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?

Happy new year, belatedly. Love this challenge. Haven't had time to go through all 876 posts yet, but looking forward to seeing what people recommend. Intrigued by the Essex Serpent, have seen that mentioned quite a few times. Currently on book 3, A Notable Woman: the romantic journals of Jean Lucey Pratt. Finally read and loved A God in Ruins, though not quite as much as Life after Life. Book 2 was Evgenia Ginzburg, Into the Whirlwind, which is one of the Persephone books. Interesting, but very depressing - it's a true story of a woman who spent time in a Soviet gulag.

Finally finished my first book, Red Queen. It's a YA fantasy novel a la Hunger Games, Divergent or Red Rising - all of which I enjoyed more than Red Queen. It was mildly entertaining but I like to feel immersed in a fantasy world and this just all felt a bit 2D.

I'll follow the crowd for my next read and go for The Year of Living Danishly which is not something I would usually pick but I'll give it a try.

In reply to Remus , I have The Essex Serpent on my kindle. I had a long wait in a hospital waiting room today, and my finger hovered over it, but I decided to save it for a nicer setting and start something I had lower expectations of. And, coincidentally passme that was a Christopher Brookmyre . It seems like he likes to put down some kind of testosterone marker at the start of his books by making them into a hard guys oh so Glasgow wisecracking gore fest, so I've just got to get through that tedious bit and find the story.

Finished 3. The Girls by Emma Cline. A woman Evie who in the present day meets someone that reminds her of her teenage years. The book then follows her recollections of when she was 14 in 1969 and involved in a cult that resembles the Mansons. I liked the character of Evie and the portrayal of the depth of teenage angst, friendship, sexuality, a female's place in the world. The book's ending did leave me vaguely unsatisfied.

That's me taking a break from reading for a few days to catch up on the second series of The Man in the High Castle as I want to read that soon too.

Did anyone else go to the cinema tonight for the live screening of the RSC The Tempest? Fab - I really enjoyed it.

How interesting musuem!

I am working my way through the Glaswegian gore fest as we speak.

Stokey, Smith did discuss the issue of autobiography. Of course, the wonderful details of an 80s childhood (the giant Swatch on the wall!) were from her memory, as well as some of the adult attitudes and experiences. Certainly, the love of dance, dance history, and old films are taken from her life. Interestingly, Smith said the narrator's mother is more like her than the character is like Smith's own mother. She said this arose from, at least in part, trying to mediate having ambitions that turn one away from the family that wants one's main orientation to be toward them.

As for the middle of the novel and the narrator, Smith said that she was thinking about how one becomes a person. She thought the narrator really wasn't a person until toward the end of the book, when she started to become one.

If you'd like, I'd be happy to pm a link to the interview to you.

passme pleased to report I have now broken through into the story, and it was worth it. The one I am reading is Where the Bodies are Buried .

1. The Dark Net - Jamie Bartlett

Thanks for the recommendations on this thread; I found this an interesting look at the more disturbing 'hidden' side of the internet.

1. The Essex Serpent. Already reviews several times in here so I won't say much except that I'm not sure whether I enjoyed it or not.

Having a bout of insomnia so going to look for something really dull to read.

reviewed, on. It's late.

2 The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood.

I know some of you read this last year. Generally , Atwood is the master of a good dystopia Handmaid Oryx etc but I confess I was a bit let down by this. I found it flawed and frustrating.

I didn't buy Positron/Consilence as a central conceit, not because I didn't think desperate people would try anything, but because the idea itself, as a working principle, both as it initially stands and with later ideas added in, just didn't add up as a "designed utopia"

There were massive "gaps" - plotholes i thought, in the overall set up of the universe.

The third act is.... bad. It suddenly turns into some kind of Bedroom Farce with a Shakespearean comedy type ending. Yet one that feels seedy. Any initial menace is gone and everything is a bit overdone. I didn't like the last line twist thingy, but at that point I was glad to be done.

As an aside the book still does have some very thought provoking scenarios and elements but overall feels disjointed, like it's a failed comedy, as it's not funny, if that is what it is aiming for on some level, but also fails to be truly disturbing as a result of the farce element.

I forget what others thought not sure which threads I need to go back to.

1. Confronting the Classics by Mary Beard A series of essays on all things Classical. The chapters started life as book reviews and I think she has expanded on them here. Learnt quite a bit that I didn't know and it is interesting to see how much debate there is among classics specialists about various subjects and how our interpretation of the past has changed over time. It's not a long book and well written but it took me a while to read because there was so much to take in.

1. Midsummer Night in the Workhouse by Diana Athill A collection of short stories published by Persephone and written in the 1950s and 60s. Most of the stories concern relationships between men and women. Some were funny, one or two were surprisingly explicit. I enjoyed reading this one.

I'd definitely like to read the interview Vanderly thank you.

I too had a giant Swatch on my bedroom wall as an 80s teen - the wall was painted glossy red!

Cedar - I really enjoyed Confronting the Classics when I read it a couple of years ago - very accessible and well written. I enjoyed it much more than SPQR which, while interesting, I found very heavy going.

flesh wounds here museum.

I am interested in people's reviews of Margaret Atwood. She is an author I was absolutely obsessed with in my late teens and early twenties. Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, AL Kennedy and Janice Galloway were my absolute passions. As time has gone on though I have almost forgotten about them.

To get back into Atwood, where would people suggest I start? I have read Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye and others from that era. It is the most recent stuff - from Alias Grace I think - which I haven't read.

Tarahumara, I'm going to see The Tempest at the RSC next week as my birthday treat. Very exciting.

ChillieJeanie, I've got The Strangler Vine sitting on my shelves waiting for me to read it, so I will try and fit that one in soon and then the sequel. Yay!

Enjoy, whippet! I don't think I've seen a production of The Tempest before, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I thought it was great. Mark Quartley is superb as Ariel.

Stokey, how stylish were you! It looks like video of the interview hasn't been uploaded to YouTube yet, but I'll be sure to pm you when it is.

passme, have you read any of Atwood's early novels: The Edible Woman, Surfacing, Lady Orace, Life After Man? They were all written before The Handmaid's Tale could be an interesting recently into Atwood. I also really like The Robber Bride, which you've probably read.

1 The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
2 Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
3 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (audible)

4 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. I just finished this. Very sweet story, written in 1938, about a single lady looking for a post as a governess. She shows up at the wrong address to interview for the job and before the mistake can be either discovered or rectified she is swept into the drama-filled life Miss LaFosse, a beautiful young socialite. The story takes place over the course of one day. It was light and fun.

Now listening to Still Life by Louise Penny on audible and I'm enjoying that, particularly the narrator's unusual accent and the humour in his voice. Not sure what to read next. It will be either The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett or else Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleve.

onemouseplace I haven't read anything else by Mary Beard but I did eye up her book on Pompeii the other day so I might give that a try at some point.

spinningheart I really enjoyed reading Miss Pettigrew last year. It is a lovely Cinderella story

passme A lot Margaret Attwood's more recent work is science fiction - or heading that way - I seem to remember someone on here saying that she doesn't like that label. Alias Grace is a historical novel and I really enjoyed it.

Setting aside Americanah (should I persevere at some point?) and just downloaded The Art Of Living Danishly as it sounds like an easy read to set me off!

I read half of The Handmaid's Tale last year and didn't get on with it. Should I give it another go?

I would say yes but only if you didn't hate it Monty. I'm not exactly impartial as dystopian fiction is my favourite genre. Everyone is different and I have given up/hated many books other people raved about.

I have some time in the library the next town over (our local one isn't great) while my DSs are at a hobby!
So, I've got The autumn throne by Elizabeth Chadwick as I like a bit of historical escapism, X by Sue Grafton as I've read the rest of the alphabet series and Miss Pettigrew lives for a day as it was recommended on here. I'm quite excited.