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?

Wow this thread has moved fast. Welcome to all the new posters. It looks like we will be having a lively time this year. So far this year I have read:

1. City of Mirrors – Justin Cronin This final book in the Justin Cronin trilogy. I finally got around to reading the long awaited conclusion to this trilogy. I loved The Passage and The Twelve but this was the weakest of the three. There was far too much fluff and not enough real action. I hated Fanning, his back story and his ending in the story. I also felt really irritated by all the heavens and alternate realities and dreams. If he had cut half the fluff and increased the real action this would have been a great book but I really do feel let down after waiting so long to read this.

2. Hideous Creatures – S.E. Lister. 19th century gothic novel set around the main character Arthur Hallingham who is the youngest son of a wealthy English family. At the beginning we don’t know much about Arthur only that there is something about him that is ‘hideous’ and he runs away (or is he exiled) from his family home and travels to colonial America in search of a new life. Here he meets up with Shelo who is a man of magic and medicine. This was well written and beautifully descriptive in parts. I enjoyed the sense of place and the darkness evoked but it felt a bit disjointed and unfinished to me.

3. The Dark Net – Jamie Bartlett. In this book, the author explores the darker side of the internet and how it is used for many purposes, many of which are downright dangerous and scary. This has been reviewed by a few others already on this thread so I won’t repeat what others have said only that this is a fantastic read and I would highly recommend it.

I had intended to start the year with Radiance by C. Valente but put it aside for City of Mirrors so will pick that up again. On kindle I am reading Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay and my current audio is Made in America by Bill Bryson.

Everysongbird yes re: David Mitchell - I read an interview where he said his talent is for writing novellas rather than novels, and so he approaches a novel like he is linking together lots of shorter stories to create a large one, which then links to his other stories to create a much larger work, with his intention being to ultimately create an "uber-novel" comprised of everything he's written.

EverySongbird I haven't read The Bone Clocks yet, but I've got an unread copy of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet somewhere so maybe I'll read that soon and see if I can spot any other references. I'll keep an eye out for TBC too.

Thanks for the recommendation on Marilynne Robinson EverySongbird.

Disappointing to hear about the Justin Cronin book Grifone. I loved The Passage and have been waiting for the others to come down in price.

Interesting about David Mitchell Satsuki, it's probably a good way to make writing less intimidating!

Sadik, I haven't read any other JL Carr books other than A Month in the Country, so I don't know if Harpole & Foxberrow is an anomaly or not.

White and Satsuki, hope I haven't put you off The Improbability of Love unfairly! Some people clearly love it, but it's not for me.

highlandcoo thanks for the recommendation, sounds good.

Finished second book of the year, Killing Kate by Alex Lake.
It was a Christmas present, probably not something I'd have chosen myself. There's a serial killer in the local area and his victims all look like Kate, our main character. I enjoyed it, found it quick to read and haven't read anything crime/thriller-ish for ages so good to have a change. I'd probably say enjoyable but not memorable, I liked it while I read it but it will be going in the pile for the charity shop rather than sticking around to be re-read.

Reading pace is probably about to drop as I'm going to get busy at work so NEED to get my head out of books and into reality. There's nothing I'm particularly into on telly at the moment though, so might allow myself to start another novel if I promise not to watch rubbish on the box?!! Halfway through Davina McCall Lessons I've Learned on Audible.

1. Heartburn by Nora Ephron. This is a semi-autobiographical account (i.e. with some details changed) based on the weeks after finding out about her husband's infidelity. Ephron was more famous for her screenplays, including When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle. I seem to like reading about marriage breakdowns as I have previously read and enjoyed The Heart-Shaped Bullet by Kathryn Flett and Aftermath by Rachel Cusk, and I loved this. It's quite short but is funny, sad and touching.

Hi everyone, finally here after following for so many years and never getting properly into posting. Finished my first two books!

1. Before I let You in Jenny Blackhurst- this is about a psychiatrist and her group of friends and what happens when a mysterious patient enters their tangled lives. It's a typical, pacy psychological thriller and I have to say I really enjoyed it. The plot is good and it is told from different points of view. Good if you want a psychological thriller/easy read.

1. The Mountain in my Shoe Louise Beech- I really want to love this book and the reviews on amazon are brilliant but after a good start and with beautiful writing and characterisation, the plot is just too predictable for me. Maybe I read too many twisty thrillers and this has taken the enjoyment out of the lovely tales, who knows?!

The premise is a missing boy and a missing book and a woman facing up to her life. Can't say much more as it is all gently revealed during the story. There was just something missing for me.

Currently listening to a book on audible called Repressed and it is annoying me but I am determined to get through it.

Need to decide what to read next, that is the hardest bit!

Hoorah! Finally finished book 1 of the year.

I really enjoyed The Muse by Jessie Burton. It wasn't as absolutely engrossing as The Miniaturist but still very good. The story of a painting and its provenance is told by interweaving the story of a wealthy family escaping to Spain just before the war and a Trinidad woman living in London in the 60s. The lives of the very different main characters is well told with Olive as the main protagonist in Spain being told in the third person and Odelle in London in the first. Odelle is particularly likeable as the talented but anxious writer trying to make her mark and finding herself working for an art dealership.

Now onto Without a Trace by one of our own MNetters, Mary Torjussen

I. The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins Thoroughly enjoyed this: clever writing, meaty descriptions and a hearty mystery. Much of the pleasure of reading books that were written 150 years ago lies in the language and the observations of the writer - it's a snapshot of a bygone era.

1. Before the Knife, Carolyn Slaughter Carolyn was abused by her father. The family lived in Africa where her father was employed by the colonial service. This memoir is simultaneously an account of confused and unhappy child and a description of the feeling of Africa as Carolyn escaped into the landscape to anaesthetise her pain. It's not easy to say that you love a story when it is a description of pain - and I'm not sure that you do love it - but you can appreciate it for the journey that the author has shared with you and feel awe at the strength it took to write it.

I also finished Before I let you in today. As Mugglebum says a good thriller that was a nice easy read.

I started IT but I think it'll take me a while to get through. I'm reading it through Kindle on my phone I can't carry an actual book. So far it's good but I must admit I'm finding it quite creepy already.

I've also just started I know why the caged bird sings- someone bought me it for xmas as they know I love Maya Angelou's poetry. Really looking forward to this first autobiographical from such an inspiring woman.

1. Private Peaceful Michael Morpurgo

I imagine many people here have read this YA book about a seventeen-year-old soldier in WWI .. memories of his rural childhood in the midst of his recent experience of trench warfare. It really works as an accessible piece of writing that a 12-yr-old boy can relate to IMO .. I read it for a student I'm tutoring at the moment.

1. Strange Shores Arnaldur Idridason (audio book)

My first book by this author, and I listened to it in short bursts over a couple of weeks while cooking dinner. A gentle crime mystery as his detective Erlendur investigates two long-ago disappearances in rural Iceland. Pretty slow moving plot-wise but that might be a feature of listening rather than reading a crime novel perhaps.

Moving on to a reread of The Handmaid's Tale and also listening to Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? read by Jeanette Winterson herself. Could be an interesting combination.

Wow keeping up with this thread is challenging, lovely to see lots of people there though.

Im about 75% through A Year of Living Danishly and thoroughly enjoying it.

eitak22 I think I'd like to read that. Has it made you want to change anything about your own life/home etc?

Grifone Agree entirely re City of Mirrors. I read it towards the end of last year and was supremely disappointed by it.

Book 4
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
Hmm. Overall I liked this, I think, but it frustrated me rather a lot at times as I was reading it, and I think it was flawed when it could have been excellent.

Because it’s trying to emulate the style of 18th century novels, it suffers from a combination of verbal diarrhea and ridiculously over-long sentences and paragraphs, as well as a kind of self-satisfied and irritating use of authorial intrusion which is allegedly clever and witty but gets rather wearing.

In itself, none of this was enough to put me off; what my problem was with it is that in quite long sections of the novel it just felt as if the writer was padding for the sake of padding’s sake and in those sections it felt like a slog, rather than a pleasure. Where it was good though, it was really, really good (an escape scene, a fight scene, a lover’s declaration, for example) and the ending felt ‘right’ – the two revelations at the end both seemed fitting: I’d guessed one early on, but not the other. All in all, I’m glad I read this, but do think it could have been truly great rather than just great in places, if the author liked the sound of his own voice a little less.

Highland, I loved Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. Haven't read Oranges (am I the only person in the UK who hasn't?) but I thought Why Be Happy was moving and beautiful, sad and hopeful.

I agree overall remus, but I thought that the self-satisfied and over elaborate style and tone emanated from the narrator rather than the author, so forgave somewhat as it was in keeping with, well, you know and the tone was justified in retrospect.

I think the characters and personalities were not made real enough to care about too much, so the silliness wasn't anchored by anything and got a bit tiresome, and some of the scenes didn't hit home as they should. The 'filler' that was intended to divert attention from the main plot points rather ended up swamping it and making it feel padded, as you say. The play within a play being the worst - but again he did account for the focus on it, I just didn't enjoy reading it! Shame, because some sequences were great, and I liked the baffling description of the card game, but it then went on too long after.

I really liked the play within a play thing, actually - thought it was hilarious and one of the novel's finest moments! I thought it struck an excellent balance with the later 'fight scene' and a great emotional contrast.

But yes, I think generally we agree that it was a novel with much promise, not quite as well handled as it could have been - exactly what I thought of the two non-fiction ones I've read of his as well, incidentally.

Would you read more by him? I think I'd be interested in reading another of his novels, should he produce one. Non-fiction wise I'd probably read him again, providing it was a subject I'm really interested in (the two I read previously were about polar exploration and books, so exactly my things!).

Work has been ridiculously busy lately so I'm massively behind on this thread.

I have managed to finish my next 2 though:

1. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry - I know several people have reviewed this already so will just add that I loved this. OK, nothing much happens for a lot of the book but the language was beautiful and I really liked the evocative sense of setting (place and time).

1. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare - Read for work. I'm not a massive fan of this, to be honest, but have to teach it so had to re-read. Criticising Shakespeare feels a bit like blasphemy but I prefer the other comedies. This one feels a bit quick and unconvincing and lacks some of the incredible language of many of the others. Ah well.

I have a book group book to read by Sunday which, the way work is going this week, is unlikely to happen.

So having been in bed for a couple of days with a really lousy chest infection and a resultant brain mush, I'm afraid I regressed to light fiction.

1. Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J Ryan Stradal. A lot of good things - I liked the way the nine stories hung together around the central character of Eva Thorvald, and the use of foody themes. I got a little tired of gritty realism, but just in time the author salvaged this by adding the other side of humanity, and demonstrating that no one is completely good or evil, or even completely just a loser, that everyone has their story to tell. On balance I enjoyed it as a sickbed read!

Whew! Very excited to join new thread!

I've been on holiday for a week with glitchy Wifi and I come back to find this thread is about a mile long. Am I allowed to count this as my first book ????

I love seeing the old favourites getting dragged out for a thrashing: Station Eleven - I understand the criticism but still loved it. I must read hhhh or whatever the heck it's called, I love a Marmite book!

David Mitchell is a genius and I won't hear a word against him! He writes sentences that take my breath away with their brilliance...

No Country for old men - great book, great audiobook, and amazing and very scary film. Brutal but fabulous.

Essex Serpent - I'm halfway through and really enjoying it.

Moonstone - very long and slow audiobook, but very enjoyable, this was my last book of 2016, I think I managed 57 last year.

North Water - loved it, looking forward to a Spoilers thread.

Just finished The Essex Serpent and really enjoyed it. I thought it was very evocative, both in the description of landscape and society. I didn't find any of the characters particularly sympathetic but did find them interesting.
Now reading The Burning Page, the third of Genevieve Coghill's Invisible Library series.

@ remus I must admit I got very bored with all the play stuff and thought it was far too heavy handed foreshadowing the fight!

I think though when a book just isn't quite right it's difficult to pinpoint what is throwing it off - but it didn't absorb me like HBP and Serpent which I read directly before it. I would definitely give his next one a go, it was promising and a good read, really; you can't love every book.

Yes, yes, yes re: it not being absorbing in the way that both the novels you mention are. I'd really hoped it would be as high quality as a whole as Essex and Project were, and it just...wasn't...

As I was reading I kept thinking that Essex had similarly long stretches of really not much happening, but that the writing somehow lulls the reader into being gripped by that nothing much, almost hypnotised (serpent-like maybe?!) in a way that Spufford's 'padded' sections completely failed to achieve.