoyed this), and A Place Called Winter (not read but expect would be good), The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson (a good read), Shakespeare by Bill Bryson (fascinating read).

Joining in with my list. I keep mine in OneNote on my phone, which is handy but a bastard to cut and paste from. Excuse the bracketed bit after each, I was just curious to see what proportion of books I read in each format, and I can't be bothered to rub them all out for this post.

1. The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch (kindle)
2. Horrible Histories: Scotland by Terry Deary (kindle)
3. The Nothing Girl by Jodi Taylor (kindle)
4. How to be Brave by Louise Beech (audible)
5. Deep Hurt by Eva Hudson (kindle)
6. 600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster (kindle)
7. Windhaven by George RR Martin and Lisa Tuttle (hard copy)
8. Stalin Ate My Homework by Alexei Sayle (audible)
9. In Times Like These by Nathan van Coops (kindle)

10. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (hard copy) 11. Edward Adrift by Craig Lancaster (kindle) 12. The Spanish Game by Charles Cumming (hard copy) 13. All Balls and Glitter by Craig Revel Horwood (kindle) 14. Blackwater Lake by Maggie James (kindle) 15. A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French (audible) 16. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (kindle) 17. Ready, Steady, Dig! by Rosalind Winter (kindle) 18. One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night by Christopher Brookmyre (hard copy) 19. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey (audible) 20. The Dark Monk by Oliver Pötzsch (kindle) 21. The Easy Way to Control Alcohol by Allen Carr (kindle) 22. A Bachelor Establishment by Isabella Barclay (kindle) 23. Shadowboxer by Tricia Sullivan (kindle) 24. The Hollow Crown by Dan Jones (kindle) 25. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (hard copy) 26. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (audible) 27. The Liar's Tale and Other Fibs by Lannah Battley (kindle) 28. Divergent by Veronica Roth (kindle) 29. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (kindle) 30. The Martian by Andy Weir (kindle) 31. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (audible) 32. Watership Down by Richard Adams (kindle) 33. Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman (kindle) 34. White Nights by Ann Cleeves (kindle) 35. The Beggar King by Oliver Pötzsch (kindle) 36. Running with the Kenyans by Adharanand Finn (kindle) 37. The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin (kindle) 38. Where'd You Go Bernadette? By Maria Semple (kindle) 39. Red Bones by Ann Cleeves (kindle) 40. Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller (kindle) 41. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (audible) 42. Death in Bordeaux by Allan Massie (hard copy) 43. Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe (kindle) 44. A Colder War by Charles Cumming (kindle) 45. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick (audible) 46. The Poisoned Pilgrim by Oliver Pötzsch (kindle) 47. Dark Eden by Chris Beckett (kindle) 48. Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir (hard copy) 49. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman (kindle)

thanks Mermaid !

dinsosaurs I am resolutely not buying anything this month! but there are couple that I have already on my tbr - A Death in the Family by Knausgaard which there has been a lot of buzz about (first volume of several of his memoirs) and The Virgin Suicides (I've read Middlesex and and Marriage Plot by him and enjoyed both, but former is v v good). Also Howl's Moving Castle if you don't mind YA, wonderful book by Diana Wynne Jones. Where'd You Go Bernadette is good if you haven't already read it.

I'm tempted by Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Safran Froer as not read that yet, but I'M REALLY NOT BUYING ANYTHING THIS MONTH

I really enjoyed Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close a couple of years ago. It's a pity you're NOT BUYING ANYTHING THIS MONTH Satsuki

Gosh you're a bunch of enablers. I like it here.

I also think I'd enjoy that Hadley Freeman book tarahumara. I'm always saying to my dh films are going backwards in terms of representation of women. It's a topic he can't get enough of

But I might check library for it

My DH loves that topic too Satsuki!

129. Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben

Enjoyed this but was let down by the ending which really irritated me, can't say why without giving it away!

130. Viral by Helen Fitzgerald

I didn't like this which was a shame as I liked the premise - what would it be like if the worst thing you did was filmed and went viral? Unfortunately I didn't like any of the characters, and I really didn't like reading the descriptions of the filmed event. The way the main character's mum acted was just unbelievable.

Thanks for the new thread, south.
I also keep a handwritten list in a notebook I've had for years. Books I've read go from front to back, books I want to read from back to front. For every book I read, I end up adding about twenty to the back list, mostly courtesy of you lot. It's getting a tad far too long.

Bringing my list over.

1. And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
2. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie
3. Fool's Quest, Robin Hobb
4. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
5. The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
6. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
7. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
8. The Road, Cormac McCarthy
9. The Monogram Murders,Sophie Hannah

10. The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey 11. Absolute Pandemonium, Brian Blessed 12. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame 13. Dissolution, C. J. Sansom 14. H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald 15. Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healey 16. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North 17. A Face Like Glass, Frances Hardinge 18. The Gunslinger, Stephen King 19. The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge 20. State of Wonder, Ann Patchett 21. The Invisible Library, Genevieve Cogman 22. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman 23. The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett 24. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck 25. Wolf of the Plains, Conn Iggulden 26. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte 27. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card 28. Daddy-Long-Legs, Jean Webster 29. The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman 30. The Happy Prince and Other Tales, Oscar Wilde 31. The Summer Book, Tove Jansson 32. Divergent, Veronica Roth 33. Insurgent, Veronica Roth 34. Allegiant, Veronica Roth 35. The Humans, Matt Haig 36. Us, David Nicholls 37. Lords of the Bow, Conn Iggulden

I'm still reading This Thing of Darkness, which is so good I'm deliberately not reading it every day, because then it'll end, which I'm not ok with.
I'm also reading Anna Karenina, and might start Cogheart by Peter Bunzl shortly.

Glad to see you're still enjoying This Thing of Darkness Monty. I've been recommending it left right and centre irl lately!

Book 95
The Wastelands by Stephen King
The third Dark Tower book. I really liked it but have read and commented on it several times previously, so no review. It kept me quiet nicely for a few hours when I had nothing else that was appealing to me.

Monty - After Anna Karenina and This Thing Of Darkness, I'm afraid it will be very hard to find a book that won't be a huge disappointment in comparison.

In that case, I would recommend Cloud Atlas

(Waits for abuse from Remus )

46. Time by Stephen Baxter (Manifold #1)

I got this as Kindle Deal of the Day just for the author, whose book Flood I was quite impressed with.

It was interesting and well thought-out, but I have to say that the story was a bit lacking. Stephen Baxter is well-informed and the scientific detail in his books is quite impressive, but he is no Neal Stephenson and the story needed a lot of work imho.

However, there are many brilliant ideas in this book and I'm glad to have read it. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it as much as Flood, though, and I'm not sure if I'll read the two sequels. YMMV, as always.

No abuse from this direction - just a big yawn at the mention of Cloud Atlas. I tried a few pages again a few weeks ago - it still brought me close to dying of boredom.

I still think that you will come back to me one day and admit that it's brilliant. Especially the dystopian and post-apocalyptic stories.

But of course you have to read it first

Why don't you just read those two stories first when you next attempt Cloud Atlas?

I have been wondering how I will match these two when I'm done. I'm having a wonderful time with them, although not getting in as much reading time as I'd like (which I imagine is a constant problem for everyone on this thread).

Cloud Atlas is on my tbr list - maybe that will have to be my next choice. I wonder which side of the fence I'll fall on?

It will be interesting to see, Monty.

I read This Thing Of Darkness after Cloud Atlas and thought the themes were very similar. Just saw that I've been saying this since 2012, too.

29 - The Epigenetics Revolution
Read this based on Cote's review on the previous thread. Really enjoyed it - such a fascinating subject!

30 The Crossing Places - Elly Griffths
The first in a series featuring Dr Ruth Galloway, forensic archaelogist. Really enjoyed this - fast plot, interesting idea and well drawn characters. A quick, enjoyable read. Can't wait to read the next in the series!

That's one mammoth review cote! Now tell me - do I want to read it before or after the book? Any spoilers in there? I scrolled through it very quickly to check the length whilst avoiding details!

42 Secret Seven
43 The Epigenetics Revolution reviewed on here by cote and wilting and I would say I fall somewhere in the middle on this. It was fantastically interesting in some respects and I felt like I learned a lot from it, but wilting's criticisms are sound - as a piece of writing it didn't really know what it was trying to be. It is not a popular science read; some of the later chapters particularly become so dense in cascades of code it was a case of "I'm the glad the DNA knows what it's doing because you lost me some time after the stripy mouse". This is interspersed with some genuinely fascinating insights into how our genes function and are affected by our environments and other factors, but it did fall short in its mode I think. The literary allusions weren't always fitting and felt a bit clunky, and there were risible little descriptions of "tanned neatly groomed professors who wear their learning lightly" which were strangely shoe horned in (I'm paraphrasing as I don't have it in front of me, but not much). Some of the topics explored were a bit low-stakes, and it became at times a weird seesaw between hard science and pure speculation. I'm glad to have read it, but think it was trying to be all things to all men and not quite succeeding. I did enjoy it, and quoted lots to my bemused dh, who was probably wishing I would get back to critiquing misogyny in rom coms.

44 The Pedant in the Kitchen by Julian Barnes

"The relationship between professional and domestic cook has similarities to a sexual encounter. One party is normally more experienced than the other; and either party should have the right, at any moment, to say "No, I'm not going to do that".

I really enjoyed this delightfully witty little book, as The Pedant details his frustrations with the art of cooking, and of recipe translation. If you like cooking and cookery books, or have ever felt like shouting "They're lying again!" while in the middle of following a recipe, I would really recommend it.

On reading a recipe which states that, at this particular point in cooking, "The meat is grey outside and not very appetising. At this moment you may feel a little depressed" the pedant rejoices "isn't that one of the most cheering and pedant-friendly lines a cook ever wrote?... Perhaps, as well as cooking time and number of portions, recipes should also carry a Depression Probability rating. From one to five hangman's nooses"

Funny and well-written, and, though slight, uptight, and, yes, pedantic, also kind of joyful and life-affirming in its way.

I read cote's Cloud Atlas review after I read the book as it is very detailed and like to draw my own conclusions first. It sums up the themes and ideas very well. I really enjoyed CA, it's very cleverly written.

I enjoyed CA too although I disliked the post apocalyptic story mainly because of the language. The dystopian section was my favourite part, loved it and I don't usually like that kind of thing (hate Margaret Atwood's dystopian stuff for example).