50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the sixth 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, the fourth one here, and the fifth one here.

What are you reading?

Thank you!
Interesting reading your feelings towards Eleanor. I am listening to it on Audible and never gel as well with the story listening as I do when reading. I am about half way through. I am having difficulty "believing" in Eleanor and whilst her commentary on modern life does make me smile I am struggling to believe that after ten years in the accounts department of a graphic design agency in Glasgow and a reader of the Telegraph how can she not have some handle on the world?

I am assuming that the "Dark Circle" talked about and the one reviewed by Vistaverde on the previous page is not the Dark Circle by Linda Grant but another of a similar title? – quite intrigued to read it.
Thank you to whoever mention Adrift by Helen Babbs. I really want to read that although cannot justify £8.54 at the moment
One of the things I have also been doing this year is clearing up the books sitting on my kindle and my “to read” bookshelf.

I thought her obsessive interests, slightly old fashioned vocabulary and strict adherence to routines hinted at autism, so I didn't have trouble accepting that life was a continuous effort to understand and adapt for her, rather than something she just needed to "crack".

If it doesn't come naturally it is always hard work, particularly if you don't realise it's you and not them. She thinks everybody else has social difficulties because her standards are so rigid!

Mmm - yes I can see that. She did make me smile when describing others who she perceived to struggle socially ie the Social Worker

Just seen The Lost City of Z is 99p on kindle. Has anyone read it? It sounds interesting but rather mixed reviews, and I try to avoid piling up unread kindle buys (currently got Children of Time on the go).

I do see where you're both coming from, it definitely wasn't perfectly executed by any means, but I appreciated the attempt at a different kind of character.

I think Lost City is in the Monthly Deals so will only be that price for a day or two. I've had it wishlisted but not made up my mind about it for same reason as you. Got a big of a stack going.

HI Sonnet - remember you v fondly!

Satsuki - Oh my word. I thought Susan Hill was just a boringly poor writer, but I see that she is actually even worse. That story is incredible!

I managed three pages of the Oliphant thing.

Quite enjoyed Lost City of Z. My review should be somewhere in this thread, I think.

Hi Sonnet, welcome back!

Susan Hill, hmm. I really liked the Simon Serraileur series (although I didn't like him) and I like the play of The Woman In Black (but not the book or the film). I hated the sequel to Rebecca whatever it was called and struggled to read anything else I've tried.

I love the bookshop story. I used to follow her on Twitter but had to let her go because her politics annoyed me ( I like living in a bubble).

Best Had completely forgotten about the Simon 'what's his face' series. I did actually enjoy those. Agree about the Rebecca sequel.

Though apparently looking back at my review I liked HowardsEnd is on The Landing, though I disagreed with much.

I read Mrs de Winter years ago and thought it was absolutely bloody dreadful. I didn't realise it was by Susan Hill! Also, if she's a friend of Gove, she ain't no friend of mine.

37. Countdown City (The Last Policeman Book 2) by Ben H. Winters.

Second book in this series. The asteroid is getting closer to hitting earth and society starts to disintegrate. Meanwhile to keep his sanity Hank Palace (now no longer employed as a policeman) is helping out an old acquaintance whilst trying to look after his sister. What would you do if the world was ending? Altruistic or all about yourself? Great stuff.

Waves to Sonnet - welcome back! I remember you and your pretty name.. 😊

Not read Oliphant but quite enjoy the Simon Serailler series, although I've only read two so far.

Just weakened and bought Lost City of Z. Now I actually need some reading time to get through some of these books

big wave to you all...

Ha ha - Susan Hill and the Simon Serraileur series.. I weirdly quite like them but can't really articulate why! The only problem I have is that I can only read them whilst lounging by a pool. I cannot bring myself to read them in everyday life! I suspect I will get through a couple more later this summer

Just finished book 28 - The Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan*
A charity shop find for 50p was my motivating force for picking up this book . The book focuses on the failiue of a marriage of a middle-aged couple. I didn't particularly enjoy it as I found the main character rather a damp squid. I found her too accepting of the situation which not only encompasses losing her husband but her job and her house to the "other woman ". Dull book that add me mattering under my breath!

I stated another charity shop find last night. The Other Hand by Chris Cleave. An old book as shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award.

Meanwhile I'm growing quite fond of Eleanor as the story trundles on.

Welcome back Sonnet. I remember you

I got Lost City Of Z. I also snapped up The Circle and Ben Macintyre's SAS: Rogue Heroes for 99p each. They are Kindle Daily Deals just for today.

59. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman I started out finding this irritatingly twee and Ove really annoying, but it grew on me and though it was really predictable and "oh this is so quirky" I was absorbed and thinking it was quite lovely by the end! Which is probably what I was supposed to do
60. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JKRowling I finally read this! It was a fantastic bit of light relief from the new Naomi Klein (excellent but depressing) that I've also got on the go, I enjoyed it, and am tempted to do the kindle unlimited trial to get and binge read the rest of the series.

Sonnet you won't want to read The Second Wife then which is the sequel to The Revenge of the Middle-Aged woman?! I quite liked them - read them years ago.

1. The Muse - Jessie Burton

1. Gone Without a Trace - Mary Torjussen
2. Flesh Wounds - Christopher Brookmyre
3. Phantom: a Harry Hole Thriller - Jo Nesbo
4. Dead Simple (Roy Grace Series) - Peter James
5. All Good Deeds (A Lucy Kendall Thriller) - Stacy Green
6. The Turtle Boy - Kealan Patrick Burke

8. His Bloody Project - Graeme McRae

1. The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

10. The Last Day of Christmas: The Fall of Jack Parlabane (short story) - Christopher Brookmyre 11. Tales of Protection - Erik Fosnes Hansen 12. The Wall of Sky, The Wall of Eye - Jonathan Letham 13. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline 14. The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry 15. Gallows View (inspector banks series) - Peter Robinson 16. The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler 17. Dead Man's Prayer - Jackie Baldwin 18. As the Crow Flies - Damien Boyd 19. Head in the Sand - Damien Boyd 20. Kickback - Damien Boyd 21. Swansong - Damien Boyd 22. Dead Level - Damien Boyd 23. Death Sentence - Damien Boyd 24. The Cold Cold Ground - Adrian Mckinty 25. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender - Leslye Walton 26. The Hanging Club - Tony Parsons 27. The Crow Trap - Ann Cleaves

28. Hurrah for Gin - Katie Kirby

Good fun book for reading while you can barely string a coherent thought together and repeatedly refer to your own child by the wrong name.

Brought list with me for new thread.

Impressed you've finished a book at all Passmethecrisps :) Its a looong time ago, but it was quite a lot of weeks after giving birth before my brain was up to reading anything.

56 Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed by Jim al-Khalili listened to on audio.

I enjoyed this a great deal - obviously a difficult topic to explain, and I thought the author did an excellent job of leading the lay reader/listener through the subject. The level of detail was about right for me, though my dd preferred the more macro overview approach of the Carlo Rovelli book I reviewed above (I think she has a lot more prior knowledge than me though!). The performance was also very good.

Has anyone read The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson & Nicole Galland? Considering it as my next audible listen, looks like a fun one. (I got all excited when I saw a new Ann Leckie book listed on Amazon, but it's not out til September.)

Passmethecrisps My son was about 15 months old before I read a book after having him. The book I was in the middle of when he arrived is still sitting on a bookshelf with a bookmark halfway through it. I've never gone back to finish it after abandoning it almost five years ago. Hope family life is going well for you :)
Vistaverde Thanks for recommendation, haven't read Charlotte Gray but have added it to my ever growing list.
Stilllovingmysleep I have read The Happiness Project and Happier at Home, really enjoyed them and they've definitely shaped how I think about things. I don't listen to the podcast but do dip into Gretchen Rubin's blog. I've been looking forward to reading Better than Before for ages and so far I'm finding it as interesting as ever.

24. The Lewis Man by Peter May
Second in the trilogy, an unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog and efforts to identify him find a DNA match to a local crofter. He is an elderly man suffering from dementia, who had always claimed to be an only child. The story is told in part from his point of view, while also following Fin Macleod as he is back on Lewis and attempting to help the man's family solve the mystery.
I got totally absorbed in this and read it in just a few days, which is very quick for me! Within the new mystery, several of the themes from The Blackhouse are revisited - life as an orphan, the cruelty/lack of love shown by some adults to children, the strength of family ties and the pull of the islands that draws back those who grew up there and left. I enjoyed the ending of this more than The Blackhouse. The setting was again very vivid, perhaps more so as we've had atrocious weather and I was reading about the islands while the rain and wind lashed against my windows at home! The continuation of the story of the characters from the The Blackhouse is progressing nicely, will definitely be reading the last part of the trilogy soon.

Ha! With DD1 I read half of a Rebus book while waiting for my induction to take hold then read the other half in the two years which followed! I couldn't tell you what the plot was at all.

42. The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez

Sunny, an American woman and proud proprietor of the coffee shop, needs a plan to keep her cafe and customers safe; Halajan, 60-year-old owner of the building, is a woman with a secret love that goes against the rules of Afghan society; Yazmina, a young, pregnant woman from a remote village in the north, is stolen from her home as payment for a debt then abandoned on the streets of Kabul; Isabel is a British journalist in search of the country's stories; and Candace, a rich American woman, leaves her husband for her enigmatic Afghan lover. Five women whose lives come together in the little coffee shop where they share the dangers and the joys of living in one of the most dangerous cities on the planet. Very lightweight and frothy for a book which includes beatings, murders and suicide bombings, but it was quite an entertaining read.

Hmm, just seen that Cote mentioned the new Neal Stephenson above. Have you bought it? I might wait for your review :)

Cote - My prediction is that you will not like The Circle at all.

Hi Cote

Thanks for the tip EmGee 😄 I do have 'I can't Begin to Tell You' on my TR shelf (another charity shop purchase) but I think I will give it a whirl as I quite The New Mrs Clifton 😄

Just purchased 'The Circle' but will leave The City of Z as not sure it's 'my thing'