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50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Six

993 replies

southeastdweller · 05/06/2017 21:26

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?

OP posts:
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CoteDAzur · 12/06/2017 09:02

fatowl - The author's name is J G Ballard Smile and Empire of the Sun is based on his own life. He was a child in Shanghai when Japanese invaded & he spent years in the internment camp there, in conditions described in the book.

If you are interested in finding out more, his autobiography Miracles Of Life talks extensively about his life in Shanghai before and during the internment camp. It's a great book.

CoteDAzur · 12/06/2017 09:05

TooExtra - Snow Crash is an amazing, wild ride which first used the term "avatar" in fiction, predicted mass immigration by boats to developed countries as well as Google Earth, and ushered the age of Cyberpunk as a sub-genre. It's utterly mind-blowing.

bibliomania · 12/06/2017 09:22

52. Gardens of the Dead, William Brodrick
The second outing of his monk/sleuth/lawyer hero. While I liked the comic glimpses of life in the priory, I wasn't keen on this book. The plot strained credulity (female lawyer wants to remedy an old injustice after her death, so leaves a trail of clues. Unexpected old relationships emerge yadda yadda). The plot moved slooowly, with characters failing to meet each other at the right moment. And the author contrived happyish endings for certain characters which involved women giving up freedom and any hope of having their own needs met in order to ensure men are looked after. I don't think this was deliberate by the author, just part of an unexamined mindset that really bothered me.

Was out for a walk by the Thames, so flicked again through Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat. Now deep into

53. Closed Casket, Sophie Hannah, one of her new Hercule Poirot stories. Set in Ireland in 1929, it does not evoke Ireland in 1929. I do want to find out whodunit, though.

fatowl · 12/06/2017 10:22

Thanks Cote, I was aware it was based on his own childhood, I'll look into the autobiography, I was looking at "The Kindness of Women", which wasn't reviewed that well.

CoteDAzur · 12/06/2017 10:28

I read The Kindness Of Women and wouldagree that it is not very good.

Just read Miracles Of Life. It really is very good.

fatowl · 12/06/2017 11:44

Just added Miracle of Life to my wish list

ScribblyGum · 12/06/2017 14:19
  1. A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee

Crime novel set in 1919 Calcutta. Captain Sam Wyndham survives WW1, loses his wife to the flu and moves to India to join the police force.
End of the Raj, important white bloke gets murdered most horribly. Investigations, misunderstandings and intrigues ensue.
It was OK, rather tropey but the writing style was easy to listen to and the mystery wasn't too bad. Liked the historical background of India as the British hold started to crumble.

RMC123 · 12/06/2017 15:17

Update, which shows I have pretty much immersed in WW2
61. Marking Time - Elizabeth Jane Howard- listened to the second of the Cazalet books which I have read numerous times before. Was reminded again how these improve over the course of the first 4 books.
62. Nella Last's War - War diaries kept by Nella Last, a housewife in Barrow-in Furness as part of the Mass Observation project. These were televised with Victoria Wood several years ago. Interestingly the Nella I found in the books was very different to the Nella Wood portrayed. Nella was a very intelligent and insightful woman. Creative and skilled at managing and running a home, the war years brought out the best in her. It is clear from her diaries that up until this point she had suffered from significant mental health issues, referring to several breakdowns and fraught relationships with her husband and in- laws. It is interesting her husband is never named in the diary . She dotes on her two grown up sons. The war helps her to move from her cloud of oppression to showing how capable she is, not just within her home, but in the wider community too.
Barrow was badly hit in the Blitz due to the ship yards and it brought home to me how hard live was in those conditions. Constantly cleaning, making do, stretching food etc. No NHS or welfare state; there are numerous references to people being ill but not being able to afford the doctor. It really made me reflect on how when we are banging on about Broken Britain, or poor health care and Education that life has moved on so much. The last two generations (possibly three) have no idea what it's like to live in war torn conditions. And how grateful we should be for even simple things.
Definitely recommended reading

Murine · 12/06/2017 19:43
  1. I'm Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjork good, engaging Norwegian psychological crime thriller. A six year old child is found dead hanging from a tree, one of the very few clues the detectives have to work from is that she is wearing a luggage tag reading "I'm travelling alone". Felt a bit rushed at the end as if the author had to tie up all loose ends from the many characters and plot threads quickly, an engrossing read nevertheless : I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series.
  2. The Good Neighbor by A.J.Banner A not so great, predictable thriller that wasn't particularly thrilling or suspenseful, set in the perfect Shadow Cove, Washington, where tragedy strikes the consistently beautiful, cliched characters and sheds doubt and paranoia on the wonderful neighbours and their relationships. The books blurb says the main character discovers a horrifying secret but I can't actually remember what it was, it can't have made much of an impression whatever it was!
  3. Black Water by Louise Doughty Espionage agent John Harper hides in his hut in remote Indonesia in fear of his life after making a dreadful mistake and reflects on his past work in the country decades ago and his childhood in California. When he ventures into civilization he meets a woman with her own secrets and tragic past and unburdens himself a little but cannot bring himself to share everything. I chose this because I had recently enjoyed Apple Tree Yard, however this thriller is very different and not what I had expected at all, in a good way! It is much more slow moving,descriptive and thought provoking than I'd anticipated. The historical context and Indonesian setting very well researched too, I really enjoyed it.

I'm now reading Lincoln In The Bardo on my kindle and have Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore to begin tonight.

Sadik · 12/06/2017 22:02

I see Another Day in The Death of America is a MN monthly giveaway for anyone interested in it.

ChessieFL · 13/06/2017 05:36

RMC123 did you know there are two further Nella Last books? There's Nella Last's Peace and Nella Last in the 1950s, if you're interested in reading more. I haven't read them myself yet so can't say whether they're worth reading or not!

  1. The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium by Gerald Durrell

Another collection of short stories. This is my favourite of his books and I have read this numerous times. Still find it funny though!

  1. Fillets of Plaice by Gerald Durrell

Yet another short story collection. I don't remember reading this one before and I enjoyed it.

  1. Every Day's A Holiday by George Mahood

The author sets out to celebrate all the weird and wonderful days there are throughout the first half of the year, such as Chocolate Cherries Day and Canned Food Month. Good idea, but he didn't do anything very exciting to celebrate each holiday and the book ended up more just a story of his family life with three young children. OK read but could have been much better.

Now reading Commonwealth by Ann Patchett and have Never Let Me Go on audiobook.

bibliomania · 13/06/2017 09:35

Skim-read Bleaker House by Nell Stevens.
Memoir by young would-be writer who has nothing to write about and wants to get away from distractions, so goes to one of the Falkland islands for a few months. The kind of book to make you chunter in middle-aged irritation about the narcissism of millennials. The entire world is a backdrop to her navel-gazing. Slightly pointless narrative of her stay interspersed with chapters of her even more pointless novel. Self-indulgent to the nth degree.

The whole thing made me resolve that once I become Supreme High Commander, I will outlaw creative writing programmes with immediate effect. You may thank me at your leisure.

Now onto book 54. The Shadow Land, Elizabeth Kostova. This writer had a big success with The Historian a few years ago - a book that tended to divide opinion, although I rather liked the Mitteleuropa air of melancholy resignation she conjured up. This book is similar in tone, although I'm not yet sure if vampires are involved. A young American woman arrives in Bulgaria - there's a mix-up with bags, and she's left holding a bag full of human ashes. What happens next? She's a particularly humourless writer, but as I said, I quite like a bit of bittersweet gloom, so I'm up for the ride.

CluelessMama · 13/06/2017 10:27

Posting my list in celebration of the fact that I have completed 20 books, which was my total for the whole of 2016! I knew that this thread would inspire me to read more but could never have guessed how much. I also thought it would help me to reduce my TBR pile and list...oh, how wrong I was on that one!!

  1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  2. Killing Kate by Alex Lake
  3. Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott
  4. Lessons I've Learned by Davina McCall
  5. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
  6. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
  7. Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
  8. The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman
  9. The Skeleton Cupboard by Tanya Byron
10. Hurrah for Gin by Katie Kirby 11. Leap Year by Helen Russell 12. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler 13. Humble by Nature by Kate Humble 14. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safron Foer 15. Quiet by Susan Cain 16. A History of Britain in 21 Women by Jenni Murray 17. A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr 18. At The Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier 19. The Black House by Peter May 20. Cartes Postales from Greece by Victoria Hislop Stunning settings - I find I'm saying that a lot this year, setting seems to be very important to me! It almost reads like a series of short stories, linked as they were all supposedly the tales told to visitor travelling round Greece to recover from heartbreak. Pleasant, would be a brilliant holiday read, definitely not gripping and I'm not sure it will prove memorable.

Have got a non-fiction book on Audible which is proving a bit of a slog at the moment, and The Great Gatsby sitting beside my bed as my next fiction read.

TheTurnOfTheScrew · 13/06/2017 11:55

19 Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave.
Tells how The Second World War affects the lives and relationships of Mary, an upper-class young woman volunteering as a teacher; Tom, who wants to join the war effort but is not released from his post at the Ministry of Education, and Alistair, who is posted predominantly in Malta.

I wasn’t sure about this one. I felt each of the plot turns were fairly predictable. I also felt that the attempted levity of the (clunky at times) dialogue was overdone. I think the sense was to invoke the Keep Calm and Carry On ethos but it just felt a little too much. Felt similar in subject matter to Small Island or The Night Watch but much less successful than either of these.

InvisibleKittenAttack · 13/06/2017 17:08

30. Call for the Dead - John Le Carré - thank you for the recommendation that the early Smiliey books were on the daily deals on Kindle a few days ago, I picked up this (the first of the George Smiley books), and am now kicking myself for not getting the rest. I enjoyed this - more of a murder mystery with spies than a normal spy drama book.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 13/06/2017 17:37

Book 56 - Another one who's just read Call for the Dead by John Le Carré, after the cheap Kindle deal!

Not as good as The Spy who came in from the Cold but I did enjoy it. I like Smiley as a character, and some of the writing is excellent. At times I thought it strayed into too much back story, but well worth a read.

Kitten - if you liked this, I'm pretty sure you'll love Spy.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 13/06/2017 17:39

Am also reading Lincoln in the Bardo but I'm torn between thinking it's quite clever, and thinking it's too bloody clever for it's own good and actually rather annoying. Not sure if I'll finish it or not, but will definitely give it some more time.

CoteDAzur · 13/06/2017 19:25

David Ignatius's spy book Siro is 1.99 on the Kindle today.

Anyone know why I have this book in my EReaderIQ watch list? It must be because of a recommendation on here.

ChessieFL · 14/06/2017 05:48
  1. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

The story of two families and how they are affected by the wife of one family starting an affair with the husband of the other family. It jumps around in time and I found it hard to keep track of which time period we were in as it doesn't say at the start of the chapters. I also kept losing track of which child belonged to which family. I found the writing style very descriptive though, it was very easy to visualise all the different settings. This was the first Patchett book I've read. I won't be rushing out to read more but will give one a go if I come across one that looks interesting.

ShakeItOff2000 · 14/06/2017 13:17

34. Playing to the Gallery by Grayson Perry.

An engaging and thoughtful look at art. Very enjoyable. Thanks, Remus, for the recommendation.

35. Bitten by Kelley Armstrong.

Fairly typical werewolf urban fantasy, including the requisite romance. It's my go-to light read genre! It's the first in a series so now I'm sorted for my next light read. 😄

StitchesInTime · 14/06/2017 13:47

34. How I Lost You by Jenny Blackhurst

Four years ago, Susan was found guilty of smothering her 12 week old son while suffering from postnatal psychosis, and sent to a psychiatric institution. Susan had no memory of her son's death or the events around it. 4 weeks ago, she was released early on parole, to a new town, with a new name, and a chance to rebuild her life. And now, she's receiving strange things in the post. Photos of toddlers with her son's name written on the back. The handmade blanket her son had. And she's starting to wonder - is her son really dead?

This was extremely far fetched. Not just the highly improbable storyline, but some of the characters actions.
Take Susan - released on parole 4 weeks ago, she's changed her name by deed poll for fear of people learning about her murder conviction - and yet, when a reporter appears at her doorstep, she's taken him into her confidence and try and enlist his help in unraveling the mystery, and they're practically best friends before you can blink Hmm Hmm

Sadik · 14/06/2017 18:00

51 The Underground Girls of Kabul: The Hidden Lives of Afghan Girls Disguised as Boys by Jenny Nordberg

As it says on the tin - an account of girls in Afghanistan who, for a number of different reasons, are dressed as / brought up as boys. I picked this up pretty much at random in the library when looking for something to read, and I'm very glad I did. I felt that the book did a really good job of letting the girls/women interviewed tell their stories and come across as real 3 dimensional people.

I was less keen on the last 1/3 or so of the book where the author tried to set these stories within the context of theories of gender - I thought it worked much better as a work of reportage letting the reader draw their own conclusions.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 14/06/2017 18:07

Glad you enjoyed it, Shake. :)

southeastdweller · 14/06/2017 20:59

Has anyone else noticed that the RRP for some new paperbacks has creeped up to £9.99? These aren't weighty tomes, I'm talking books that average 350 pages. Think I'll be be buying less books from Waterstone's and more from Amazon in the future.

OP posts:
ChillieJeanie · 14/06/2017 21:12

I'm definitely having a slower reading year than last year. Hey ho. Current list is:

  1. Paul Cartledge The Spartans
  2. Rae Beth The Hedge Witch's Way
  3. Terry Pratchett Mort
  4. Phil Rickman Mean Spirit
  5. MJ Carter The Printer's Coffin
  6. Karen Maitland The Raven's Head
  7. Bernard Knight The Sanctuary Seeker
  8. Rachael Weiss The Thing About Prague
  9. Neil Oliver Master of Shadows
10. James Bennett Chasing Embers 11. SJ Parris Conspiracy 12. Ian Rankin Even Dogs in the Wild 13. Terry Pratchett Night Watch 14. Mary Beard Pompeii 15. Sarah Lotz The Three 16. Phil Rickman The Cold Calling 17. Robert Graves The White Goddess 18. Phil Rickman December 19. Kate Mosse The Taxidermist's Daughter 20. Matt Haig Reasons to Stay Alive 21. Jasper Fforde Shades of Grey 22. Wilke Collins The Woman in White 23. Benedict Jacka Bound 24. Lee Child Night School 25. Ed Halliwell Into the Heart of Mindfulness 26. Bernard Cornwell The Winter King 27. Sarah Perry The Essex Serpent 28. Ruth Whippman The Pursuit of Happiness 29. Bernard Cornwell Enemy of God 30. Nina George The Little Paris Bookshop 31. Michael Howard Mysteries of the Runes 32. Bernard Cornwell Excalibur 33. Saroo Brierley Lion 34. Kate Morton The Secret Keeper 35. HP Lovecraft The Whisperer in Darkness 36. George RR Martin A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

And I've just finished: 37. The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins
Leys have come to have a supposed mystical significance in New Age thought, and this was the book which really them to general attention. It's not a mystical book in any sense. Basically, Alfred Watkins was a man very familiar with the Herefordshire countryside and started seeing alignments of significant features on the landscape - burial mounds, mark stones, ancient camps, beacons, churches, castles, etc, plus natural features such as notches in hills. He started identifying them as sighting points and theorised that these alignments marked very ancient roads through the British landscape which he called leys. The book is very dry because a lot of it is describing the leys themselves, how they are aligned, and in some instances how he spotted them. His idea is that they represented roadways for trading purposes since he argues that they lead to and from commodities like salt marshes, sources of iron, tin, and stones used in making tools. They cut straight across the landscape as the crow flies because these are such ancient tracks that it was pre the development of permanent settlements, and as villages began to grow up over time they would be close to the tracks for trading purposes. He saw evidence of the commodities the tracks were routes for in the names which have come down to us and argues that elements of folklore and folk tradition are ancient memories of the activities of those who marked out these tracks by determining sight lines using sighting staves. As I say, it's a very dry book but interesting on a theoretical level. I just can't see from what Watkins wrote how leys have come to be thought of as mystical lines of energy through the landscape.

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