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 recently really enjoyed Leigh Bardugo's books, probably come under the umberella of Young Adult but still really mesmerising.

This is the year I will read 50 books for myself.
1 Make Me - Lee Child
On a cold, wet January a bit of Reacher is just what I need. Enjoying it more than the last one I read which was an early one. Not sure if I am supposed to find them quite so hilariously silly.
Book 2 will be Under the skin - Michael Faber

Ready Player One is fantastic especially if you are a John Hughes, D & D, early computer games 80's nerd.
Unfortunately his second book Armada it's awful.

MrsD
It's The Love Song of Miss Queen Hennessy", if I recall correctly. I've read this too, and I liked it even better. It is very touching - or I thought so, anyway.

It is effectively the story of the way the same incident was experienced by another person involved, and I thought it was . . . not lovely, exactly, but well worth reading.

Remus - Our tastes in fiction rarely overlap but I love how we tend to hate the same books with comparable levels of venom

You know what they say Cote
"My enemy's enemy is my friend."

3 How to be a Heroine: Or, What I've learned from reading too much, by Samantha Ellis
Rec from Remus upthread. I really enjoyed this and stayed up too late last night finishing it. A combination of autobiography and discussion of the books / heroines that have influenced her throughout her life. It probably helps that I'm pretty much the same age as the author, went to the same university and have read the vast majority of the books she discusses (as I imagine any book loving 40something woman will have done).

^AnnetAramis

I've read "Ordinary Men" (in fact I've got a copy somewhere - I think I must have lent it out and not got it back). I thought it was excellent, and one of the things that struck me, and which I found even more disturbing than irrational hatred for an entire race of people, was the matter-of-factness of many, if not most of the men involved. They had nothing against the Jews, or Gypsies, or homosexuals or mentally ill, but murdering them was a reasonably well-paid job with opportunities for advancement, so they chose to volunteer for these horrific duties. They weren't coerced in any way - it was "just a job".

To me - that is chilling.

I haven't read "Hitler's Willing Executioners' (on my list) or the "English German Girl" (on my list now - hank you).

*thank you - not hank you.

it never ends . . . .

Sparrow "under the Skin*is good - thought-provoking in may ways. Apparently the film is rubbish, and it doesn't surprise me, because there are so many nuances.

Have you read "The Crimson Petal an The White", bt the same author?

Excellent novel - the TV series didn't do it justice. (Not to mention that the sight of that actor's little limp willie every five minutes turned my stomach - .)

I loved Station Eleven too. There's been too much condemnation of it on here, so now it's about time there was some love for it too :)

Agreed with Sparrow on all accounts: Ready Player One is fantastic, especially for those of us who grew up in the '80s. And his second book Armada is unbelievably crap.

"I loved Station Eleven too."

So... What was it about Station 11 that you loved?

(Let the S11 wars begin )

I took DH, DB, and DSIL to watch Under The Skin. "Scarlett Johansson playing in an alien movie! What can go wrong?", I thought.

Oh my fucking God. It was horrendous. Dull dull DULL, with nothing happening except SJ getting men off the street and somehow relieving them off their skin.

I haven't been allowed to choose a film since then.

Finished #1 While my eyes were shut by Linda Green

It was ok, easy enough to to read, a bit of a twist I didn't see coming but not really gripping or memorable.
Now reading The Ghost Of Lily Painter by Caitlin Davis

Another vote for Ready Player One - I loved it, and so did both DD and ex-H - any book that the three of us all like has to have pretty wide appeal

Am I the only person who was just meh on Station 11 - thought it was fine as a mindless skim read for the holidays.

"Scarlett Johansson playing in an alien movie! What can go wrong?"

Like Johnny Depp playing the Earl of Rochester - I thought the director should have got some kind of prize for making that combination dull

Good idea. I would also nominate Robert Harris for his successful dullification of one of the most well-known, sudden, and horrific natural disasters in history of mankind in his book "Pompeii".

Oops, sorry Remus, I wonder who I'm confusing you with on The North Water recommendations ...?

I have got to the 7th of the month without spending money on a book and you lot all got and recommend Ready Player One. Hmmmm .... I'm not missing out, so it's going on the list.

Still loving Erich Maria Remarque.

Oh cote I've got Pompeii on my Kindle that's not what I want to hear.

Or James Cameron, spending millions meticulously recreating the Titanic, even diving down to the wreck to ensure the utmost accuracy, only to hopelessly miscast the leads, disregarding things like chemistry or a decent script, or how many times an audience can reasonably be expected to tolerate lines such as "draw me like one of your French girls" or "put your hands on me Jack".

Somehow haven't read ReadyPlayer One either. Hmm. I just checked my watch list on eteaderiq and I am waiting for 147 books to drop in price Price on this one is pretty stubborn. It's recommending buy at £4.99...

That should be eReaderIQ!

clash I'll be v interested to hear what you think about the road. My mum and sister loved it but I found it absolutely harrowing. Have you read any other Cormac McCarthy?

I enjoyed Under the Skin sparrow but it is pretty creepy

Oh yes, I remember sitting through Titanic and by the end being "die, you bastards, die!" (not helped by dodgy dubbing and watching it in January in an unheated cinema)

Ha, I am the same wilting, I am waiting for well over 100 books to drop in price on eReaderIQ too and some of them are extremely stubborn and refuse to drop in price - I'm looking at you Far From the Tree.

I also haven't bought any books yet this year but now want to check to see if my library has a copy of Ready Player One....

I love eReaderIQ.

wilting I have had Ready Player One on my wish list for ever and it NEVER drops in price. Am considering using an audible credit to get it as an audio book instead. If I ever finish 11.22.63 . And I've got a queue building behind that.

The Road is okay but it doesn't do anything that Stephen King hadn't done better already.

I've nearly finished Stasi Child and am still quite enjoying it. Anybody read it?