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?

Museum, I think you're right that Blue Lightning was a natural ending for the Shetland series. I've read the subsequent books, but she's lost the narrative arc and the new one feels a bit strained.

Happy, that's a lovely use about making positive use of the dark watches of the night.

Still on Weatherland and will be for a while. It's not endless descriptions of the weather (which I would find boring) but a tour through English art and literature over the last thousand years looking out how people have seen themselves in relation to the world - from ploughboys with cold, muddy feet to the medieval singers of spring love songs.

Tarahumara - That's very interesting! I'm a fan of Ian McEwan, too. Oh wow that man can write He rarely has any stories worth writing about though, which is a bit sad, and Saturday is a prime example of this.

Happy - I have difficulty falling asleep too, and find reading a relief. I'm glad the thread helps you, too

My feeling is that McEwan writes like someone who has technically mastered writing, but rarely gives you anything to think about, or stirs any sort of emotion or recognition.

That's a great bit of information about the neurosurgeon though, tarahumara.

happy that's great. I have issues with sleep too (see hallucinations on the other page, I also have pain) and my Kindle is like a comforting friend in the night This thread is great because it makes it harder to be without a book, there's always a suggestion.

Satsuki interesting comment re Ian McEwan. I just loved On Chesil Beach and yet so many hated it. I recommended it to a few people and they all said 'Meh'. I think I am quite an emotive reader in the sense that I can become totally swept up in characters so it almost feels like I am 'living' their life IYSWIM. I cried buckets at the end. It was just so devastating (to me) what happened to the couple. Ditto Atonement which I struggled to get into but once I was in it, that was it. Bawled and bawled at the end of that one. Got less involved with The Children's Act but found it a thought-provoking read especially the legal perspective regarding who gets to make life-changing decisions about a minor's future.

Highland finished Commonwealth last night. Great read. Loved her style of writing. Once again, got totally swept up in the characters and their lives. I must be the worst critic ever - I seem to to be enjoying everything I read at the moment!!

Got less involved with The Children's Act but found it a thought-provoking read especially the legal perspective regarding who gets to make life-changing decisions about a minor's future.

That was what I enjoyed about The Children Act, too Em. I couldn't get into Atonement but reading your comment I might give int another go.

Interesting to see how many Night Owls we have here.

Happy, that's so nice to hear This thread has definitely inspired me to read much more widely and has got me really excited about books again which is lovely. And I have a squillion books I want to work my way through.

Have done, Happy. Come and join me!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2845008-If-fictional-characters-had-Mumsnet

emgee I admit I haven't read any after On Chesil Beach, which was ok, a bit bleak as they all seem to be. I suppose I feel the same about his books as I would about a Jodi Picoult - he chooses a highly charged, emotive subject, and it feels a bit manipulative which I resist, and it leaves me cold, especially as it is disguised as more "high brow", and "not just for chicks". It feels like a ceative writing exercise.

I won't say what belongs to which book in case people haven't read, but - euthanasia, obsession, child kidnap, incest, "the war", rape of a child, medical ethical problem, post 9-11. I know these are all good subjects, but it is the way he approaches them, quite cynically, I think, and not always from a place of emotional realism. I mean the letter in Atonement that kicks the whole thing off - really?! I will allow that he is a good writer, in the sense that if you pick one up you will find it well written and get into it, but he is just not for me generally.

I am a very much a crier who can get very emotionally involved in books, though, so I'm with you there!

I will be there too Cheerful !

PS ThereAreNoGhostsHere I LOVE Regeneration - read it a couple of years ago and was gripped.

1. The strange and beautiful sorrows of ava lavender by Leslie Walton. The book tells the story of three generations of a family who are effectively outcasts of society. Ava Lavender, the third generation, was born with a pair of wings, her mother and grandmother were thought of as 'witches'. The book reads better than the summary sounds. I picked it up as one of the 'Books on the Underground' scheme where I will be returning it for someone else to enjoy.

As I read On Chesil Beach I was a little underwhelmed but the story has remained with me since. I might give Ian McEwan another go as part of this challenge.

"born with a pair of wings, her mother and grandmother were thought of as 'witches'"

Real wings, as on a bird? She could fly?

Satsuki - "I got the Hamilton OST for my birthday and am now plugging through the biography"

Is that a person?

Yes, Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the U.S. There is a musical based on his life that has been selling out on Broadway and comes to the West End later this year - OST for original soundtrack. There has been much made of its being "hip-hop" but in fact it encompasses a lot of genres of music.

The guy who wrote the musical was inspired by reading Ron Chernow's biography of Hamilton, which I am reading, to clarify further.

14. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

A poignant story of a young girl and how her life is touched by the Nazi regime (and books). It is narrated by Death.

I listened to the audiobook, so I could get on with other things at the same time. I often found myself stopping to listen more intently. Despite death being a large factor in the book, it didn't come across as all doom and gloom. It showed that even during terrible times, human kindness can prevail.

It's aimed at Young Adults, but is still worth a read. I enjoyed it, but wouldn't rave about it.

This was what he performed a few years ago at a White House poetry event, before he wrote the whole thing.

Satsuki We're big Hamilton fans in the Muddler house. I got DH that book for Christmas.
Him, opening parcel: It seems to be ... an enormous non-fiction tome ...
Me: Well, you asked for it.
Him: I did? Oh! I did!
I don't think he had expected it to be quite such a doorstop.

cheerful I've got it on kindle so not quite so obvious, but I've read 25% and have still got 18 hours left apparently

I've got tickets for 2018, I may have finished it by then...

We've got tickets too Satsuki!

I'm going to a Handel concert tonight so ner

Feel free to jump up and down too cote