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 a bit about nuclear waste. Unless maybe that was something that was fleshed out in the third book of the trilogy?

Some YA books are definitely more lightweight than others.

Welcome Whitewater

14. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -Never having read this before, I had always been convinced this was a ghost story, obviously confusing it with The Woman in Black. It was ok, overly long but quite enjoyed it.

Yes, there's a bit about nuclear waste in a van, with a reference to Windscale/Sellafield.

29. Three Sisters, Three Queens -Philippa Gregory This was a reread for my second book group. I do enjoy Philippa Gregory. I know they are not always historically accurate but she does keep me turning the pages and they are always a comforting read somehow. Just what I needed after a difficult week. Not sure what to read next. Will consult the huge to read pile.

I'm doing so badly at keeping up with this thread. In my defence, work is ridiculously busy, as are things with the DCs, and we're in the process of getting ready to move house.

I've found time for reading but that's pretty much it - everything else is falling by the wayside.

I think I reviewed my number 14 already so am carrying on from there:

15. All of These People: A Memoir by Fergal Keane - read for book group. I really enjoyed this. The first half focuses on his life growing up in Ireland in the 60s and 70s as the son of an alcoholic father, whose parents separated in a time and place where that was almost unheard of. The second half deals with his early career as a journalist and then as a BBC foreign correspondent, mainly in Africa, until the mid-90s. Really interesting.

16. Dadland by Keggie Carew - Another read for book group and another memoir - this time of the author's dad, who was a guerrilla agent in WW2. Fascinating and tragic at the same time, as she contrasts what she finds out about her dad's life with him as an old man with dementia.

17. Enron by Lucy Prebble - Play about the Enron scandal - read for work. I enjoyed this more than I thought I was going to!

18. All That Man Is by David Szalay - My fifth read from the Booker shortlist. This is actually more like a collection of 9 stories about men at different stages of life. I quite liked each story as an individual story but, put together, the message was basically that men are really only interested in sex. I'm not sure if I'm missing something or if that's really some amazing truth that it takes 400+ pages for the author to unveil.

26 Death's End by Cixin Liu
Reviewed a few times previously on here. Full of fascinating ideas - but for me (and I realise this is going to be heresy) I felt that the structure wasn't as good as the previous books in the series (a bit too much one-damned-thing-after-another), and that it would have benefitted from being around 1/3 shorter. Overall I liked the first book very much the best of the three. Still glad to have read it though.

I'm just catching up with this thread.

I'm on book 14 - which doesn't sound bad but I'm normally much quicker than that. We have had two major bereavements in our family since the end of January (My dad and MIL) and I've found it very difficult to read over the last few weeks, concentration is shot to bits.

Trying very hard to get back into it as it is my way to unwind and relax.

Have just read the whole threat and just added to my TBR pile.

So far......

1. The Wolf and The Raven - Steven MacKay
2. The Hobbit - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)
3. Greenwitch - Susan Cooper
4. Child 44 - Tom Robb Smith
5. Fellowship of the Ring - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)
6. Into the Heart of Borneo - Redmond O'Hanlan
7. The No1 Ladies Detective agency
8. The Two Towers - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)
9. Crosstalk - Connie Willis (Audible)
10. The Forest - Edward Rutherfurd
11. Tom’s Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce
12. 1066 - Kaye Jones (Audible)
13. The Reformation - Edward Gosselin (Audible)
14. The Return of the King - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)

Now reading Lion by Saroo Brierley (for Bookclub)

26. Nora Webster by Colm Toibin Thankyou for recommending this, HappyFlappy! I very much enjoyed this, it is wonderfully written and compelling, following Nora who is grieving her husband at the early age of 40 and raising four children in 1960's Ireland in a small village where everybody knows each others' business. It reminded me a little of Olive Kitteridge, with its flawed, strong, likeable, and somehow resonating as very real main female characters.

27. The Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson : fascinating journalism, alternately amusing and deeply disturbing. Jon Ronson describes the US military's attempts to use psychological warfare including trying to stop a goats heart by staring at it, psychic spying and the use of subliminal messages. As with his book on extremism, Them, I kept stopping reading to Google the bizarre people being interviewed and events described, I found it very interesting, despite not yet having made up my mind how big a pinch of salt I should take it with!

Sorry to hear about your loss, fatowl

Condolences, Fatowl

Just checking in to say I'be put aside Keith Richards' autobiography (yes, my life is so exciting that his looks boring in comparison ) and started Day Of The Jackal. It's fantastic. I can't believe I've never read it before!

Tips on getting your reading mojo back? I was doing so well at the beginning of the year but am definitely falling behind :(

Am still reading Lolita which im gripped by even if i have to reread parts due to the language its written in.

Fatowl

I'm also reading The Day of The Jackal Cote in tandem with a Poirot. From distant memory, The Odessa Files was also good.

Day of the jack is one of my top thrillers ever

Second Odessa Files also

Rest of his books pretty rubbish tho.

15. Old Filth Jane Gardam - the eponymous Old Filth looks back on his life following the death of his wife. He's a very dry and correct former judge with little warmth in his life, and the book reveals how he wound up that way. The book was very readable, but I couldn't get a handle on a number of the characters which I found frustrating.

Fatowl so sorry to learn of your losses

I agree Wilting

FatOwl

Those of you who've read Day of the Jackal and know my taste. Yay or nay?

Remus - I would have said "Yay" but don't dare, as I've been hurt too many times before

Not sure Remus. I loved it 30 years ago and enjoying it now but am only a couple of chapters in. I think you'd like it.

Go for a sample Remus and see how you get on.

Cote - but wouldn't it be wonderful if it turned out to be yet another of those wonderful but rare occasions when we agree on a novel?

I've ordered the sample as a starting point.

Crossed posts, Best. Great minds!