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 agree totally re. The humans, a classic example of sci fi done badly by a non sci fi author I thought. The 'alien' particularly annoyed me.

25) The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler inspired by an earlier poster. Never read any Raymond Chandler. Had little idea what was going on for a lot of the book (so many men shooting each other!) and found the 1930s LA slang impenetrable at times. But it was wonderful to read the author on whom so many pastiches have been based and I was laughing out loud at the deliciousness of the style, which was fresh and inventive then but now sounds like a pastiche of the pastiches.

I actually still think Raymond Chandler sounds fresh and inventive now; not a dead metaphor among them. Much copied but never bettered imo.

1. A Brief History of Seven Killings
2. Doubts and Loves: What is Left of Christianity by Richard Holloway
3. The Essex Serpent
4. The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin

I really enjoyed The Janissary Tree, so thanks for the recommendation. It was really gripping and I loved the food references. I would like to write a fuller review, but I am still whacked out from sedatives and painkillers after wisdom tooth removal this morning. I finally have time to read but I can't concentrate on anything, so it is very frustrating.

I started American Gods yesterday, which I am enjoying very much so far. This is the first Neil Gaiman novel I have read, and I always felt a vague antipathy towards reading his books, but so far (15% in) I am glad I did.

Late to the party - is there a list you select from or is it just ANY 50 books?

Just any book you like MegMez. And let us know what you thought.

It was me who reviewed The Big sleep previously. It sounds like you have had the same experience sunset. Enjoyable prose but my word I struggled to follow what was going on. So many gangsters and so many women all being referred to by a physical characteristic! Like I said at the time though, aged in every way better than a detective novel from the 1980s I read prior to it.

14. Seeing Things As They Are - Selected Journalism and Other Writings - George Orwell

I've slowed right down this month because of being away and not having as much time to read. But have loved dipping in and out of this, a collection of features and columns dealing mainly with politics and WW2. The standard of writing is predictably exceptional and it's fascinating to see the development of many of the ideas that made it into 1984 and Animal Farm.

Yes, plotting not the main driving force of RC books, for sure.

Welcome megmez. As above, just list whatever you read with a short review. You can read more or less than 50, too

altered I have had a wisdom tooth infection this week too (low five) and I've been terribly slowed down. Antibiotics have done the trick for me this time thankfully. Hope you feel better soon.

Thanks. I can’t work out what I was reading before American Pastoral but I know I definitely started reading that after Trump was elected so we’ll start there (20th January)

1. American Pastoral – Philip Roth – started reading this after Trump was voted in. Scary stuff and so relevant to today’s politics. Read it.
2. The Plot Against America – Philip Roth – haven’t seen the film yet but fancied another Roth. Slow paced, family focused but reflecting questions and issues relating to politics, democracy, family secrets, marriage, the distance between generations, the disintegration of industry, success etc.
3. Lynda La Plante – Clean Cut – I really didn’t like this. Found the main character to be a bit of a drip. Too many police clichés. Just horrible. I like a good crime novel. This was not one of them. Not tempted to read another La Plante after that.
4. The Glass Castle – Jeanette Walls – awesome, please read it if you haven’t already. Childhood in poverty in the USA in 20th Century. Heartbreaking. Beautifully drawn characters (I know that they’re the writer’s actual family!) Real life, autobiography.
5. The Zookeeper’s Wife – Diane Ackerman – a true story of an unlikely heroine. Quite dry but fascinating look at the story of Warsaw Zoo in World War II and how the Poles helped Jewish Poles when the Nazis took over. Very heavily draws on diary entries and the writings of the people involved. Like Hidden Figures in the fairly academic approach.
6. The Carousel – Rosamund Pilcher – I’m guessing this was a bit “blah” because I can’t remember anything about it.
7. Lion – Saroo Brierly – brilliant tale of family, identity and place. Honest and simple. Recommend. Real life, autobiography.
8. Hidden Figures – Margot Lee Shetterly – very hard work. I’m clearly too used to reading novels. A lot of repetition, didn’t feel like I really knew the characters (I know they’re real people!) important part of 20th century history but quite dry and academic. Real life.
9. Sue Perkins – Spectacles – witty and warm, I like her even more having read it. Real life, autobiography.
10. The Gun Seller – Hugh Laurie – decent holiday read about a guy who gets tied up with an arms dealer. As you’d imagine it’s written in with a good dose of wit. Fiction, thriller?

What next... probably a thriller that I've got rattling around in my kindle already. Need to stock up on some good holiday reading so open to suggestions!

No idea how to edit or delete messages so just wanted to point out that I've mixed up American Pastoral and The Plot Against America! How do I edit or delete a post?

You don't. Welcome to MumsNet.

The Last Of Us by Robert Ewing. If you have read The Lord of the Flies you may be forgiven for thinking Ewing has simply taken the plot of Golding's novel and transposed it to a different setting but I think there is more to this novel than that.

A small group of children are the only living, human inhabitants of a remote island off Scotland in a post-apocalyptic setting but there is more humanity within (most) of these characters than in the nasty Jack and Roger of The Lord of the Flies. However, like the island setting, this is a bleak book. The plot is convincing because Ewing creates a strong sense of the setting, and because he is a doctor, the medical details added a sense of truth to what the children experience. I thought the behaviour and traumatic experiences of the children was convincingly described. Once it became clearer what the cause of the apocalypse was I started to get into the book more, and in the end this was a fairly quick but grim read. I think I need to choose a cheerier book next but I do recommend this.

You could try reporting it MegMez, they may change it.

I haven't updated but the last two I've read have been much reviewed recently. Anyway:
20. The Death of Dorothea Cassidy - Anne Cleeves. This was an early one of hers, pre-Vera and Shetland. It was OK but not greta compared with her later work.

21.The Deaths -Mark Lawson. Four rich couples live a middle class life in Buckinghamshire. One day their coffee delivery man discovers one of the families dead. The book then skips back to fill in their backstory, interspersed with a police investigation. It's set in 2012 and there's some belt tightening, and lots of keeping up with the Jones. I think it was meant to be darkly comic but I found it all a little obvious and felt the plot dragged a bit.

22. The Humans - Matt Haig. Reviewed by Tarahumara on the last page, I found myself checking to see if it was YA as it all seemed a little trite. Alien thinks humans are gross but then is overcome by their creativity and love.... unconvincing.

23. The Power - Naomi Alderman. Again much reviewed. Quite page-turny but didn't think the characterisation or plot was great. A good idea but felt a bit lacking.

Passmethecrisps, I did enjoy the Chandler writing, but was still a bit lost about who was double-crossing who and why. You're right about the women too - all with violet eyes or platinum hair.

45. Cinderella in Sunlight - Hermina Black. I think I read this on average once a year so have copied the review from last time.

This is an old comfort read from the 1950's Romance Bookclub. Manicurist Barbary is engaged to Aristocratic Ricky to the horror of his Snobbish Aunt, Lady Melisande. Sardonic Cousin Vance returns from his distant travels and bets Aunt that they will never make it to the altar. Will a month at a house party the South of France prove too much of a strain for the young lovers? Hard to say why I love this book so much as it is cliche after cliche but I'm a sucker for the clothes and the glamour and the romance.

And I needed something frothy after Being Mortal.

32 Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre

A run through of the many problems with clinical trials & their reporting, with the way drugs are marketed, and with industry funding of continuing education for doctors. Long, thorough and convincing, not cheerful, but interesting and worth reading.

35. Remember Me This Way by Sabine Durrant a good page turner of a psychological thriller. I recently read Lie With Me by the same author and she is incredibly good at writing unpleasant, creepy characters! Lizzie visits the site at which her late husband died in a car crash for the first time and finds that somebody else has left fresh flowers for him. She begins to find clues that he wasn't the person she thought he was (and that already wasn't a particularly nice one!).

36. The Good People by Hannah Kent This is excellent: well researched,absorbing historical fiction based on true events in Ireland of 1825. The Good People of the title are the fairies that the villagers believe influence many aspects of their difficult lives, including turning Nora's grandson into a changeling whose presence is cursing the village. Nora, devastated by the losses of her only daughter and her husband, seeks help from a wise woman who knows the Good People to banish the fairies from the little boy.

15. Spark Joy by Marie Kondo

Subtitled "An Illustrated Guide to the Japanese Art of Tidying".

Kondo's basic tidying principles are that you should tidy by category and only keep things that "spark joy". I read her first book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying last year, had a go, but got completely derailed by mountains of papers. The discarding is something that we need to be getting back on with before baby Stitches outgrows the crib in our room.

Compared to Kondo's first book, Spark Joy is very much more of the same, but with pictures illustrating recommended folding methods etc.

Thanks for the Exit West review, bedelia! You've confirmed some of my hunches about the book. It's funny that you mention Hamid's prose could be a bit much; when I saw him in conversation, he was very, very thorough in his responses. Very. It was fascinating, but the event finished rather late. I do still plan to read the book, though.

In local reading news, I"m almost finished with my 15th book. I've really lost my reading mojo this year.

"well researched,absorbing historical fiction based on true events in Ireland of 1825. The Good People of the title are the fairies... turning Nora's grandson into a changeling whose presence is cursing the village... to banish the fairies from the little boy."

Historical fiction based on true events, you say?

20. The Escape Artist - Diane Chamberlain

It turns out this was a re-read. They'd given it a new cover or something and I'd ordered it from the library but couldn't properly remember what happened.

Book features a woman who's ex husband and new wife win custody of her son. Rather than hand over her son she goes on the run with a new identify for them both. She then comes across some information that could save some lives and has to decide whether it's worth risking her identity to save other lives.

This was an enjoyable re-read.

21. Holding - Graham Norton

Very light read about a body being found in a small village which relates back to an old love triangle. Very easy read but not very gripping and it doesn't make me want to read any further books Graham Norton might write.

CoteDAzur he he good point! I blame sleep deprivation
It really is a great read though! I've just been reading an interview with the author (which includes spoilers so I'd avoid reading if you've got it TBR: adelaidereview.com.au/arts/books/hannah-kent-good-people-burial-rites-want-improve-book/) where she says she was inspired by records of the 1825 trial of Anne Roche, a "fairy doctor" which the author came across in her research for a previous novel.
I've promptly reserved her debut novel too at the library and look forward to reading it!

"Villagers believe" is the significant bit there, cote. I doubt it's about the life and times of Tinker Bell

16. Madonna in a Fur Coat Sabahattin Ali

This was a short novel by a Turkish author, which apparently has only just been published in English for the first time, but which has been a bestseller in Turkey for the last few years. It was written in the 40s so this is a rediscovery or resurgence of sorts I guess. It is a sad, introspective story, the main of which takes place in Berlin in the first half of the 20th century, that nevertheless had some interesting and modern ideas. It discusses the restrictions of gender roles and organised religion with relation to its central love story, which might be behind its current popularity. I didn't enjoy the writing style that much, this could be due to the translation, and, perhaps as a result, wasn't particularly moved by it, though it is a book that foregrounds the emotional life of the characters. It didn't really come to life for me. Nevertheless, it was memorable and different and I'm glad I read it, primarily because I found out about the author, whose real story I found more compelling than the novel; I'm pleased his work is being translated and read and is finding an audience.

19. Head in the Sand - Damien Boyd

Another super fast police procedural with DI Dixon. The discovery of a severed head in the sand at a golf course sparks an investigation which spans decades and crosses continents.

Nothing much of substance but very enjoyable. I suspect I may whizz through the rest of the series.

Reading some of your reviews above I could really do with being a tad more cerebral. I like the sound of The Good People.