50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Seven

[southeastdweller]

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

What are you reading?

53. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

Another one from the library

Short story collection. Some better than others - I liked Mile 81, Ur, The Green God of Agony and Obits best. I couldn't get into the poetry ones, but then poetry is, as a general rule, something I often struggle to enjoy.

King's Paranoid: A Chant is a v good poem - can't remember offhand which collection it's in.

I'm struggling with Sovereign (third in the Shardlake series). I loved the first two but this just seems like an endless list of forgettable characters with not a lot happening by half time. I have no idea what the plot is, if there is one.

I've broken off to read a bit of Map Addict by Mike Parker which is fairly interesting if you like maps (I do, as it happens, and like him, can remember my first encounter with an OS map).

Welcome FuckingHateRats. I think The Essex Serpent and His Bloody Project have been enjoyed by most of us on here.

Best Keep going! I felt exactly the same at the half way point, but I -promise you that it really, really picks up!

iirc the first half was mostly about how smelly Henry's leg was!

I'll struggle on in that case Remus, yes, enough about the leg .

Looking forward to seeing your review.

Best definitely carry in it is worth it. And to be fair by all accounts I ever read Henry's leg really was very smelly!
95. All Change - Elizabeth Jane Howard
The last of the Cazalet Chronicles, listened to on audiobook. Have loved immersing myself in these again. Certainly not as strong as other books and actually found some mistakes in the plot. For example at the end they kept referring to Simon having been born in the house and his twin having died there, when actually that storyline belonged to Will. Will was kind of forgotten about, almost like she couldn't think of a storyline for him. Also felt it was pretty rotten that Edward ended up being cast as the villain when he was the one trying to save the business while Hugh's head was buried in the sand.
Despite all that still enjoyed it immensely and now have to find something else comforting and cosy to keep me going on a run

I must try to work out what I've read so far.

Have finished The Secret History, loved it. About to start Dilys Rose's 'Unspeakable' which is about the last man who was hanged for blasphemy in Scotland.

27. Days Without End by Sebastian Barry. Another rec from this thread! I really enjoyed this American civil war era set novel- also interesting as I just saw the remake of the film The Beguiled, set at the same time. I did find the narrators Huck Finn-esque voice jarred a couple of times- twice I lost the thread and wasn't clear even on rereading- but overall it was really well done (though I don't know enough American history to know if it was at all accurate, but it felt it).

Remus, I think Cousin Kate is probably the darkest Heyer, but in my mind it goes well with The Talisman Ring, The Toll Booth and the Reluctant Widow, if you are after another and haven't read any of those!

Thanks, Tanaqui. Don't think I've read any of those yet.

Book 80
Hangman's Holiday by Dorothy L Sayers
Short stories – a couple of Wimseys, some Montague Eggs and a few one-offs. I really enjoyed this – I think the short story form works for her far better than all of her repetitions and witterings in The Nine Tailors. which I thoroughly disliked.

46. Those who leave and Those who stay (Book 3 of The Neapolitan Novels) by Elena Ferrante.

Wow! I loved this book. I was so caught up with the characters and so upset with what happens towards the end that I wanted to hide the book in the freezer (à la Joey in Friends with Cujo and Little Women) and couldn't bear to read the last few pages for about a week. This is such a great depiction of character, friendship, the roles of men and women, our expectations for our lives. Do we live primarily for ourselves or are others more important? To judge or not to judge? All told from the first person viewpoint of Elena Greco, now in her twenties and living in Naples during the 60's and 70's.

47. The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King.

I very much enjoyed this as well. Recommended in a sister thread about Stephen King books. I think, Remus, you liked this one. Brief synopsis: A nine year old girl gets lost in the massive forests of North America. Stephen King is such an expert at bringing characters to life and easily injecting the supernatural into every day life. I feel the same way about David Mitchell and Michael Faber. Both build such believable characters that pull you into a story.

This year I am also trying to use the library more and to read all the books I have accumulated on kindle and paperback. Out of my 47 books, I have only bought 14, most of which have not been available from the library and I've then bought cheap second hand copies. The majority (17) have been library books or audiobooks. We have a great library and do not have to pay for reservations. I'm there at least once a week!

I cannot keep track of my list! Well, #30-something's read is:

The Underground Railway by Colson Whitehead. I really enjoyed this book despite the grim topic. Set in C19th Georgia, it's heroine is Cora - a 3rd generation slave - whose mother managed to escape when she was six. Now in her teens, another slave, Caesar, asks her to escape with him, and the bulk of the book details their escape from the plantation on the fictitious 'underground railway' of hidden rail tracks forged deep under the ground and manned by an abolitionist network of well-intentioned white men, and free men.

Their journey is fraught with danger from bounty hunters, a fanatical slave catcher called Ridgeway who was unable to capture Cora's mother Mabel, informers and lynch mobs.

This book is reminiscent of Beloved by Toni Morrison. It does not shy away from the horrific realities of slavery but the violence is not gratuitous. Whitehead has managed to convey the sheer brutality in brief sentences but which are all the more powerful as a result.

It is also a book of great hope so don't let the subject matter put you off reading it!

Now reading (and enjoying) Amor Towles' Rules of Civility

Glad to see some other people working their way through the Booker list.

I've also just finished Days Without End, Tanaqui and enjoyed it. It didn't shy away from the horror of war and the treatment of the Native Americans. The fairly cursory commentary was more effective and I liked that the main protagonists questioned some of the orders privately. It was nicely written and gave a strong sense of place.

A Man Called Ove is the 99p Kindle book of the day today.

49. Needful Things - Stephen King

I have eventually finished this. Third ever Stephen King book and although I enjoyed it I still think it is my least favourite of the three so far. I feel it could have cut out some of the middle and got where it was going slightly faster. Pretty sure the book says the store is only open a week in total. That's 933 pages for a week!! But I'm glad I read it.

Now to work on my pile of library books. None of which are half the size of that one so I can hopefully speed up a little to reach my 50!

I like The 9 Tailors Remus, (and 5 Red Herrings) better than the sort stories; so maybe don't take my recs!

Anyone got any other suggestions from the booker list- this year or last, and preferably short?! Have only read His Bloody Project and the aforementioned Days Without End, so should expand my horizons I think!

I enjoyed The Underground Railround from this year's Booker. Currently reading Exit West which is good so far too.

The North Water from last year was very good but quite violent- in case that puts you off!

Hello book fans,

I'm on holiday and just updating with my holiday reading. I started off with The Woman in White which I believe is a Remus favourite. I read it for the first 3 days and finally gave up about halfway through. Don't think the Gothic horror worked on a sunny beach and am not great at Victorian tracts. But a friend is working on a TV adaptation which is showing on the Beeb in November so may try and finish it before then.

I've also been reading a simplified version of the Iliad and Odyssey to the DDs (we're not too far from where that took place) and they've been lapping it up. Although youngest came in one morning saying she'd dreamed she was Agamemnon and her sister was on the losing side.

So books I've actually read:

44. The Poison Tree - Erin Kelly. Easy to read thriller. Posh kids living in a big house on over their heads.

45. Dark Matter - Blake Crouch. Sci-fi thriller. A guy get kidnapped walking back from a bar where he is celebrating his friend's science award, slightly regretting he gave up his chance of glory for wife and child... And ends up in a parallel universe. It reads like a screenplay, page turny but didn't really believe in the ending.

46. Everyone Brave is Forgiven - Chris Cleeve. Reviewed by Remus a couple of pages back, and I think I feel the same. There's a good story in here and some interesting bits but it doesn't really hang together. I found the dialogue didn't ring true, no-one speaks like Alistair & Mary, and I wasn't that drawn in to the characters.

47. Children of our Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky. I think this was recommended on here, not sure who by Sadik ? Cote? It's proper hard sci-fi. Earth is dying, they build a new terraformed world to house monkeys with a nano-virus to make them super intelligent but someone blows up the monkeys so the virus develops in a very different way. I really enjoyed this, recommend it.

118. Needful Things by Stephen King

I could pretty much just repeat Matilda's review! Enjoyed this but could have been quite a bit shorter. Also not my favourite of the few Kings I have read but I did enjoy it.

Chessie I'm glad you felt the same!

39. I'm Not With the Band - A Writer's Life Lost in Music - Sylvia Patterson. This is a memoir from a former music journalist with many not hugely interesting interviews with celebrities and not enough about the author's life. I thought there was way too much about the nature of celebrity and that perhaps Sylvia did this as a way to deflect from the difficult relationships she had with her family. Her writing is annoyingly generally overwritten, almost frenzied, when a more calm and unfussy style would have made for a better and shorter book. I came close to buying this for £9.99 and feel relieved I resisted and got it from the library instead.

Continuing with Days Without End.

It was me that read Children of Time, Stokey. Glad you liked it, I thought it was an excellent read.

Nothing happening here, working v e r y slowly through Citizen Clem but I'm very busy and it doesn't grip me enough (at least so far) to get me reading it in my odd 5 minutes here and there.

My overdrive doesn't have The Underground Railway, but it does now have Seveneves, which iirc Cote says is fab so I am on a wait list! Currently rereading Bill Brysons Shakespeare, light but good.