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?

5. 11.22.63 by Stephen King

Overall I enjoyed this. It is long, it is rather silly, but it is a good yarn and it kept me with it to the end. I was a huge fan of Quantum Leap as a kid, so it takes a lot to lose me in a time travel narrative, I want to believe! Jake Epping finds a opening in time, in the back of his pal's diner (naturally) that takes him to 1958. He can spend as long as he likes there, and only 2 minutes pass in the current world. Each time he goes in he reenters at the exact same point in time, and it seems that all his messing about there is wiped... so he very quickly moves from experimenting with this to deciding to wait out 4 years in the past in order to have a crack at stopping Oswald and saving JFK. If only it were that simple, eh? There are several years to fill with shenanigans and preparation, and, to an extent, building a life in a different time, and some of this is gripping and interesting, and some isn't quite so much - too much time spent eavesdropping on Oswald's domestic life etc, (and perhaps too much wish-fulfilment in the bedroom for Jakey) but it was fun and really opened up that time in history. The assassination of Kennedy is something that is in the background of everyone's general knowledge, it had a huge cultural impact, but this book got me really thinking about the circumstances surrounding it in more detail, the repercussions, facts I wasn't aware of, and just the real horror of it, for perhaps the first time as an adult. It was a pivotal moment for a nation, but also a tragic moment for a man and a family and this book really tries to get to grips with that.

I am now cracking on with Three Body Problem before it goes back to library.

Hello everyone. I wonder if I could join this group. I have been lurking on the thread for a good 2 years now and have had some stonking recommendations off it. Perhaps 2017 is the year for me to come out of hiding!

There is very little chance that I'll read 50 books as I have too many plates in the air, so I'm going to aim for 25 and go from there.

I - tentatively - thought you might like The Essex Serpent too cote

It really wasn't very feeelllingss-y at all, more about science v religion and beautifully written with some sex thrown in

I thought the characters were quite refreshing, I don't necessarily have to like characters to enjoy a book though. It was a different approach to that time than I've read before - it seemed to emphasis the parallels with our time rather than the differences.

Welcome poetic

CantstandmLMs you asked earlier in this thread about the TV version of 11.22.63 Well, to put it bluntly, it is terrible. The acting is laughably bad. At one point, the pub owner (Al?) coughs to show he's ill, but does so in such a heavy-handed hammy way, I truly thought it was a spoof!

Reading your review of the book version, I concur with the "wish-fulfillment in the bedroom", but I find that is a repetitive feature of King's heroes. I am a huge huge fan of his books, but it is true that his main men get way more action than a normal guy could expect. It was one of the things that put me off the Mr Mercedes series. There was paragraph after paragraph on Jack Hodges' beer gut, and still the stunning leading lady can't keep her hands off him. Yeah, right! I mean, there isn't even any evidence of an intellectual meeting of minds at the point they tumble into bed!

I hadn't heard of a tv version - maybe that's why - and JJ Abrams no less.

Yes I was laughing at some of the bedroom stuff - "I'm a virgin and I need your help with that..." - but I'm torn in a way because actually it is good to see women depicted as being willing and active participants and exhibiting desire, especially in a book written by a man, so I'll give him a pass. At least he doesn't go into too much excruciating detail.

Umm... OK, I'll put Essex Serpent in my Amazon Wish List for when it next drops to 99p.

True, Satsuki there is that. And also true it's rare in books written by men

Actually, the best sex Stephen King writes is seedy sex. The regret and self-loathing practically jumps off the pages. It's romantic sex that he falls short on, veering close to parody.

I have just started The Essex Serpent yesterday. A bit of a slow beginning, but there have been so many glowing reviews , I'm going to assume it picks up pace as it goes along.

KeithLeMonde I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Eileen, and wish you luck with it! I'm racing through His Bloody Project though.

Finished book 1 - "Holes". I wanted something easy and it was a quick read. Apparently Disney turned it into a movie a few years back so that gives an idea of the depth of the book but I enjoyed it and it was quite clever in places.

I'm going to start a spooky one passed on to me by my sister next.

Book three is finished.

1. Flesh Wounds by Christopher Brookmyre.

The third book in Brookmyre's series featuring Jasmine Sharp, the young Private Detective, Glen Fallan the is he or isn't he reformed ex-Glasgow bad guy and two detectives all come together in a book about gang-land Glasgow, new and old murders and family ties. Brookmyre's writing is always slightly tongue in cheek like he is daring you to take any of it too seriously. I found it went on a bit at the end and I was struggling to follow all the ends where were tied up but that may have been the fault of Mad Men in the background. Overall though I very much enjoyed revisiting Brookmyre and have added his more recent ones to my wish list.

Back to deciding what to read next. I have come back to Phantom by Jo Nesbo about 4 times in the last two years and make little headway. I can still remember the plot and could probably pick it back up but for some reason I get put off every time I start. Just checked and I am 51% through it. After about 2 years!

Similarly I have The Road To Little Dribbling by Bill bryson sitting abandoned. I just thought it was exceptionally dull. 34. % through this one and have never even attempted to revisit. Weird as I normally like Bryson.

I started My Policeman by Bethan Roberts many years ago. I think it was one of my first kindle purchases and I got it 5 years ago. I thought I liked it but it seems I have only got 7% through it! My head must have been turned by something more page turny. It recall it being about a woman whose husband is closet homosexual and is dying. She shares her home and her husband with his lover. So all quite emotional probably.

As well as that buried in my kindle from my excitable first days of downloading (free books! Books for 99p!) I have yet to touch The One You Love by Paul Pilkington, The Folks at Fifty-Eight by Michael Patrick Clark and Wuthering Heights. I do me know if I can force myself to read these before reading the new ones I have downloaded or at more from my wish list.

I have kindle purchase guilt. At least with a book from a shop you can pass it on. I have these ones staring at me!

Super fast thread! Great to see newbies, welcome to all.

I remember really liking the Virgin Suicides, a good combination of off piste story with good writing.

1. the Essex Serpent. Yes, I indulged in the Christmas sale too . I really enjoyed it - it ticked all the boxes of character, writing and plot and was a bit educational as well. Is "cleave" really the only word in English that has 2 opposite meanings? Cool! Great book.

1. A Dance with Dragons Bk1 - first half of Game of Thrones book 5. I have no idea why but these books are utterly addictive for me. I have to force myself to slow down. Not much to say about this one other than there are some quite significant differences with the TV series. I don't mind that, I guess it's a bit like a parallel universe!

I'm now listening to an audio book of The Secret Life of Bees. I'm finding it quite hokey and a bit tedious. Has anyone read it who can advise on whether to carry on? My step mum loved it but she and I have rather different tastes in books...

Off to look up what Ready Player One is all about.

ladydepp when I read that in the book I almost immediately thought of "sanction" so I don't think so!

potatowaffle I liked Holes when I read it.

1. NW by Zadie Smith

I know a few of you have read this or given up

A frustrating book that is often more concerned with pissing about with form and it's own lofty ideas of a "concept novel" then a 'good yarn'.

Neither of the lead females is an appealing person, though Natalie and her personal struggle with identity is more interesting, I didn't feel like I ever grasped her as a character, and in some ways that is part of the point.
I have no idea why she does the thing she does in the section of the book called Crossing. Absolutely baffled as to her motives.
The whole Felix interlude and the tenuous link of the leads to it is just there for dramatic value and the whole thing is just cheapened by it, from both angles.

It is overly ambitious, and misses its aim, is a bit too concerned with making a "point" at the expense of the story.

London Centric Novels by London Authors all seem to make the same points and tell the same story in dfferent ways, one that exists in the London Elite Echo Chamber. So many Contemporary London books are the same book, or variants of the same book.

1. Someone struggles with rivalry and shallowness in a "media job"
2. Someone becomes a mother and struggles with the demands of motherhood against the back drop of various patissieries
3. Earnest box ticking of every community, endless box ticking of "social issues"

2 often being either alongside 1 or alongside 3.

There are too many of them. Where are the voices of the rest of the UK, really?

(My apologies if that sounds Brexit, I'm a Remain Labour voter)

What I mean is not about/against multiculturism at all, but were are the Bradford voices? The stories from Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham?

But trip over in a bookshop and you'll knock over 10 books that fit the description of one, two, or three

Finally finished second non-fiction book of the year - actually started it last year, does that still count?

4-6 The 3rd, 4th & 5th book in the Vatta's War series by Elizabeth Moon.
Am enjoying the series so far as undemanding pleasant reading (Patrick O'Brien in space, but without the big bromance, and with the uber-talented up & coming young captain being female) - the 5th book pretty much concludes the ongoing plot arcs, so not sure what book 6, out in April, will cover.

1. Misbehaving by Richard Thaler (yes, the Nudge guy).

Sadik eviscerated this on the 2016 thread page 22 - I have zero background in economics, so was rattling through it happily enough, then read Sadik's review and started really noticing how often the author tells you how daring he was to pursue all that stuff. So interesting, but will line up Kahneman's book for later this year.

Can you link directly to a post in a thread btw? On mobile site, and can't see an obvious option.

Songbird I've just finished Swing Time and completely understand what you mean - though I think this is generally a modern authors approach to writing about London, there are so many brilliant classics that don't do it

1. Swing Time, Zadie Smith - meh, alright as a pick up put down bedtime read but no connection with any characters and found it all a bit whiney

Oh dear glitter - I'd forgotten I was quite so rude about it. To be fair, it was probably set up to push all my buttons

I don't think you can slightly , people generally give the time I think?

Not to contradict you everysongbird because I'm sure you're right about those numbers but doesn't it also depend on where in the bookshop you're looking? Those things you describe in 1,2,3 sound very much a "chick-lit" style of book and I don't think I've read anything that matches that in the last year. Zadie Smith is very much associated with the North London literary novel, though.

I can’t keep up with this thread! It’s moving too fast for me. Slow it down people.

3. The House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz
I found this to be engaging enough and didn’t guess all of the mystery, but I’m not a particular fan of Sherlock Holmes anyway, so this left me feeling rather meh overall. It’s made me want to read more of the originals though.

4. The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between – Hisham Matar
I can’t recommend this enough, it’s just an excellent, though sad memoir and I read it in just over a day (when I should have been working). The Libyan born novelist returns to Libya to try and find out what happened to his father and other members of his family during the Qaddafi regime. I really didn’t realise the extent of the horrors inflicted by Qaddafi, but this was so beautifully written I didn’t want to put it down despite that.

5. The Sympathizer – Viet Thanh Nguyen
Another good novel and so different to anything I have ever read. We learn about The Sympathizer, half Vietnamese, half European and his role in the Vietnam war and the troubles that came after it in his life in the USA. Not really accepted anywhere due to his mixed heritage, the Sympathizer lives between two camps, both literally and metaphorically and has many secrets. Yet despite there being some upsetting elements to this novel, such as rape and torture, the narrator is so engaging and at times funny and human, that it’s an excellent ( if not perhaps overly long) read. It also won the Pulitzer prize for fiction last year.

Phew.

"2. Someone becomes a mother and struggles with the demands of motherhood against the back drop of various patissieries"

Songbird this made me snort (in a good way!). I've said further up that I love ZS, but have wondered whether I would enjoy her books if I wasn't the same age as her and also from London. Critics love her because she's "authentic" (I think this means she's black and pretty and can write) but we could certainly do with more of the "authentic" voices from other parts of the UK.

Interesting what you say about London-centric novels EverySongbird.

Kate Kellaway wrote an interesting article The places where the story of Britain is told . Deals with the question of novels set in London but covers many other places too.
www.theguardian.com/books/2008/dec/28/1

"2. Someone becomes a mother and struggles with the demands of motherhood against the back drop of various patissieries"

Made me laugh too Keith!

I'm not a massive fan of Zadie Smith's writing but do admire her speaking up in the fight to try to save London's libraries. This is what she wrote about the importance of libraries to the community:

I don’t think the argument in favor of libraries is especially ideological or ethical. I would even agree with those who say it’s not especially logical. I think for most people it’s emotional. Not logos or ethos but pathos. This is not a denigration: emotion also has a place in public policy. We’re humans, not robots.

The people protesting the closing of Kensal Rise Library love that library. They were open to any solution on the left or on the right if it meant keeping their library open. They were ready to Big Society the hell out of that place. A library is one of those social goods that matter to people of many different political attitudes. All that the friends of Kensal Rise and Willesden Library and similar services throughout the country are saying is: these places are important to us.

We get that money is tight, we understand that there is a hierarchy of needs, and that the French Market or a Mark Twain plaque are not hospital beds and classroom size. But they are still a significant part of our social reality, the only thing left on the high street that doesn’t want either your soul or your wallet.

I lived near her in London a few years ago and agree she is very feted there. So it was a little unusual to see her at Hay-on-Wye not as an author, but accompanying her husband Nick Laird who was there to talk about his second novel. I had a chat with him after his interview and hadn't realised they were a couple until he mentioned it. He spoke gracefully about her being a much bigger name than him but also couldn't resist pointing out he'd beaten her in a writing competition at Cambridge Very nice guy.

gracefully - I think I mean graciously !

Crikey, everyone seems to be rattling along except me. Just finished my Book 2: All Quiet on the Western Front which, although short, took me ages to finish. The bloke seems determined to help me spend my bonus on the right lens for my new DSLR and is overwhelming me with youtube reviews. My brain is utterly boggled now and am completely unable to make a choice However, what a great book, thought-provoking and beautifully written. I won't do a longer review as there have been many before me. But a great start to the year with two 5-star reads when I had none last year.

Skimming a fair bit this year as trying to clear the massive backlog. But I am keeping an eye out for that overlap on the Cote-Remus Venn diagram thread favourites as they are proving to be absolute winners