50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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, the second one here, and the third thread here.

What are you reading?

Goodness, I keep coming on this thread, adding lots of books to my "to read" list, and forgetting to post myself!

14. The Burning Land - Bernard Cornwell - book 5 in the Last Kingdom/Saxon series. Life was all a bit too settled for our Uhtred, but it all goes a bit tits up, and King Alfred pushes him too far. Uhtred decides to go off to find Danes and have a crack at getting his castle back, but life gets a bit more complex. For those who enjoy the series, another good one.

15. 84 Charing Cross Road/The Dutchess of Bloomsbury - Helene Hanff - these are really 2 books, but both short and counting as 1 for the list. 84 is a lovely book, it's the letters between Helene Hanff, a writer in New York and a book shop in London she first contacted just after the war trying to source rare books. She continued to correspond for 20 years. In the early 70s she published this book, and The Dutchess of Bloomsbury is her diary of her time in London when she came over to promote it. I would recommend any book lover reads this, it's just lovely.

16. The Hanging Tree - Ben Aaronvitch - this is book 6 in the PC Grant books. 2 very rich teenagers overdose in party a posh flat, the wizard police get called in because one of the other party goers is the daughter of Lady Ty, the godess of the river Tyburn. Faceless man turns up and then things get a bit messy. I've enjoyed this series, but the books definately need to be read in order.

Now I need to read my book club book for next week, have been putting it off because frankly, I don't want to read it.

That was me, biblio - and yes, sounds like we pretty much agree about it. It's a very particular slice of wartime life, which isn't always agreeable, but it's very well-observed, and she can definitely write.

A load of total bollocks. The whole is-she-isn't she story of the Romanovs throughout the 20th century does really interest me, but this was a pile of horrendously-written, ill-thought-out shite. And the constant "she is so gracious and wonderful that she just be royal, because, well, ROYAL. And ARISTOCRACY. And ROYAL." I only finished it because I'd bought it!

But don't you just hate yourself for ploughing through it Diva?

I did with the Alison Weir crap! It was like a compulsion - the sort that makes you look at an accident even though you know you will be sick and wake up screaming every night for the next three weeks. And the more time I invested in it, the less inclined I was to give it up.

I was a fool - I should have just closed the sodding thing after the first 30 pages (you have to give it a chance) and buried it in a shallow unmarked grave somewhere desolate and far from my my home . . .

Thanks, Cheerful! I'm glad you mentioned it.

It also made me realise I could do a search on my library catalogue for books published by Persephone, so I've added a few more to my list on the strength of that, including another one by the same author.

1. I let you go- Clare Makintosh. Fantastic. Really really enjoyed it. Am going to start her other book - I see you now because the first chapter preview has already got me hocked.

I love The Little Prince.

I didn't realise that My Week with Marilyn is a book. The film is excellent.

biblio If you like WW2 Persephones, try Doreen. A charwoman's little girl is evacuated to an upper-middle-class couple who desperately want a child of their own and see her as a surrogate daughter. Really interesting on the dynamic between the mother, the child and the couple.

But don't you just hate yourself for ploughing through it Diva?

Well - kind of grubby

17. The White Goddess by Robert Graves

Dear god, this was a slog! It's like a 500 page crossword puzzle! Basically, Graves was trying to unite mythologies, folklore, and religion, arguing back to the original White Goddess, the inspiration for all true poetry according to Graves, who is eventually replaced in her various incarnations by different gods leading down to the patriarcal deity of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims - although the Goddess still appears in modern belief in the form of the Virgin Mary. He sees mythological stories as records of tribal disputes and one faith system overcoming another, so Apollo overcoming the Python for control of the Oracle at Delphi would be an instance of a people worshipping a god overcoming a goddess sect, for example. It's quite interesting but it's hard work and some of the time he just drops things in out of nowhere claiming it to be truth.

18. December by Phil Rickman

Another re-read. Four musicians with psychic abilities are brought together to record an album in the ruins of a medieval abbey in the early 1980s - the night that John Lennon died. The abbey has a bloody history which affects the group and leads to more death before the four go their separate ways, having burned the session tapes. But 14 years later they discover the recordings weren't destroyed after all, and reluctantly the four are drawn back to the abbey to finish what they started.

whippet I have Mothering Sunday and My Week with Marilyn, enjoyed the Revenant, took a while to read Ready Player One, and was underwhelmed by The Little Prince, so fist bump

chilliejeanie I found the The White Goddess very interesting, I wouldn't want to plough through it in one go though!

I'm still plodding on with The Name of the Wind. I nearly gave up but I'm 60 per cent now. It is like a children's book, Harry Potter for grown ups but without the intricate plotting, character building, or plausibility. It is making me sad I can't even be bothered to criticise it. My review will be very short, when the time finally comes. There are also spelling and grammatical errors which is disheartening.

Fistbump right back at you Satsuki! We are obviously awesome.

Temporarily lost track of my numbers but I think this is my eleventh book of the year so far - Letter from New York by Helene Hanff. This is a non-fiction book of letters from the writer of 84 Charing Cross Road written in the late 70's and early 80's about her adventures in the city. It was fun to an extent to note how much New York has changed since then but most of her anecdotes were dull.

Hoping to finish Keeping On Keeping On and Jonathan Unleashed by the end of the week.

16. Off Sides - Sawyer Bennett

This book was very much just light reading fluff that I picked up for free. Typical rich boy meets girl who has struggled in life and is poor and falls for her whilst having to justify to his family/friends through a crisis. Plot moves very very fast and there's more in the series but I won't be buying any more.

Now onto 17. The Loving Husband - Christobel Kent

34. Valley of The Dolls - Jacquline Susann The original schlock blockbuster. Beginning in the 1940s it follows the lives of three young women in New York showbiz. Broadway and Hollywood feature large and the period detail is great. I first read this as teenager and loved it than and I think it's stood the test of time well. It's quite a dark book, not a happy ending at all. Not great literature but it set the path for others to follow with good reason.

Thanks Cheerful - Doreen isn't in my library, but I'll keep an eye for it.

Just finished a re-read of Charlotte Higgins' Under Another Sky, about the various meanings the British have attached to their Roman past. Not adding it to my tally given that it's a re-read. This thread has made me realize how little I do actually re-read. Too many interesting new reads out there. Good problem to have.

16. Testosterone Rex - Cordelia Fine
Really enjoyed this exploration of the role accorded to testosterone in stereotypical male behaviour. As expected, she does a great job of dismantling some of the claims and clarifying the flaws is some of the most cited studies.

There was so much to absorb and reflect on that I feel I want to read it all again and highlight key points. It's great for those times when you're confronted with 'men are more risk-taking and therefore better suited to senior levels in business' crap.

Highly recommended.

I find it weird that The Name of The Wind garners such adoration Satsuki, I was a bit bored by it.

Thanks for the Capote recommendations, I'm going to get both of them. I don't think I've ever seen Breakfast at Tiffany's despite having a poster of Audrey Hepburn & George Peppard snogging in the rain on my wall as a teenager. But will read it first.

17. Go Set A Watchman - Harper Lee. I am very glad I read TKAM first to see the book it could become. I found the book itself rather boring, It's too autobiographical and there are too many rambling anecdotes. But it is interesting from a writer's/ editor's perspective. Someone read this and pinpointed the interesting part and got her to rewrite it. And I suspect you need to get some of the personal stuff out before you can write a "real" story.

Updating my list:

1. Promises in Death by J. D. Robb

2 The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling

1. Fractured by Karin Slaughter
2. Broken by Karin Slaughter
3. Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
4. Don't Tell by Karen Rose

boldly thanks so much for that recommendation. I thought Delusions of Gender was fabulous, so am looking forward to this one.

Aargh that Spoiler warning wasn't big enough.

Agree. Pls could you report your post stokey to get it removed or edited?

I actually thought that one was pretty common knowledge, I'm sure I read it in a review before I got to the book.

stokey Re Name of the wind I know it is so dull. He goes to all the trouble of creating a new world with magic and strange beings, and invents a powerful protagonist to navigate it, then rewinds the story to have you follow him through a fairly prosaic university career, busking and worrying about tuition fees. Like he thinks if you call pounds 'talents' that makes the whole monotony of budgeting fantastical. It doesn't The really irritating thing is he'll say something like "I sang the most lyrically inventive and emotive song ever and everyone sobbed at the perfect lyrics and it was the greatest song ever" and you just have to take his word for it. He doesn't actually write the lyrics. Tolkien would have written the song. It makes me think of this

The main character is a Mary Sue and the whole thing is a bit juvenile. And this is book one! And he hasn't finished university!

Book 26
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers
This was okay. I do like Lord Peter and she populates her novels well but it was far too long and there was rather too much banging on about bell ringing for my liking.

1. The Lonely Hearts Hotel, by Heather O'Neill Two star-crossed orphans in 1930s Montreal weather cruel treatment, nasty nuns, separation, jealous lovers, poverty, heroin addiction, and mobsters for the sake of their true loves: each other and their shared vision of a spectacular theatrical production. A Wes Anderson movie in novel form. Delightful. Fantastic.

1. Not Working, by Lisa Owens Claire's life is not workingnor is shein any sense. An account of when things just aren't right for a. while and how one can try (and sometimes fail) to make things work again.

1. Maud: A Novel Inspired by the Life of L.M. Montgomery, by Melanie J. Fishbane Historical YA fiction about the mid-late teen years of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables. Maud is a young woman of many passionsfor writing, for learning, and for her friendsand sometimes has trouble fitting into the strict behavioural code of Cavendish, the small Prince Edward Island town that she lives in with her maternal grandparents. The book traces formative years in her young life, from her inspirational female teacher to the year that she spent in Saskatchewan with her father and stepmother (her mother's having died when Maud was a toddler) to returning to PEI and figuring out the direction she would like her life to take. For anyone who has enjoyed Montgomery's books or wants to know more about her (or Canada during the late 1800s), I highly, highly recommend this book, which is excellent in its research, writing, and story. Disclaimer: the author is a dear friend of mine BUT I resolved not to mention the book unless I could recommend it honestly. I can!

1. Missing, Presumed, by Susie Steiner Posh female Cambridge PhD candidate goes missing. DS with a messy personal life searches for her. Very much of a type, but not poorly done.

10. Difficult Women, by Roxane Gay A short collection about women in difficult circumstances or whose circumstances make them "difficult". Often brutal, but not gratuitous. Highly recommended.