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?

42. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I really liked this one. I was a bit skeptical about it - I read Armada by the same author some time ago and was not impressed - but this is a far superior book.

It's set in a future economically depressed world where most people use a virtual reality world called OASIS daily. When the designer of OASIS dies, he leaves a quest as his legacy. The first person to complete the quest and find the hidden Easter egg is set to inherit the designer's entire fortune. The story follows Wade, one of the top contenders to win the quest.

It's a fun and absorbing read, with lots of 1980's trivia thrown in.

The Bone Clocks has got worse. Is it going to pick up again, or shall I bin it now?

Depends which bits you like. All the immortality stuff bored me a bit and there's lots of it. But I'm glad I finished it if only because I really liked Slade House and it helped me understand that,

I quite liked the girl running away from home. Thought the weird bit with the murders was pretty stupid. Hate the stuff with the guy in the chapel and the blokes in the pub and the bloke shagging other bloke's girlfriend. Actually I think I hate it all, apart from the girl running away from home.

There is more of her story.

But is it worth wading through all the nonsense for?

remus That is the question. Where are you? If you're smack in the middle of eye chakra acts of hiatus invocation nonsense then you're nearly there. Last chapter is pretty good and picks up with Holly. If you didn't recognise what I said and you think it sounds like the rarest bullshit you've ever heard of (you'd be right) then you might want to skip it because it only gets worse and just read the ending...

Satsuki, I felt very much the same way about Today Will Be Different : it's not Bernadette, but it doesn't need to be. I found Eleanor's relationship with her sister and the related truths she realizes about herself to be quite poignant.

I have This One Is Mine on my phone, though I've not yet read it. I think it's set in LA, not Seattle, but then I think lots of things.

On balance I'd finish it Remus.

Oh I only guessed Seattle because it was about Eleanor's previous boss, but of course LA would make sense because she was a tv writer wasn't she.

Not been around for a few weeks so another mammoth update from me I'm afraid.

51 - We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler Much reviewed on here already. Best thing about this book is the tittle. I didn't think that the twist was much of a twist as I had worked it out from the narration. Therefore, kept reading expecting for the shocking twist to finally materialise.

52 - Burial Rites - Hannah Kent - Much reviewed on Mumsnet already. It was actually thanks to these reviews that I read it and I really enjoyed it. The atmospheric writing is just stunning. I also liked the fact that the author leaves it open as to whether Agnes was guilty or not.

53 - Gone Astray - Michelle Davies - The daughter of Euromillions winners Lesley and Mack Kinnock suddenly disappears one day and DC Maggie Neville. is assigned as their Police Liaison Officer This provided a bit of light relieve after Burial Rites and whilst enjoyable I didn't think it was quite as good as Wrong Place.

54 - The Night Circus - Morgenstern - Le Cirque des Rêves arrives suddenly and without warning. The black and white tents open at sunset and close at sunrise. Within this mysterious place a competition is underway between two illusionists to which there will be only one winner. Another one that I really didn't like. Too much description and not enough development of the characters. I also find it hard to suspend belief when it comes to books about magic and wizardry so this really wasn't my cup of tea. It should give me plenty to talk about at book club though.

55 - The Girl Before - J P Delaney - The Girl before tells the story of two women who lived at 1 Folgate Street a modern minimalist house designed by a famous architect. In exchange for low rent the house tracks all your data and the leases contains over 200 clauses of things you are allowed or not allowed to do. Emma died in the house in mysterious circumstances and Jane sets out to discover what really happened to her. Easy, light read which was needed after the Night Circus. I read it very quickly in just over a day and didn't think too much about it as reading it.

56 The Shack - Paul William Young This book was lent to me by somebody at my church. It tells the story of Mack who's child is kidnapped and evidence that she might have been murdered is found in an abandoned shack. A few years later Mack receives a not allegedly from God asking him to spend a weekend with him at the shack. As a book I wasn't overly keen but nonetheless a very thought provoking read.

Currently reading Anything is Possible - Elizabeth Strout

31. The Climb Up To Hell - Jack Olsen

Pacey and well-written account of 1957's disastrous attempt to scale the north face of the Eiger by four climbers led by the Italian Claudio Corti, of whom three perished, the international rescue attempt to save the climbers, and the controversy that followed. The book's out of print (it was published in 1962 so has first-hand accounts from many of those involved in the rescue) but well worth searching out for anyone interested in the history of Alpinism.

Finally caught up with thread, and now feel thoroughly brainwashed to put Lincoln in the Bardo on my birthday list .

Some of you were discussing favourite books in the 50 books thread. What about The Essex Serpent - I feel like almost everyone liked that??

26. audiobook of Into Thin Air - much reviewed and a great book about the 1996 Everest disaster. Makes me cringe when I realise how often the disaster could have been averted.

27. A Quiet Belief in Angels - this is a frustrating novel about a harrowing series of child murders in rural Georgia in the 1940s and 50s. At times beautifully written, it demands far too much suspension of disbelief for me. Disappointing.

28. Digging to America by Anne Tyler - I really enjoyed this. A gentle, family drama which starts with the adoption of 2 Korean girls by 2 very different American families. Anne Tyler is a wonderful writer, not much happens in this book and yet it is weirdly gripping. I enjoyed this much more than A Spool of Blue Thread which is her most recent one. Recommended, especially if you need a break from difficult and/or harrowing reads!

I started listening to The Sellout on audiobook and I just couldn't carry on, it was doing my head in. I just wasn't getting it, it seemed like a stream of consciousness and I couldn't concentrate on it. Maybe it's better in proper book form.

If we can get Cote to read and love The Essex Serpent then it would definitely be a MN favourite.

I'm 18% or so into The Bone Clocks. Not sure I can do any more.

I don't think you'd regret reading Lincoln LadyDepp. Even if you have problems with it I'd say it is definitely worth a read in any case.

I've got a sinking feeling about cote and The Essex Serpent.... but otherwise yes it was well-liked - any dissenters?

Ah I see. There's a lot more to come then that you'd find annoying I reckon...but the last chapter is quite good especially knowing the sort of thing you like in SF (not sure how much is spoilery to say?)

Might just skip to the last chapter.

48. Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik

After their journey to China and back, via the Ottoman Empire and Prussia, Laurence and his dragon Temeraire were disconcerted by their muted welcome and being ordered to land well away from their usual covert. But a virulent epidemic has swept through the Aerial Corps in their absence wiping out whole formations of dragons and only a fiction of aerial defence keeps the French from invading. Laurence and Temeraire have to embark on another long journey, this time into the heart of Africa, to try and find a cure.

I do quite enjoy the different cultural views and standing of dragons that Novik creates, and so far the story is holding up pretty well.

"If we can get Cote to read and love The Essex Serpent"

Ha! I doubt that will happen

I gave up on The Essex Serpent - though tbf I can imagine I might have read and enjoyed it at a different time, so not really a dissenter. Having said that my DM was very meh about it (one reason I didn't push on as we have similar tastes).

61 And The Weak Suffer What They Must: Europe, Austerity and the Threat to Global Stability by Yannis Varoufakis

Passionate polemic by the academic and former Greek finance minister. This was really excellent, and I would encourage everyone to read it, particularly given the current will-we-won't-we-what-the-hell-is-happening Brexit situation. It starts with a brief but comprehensive run through of the post-war political and monetary settlements (Bretton Woods, formation of the IMF, birth of the ECSC leading on to the EEC later EU), with really helpful discussion of the underlying politics. Unsurprisingly there's also a lot of coverage of the birth of the Euro (by way of the various earlier failed attempts to peg currencies within Europe) and its later crises - as well as the wider crises of European legitimacy.

Although the author is very much of the left, it's really not a party-political book, and I imagine would be just as much of interest to those on the right - obviously where many Euro-sceptics lie. (Varoufakis' own views are that a reformed Europe is the most desirable outcome, but his book could be used to argue equally that this is unrealistic and exit is the least-worst option.)

You're just prejudiced cote, if it was called the Essex Scientist or the Esoteric Serpent you'd have read it by now

I'd read both those books, Satsuki

I was a bit lukewarm about The Essex Serpent, it was good but in retrospect not really stuck in my mind and not one I'd reread.

Can I nominate The Worst Journey In The World as the most loved?

I haven't read that one yet either meg

"You're just prejudiced cote, if it was called the Essex Scientist or the Esoteric Serpent you'd have read it by now "

Possibly

It would also have to be NOT the 2nd book of a young female author