50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Seven

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the final thread 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, please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read, and to anyone who hasn't posted, feel free to de-lurk and share with us what you've read so far this year.

The first thread of 2016 is here, second thread here, third thread here, fourth thread here, fifth thread here and sixth thread here.

Checking in on new thread. Thanks southeast!

CHECKING IN.

"final thread" > is that a challenge to us to fill up another one in record quick time, southeast?

Anyway, I've reached 100! With My Antonia by Willa Cather, much reviewed and enjoyed on the previous thread. I also liked it a great deal, in a grown-up-Little-House-on-the-Prarie sort of way, really more for the descriptions of place than the story per se. I particularly enjoyed the first section where they were children. (However, I am guilty of reading Farmer Boy and coming away with useful gardening tips, so perhaps not the most discriminating novel reader.)

Thanks, southeast!

Sadik, I've been known to reread parts of Farmer Boy for the food...

Wow, 7th thread. Not sure we've managed 7 before

I was getting ready to post and I had read over 50 all noted on my tablet and I just had to restore it to factory settings. Aargh

Checking in. Will post up-to-date list when have a moment.

Checking into our new thread with my latest.

75. The Wee Free Men – Terry Pratchett. DS has finally been initiated into the fantastic Discworld with this audio version of The Wee Free Men read by Stephen Briggs. I have read this book a few times. This time we listened the audio on the school run. This is the story of Tiffany Aching who has to go into fairyland and get back her brother from the Queen of the Elves who has stolen him. With the help of the feegles she uses her wits and insight to battle the queen and save the day. This book is Pratchett at his best and for me it is like putting on an old comfy jumper. There are so many gems in this book but this is one of my favourites: “them as can has to do for them as can’t. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.”

Anyone else struggling to get some books finished? I have about 6 books I have started and for various reasons ended up putting down and not picking up again. There is only one that I wasn't really enjoying so I must really try to get back on track before I start any more new ones this year.

Thanks Southeast.

Yy sadik it is the descriptions I love in My Antonia - the seasons, making weird bread, the delightful Christmas preparations when they can't get to town, and the feel of it all rather than what happens. Yes to, grown up little house

There's a Kindle daily deal of Neil Gaiman books today, all priced 99p. I'm still undecided whether I like his books but have bought Neverwhere - looks intriguing.

Just checking in to the new thread. Thanks Southeast

I read My Antonia either last year or the year before and really enjoyed it. A great novel.

Not sure if I should buy an Gaiman books or not!

I'm undecided on Gaiman, too. I still have a couple I haven't read yet, disliked American Gods which everyone who likes him seems to love. He seems a nice chap though.

I'm into one at the moment, grifone but, yes, I've started several and not got going with them. Is All the Light We Cannot See a slow starter? All present-tense and annoying in first few pages.

Here's my list for the new thread:

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 44. Life Moves Pretty Fast by Hadley Freeman 45. Families and How to Survive Them by Robin Skynner and John Cleese 46. After You by Jojo Moyes 47. The Hare With The Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal 48. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari 49. The Stranger in My Home by Adele Parks 50. The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin

Stick with All the Light You Cannot See Satsuki. I think you'll find it's worth it.

Read two books to do with walking - although the subject was not dissimilar, the treatment was quite different.

107) Walking with Plato, Gary Hayden.
Author and girlfriend walk from John O'Groats to Land's End. It's a fairly bald account, as he didn't make notes at the time and was apparently reconstructing events from his Facebook updates. The philosophy side is sub-Alain de Botton musing (not as much a sneer as it sounds - in the right mood, I like a bit of Alain de Botton). I rather enjoyed it as I have a soft spot for banality in accounts of travel.

108. The Fish Ladder, Katharine Norbury
An account of tracing various rivers back to their source, freighted with all sorts of meaning around tracing her own roots (she was adopted as a baby)and dealing with the slings and arrows life throws at you (serious illness, parental death, miscarriage). It occasionally hovers on the edge of being a bit precious - everything she encounters is so replete with deep meaning, it almost slips into self-parody. But there is a lot to like here too, so I found it worth the read.

Currently on:
109. Talking to the Dead, Harry Bingham
Police procedural set in Wales. I read a later book in the series (this is the first) so the teasers about her back-story are a bit pointless, but it's still engaging. Recommended if you like crime.

47. The Moth Catcher by Anne Cleeves - I bought this as a cheap audiobook. It's a Vera Stanhope murder mystery, my first but her seventh. Enjoyable to listen to, but nothing supersonic.

Thanks for new thread south.

I might suggest Tenant of Wildfell Hall for our next book club book, slightly surprised I haven't read it.

I won't bring over my whole list but my highlights for 2016 so far are:

No Country for old Men
Seveneves
Winter's Bone
The Girl with all the Gifts - (yes really!)

I didn't like it Satsuki , but I think I'm an outlier on it

Maples How lovely!

Here's my list:

1. The Victorian Detective
2. Stasiland
3. Career of Evil
4. Bazaar of Bad Dreams
5. The Book of Strange New Things - HATED
6. Travel guide/history Germany
7. Ditto
8. Sherlock Holmes & the Yule Tide Mystery
9. The Good Fairies of New York
10. The Great Railway Bazaar
11. The Daffodil Mystery
12. In the Land of White Death
13. The Victorian Workhouse
14. The Lie Tree
15. Sherlock Holmes: The Spirit Box
16. The English at the North Pole
17. Leaving Berlin
18. The Worst Journey in the World
19. Berlin – Rory Maclean
20. Clouds of Witness (Lord Peter Wimsey)
21. Dead Street
22. Uglies
23. Max Carrados
24. The Osiris Ritual
25. The Holy Thief
26. The Janissary Tree
27. The Spy who Came in from the Cold
28. The Big Bow Mystery
29. How to be a Victorian
30. The Enchanted April
31. The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth
32. The Lady Vanishes
33. The Lady from Nowhere
34. The Green Mummy
35. Fool Moon
36. Hitchhikers’ Guide series
37. Ditto
38. Ditto
39. Ditto
40. A Very British Murder
41. Playing to the Gallery – Grayson Perry
42. Gone to Ground
43. Faust’s Metropolis
44. Sad Cypress
45. The Secret Adversary
46. A Colder War
47. The Good German
48. All Creatures Great and Small
49. Stalin’s Nose
50. The Ghosts of Berlin
51. The Lord God Made them All
52. Murder – British Crime Classic
53. A Spy Amongst Friends
54. Fear Stalks the Village
55. Berlin Now
56. My Man Jeeves
57. The Mysterious Affair at Styles
58. Just One Damned Thing After Another - HATED
59. The Ice Cold Heaven
60. A Man Lay Dead
61. Behold, Here’s Poison
62. Lord of the Flies
63. Wolf of the Plains
64. Lords of the Bow
65. Lady Susan
66. Facing Up
67. The Midnight Swimmer
68. The Loney
69. Mary – Nabakov
70. I Capture the Castle
71. Lies We Tell Ourselves
72. End of Watch
73. True Grit
74. Whose Body?
75. Jane Austen and Food
76. Bird Box
77. Until the Final Hour
78. Every Dead Thing
79. The Things They Carried
80. Into Darkness
81. Anatomy of a Soldier
82. A Woman in Berlin
83. All the Light we Cannot See
84. A Walk in the Woods
85. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - HATED
86. Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance
87. The Crossing of Antarctica
88. Destination Unknown – Agatha Christie
89. Ordeal by Innocence –Agatha Christie
90. The Other Side of Silence
91. Nazi Women
92. The Man in the High Castle
93. Revelations of a Lady Detective
94. The Drawing of the Three
95. The Wastelands – King
96. Wizard and Glass
97. Wolves of the Calla
98. The End of Innocence – Edith Wharton - HATED
99. His Bloody Project
100. The Dark Tower
101. The Fireman – Joe Hill
102. The Berlin Conspiracy
103. We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
104. Morning Star – Pierce Brown
105. Orphans of the Carnival - HATED
106. The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton
107. The Halloween Party – Agatha Christie
108. We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
109. Mansfield Revisited – Joan Aiken
110. Lady Catherine’s Necklace – Joan Aiken
111. Midnight is a Place – Joan Aiken
112. Burial Rites
113. Flowers forAlgernon
114. 111 Places in Berlin: On the Trail of the Nazis
115. Two Brothers – Ben Elton

I've just bought dd2 'a bit of Cox' so might borrow it. It's huge though, so too heavy to read in the bath!

Thanks, I'll persevere and see what side I fall on.

Love the code you've devised for the ones you weren't so keen on, Remus

maplessglobe that's great, and please do join in next year

My book update:

48. The Shining by Stephen King.

Classic atmospheric horror from Mr King. Really very good. I watched the film when I was about 13/14, scared me to death and the book did not disappoint.

49. Slade House by David Mitchell.

This has been reviewed a fair bit already on this thread. Suffice to say that I'll add my name to the 'Enjoyed it* pile. He is such a clever, inviting writer. I love that he mentions characters from his other books and enjoy noticing his pop culture references.

50. Siblings without Rivalry by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish.

Recommended on the previous thread, sorry, but I can't remember who by! I've already read their other book this year "How to talk to kids" which I thought was excellent in helping me to stop shouting (as much) at my two boys and giving me different approaches to various situations. I thought this one was just as good. Easy, fun layout with good take-home messages. I even tried out one of their techniques and it worked like a charm! One very happy mummy..

I also picked up All quiet..! 😀 Looking forward to reading it..
Satsuki- I also did not get on with All the Light.. and gave up so will be interested if you find that it gets better.

I've reached 50 - yay! 🍾🎉

And here they are (best in bold, really very disappointing in italics):

1. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.

2. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.

1. Instrumental by James Rhodes.
2. Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
3. City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett.
4. Written in Fire (Book 3 of the Brilliance trilogy) by Markus Sakey.
5. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.

8. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler. 9. Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. 10. Monsters of Men (Bk 3 of Chaos Walking Trilogy) by Patrick Ness. 11. The Mime Order (The Bone Season series) by Samantha Shannon. 12. The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett. 13. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. 14. Restoration by Rose Tremain. 15. How to Talk so Kids will Listen and Listen so Kids will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. 16. The House at Pooh Corner by A.A.Milne. 17. Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovich 18. Dragonflight; The First Chronicles of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. 19. Olive Kettridge by Elizabeth Strout. 20. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. 21. Flesh Wounds by Christopher Brookmyre. 22. Farewell Kabul by Christina Lamb. 23. Winnie-The-Pooh by AA Milne. 24. So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. 25. The Summer without Men by Siri Hustvedt. 26. Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive Book 2) by Brandon Sanderson. 27. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. 28. The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks. 29. The Atlantis Gene by A.G. Riddle. 30. Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham. 31. Fool Moon (The Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher. 32. Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon. 33. On Beauty by Zadie Smith 34. Red Moon by Benjamin Percy. 35. The Amber Fury by Natalie Hynes. 36. Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn. 37. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. 38. The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff. 39. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby. 40. Purity by Jonathan Franzen. 41. The Stand by Stephen King. 42. Noontide Toll by Romesh Gunesekera. 43. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. 44. Yes please by Amy Poehler. 45. Foxglove Summer (PC Peter Grant Book 5) by Ben Aaranovitch. 46. The Various Haunts of Men (Simon Serailler Book 1) by Susan Hill. 47. Uprooted by Naomi Novic. 48. The Shining by Stephen King. 49. Slade House by David Mitchell. 50. Siblings without Rivalry by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish.

Maples - that was me two years ago! The 2013 thread encouraged me back into reading and I've not looked back. I love this thread. 📚📚📚

- I thought I'd keep it nice and simple!