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?

Oh no Stitches! This is one of my biggest nightmares.

The good news is that the kindle charging port is just a standard micro USB one so most android phones and tablets share the same charging cable and it should be easy to find one at PILs and if not buy one en route.

altered - I didn't realize that you were in France, too Thank you for your kind offer but I'll just pick it up when I'm next in Turkey, or can always order it from Ideefix.

I guessed you might be in France from your username Cote, but thought it equally likely it might refer to fancy holidays.

V jealous of your trips to Turkey. Would love to go, but don't think I can risk it atm. I am already stopped often leaving and entering France because I travel to Egypt regularly and don't want to end up on an Egyptian watch list. Let's hope Turkey and Egypt make up soon! I have yet to meet an Egyptian who hasn't claimed to have a Turkish grandmother.

In the meantime, do you have any book recommendations that aren't Orhan Pamuk to tide me over?

cote & altered would be interested in how it comes over to you in the (I hesitate to say) original language; I wonder if it lost some of its power in the translation.

stitches hope you manage to find a charger which fits. That's the kind of thing that would have me in a Basil Fawlty-style rage.

Every time I read the posts on here I am amazed (and possibly embarrassed) at the number of book/authors I have NEVER heard of!

21. The Princess Bride by William Goldman

I'd not read this before, nor actually seen the film despite hearing so much about it. I enjoyed it, didn't absolutely love it but imagine I will watch the film now because of it. Read it to tick off the 'story within a story' prompt of a reading challenge.

I've been half way through Madonna in a Fur Coat for the past fortnight, so it's clearly not enticing me much. I'm finding it dull - will finish it, but not yet!

Just read Georgette Heyer Friday's Child, which was okay. Book 35 - silly, light froth. Not really worthy of a review.

Cote - just caught up with more of the thread. You'd almost certainly not like Madonna IAFC. All that's happened so far (I'm 54% through it) is a man has gone to work with a man who is very dull. First man then gets hold of dull man's dull writing. Dull man's writing is about seeing a painting and sitting on a bench in front of said painting a lot, sighing. Dull man then sees woman from painting, feels a lot, sighs a lot, but says little, feels some more, sighs some more and thinks about the painting and the woman a lot.

remus thank goodness it's not just me. I finished it because I've had a bad run recently struggling to finish anything and it was so short.

It doesn't get less flaccid.

Oh dear Remus. I've just bought it for kindle, so may be returned for refund.

38. Lamentation. The last of the Shardlake books. Please tell me there are more on the way. Tried to savour this last one. The double crossing reached epic proportions, which actually did slow me down a bit. Have been completely immersed in this series. Mildly grieving for the characters now it's all over.
Have two books to read for book clubs. The Lesser Bohemians and The Keeper of Lost Things. Neither are really calling to me

I am out of place in not loving Shardlake!

Remus, I think Friday's Child is one of the funniest Heyers- allegedly it was her favourite one; although I think I prefer The Grand Sophy.

Thanks for the Serrailleur tip Best.

Tanaqui, I got Grass in Piccadilly from my local library - ordered from the reserves - so worth looking. Saplings is a Persephone reissue so your library should have a copy.

Tanaqui - Yes, Friday's Child was quite funny, and did make me smile - but I also felt it was a bit too long, and that she over-egged it in places. Good fun in general though. I particularly liked the three male friends and the stuff about a mysterious 'Greek gentleman from Eton'.

Nah tanaqui , another non shardlake lover here too

OMG, I finished a book. A whole book. Although audiobook format and I fell alseep during it a lot and had to re-listen to quite a few chapters. My fault, not the book.

Dissolution by CJ Sansom, the first Shardlake. I liked it, but didn't love it. I'd be happy to read the next one, but wouldn't rush to do so. I felt it laboured the hunchback element quite a lot, do the rest do that?

Fortuna The Hunchback element is mentioned a fair bit in the others but I didn't feel it was laboured. I suppose that in the Tudor period it would be a big deal because people saw such physical issues as signs.

Hunchback thing definitely not as laboured as Cormoran Strike's leg.

I don't know whether it was because it was an audiobook, and that I had to relisten to it a fair bit, or just whether it really did bang on about it.

I had high hopes for this, but I enjoyed the Cadfael and Falco series a lot more. They might grow on me.

Remus Agree about the leg! Almost a character in its own right!

I love Georgette Heyer, but never been a particular fan of Friday's Child. Not a patch on Cotillion or The Grand Sophy I'd say.

22 The Essex Serpent - Much reviewed on this thread so won't rehash old ground. Suffice to say I thoroughly enjoyed this book and its beautiful prose. It took me a bit longer to read than some others as I felt I didn't want to rush it and have time to enjoy it properly.

23 Everybody Brave is Forgiven - Chris Cleave I ordered this from the library after reading the rave reviews from other posters on this thread and so glad I did. I enjoyed, if that is the right reading, discovering how the main characters were changed by their experiences during the early part of World War 2.

Just starting Elena Ferrante - The Days of Abandonment for my book club. Not an author I have come across before so I really do not know what to expect.

I don't love the Shardlakes but they're quite good as easy reads as I'm not into chick lit they're my beach read type books. The subsequent ones are better than Dissolution in terms of his back SPOILER he does some exercises and it seems to cure his mentionitus Also things don't "stink" quite as constantly in book 4.

*mentionitis - not that it's a word to begin with, but we must have order.