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?

Just saw this on my FB feed - what a great idea!

Passmethecrisps great idea in theory, but it all hinges on friends having a similar taste in books to you.

I still shudder at the memory of when one very good friend raved about how wonderful a read 50 Shades of Grey was before insisting on lending me her copy. In brief, I regret having wasted several hours of my life reading any of it, and I didn't like any of it.

remus that's hopeful. I'm enjoying it so far though subject is intense. I don't mind long if it's good

cote I have been very lucky with my reading, really. I like the idea of of a greatest hits, but feel you would dominate it Unless I get a knock on the head and buy the sequel.

passmethecrisps in real life I'd probably end up with 10 copies of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Yes, it's a wonderful idea in theory but having spent some of last year reading through the 17 or so books I hadn't read of the BBC's Big Read Top 100, I realised that popular books are not necessarily what I consider to be good books. I had to read through some terrible sentimental romantic twaddle (The Shellseekers) and some heavy-duty anachronistic imagined medieval cathedral building (The Pillars of the Earth) and a lot of enthusiastic Neanderthal (or was it Cro-Magnon?) shagging (Clan of the Cave Bear). Almost all of the books had something to recommend them but not all of them had much to recommend them. And don't even get me started on how many thousands of people on Amazon think The Girl on the Train is a good book.

Lost count of where I am as I've been suffering from sinusitis and unable to read anything more than Mumsnet, but recently finished:

The Last Chronicle of Barset (Trollope, audiobook): I've enjoyed these so much as a counterfoil to modern fiction and will miss the characters. Still annoyed with lightning-struck Lily Dale and her daft decisions.

Death's End: (Liu Cixin) This got alarmingly sciencey and I wasn't sure whether my disbelief could even bother trying to challenge the premises of it. Overall I enjoyed the series, but in terms of character and dialogue it's very flat - people were always making baffling decisions. I don't know how much of this is due to translation problems. I rarely read a translation I'm fully happy with; there's always a noticeably stilted quality. But still I'm glad I read them all.

Oh yeah! Hadn't really thought through the practicalities. I still remember swapping books with an aunt on holiday when I was 15. I gave her Schindlers list and she gave me Jilly Cooper's Riders

ontopofthesunset I was feeling rather sorry for myself after my adventures in Lute-land, but I now realise it could have been worse:

lot of enthusiastic Neanderthal (or was it Cro-Magnon?) shagging (Clan of the Cave Bear)

Apparently there is even more excessive Stone Age rumpy-pumpy in the rest of the series.

Satsuki- 🤣. Glad you read it, now I don't have to. My BIL bought it for me a few years ago and I have started it a couple of times but it's never grabbed me. Now I can avoid, avoid, avoid!

Thanks for the heads up, everyone. I bought The Day of the Jackal for DH and Nothing is True for us both.

I'm looking forwards to reading everyone's reviews on Nothing is True. Life's got a bit busy atm so currently on an easy-reading memoirs of an ambulance driver which is suitably bitty. Hoping to get some quiet time at the weekend to start The Essex Serpent though.

36. The Monogram Murders Sophie Hannah's take on Poirot. Not too bad if over long. Not a fan of Sophie Hannah normally but it was a passable attempt.

Saving Jackal for the train journey as it's on Kindle and easier to carry.

Satsuki - " I like the idea of of a greatest hits, but feel you would dominate it Unless I get a knock on the head and buy the sequel."

You should. It's a team effort

StitchesInTime I had a friend who offered/threatened to lend me her copy of Fifty Shades because it was such a brilliant book.
Thankfully she never got around to it or I would have felt obliged to read the darn thing! If I wanted to read crap porn, I'd visit AO3 and not pay for it!

Passmethecrisps I know what kinds of books my friends and family read. I'd only trust my parents and DD2 to give me anything that didn't make me want to bang my head off a wall!

SatsukiKusakabe "It was not lute-lite, that's for sure." I shouldn't have laughed at you and your lute infestation. But I did! Have some . With

I read the first 4 (or 5?) of The Clan of the Cave Bear series years ago. There's definitely lots of Stone Age rumpy pumpy.

But the really annoying thing - this got more and more annoying as the series went on - was the freakish competence of the main character, Ayala. Honestly. She could do anything you could imagine. Super memory, super healer (including herbal contraception to help with the above mentioned rumpy pumpy), fantastic hunter, constantly coming up with technological advances or new concepts, such as being the first person ever to think of taming a horse or wolf. The only thing she couldn't do was hold a tune.

And it was all very peaceful. This will probably make me sound terribly bloodthirsty, but given the way humanity has gone about waging war through all of our recorded history, I really struggle to believe that warfare among cro-magnons or neaderthals was so rare as to be almost unthinkable among the hunter gatherer tribes of the time these books are set in.

River yes, having had 50 Shades of Grey pressed on me, I felt obliged to read it. It's a terrible, terrible book. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

"I realised that popular books are not necessarily what I consider to be good books"

Consider yourself lucky if you've only just realised that. It's been the cross I bear for as long as I can remember.

These past couple of years, I have only taken recommendations from the 50-Book threads.

"I had a friend who offered/threatened to lend me her copy of Fifty Shades because it was such a brilliant book. Thankfully she never got around to it or I would have felt obliged to read the darn thing!"

Lots of friends recommended & offered to lend me their copy of 50SoG back in its heyday. My answer has always been "No, nope, can't do it, won't do it". Never read it, never even touched it.

As I said, trust only the 50-Book thread recommendations

stitches that's exactly what happened in Too Much Wind, sorry, The Name of the Wind, the main character is an impossible genius, unfortunately the author isn't and the book fell through the crack in the middle. Except on top of this he can carry a tune and is also the world's greatest musician. People are left weeping at the end of his songs. I was left weeping at the end of the book, and gnashing my teeth.

My very fussy young teenage son is reading Day of the Jackal. I tentatively asked how it was going and he begrudgingly said "yeah, it's pretty good". I'm so pleased, it's definitely in my lifetime top 20. I loved the Odessa File too but after that Forsyth's books got pretty silly.

15. Soulless Gail Carriger
Very far from my normal cup of tea - the goodreads reading challenge I'm doing has a prompt for a steampunk novel, a genre I know very little about and some googling led me to this. I think it's very steampunk light - set in an Alternate Victorian England, lots of sciencey mechanical contraptions etc which I understand to be facets of the genre. But then also vampires and werewolves etc, all wrapped up in a big romance bow.

Ashamed to admit how much I enjoyed such utter nonsense on this thread which seems to veer towards more weighty and high brow tomes, but there you are I did. In my defence, I've never read 50 Shades nor ever want to.

I love Gail Carriger, Composteleana, such fun :)

I'm always particularly tickled by the fact that her werewolves have (unlike in so many books/films) to deal with the inevitable clothing issue - and the resulting number of times that they end up standing around back to a wall clutching a top hat . . .

Loved your Name of the Wind review Satsuki. I completely agree, no idea what DH loved about it (and the hundreds on Amazon). I also hated the Eggers book, mainly because he was such an arrogant git - I know it's meant to be ironic but it was like nails on a blackboard to me. I only got about a third of the way through, very rare for me.

18. The Passage - Justin Cronin. This was a reread for me before embarking on book 2. There's a virus that can make people immortal but also turns them into vampires. The US government decides to test it on death row criminals. Unsurprisingly it all goes horribly wrong, but there's a little girl who may have the answer. Still a ripping good story, in fact when I finished it I changed my GR review to 5 from 4. Impatiently awaiting the next, although it sounds like it's a drop in form.

Thanks all for the heads-up on the kindle easter sale. I've picked up the Z for Zelda one and a Le Carre. I already have the Putin book, having paid full price sobs for it for the bloke, and have yet to read it myself. Also have read the Great War in Fifteen Players. Afraid to say Best that it was a bit of a disappointment (and I say that as a rugby lover). It was flat - more a recitation of facts than story-telling. fatowl my sympathies - a tough time for you which I hope will ease Aaaahhhh the Day of the Jackal! I wonder if I can squeeze in a re-read. Ha ha ha Satsuki just lurved your review of The Name of the Wind That's one that won't trouble my TBR list then ... Passmethecrisps* lovely idea until you realise what your present givers read (mine are far too much like your aunt), it's why we all flock here isn't it?

Book 14: My Antonia and I am soooo joining in the love for this one. Beautiful - achingly beautiful - descriptive prose. I was right there appreciating it - and I'm not a countryside lover.

The bloke has given me a short book on the Spetsnaz (Russian SAS) to read as "he'd value my opinion". I'd asked him to read an article I wrote on The Eagle Has Landed as to how much was fiction and how much fact, only because he provided so much raw material for it. Doesn't he understand the size of my TBR list? Bastard ...

I definitely won't try The Name of the Wind!

Côte, I have long realised the 'popular/good' thing but thought that just perhaps a list of books voted for by loads of people might buck the trend. Why did I think that? Madness.

Stitches, even in the first volume of Clan of the Cave Bear Ayla or whatever her name was was working out the way babies were made and understanding the basic laws of genetics.

ontopofthesunset yes those lists do contain a lot of all time classic, brilliant books, which lures you in, but always seem to be filled out with popular books of the moment too. I saw the Shellseekers on one (2003 Big Read?) and it made me second guess myself because it is not the book I'd normally pick up (and ultimately didn't!) I doubt if a list was made now it would be on it.

joyless So glad you liked My Antonia. It's a real slow gathering around you until the end and then you're hit with this dose of nostalgia for something that has no resemblance to your own past, but which somehow represents it for everyone. Her writing really taps into something universal.

I keep thinking "Cave Bear has shagging?!Thats a kids book!" but no, that'll be Cave Baby by Julia Donaldson my sleep deprived brain is thinking of

I finished no. 28 yesterday: Kill Someone by Luke Smitherd, a quick read, page turner of a thriller where twenty-something Daniel is woken one morning by a mysterious man in white knocking at his door who tells him he must kill someone or 5 people will die.
The victim Daniel chooses must not be terminally ill, suicidal or elderly, and he is not allowed to use guns or poisons. A bit of a daft premise, and the end where the reason for the deal is revealed is very silly indeed, but it was an enjoyable read which kept me wanting to find out what would happen to the hapless hero. It reminded me of Saw or similar in book form (but nowhere near as gory, thankfully)!

I'm now reading The Lie by Helen Dunmore and Red Bones by Anne Cleeves which I'm enjoying.