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?

To be fair, my history teacher was quite enthusiastic about my choice and loaned me books from his collection at home for the research. I didn't actually let on where my interest came from though.

Ha ha, there was me thinking you were all too sensible and discerning to be dragged into them. I must admit my interest started with Sean Bean and may have had a lot bit more to do with the boy who lent the books to me. At least you got an A-level out of it.

I can't see Sean as Hornblower, he's a bit too rough and ready. Ioan did a fine job. Still upset Sean had his head lopped off so early on in Game of Thrones. I was rather hoping to letch at him for longer. He may have been the reason I started reading those books too...

Oh yes he wasn't posh enough, but I wasn't being all rational about it. Iona did grow on me.

I've sat through a lot of crap in my time just to watch Sean Bean die.

Autocorrect Ioan!

Book 28 *The Other Hand" by Chris Cleave.
An interesting story about the lives of two women who are drawn together by unique set of circumstances with far reaching consequences - a teenaged Nigerian immigrant and a 'magazine editing' mother.

I found the first two thirds of the book enjoyable with the narrative alternating between the two women. I liked both characters, and the supporting characters around them, and genuinely cared about their fates. However after the revelation of what happened on the beach the book goes rapidly downhill becoming unbelievable and almost cheesy in parts. overall just 'meh'

As I'm not really gelling with reading at the moment I've decided to trawl my way through my to read bookshelf which is made up of charity shop purchases!
So next up is 'Hidden Depths' by Ann Cleeves - the third Vera Novel

Good choice Sonnet.
*
70. All the light we cannot see* Set in St Malo in WW2. Beautifully written, story of 2 young people on opposing sides who come together at the liberation of France and the destruction of St Malo. I found this really easy and engaging to read. Enjoyed the short chapter structure which alternated the stories and brought them together in the end. I visited St Malo years ago and I always enjoy reading books about places I've been.

Now reading Reconstructing Amelia, and finding it tedious. It's a book for one of the book clubs I attend and this year we seem to have read some real stinkers! Problem is it's only me that thinks so.

44. The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah

Something much lighter needed following Clarissa! This is a modern Poirot novel, not in quite the same style as Agatha Christie herself of course but reasonably well done. Poirot is interrupted over dinner in a coffee house by the entrance of an agitated woman whoh believes herself about to be murdered. She leaves without explaining herself, except to say that once she is dead justice will have been done. Later that evening, Poirot discovers that three people have been murdered at the fashionable Bloxham Hotel, each of whom has a monogrammed cufflink in their mouth. Are the two incidents connected? Poirot struggles to unravel the truth before a fourth person becomes a victim.

I've sat through a lot of crap in my time just to watch Sean Bean die. I think you've just summed up my life.

33. Lady Susan by Jane Austen A recently widowed and notorious flirt invades the homes of her friends and family to secure a good match for herself and her daughter and she will stop at nothing to get her way.

Not sure how this passed me by in my Austen phase. I liked the epistolary format, but think it would have made an excellent longer novel fleshed out with more dialogue. I think there was a lot of scope for some witty exchanges. I love the pace of the writing in Austen's novels and always come away feeling like I should be flouncing round in a frock.

I've sat through a lot of crap in my time just to watch Sean Bean die

Too real.

Another one bitterly disappointed by Lady Chatterly's Lover in book form after being very ..... erm inspired, by the TV adaptation as a teen.

Also, it wasn't crap, but I did a very good job years back of convincing myself I was going to see Macbeth because Shakespeare and stuff, and not because I'd heard Sean Bean got his bum out. He did. It was glorious.

composteleana was that the one with Samantha Bond? I had tickets for that but couldn't go as I had a severe chest infection. I have never more bitterly regretted it than after reading your post.

Yes I think it was! And I am sorrry!

Who would have thought Sean Bean would inspire so much interest in literature, history, and Shakespearean theatre? And possibly fashion... (I obviously don't own a bottle green velvet jacket that looks like it belongs on an officer of the 95th Rifles, nope, absolutely not.)

Fortuna
All Quiet is superb, isn't it? It's books like that which make me angry about how dreadful so many other books are!

Rifles!

All Quiet is just beautiful and devastating.

It is a very nice jacket, ahem. (Probably stretching the already tenuous connection to what we're reading, so I'll just leave it there for my sisters in Sean!)

Have you seen the thread in Chat on this very subject?

28. The Peregrine - JA Baker

For ten winters around the 1960s, Baker - an inconspicuous office worker by day - tracked peregrines around the woods, valleys and estuaries of his native Essex. He then compacted his field notes into this - under 200 pages of blistering writing which went on to inspire the likes of Robert Macfarlane, Helen Macdonald and all the current generation of nature writers. It's an extraordinary book - although not much actually happens, the writing is breathtaking and would almost seem clichéd except that Baker really was the first to write about nature in this way.

Next up: Lincoln In The Bardo...

All Quiet was simply too good. Hats off to the translator too. I now want to try to get a copy in German and to seek out more of his work. I've been raving about it in work demanding everyone read it at once. It was too beautiful and too heartbreaking.

I also want to know why we didn't cover it in school unlike half of the crap they forced us to read. Or why I have spent years compiling must read lists and have only just found enough time to get round to reading them. Moving practically next door a library has helped.

It makes me worry about what else I might have missed out on so far.

Alas Sean Bean is too old to start digging a trench

Meg can't wait to hear what you think of Lincoln. I am almost two books beyond it and I am still thinking about it.

No I didn't tara. Must be a Sean Bean kind of evening.

I'm 30 per cent into Lincoln and enjoying it so far, and I've acclimatised to the style.

Also same amount into Conclave; not much happening yet but well written and anticipation building so can't complain...

There are some good Kindle daily deals today: On The Road by Keroauc, East of Eden by John Steinbeck and See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt for 99p each.
I've bought the latter two, I've had both on my wish list for a while so I'm pleased they've been put on offer!

Just bought East of Eden too. Has anyone read On The Road and would recommend it?

On the Road is worth reading as a document of a particular time and style, but it's a hardgoing read really if you're not really into that kind of thing.