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.

I didn't like The Man In The High Castle, either. Surprisingly, since I read load of his stuff and would rate the vast majority Good to Very Good.

I really want to read his A Scanner Darkly and The Martian Time-Slip again, actually. The latter was brilliantly brainhurty.

See, I loved The Man In The High Castle - it's by far my favourite PKD - but I couldn't get on with Valis at all. Ubik, Three Stigmata and Do Androids Dream also up there imo.

Really liked Do Androids Dream.

I loved Do Androids Dream, too.

If you liked Ubik, please read The Martian Time-Slip.

Hmm, have picked up Pandemonium thank you cote! Tho I don't generally read about demons, so not entirely sure but what the hell

As for the blue nylon bag, it itself might not be important but surely it tells us something about the narrator; to me, the owner of a blue nylon duffel bag is likely to be young, male and poor. judgy or what?!

Have finished 2 more books:

54. Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole by Allan H Ropper; I enjoyed this, I think it has been previously reviewed upthread. It's a fictionalised account of various patients with different neurological diseases. It possibly lacked a bit of follow through, and has a more dated approach perhaps than books such as Do No Harm or Atul Gawande's efforts; both of which to me are more interesting and better books. This is more James Herriot territory. I still enjoyed it though, short and engaging. Good enough read.

55. Shades of Grey by Jasper Forde; I haven't read any JF in ages. Just got bored with the self conscious tricksy style of writing. However, after my long break it was really refreshing. You do need to like the kind of books where you are landed into an alternative reality with completely different rules, and ways of being and you have a lot of figuring out to do while the author world builds around you. It is a bit of effort but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was brain-hurty Essentially, we have a society where everyone and everything has a barcode. Apart from apples and donkeys. Your social standing is determined by your perception of colour. "Something Happened" a long time ago and ever since, it's all bout maintaining stasis. With every Leap Back, yet more technology is put beyond use. There's a world outside the boundaries of this society though and our hero gradually has his own epiphany with the help of a lowly grey, Jane. Yes, there is some romance but v little. Don't let that put you off! It's all very imaginative, surreal and a bit edgy. I really enjoyed it.

Wilting - I have Being Mortal next on my to read pile, but am waiting until after Christmas, in case it depresses me! I liked Down the Rabbit Hole better than Do No Harm but not as much as the two Atul G's I've read so far.

Interested to see that you enjoyed Shades of Grey. I gave up on it in disgust. Didn't find it brain-hurty but got v tired of his wittering and how clever and hilarious he clearly thinks himself.

57. Pour Me - A.A Gill. The memoir from the late writer, I found this surprisingly quite hard to read for more than a dozen or so pages at a time. His style of writing worked for me much better in short chunks as in his TV reviews - here I found his prose quite exhausting.

58. The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories - P.D James. Four short stories from the famous crime author, the first two of them were fun to read but the other two bored me. I wouldn't recommend anyone paying the RRP of £9.99 for this book.

"As for the blue nylon bag, it itself might not be important but surely it tells us something about the narrator; to me, the owner of a blue nylon duffel bag is likely to be young, male and poor. grin judgy or what?!"

You are right, wilting!

54. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone what this is about but it reminded me how much I love Dickens' writing. Would love to have recommendations for his finest books - I've read and enjoyed Bleak House, Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend.

60. Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory

I really enjoyed this. The story was very original and its plot kept on ticking without a dull moment. Dialogue was sort of juvenile (although perhaps quite realistic in a young-male-in-US sort of way) but surprisingly, that slight YA tone didn't bother me except the one toe-curlingly awful sex scene.

It was an interesting ride. I would recommend this book for a light read.

I rather liked Shades of Grey, but I agree in general a little Jasper Fforde goes a long way.

I've had a bit of a thin patch recently, but a few more strong ones coming along to finish the year:

108 The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan, listened to on audio.

I have mixed feelings on this one. I suspect, to be fair, had I come to it with lower expectations I'd have been more impressed. I guess I was expecting a "Guns Germs and Steel" or a "Living Fields", whereas I felt this was much more conventional Great Man one-thing-after-another history. A lot (perhaps most) of the content was reasonably familiar to me (and some sections felt much stronger than others), but obviously what the book did - and very well - was bring together the full sweep through time.

109 Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps that tell you everything you need to know about Global Politics by Tim Marshall.

This was almost the reverse - I came to it with moderate expectations having read some offputting reviews, but was really impressed, one of my stand out books of the year. He goes through 10 major regions of the world drawing out key features of the physical geography that have driven geopolitical developments and that are likely to continue to do so in the future. Short, sharp, and very very readable. Actually, I'd cheerfully read a whole book by him on each of the maps (in particular Africa and Russia/surrounding region.)

Meanwhile, I'm halfway into Song Of Kali by Dan Simmons and it's really good

I'm with remus on the blue nylon bag - in the third person maybe it would be a way of giving you that information...but the narrator saying "I picked up my blue nylon bag" is a bit Dan Brown.

Well, it's not literature. And yet it's still well done, imho. The story is original and its execution is pretty good, too.

Just finished another one, I suspect potentially the last of the year (I've had books running on Kindle app / audio / real book simultaneously because of work & travel):

110 Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics by Richard Thaler.

Got this very cheap on Kindle (in fact ex-post it was free because they gave me a voucher when I got the app which then applied to the purchase, which is all wrong in terms of incentives but made me feel a little more warm and fuzzy towards Evil Amazon, quite aptly for the book).

This book was always going to annoy me and, realistically I did know that, hence why hadn't bought it previously. I'd say overall it was more irritating, but did eventually have (a bit) more interesting content than it might have done.

The author talks endlessly about how 'economists think X' and 'economists say Y' when what he actually means is "Economists of the Chicago School". He makes a big play about the heretical nature of his work - but plenty of what he says was no news when I started studying economics as an undergraduate the best part of 30 years ago. Basically, the key message of the book is to illustrate the incredibly narrow and blinkered view of the world that a certain subset of US economists hold.

If you're not a British person with a somewhat heterodox economics background who is going to sit there with smoke coming out of her ears, it's an easy enough read and rattles along. But I'd say give it a miss (probably even for free) and hack your way through Thinking Fast And Slow by Daniel Kahneman instead. It may be a harder read, but it's greatly more illuminating.

Book 129
A Study in Murder by Robert Ryan
One of his Dr Watson mysteries. I’m sorry to say that this was terrible. Holmes is in a German PoW camp with an old foe determined to use this to his own advantage. Meanwhile there have been a number of mysterious deaths in the camp. This was better than The Fifth Heart in terms of a Holmes spin-off, but only because it was short. It was equally ridiculous and badly written.

Book 130
Hitler’s Olympics: The Story of the 1936 Olympic Games - Anton Rippon
Bought because it was cheap on Kindle. It was okay. I’d have liked more history and less about who won which race etc. Have visited the stadium irl and it is awe-inspiring, but this book didn’t really get that across.

106. All Out War by Tim Shipman

This is a phenomenally good book. For a political geek it is an absolute goldmine of both tactics and gossip, but it would be of interest to any reader. Shipman is the political editor of the Sunday Times and as such has an incredible amount of access to absolutely all the big names and key players on both sides of the referendum on Britain's membership of the EU, with the possible exceptions of David Cameron, Theresa May, and Jeremy Corbyn, none of whom are quoted as interviewed. It doesn't look into the arguments but is a full account of what was going on in all camps from before Cameron's attempted renegotiation in Brussels through to the fiasco of the failed Labour coup against Corbyn, the knifing of Boris Johnson by Michael Gove (and what was going on behind the scenes which led up to it) and Theresa May's selection of her first Cabinet.

What it brought into sharp focus for me was just how much of a clash of the campaigning titans the whole thing was. Craig Oliver, on the Remain side, was pretty good but Stronger In was stuck in the mindset of following the format of the successful campaigns in the Scottish referendum and the 2015 General Election and so stuck rigidly to the economics script which didn't have the cut through they needed. They were also misled by Andrew Cooper's polling, which put Remain ahead throughout, and so thought that while it might be close they would win. Cooper was 14 points out on his final poll.

Dominic Cummings, for Vote Leave, is rather a dictatorial character who had to see off a laughable attempt to oust him by a group of MPs early on in proceedings, but he is an incredible tactician and campaigner. He had the loyalty of the staff at Vote Leave, who knew he knew what he was doing, and so was able to see off the attempted ousting because most of the staff would have walked with him. If the attempt had succeeded it is possible that Leave.EU (Banks and Farage) would have had the official Leave designation and the whole referendum campaign, including the outcome, could have been very different.

This is hands down the best book I have read this year.

Remus you might enjoy this, I read it quite a few years ago and thought it was great :

In Black And White: The Untold Story Of Joe Louis And Jesse Owens www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471135330/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_o9exybQA7WJ5Q

Thanks, Meg. It's the Berlin history stuff I'm interested in tbh, rather than any of the sports men/women.

55. This Charming Man by Marian Keyes. Earlier in this thread I was moaning about how hard it is to find decent chick lit, but this is a good un. Light and easy but with a meaningful sub plot (domestic violence and alcoholism), good characters, funny, not cliched - this is everything I want from chick lit.

Thanks for the recommendation Chillie

73. Mother of Eden by Chris Beckett Set a few generations after Dark Eden, following the rift at the end of that book, the population had become more dispersed, and some strands have become more patriarchal and stratified. As with Dark Eden, chapters are narrated by alternating characters, in their simple Eden way of speaking. The planet itself is a wonderful creation, and I'm glad that wasn't forgotten about as human business becomes more complex and inward facing. Enjoyed this.

I had planned some lovely Christmas reading, but I've just been running around frazzled, and have hardly read at all for the last few days. Maybe between Christmas and New Year I will get to sit down at some point.

The kindle 12 days of Christmas sale has started

Yes yes to the running around frazzled!