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?

It's marvellous Emgee. Steinbeck is such a brilliant writer.

I was so devastated by The Grapes of Wrath at 17 that I haven't really read anything else by him. (OMAM and Travels with Charley the exceptions).

CluelessMama - I guess the reason that books are available in audio even if not really suited is for people who can't read text (eyesight / dyslexia etc) as opposed to those who can read in both formats?

57 Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

Reviewed by various people on these threads, this intercuts the stories of a modern day Canadian narrator, and the lives of a group of musicians and their families in China from the revolution through to 1989 and the Tianamen square demonstrations.

I thought this was heartbreaking but excellent, a real stand out read, though it took me a while to get into it. For me it said as much about the ways that your choices change you & those around you, as it did directly about the history of the period covered.

Checking in again after several months. The wheels fell off my mental health (again) and I stopped reading. I've restarted with Age of Ultron (one of the graphic novel collections) because trying to start up again on what I feel I should read was getting me nowhere fast. Also DD2 wanted me to read it!

List so far this year:

1 Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
2 Stark by Ben Elton
3 Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
4 Capricorn One by Ron Goulart
5 Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
6 The ADHD Effect on Marriage by Melissa Orlov
7 The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams
8 Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett
9 4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie
10 The Sherlock Chronicles
11 A Passage to India by EM Forster
12 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
13 The Queen of Distraction by Terry Matlen
14 The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
15 Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

16 The Truth by Terry Pratchett

Thought I hadn't read this but I clearly had. Still enjoyed it, as always. Classic Pratchett with a gripping plot, humour and a point to make. Personal favourite quote is from the central character thinking about his father: "You couldn't have a proper argument with Lord de Worde. Not a proper argument. An argument, from arguer, meant to debate and discuss and persuade by reason. What you could have with William's father was a flaming row." My life has been quite a few pointless discussions that rapidly turned into flaming rows recently.

17 The Present by Spencer Johnson
DH was given this for him, and then me, to read by CMHT. Simplistic, full of cliches and sickly sweet. DH got something out of it but he didn't read three books on Mindfulness last year and actually take them seriously. This is A, B, C level Mindfulness about living in the now.

Yes to Satsuki's post... Can we find a book/author that we all agree is amazing?

Biblio so impressed that you went backpacking around Ethiopia - what an experience!

Maybe we could each nominate three favourite ever books. Then when we have the full list, go through it and give each entry a Yes, No, Maybe or Don't Know (not read) rating. And see if anyone gets all positives!

102. Hag-seed, Margaret Atwood. This. Was. Awesome! My inner snob likes books about Shakespeare, the play within a play motif was wonderfully done, with the same level of zany shit as the original. I haven't read much Atwood (apart from The Handmaid's Tale) and now I want to read much more. Why does my TBR list keep getting longer and longer?

Can't want to comes courtesy of a friend's young child. Brilliant, no?

I hope you feel better soon, River 💐

Welcome back River, good luck with the return to reading.

there seem to be quote a lot of discounts on Kindle this morning.

All That Man Is - David Szalay, a Booker shortlist that was a bit Marmite IIRC, I'm going to give it a try.

Also A Spool of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler is £1.99 & The Passage - Justin Cronin is 99p , A little life is £1.39 & the Woodcutter by Reginald Hill, a good crime book is £1.99.

Books that everyone rated is a tricky one. I can only think of Into Thin Air & All Quiet on the Western Front.

Ooh The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell is also 99p

Yes, everybody liked Into Thin Air on these threads iirc.

Another one with unanimous positive reviews was This Thing Of Darkness (a rare Remus favourite that also became one of mine )

Seemed to be a lot of love for His Bloody Project too.

Wild Swans is reduced on Kindle too. One of my all time favourite books. Lots of other good stuff too. The trouble with goats and sheep is there.
Haven't read In to thin air so can't comment. Will check it out.

I haven't read Into Thin Air or This Thing yet because I'm looking forward to them so much! Need to get on with them. Yes to HBP and All Quiet. Think you'd struggle to find someone that didn't approve of AQ tbh, but you never know.

Sorry you've been having a hard time river, I know I'm in trouble when my reading falls off a cliff, yet it is one thing that can help if you can concentrate. So frustrating

Hi All,
Composteleana - I’m sorry to say for me it was!.I always plod diligently through book group books so at least if I don’t like it I can constructively say why BUT with Animal I threw it at the wall after 20%. I read reviews saying how it was filled with humour can't say I found anything funny so If you think you will be laughing all the way think again. More of a therapy write for the author I feel.

I loved JS&MrN - I read it as part of this group a couple of years ago. Not an ideal kindle read though due to all the footnotes

Thank you MuseumOfHam for the Sarah Waters tip – I’ve just snapped up the only two I’ve not read Affinity and Fingersmith

Thanks for the Wild Swans tip RMC123. We were discussing this book at book group after our latest read Memoirs of a Geisha as being a similar genre. I’ve never read it so put it on my TR list – have eagerly snapped it up this morning!

Book 29: Hidden Depths by Ann Cleeves. This is the third novel in the Vera Stanhope series. I’m a BIG fan of her Shetland series. She as a gift for the “setting” and has really brought the atmosphere of the Shetland islands alive for me. Similarly in the “Vera” series her writing evokes the North East well, both the rugged countryside and coast, and the urban areas. I did find the pace of this novel rather slow and whilst it was an enjoyable light read I do prefer the Shetland Series and will only purchase anymore of these on a kindle deal or charity shop.

Still listening to Eleanor Oliphant when I get a chance
Started Book 30 last night - The Circle by Dave Eggers

The discussion upthread makes me want to read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell again. The only thing that is slightly putting me off is that we have it in hardback and it is BIG!

31 The Woman who Waited by Andrei Makine
The narrator is a young man who travels to rural Russia to record some of the traditional culture. He meets a woman called Vera who has been waiting 30 years for her fiancee to return from the Second World War. The local population consists of many elderly women whose husbands died in the war. A friendship develops between them. The book is beautifully written.

32 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Witty portrait of an Edinburgh school teacher. She manages to create who characters and story with such a spare prose it's a surprise that the book is only a couple of hundred pages long.

33 A Clergyman's Daughter by George Orwell
Dorothy Hare is the daughter of the local rector in a 1930s rural English town. She suffers amnesia and finds herself destitute. This started well but I wasn't really convinced by her as a character and the reason for the amnesia is never clearly explained. There are some brilliant descriptions of true poverty and the trap that many found themselves in. (At one stage she cannot rent a room because as a single woman landladies are afraid that she is a prostitute so she ends up living in a house with prostitutes because she can only go where the landlady isn't too fussy). Ending was unconvincing. Her experiences are based on some of Orwell's own experiences and sometimes it felt as if he was adding in everything he knew about. Well worth a read though.

Kindle deals summer sale - in addition to those already mentioned I recommend Middlesex, The Revenant and The North Water (last one slightly less than first two but a good read) Golden Hill also in there, not quite as reduced, I this though not quite as much as I'd hoped, worth a read though.

Also Wolf Hall for those who haven't attempted it yet - you'll love it or hate it (I quite liked it...)

Also Eligible is on there which was recently reviewed on here.

I am buying Heart is a Lonely Hunter and possibly Carrie Fisher's Shockaholic.

I picked up The North Water and The Bone Clocks for 99p each today

Ooh I hadn't spotted The Bone Clocks on there, thanks! I've already got my eye on quite a few (Exposure by Helen Dunmore, Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout, The Passage by Justin Cronin), must have a proper look later!
I bought my mother a kindle for her birthday and she hasn't opened it yet because she hasn't finished her current paperback, I was uncomprehending

I saw Wolf Hall in the sci-fi and fantasy section, Satsuki

Can't quite understand what makes Amazon think that's where it belongs!

Thanks Tara, it was a bit of a stealth boast from my backpacking days! Less adventure these days post-child, alas.

Welcome back, River. I'm a fan of reading what you want, not what you "should".

Lion is 99p on kindle deals today - I bought it after watching the film and thought it was definitely worth reading.

I suspect there are no universal favourites, but I think Ready Player One has been popular with a lot of people.

That is odd, stokey. I mean it's fantasy in that she made a lot of
it up, but...