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?

Nothing really grabbed me in the monthly Kindle sale...

Meg: I recommend 11 22 63 by Stephen King. The Kindle edition is £4.99.

Oh I've read that this year (and agree it's great) but thank you

How about Dark Matter by Michelle Paver? It's a bit of a Mumsnet favourite and will really give you the willies (do you want the willies?). It is a bit pricey at £5.99 though.

And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave is brilliant but disturbing and only £3.99.

Meg

Have you read:

Year of Wonders Geraldine Brooks
Burial Rites Hannah Kent
No Picnic on Mount Kenya - I haven't read this yet, but it's on my wish list.
I May Be Some Time - Ice and the English Imagination

Just a few chosen at random there. Feel as if I should remember what everybody on here has read already! All of these are £5.50 or less and BR is v cheap.

Thank you, I will look at those. And The Ass... is a book I was obsessed with as a teenager so have read and reread many times, although not for 15 years or more!

I think I read Year Of Wonders a few years back when I was in a MN book swap club... Were any of you in one? Are they even still going?

45. All the light we cannot see Antony Doerr. Much reviewed on here and I've been meaning to read it for ages. Enjoyed it very much although it took me a while to 'get into'. Evocative writing. Filled me with sadness at times.

46. Moskva by Jack Grimwood. Apparently not as good as similar by Martin Cruz Smith (I am reliably informed by DH). Quite exciting in places and I read it quickly but got a bit confused here and there by Soviet generals sadists and the to-ing and fro-ing between the present time (mid-1980's) and 1945's sacking of Berlin by Soviet troops.

There's at least one free Kindle edition of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.

A Little Life is great and quite cheap at £3.66.

Meg - I was in one of the book swaps, but didn't like much of what I got sent, and never got any of my books back!

I've just bought Denali's Howl (mountaineering disaster) which looks good, but I suspect you've read it. It might even be you who recommended it to me.

Book 84
S.T.A.G.S.by M. A. Bennett
YA. Saw this mentioned in The Grauniad and it was cheap on Kindle, so thought I’d give it a go. It’s set in a very traditional boarding school, where a group of senior prefects rule the roost and anybody not the ‘right’ kind of person is pretty much ignored (so far, so Slytherin). So our heroine, Greer, a scholarship girl, is both thrilled and astonished when she’s invited to one of their stately homes to go ‘huntin’, shootin’ fishin’. Anybody who’s read the outrage about Tories tweeting about shooting peasants can probably guess where this is going. It’s VERY teenage – it’s got teen talk and mobile phones and feeeeeeeeeeeeeelings, but it was all pretty good fun overall. Think ‘The Hunger Games’ combined with ‘Downton Abbey’ and 'Potter' and you’re on the way.

I'm excited to have Burial Rites on my Kindle ready for a trip to Iceland next month :)

Meg , I've had a quick squizz at the monthly deals. The New Confessions and Disobedience are both good reads.

I haven't watched The Cuckoo's Calling, Remus, no.

I watched Cuckoo's Calling. Beautifully shot, good casting I thought. Was a bit slow at times and lots of the nuance of the story was lost in the simplification For TV but enjoyed overall. DH who hadn't read it, liked it.

Be interested to see what they do with the Silkworm as I wast keen on that.

Still reading bloody Shardlake. It's painful.

Sadik, I really loved The Hate U Give - finished it a couple of weeks ago and I still find myself thinking about it.

Remus, I love a good coming of age novel so S.T.A.G.S sounds right up my alley, will check it out.

Only a couple of updates for me.

28. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. I really enjoyed this - high fantasy set in multiple Londons, with a protagonist who can move between worlds. There are two more in the series and I'm interested enough to read at least the next one.

29. Perennials by Mandy Berman. Sadly disappointing. It's set in an American summer camp, and claims to be about two girls who form a friendship as campers, then return to the camp years later as counsellors/staff - in reality there are tons of peripheral characters thrown in for unclear reasons, and it rambles all over the place before ending abruptly with two shocking events. Overall quite peculiar and I am still a bit annoyed about it.

Now reading City on Fire which is looooong but I'm really enjoying it so far.

I loved Burial Rites, very jealous of your Iceland trip KeithLeMonde!
I haven't updated in ages but my most recent read was Pride and Prejudice, finally reading my my first Austen:I was worried about it being a difficult, dry read but I was so wrong, I loved it!

31. Station Eleven by Emily St John Mantel. I saw a passing reference to this on here (I think in relation t Wool, or On the Beach) and so picked it up in a charity shop- I enjoyed it and am going to see if I can find any of your reviews from previous threads! Post- apocalyptic novel, I felt some of the narrative viewpoints were more convincing than others.

I enjoyed The Cuckoo's Calling on TV but I haven't read the novel. Thought the acting was great; nice, browny 1970's colour scheme going on in most scenes especially Strike's office. In addition, I suspected who the murderer was from the start!

Enjoy our past Station 11 wars discussions

41. Siro by David Ignatious

I had high hopes for this spy book, written by an associate editor & columnist of the Washington Post, its protagonist a woman CIA agent who has studied Ottoman history.

Then said woman agent kept sleeping around & falling in love, her "insight" into Ottoman history limited to the stories about how despicable various Padishahs were, and fawning over the Armenian stud who of course gets wronged. (Author is of Armenian descent).

It started out well, had potential, but got boring and silly very quickly. A shame.

Cuckoo's Calling
I thought it was a bit too gloomy in some places -surely if his office has electricity (it does!), it wouldn't be so bloody dark? I also thought that the series made the murderer far more obvious than the book does (in the book it felt as it came out of nowhere). Thought it was very slow and a bit self indulgent, especially the final one. I did like the actors though. I detested The Silkworm as a book, but will probably end up watching it anyway, to see what they do with it.

Please don't get us started on Station Eleven again. I didn't finish it, but found what I did read excruciatingly awful.

51. The Perfect Girl - Gilly MacMillan

Zoe has been given a Second Chance Life after she caused an accident which killed three teenagers. A gifted piano student with a new family until someone discovers her past. The next morning her mother is dead.

This wa an okay book. I felt like it didn't really go anywhere fast and the endings were all wrapped up a little too easily. Life just isn't that simple. Another library read so glad I didn't buy this one.

Now onto book 52. Into the Water - Paula Hawkins yet another library read as I'd heard this wasn't too great so didn't want to waste money just in case

2013 Booker Prize winner The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton is £1.09 on the Kindle, just for today. Don't miss this intriguing, incredibly well-written book about a mystery in New Zealand during its gold rush period.