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?

Anyone on audible, Lady Midnight by Cassandra clare is available free today. Not great literature, but entertaining if you like ya light fantasy

16. The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain.

The first part of the book looks at the blossoming friendship between Gustav and Anton, two boys growing up in WW2 and the immediate post-war period in Switzerland. Gustav is self-possessed, restrained, repressed even; while Anton is more emotional and volatile.

The second part switches back to the lives of Gustav's parents and their early relationship, considering how choices and sacrifices they made affected them and others.

The third part brings us to Gustav and Anton's adult lives, and how their relationship endured and changed through the difficulties they experienced, and how they made sense of their own and their parents' pasts.

Beautifully written. Lovely sense of place and time evoked throughout. The characters of Gustav and his mother in particular were complex and very believable. Only bit I didn't love was the ending - while fitting, it seemed just a little bit rushed, and I'd like to have seen it unfold a little more.

25. How to Help Your Child With ADHD by Beverly Davies

This is quite a short book - just 150 pages. It covers background on what ADHD is, diagnosis and treatment, and moves onto chapters on parenting, home life, behaviour, impact on the family, school and growing up. Each chapter contains some stories from affected children and parents, and gives some tips and strategies.

Not sure how applicable this is for us - our paediatrician thinks that some other issues may be at the bottom of things - but some useful things to think about and try out.

24. A Court of Wings and Ruin - Sarah J. Maas

A quick, trashy read after Seveneves. Latest instalment in a series - more of the same really but didn't enjoy it as much as previous book. The author is churning out 2 books a year at the moment with 2 series running concurrently and I feel like this book suffers because of it. Bit bored of the sex scenes too. We know the main characters have a super satisfying sex life, it was brought to our attention in the last book. Don't feel like I need to read about it anymore when it would have been more interesting to develop other characters/plot points. I will probably read the next one but only because I don't like to give up. Hope it's better than this effort.

25. Assassin's Fate - Robin Hobb
The final in the Fitz and the Fool series. I love her writing and have enjoyed all previous books in the series. Her world and character building are brilliant. I feel quite bereft at the end of this. Will have to console myself with the Rainwild or Liveship
Chronicles instead.

Has anyone read Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente? I started it at the beginning of the year and had to leave it aside. I am on my second attempt but am still struggling. I have just finished part one and am trying to convince myself it will come together. Right now it is all over the place and a bit bonkers! Should I continue?

I adore Robin Hobb Boldly - i didn't realise the last one had been released. I may have to do a mega reread of the previous 8 before embarking on it, or at least the two in that trilogy.

I haven't read any Catherynne M Valente Grifone, is she YA?

I've had a filthy cold so have been consoling myself by reading in bed ( a lot)

30. Gone Without a Trace - Mary Torjussen. Page-turny thriller. Hannah come home after a business to find her partner has moved out, but has also erased every trace of himself from her life. We follow her investigations to find out why, but is she reliable? Recommend if you like that kind of thing.

31. Sea Stirred - Caroline Williams. this is the story of a teenage girl's first love. Not normally my kind of thing, but it's well written. Martha (nearly 13) is on holiday in Cornwall with her extended family - none of whom are close in age to her - & meets a boy next door. It captures the awkwardness of being on the cusp of teenager hood & the mother daughter relationship.

45. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Semi-autobiographical novel about a girl called Jeanette, adopted by an evangelical Christian couple and follows her through puberty as she starts to question her faith and desire to become a missionary particularly in the light of her realising that she's a lesbian.
I read this years ago when I was a teenager and it was particularly fun re-reading the copy I picked up in Oxfam as it had been used as a GCSE or A-level text and was filled with scribbled notes in the margins by an angsty young woman who had obviously read it very earnestly. Some great characters, particularly Jeanette's mother who is horrifying and hilarious in equal measure.

46 The Dark Circle by Linda Grant
Set in 1950s. Follows two twins in their late teens, Lenny and Miriam diagnosed with TB and sent to a sanatorium in Kent, free on the newly created NHS.There they meet a cast of characters (staff and other patients) and learn 'the way of the patient' - basically to give up all autonomy over to the regime of the sanitorium while they wait for the new antibiotic cure from the States.
Some great characters and really well written although the ending felt a bit rushed. Probably my most enjoyable read from the Bailey's short list but I think part of this was to do with my personal interest in the history of the NHS and respiratory medicine.

47. Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb
    Final instalment of the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Cant believe I have come to an end of this sixteen novel saga. Have spent many, many enjoyable hours in the company of these characters and feel really quite sad that this may be the end.

48. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
    Peter Leigh is an English pastor who is sent to become a missionary to the native population of a new planet. While he is there and trying to establish his ministry with the Oasians he continues to communicate with his wife Bea who has stayed on earth (which is going to hell in a handcart).
    LOVED this book. Listened to the audio book and the 19+ hours flew by. Creepy and beautiful and thought provoking. Went out and immediately bought his book Under the Skin.

49. Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore
    Poetry collection. Mixed bag. Mixed bag of subjects and mixed bag of my reactions to them. Some pages I've folded over to go back to as a few of them were wonderful and definitely will be reread.

Stokey the last book features pretty much all the characters from the Assassin, Live Ship, and Rain wild series. Its been years since I read the first ones so quite frequently I just had to contend myself with having a vague memory of the characters as I needed to crack on to find out what becomes of Bee, Fitz and the Fool.

oh and all the Kelsingra characters too (dragons + keepers). I could have done with a big character map tbh

Scribbly
You liked the wanking vicar book?!!! You have brought back incredibly painful memories by referring to The Book of Strange New Things. I cannot tell you how much I hated that book.

Book 50
A Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer
This was bad, although there were no wanking vicars. I only finished it because I was desperate, but had guessed the murderer and method very early on indeed, and then the rest of the novel was just an attempt to divert attention from that. Shoddy, lazy and stupid.

My review:
The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber
Long (stupidly long) and often v boring. Why did I persevere? Because I kept waiting for something to happen, but, other than the world pretty much falling to pieces (which we learn of second hand), nothing much really did. It was like a long fumble of perfunctory foreplay, and no climax. I don’t recommend it, but I quite liked the aliens. And if I live the rest of my life without ever having to read again about a preacher masturbating, that’s fine by me.

And now I feel sullied and need something 'lovely'. Sigh.

How can we forget your 'wanking vicar' review, Remus?

Gosh it has been a very long time since I updated!

I will go back and read but here is my update

23. Death Sentence - Damien Boyd

The last of my Damien Boyd marathon. In this one, our clean cut protagonist has to tie together several seemingly unconnected murders / freak deaths. Based on law suites against the MOD for exposure to asbestos during the Falklands and caving it was another interesting read.

I hope when the next one comes along Nick Dixon might develop a bit more substance. He is just too good to be true at the moment. I like my heroes just a bit flawed.

I have moved on to Adrian McKinty's The Cold Cold Ground and I am enjoying it thus far. Set in Belfast during the troubles of the early 80s it is a police procedural in challenging circumstances. So ordinary detective cases set in an extraordinary setting.

Remus I loved the wanking vicar, he did it so nicely though, a very everyday perfunctory wank. It added to the creepiness because everyone else on the base was so obviously not wanking or doing anything release-worthy at all. And what else is there to do when there's no booze and a packet of crisps cost like £500 anyway? No no I thought it was great. The slowness made the creepy weirdness wtf is going on even more satisfying. And his emails to his wife were so great, he was so crap at it. Several times I shouted Fucks Sake in the car at him. Love a character that makes you right properly cross.
I could have listened to another 19 hours of that book.

The little thread summary on "Threads I'm On" just showed "multimedia message" for Remus then. Was genuinely a little afraid to click in case it turned out to be video of wanking vicar...

I missed the wanking vicar! What great piece of literature was this?

I love Barbara Kingslover's The Poisonwood Bible, and to a lesser extent, The Bean Trees. Have read Prodigal Summer but remember nothing about it. Recently quite liked Flight Behaviour.

But agree on The Lacuna and the slow start. It was a bit of a joke on a holiday with a friend a few years back, that I had to finish that 'effing book', I could have given up and ya know, just enjoyed the holiday, but I was determined. I did enjoy the latter part though.

I'm reading The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice at the moment. Seems a bit cliched at the moment but enjoyable, I'm only a few chapters in.

The A to Z of Spanish Culture Read this on holiday, and while I found it readable and enjoyable at the time, the only thing I now remember is that the author, Pilar Orti, is the voice of Xuli in the Go Jetters. Oh, and something about eating a grape for every chime on the New Year.

The Abyss Surrounds Us Emily Skrutskie
I liked the premise and the sample of this - giant gene-engineered beasts that escort ships to protect against piracy, but it turned out not to be so much sci-fi as angsty YA feeeeeeeelings.

The City & the City China Mieville
Much reviewed and discussed I'll put myself on the fan side - I enjoyed it.

London Falling
The Severed Streets
Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?
by Paul Cornell.
Have heard these recommended for a while for fans of the Rivers of London series. I'd say if you liked the premise of the PC Peter Grant books but not the execution, it's worth looking at these - the same London based occult crime, investigated by a special team in the Met. I sort of want to say they're the more grown up version but can't quite put my finger on why? Ensemble cast rather than a single narrator, and they don't have a convenient and kindly guide, so they spend a lot of time trying to find out how things work.

Remus - you can't read Christmas murder mysteries in May! Surely there is a law of some kind??

Having said that, I read it at the proper time of year and it was still crap...

My teenage ds has just completely rejected (after a couple of pages), The Knife of never letting go. Is he a hopeless Philistine? Should I read it myself?

I also abandoned The Knife of Never Letting Go,

I gave it longer than a few pages, but it didn't improve as far as I was concerned. I wouldn't recommend it.

30. Little Black Lies - Sharon Bolton

Have reached book 30 in what was a 60 book target for this year which I will hopefully surpass at this rate!

Catrin no longer speaks to her best friend. Not since she killed her sons. And is she plotting revenge? Set on the Falklands islands with a back story including some missing children this was a great read and I didn't want to put it down. Lots of twists and turns and surprisingly I had guessed the very last one. But not the one just before that.

Picked this up after reading Daisy in Chains by the same author and I think after this I'll be looking for some more I do love finding a new author!

I liked The Knife of Never Letting Go, though I don't think anyone else on this thread did. The next two in the trilogy were pointless and overlong though. Would have done better to have made the first one a couple of chapters longer and left it there.

"My teenage ds has just completely rejected (after a couple of pages), The Knife of never letting go."

Good for him. I should have done the same, as can be seen from the resulting review:

CoteDAzur.......... 29/02/2016

14. The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

No use sugar-coating it: This was crap. I don't know how it compares to what people usually read as YA but it was shockingly stupid, dull, and badly written with a 200-word vocabulary, featuring what must be the dumbest and least inspiring protagonist in the history of literature. I can't even call it a coming-of-age story because he was as gormless at the end as in the beginning. Gah.

Don't even get me started about the pathetic excuse for a story. People who can't be bothered to worldbuild should not try to write sci-fi imo. Why couldn't he set his story at any point of the world's history when people have settled at another continent island, for example? Complete rubbish.