50 Book Challenge Part Five

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth 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, the third thread here and the fourth one here.

What are you reading?

A good friend of mine once described my reading habits as alternating incredibly long and boring books with ridiculously trashy lightweight ones. (TBF at the time IIRC I was reading The Making of the English Working Class interspersed with Roger Zelazney's Amber series )

Thank you everyone

Sadik sounds like you'll be fine with St Mary's then! Personally, I found the overall idea of it interesting enough to ignore the dodgy writing and slightly irritating main character. It depends on my mood. Sometimes I can look past flaws in a book if there's something else in its favour. Sometimes I can't, or choose not to. In this case, time-travelling historians and dinosaurs were enough to keep me happy!

If it's time-travelling historians you're after, can I re-recommend Connie Willis's 'To Say Nothing of the Dog'? Won the Hugo and the Locus and was nominated for the Nebula.

The batshit quotient is pretty high. (It’s basically late-Victorian England as written by an American openly and unashamedly using ‘Three Men in a Boat’, Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie as her primary research points.) But it is gloriously bonkers if you like that sort of stuff.

1. The Wolf and The Raven - Steven MacKay

2.The Hobbit - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)

1. Greenwitch - Susan Cooper

4.Child 44 - Tom Robb Smith 5.Fellowship of the Ring - JRRR Tolkien (Audible) 6.Into the Heart of Borneo - Redmond O'Hanlan 7.The No1 Ladies Detective agency 8.The Two Towers - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)

1. Crosstalk - Connie Willis (Audible)

10.The Forest - Edward Rutherfurd 11.Tom’s Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce 12.1066 - Kaye Jones (Audible) 13.The Reformation - Edward Gosselin (Audible) 14.The Return of the King - JRRR Tolkien (Audible) 15. Lion by Saroo Brierley (for Bookclub) 16. The Muse by Jessie Burton (on Audible) 17. Henry VIII's wives - Julie Wheeler 18. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula de Guin 19. Fall of Giants by Ken Follet 20. Stig of the Dump by Clive King 21. Edward I - A Great and Terrible King by Marc Morris 22. Nomad by Alan partridge (on Audible) 23. Saigon by Anthony Grey. 24: CHarlotte's Web by EB White 25: Behind Closed Doors by BA Paris.

26: The Light Years (The Cazalets 1) - (Audible) - ho hum, I did post up thread how I was struggling with this, which disappointed me because I know so many people love these books. A couple of the storylines just about held my interest enough to finish it, but I can't see myself rushing to read the whole lot. The only character I was really interested in was the governess. There was a maid introduced at the beginning who was promising, but her story wasn't picked up again for the rest of the book.
The daughter Louise featured fairly heavily in the first half, and almost disappeared for the last half, and I had a number of other issues.
I think it was written from the point of view of too many characters- I jsut started engaging with one, and then it shifted to someone else for an indeterminate amount of time.
Also (and this is a problem only with listening on Audible) - the narrator was very soft spoken and I found I missed stuff and she was quite monotone, so if you missed the (Softly spoken) name of who we were with this chapter, the name was never said again and I spent large amounts of time listening to narration and having no idea which character was speaking as it was all "he" and "she" and "they".
2/10

On the other hand - thoroughly enjoying The Handmaid's Tale on Kindle for my Bookclub
Trying to decide what to put next on Audible

(And you have to forgive it talking about the railroad to Oxford and featuring characters majoring in something at Oxford and so forth, which is the sort of thing that usually makes me go all Hulk Smash, but I love the book so much I excuse it. But you may not.)

Fatowl I completely agree re The Cazalets - wanted to love this series but felt lukewarm about them, even after reading all 5 books. Too many characters, and yes the governess was fascinating, but not given enough space in the book as I think she deserved.

20. Tracks , Louise Erdrich Having just finished and very much enjoyed LaRose by Louise Erdrich, I am giving this one another go having given up on it several years ago. The setting is North Dakota again, but this time it's set in 1912, and the Ojibwe people are decimated by sickness and starvation and struggling to survive. There are two narrators, taking it in turns to tell the story in the first person, one of whom I like much better than the other. This may be why I gave up on it on my first attempt.

In spite of the potentially harrowing subject matter, there's a lot of humour in this book - for example a snare is constructed using piano wire swiped from the local church piano, on the proviso that the priest only plays the keys in the middle so won't miss it anyway. There are also lots of interesting, strong and capable women.

This book fills in a lot of the back story for the characters in the earlier book Love Medicine which I have found interesting. So far, Tracks is not as polished or gripping as LaRose but I am still finding it a satisfying read and glad I gave it another go.

Do a little dance...

I'm getting back into the swing of it, only problem is my chosen genre wasn't very wise. But I'm pleased that I've managed 2 books in 3/4 weeks. Hopefully it means I'm getting back in the swing of things.

For those who don't have an over active mind, I've been reading Tom Slemen, Haunted Liverpool as he has about 30 books out ranging between £3&4.

I fancy something classical next. In the hopes I don't drive myself insane.

So 2 down 48 to go.

Well done to everyone else.

"you have to forgive it talking about the railroad to Oxford and featuring characters majoring in something at Oxford"
Cheerful - I've looked at Connie Willis in the past, she looks like just my sort of author but was put off by reviews saying exactly that. Maybe I should give her a go anyway? Somehow I can forgive clunky writing more easily - perhaps because I feel that's just lack of skill, whereas any published author ought to be able to get their work checked over for inappropriate Americanisms (or at the very least read one of the many, many, many Britpicking guides online . . .)

I love Zelazny Sadik, and the Willis does sound like a possibility Cheerful- I do get annoyed by fanfic that isn't Britpicked though, so could be problematical. I imagine I just don't notice inappropriate British words in American fic written by Brits- there must be just as many mistakes.

There aren't that many of them - I just know it's the sort of thing you lot would take to heart (like me) so thought I should be upfront about it early. I usually can't forgive it, and I do for Willis, so that says something. I do agree though - she's obviously done her research, so why she just couldn't get a Brit to read them is beyond me ...

Ooh - just got the sample of To Say Nothing of the Dog, which I'd never heard of. It looks like something I'll either love or loathe.

Evelyn Waugh can be very, very funny. Vile Bodies, Scoop and The Loved One spring to mind. Speaking of Waugh, Decline and Fall cheap on Kindle today and I have a feeling it's one I've missed. If I have read it before, it's so long ago that I've forgotten absolutely everything about it.

Also speaking of Waugh, am I the only person who can't think of Waugh without immediately thinking of Adrian Mole too?

Enjoying The City and the City so far, by the way.

I have to say I don't get the Waugh / Adrian Mole connection myself, Remus. Love his books though - Scoop in particular.

Just started Quantum, A Guide for the Perplexed on Audible. So far I think I am becoming more, rather than less perplexed, but hopefully this will change as things progress.

48. Daughters of The Grail by Elizabeth Chadwick . Really disappointed with this book. Read her Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy earlier this year and enjoyed them. This one concentrates on the Catholic Crusade of the 13th Century to destroy the Cathars. The heavy focus on the Supernatural and Mystic elements really grates. Also it seemed full of heaving bodices and fiery loins. Very Dan Brown. I am actually interested in this period of history but have been disappointed not just by this but also by the Kate Mosse books too. Would love to read a good and accurate novel set in this time.

sadik Adrian is thrown by the name Evelyn and thinks it's a woman. They used the same joke in Lost in Translation too.

Have any of you tried these books that claim to improve your ability to comprehend & be creative?

One book I strongly recommend, its half price on Amazon, is Wreck the Journal. There's one with a red cover that's half price too by Kerri Smith.

58. No Cure For Love by Peter Robinson

Run of the mill police procedural - set in LA, a celebrity is being stalked by someone who also keeps murdering people. I found the celebrity heroine hard to engage with so therefore found it hard to care about what happened to her.

Sadik - Is Quantum about Quantum Theory? If so, I would think that it's a difficult subject to follow on Audible.

26. The Butterfly Garden - Dot Hutchison

The butterfly garden is primarily about the FBI investigation into a man who kidnaps young girls, tattoos them with butterfly wings and keeps them in his purpose built garden told through the interview of one of the butterflies herself revealing the horrors of what happened within the walls of the beautiful garden. It was gripping and creepy and i didn't want to put it down! I do wonder sometimes about the people who write these things though.. such creepy ideas in the authors head!

Hello you lovely, lovely book peeps! Congrats on the wedding Monty.

37. Out of Time – Miranda Sawyer
An exploration of what it means to reach mid-life and be ‘middle aged’. I’m just a few years younger than the author so it’s been something I’ve been thinking about. This was very readable actually.

38. The Dark Circle – Linda Grant
Nicely reviewed up-thread and I agree!

39 – 40 are four novellas, all under 200 words. This is because I am also reading Moby Dick on Kindle so feel the need to finish books – Moby Dick is looong. They are:

39. The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles – Giorgio Bassani
This is really a book about ‘otherness’, a sad tale concerning homosexuality in Italy pre-WW2 by a Jewish narrator. Very good indeed.
40. The Living Mountain – Nan Shepherd
Beautiful nature writing (in the 1940s) about the Cairngorms, much lauded by Robert Macfarlane, with good reason.
41. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – Haruki Murakami
I like the parallels he draws between the discipline of writing and running but b’gad I’m no Murakami. I’m far too lazy!
42. Brief Loves That Live Forever – Andrei Makine
Beautiful, spare descriptive writing describing moments in the life of a young Russian man in the twentieth century. My book of the year so far by an absolute mile, but these are literally a description of brief significant moments – not plot driven, so not for everyone.

Now reading Rush-Oh and continuing with Moby Dick. Two books about whaling at the same time. Poor whales.

sparkly I bought that for my niece (early teens) as a bit of fun. It didn't strike me as a creative tool for adults?

Crickey, its been bloody ages since I last posted. Been involved in a writing (blogging) challenge which involved loads of reading. Have managed to read one or two books which I'll review below after bringing over my list for this year:

1. The Skeleton Cupboard: stories from a clinical psychologist by Tanya Byron
2. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
3. Where the Eagle Landed: Mystery of the German Invasion of Britain, 1940 by Peter Haining
4. The Sellout by Paul Beatty
5. A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
6. The Great St Mary’s Day Out & My Name is Markham by Jodi Taylor
7. Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
8. Straight by Dick Francis
9. The Universe vs Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

10. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry 11. Ink in the Blood by Hilary Mantel 12. Bitch in a Bonnet: Reclaiming Jane Austen from the Stiffs, the Snobs, the Simps and the Saps Volume 1 by Robert Rodi 13. The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild 14. My Antonia by Willa Cather 15. The Leaving of Things by Jay Antani 16. Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J B West 17. For Kicks by Dick Francis

Book 18. Aunty Ida’s Full Service Mental Institution by Isa-Lee Wolf is a bonkers piece of writing. One I really enjoyed.

19. Purity by Jonathan Franzen was frankly hard work. I had high hopes for it but was put off but the stereotyping of the female characters - either sex mad, bad mothers, or both.

20. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman about Librarians who range around alternative worlds and collect books (or documents) for safe keeping. Sometimes things get rather out of hand in magical/fantastical ways. Fun.

21. And the Rest is History by Jodi Taylor - usually reliably tosh read when my brain needs a break. Disappointing this time though.

Oh & I heartily endorse Cheerful's recommendation of To Say Nothing of the Dog - utterly brilliant and I recall actually LOLing frequently whilst reading it.

It is, Cote - I generally find that sort of book works well for me on audio, even if I do need to stop and go back & relisten to bits or pause to thing about what has been said. I'm 1hr 40 in now (out of 7hr 50) and finding it very interesting so far.

19. Nobody Told Me Hollie McNish
This book was not like eating a blackbird. This book was like having a loud sweary rant about motherhood with an old mate over a bottle of wine. Or two. Comparing scars and telling each other we're doing bloody marvelous really.
Liked this one a lot. The poems were a bit hit-and-miss for me, particularly the ones that didn't scan properly (shudders), but the ones I liked, I loved.