50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second 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, it's not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The previous thread is here.

How're you getting on so far?

happyflappy Gervase Fen is the detective character in that series of books, written by Edmund Crispin.

Ok muggle, that makes sense! I have a terrible memory for plots so could perfectly believe that we had read the same book and I had just forgotten some really important bits.

I bought The Princess Bride too. I first read it in the summer after graduating high school when my best friend gave me a box of books and music as a graduation present. I think I will always love it both as a fun book and because of the thoughtfulness of that gift.

Iwant I got Dawn French's first novel on audible and just couldn't get through it (despite it being one of the shortest i have in my collection) it was her narration the voices were too much and I couldn't bare it anymore. I could tell reading it myself it would be fine though. But the experience did put me off her for now! (I do want to read Dear Fatty after loving Jennifer Saunders autobiography)

By the way...if anyone likes crime dramas or thrillers, I'd added this to my wish list on books to watch this year...

Rattle-Fiona Cummins

This is 99p on the kindle daily deal!

A serial killer to chill your bones and a glance into the mind of a psychopath.

Will let you know if it's too terrifying

Finished 5) How to be Both which I really enjoyed but feel like I need to read again to properly digest.

Still working on Nigel Slater's Toast and finding it kind of a chore to be honest.

Not sure what the next one will be, maybe an easy breezy Georgette Heyer

Thanks, Satsuki

My mistake.

I need something fun and light to read. The last few books have not been so.

Best - Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography Total Recall might be what you are looking for. Light, fun, and surprisingly interesting. I didn't expect to like it so much.

It's a weird coincidence isn't it happy - the author's name is so similar!

Best I have something fun and light on the go: The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy - a rec from last year's threads where I was looking for earlyish 20th century women's coming of age stories (this is set in 50s Paris) - about a third of the way through and it's a blast so far.

Slightly less fun:

1. Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick Based on interviews, primarily with 6 defectors from the same North Korean city, but also drawn from many other sources, this attempts to explain what life is like for ordinary North Koreans, mainly focusing on the years of famine of the 1990s. It's hard to believe this secretive dictatorship still exists in the form it does, and the amount of suffering its people have experienced over the last few decades. I learnt a lot from this book.

Funny Cantstand I'm the other way round to you. I loved Dawn French narrating her own novel A Tiny Bit Marvellous but on reflection now, I think if I'd just read it I would have found some of the plotting rather silly and the characters clichéd. I would probably laugh at her reading out her shopping list though.

I love The Dud Avocado, Ham, such a cheering book - sadly I've lost my copy somewhere along the way, so haven't read it for years.

Also found Nothing To Envy absolutely gripping and fascinating/horrific.

Sadik it may well have been you that recommended it to me, but it's gone 11pm and I've had 2 glasses of wine, so there's no way I'm going back to check. Thanks if it was you! It is indeed cheering

I've never read Lolita - will see if I can find a cheap copy on kindle. I'm aiming to read a few classics this year. Haven't decided on my final selection of them yet. I've read Austen, Hardy, a lot of Dickens. Never read any Steinbeck though so they are on my list.

Anybody have any favourites they would recommend? Happy to consider modern classics too.

DH has just finished Total Recall, the Schwarznegger autobiography on audiobook and loved it Cote. Surprisingly good was the verdict from him too, and he liked that Arnie reads parts of it himself (and I think he was looking for something lighter after I got him to listen to Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien last) I may give it a go myself as my kindle automatically syncs to have all his audiobooks on!

4. The Autumn Throne Have really enjoyed this trilogy. Fascinating watching the movement and wrangling of the English and French court; if sometimes hard to keep up with. From a personal point of view found the observations of Alienor (Eleanor) about raising boys quite amusing. The constant competition is something I can relate to, being a mother of three teenage / almost teenage boys! Add in a preteen daughter too! We are actually heading to the Loire Valley in the Summer so might see if we can visit Fontevraud - Eleanor, Henry II and Richard the Lionhearts final resting place.
Now on to The Heart Goes Last. ( Atwood sorry!) Reading a proper book rather than on Kindle. Only so long I can go without the feel (and smell ) of a book . Anyone else or just me...?

Added both the recs to my TBR list - I'm way over my Kindle budget for January so I'll have to order from the library or wait for a price drop. In the meantime I'm finishing off a very dull murder mystery set in the Cotswolds.

Gervaise Phinn wrote the little village school series. Which I only know anything about as my MIL presented me with a copy for my Birthday last year. I am ashamed to say that I looked at the cover and the title and declared it pish. Not very open minded.

I finished number 5 last night.

5. Dead Simple (Roy Grace Series) by Peter James
This is the first of Peter James's Roy Grace series of police procedurals set in Brighton. It opens with a stag do taking a horrifying turn and was a real page turner. It wasn't high literature but I enjoyed it and it didn't have that irritating last chapter of character exposition explaining all the complex twists and turns no one would work out otherwise. It was exciting and interesting without being overly complex. It has certainly encouraged me to try others in the series.

I was interested to read it actually as I saw Peter James and Ian rankin participate in a debate a few years ago. The topic of debate was supposed to be "should crime novels be classed as literature and be considered for literary prizes". It was a shite debate in that the two crime writers who, I think, were supposed to be arguing their case to be considered for the Booker prize were very clear that they did not want to be considered and were happy as things were. There was some cursory discussion of Ian McEwan but generally it was a slightly embarrassing chat.

Peter James played the game a bit more whereas Ian Rankin came over as a bit irritated.

I looked at the cover and the title and declared it pish

Your literary instinct was spot-on, Crisps.

Re-gift it to the recycling bin now.

Only so long I can go without the feel (and smell ) of a book . Anyone else or just me...?

Not just you RCM . . .

. . . not just you . . .

It's a weird coincidence isn't it

It is Cote - and it's not as though he's called John Smith or something common popular.

1. The Sanctuary Seeker by Bernard Knight

Set in the reign of Richard the Lion Heart, Sir John de Wolfe is the first and newly appointed coroner to the county of Devon, where he finds his attempts to find the killer of a member of a prominent Norman family recently returned from the Crusades being hampered by his own brother-in-law, the sheriff of the county. It's only an averagely well-told tale, but it is interesting for the detail of how the law was practised at the time, and for the attitudes of the Normans to the Anglo-Saxon population.

1. Nutshell Ian McEwan. I'm sure this book will soon be a set text on Eng Lit A level courses! I'm surprised that it was such a page turner, I thought I might need longer than the weekend to read it. It's a funny, "literary" crime story with a foetus (Hamlet) as the central narrator. My next read is The Miniaturist, which has been on my to-read bookshelf for over 2 years. I'd love to finish it before the end of January as this will place me well above target to read 20 books this year. Time may not be on my side though, rather like the protagonists in Nutshell!

Here you go HappyFlappy Gervase Fen

Not just us!

Ladymcnet I loved the Miniaturist and also The Muse by the same author. Read nutshell really quickly too but wasn't blown away by it. Find McEwan a bit unpredictable. Really loved Atonement and Enduring Love ( which was an A level set text) but have struggled with others Chesil Beach for example.