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50 Book Challenge 2017 Part One

999 replies

southeastdweller · 01/01/2017 10:12

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?

OP posts:
DrDiva · 08/01/2017 21:08

The Graveyard Book was my first Neil Gaiman, it really hooked me.

He is married to Amanda Palmer of adresden Dolls, who wrote The Art of Asking. I loved it as an audit book, have the print version and hate it like that!

A Thousand Splendid Suns is the only book ever responsible for me throwing a (not entirely put on) sickie. Blush

SatsukiKusakabe · 08/01/2017 21:50

4. Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

The premise of this is a man, Smith, arrives in late 18thc New York with a credit note to cash in at a local merchants for a thousand dollars. He has 90 days until he can collect the money and he won't tell anything about himself or what the money is for, arousing the mistrust of, well, pretty much everyone, especially those responsible for giving him the cash, and various capers ensue; political, criminal, romantic etc etc. This was well written and entertaining, and as the reader doesn't know what Smith is up to either until the final pages, a fun, compelling read. I particularly enjoyed the style, an homage to the novels of the time, and the witty send ups of novelistic conventions throughout. It is obviously well researched but the period detail enhances rather than intrudes on the story. Overall it felt frothy and not of much substance, though the tone does darken toward the end, and while I liked it very much I did feel a little disappointed by some aspects of the final run and where it took the characters, but the main reveal was original and quite satisfying when it arrived.

I think I'm onto Three Body Problem next as I have my library copy for another week or so, I've also started 11.22.63 on my Kindle as that is huge so may as well make a start.

SatsukiKusakabe · 08/01/2017 22:08

getting I liked Gilead last year, it was a slow grower, and I will work my way round to Home and Lila at some point.

RemusLupinsChristmasMovie · 08/01/2017 22:20

Happy I feel so relieved that you didn't like And the Mountains Echoed. It really is a pile of rubbish, isn't it?!

CoteDAzur · 08/01/2017 22:28

" I think the author's first book was his best (A Thousand Splendid Suns)."

Ha! I was right to never touch another of his books after the idiocy that was 1000 SS, then Grin

BestIsWest · 08/01/2017 22:44
  1. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Recommended by several people on last year's threads, very enjoyable YA novel set in a dystopian future about a teenager engaged in a virtual reality treasure hunt. Lots of 80s film, music, video game references. Good fun.

MegBusset · 08/01/2017 22:49
  1. Journey To The Centre Of The Earth - Jules Verne

First time I'd read this, and much like Around The World In Eighty Days the book's energy, high spirits and fast-paced plot carry it along nicely, even if the science is extremely dodgy!

VanderlyleGeek · 08/01/2017 23:11

Happy, The Blind Assassin might very well be my favourite Atwood. But, yes, it's quite long. Smile

Vidorra · 08/01/2017 23:51

2.The Power by Naomi Alderman

Really enjoyed it and literally couldn't put it down, evident by the fact I only started it today. I have been loaded with the cold though so had a nice lazy day. Personally very thought provoking about whether women would abuse power such as men should the balance be shifted in their favour. At the very start I did have a little wry smile at the role reversals and how men felt threatened. All in all quite dark and I liked the ending.

CheckpointCharlie2 · 09/01/2017 00:54

Just added Dissolution to my Amazon basket remus!

EverySongbirdSays · 09/01/2017 01:56

Vistaverde

I started a History Chat thread a while ago and Gregory came in for a right kicking. But I like them Blush but I find them an easy read, a palette cleanser, so I suppose they are a higher quality form of 'trashy lit' to me

I think she has peaks and troughs, but I thought Kingsmakers Daughter was a particularly good one.

EverySongbirdSays · 09/01/2017 01:57

Buy a multipack of tissues when you buy Home Satsuki

ChessieFL · 09/01/2017 05:50
  1. How To Be A Victorian by Ruth Goodman

I really enjoyed this. She describes what it was like to be an average Victorian. I was particularly interested in the part about how babies were fed - frankly it's a miracle any of them survived! I really recommend this if you want to know more about the social history of the time. My only issue is that there's no bibliography so would be hard to follow up sources if you wanted to.

BestIsWest · 09/01/2017 06:02

I've literally just opened a package from Amazon chessie that's been sitting on top of a cupboard since before Christmas to find Ruth Goodman's How to be a Tudor. I'd forgotten I'd even ordered it.

ChessieFL · 09/01/2017 06:43
Grin
Matilda2013 · 09/01/2017 07:30

Have just finished book 3. The Girl Who Lied - Sue Fortin which wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting more of a thriller and this was more chick lit with a twist (in my opinion). But it was still enjoyable and it's another one off my TBR list while I try not to buy any books!

DrDiva · 09/01/2017 08:07

I have a list of 69 books that I have to read before I can buy any more!

I have started Immortality, not my usual kind of read but really enjoying it.

And am listening to Susan Calman's Cheer Up Love as an audio book. Not what I was expecting but good nevertheless.

MontyFox · 09/01/2017 08:43

A lot of love for Ready Player One. I've started Slade House, but I'll read RPO after that.

  1. The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, Hendrik Groen. A pseudonymous book, written as the diary of an elderly man in a Dutch care home. Hendrik Groen, feeling that his age, natural inclination to grumpiness, and various medical problems shouldn't put a stop to things, decides to get what he can out of life, and writes a diary detailing the results. Gentle and funny.
MontyFox · 09/01/2017 09:02

Clash and diamante I felt the same as both of you, I had to be in the right mood to read Cloud Atlas. I couldn't just pick it up whenever I wanted to read. I had to be in the right frame of mind, and have at least half an hour ahead of me to read in, otherwise I couldn't settle into it. Particularly for the first half of the book. The second half was different: the stories sort of collapse into one another and I sped through them in half the time it took me to read the first part.

DeliveredByKiki
Danny the Champion of the World is my favourite Roald Dahl by far. I usually read it at least once a year, but as I spent most of 2016 planning my wedding and moving across the country to buy a house, the vast majority of my books have been packed up in boxes, so Danny and I haven't had our yearly reunion! We've been in our house three months now, and my books are the only thing that hasn't been unpacked because we have no bookcases Sad Danny will be the first thing I read when they're all freed from their confinement!

KeithLeMonde · 09/01/2017 09:23
  1. NW, Zadie Smith
  2. A God in Ruins, Kate Atkinson
  3. The Marble Collector, Celia Ahern(e?)

Picked up no3 in a second-hand sale as it has a lovely cover but when I read the blurb I realised that she's the woman who wrote PS I Love You which I had to read for book group. It really wasn't a book I liked very much. Have decided to give this one a try, will report back on what I think of it.

HappyFlappy · 09/01/2017 09:34

Remus

Yes - it is! And worse, every now and then it hinted at something better, but it never got there - or even half-way there.

I wish I hadn't spent - WASTED - the time I did on it.

Cote - I really, really loved 1000 SS. Your heart must be as hard as flint . . . Grin

HappyFlappy · 09/01/2017 09:36

Vanderley I'm engrossed in The Blind Assassin already. I got up at 4.00 am to get some uninterrupted reading in - it's not often I do that!

Atwood is SUCH a good writer.

CoteDAzur · 09/01/2017 09:52

"Cote - I really, really loved 1000 SS. Your heart must be as hard as flint . . . Grin"

Ooh I was hoping that someone would make a comment like this do I could justifiably have a go at 1001 SS Grin I'm on phone now but will come back to this to repost some of my earlier comments on that travesty of a book so you can see that my judgement has nothing to do with feeeeliiiinnnngs or lack thereof Smile

SatsukiKusakabe · 09/01/2017 09:57

We've covered Station Eleven and we're on feeelllllliiiiinngs already and it's only Jan 9. The thread's moving fast this year Grin

MontyFox · 09/01/2017 09:59

I've read your Cloud Atlas posts Cote - what a detailed and thorough summary! I'm not sure I could add anything of value to your thoughts. I agreed with them wholeheartedly.

Now waiting for your decimation of A Thousand Splendid Suns! I read it a few years ago but can't say I remember too much about it.