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?

Meg - That sounds really interesting.

Sits on hands to avoid dissing Lincoln in the Bardo.

Remus
It’s definitely a bit of a marmite book. People I have come across have either loved it or hated it. It is our next book group read, on my ranting and raving,---- recommendation. Actually feeling really nervous!

77. Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles by Kim Newman

Introducing the evil twins of Holmes and Watson, Moriarty and 'Basher' Moran. In a similar vein to the Holmes books it is a series of short stories about various plots, crimes, and successful strategems that Moriarty orchestrates in his role as a consulting criminal. They are outlandish tales and it's really entertaining, leading all the way up to the meeting with Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls.

Oh Lincoln definitely has its flaws, as I think we discussed at the time, but I wanted to read to the end (something I am struggling with at the moment as far as modern fiction goes) It was a bit daft, a bit clever, but thoughtful and different, more pros than cons. It's one of the books I can actually remember reading this year which is saying something!

I'm currently onto The Soul of Ann Octopus as I'm so thoroughly pissed off with fiction at the moment.

43. A Plague on Both your Houses by Susanna Gregory. Murder mystery set in plague ridden Cambridge around the university. The first outing of medieval physician Matthew Bartholomew.

I fancied an easy read and this fit the bill. Her other series felt like a poor rip off of Shardlake and I was worried this would try and fail to rip off Cadfael, but it stood up by itself and was a decent read for this sort of thing. The main character is instantly likeable and I would definitly read more. Another 22 to go.

Just nobody mention the Nobel Prize for Literature ...
I did notice the distinct lack of comment on this at the time Cheerful

Ha - an not Ann.

I may write The Soul of Ann Octopus; it is asking to become part of the oddly-named woman with a psychological predicament trend in book titles.

Yes it's like mutually assured destruction, no one wants to utter the name first

63. Heartland by Lucy Hounsom

Fantasy. Sequel to Starborn which I read earlier this year. Kyndra and her friends are dealing with the consequences of her world changing actions at the end of the previous book, venturing into unknown territory and encountering new friends and foes.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, looking forward to seeing how the rest of the story plays out. Unfortunately the next in the series isn't due to be published until December.

45. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? - Horace McCoy

A short, bleak, darkly humorous tale about a young man and woman who meet on the street as they try to break into Hollywood in the 1930s; they enter a marathon dancing contest with a thousand-dollar prize, but events soon take a deadly turn.

Just popped in to say Ready Player One is 99p on Kindle Daily Deal :)

I am on holiday and only getting brief and dodgy internet connection for a short time each day, so I am tempted to lob in the name, so the ensuing argument is all over by the time I'm home. But I won't.

Have now read Lincoln, will review when back in land of Wi-Fi.

I would totally read about Ann Octopus, Satsuki.

Finished Journal of a Bookseller and gobbled down (105) The Deepest Grave, by Harry Bingham. I mentioned this Welsh-set crime series before on here, and I seem to recollect others tried and disliked the series, so caveat lector, but I really enjoyed this and gulped it down in a sitting, or rather in a long evening lounging in bed. Throw murder, archaeology, interesting new characters and a protective father wielding a big sword into a pot and stir.

Meg that sounds like a fascinating tale - think I might buy it for my dad as he has always loved sailing and borrow it

I seem to remember the film of they shoot horses, don't they being excellent.

I am 13th in line for lincoln in the bardo. 13th!!! It'll be next October before I read it!

Thanks biblio

I didn't realise it Shoot Horses was based on a novel meg, it was a tense film - Jane Fonda iirc tanaqui?

That's annoying re Lincoln - I was lucky to get it when it was on daily deal ages ago and no one had heard of it!

35. Beasts in my Belfry by Gerard Durrell .An amusing account of Gerard Durrell's year at Whipsnade Zoo as a trainee zoo keeper. An easy and entertaining read. 36 Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding. A funny read. Quite scary how many of Bridget's habits I seem to have. Just as I related to her 'single days' I now relate to her 'Mum moments'. Well some of them... 37 Swing Time by Zadie Smith I've realised I definitely prefer Zadie Smith's London novels. I relate to them more but also find the characters well-defined and I engage well with the story. One of my favourite books of the year. 38 Autumn by Ali Smith Well-reviewed on this thread. Loved the depiction of Daniel and Elisabeth's friendship.

Nearly reached the end of the three J&W novels from the Kindle sale. What on earth can I read to follow their glory?

Did you ever read Rumpole of The Bailey Remus? That used to be my follow on from J&W.

78. Shakespeare's Counselor by Charlaine Harris

Short and lightweight crime read in the Lily Bard series. Lily works as a cleaning woman, is a karate expert, and is now in training to be a private detective. She is also still affected by the prolonged and extremely violent rape she suffered years before moving to her adopted hometown of Shakespeare, Arkansas, and so she is persuaded to join a therapy group. But when the group assembles one evening they find a woman dead and left on display. But who is the message for, and will there be more victims?

105. Exposure- Helen Dunmore. This was the first of her novels I have read but it won’t be the last. Beautifully written.

84 Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths

Exploration of how the algorithms that have been developed for use in computing can be extended to everyday life. Good idea, though it didn't always come off. Overall I was much more interested in the computing side of it and the descriptions of the algorithms rather than the (sometimes slightly forced) analogies with everyday life.

64. Hurrah for Gin by Katie Kirby

Lighthearted and humorous account of some of the trials and tribulations of early parenthood, with lots of stickman cartoons.

A quick and amusing read. It’s the sort of book I wouldn’t buy for myself but would buy as a gift for friends with babies or small children.

85 Not Thomas by Sara Gethin

Tomos (not Thomas) is a 5 year old boy whose drug addicted mother is failing to keep it together & take care of him, and who is falling through the holes in the support services. The book is told in his voice, with the circumstances of his life gradually becoming clear.

I picked this up from the Not The Booker Prize list - mostly because it's set near to where I live (it's not really the sort of thing I usually read). Its not perfect - slightly too many conveniently overheard conversations - but I think the author does a very good job of putting you in Tomos's world. (The language and sense of place also ring very true - it's great to read a book set in my part of Wales.) Definitely a book that will stay with me.

Not read Rumpole so will add it to the list.

98/99/100 – Jeeves and Wooster Omnibus Volume One – PG Wodehouse
Loved the first two of these, Thank You Jeeves and Code of the Woosters but thought the third rather dull and a bit tired.

18. Bridget Jones’s Baby - very reminiscent of the movie, but with Daniel Cleaver as the other possible father rather than a random American. It’s a slight book but quite good fun. It’s hard to see what Bridget would see in the increasingly sleazy Cleaver but on the plus side his character is so well inhabited by Hugh Grant that you can envisage him enacting the scenes from the book in your minds eye. Nowhere near as good as the original Diary but certainly a cut above:

19. Bridget Jones Mad About The Boy. This is a rather tedious addition to the series. Darcy is conveniently, and of course heroically, dead. Fielding is obviously aware that depicting Bridget as a ‘smug married’ to buttoned up Darcy doesn’t hold much comic potential. Darcy was never really fleshed out as a rounded character always seeming a bit humourless and one dimensional.
    
    Cleaver is still on the scene as a bit player but he’s now lost any roguish, good looking ‘bad boy’ charm he may have had and just comes across as a sleazy, dirty old man desperately trying to bed women half his age, he’d probably have been had up on sexual harassment charges irl and has an alcohol problem to boot.
    The real love interest in the book can be spotted a mile off but in the interim one has to wade through a fairly tiresome Toy Boy interlude where Fielding seems to think if she inserts the word ‘fart’ into all their Twitter/text conversations this will pass for sparkling wit, it doesn’t, and it’s difficult to see what they would see in each other. Come to that there’s precious little that would attract Bridget and her ultimate, and one presumes, lasting love interest as they spend most of the novel being rude and/or embarrassed in each other’s company. Fielding seems to think Bridget just has to ‘be’ for men to fall at her feet, but surely you’d have to get to know her on some level before her more appealing character traits were revealed.
    Now on to The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I’ve read a couple of threads on MN recently, along the lines of ‘Books you wish you’d never read’ and ‘Best book you ever read’ and The Road seems to get an equal mention in both so having bought a Kindle copy for 99p recently I’m going to give it a go. Unfortunately I already know the ending