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?

[StitchesInTime]

I have very fond memories of White Boots. A childhood favourite.

I didn't come across Ballet Shoes until years later, so that doesn't have the same nostalgic pull for me.

The dad in White Boots seemed to be a terribly incompetent shopkeeper though. It's a wonder he kept his shop going long enough for his more practical son to reach his teenage years and implement improvements (funded by the teenage son's Saturday job IIRC correctly).

[Tarahumara]

Another huge Noel Streatfield fan here. Loved Ballet Shoes, White Boots, Thursday's Child and the Gemma series. Anyone remember Apple Bough and The Growing Summer?

[Ladydepp]

Remus - a small taster of my TBR pile:

His bloody project
Golden Hill
Fingersmith
The Goldfinch
One Man's Everest
The Silent Deep
Conclave

And on and on....

[Tarahumara]

13. Measuring the world by Daniel Kehlmann. This is a fictionalised biography of the lives of two great but gloriously eccentric Germans living in the late 18th / early 19th century - the mathematician Gauss, and the explorer and naturalist Humboldt. This was a Cote recommendation and I thoroughly enjoyed it (sorry Remus!).

[southeastdweller]

Lady just about to finish a mini-review of The Goldfinch on the 'what is the best book you have ever read?' thread. It's my favourite book, ever. I feel like I'm always searching for another book that can at least come close to it!

[CoteDAzur]

"Cote reads Chandler if Remus reads Cloud Atlas."

Ooh that would be interesting!

[CoteDAzur]

Tarahumara - I'm glad you enjoyed it

[SatsukiKusakabe]

Cote reads Chandler if Remus reads Cloud Atlas.

There are no losers in this one, both great imo

[SatsukiKusakabe]

Cote reads Chandler if Remus reads Cloud Atlas.

There are no losers in this one, both great imo

[Matilda2013]

Copying over my list

1. The One We Fell in Love With - Paige Toon
   
2. This Is Where It Ends - Marieke Nijkamp
   
3. The Girl Who Lied - Sue Fortin
   

4. Girls on Fire - Robin Wasserman
5. The Heat of Betrayal - Douglas Kennedy

1. Forget You Had a Daughter: Doing Time in the Bangkok Hilton - Sandra Gregory
   
2. Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
   
3. Trust in Me - Sophie McKenzie
   

9. Close Enough to Kill - Beverly Barton
10. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
11. How I Lost You - Jenny Blackhurst
12. The Girls - Lisa Jewell
13. The Breakdown - B A Paris
14. 206 Bones - Kathy Reichs
15. Daisy in Chains - Sharon Bolton

I thoroughly enjoyed book 15. Maggie Rose is a crime writer/lawyer who fights for the release of criminals. Her latest potential client is a charming, former surgeon, serial killer. Will she be charmed by him? Is he innocent? And even if he isn't could she get him out?

This was a gripping read and I was desperate to keep reading. Making a dent in my TBR pile too!

[whippetwoman]

Oh yes. Remus and Cote. Time to step it up people.

In the meantime I have had the full French experience by reading:
22. Bonjour Tristesse and a Certain Smile - Francoise Sagan
People swan about plotting love affairs and then having love affairs whilst smoking and reading Sartre in cramped Parisian attics or on the beach in Cannes etc. What's not to like?

[JemimaMuddledUp]

The Goldfinch is on my TBR pile too.

Have now got two books on the go:
The Poet of the Black Chair - the story of Hedd Wyn by Alan Llwyd
The Summer Book - Tove Jansson

Have also just ordered The Map and The Clock (Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke) which I am very excited about.

[HappyFlappy]

People swan about plotting love affairs and then having love affairs whilst smoking and reading Sartre in cramped Parisian attics or on the beach in Cannes etc. What's not to like?

The only thing that could make this better is if there was cake.


Is there cake?

[RemusLupinsChristmasMovie]

Throws down gauntlet - let me know if Cloud Atlas ever costs pennies on Kindle. It's too heavy for me to read in book form in the bath, and I refuse to spend much on it.

Book 23
A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale
This had all the elements of something I should have loved – it’s the right time period, it’s got madness and the treatment of patients with mental health issues, it’s got a place on the edge of civilisation and some good, hard manly labour. What it hadn’t got was the ability to drag me into it and hold me captive in the world created, and committed to the characters I’m journeying with. Why? Well, part of it was to do with the fact that the central character, Harry, is almost entirely passive, other than when he’s busy digging holes and shoving fences in. The few times he does actually make a decision are moments of real strength from a generally weak and rather frustrating character. Gale can certainly write and knows how to drive issues home without ramming them down people’s throats: there were some sections of really good writing and (unlike many books generally) I liked the ending, but overall this felt like a bit too much effort for a bit too little outcome, with the sections with the ‘baddy’ being as cartoonish as The North Water. The sections in Bethel (the ostensibly more benign institution for those with mental health issues) were by far the weakest and the sections on his homestead with a neighbouring brother and sister infinitely the strongest imho.

[RemusLupinsChristmasMovie]

LadyDepp

Bloody Project better than Wolf and Golden Hill, although flawed, probably better as well. Fingersmith not as good.

[CoteDAzur]

Remus - Not sure if that was the effect you were going for but I just bought A Place Called Winter for 99p. I was attracted to it by you likening it to The North Water (which I loved) and just overall hating it, tbh, given how totally opposite our tastes in fiction are

[RemusLupinsChristmasMovie]

Cote - I don't think you'll like Winter. It is pretty much all feelings, and not like The North Water except the bad guys (imvho) are not v well drawn - just cartoon villains.

[Composteleana]

1. The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper
   
2. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding - Agatha Christie
   
3. Our Endless Numbered Days - Claire Fuller
   
4. Love Letters of Henry V111 to Anne Boleyn (totally counting this even though it's only about 70 pages, I'll read an extra long one at some point to balance it out!)
   
5. How to be Both - Ali Smith
   
6. Toast - Nigel Slater
   
7. A Man Called Ove - Fredrick Backman
   
8. Chess - Stefan Zweig
   
9. Beauvallet- Georgette Heyer
   

10. The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak

Today finished 11. The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante - in much the same way as the first spent a big part of it thinking it was overly long and then suddenly utterly immersed in it and feel a bit bereft now it's finished.

Still working on The Glorious Heresies

[Sadik]

23 On Liberty by Shami Chakrabati

Short and to the point examination of the changes to British laws since 9/11, and the consequent effects on civil liberties. The writing style isn't particularly amazing (fair enough - she's a lawyer and campaigner, not a professional author), but she makes her points thoroughly and well. I'd thought I was pretty well informed on the subject and follow the news, but I definitely felt I knew more and it was particularly helpful seeing the strands brought together in one place. Depressing, but well worth a read.

[pterobore]

I’ve meant so many times to join the thread for this year and I’ve finally got round to it, in March. Here’s my list of books I’ve read so far this year. I am continuing with my efforts to read my way through Agatha Christie’s Poirot books. I think I’ve read 23 out of the 45 Poirot novels.

I’ve just downloaded Stephen Fry reading Sherlock Holmes. And whilst I’m pretty sure I’ve read all the Holmes books, I really liked Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter, so I thought I’d give this a try. More detective novels!

1. The adventure of the Christmas pudding – Agatha Christie
   
2. The uncommon reader - Alan Bennett
   
3. The big four – Agatha Christie
   
4. The third girl – Agatha Christie
   
5. Elephants can remember – Agatha Christie
   
6. Dumb witness – Agatha Christie
   
7. Cards on the table – Agatha Christie
   
8. The ABC murders – Agatha Christie
   
9. Precious and Grace – Alexander McCall-Smith
   

10. The trouble with goats and sheep – Joanna Cannon
11. The light fantastic – Terry Pratchett
12. I capture the castle – Dodie Smith
13. Mrs Mcginty’s dead – Agatha Christie
14. Peril at end house – Agatha Christie​

[whippetwoman]

HappyFlappy, alas no cake! Not even a madeleine.

[MegBusset]

11. The March Violets - Philip Kerr
    
    A recommendation from Remus, but I'm afraid I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped :( The setting (Nazi Germany) is an interesting one for hard boiled detective fiction, but the prose is pure Chandler pastiche (or tribute if I'm being kind), and just made me want to read the real thing. Sorry Remus!

[SatsukiKusakabe]

I didn't enjoy March Violets either, meg, agree the voice verged on parodic and I only stayed with it a few chapters.

[BestIsWest]

Welcome pterobore. I'm enjoying Poirot at the moment too. Just finished Peril at End House myself. Are you reading them in order?

[SatsukiKusakabe]

Welcome, pterobore