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?

southeastdweller I have to say I've been a bit bemused by the raving about The Establishment. I read it and was very much 'so what in here is meant to be news to anyone' (but I am possibly old and cynical). And I quite liked Chavs in a polemical journalistic rant sort of a way.

1. The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
2. Our Endless Numbered Days by Clare Fuller
3. Ready Player One by Ernest Kline
4. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
5. Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
6. Still Life by Louise Penny
7. A Country Road, a Tree by Jo Baker
8. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
9. Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

10. The North Water by Ian McGuire 11. Before the Fall by Noah Hawley 12. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter 13. The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant 14. I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh 15. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain 16. Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson 17. End of Watch by Stephen King (last of this fantastic SK trilogy) 18. Eileen by Otessa Moshfegh 19. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

20. All We Shall Know by Donal Ryan. I read this in less than a day - 2 bus journey's worth - and enjoyed it. I like Donal Ryan's writing, (hence my MN name) and his characters. In this story the relationship between Melody, the main character, and her elderly father was particularly poignant and was my favourite aspect of the book. If you enjoyed Spinning Heart, I recommend this. I also read his A Week in December but I preferred his others.

I'm still listening to This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell.

Next ... I have so many out from the library at the moment and I feel like I'm reading against a deadline because I have renewed them so many times. I'll have to decide between Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, The Maid's Version by Daniel Woodrell (he wrote Winter's Bone), Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld and The Bricks That Built the Houses by Kate Tempest. Tough decision.

I remember once my sister reading something from my pile, and being hmm when I got upset because I hadn't read it yet. Please tell me I am not the only one!
You are NOT the only one Diva!

There is nothing quite like a virgin book . . . that fresh scent, those pristine pages, that uncreased spine . . .

I MUST be the first to read my new books. And I hate people borrowing out of my pile without asking, even though they are family, and we live in the same house, and I will always say "yes" (looking at you Mr Flappy). I just hate to come across one of my books in an unexpected place when I think it's safe with all its fellows in the magnificent Leaning Tower of Unread Books at my side of the bed.

My update.
Audio - Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights (yes - I'm back into the spoken classics again). I have also just finished Saturday by Ian McKeown which I really enjoyed - much better than The Children Act. (Printed book no 30 - I wish I hadn't wasted so much time on that Alison Weir sh!te)

This brings me to 11 audio (I abandoned "Number 9 Dream" - I found too complex to listen to, but I'll try to get a "proper" copy, because I love David Mitchell).

Currently have begun 2 books - 12 Years a Slave, and Bitch in a Bonnet. Enjoying both of them - especially the second. I think I needed something light and engaging after that bloody awful Alison Weir.

I can't remember who first recommended Bitch in a Bonnet, but to you, and all of the others who confirmed your recommendation, I bob a grateful curtsey. It is just what I needed.

Happy I think I might have been one of the original Bitch in a Bonnet pushers. All the recent talk of it on here is making me think I might re-read it, as I'm struggling to find anything I fancy at the moment.

Book 24
The Painted Dragon by Katherine Woodfine
The 3rd in the series of children’s detective novels set in a Selfridges-esque department store in Edwardian London. This was okay. I’d have loved it as a child but some of the dialogue was a bit unrealistic and it was v similar to the other two. All pretty formulaic, although the characters are fun and a couple of bits made me smile.

spinningheart I read and enjoyed a couple of Curtis Sittenfeld novels so would be interested in a review of Sisterland.

I returned a kindle book for a refund for the first time ever last night: The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel. Bought it and began reading, thought "hang on, this is dire",so returned it. It was only a 99p one as well.

Others I've read recently:

19. Golden Hill Francis Spufford already reviewed on here a few times I think, I greatly enjoyed this.
20. Them Jon Ronson Journalist Jon Ronson's account of his meetings with extremists in the early 2000's, including a KKK Grand Wizard, David Icke, Omar Bakri and the survivors of Ruby Ridge (must admit I had to google this because I didn't remember it). Very interesting, disturbing and wryly funny in places.
21. Raven Black Ann Cleeves The first in the Shetland series, a good page turner of a murder mystery conjuring the atmosphere of the Shetland Islands very well. I realised I'd watched the tv adaptation for this and could vaguely remember whodunnit but still liked it and read it in 2 days.
22. The Tidal Zone Sarah Moss Adam, a stay at home parent working on a history of Coventry cathedral, gets a phone call from school informing him that his 15 year old daughter has suffered cardiac arrest. A very good read, which depicts Adam's fear, isolation, and the hospital atmosphere well, as well as gender bias and heritage. Only thing I disliked were the chapters describing the cathedral, I didn't feel they added much, though I learnt a lot. I've never read any Sarah Moss before but will definitely be seeking more of her work out.

Then thank you Remus

I owe you a great debt of gratitude.

I liked the Cathedral chapters better than the rest of the book Murine but I couldn't work out why they were in the book in the first place. Was I missing something?

I was thought that myself about the cathedral parts of The Tidal Zone, BestIsWest! I wondered if perhaps they were supposed to represent something that's gone over my head (maybe the rebuilding of the family's life, I don't know?!)

Me too Murine, but if they did, it escaped me.

Night Waking is good Murine. She writes very well about small children. This also has chapters on an historical event but it is blended far more successfully with the story.

I really want to read some good fiction.

I mean George Orwell good, Raymond Chandler good, John Steinbeck good, Joseph Heller good.

Maybe there are some classic authors I've missed?

Thanks for the recommendation, BestIsWest, I've just reserved Night Waking at the library. When I was taking out The Tidal Zone the librarian also recommended it to me actually, I'd completely forgotten!

William Golding?

Having long been a reader, and not a poster, I wanted to finally join in having read a recommendation on here for the Adrian McKinty series, which I am enjoying immensely. Huge thank you to however reviewed them - best read of my year!

17. Before the Fall - Juliet West. Based on a true story of a forbidden love affair in 1917 London. Tragic consequences. Quite nicely written and very readable. Not one to keep though - will be recycled back to the charity shop.

18. The Vacationers by Emma Straub. Very easy read about a family holiday in Mallorca following infidelity. Not particularly memorable but definitely readable. Again, not one to keep.

Better go and read a bit more of Sapiens now.

DrDiva, me too and with magazines. 😲🤷‍♀️ Its not the smell though, it's the crisp clean pages..

I don't think Kindles would have bothered me as my parents had terrible books lying around, either trashy Wilbur Smith or long dry tomes of history. The library saved me. And we still have libraries, my local one is excellent. 😄

Hi rosehip

If you find anything like that, let me know meg

Satsuki - I'm afraid I have started Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett instead of Sisterland, as I have had it on loan from library for weeks and weeks. So far it's very engaging, set in New South Wales in early 1900s, the narrator is the daughter of a whaling captain. I'm about 100 pages in. I read The North Water earlier this year and although the subject matter, on the surface at least, very similar to Rush Oh!, the tone is completely different. Sisterland will have to wait just a bit longer.

spinning no worries, I'm quite interested in rush-oh too

Just finished 12 The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney. Really enjoyed the first 2/3 but not the final 1/3 as much, though that was probably more because I can't help always hoping for a happy ending for everyone no matter how unlikely! Overall funny and sad at the same time.

10. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Alcoholic Rachel takes the same train every day, which stops at the same signal every day, letting her look into the back gardens of the street she used to live in. One morning, she sees something that shatters the fantasy she's been building up around a couple living a few doors down from her old house. A few days later, drunk and angry, she goes out intending to go back to her old road, and wakes in the morning, unable to remember anything thanks to the alcohol, but with a feeling that something bad happened. And then she learns that the woman she'd been watching from the train has gone missing....

The rest of the book follows Rachel struggling to recall what happened that night (the alcoholic blackouts mean she's a very unreliable narrator), and getting obsessive about the missing woman (Megan), intercut with flashbacks told from Megan's point of view, and also from Rachel's ex-husbands new wife, until all is revealed at the end of the book.

It was a diverting page turner and a quick read. Although not an exceptional one.

magnificent Leaning Tower of Unread Books

Satsuki, I've read Sisterland and I don't remember a huge amount about it except that (a) there was a suspense-y bit which genuinely made me feel tense, so I consider that to have been well handled, and (b) I didn't like it half as much as The American Wife.

16. Cold Light, Jenn Ashworth

Not as good as I'd hoped. Mean-girls-meets-psychological-thriller-in-flashback. Lola is in her 20s, living a strange empty life, and remembering her friend Chloe who died as a teenager. The local press are making a huge thing of the anniversary of Chloe's death.... but Lola knows there was more to it..... dum dum dum....

Nice depiction of teenage life in a 90s northern town but I thought the plot was a bit flabby. I like Jenn Ashworth and thought it was a shame this wasn't better done, as many of the ideas and descriptions were good.