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?

No reading update but just want some reassurance I am not alone in this! Was showing a friends the Goodreads App tonight and going through my 'Read' list I have discovered FOUR (!) books which I have now got on my to read pile! Two of them I have rated and reviewed!! But I have absolutely no recollection of reading them!!!?
Anyone else do this or am I doomed ?!

12. Hillbilly Elegy JD Vance
Much reviewed on this thread already. Not a book I would have chosen - I read it for a discussion group. Not that impressed. Several rather facile observations that I would have liked unpicking a bit more. I liked his gun-toting grandmother, and I was interested in some of his less intuitive criticisms of the white working class. But if you're interested in poverty in America, it's not a patch on The Corner (though very different demographic).

Just noticed that today's Kindle deals include T2 Trainspotting and Sarah Moss's The Tidal Zone - I think both have been reviewed this year on the 50 book threads.

No idea what number I'm up to atm:

Hidden Figures Bought the book but haven't yet seen the film. The book itself is a little uneven from time to time, but fascinating reading. It looks as if the author found it extremely difficult to cut people's stories from the book - understandable, but it means that occasionally someone is introduced during a chapter, given a life history so far, and then vanishes until the end of the book. The book mostly follows the story of three of NASA's female African American mathematicians. It starts during the Second World War, where the need for more engineers and mathematicians led to opportunities for many African American maths graduates, and follows through the founding of NASA through the Space Race. This was a piece of history I had no idea about - I wish I'd heard about some of these women when I was a little girl. It's told mostly chronologically and sketches out the political background at the time to set things in context.

Can't offer much in the way of reassurance RMC. My GoodRead account seems to do the opposite and doesn't record books I have read. Despite me logging every book I have read on it it has only recorded two in my reading goal. I am not sure how useful I find it actually.

Yes mine isn't recording books I log either. I'm inclined to give it up as I write my list in a notebook anyway.

Just popping in quickly - have been away for a week. Will check what number I'm up to, but have read:

The Cyclist Who Went Out in the Cold: Adventures Along the Iron Curtain Trail, by Tim Moore
An account of cycling from Finland down to Turkey. Okay - removed any lingering fantasy I had about doing the same thing. Bit weary of his would-be hilarious style. The technical details about the bike bored me, but I did like his sense of incredulity at the end at how he had gone from the deep Finnish snows to the Turkish sunshine.

Border by Kapka Kassabova. Bulgarian-born Scottish-resident poet returns to the border area between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. Meets people, including the refugees now crossing, ponders the scars left by the past. I liked this - she's serious about the damage of the past, but it's not an oppressive read. She has compassion for everyone, including the perpetrators. I liked her honesty about when she got it wrong - suddenly panicking about the intentions of her travelling companion and taking off; inviting a Kurdish refugee for lunch only to be horrified to find that he had paid even though he didn't eat anything. Lingers in the mind.

Started Gallows View by Peter Robinson courtesy of a PGP related day off work.

Not quite sure if the stuff at the beginning about feminists and the detective's attraction to the academic brought in to assuage the demands of the local feminist body is irony. I hope it is irony.

Thanks for the heads up slightly - I've just bought The Tidal Zone for £1.79.

Ashes of London - Andrew Taylor
I picked up this book as it was on offer at Waterstones and I like historical crime fiction. As whitewineandchocolate mentioned, it isn't really a patch on the Shardlake series. Having said that, it wasn't terrible either. What I loved about the book was the description of the older historical St Paul's that was destroyed in the fire. I also really enjoyed the glimpses of Christopher Wren and Hakesby's working life. This relates to my line of work though (I'm an architect). I am not really used to my profession being brought to life in books or other media, so it's always refreshing when I come across something like this! Cat's interest in draughting also brought home to me just how recently the profession has opened its doors to women

drafting not draughting! Why does my phone think it knows what I want to say better than me

Satsuki and Passme mine does add them to the read list but never seems to acknowledge them in my reading challenge. I tend to make a note of what I have read on my phone too. And it confirms I did read those 4 books!! Certainly not going to reread them if they do little impression first time around !

Worked it out!

When you say you have read a book you have to click of write a review and say the date the book was finished on. I have just gone and done that for all mine so far this year. Feels tidier

I have a note on my phone which I add to. I use it to cope and paste into this thread

Passme got there first, but just to reiterate that on Goodreads you have to put the date you finished in, it's under the review box (which you don't have to fill in).

11. Slade House by David Mitchell. I bow down low before the genius that is David Mitchell. The man can write four astonishing sentences in one paragraph that other authors can't achieve in a whole novel. He is without a doubt my very most favourite author, so it goes without saying that I loved this creepy little ghost story. If you've read and liked Bone Clocks then you will most probably love this too, but if you hated Bone Clocks then you should probably give this one a swerve.

Welcome still!

Haven't checked in for a while as was busy reading A Little Life by Yana Hanagihara. Oh my goodness - what a read. Not for the light-hearted though. It's a wonderful book (kind of similar to The Goldfinch) but it is harrowing. It's been a long time since I read a book and had to put it down, go away and do something to distract myself for a bit before I could pick it up again. My stomach literally churned reading some of the chapters.

It's about the lives of four men who meet at university as teens and it follows them through their lives up to their fifties. One of the four, Jude, is the central character and it's really his story that dominates. No time to write more but it's a book I will definitely keep even if I remain unsure as to whether I will be able to bring myself to read it again....

EmGee my friend has been insisting that I read A Little Life for a while now. I get put off by the sheer size of it. Your (cryptic? ) review has prompted me to give it a go next

Passme and Lady Thank you !

Thanks for the goodreads tip, it only happened on a couple of mine, but far less annoying now.

A Little Life sounds like a miss every time I see a review of it - stomach-churning is not what I'm after!

I am sure I saw A Little Life mentioned on a MN thread about books which should never have been written.

It is still on my wish list but I don't think I will ever read it. Unless someone buys it for me

I thought A Little Life was quite good, but not excellent. Harrowing, yes, definitely. Some parts are really hard to read.

Book 29
A Companion Guide to Berlin by Brian Ladd
I really enjoyed this. Ladd wrote ‘The Ghosts of Berlin’ about the architecture of Berlin and how it’s changed/been forced to change and some of that love of/interest in the city and its buildings comes out in this, a more conventional visitors’ guide. Here Ladd takes us on various walks through different sections of the city, walking us through history as well as geography. And it’s all v interesting. The biggest problem with it is that Berlin is constantly evolving and reinventing itself, so some of the information was out of date, probably even between the writing and the publishing.

21. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

Set in the future, in a world run according to The Rulebook and where your position in society is determined by your perception of colour. Eddie Russett is a Red, sent to the Outer Fringes to officially learn humilty. He meets Jane, a Grey who loathes everyone and repearedly threatens to kill him. As he settles into his new temporary home, Eddie starts to discover that the world is not quite as black and white as it seems and those who question it are seen as a threat.

Still plenty of puns, although not quite as silly as some of his other novels. Quite enjoyed it and I understand there were meant to be two more but I don't think they have appeared yet.

I recently bought A Little Life from a charity shop, I'm unsure whether I want to read it yet but it was only 99p.

I finished my no. 29 a few days ago, The Lie by Helen Dunmore, I thought this was excellent. Set in 1920s Cornwall, a young soldier returns to his village, homeless and penniless, with horrifying memories of his time in the WWI trenches in France.
Very well written and evocative of both the quiet Cornish coast in spring time and the terrifying experiences Daniel has lived through in the war, it's also a love story, although not in the way you would expect.

Do you know what? I am just going to google the dashed plot of A Little Life. I won't share but I have an image in my head and need it confirmed/denied