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?

The Martian is 99p today on Kindle Daily Deal

Definitely recommended for especially those of us who like sciency stuff. —Don’t listen to Remus —

I really enjoyed the Martian but could have done with less shit and fewer potatoes in the beginning

84 A Woman’s Place - Harriet Harman - A memoir of her life in politics.

What a debt we UK women owe her. I found this so inspiring. She has consistently fought our corner over more than 40 years in and out of Parliament and within Labour. A real trailblazer who made sure she not only left the doors open behind her but was actively pulling other women through them.

Worth a read to see how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go.

I saw The Martian was on offer this morning and had planned to recommend it on here to anybody who likes adolescent vocabulary and is really fond of potatoes. Anybody with an ounce of interest in literature should stay well away from it.

It’s not literature. It’s science!

Gawd, Remus. Are we going to have to rehash The Martian again?

I refuse to engage in further discussion. Perfectly willing to lob potatoes at each other from afar though and see who goes down first!

High Fidelity and Untold Stories are my pick of the Kindle autumn sale. I know a few people here loved The Moving Toyshop - it's currently just 99p. I've bought the first volume of the Jeeves and Wooster omnibus for £1.99, which includes three books. I've a feeling I'm going to love P.G Wodehouse!

59. The Thousandth Floor - Katharine McGee

A futuristic New York tale similar to gossip girl with its hierarchy of poorer people on the floors and richer going up with the perfect girl Avery at the top of the tower on the thousandth floor. So far lots of YA on this holiday and this was generally pleasant enough.

36. Beloved by Toni Morrison. I expect most of you have read this, but somehow I hadn't, despite being an avid reader when it came out. Another from ds2s history book list, intense, immersive book literally about a slave who escapes from horrific treatment and the appalling aftereffects it has on her life, but also about women, children and freedom and definitely worth reading.

Just popping by to shout out that Lincoln in the Bardo has won the Man Booker Prize. Ridiculously happy about that

I like potatoes quite a bit . And science.

Two paired novellas by JY Yang that didn't quite work for me:
The Red Threads of Fortune
The Black Tides of Heaven
I kept hoping this would gel better for me - the two novellas tell the stories of a pair of twins born to the ruler of the Protectorate - so far, pretty standard fantasy fodder, children of despotic and much feared ruler grow up to rebel against her using their inherited magical talents. I found the "children are born w/o gender and then pick one as they get older" was handled annoyingly with characters basically picking what seemed fairly stereotypical male & female roles.

Okay but I wasn't madly keen. I don't think I'd buy another. (Note: if you don't like young children dying in books one of the characters, Mokoya, repeatedly relives the death of her 8 yr old daughter, in increasingly vivid detail.)

Remus

52. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - listened to this on audiobook. The reader did a very good job I thought, and perhaps in parts kept me interested where the text might have had me wavering. I thought this was by turns a funny, sad and thought provoking book and enjoyed it, despite getting annoyed with the ‘main’ character often and particularly the way she is sometimes portrayed as so different and ‘not like other women’, I don’t know there was just something that rankled there, particularly in light of the way the story ends and - without giving spoilers to anyone who hasn’t read it - I’m not sure if we were supposed to think the ending was justified because she’s just so special.

I’ve made a start on A Place of Greater Safety Hilary Mantel and also remembered I was meant to be finishing From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and their Tellers by Maria Warner, so those are keeping me busy at the moment.

I think you will southeast

Yay Lincoln knew it wasn't worth bothering with any of the others! Abandoned Swing Time - I know ZS is well liked so suffice to say can I trust you all to stop me if I think I might buy another of hers? 3 strikes and out I'm afraid, I can't keep wasting my money but she always lures me in!!

I'm so very glad about Lincoln. The novel has stayed with me, and one scene in particular bubbles up often for me. Also, George Saunders is such a lovely person. Irrelevant, I know, but still.

I'm also pleased Lincoln won - it was such an interesting idea and quite haunting.

Yes nice to have a really original story win. It felt so little like a typical Booker contender when I read it that I've been pleasantly surprised at every stage from long list to eventual win.

I thought of you all when I heard about the Booker this morning!

Book 103 (I think) - Don't point that thing at me, by Kyril Bonfiglioli

Mentioned in The Book of Forgotten Authors, so I picked it up on a whim. Originally published in 1973, it's a bit of an oddity. The whimsical tone is reminiscent of Wodehouse, but it's impossible to imagine Bertie Wooster in most of these situations - being tortured, setting off to murder someone, and on a Buchanesque flight where he tries to stay one step ahead of pursuers. And it ends rather unfairly on a cliffhanger. A somewhat uneasy mixture.

Now reading 104) The diary of a bookseller by Shaun Bythell which does what it says on the tin. Written by the proprietor of a second-hand bookshop in Scotland, it's full of the daily round of odd customers and buying books from house clearances. Lots of laments about the damage done by Amazon. I'm finding it immensely soothing.

I'll be the grave voice of doom that rains on this parade and say that Booker Prize has lost its shine for me after it was awarded to the dull and frankly unreadable Brief History Of Seven Killings.

Just nobody mention the Nobel Prize for Literature ...

I think the Booker has rewarded some stinkers in its time, with a few notable exceptions. This is the first time I've happened to have read one before it made any lists. I tend to avoid, or read and regret. The Famished Road always stands out as the worst, most unenjoyable read perhaps ever, I also hated Narrow Road, Vernon God Little amongst others so it is certainly no indicator for me anyway. I liked The Luminaries and a few others in recent times.

Ha ha cheerful! Yes let's not open that can of worms.

Ha, yes, can of worms is right.

Another one delighted by the Booker news!

Book of the year, no doubt, though this next one is definitely a contender:

44. The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst - Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall

In 1967 Crowhurst - an amateur yachtsman - set off as one of the competitors in a solo round-the-world boat race sponsored by the Sunday Times. Against all odds the public believed that he was about to win the race when his boat was found abandoned in the Atlantic. Two Sunday Times journalists pieced together the story of his doomed voyage, and this incredible piece of investigative journalism is their account - gripping and desperately sad.

Cote I can’t comment on previous Bookers as despite being an avid reader I have never taken much notice of ‘prizes’ before and just read what appeals.
This year when I read Lincoln in the Bardo and was so completely blown away by it, I was determined to read as many of the long list as I could to see if anyone could hold a candle to it. I didn’t manage to read the whole long list but did manage the short list.
And Lincoln was the stand out. 4321 was a close second, Elmet was impressive for a first novel. Autumn was too clever for its own good, and at times it didn’t even make sense.