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?

I've not read any Susan Hill - is there a good one to begin with?

Just chipping in with the Susan Hill recommendations - she's one of my favourite authors. I love her writing. Her ghost stories are good, especially The Woman in Black, but her other books are just as excellent.

Favourites of mine have been - the Simon Serrailler series, Strange Meeting, The Beacon, Black Sheep, Air and Angels, and of course the ghost stories :)

Thanks, Therearenoghostshere, have downloaded Strange Meeting (which I think someone else is reading at the moment?) to start with as it is only £2.32 on Kindle. I'll look out for the others in the library- how have I never read The Woman in Black?!

Thanks Abecedario for your thoughts on The Lacuna - I got it

I loved the North Water too Cote. In fact it was probably our most popular book club read last year. I was quite surprised it didn't make the Booker shortlist (it was on the longlist).

On the Simon Serrailler Susan Hill books, I think you may need to read them in order. I read a mid-series one last year and was quite confused by who everyone was and what their stories were as she didn't really explain the background to his family. I found it quite frustrating, it seemed more about his family than the crime.

This thread is moving so quickly - I can't really keep track but will post now as am about to finish

1. It Stephen King - This was my favourite Stephen King book when I was an avid reader of his in my teen years and it's still great. It's about a group of seven kids, all "Losers" at school, who band together to fight the monster that is killing children in Derry, Maine. The original story is set in 1958 and is interspersed with 1985 when the children come together again as adults. He writes so well about a child's perspective and the magic and fears of childhood. The way that chidlren are "invisible" to adults. I was surprised y how much I remembered as I started reading it and how resonant some of the images were. My only negative is that it is very long, it could have done with a bit more editing, but great nonetheless.

Moving on to Zadie Smith Swing Time.

1 The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney. This is a story about 4 adult siblings living in the greater NYC area, whose father invested money wisely on behalf of his children to be distributed on the 40th birthday of the youngest sibling. However, before this comes about the wild child of the 4 gets into serious financial difficulty which results in their mother accessing the fund and bailing him out of trouble. It's a good story, an easy read and I was interested in all of the main characters' stories. I did expect a little more depth to it, though. Overall a nice way to start off my reading year.

Have since started Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller. I'm trying very hard not to read half a dozen books on the same time period or subject matter n a row but I seem to have a glut of WWII books on my bedside table. ( Everyone Brave is Forgiven, HHhH, A Country Road, A Tree )

This thread is moving so fast, I feel very slow by comparison!

1. The Story of a New Name (Book 2 of Neopolitan Novels) by Elena Ferrante.

I loved this book. A moving story about the nature of friendship and love, about being a girl in her teens and early twenties in the late 1950s in Naples, Italy. I enjoyed that the sentences ran into one another creating long paragraphs and evoking the characters and their lives.

I remember from last year's thread that these books are a bit marmite..

2. Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter.

Sad and blackly funny, this is a story of grief and, maybe, the chance of moving on. Very good.

Two great books to start off the year! 😄

😂 to whippet and your love for your kindle!

Damn I meant to join this thread on the 1st this year. Am placemarking for later and will be back to nick recommendations and update my list.

I have had some fantastic recommendations from mn the last year so looking forward to getting some more from this thread.

Stoney - I was trying to remember who had reviewed The North Water last year

I forgot to say early, my choices for book 2 are Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift, or Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. Can anyone recommend (or otherwise) either of these?

forgot to say earlier

Losing track of the thread a bit!

HappyFlappy, thanks for the offer to discuss A God in Ruins, I'd love that. Am just over halfway through, perhaps I'll search out the old threads on the board and resurrect one of them once I've finished.

I really enjoyed NW though I certainly didn't think it was flawless. I think the main reason I enjoy Zadie Smith so much is that we are very similar in age and grew up in very similar areas of London. Her books paint a vivid description of place and time which I find highly evocative, and I find memories surfacing from my childhood and teens that I haven't thought of for decades. I honestly don't know how well her books would stand up for someone who didn't have this connection. Interesting that she's a media darling but not so popular on this thread.

Another Molesworth fan here and enjoyed the S&A mash-up, thank you to whoever posted that (sorry have lost track).

Have added The Dark Web to the ever-lengthening TBR list :)

Remus I got Fatherland for my birthday last year and I loved it.
Scary stuff!

I really enjoyed The North Water last year. I went on a mission to read the Booker long list when it was announced and my book 3, Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves will mean I've completed it at last....well, if I pretend I didn't abandon Serious Sweet by A.L.Kennedy a few chapters in,a rarity for me but I just couldn't engage with it at all.
I don't think I'd do it again though, at times it felt like a bit of a slog, reading just for the sake of it! The North Water was easily my favourite of the list.

I really want to talk about The North Water. How about a separate thread where we can put "SPOILERS" in the thread title and pick it apart?

HandsomeDevil I adore Alias Grace definitely one of my favourite books. Grace's voice stayed with me for ages after I finished the novel (and on subsequent rereads) and I almost missed her afterwards which sounds twee but there you are. I was planning on avoiding rereads until I'd reduced the unread pile by a good deal, but this one is calling to me now!

I'm on 4. How to be both - few pages in only but the description of grief/bereavement has taken my breath away as being so on point (I get George's story first).

I loved How to Be Both. Ali Smith is not for everyone but I thought it was beautiful and so clever.

Keith I'm the same liking Zadie Smith's London writing as I can relate to the characters, some of the issues and the locations. I didn't grow up in NW London but have lived in N London (Islington and Haringey) for the last 21 years. I really enjoyed White Teeth, NW and The Embassy of Cambodia but really didn't get on with The Aotograph Man struggling to finish it and didn't think On Beauty was as good as others seemed to thjnk.

I may be the only person in the world who has read The Woman in Black and not particularly liked it.

Joe Hill doesn't do much for me either. I keep reading them thinking he could be good, but he's too busy trying to be his father or remind people that he is his father's son, and also he just doesn't know when to shut the hell up and suffers from a JK Rowling-esque tendency to witter on and on and on when something could be said more effectively in just a few words (rather like I did there).

Alias Grace one of the few Atwoods I've liked though the ending is poor.

The ending of Alas Grace is what made me vow to never read Atwood again. Made me furious.

Murine, I gave up on Serious Sweet too. It was right then that I abandoned any pretence that I was going to read the full Booker list (long & short). Unfortunately, it does mean that I never got to The North Water and on the basis of so many recommendations including both Remus and Cote, it's going on the TBR pile.

I abolutely loathed the only Joe Hill I read - just utter tosh. Not yet fallen in love with his father's work either (for which I realise I shall be scorned).

Book 1 : The Skeleton Cupboard - Tanya Byron. Reviewed by many on this thread, so I won't go into great detail. Searingly honest about the overwhelming nature of training in the mental health field. I have to say that it knocked off my socks - finally a 5/5 read.

On to All Quiet on the Western Front now ... and the writing is already wowing me at only a couple of chapters in. This could be the best start to a reading year in a long while. Thanks threaders ... both are recommendations from here

joyless it is brilliant. It still hits me in the gut to think back to it Enjoy!

Joyless I haven't rec'd it yet, because I haven't read it yet, but it sounds like my sort of thing. I liked The Revenant.

I've been away from this thread for less than 24 hours and it's galloped off into the distance!

Vanderlyle thanks for the brilliant podcast recommendations .. will be exploring them all soon

HappyFlappy how fab that Molesworth is being reprinted. Like Three Men in a Boat and Diary of a Nobody the humour is just timeless. And thanks Sadik for the amusing link.

Sorry Wex you're right about NW no longer being available on catch-up. I'd forgotten I must have recorded it some time ago. Despite liking the main actor (Nikki Amuka-Bird) it didn't totally work for me.

CluelessMama when you've completed the sequels to Little Women you could have a look at March by Geraldine Brooks. It tells the father's story while he's away fighting for the northern army during the American Civil War. I usually avoid spin-offs of classic novels like the plague but this one I thought was surprisingly good.