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?

When I've finished a book it looks well read, but I'm still a bit at your Dad writing a phone number on a book, Best!

I've just added the first Cazalet book to my kindle.

Most of my books lately are borrowed from the 'life-brary' as Satsuki called it (perfect) because I have too many unread books on my shelves. But I like to underline and highlight and make notes as I read - obviously can't do this with borrowed books.
When you say you follow on Instagram - is it more than a photo of the book cover, are there reviews? I suppose I should investigate.
I discovered 'Books on the Nightstand' podcast lately and although they have stopped broadcasting there is a huge archive to listen to. Loads of recommendations there.
My mother has a similar taste in books to me although she can't seem to recommend without spoilers..

At the moment I'm trying not to read reviews or browse Amazon. I have far too many kindle books and books in my house I haven't read so trying to just pick a book from the massive list each time seven books down almost so I'm doing well and I haven't bought a single new book!

Looking

Cursed Child is brilliant and needs to be SEEN. I deliberately didn't read it first and having seen it all the complaints I've seen relate to people treating it like a "text" not a "play"

I won't ever READ Cursed Child, I doubt it would come across.

Sodding hell, just read the whole thread to catch up and then found my own post halfway through so had clearly read it before. On the plus side, it's this inability to remember what I've read which means I can enjoying re-reading books!

Slow on the completion soccer because I'm reading three books at once:
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Apple Tree Yard - Louise Doughty (blame the BBC for this one)
The Power - Naomi Alderman
Will review when I finish any of them!

And I'm another one who leaves books pristine. DH claims I'm a freak and deliberately breaks the spine on all his books - which is why he's not allowed to read mine. But look at my lovely bookshelf (one of many!) - you can't look as pretty if your books are all bashed and battered. And no, I'm not happy about the Lego but apparently it's my fault my letting books take over the house...

7. Moving - Jenny Eclair - a book club choice (not mine). Not a comedy as I was expecting from Eclair - I haven't read any of her others, just know her from 'grumpy old woman' type TV shows.

An elderly widowed woman decides she wants to sell her old family house as it's just got to be a bit too much for her. As she is showing the estate agent around, she remembers her family life here. It then jumps to other character's stories that are mixed with the family. It's predictable in some ways, but very touching. The elderly widow - Edwina - is well written, feels real. Not as overly sentimental as it could have been. Worth a read.

1. Moon Over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch

Second in the Rivers Of London series - enjoyable enough but not as good as the first one and not sure I'll bother reading any further in the series - good fun but not much in the way of character development and a very silly plot.

I've never broken the spine of a book and would never write in one. If I had to really study a text and highlight/make notes, I would buy 2 copies so one would still look nice! My most battered looking book is A Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder which has been lent out a lot and reread quite a few times.
Currently reading Cloud Atlas which I'm really enjoying.

Took a break from A Clash of Kings to read:

1. His Bloody Project - Graeme Macrae Burnet

I really enjoyed this. I know this has been reviewed a few times previously but I loved the fact that the story was told using different forms. I read a fair bit of true crime type books and this felt really authentic. Would recommend this.

Saw Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland, by Sarah Moss in the library and picked it up, based on the discussion on here. It is a bit Middle Class Problems - can't get fresh herbs for cooking, fruit in supermarkets too mushy etc. The chapters where she attempts to be Intrepid Girl Reporter, capturing oral history about anti-government protests or childhood memories of elderly Icelanders, are fairly dull.

On the other hand, I admired her determine not to romanticize the place or her own family's experiences. It was the honesty about her day-to-day experience as a foreigner than rang true to me - those moments at a café or checkout when you can't muster up the courage to try out your language skills, and hate demanding that people speak English, so you just nod and mutter meaninglessly. Overall, I rather liked it.

Also read The House of Four, Barbara Nadel, book 19 in her Istanbul-set crime series. I know Cote is sniffy regarding her accuracy about Turkey, but I do like her enthusiasm for the complexity of Istanbul, and I'm fond of her characters. This author seems to pop out at least a book a year, and the book felt like a late draft rather than the final version - needed a final polish. But it kept me turning the pages to find out what happened.

Think those were books 8 and 9, but will need to check.

Re book care, I own very few new books, and the vast majority I read come from the library, so I try not to do anything unpleasant to books, but otherwise I don't think much about it.

How I choose - book reviews in the weekend papers, spotting a new book by an author I've liked previously, having a run at a particular subject (recently the Brontes, with a couple of books lined up on Freya Stark in the near future), discussions on here, serendipity in the library.

I buy a lot of my books new off Amazon, and the odd charity shop find as well. I recently picked up Brights Lights, Big City and The Life of Pi in a charity shop for £1.29 each and was very pleased as I have been wanting to read the former since I heard the author on one of the book progs on Radio 4 (I forget which one I'm afraid) and the latter has been on my to-read list for ages.

I'm currently reading A Place Called Winter which is a slow starter but after a few initial chapters which felt rather badly written with cringey, awkward dialogue and a lot of 'telling-not-showing', it is getting better and seems as though the author is getting more into his stride. It must be good as I am very keen to know what happens next.

I'm well behind on my reviews despite keeping up with my reading.

1. Black Widow By Chris Brookmyre

A follow on from my book one. This is an enjoyable enough read but doesn't have the edge that I would expect. Winner of the 2016 crime novel of the year - bloody Scotland, it is the story of a women in court for the death of her husband. With timelines running back and forth to before, during and after the crime. It is a very readable book, but not one I would seek to read again or recommend to anyone looking for a good psychological thriller. The reviews given by the press do not match the book I read.

1. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - Audiobook

I am fairly new to the medium of Audiobooks and I think this novel lends itself well to listening rather than reading.

This is a very long book - over 32 hours of listening. The writing is beautiful in its descriptive qualities, and the narrator does an excellent job of keeping the (rather depressing) mood. There are definitely boring bits, particularly in the middle, and I'm not sure I would have kept up with it had I been reading, but as an audio book it has the great advantage of being able to tune out from time to time (whilst performing manual tasks) but not really missing any of the plot.

I think this book could probably warrant the claim of modern masterpiece and I think it is a very durable book but it won't go down on my list of top ten favourites.

One thing that surprised me about the book was the amount of drug use and description of drug abuse. I wasn't really expecting it and yet it is a major theme of the book.

1. The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

A tale of a retired man who sets off walking to save his friends life.

I loved this book. It may well become my favourite book of 2017. It is such an unlikely subject matter and the main characters life is wildly different from my own - and yet it captivated me. It is a story of love and of loss and of how we keep going in the face of adversity.

Highly recommended.

Frenchfancy I loved it too but I loved the companion book The love song of Queenie Hennessy even more.

I was also going to recommend Slipstream, EJH's autobiography, to those of you who like the Cazalets but RMC beat me to it. It made the story seem more poignant to see how much of herself is in it, particularly Louise, who I didn't find that sympathetic in the books.

I'm reading How to be both. I had the painter first and have now got on to the second half (in my copy) which is the teenage girl who's mother has died. It's quite poignant, thinking about what would happen to my children if I snuffed it.

That is so good to hear RMC123 I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it in case it wasn't as good. It is now on my list 😊

I find books through browsing in the book shop or the library. Last year I tried to pick up at least one random book from the library when I visited - by an author I'd not heard of or not read before. I read some interesting books as a result of this.

I also get recommendations from the book group I go to which often leads me on to other things by the same author.

Phoenix I loved A Place called Winter in the end though it was a teeny bit slow to start. I went on to Carol by Patricia Highsmith after that - which kind of worked for me....

1. And Oh My Goodness. My Antonia. I picked up the recommendation here and remember way back upthread (last year...??) seeing debate and mostly good things I think - cant remember who recommended though. But - thankyou!

This will stay with me for a loooong time - I loved it. Rich descriptions of slowly unfolding relationships, descriptions of the Nebraska plains and surrounding countryside that will I will remember forever, the effort and resilience of people in a tough situation carving out a new life in a new place. Community, joy, love, friendship, despair, strong female characters, returning to your roots....and dancing! So much to love - I think for the first time in forever - I will come back to this and re-read. I kind of know I'll have missed bits and will find new things to love....

And yet I can imagine for some it wouldn't work. There isn't a driving plot - life and living it is what's going on here - and emotions and reactions and human responses to learning about themselves and each other.

Despite being written aeons ago it's fresh and beautiful. I found it a huge, huge treat! Did I say I loved it?

Struggling now to find something to follow it with - might try O Pioneers! As usual Ive started with the last of a trilogy....

I find my recommendations all over the place really - my sisters read and belong to book groups and we have similar tastes - reviews - Amazon sometimes, Goodreads and I've picked up some very different things reading through the threads here. I have to be careful though, I read on my kindle and one click ordering is too easy!

1. The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (author of Room). Set in Ireland in the 1950s, this is about Anna, an 11 year old girl who claims to have lived for the past four months without food or drink (except water). The story is told from the point of view of Lib, the English nurse who is called in to watch Anna for two weeks to prove the veracity or otherwise of the claim. This started slowly, but ended up being quite a page-turner. I stayed up late last night to finish it!

9. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Already much reviewed but I loved this. Found the first couple of lives hard to get into but after that, I couldn't put it down. So many big themes in this book and I enjoyed all the interlinking with the different lives. English lit students would get so much out of analysing this.

Getting there you've reminded me about My Antonia and the discussion on here last year. I've now put it on my wish-list so that I don't forget about it again ... thank you.

This language in this quote :

As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains...And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running.

so reminds me of Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, a book which most of us who grew up in Scotland in the 60s and 70s will probably have read it at school. It depicts a way of life - farming on a croft in NE Scotland in the early 20th century - long since gone. Grassic Gibbon's poetic descriptions of the way in which people's lives are bound up with the seasons and the land are what I recall of the novel, which I haven't read for a long time. I did see the film with Agyness Deyn as Chris Guthrie, last year and she was excellent.

I wonder if My Antonia is similar in that respect?

Ha, I was liking the sound of My Antonia, now your comparison to Sunset Song has made me wonder highlandcoo!! We covered it at school and, while finding it difficult at first and relying on our teacher to explain what on earth the opening section was all about, I had quite fond memories of it. The descriptions of life on the land and theme of the Scottish and English Chris really resonated with me. Then went to see the film last year with friends and realised I'd forgotten just how bleak it was. Not the best girls night out film! Would still be tempted to read it again sometime, but would definitely have to be in the right mood.

Name changed but still wanting to take part!

Finished number 7 today Beauvallet by Georgette Heyer. Not the usual Heyer and I was originally dubious but actually quite enjoyed the adventure story - completely ridiculous but I'm injured and confined to the sofa so a bit of daft swashbuckling escapism wasn't completely unwelcome.

Not sure what's next, could probably do with something a bit more substantial.

gettingtherenow yay for My Antonia love! I wasn't the one who first mentioned it last year, I think someone else was reading it, but I enthusiastically endorsed it (and re-read it) as it is one of my favourites of all time; you gave it a beautiful review. Second time around the end hit me just as powerfully. I am not a religious person, but there is something almost spiritually moving (bookwanker alert) about the imagery near the end with them rushing out of the darkness onto the prairie - like Plato's cave.

Don't worry about reading in order - Iirc it's not necessary. I am going to get to Death Comes for the Archbishop this year, finally.

And highlandcoo I will be looking up Sunset Song, thank you! I enjoyed the farming/isolated croft elements of His Bloody Project, so would like more of the same - perhaps less, er, bloody, though?