50 Book Challenge 2017 Part One

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2017, 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.

Who's in for this year?

Marking. Have set my goodreads at 100 again, fell slightly short last year but determined. Currently reading Susan Hill's Strange Meeting which is bloody cracking.

I like the look of The Dark Net. Might add it to my kindle pile. Thanks for the review Boldly 👍🏻

Sadik sorry just saw your comment to me re: Tanya Byron. Yes it was the Skelington Cupboard. She narrated the foreword but doesn't read the whole thing. However, the lady who does actually sounds like her. And it reads well.

As for audible I'm currently listening to Truely madly guilty by Liane Moriarty. I'm struggling with it a bit though. It won an award on Goodreads just recently and I have listened to several of her others on audible narrated by Caroline Lee and enjoyed them. This one seems to be going nowhere though! And Lee's voice is starting to grate (even though she's previously been a favourite reader for me)

Cant You may enjoy Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill.

1. The North Water by Ian McGuire

A great start to the year! This is historical fiction set in the second half of 1800s, about a whaling expedition to Antarctica. The story follows the ship's surgeon (representing the modern, educated, intellectual, civilised man - the thinker) and its harpoonist (representing the uncouth, uneducated, instinctive man - the savage).

It's metaphorical like Lord Of The Flies, 'real' & gritty like The Revenant, profound & well-written like Cloud Atlas and This Thing Of Darkness. If you liked any of those books, you will probably enjoy this one.

I would love to talk about it but whatever I say will be a spoiler! Hurry up and read it so we can discuss it in a separate thread

Cote I missed it when it was cheap on Kindle. :( :( Want to read it even more now I've read your review.

Ive just finished The pursued by C S Forester, it wasn't originally next on my list until I remembered it was a library book and I need to return it tomorrow!

I wasn't aware until I picked this up at the library that Forester had written 3 crime novels, as well as his more famous Hornblower books. This is a thin book but a good read. Its quite brual in places, with chillingly matter of fact scenes of marital rape amongst other things. Its written from the perspective of a daughter but gradually I realised it was the mothers story that was really being told. I found it quite gripping although a little bit hurried at the conclusion.

Ditto what remus said cote. Sounds brilliant.

Museumofham I remember struggling a bit with the lacuna as it seemed a little longer than necessary. I really enjoyed the history side and the story of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera but the backstory/narrator/"main character" just didn't grab me at all.

Remus & Satsuki - I think you will both like it.

I finished book 2 today, After The Crash by Michel Bussi. It wasn't great to be honest, with lots of chapters ending on cliffhangers. Many of these were simply a page in a notebook being torn off at a crucial point, prolonging the big reveal of the identity of baby Lylie (a combination of Lyse- Rose and Emilie, her two possible names(!)) who miraculously was the sole survivor of a plane crash.
It was worth the 99p on my kindle for keeping me entertained during night feeds though!

Hi ... I'm late but would love to join in. I'm currently reading While Me Eyes Were Shut by Linda Green.

I'm aiming for 50 books, mainly from the hundreds I already own both real and kindle. I've gone from reading over 100 a year to virtually nothing last year aside from Study books ( somehow found myself doing 4 different courses at once with was madness. But just one this year thankfully) I've missed reading for pleasure so much... Taking it easy and light to start with.

Just off to bed to hopefully finish Number 1 tonight.

Finished my first book of the year today, The Essex Serpent. Different to my usual choices (mostly crime and thrillers) but good to try something new. Not much happens but I loved the descriptions of the landscape, and the sense of menace in the village. There is also an intriguing cast of characters.
I'm not sure what to read next, there's a fair few waiting on my kindle (which like previous posters, I love very much!)

I'm in - life tough at the moment so not managing to read as much as I like.

Reading The Wonder by Emma Donoghue, plus also got Stuffocation and 1001 nights on the go on my kindle

I'm joining again this year! I did the challenge in 2015, but didn't join last year as I had a hectic year. With working full time, finishing the last year of my degree and having my second baby, I wasn't sure how much reading time I'd have. I only managed 34 books last year.

I missed the threads though, and the extra incentive to keep reading. Hoping I'll be able to manage 50 this year, with 3 month old DS2 and going back to work in March.

Anyway, I've finished 2 already:

1. The Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne

This is a classic early sci-fi novel, that is understandably a bit dated, but is very readable. I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did, and loved that everything was backed up by scientific theories (albeit out of date ones). I never really read sci-fi, but might try some more now.

1. Confident Baby Care - Jo Frost

I read this to try and find an answer to a specific question. Didn't really help with my original issue, but I got a lot of great ideas from this, particularly about play activities to try. Obviously this is not relevant to everybody but it's a very readable guide to caring for a new born.

Currently reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to finish my reread of the series, All That Remains - Patricia Cornwell, the third Scarpetta book on my kindle, and just starting Neurotribes as my non-fiction read.

Boldly I enjoyed The Dark Net when I read it last year, but found it quite scary what some people get up to online.

Can I join? My New Years resolution is to make more time for reading. I keep buying books but not getting round to reading them and currently have a pile of 15 sitting waiting to be read!

So far this year I've read Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut and have now started This must be the place by Maggie O'Farrell

Wow, this is filling up fast! I've only just finished my first of the year, which is:

1. The Spartans by Paul Cartledge

Cartledge is a professor of Greek History at Cambridge and has a particular interest in Sparta, so this was a very erudite look at the history of Sparta, the development and decline of their martial lifestyle and a brief examination of the enduring myth of the Spartans, which largely centres on the 300 and Thermopylae. It's fascinating although a bit dry. He includes biographies of notable Spartans, mainly the various kings but also the occasional woman, such as Gorgo. How the biographies are included is a bit annoying. They are effectively dropped in the middle of chapters and the surrounding narrative continues as if the break for a page or two wasn't there. It might have been better to include them at the beginning or end of chapters instead. Still, a very interesting read.

I didn't mind needful things but there are better Stephen King books out there. Not keen on his crime ones with Bill Hodges though.

Joe Hill is also worth a look. It's his son, and his books (with the possible exception The Fireman) are decent...although a bit chock full of SK references.

Chessie I like Atkinson a lot and have to confess that I loved Emotionally Weird. Human Croquet is the only one of hers that I didn't much care for - though I haven't read all the Jackson Brodies.

phoolani I was a great fan of early Susan Hill. I was blown away by I'm the King of the Castle and subsequently enjoyed both Strange Meeting and In the Springtime of the Year. I also had a book of her radio plays which I was obsessed with.

I was really disappointed to find that I didn't enjoy her detective novels very much. Perhaps I should give them another go.

Thanks southeast I've added that to my list, looks great! I want to start all these now!

ClashCity I have one of Joe's books on my kindle to read.
As for needful things. I'm enjoying it so far, but so far it's the usual King descriptions of the locals!...I like the Hodges novels but I didn't dig Revival. I thought Doctor Sleep was a brilliant sequel to The Shining. I don't think King will ever lose his touch.

whippet I have also been known to fall asleep clutching my kindle lovingly

1. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. This is a novel about an American family - two ageing parents and their three adult children. Different sections of the novel focus on each character in turn, culminating with them all returning to the family home for Christmas. A good read, I was interested in all the characters and the relationships between them. Is this a dysfunctional family, or just a normal one? Maybe all families would reveal similar oddities if placed under the microscope.

1. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
Pretty good. As ever, Mitchell was great at evoking a sense of place and time, in the case turn of the 19th century Japan. Pacey enough to get away with its length. Enjoyed the love story more than the political/trade aspects.

I've got The North Water on my kindle so I'll read that one next. Have also got The Essex Serpent in my reading pile. Love hearing about what other people are reading and enjoying.

I've never read any David Mitchell but do have a copy of The Bone Clocks which someone gave me. Is that a good one to start with?

Tarahumara, whippet, et al - We should get together a support thread for DHs struggling with wives' affection for the Kindle

Bone Clocks not a bad one to start with boldly, quite accessible and page-turny and if you like his style and then move on to Cloud Atlas which takes a bit more time and patience, but is very clever. Anyone reading Cloud Atlas should ask cote nicely to dig out her thread on it when they've finished, as she wrote a very detailed analysis that draws out all the themes very well and the background to some of the references.

In other news, my dh has just presented me with an Amazon voucher as he couldn't find the books I wanted for Christmas, so I think I might get the North Water when it emerges in paperback in a couple of weeks and a couple of others.

Started His Bloody Project last night. Enjoying it, but had some weird dreams after.