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?

I can't remember if I've read it but thought the movie was pretty good (but that may have been Richard Gere & Bruce Willis

I'm old enough to remember the Edward Fox version as well. That was good too.

I missed Day of the Jackal might go back for that, thanks.

I've bought the Einstein biography too.

Satsuki The White Goddess was interesting but I also found his style infuriating. There are footnotes but they are usually about additional stories and when he does talk about other writers' theories there don't seem to be any references. I'd quite like to be able to look into some aspects more deeply but will have to work out where to start on my own.

19. The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse

Set in a small village near Chichester in 1912, Connie is 22 and living with her taxidermist father, a man with serious alcohol issues and an apparently disturbing past history. Connie herself has no memories of her young life following an accident at the age of 12. But occasional flashes of memory are returning, and after the body of a murdered woman is found near their home and her father and other men go missing it becomes ever more important for Connie to remember.

Really enjoyed this. Not as convoluted as other of Mosse's books but an interesting and gripping tale.

Just finished book three Submarine - a modern coming of age novel. I would imagine its primary target market is probably 15 to 19 year olds. There's a lot of sex (some of it quite disturbing when you're middle aged and thinking about your own teenagers!) and angst, not much I recognise from my own youth when we were all a bit more buttoned up. It was okay, some nice wry comments from the 15/16 year old narrator skewering the insecurities and pomposity of youth, but I think l I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't seen the film first and therefore knew the major plot points. The character of Graham is far more fleshed out in the film too and his role is more pivotal and comedic. All in all I'd say skip the book and watch the film.
Now onto book 4 Cold Comfort Farm.

Loved the taxidermists daughter.

I lost you for ages! I have been adoring The Essex Serpent but it is taking me an age to get through. I am quite enjoying just taking it slow as it seems to suit the style. Finding it hard to settle to reading though as third trimester aches have landed with a vengeance and it is hard to get comfy enough to relax. Gigantic cushion is helping though so I might get my groove back on.

Cote - My dp loved Nothing is True and you and he seem to have similar taste in lots of non-fiction stuff.

RiverTam - Nothing at all happens in A Passage to India. I can't for the life of me understand why I enjoyed it as a teen.

Book 27
Plague 99 - Jean Ure
A YA post-apocalyptic book, which was distinctly underwhelming. I might have liked it when I was 12 but even then I’d probably have understood that it was derivative, thin on plot and really not v good. It’s the first in a trilogy but it’s highly unlikely I’ll read the other two.

I really enjoyed Nothing is True Cote - definitely one of my highlights last year (though I'm not sure how much our tastes overlap).

The Janissary Tree is in the Spring sale. It was a Cote rec, which I enjoyed too.

Have bought Heat by Ranulph Fiennes ( I liked Cold) and Sex and Punishment 4000 Years of Judging Desire.

That's good to know Sadik & Remus

chilliejeanie yes it's very flabby and has a lot of inaccuracies. It was a big influence on Ted Hughes. I'm sure Graves drew from The Golden Bough, that's worth a read if you haven't already, for all the background anthropology. A well-researched book on Celtic myths might be good but sorry I don't have any recommendations.

Thanks for heads up, I just made 3 purchases in Kindle sale, thankfully only one for me - another Agatha Christie. I also bought Day of the Jackal for my 14yo ds, if he doesn't love it then I will disown him. And I purchased When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit for my dd. I haven't read it but it looks like a good'un.

10. 4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie - an enjoyable Miss Marple, if not an absolute classic. I didn't guess the murderer but then I never really do, I would be a hopeless detective!

I wondered about getting the Christie - can't remember if I've read it or not.

Which Christie is it?

Have bought the Forsyth and The Final Whistle: The Great War in Fifteen Players by Stephen Cooper.

Best - Seven Dials

Ta Remus, got it now.

17. The Loving Husband - Christobel Kent

The Loving Husband starts with a woman who wakes up and finds her husband dead in a ditch in the middle of the night. She doesn't know why he was outside or who would hurt her husband and it's obvious the police suspect her. For some reason I wasn't thrilled by this book and it wasn't as gripping as I wanted it to be. An okay read but I wouldn't recommend it.

Fallen off the threads but still lurking for book recommendations from time to time, so thank you everyone.

I finished Doubts and Loves: What is left of Christianity by Richard Holloway which I really enjoyed, although I also found the optimism about social progress depressing in light of recent political developments.

I am now reading The Essex Serpent. I like it far more than I expected and find the writing really good. I think it is the sort of book the The Watchmaker of Filigree Street should have been if it weren't trying so hard to be quirky.

I bought The Janissary Tree so thanks for the tip Satsuki.

Hi I'd love to join yous. I should have done this last year as I think I read the most books ever in my life so I'm going to try and keep it going.

1. Johnny Marrs Set The Boy Free
2. The Temporary Gentleman Sebastian Barry
3. Bridget Jone Mad About The Boy Helen Fielding
4. Nocturnal Animals Austin Wright
5. Days Without End Sebastian Barry
6. If This Was A Man Primo Levi
7. Picture Perfect Jodie Picoult
8. Last Anniversary Liane Moriarty
9. Still Missing Beth Gutcheon
10. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Anne Bronte

10. The Handmaids Tale Margaret Atwood (have just started reading this) So that's for a start it's a bit of a mix

I remember reading Plague 99 and the first sequel Come Lucky April when I was a teenager. My library didn't have the last in the trilogy. I enjoyed them at the time but I agree they're a bit on the flimsy side for an adult.

IIRC the sequel is set about 100 years after the plague and has descendants of the 2 main characters meeting. A young man from a traditional type fishing village and a young woman from a matriarchal settlement where the boys are castrated once they hit puberty. Can't remember how they got over sperm storage issues now. Or even if the book bothered to explain that. There was lots of culture clash when the young man with dangerous testicles and testosterone is brought to the matriarchal settlement.

But, it is the sort of YA book that's a good read when you're a young teenager but too much of a lightweight read to really be good for an adult reader.

Yes, I remember the Matriachs too.

I liked it as a kid. It really freaked me out because I knew there was a plague in the fourteenth century and another one in 1666, so the book convinced me we had another one due in 1999.

Sigh.

And isn't there a line about carrying nuclear waste in an unmarked white van? That freaked me out too.

"the sort of YA book that's a good read when you're a young teenager but too much of a lightweight read to really be good for an adult reader."

Is there another sort?