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.

98. A Dance With Dragons 2: After the Feast by George RR Martin

The last of the published novels, which moves the story forwards from the previous two books, hence the subtitle. A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons 1 covered the same timescales. From what I know of the story in the TV series the two have now converged quite a bit, although this book contains Cersei's shame, the fate of Jon Snow, and Daenarys' flight from Mereen with Drogo. I just have to wait to see where George RR Martin takes things next, although I assume that some elements of the TV version will be in there since I think he's meant to have told the writers the overall direction.

I loved Lexicon too Cote, the perfect combination of linguistics, philosophy and sci-fi. Is it a re-read for you? I feel like we've "discussed" it before. I've been thinking about it a lot over the last couple of weeks wth regards to the language of media and how where you get your news from narrows your world view.

74. A Little Life- Hanya Yanagihara. A lot of you have probably read this, it was Booker shortlisted last year. It follows four friends living in arty New York from just out of college to middle- age. One, Jude, has been horribly abused as a child, and the main theme is living a life after that. I was expecting to find it rather depressing but in fact couldn't put it down. It is harrowing but also beautifully written, one of my books of the year.

Stokey - Yes, Lexicon was a reread. I first read and highly recommended it back in May 2014. I like to think I "discovered" it on Reddit for the enjoyment of all my 50-Book friends

Stokey my usually very stoical DH admitted to having nightmares after reading A Little Life (a couple of weeks after he'd finished it; it was still playing on his mind) so I still haven't felt strong enough to start it.

I've been having a rather stressy time in real life, have been away for a long time in dodgy WiFi land, with also some illness (mine and others) and property woes thrown in. All very tedious. This hasn't stopped me reading, and now I've caught up with this thread too. I have a massive update which I'll come back and do later when I have more time.

Lexicon sounds great, by the way, that's going straight on the wishlist.

Helloooo! The thread has gone awfully quiet.

Are you all taking a break from MN because you are scared of the new-and-improved trigger-happy MNHQ banning you on the spot because of a single careless post as I am?

Or are you just avoiding this thread because you can feel that I'm about to finish my Rameau book and a long rambling review about his genius Baroque music is on the way?

76. Taking To The Dead - Harry Bingham
77. Rubbernecker - Belinda Bauer

Two books coincidentally set within 200 yards of my office.

The first, a police procedural, I really disliked I'm sorry to say. I didn't find anything to like in the main character and was just bored by the story. I was also irritated by the made up Welsh place names which just didn't sound right and one or two other factual errors.

Rubbernecker, however, was excellent. An anatomy student with Aspergers becomes convinced the body his group of students are dissecting has been murdered. I'm sure the plot was full of holes but it ripped along and the scenes set in a neurology ward were very good. Your sympathy is with Patrick the young student all the way through the book. The leatherback turtle is on the ground floor of the museum though, not the first. I get terribly pedantic when books feature places I know.

Finally collated my books so far this year and found a few I hadn't counted on my kindle too.

2016 Books

1. Stephen King - Mr Mercedes.
2. Cryptonomicron - Neal Stephenson.
3. Howards End - E. M. Forster.
4. I think you'll find it's A big more complicated than that - Ben Goldacre.
5. Bill Bryson - The Road to Little Dribbling
6. How To Be A Bad Birdwatcher - Simon Barnes.
7. Birdwatching with your eyes shut - Simon Barnes
8. The Potters House - Rosie Thomas
9. The Outcast Dead - Elly Griffiths

10. The Ghost Fields -Elly Griffiths 11. The Making of a Clinical Psychologist - Dr Tanya Byron 12. God In Ruins - Kate Atkinson 13. Pygmalion - Shaw 14. Not Quite Nice - Celia Imrie 15. The Secret Life of Bletchley Park: The WWII Codebreaking Centre and the Men and Women Who Worked There - Sinclair Mackay 16. Darkside - Belinda Bauer 17. Stasiland - Anna Funder. 18. The Janissary Tree - Jason Goodwin 19. In the Midst Of Life - Jennifer Worth 20. Finders Keepers - Belind Bauer 21. Brooklyn - Colm Toibin 22. Moving - Jenny Eclair 23. Offshore - Anne Cleeves. 24. In Your Prime - India Knight. 25. Cold in The Earth - Aline Templeton. 26. HHhH - Laurence Binet 27. The Country Girls - Edna O'Brien 28. Poems that make Grown Women Cry - edited by Anthony and Ben Holden 30. Reasons to stay Alive - Matt Haig 31. Ada's Algorithm - James Essinger 32. Runaway -Peter May 33. Aline Templeton - The Darkness and the Deep 34. Aline Templeton - Lying Dead 35.Aline Templeton - Lamb to the slaughter 36. In Plain Sight -The life and lies of Jimmy Savile - Dan Davies 37. Friday on My Mind - Nicci French. 38. The Hogs Back Mystery - Freeman Wills Croft 39. From Cradle to Grave - Aline Templeton. 40. Dissolution - C.J. Sansom 41. Lab Girl - Hope Jahren 41. History of the Workd in 101/2 Chapters - Julian Barnes 43. The Ladies Paradise -Emile Zola 44. The Princess Diaries - Meg Cabot 45. Dead in the Water -Aline Templeton 46. A Game For All The Family - Sophie Hannah 46. This Thing Of Darkness - Harry Thompson 47. House of Cards - Michael Dobbs 48. Margaret Forster - Hidden Lives 49. Hope and Glory - Stuart Maconie 50. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child 51/52. It shouldn't happen to a Vet/ If only they could talk - James Herriot. 53.Enigma - Robert Harris 54, 55 and 56 Books 3 and 4 and 5 in the James Herriot vet series. 57. Alan Turing: The Enigma - Andrew Hodges. 58. The Shell Seekers - Rosamunde Pilcher. 59. Coming Home - Rosamunde Pilcher. 60. Saturday Requiem -Nicci French. 61. I See You - Clare Mackintosh. 62. Mount - Jilly Cooper. 63. My Dear I Wanted To Tell You - Louisa Young 64. Toby's Room - Pat Barker. 65. Noonday - Pat Barker. 66. The Communist Manifesto - Marx and Engels. 67. All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque 68. Regeneration - Pat Barker 69. Lisa and Co - Jilly Cooper 70. The Shepherd's Life - James Rebanks 71. Forgotten Voices of The Great War - Max Arthur 72. The Eye In The Door 73. The Ghost Road - Pat Barker 74. Three Lies - Liane Moriarty 75. The Cazalets by Elizabeth Jane Howard. 76. Taking To The Dead - Harry Bingham 77. Rubbernecker - Belinda Bauer 78. How to Measure A Cow - Margaret Forster 79. Last Guests of The Season - Sue Gee 80. Reading In Bed -Sue Gee 81. The Little Shop of Happy Ever After - Jenny Colgan 82. The Murder Bag - Tony Parsons 83. A Banquet of Consequences (Inspector Lynley) - Elizabeth George 85. Total Recall - Pippa Mattinson

Might make 100 yet.

I thought you were joking about being banned cote I didn't realise - were you too scathing about first novel by a female author somewhere

I enjoyed the brief musical interlude you introduced to the thread on your last Baroque binge.

I've been reading very slowly this week as have been busy and distracted by Christmas

I fear neither banning nor Rameau rambling. I'll try to keep my reviews short and sweet, as there are a few:

62. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver This sizzled with nature, summer, sex and love. Seen from the viewpoints of three characters, experiencing the same patch of rural America, and the same issues, from very different starting points. They barely meet, but the book gradually reveals how intertwined their lives are. Great writing, loved this.

63. The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths A rec from this thread, sorry can't remember who, but thanks, it was good. Forensic archaeology, realistic female protagonist and wild landscapes all make good thriller ingredients. Felt like I was in a first year archaeology lecture at times, and plot and narrative wise I had a few really? yeah right moments, but overall very readable.

64. Edward Unspooled by Craig Lancaster Third outing for this much loved character, and as ever I am rooting for him every step of the way. He seems a little more self aware now, and sometimes that makes the tone slip more towards the cynical and maudlin, rather than the genuinely tear jerking moments of the last two books, but I think that is legitimate character development. I still love Edward.

65. The Little Book of Mindfulness by Dr Patrizia Collard It is as described in the title. I'm a long term fan of mindfulness in theory, but rarely put it into practice. However, I have now done about half the exercises in this book, as they are practical, realistic and manageable.

66. A History of Ancient Britain by Neil Oliver Another one that does what it says in the title. A gallop through from the Paleolithic to the Romans in a chatty but knowledgable style that offers just the right level of interpretation and discussion to keep the casual reader happy. His passion, particularly for how things were made / done in prehistory really shines through.

67. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith Another rec from the thread. I am an absolute sucker for 1930s poor little rich kids coming of age type novels. This was utterly charming and actually very funny in places. Why do books like this work so well in an English setting? I can't imagine a book like this being set, for example, in Scotland. When I'm reading this type of book, I always daydream that it's MY childhood, but of course that couldn't be further from the truth. Does anyone have any recommendations of other books fitting this genre?

68. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert Entertaining exploration of creativity, mostly aimed, I think, at potential novelists, which I'm not. I didn't agree with everything the author said, but I ended up rather liking her.

Museum - do they need to be 1930s? If earlier ok (not stated exactly, but around 1910 or so), Thank Heaven Fasting is only 99p on Kindle.

Well, I've read some stuff so here's a post from me Cote. None of it is remotely sci-fi though, nor is it in any way Rameau related.

93. Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse
Harry thinks he's half-man, half-wolf. He's not really of course, he just has two different sides to him that wrestle with each other - the civilised side and the uncivilised side. By the end he realises he can have numerous sides and things get crazy - or do they? I dodn't know to be honest. If someone would like to explain this book to me I would be very grateful.

94. The Call of the Wild - Jack London
Buck, a St. Bernard cross is kidnapped (dognapped I guess) and ends up in Canada pulling heavy sleds for gold prospectors and the mail men. The dogs are not treated well as a rule and there is much brutality here. I wouldn't say I enjoyed this, but I certainly found it interesting and unusual.

95. The Lesser Bohemians - Eimear McBride
This is one of my favourite books of the year so far, possibly my favourite, but I baulk at recommending it as a. it's full of sex and b. the language is a sort of Joycean creation of half-sentences and words slewed together. Honestly though, I was bowled over by this. Sometimes the prose read like poetry, with occasional almost Shakespearian elements, not surprising as the book is about a young Irish girl at drama school in London in the 1990s. She meets an older man, an actor, and the book is all about their involvement. I normally cannot abide reading sex scenes but somehow this worked. My only criticism is it was a tad overlong, but it made me cry! I would absolutely recommend reading a Kindle sample before buying because this won't be to everyone's taste. I read this as an ebook borrowed from the public library. Wow.

Sadik thanks, not read that one. Looks just the thing, especially at 99p

161. Crown of Blood by Nicola Tallis

I went to see the author talk the other day about this book, about Lady Jane Grey. I found both the talk and the book really interesting as I didn't know much about her before. I hadn't realised how young she was - only 17 when she was executed. Rather a sad story all round but a recommended read.

162. Gone without a trace by Mary Torjussen

Psychological thriller written by a mumsnetter, recommended on another thread. I really enjoyed this, I did guess part of the twist but didn't see the main twist coming at all.

Just realised that maybe you wanted lighthearted - it's very good, but it's definitely not funny!

What! I've spent my 99p, now you tell me! No, light-hearted was optional.

Satsuki - For once, I'm not the one in danger of a ban

All hell broke loose in the last couple of days with Justine herself getting called names, deleting/banning loads of people, then all those threads about banned people getting deleted, jittery MNers asking MN what the current banning policy is, Justine declaring that verbal abuse of MNHQ people won't be tolerated and that those who aren't happy should feck off (not her exact words, I'm slightly paraphrasing here).

Good to know that all is well on the 50-Book Thread, though

whippet - I read Steppenwolf as a teenager. Can't say I got much from it but I remember it feeling admirably rebellious & angsty.

50. Going To Sea In A Sieve - Danny Baker

Quick and easy to read, and utterly irresistible autobiography covering his childhood and early career. I don't think I appreciated what a very funny writer he is.

44. Butterflies in November by Audit Ava Ólafsdóttir.

Interesting to get a Welsh perspective on the Harry Bingham books, Best. I agree that it's toothgrindingly frustrating when authors are wrong about things you happen to know quite well.

I haven't posted much as I seem to be surrounded by part-read books.

Museum I love 1930 stuff - as well as E M Delafield, you might like some Angela Thirkell (try High Rising) and E F Benson, although his most famous characters are triumphantly middle-aged.

two to add

Ulverton by Adam Thorpe - this was a thinly linked history of a village throughout time from cronwell to the 1980s. There were running themes of properties and families throughout but it was not a standard chronological treatment - it probably has more in common with Cloud Atlas than a family saga. It was interesting but I didn't love it. Some of the literary devices used to make each story stand apart were very annoying (extremely heavy dialect, depositions for trial mixed in with stream of consciousness) but as there was a fairly tenuous link between the stories, it meant that I could skip a couple of the more annoying ones without losing the essence. Some of the stories were very compelling and interesting but others were less successful. I'd not go looking for other stuff by the same author but if you were stuck on holiday and found it on the shelf, it wouldn't be an awful way to spend a couple of afternoons! Faint praise! I suppose this style has really been taken on and developed into something much more interesting although I did like the concentration on the physical and geographical centre of the book and the fact that the people connected to those places were rather a second-thought.

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald. Set in a small village in east Anglia. the protagonist opens a bookshop and pisses off the local queen bee. This is a very economically written book, in plot, emotions and characterisation. All in a good way. Some lovely cameo characters who I very much enjoyed. The ending was a bit too bleak for me and in the post brexit world, I am not sure I can stomach and humour much more of the petty small mindedness of some English people as fictionalised and romanced in so much mid-century literature. So that probably took some of the shine off discovering a new (to me) writer in a genre I normally enjoy (LOVED the map and lucia books)

Museum have you read Dusty Answers by Rosamund Lehmann? Has the same vibe as ICTC

Thanks biblio and Free - yes to High Rising, just the thing, and Dusty Answer is a new one on me, so that's gone on the wish list. EF Benson / Mapp and Lucia doesn't quite hit the same spot (fussy). I think there was something female authors of the time were capturing really well, of young people hovering on the brink between innocence and knowingness, in an age which was in some ways simpler, but had complex social rules and expectations to navigate. And if they did this in the bosom of a genteel, eccentric, but maybe slightly down at heel family, so much the better, but that's optional. Maybe I should just put Virago Modern Classics into the Amazon search and see what comes up that I haven't read, as most of my favourites that fit this pattern seem to be on the VMC imprint!

oh, there's a lovely one that DH bought me for Christmas a few years ago. I think it's a Virago Classic. I'll have a look on the bookcase when I get home

I too want to know what MN wanted to ban you for in the past, Cote - are there perhaps lots of women authors with first books just published amongst the MN staff . . .?

Museum - have you read Frost in May? Another not-at-all-cheerful one, mind you - I think Virago published a whole run of depressing young women coming of age stories around the same time.