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?

EmCee, I didn't get on with The Gathering either. Read it a couple of years back - if I remember correctly (which I rarely do) it felt a bit over-written to me.

A couple to add:

30. Olive Kitteridge: Elizabeth Stout. Interesting structure, enjoyed it overall, a little underwhelming in its final effect.
31. Winter in Madrid: C J Sansom. A very boring book. It should have been exciting (spies! war! Franco! betrayal! savage dogs!) but the writing is very dull and the characters beyond tedious and the plot strained to implausibility. 'Flat' is the best word for it. I had bought it on Kindle a few years ago, started it and stopped a few chapters in. People on here keep mentioning the Shardlake books so I thought I'd pick it up again. Are the Shardlake ones very different?

Best I read Set The Boy Free and sorry to say I was very disappointed by it - the early childhood stuff was OK but it was very thin on detail about the Smiths years and then descended into a fairly dull list of all the famous people he's jammed with. You might enjoy it more though!

I've read Endless Night and seen a rather dodgy 70s film of it Remus. There'a also a Doors song that I always get stuck in my head when I think of it. My general rule of thumb is late Christie is on the wain, particularly if there's no Poirot involved. I like Evelyn Waugh too, prefer his earlier stuff to Brideshead, which is a bit overly symbolic.

28. The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a million pounds - John Higgs. I really enjoyed this, but it may not be to everyone's taste. It goes through conspiracy theories, Dadaism, the Illuminati and Discordianism and what KLF were trying to achieve - or if they even knew. It's a bit airy but an interetsing read.

I'm now on to Louis De Berniere's latest about the first world war. Think it's quite hard to write a war book these days without it come across as cliched.

stokey good luck with it - did you see my review a few pages back

Maybe see how you get on first

I decided against Johnny Marr. Love The Smiths but I was always on TeamMoz not TeamJohnny and Morrissey's autobiography was diabolical, even though I was actually interested in what he might have to say in a way I'm not particularly re Marr (until I started reading it, anyway!).

Finding The Pursuit of Love increasingly annoying now, I'm afraid, although occasional lines still making me titter.

Satsuki - will be v interested to see what you think of Decline. It was his first novel, published when he was just 25 - I wish I'd been half as clever at that age (or now!).

Might return the Marr. I'm not a huge Smiths fan and I have lots of other stuff waiting tbr.

44. The Radium Girls by Kate Moore a very thoroughly researched nonfiction account of the Radium Girls and their brave fight for justice. These young woman worked for US companies during WWI and beyond, painting luminous numbers on clock dials and instrument panels using radium paint, which they were told was harmless, even that it would "put roses in your cheeks" as they shaped their fine brushes to a point with their lips. Over time the women gradually began to suffer from devastating, previously unheard of illnesses as a result of their radium poisoning but the companies maintained the paint was completely safe. The lies told and betrayal by their employers are unbelievable, and the courage shown by the women in the face of this was awe inspiring. The writing was a little clunky in places (not sure that's the right word!) but I happily overlooked that, and found it a very interesting, compelling and moving read that I learned a great deal from.

Remus - "It’s completely irreverent, completely ridiculous, completely hilarious and gloriously, stupidly over the top. There’s a section of pretty horrible racism... if you don’t want the (very silly) plot spoiled..."

And so you are recommending it, then?

Ah Satsuki I'd missed your review, probably lucky as I do think you're spot on & would quite possibly have given up too, although I hate an unfinished book. FWIW I preferred the second half and thought it much improved after the war, when it became more like a family saga I guess than a war novel.

So 29. The Dust that Falls From Dreams - Louis de Bernieres. This is a fairly conventional novel starting of in an Edwardian golden age where three families with 5 boys & 4 girls live side by side in Eltham and have a coronation party. The action then jumps forward to the First World War and the inevitable fallout. This was the bit I got bogged down by, I don't think de Bernieres does anything particularly new and exciting with the swathes of material available and some of the descriptions of the handling of various types of bombers were enough to send me to sleep. The main heroine Rosie McCosh is pious and self-pitying, all men seem to fall for her but nothing in her personality seems to merit this utter devotion. Still I found myself being more drawn in to the characters in the second half - we get less of Rosie - and how they come to terms with post-war Britain. As a whole, it's a bit Downtown, not his best.

Looks like the laptop and kindle ban is being introduced soon on flights to the USA. I suspect it will then go to all flights and kill off a fair chunk of the kindle and other e readers industry.

31. Mysteries of the Runes by Michael Howard

A short run through the history and meaning of the runes in relation to the Norse myths and gods, their use in divination, the seasonal cycle of the festivals, and evidence from archaeology. It's less than 200 pages so there's very little detail but as a summary it's not bad.

32. Excalibur by Bernard Cornwell

The last in Cornwell's Arthurian trilogy covers the battle of Mount Badon, the years of peace that followed as Arthur withdrew and allowed Mordred to rule in Dumnonia. But the intrigues of Mordred, the malevolence of Nimue, and the ever present threat of the Saxons are a gathering storm which eventually breaks over Arthur, Galahad, and loyal warlord Derfel. Fantastic finale.

Morrissey's autobiography was diabolical

Very harsh, Remus. The book was inconsistent and often funny, like Morrissey himself. I thought the section on his childhood was well written and engaging. The rest needed a spot of editing and was less interesting (e.g. repetitive descriptions of post Smiths' gigs and the love of his fans). It sounded like the court case should not have been won by Joyce - but Morrissey did rattle on at length about it and I didn't like his criticism of Marr's lack of mettle.

29. The Mistake I Made - Paula Daly

Roz is a struggling single mother left with debt after her husbands affairs and collapse of her business. And things just keep getting worse. And so when a gentleman approaches her and offers to solve her debt for one night with her she finds she cannot resist. However she cannot foresee the chain of events this kicks off.

This was a fairly easy read and quite predictable at times but was a good book to wonder what you would do in that situation. Would any amount of money be worth it?

Johnny Marr has been returned.

22. Occupy Me by Tricia Sullivan

Features an amnesiac angel with wings folded into higher dimensions, chasing a killer possessing the body of another man, who's carrying a mysterious suitcase containing a hole in the universe.

I struggled to get into this one, and some of the higher dimension stuff went over my head, but I think that's mostly to do with the number of interruptions I had reading it (including a couple of longish breaks where I'd put it down somewhere and didn't find it again for a few days ).
It's one that would have benefited a lot from me being able to devote an uninterrupted stretch of reading time to it. Maybe one to try again properly in a few years once the DC are all in school and I've forgotten the ending.

23. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

I'm pretty sure this has been reviewed on one of the 50 book threads. There's a mysterious library that harvests stories from alternative realities. Librarian goes off to collect a book and finds it all far more dangerous and adventure filled than expected.

Undemanding and an entertaining read.

Cote - It was brilliant. You wouldn't like it at all!

Fascile - we will have to agree to disagree. I liked about the first six pages only. After that I thought it was dull for a while. And after that, I thought it was complete crap. I only finished it because I was told by two people whose taste I usually trust that it was worth persevering with.

I found my review of Moz's autobiography, from 2014.

"I finished the pile of steaming poo that was Morrissey's autobiography.
Reader, don't bother."

Sorry for reposting my list so often, but I keep losing it so want to keep myself right!

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
5. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

6. Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali

1. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
2. The Seventh Scroll by Wilbur Smith
3. Ada's Algorithm by James Essinger

10. Gut Symmetries by Jeanette Winterson 11. Welcome to Night Vale by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink

Welcome to Night Vale was meh. Probably good for fans, I suspect the podcast format suits the stories better.

Now reading Ken Liu's Paper Menagerie. I have had to stop after The Literomancer because I felt too sad. I have dipped in to Marie Kondo's Spark Joy because the flat is awful and I can't take it. I hope she has a chapter on convincing small children that grotty toys/feathers/leaves/rocks/pet snails don't spark joy.

Regarding the Into The Wild controversy, I used to agree that Chris McCandless was a numpty after reading Into The Wild as required reading in high school, but over time it seems that there was rather more going on than was apparent in the book. There have been suggestions that the berries McCandless was relying on as a staple food, and which were not previously known to be toxic, played a part in his death in addition to the revelations about his father's abuse of his mother. We all seem to agree than John Krakauer is a bit of a numpty though.

Remus.

I hope she has a chapter on convincing small children that grotty toys/feathers/leaves/rocks/pet snails don't spark joy.

Sadly not. She suggests that organising your own stuff will inspire your family. This is not working with my small DC yet. DS1 (5) got very cross yesterday after I told him he couldn't make a "collection" of cardboard circles from the tops of Cornetto cones

22. The Dark Flood Rises by Margaret Drabble. Fran is in her early 70s, a widow living alone, still working and in good health but feeling old age creeping upon her. This follows the lives of Fran and a few of her friends and family members over a two month period, and explores the themes of old age and eventual death. It's so unusual to read a book in which the septuagenarians are the main characters and the younger generation have the bit parts. Thoughtful and well written.