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?

Neal Stephenson's brilliant tome Seveneves is £1.99 on the Kindle

(I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying it, Tanaqui!)

I can recommend the Einstein biography mentioned by Cote above. Nearly finished it so will be writing a proper review soon!

Long White Cloud getting a bit silly in the second half. Weeps.

Cote I had Neuromancer out from the library on audio recently - managed about 3 chapters before giving up & deciding it hadn't aged well.

Currently reading The Curse of Chalion (fun) and Algorithms To Live By (not as good as I had hoped) whilst ignoring Hagseed (out of the library, so I really should read first, but got half way through and lost my oomph).

54. The language of flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.

Quite liked this. From GoodReads: "A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past."

Parts of this reminded me loosely of Jude in A little life minus all the horror. It's actually nothing like A little life at all, but there was something in the destructive way Victoria behaves, and how she feels destined to fail, and feels she doesn't deserve happiness at all, that made me think of Jude. Luckily, this book has a happier ending!

61. The Death House by Sarah Pinsborough

Youngsters who fail a blood test and are labelled as defectives are taken to live in an isolated house on a remote island, where they wait to become sick and die. Things start to change for Toby when he meets new arrival Clara.

About love and loss and death, about coming to terms with mortality. Lots of well developed and believable characters and lots of emotion.

41. All 14 Eight Thousanders - Reinhold Messner

Messner was the first person to climb all of the world's mountains higher than 8,000m. This is his account of all the ascents, taking in the loss of close family and friends along the way. It's a fascinating and honest account, with fantastic photos from the world's highest peaks.

J G Ballard's amazing autobiography Miracles Of Life is down to £2.99 on the Kindle.

Please don't miss it. You can thank me later It is a fascinating autobiography, starting with his childhood in a Japanese internment camp in Shanghai. He has written some odd stories which might not be to everyone's taste, but he is an absolutely brilliant writer of his own story. Which is exceptional.

50 Something Fresh by P G Wodehouse
51 Summer Lightning by P G Wodehouse
Two books set at Blandings Castle. Have read them before but they are still funny. The pig gets kidnapped, Lord Emsworth is put upon by his sister and love is in the air. Very enjoyable reads.

52 Wind off the Small Isles by Mary Stewart
I read a lot of Mary Stewart when I was younger but could never get hold of this story (pre internet days) as I think it was out of print. I was amazed to see it in my local library the other day. It has been reprinted it along with another short story called The Lost One. Thoroughly enjoyed reading both. Wind off the Small Isles has all the usual ingredients - foreign location, young female narrator, good looking young man. It is a novella though and only about 60 odd pages long. The other short story is set on moors and involves an escaped prisoner. The book is priced at 7.99 which I thought was a bit steep because the stories are only just over 100 pages together and the rest of the book is the first chapter from another story.

53 Vinegar Gir by Anne Tyler
A retelling of the Taming of the Shrew. Kate lives in Baltimore with her scientist father and annoying teenage sister. Her father suggests that she should marry his research assistant whose visa is about to expire. There is a family of eccentrics and some funny set pieces. Enjoyed it.

54 Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A young man is murdered in a small Latin American village. Everyone knows he is to be killed before it happens and no-one stops it. The narrator pieces together the story some years later. Very well written - its not a long story but he creates a range of characters with a few words.

51. Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett I love you all. I would never have heard of this without the 50 book thread, and my eye would have skimmed right past it in the library, with me none the wiser. This was an utterly charming narration of the 1908 whaling season seen through the eyes of the eldest daughter of an established Australian whaling family. Beautifully observed and funny. Towards the end the plot went a bit unbelievable coincidencey, and the charm nearly tipped to maudlin sentimentality, but she pulled it back, and overall I would thoroughly recommend this as the perfect cosy 'nights drawing in' book.

Cote I am very tempted by the Ballard , Empire of the Sun made a huge impression on me, and I understand it is based largely on his own experiences.

museum so glad you liked Rush-Oh, good review. Charming is the right word. We have similar tastes I think.

I really want to read Rush Oh! but I don't want to pay a fiver for it.

Book 94
In the Land of the Long White Cloud - Sarah Lark
I really loved the first half of this saga set in 19th century New Zealand. It’s the story of two women, a governess and an aristocrat who both end up in NZ due to rather unconventional paths to marriage. I winced a bit at a few Americanisms in it (an English aristocrat wants to wear ‘pants’ to ride in, whilst children learn ‘Math’ in school etc) but hadn’t realised at the time that it had been written by a German writer and translated. That might account for some of the clunkiness, which became increasingly apparent in the 2nd half. It can’t excuse some increasingly really daft stories, and rather too convenient deaths in the second half though. Anyway, I’ve forgiven it enough to give the second one a go, but I was really sad that it didn’t live up to its early promise.

I got it from library Remus. Maybe it'll get reduced? I think you'd probably like it FWIW.

I read and liked the sample ages ago. Am going to the library tomorrow, so will try to remember to ask about it. :)

73. The Isles of the Many Gods by David Rankine & Sorita D'Este

An A to Z of the pagan gods and goddesses thought to have been worshipped the ancient British Isles from the first millenium through to the Middle Ages. There were just so many! You've got the native British deities, the Irish and Welsh gods and goddesses, all the ones brought over by the Romans (including the Greek and Egyptian ones), the Germany and Norse pantheons courtesy of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, plus some Gaulish gods as well. The entries are quite short and basic, and really it's more for reference rather than reading right through as I just did, but it's really interesting.

136. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

Not something I would normally go for but thought I would give it a go given all the hype. Liked it, but didn't love it.

137. Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Book 2 of the Cazalet chronicles. I have read all of these several times, I love them! Listened to this on Audible.

138. The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

Set in Ireland in 1859, it's the story of Anna, an eleven year old girl who apparently hasn't eaten anything for 4 months and is still in reasonable health, and Lib, an English nurse sent to watch over Anna and try to establish the truth. I didn't enjoy the first half of the book - repetitive descriptions of days spent watching the girl, and Lib was very priggish and patronising. However, the second half of the book, when you find out the truth of what's been going on, was much better.

50. Faro’s Daughter - Georgette Heyer - spent the first half thinking that I’d give up and just reread the ‘good’ Heyers as the last few I’ve tried have been a bit crap, but inevitably got caught up in the nonsense and enjoyed it in the end.

In my (limited) experience of "women's" fiction, books called "'s ___" tend to be crap, especially when the phrase makes no sense & the latter blank is "Daughter".

Example:

Memory Keeper's Daughter

It seems to be a women's fiction thing. Someone else has noticed it.

Ha ha cote did you see the author of that article? You like something Emily St John Mandel wrote

I have to say those titles always blur into one for me and I never go for them as I do have an assumption that they won't be for me. Is it that the female character can't stand alone, but has to be referenced in relation to the interesting husband or father. I read a book called The Son last year, I wonder if there is one just called The Daughter.

Repetitive book titles are generally off putting for me - see "Girls" but I guess it works in general or else they wouldn't do it. I'm much more likely to go for a single word title or something abstract. It's interesting.

Thank you for the link Cote - I enjoyed reading that article.

Thanks also for your recommendation for my book no 48, Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. This is everything a biography should be - interesting, revealing, thought provoking. Of course it helps that Einstein was such a fascinating character. Isaacson describes the physics behind Einstein's discoveries in a meaningful yet accessible way, includes lots of information about his family, colleagues, political opinions and so on, and picks out the themes of non-conformity and belief in the unity of the universe running through Einstein's life. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the subject. (Anyone?!)

This Must Be the Place is 99p on Kindle. I think Tara loved that one?

I did enjoy it, yes! Not one of my top five books of this year though.

25. Pages for her by Sylvia Brownrigg. A writer reminisces about an intense affair with a professor at university. Then the story switches to the professors viewpoint. Then both of them. I loved this one. It's a sequel to the novel about their original liaison. I haven't read that but enjoyed this anyway. The writing was beautiful and thoughtful. It was full of juicy nuggets that resonated with me. She wrote insightfully about motherhood and love. Has anyone else read it?

Oh, God, I hate those wife/daughter titles. She's a fucking person in her own right, not some man's appendage. Nearly as much as I hate titles about 'girls' who turn out to be thirty five. Grrrr.