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?

Interesting comments on The Three Body Problem. One of the things I liked most about the first book was the characters of Ye Wenjie and Wang Miao - I certainly wouldn't have seen them as undeveloped or indistinct. I also really enjoyed the writing style / translation, and was a little disappointed that bk 2 read more like a regular western sci-fi novel (different translator which may have had something to do with it).

The good thing though is that this reminded me to check and the library now does have book 3 in stock, so have put myself on the reservation list for it :)

Re Three Body Problem - Well for example - Wang Maio has a wife and child - he gives them no thought or mention once the plot takes over, and doesn't display many emotional reactions to anything, or attachments to anything, I just didn't get much of a sense of him as a personality. Ye wenjie is more developed but is so nihilistic that it takes over the general feel - which is fine, but then it makes the speech about what makes humans different from trisolarians seem tacked on, rather than being in evidence throughout the story. I mean, maybe that's the point, but it just wasn't that engaging for me. I didn't mind the style but sometimes the dialogue had lots of awkward explanatory exclamations which made it seem stilted. I thought the final chapters were good but it felt a long time getting there, personally, rather than rollicking along I guess did no one else find all the dehydrating a bit silly.

Having said all that, I've reserved the second one from the library

Now I am about to take a bath so I can have some time alone with Raymond Chandler.

This is my first time on this year's challenge thread. I'm aiming for 30 books again although managed 44 last year. Some felt a bit rushed though.

So far I have read:

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde. Excellent. Realised I'd read it before.

1. The Outrun - Amy Liptrot. I love reading about life on remote Scottish islands and this hit the spot. I found her personal story as a recovering alcoholic very engaging.

1. The Stranger in My Home -Adele Parks. Didn't even know I had this. Just found it on my iBooks. Good story, bit of a twist.

1. The Lady in the Tower - Alison Weir. Wanted to know more about the Tudors, especially Ann Boleyn, after the BBC programmes presented by Lucy Worseley. Really good book.

1. The Muse -Jessie Burton. Loved this. Absolutely gripped, even though it was fairly obvious what the story was. Just loved the writing.

Currently reading: The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Terrific, funny, sharp, tragic - my book group chose it and I can't wait to discuss it as I'm sure there'll be a range of opinions.

Lottery win!! Not really found a stash of Waterstones vouchers that I had forgotten from my birthday and Xmas.?
Not that I needed more books...

3. The Last One by Alexandra Oliva

A sort of apocalyptic pandemic / reality TV thriller.
Zoo (a reference to her job rather than her name) is one of 12 contestants in a new wilderness survival TV reality show, which rather than having contestants voted off or booted out for coming last, aims to make things increasingly nasty for them so they'll quit, with the last one standing set to win $1 million.
But, the start of filming coincides with the start of a global pandemic. Unknown to the contestants, people are starting to get sick. And it's spreading fast.

This story switches back and forth between 2 timelines. We have the past, following the TV show from the start of filming, and the present, as Zoo trudges across a land devastated and empty.

The present day Zoo spends most of the book in denial about the reality of the situation, telling herself it's all a twisted trick by the TV producers, and that if she plays by the rules and doesn't quit, it'll all be fine. Last time she saw the TV crew, she was told that they were starting solo challenges and she might not spot the cameras, after all. The TV crew are sure to pop up sooner or later. Those things that look like dead bodies? Very realistic props, of course. Those abandoned buildings? The TV company must be renting those for backdrops to the show. She's aided in her denial by the fact she's almost blind without glasses, and the only pair of glasses on her get broken very early on.

I found this thoroughly compelling. Although there's a bit with an abandoned baby that I did find very disturbing. An uncomfortable reminder of just how horribly vulnerable babies and small children would be in a situation where all the adults around them had sickened and died.

rmc that's the kind of discovery I'd like to make. Love seeing pictures of books!

Just joined the discussion the first couple of books I would like to read is The unmumsy mum and According to Yes.

Satsuki - it was a great all as all were on buy one get one half price! But the 'to read pile' is now ridiculous- plus what's on the Kindle!!

Just picked up this beauty for a grand total of a pound in the Waterstones sale. I saw the exhibition at the Wellcome and anything to do with nits, cholera, syphilis etc is right up my street!

8. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes - A retired man looks back on his childhood friendship and first relationship. It is only towards the end that it's clear there was another story going on that the narrator, Tony, didn't really understand at the time.

It is a very gentle and navel gazing book, although well written.

Ha - you made me check mine - about the same excluding library and Kindle.

The pile behind is made up of waifs and strays that require a shelf

Some absolute corkers waiting for you there. Satsuki - do I spot This Thing of Darkness and Arthur and George?

And CJS?

Arthur and George - complete pleasure!

Yes to all of those - its easier for me to find time to read on the kindle so I end up hoarding a "greatest hits" in paperback for high days and holidays (or sick days), I like knowing there is something there for an emergency .

Looking forward to all of them but don't want to speed through them.

I can't open your link Remus

Dirt

I am listening to The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller. Mumsnet has just been mentioned. Re The Tiger Who Came to Tea

anything to do with nits, cholera, syphilis etc is right up my street!

highlandcoo...I've added Sunset Song to my list too.

And while Im deciding what to read next I was browsing the huge list on my kindle when I came across The Warden....never read it before or any of the Barchester Towers series...so that's me sorted! Coincidence that we are heading for similar things at the moment!

So many comments here its hard to keep up - but I've picked up Arthur and George and This Thing of Darkness too and added them to my list.

Satsuki - I can see Flowers for Algernon in your stack....loved this!

I thought the first half of Flowers For Algernon was stunning; second half not so much.

1. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan: mercifully short, I didn't enjoy this early work of his: I found it very dark and unnecessarily horrible in parts. A couple on holiday in Venice (although the city is never named for some reason) spend a lot of time lazing about and getting lost, wandering about until they bump into a strange man who invites them out, telling them disturbing stories of his childhood and inviting the couple to his home. They accept and events take an even more disturbing, macabre turn. Not great but I felt compelled to finish it!

I'm also close to finishing Our Endless Numbered Days and am trying to decide what to go for next on my kindle.

13 Mutton by India Knight

Picked up in the library - sequel to My Life on a Plate which I read years ago when dd was small. That was very enjoyable in a Bridget-Jones-y sort of way, with the protagonist Clara (30-something journalist) being very obviously autobiographical. This is an update with Clara now in her late 40s but sadly not a patch on the original. I did finish it and empathised with some bits (being late 40s myself) & found others amusing but wouldn't particularly recommend it.

Like the look of "Dirt". , Remus A pound, you say. . .

Just finished "His Bloody Project" and I enjoyed it - it was well written and original, and I loved the format, but I didn't think it was as good as some other books I've read. Perhaps I was expecting too much of it after the reviews on here.

Just started "Suite Francaise" and I must say am enjoying the beginning very much.