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50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Seven

999 replies

southeastdweller · 02/08/2017 22:26

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?

OP posts:
SatsukiKusakabe · 31/08/2017 17:29

cote last time there was an expensive kindle book on something musical you gave in and bought it. I'm just saying... we're here for you hun, don't do anything rash....Grin (my phone corrected that "hun" to gun repeatedly, it just wasn't having that I meant it!)

CoteDAzur · 31/08/2017 18:30

I know I did, Satsuki. Amazon knows that I'm weak

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 31/08/2017 20:01

Book 82
Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime – Val McDermid
Does exactly what it says on the tin, which is to examine how forensics have developed, and have helped or at times possibly hindered criminal investigations. A lot of the historical stuff I had read previously, and I felt that at times she lost focus and wasted time on less interesting/important stuff, but overall I enjoyed this.

BestIsWest · 31/08/2017 20:08

I quite liked the Val McDermid too. On the same theme, has anyone read Silent Witnesses by Nigel Mcrery? I was wondering whether to give it a go.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 31/08/2017 20:40

Best - No but it looks right up my street. Have just got the sample. It's also pretty cheap on Kindle now, so if the sample is good, I'll get it.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 31/08/2017 20:43

Beyond the Body Farm looks good too. Death's Acre not on Kindle, unfortunately. Have read a lot about the body farm already though.

ChillieJeanie · 31/08/2017 21:15
  1. The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley

Maia D'Apliese and her five sisters were all adopted as babies by the elusive billionaire they call Pa Salt. Brought up at his secluded castle Atlantis on the shores of Lake Geneva, the six women gather on hearing of his sudden death and burial at sea. He leaves each of them a clue to their origins, and this first novel in the series inspired by the mythology of the Pleiades Maia sets out for Rio in a bid to find out where she came from.

In the Rio of 1927, Izabela Bonifacio has a longing to see the world but instead sees her life mapped out ahead of her - including her marriage to the son of an aristocratic family, in line with her wealthy father's aspirations. After her engagement is announced she pursuades her father and fiance to allow her to accompany her friend to Paris, where her friend's father, the architect Heitor da Silva Costa, is hoping to find the right sculptor to complete his vision for the statue of Christ the Redeemer. At the studio of Paul Landowski, Izabela meets the young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows her life will never be the same.

People in these sorts of books are always amazingly rich, stunningly attractive, and incredibly talented, aren't they? I suppose you would have to be, to be able to disappear to Rio on a whim. Anyway, I did find I really enjoyed the story which is beautifully told.

Sadik · 31/08/2017 22:55

75 Prince's Gambit by CS Pacat

High fantasy with buckets of political intrigue, sequel to Captive Prince above. I really enjoyed this, perfect light entertainment with endless twists - it was definitely worth getting through the dodgy sex scenes at the start of book 1. Will be interesting to see if the final book in the trilogy keeps up the pace.

RMC123 · 31/08/2017 22:58

96. 4,3,2,1 Paul Auster. Have never read any of Auster's work before but have to say this blew me away. It is based around the idea of how one boy's life could take completely different paths depending on circumstances. The book essentially tells the same boy's story in 4 parallel stories. The backdrop to each story is 1950's to 1970's American and all the political turmoil associated with civil rights, Vietnam, student protests and race riots. It is a long book, nearly 900 pages and as the boy has the same name , ( Archie Ferguson) parents and family members I had to make brief notes to keep track of which events were happening to which boy. Highly recommended and seems quite relevant against today's US political climate.

CheerfulMuddler · 01/09/2017 00:44

Took another break from Wolf Hall to read:
30. When Marnie Was There Joan G Robinson
Rather melancholy but lovely 1960s children's book. Lonely foster child Anna spends a summer in a Norfolk seaside village, where she makes friends with a mysterious girl called Marnie.
Timeslip story along the lines of Charlotte Sometimes or Tom's Midnight Garden or A Stitch in Time. Very much up my street. Has anyone seen the Studio Ghibli adaptation? Is it worth watching? It seems such an ENGLISH book somehow, I find the idea of a Japanese animation a bit counter-intuitive. There's a lovely story at the back of my edition about the filmmaker getting a bus down the Norfolk coast hoping to find the village in the book.

SatsukiKusakabe · 01/09/2017 07:53

I'd forgotten that book cheerful it was a favourite of mine I will look for it again. I haven't seen the Ghibli version but they did a lovely, strange new version of the Borrowers called Arrietty, that was different but I really liked it. But I'm not sure I think they ever put a foot wrong (see username!)

Kindle Monthly Deals!!

I've got Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, quite liked on here, and Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggars as I might give him another go. Storiesof your life and others is a collection of sci fi short stories that the recent film Arrival was based on so look interesting. Also there is The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.

EmGee · 01/09/2017 08:24

Cheerful I ordered that Marnie book from the Book People to read to my DC...and then it went OOS. Must try and get it again.

SatsukiKusakabe · 01/09/2017 08:40

I saw that Auster book the other day but it was huge and as I'd never read any before was unsure of starting there. Your review has intrigued me though.

bella4024 · 01/09/2017 09:00

Best I really enjoyed Silent Witnesses and felt that he used a lot of example cases that I haven't previously read about. Also felt it went a bit deeper than the Val McDermid

BestIsWest · 01/09/2017 09:03

Thanks Bella - I've bought it. To add to the growing TBR list if I ever finish Shardlake.

TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 01/09/2017 10:25

Holiday laziness in updating means I now have a long list to add, so here goes:

  1. Busman's Honeymoon, Dorothy L Sayers. Peter is a bit up his own arse in this one and if I'd been Harriet I would have told him to sod off with his distance and misery.

  2. We Have Always Lived In The Castle, Shirley Jackson. This was BRILLIANT. Spine-chillingly creepy protagonist, beautiful prose.

  3. Fate's Edge, Ilona Andrews. I usually like Ilona Andrews but this one annoyed the crap out of me. Neither the heroine nor the hero did it for me at all - stupid trope that men just drool at women and do whatever women want as soon as the woman smiles at them.

  4. Penric and Desdemona - 5 novellas by Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm counting these as one because they're novellas about the same character. Really enjoyed these - although I'm not keen on Penric's love interest in 4 & 5. Ditch her and get back to solving mysteries! I love LMB's previous Five Gods world novels and the Sharing Knife series, but I didn't get into her Miles Vorkosigan ones. Anyone read those - are they worth persevering with?

  5. Rose Cottage, Mary Stewart. Sweet novel about a woman abandoned by her mother aged 8. It was a bit too sweet, in fact - the heroine never questions her mother's actions in running off with a man - there's no anger, she doesn't seem to feel anything but understanding for this. When the mother eventually reappears she comes across as a total narcissist shielded from life by her new husband. I usually love Mary Stewart but there were too many issues here that jarred.

  6. Middlemarch, George Eliot. Finally finished! Mixed feelings about this. I loved it to start with, particularly the spiralling sentence structure. Then it just got a bit boring in the middle. Final denouement was a bit too true to life. Dorothy's husband had been presented as a bit of a waster a few too many times for me to really believe in their ultimate wedded bliss. Fred and Mary were my favourites in it by far.

  7. The Lark, E Nesbit. Sweet and silly tale about two girls whose inheritance is lost by their feckless guardian, so bravely set about recouping their fortunes. Edwardian escapist reading, just like The Red House, which I also adore.

122-6. Knock Down, Decider, Longshot, The Danger and Bolt, Dick Francis. Dick Francis marathon - horses and murders and intrigue.

  1. The Nine Tailors, Dorothy L Sayers. More happy Peter Wimsey crime-solving.
TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 01/09/2017 10:42

  1. The White Cottage Mystery, Margery Allingham. Read this as I was on a mystery roll, but it was a bit forgettable.

  2. A Feast of Crows

  3. A Dance with Dragons

  4. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, GRR Martin.

I've been watching season 7 and went back to re-read the books in a whirl of more-more-more, I want to know what happens! Have read them all before but the two finals in ASOIAF were pre-2012 or thereabouts, so all the finer details and endless sub-plots had faded from my mind. I remember being really fed-up with sub-plots and new random characters the last time, but now, knowing how the TV series has gone, it was much more satisfying (and I wasn't looking for any main characters to meet or for any resolution to sub-plots). AFOC reads like a list of heraldry at times, but it is very satisfying to remind myself of all the ways in which the books deviate from the show. I'm now a bit bereft - I've read all the sample chapters from Winds of Winter and the Dunk and Egg tales (which I love!) and I just want more. Damn you, GRRM! Write faster! It wouldn't surprise me if the TV series has agreed a deal with him where he now won't release the books until the show ends. I expect he's working on both the two final books - it doesn't seem like you could do them separately, so I'm hoping for an announcement of both at once! Eventually...

LadyPeterWimsey · 01/09/2017 13:47

Not been on this thread before, so apologies if I'm intruding. You can guess my literary sympathies from my username...

TooExtraImmatureCheddar I'm nearing the end of the Vorkosigan saga, as recommended by a MNetter (thank you, @Somerville for making me read books with spaceships and aliens on the cover) off the back of Sayers and Dorothy Dunnett, and absolutely loving it. I started with Shards of Honour, and devoured that, but took a couple of goes to get into Barrayar. Having got through that and The Warrior's Apprentice, I have not been able to stop. SciFi/space opera is absolutely not my thing - until now.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 01/09/2017 17:44

Just bought Heroes of the Frontier which I've been waiting to come down in price for ages. Other than that, I think the choices are pretty dreadful this month.

I really enjoyed Burial Rites so would definitely recommend that, especially to anybody who enjoyed His Bloody Project.

Cote - Please read The Big Sleep.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 01/09/2017 17:47

Welcome, LadyPeter - you're definitely not intruding!

TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 01/09/2017 18:14

Thanks, LadyPeter! I've read the 3 you mention and wasn't exactly gripped. That was a few years ago, though - might give them another try. If you haven't read the Five Gods ones I heartily recommend them! I particularly like Paladin of Souls and The Hallowed Hunt.

Tanaqui · 01/09/2017 20:44

Bujold has been recommended to me before, as a sf reader, not a detective story, but I've never been hooked by any I've read. Love a Dick Francis though Cheddar (but iirc Break In is better then Bolt!).

30 Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth. I have never seen the tv series (and have no tv license so probably won't!), but I enjoyed this - I wouldn't say the author was a natural storyteller, but the content was sufficiently interesting that that didn't really matter.

ChessieFL · 02/09/2017 08:09
  1. Where She Went by B E Jones

Told from the POV of Mel after she's died, and finds herself in a family house. We gradually find out how she died and why she's in the house. Didn't really like this - didn't find any of the characters engaging and ending rather predictable.

  1. The Shock Of The Fall by Nathan Filer

Story told from the POV of a mentally ill man. Enjoyed this.

Ladydepp · 02/09/2017 09:18

Just checking in, having finally read and caught up with thread. I have successfully dodged adding any more books to my TBR pile, apart from adding Herriot books to my ereaderiq list. Phew!

Welcome new people, hope you're prepared to add lots of books to your shelves Wink.

Passmethecrisps · 02/09/2017 13:21

I need a good talking to. I was so excited to start the latest Ian Rankin book and saved it for when I thought I would whizz through it.

Well, nearly three weeks later I am 56% down and gee whizz it is dull. I just don't care. I am not one to abandon books but I fear this may cause me to abandon reading. I have done a scandalous amount of Facebooking recently which is melting my brain.

Baby is sleeping well, eldest has just started school - there is no reason for me not to be reading.

So, do I force myself to finish the Rankin book for better or for worse or do I start something else?