50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Three

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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 first thread of the year is here and the second one here.

1. The Mask Of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler

Wow, this was very good I'm quite surprised to have loved it so much, since it was written over 80 years ago and I have no patience for 'old style' prose, with its prim & proper characters and stuck up, turgid dialogues (I'm looking at you, On The Beach).

In contrast, this book has aged very well. It is the story of a detective fiction writer who heard of an international crime lord called Dimitrios whose body washes up on the shore as he is visiting Istanbul. He then embarks on a journey that covers Romania, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Paris etc to discover Dimitrios's story, which leads him to many unpalatable lessons about the politics and economics of the world we live in.

This is a spy book or perhaps a crime fiction book, but it is an introspective, contemplative one. It is what every John Le Carré book wants to be and dies trying I heartily recommend it to everyone here.

And bringing my list over:

1. The North Water by Ian McGuire
2. The Snowden Files: Inside Story Of The World's Most Wanted Man by Luke Harding
3. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
4. The Cambridge Companion to Handel by Donald Burrows
5. Revelation by C. J. Sansom (Shardlake #4)

I might give that one a miss then, Fortuna

Books 6-8 for me:

The Black Widow by Chris Brookmyre. The 7th Jack Parlabane book I believe. First for me. Found it pretty gripping, but the ending was a bit ludicrous. Would certainly read more Brookmyre though.

The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell. I liked this a lot. It made me feel very jolly and upbeat.

The Establishment (and how they get away with it) by Owen Jones. This quickly got rid of my jolly feelings.

Next up - The Long Walk by Stephen King. It's more than 20 years since I last read any Stephen King, but I've read so many threads about him that I feel drawn back to him.

Bringing my list over to the new thread. Highlights in bold.

1. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
2. The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, Hendrik Groen
3. Slade House, David Mitchell
4. Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
5. The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu
6. The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie
7. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
8. Best Served Cold, Joe Abercrombie

And to add to that:

1. True Grit, Bear Grylls. A selection of survival stories that have inspired his way of life. The premise of this was good – a brief account of some of the most amazing and awful stories of survival from mountaineering and polar exploration to crossing deserts, oceans, and jungles. A mixture of famous stories you’re likely to know about already (Shackleton, Amundson, Scott) and others that, for me at least, I was unaware of. The stories themselves are incredible. Grylls’ way of telling them however, is not. I get it, he’s excited and inspired by what happened to these people. It led him to where he is today. But he describes the events with such a boyish sense of drama that it got on my nerves a bit. He made out that the natural world is deliberately out to get you, and used overly theatrical language when describing the “true grit” of the people involved (a phrase which, as Remus warned me, is used rather a lot). Overall, interesting stories if you can look past the telling of them.

Has anyone read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez? I’m listening to it on audiobook at the moment, 25% of the way in, and although it’s beautifully written, the story isn’t grabbing me. I don't know whether or not to continue.

Am also reading All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot, which is lovely.

Ah! monty I read all the James Herriot when I was on Maternity leave with my first born- nearly 16 years ago. It was like comfort reading!

I don't know who it was who recommended Ready Player One this year but I am enjoying the audiobook (on Audible) of it SO much, so thank you . I'm actually excited for tomorrow when I can do some work as I always listen to books while working. I found it initially a little claustrophobic but am now utterly hooked and the narrator is very good indeed. Brilliant stuff!
This thread is great for book recommendations.

I'm so far behind on these threads but will try and catch up over half-term.

1. The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson - Read for book group - this is a children's book about a 12 year old boy with severe OCD, who can't leave the house. He watches his neighbours from the window, making notes on what they're up to. The toddler staying with his grandfather next door goes missing and Matthew decides to investigate. This was a quick read and I quite enjoyed it. DS also enjoyed it. I wasn't sure he'd really get the OCD aspect but he seemed to. (I have mild-moderate OCD but make a really conscious effort not to make the DCs aware of it.)

10. The Sellout by Paul Beatty - Booker winner last year and the 4th of the shortlist I've been working my way through. This has won praise as a satire on race in America and opens with a black man facing the judges in the Supreme Court for his act of attempting to re-segregate schools in his home town in California. There were some brilliant passages in places but I felt like I was missing something in the book as a whole. It wasn't as good as I'd expected overall.

11. Mad Girl: A Happy Life With A Mixed-Up Mind by Bryony Gordon - Off the back of reading The Goldfish Boy, I read this about the author's experiences of living with OCD. A lot of this was familiar to me and it was interesting to realise how much of an impact it had on me, when I was younger. Hers is much more severe than mine, so it was an interesting read.

Am now reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, to finish before we go to see Cursed Child in a couple of weeks. Am also reading a couple more books on Kindle at the same time.

I'm also a great fan of Anne Hathaway, I have it up, in my house, nice to meet fellow fans:

'Item I gyve unto my wyfe, my second best bed'

at Futura's review

We have Cote to thank for Ready Player One. She and I both enjoyed it, so hopefully that's a good sign for anybody else embarking on it!

Crapfat (Awesome name btw) - I LOVE The Long Walk. Horribly depressing but a great story, v well told.

monty when I read the Marquez, much to my surprise I quite enjoyed it. Can't imagine liking it as an audiobook though, the pacing wouldn't be right. Plus it would be too slow overall.

poetry is not meant to be read silently...you have to read it aloud, even if to yourself.

Dead right Poetic

If I'm reading poetry I almost always read aloud (often do with other books as well, as it calms the dogs down - - they like being read to, daft as it may sound)

Ah Remus, ta. Thank you Cote - you both have excellent taste

I recently finished book no. 3 (I'm making fairly slow progress just now) which was Leap Year, a loose sequel to The Year of Living Danishly. I would say it's very much more of the same, and I gave it 2 stars on Goodreads. It irritated me more than the first one, as it seemed like a blatant attempt to cash in by writing a book, whereas the first one did have appeal because of the culture shock etc of moving to Denmark.

I read all the James Herriots last year. I'd forgotten how lovely they were.

The only King book in my library seems to be Under The Dome. Worth a read or not?

Under the Dome is fine until the ending, which is nonsense. It's not his best.

Monty I agree with everything DrD says about One Hundred Years of Solitude despite absolutely loving it. I also love audio as a format, but somehow, for me, I don't think this book would work on audio. And if you're looking for a plot, it's buried fairly deep within the dreamy strands.

I was fairly rude about Coffin Road yesterday. I've got a bit more into it today, and would only be moderately rude about it now.

1. The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson This was on my Dad's kindle. I knew nothing about it, but absolutely loved it. Set in 1727 London, Tom is a real Hogarthian rake, who gets flung into the notorious debtors' gaol at Marshalsea, and almost immediately becomes embroiled in a murder mystery. It's pacy, the dialogue is sharp, the research the author has done on everyday life at the time, and specifically on the gaol, is outstanding, and woven seamlessly in to really evoke the place. It's not perfect in every way - the plot is a teensy bit silly (but fun), and although the main characters are beautifully drawn, there are too many confusingly indistinguishable, yet still potentially relevant to the plot, minor characters. It's the first of a series, which follows the main character, rather than stays with the gaol. I'll miss that gaol, but will definitely read on. Recommend.

11. Goldenhand, Garth Nix
    Another in the Abhorsen YA fantasy series, this follows Lirael and Nick. Enjoyed it but felt it wasn't one of the strongest.

12. Closer to the Chest, Mercedes Lackey
    Saw this cheap, and wondered how Mercedes Lackey would read now. Fantasy set in ye classic medievalish fantasy land (i.e. picturesque medieval with hot running water and magic). Magic horses, heralds etc. Mind candy basically. One element I did find jarring was the numerous jolly references to brothels, inc a viewpoint character proposing to take a 16 yr old to one.

13. Whose Body Dorothy L Sayers
    Lord Peter Wimsey mystery. The contrast with previous book made me even more appreciative of how well written this is. I also liked seeing Bunter in action, deftly extracting information.

Good to see another fan of The Devil in the Marshalsea, Museum. I read it last year and really enjoyed it too.

I'm not keeping up with the threads very well, atm - still moving very fast. Which is a good thing - lots of people reading :) I'm being distracted by the car crash that is the Trump administration, on Twitter.

Nevertheless, I finished reading Regeneration by Pat Barker, which was very good. I do like books about WW1, and this was one of the best.

Also, We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie which is short but brilliant. Highly recommended. And Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. Loved this and A Christmas Memory, but the other two of the three short stories in my edition, House of Flowers and Diamond Guitar were not quite as enjoyable.

All in all, not a bad reading week. Not sure what I'll get read next week - half term, and then the builders arrive to start major repair works to our cottage. We are going to be living on a building site for several weeks.

I can't find my list to carry over but after abandoning Love, Nina halfway through (enjoyed it at the beginning but then it just began to feel 'same-y'), I restarted no.11 with The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty.

I really enjoyed this - it is her first novel; a 'coming-of-age' story told through the protagonist, the poor but academically gifted Evelyn, who is about 8 or so at the start of the story. It charts her upbringing in Kansas with her unconventional single mother, Tina who seems to have had her share of bad luck with men and a strained relationship with her parents but manages throughout the novel, to stick to her own set of values. It is really well written, manages to be 'gripping' despite the fact that it charts everyday life. Poignantly describes the transition from childhood to adolescence and all the tangled issues that ensue. My only gripe is that I turned over the page to find myself at the end - the last quarter of the book was reading group questions and the first few chapter of her next novel. Grrrrr. Hate that as I wasn't expecting it to just end the way it did and felt a bit cheated.

Just started number 12: The Outrun by Amy Liptrot which is a memoir (in similar vein to H is for Hawk) of a young woman who has suffered alcoholism throughout her 20s and returns to her childhood home in Orkney to recover).

I hate it when books do that EmGee you just get comfy and think that you have several chapters left, then Grrrrr.

DH is a big Stephen King fan but he hated Under the Dome - he said he found it increasingly unpleasant for no good reason and actually gave up which is unheard of for him.

I liked One Hundred Years of Solitude but it was a slow read as it's full of descriptive passages and stream of consciousness. I seem to remember having to really concentrate on it (it was a long time ago so I'm a bit hazy now).

I think that One Hundred Years Of Solitude works either if you concentrate deeply or if you just float and let the prose wash over you. Either way, it has to be immersive.

A friend really struggled with it but it was because she skimmed some bits, left several days between readings, etc etc. So she kept detaching from the buendo family & having to re-work the characters.
She also got really hung up on how the house kept growing or shrinking to fit the story and it totally spoilt the book for her. I did tell her to not get so embroiled in small points...it wasn't that type of book!

Come to think of it, magic realism probably want her cup of tea and she just wanted to tick the book off a list. She ended up, instead, hating it with a passion

Coming towards the end of:

13. The Year of Living Danishly, by Helen Russell

Reviewed already on here. I'm slightly irritated by the authorial voice, but she's won me around with her account of a Danish Christmas.

15. Forgotten Voices of the Great War. True recollections of the WW1. Harrowing, shocking and at times amusing. It never fails to shock me the conditions these men lived and fought in and the impact on the Home Front. Needing to immerse myself in it all for something I am working on but think I will have to have lighter reading alongside. That said it's a collection of love letters between soldiers and there partners next!

I've added the feminist book to my list Therearenoghostshere. I've recently been listening to The Guilty Feminist podcast, which is very funny but also wise. It's been making me think a lot about the world my daughters are growing up in.

I loved A hundred Years of Solitude but pretty sure I read it while living in a jungle somewhere, so probably the perfect place for magic realism. Love in a time of cholera is a more coherent story IIRC, would definitely recommend it.

1. The Word for World is Forest - Ursula LeGuin. This is about humans colonising a planet, cutting down its trees and raping and enslaving its people. Yay. It was written at the time of the Vietnam War but is still depressingly relevant, if a little preachy at times.

I've read that too, RMC123

Also, Forgotten Voices of The Holocaust

Very moving, and makes me so grateful that our generation, at least in the West, has barely been touched by the horrors of war. The courage and suffering of many people is salutary.