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?

Snake-hipped = v narrow of pelvis. Roland is v tall & v skinny - just the way I like 'em.

I'm trying to find a novel with a blonde hero who grows tubers, plays the piano and will talk filthy Pythagoras to you whilst flying the spaceship. They seem to be strangely thin on the ground.

74 Captive Prince by C S Pacat
A bit of an odd one. The blurb basically sells it as historical/fantasy slash fic - but frankly I would worry about anyone reading this for the sex.

There's a lot of sexual/physical abuse, much of it very graphic, but in fairness it is on the whole genuinely relevant to the plot. And there is also a LOT of plot - underneath the trashy slash fic, it's a thoroughly enjoyable twisty political high fantasy novel with double dealing, treachery everywhere, and no-one who/what they seem. I'll definitely read book 2.

Ooh Remus I like tall and skinny too! DH is 6'3" and weighs 11 stone

he's also v good at maths

How is he with root vegetables?

Sadik, I ended up enjoying all the Captibe Prince series (someone mentioned it on last year's thread I think), I even paid for number 3 so i must have been hooked, though it hasn't stuck- I don't remember much apart from a very dodgy sex scene right at the start (but I have read enough slash to have a very high tolerance for such things- I'm the slash reader skimming over the sex for some proper good plot!). Anyway, just to say there are free PDFs on the internet and it is also likely to be in your library ebook collection if you are skint like me!

Also Cheerful, you should write that fic! Me and Cote are in love with your hero already!

Hmm can't say his root veg is anything special...

snort

"a blonde hero who grows tubers, plays the piano and will talk filthy Pythagoras to you whilst flying the spaceship. They seem to be strangely thin on the ground."

Tell me about it. Life is not fair.

Cheerful takes dirty talk to a whole new level. So wrong and yet so right.

I shall skip past Tara's DH's root veg with eyes demurely averted.

:) Is that an anomalous statistical spike in your pants, or are you just pleased to see me?

faints

1. The Wolf and The Raven - Steven MacKay

2.The Hobbit - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)

1. Greenwitch - Susan Cooper

4.Child 44 - Tom Robb Smith 5.Fellowship of the Ring - JRRR Tolkien (Audible) 6.Into the Heart of Borneo - Redmond O'Hanlan 7.The No1 Ladies Detective agency 8.The Two Towers - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)

1. Crosstalk - Connie Willis (Audible)

10. The Forest - Edward Rutherfurd 11.Tom’s Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce 12.1066 - Kaye Jones (Audible) 13.The Reformation - Edward Gosselin (Audible) 14.The Return of the King - JRRR Tolkien (Audible) 15. Lion by Saroo Brierley (for Bookclub) 16. The Muse by Jessie Burton (on Audible) 17. Henry VIII's wives - Julie Wheeler 18. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula de Guin 19. Fall of Giants by Ken Follet 20. Stig of the Dump by Clive King 21. Edward I - A Great and Terrible King by Marc Morris 22.Nomad by Alan partridge (on Audible) 23. Saigon by Anthony Grey. 24: Charlotte's Web by EB White 25: Behind Closed Doors by BA Paris. 26: The Light Years (The Cazalets 1) (Audible) 27: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Attwood 28: Empire of the Sun by CG Ballard. (Audible) 29: A Place Called Winter - by Patrick Gale. 30: The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell (#1 of the Arthur Warlord series) on Audible 31: Enemy of God by Bernard Cornwell (#2 of the Arthur Warlord series) on Audible 32: Excalibur by Bernard Cornwell (#3 of the Arthur Warlord series) on Audible 33: The Gunpowder plot by Sinead Fitzgibbon (Audible) 34: The 39 Steps by Richard Hanney 35: The King's Speech by Mork Logue 36: The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd 37: Macbeth: A novel by AJ Hartley (Audible) 38: 1984 by George Orwell (Audible) 39: My Antonia by Willa Cather 40: Her Father's Daughter by Alice Pung 41: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (Audible) 42: The Girl in the Glass Tower by Elizabeth Freemantle 43: Nobody's Child by Cathy Glass 44: Henry VIII by Simon Court

45: Revelation - Shardlake#4 by CJ Sansom
Thoroughly enjoyed this, proper page turner, well written etc.

46: Northern Lights (His Dark Materials #1) by Phillip Pullman (audible)
I read these years ago and remember not really getting into them. But they always feature so heavily in people's recommendations and "Books you have to read before you die", I felt I have obviously missed have tried again. Still wouldn't rank them as all time favourites but can see their merits. I have now started reading the Subtle Knife (#2) and think I might prefer that one.

Who knew the 50 bookers had such filthy minds? I was referring to my DH's skill in growing potatoes and carrots and other such items obviously ...

Just back from holiday where there was time to squeeze in a few books.

42 Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
A re-read for me. I had forgotten how funny it was, perfect read after a couple of heavy going books. Three witches become involved in politics and find it - as Pratchett puts it - a lot harder than certain playwrights would have you believe.

43 Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith
Nothing much happens in these books but I enjoy reading them nonetheless. In this one they have a minor disagreement about how to handle a case, a dog is rescued and quite a bit of fruit cake is consumed. Perfect holiday reading.

44 The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor
Set at the time of the Great Fire of London there is a murderer on the loose. Exciting and thoroughly enjoyed it but not quite as good as Shardlakes.

45 No Man's Nightingale by Ruth Rendell
This one was on the shelf in the holiday cottage. This is a later Inspector Wexford - he has actually retired but somehow is invited back to get involved in this case. Only part that I found hard to believe was that he would be able to randomly wander about 'chatting' to witnesses. Still enjoyed reading it.

46 Various Pets Alive or Dead by Marina Lewycka
Serge and Clara grew up living in a commune in the north of England. Now Serge works for a bank in the city but is too afraid to tell his parents that he has given up his Phd. Clara works as a teacher and is afraid of being left in charge of the school hamster because their pets kept dying on her as a child.
There were some very funny parts to this story but I think it lost its way somewhere - the threads didn't all tie together and some of the plots just disappeared. For example their mother wants to stop the local allotments from being redeveloped but in spite of having protested her way through the seventies and eighties doesn't seem to be very effective in starting a campaign or leading it. Did make me laugh though.

29. The Power by Naomi Alderman. I think this has been reviewed plenty upthread; I enjoyed it - the style reminded me of Workd War Z which I loved, crossed with the Iron Man- but I did feel it read like a young adult book, although maybe that was the intention. Does anyone know of anything else written in that mock documentary type way?

Fat owl, I don't "get" Phillip Pullman either, maybe you had to read them as a child?

I'm itching to read a book on dead Baroque musicians again. Found this one which looks perfect but... £30.23 ?!?!

That's a very precise amount of money!
I assumed that this was for a hardback book until I clicked on your link. You might as well go the whole hog and spend a £100 on the hardback edition

Yes, 30 quid for a Kindle book FFS!

Amazon is truly messing with me

There's also this but I'm not dying to read it as much. Only £62.40 on the Kindle

The most expensive book I ever bought on Kindle was about 40 quid - it was an obscure (and very thick doorstop) book on the 16th Century Coolie trade that DD needed for an Oriental studies module for her degree.
I could have got it second hand for about 30 quid but she needed to take it on a plane and it weighed about 5kg!

It looks like you might be able to have the 1st one for about 15 quid on abebooks Cote unless I've got the wrong link.

Ooh that sounds promising! What is Abe Books?

Its a 2nd hand bookselling site - I get a lot of stuff from there (sometimes ebay is cheaper, sometimes abebooks, always worth checking both).
Having said that I've just realised you're not in the UK, so the postage would be higher - but probably only a couple of pounds or so more.