50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Eight

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eighth and final 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 and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read. To anyone who hasn't posted, feel free to de-lurk and share with us what you've read this year.

The first thread of the year is here, the second one here, the third thread here, the fourth one here, the fifth one here, the sixth one here, and the seventh one here.

How have you got on so far this year?

70. I Am Watching You - Teresa Driscoll

Ella is on a train to London and two young girls are getting to know two boys. However these two have just been released from prison but she doesn’t step in and minds her own business. The next day one of the girls is missing and Ella is full of regret. A year later on the anniversary Ella is receiving threatening messages. Is there more to the story than meets the eye?

Hated having to go to work and stop reading this one! Doubt there will be many more before the New Year unless I just ignore everyone

Pretty impressive to get to 50 with all that music Cote- did you always play, or have you started from scratch?

53. Wonder by RJ Palacio. I expect a lot of you or your dc have read this, it is a little on the trite side, but I think would be great to read with 10 year olds, and I think I would have enjoyed it is a child. I did like the motif of kindness running through it, and I am told Julia Roberts is excellent in the film!

I did some piano as a child, but had not touched a piano for +30 years when I started playing again by myself about 3 years ago and became an adult student at the local Conservatory a year later. I had no formal education in music theory & singing until 4 months ago.

It brings me incredible joy & happiness and has frankly become a bit of an obsession. DH is , especially since I joined the the same Conservatory’s Baroque choir. He says he didn’t sign up for listening to church music in his home every day when he married an atheist from a Muslim country

I can see why your poor DH feels that was bait and switch, Cote!

139. A Paris Christmas, by John Baxter

Australian married to French woman, now lives in France, and regularly cooks Christmas dinner for the extended family. This book is his account of the Christmas dinner he is preparing, with an awed account of French savoir faire, speckled with some mild jeopardy regarding whether the suckling piglet will have its skin on, whether he'll be able to get enough free oysters, and whether the wine will be of sufficient quality. But never mind, he'll always be far more comme il faut than you'll ever manage, dear plebby reader.

I may sound a bit scathing, but it was all pleasingly diverting. A little more foie gras?

Need edit function. The oysters were not free.

85. The Faithful Couple, AD Miller

This is billed as being a wonderful taught depiction of a male friendship with extra hidden-secret-from-past psychological tension but TBH I found it all rather meh. Neither of the two main characters were engaging, and the plot didn't really go anywhere or contain any tension at all.

86. A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki

Thank you to Shakeitoff who recommended this further up the thread. I too had had it on my Kindle for yonks, and I didn't know what I fancied reading so decided to give it a go based on your description. It's a lovely book - it brings together zen philosophy, quantum physics, computer engineering, Japanese pop culture, a middle-aged novelist living on a remote island off the coast of Canada, the relationships between parents and children, loss, depression, grief and so much more, and does it all with a lovely lightness of touch. You don't quite realise what she's doing, telling you a bit of a silly story about a missing cat or a teenager writing in her diary, and then she tugs a string and BOOM - suddenly you're looking at the big questions of human existence. It wasn't perfect but it was lovely, and made me think a lot.

I think your passion for music is delightful, Cote.

Sadik, a friend of mine admires Solnit and highly recommends Wanderlust. I'm looking forward to reading it.

118 The Man in the Snow – Rory Clements
A novella featuring John Shakespeare, solving crimes (I reviewed some of his novels earlier in the year – they are basically fake Shardlakes and nowhere near as good, but diverting enough). This was poor though – it felt lazy and the crime was solved by a sudden moment of intuition by our hero. Not recommended.

118. A Christmas Carol. Have never actually read this before. Usually find Dickens hard going. This was ok. Probably because everyone knows the story, I didn't have to think to hard.
My school finished yesterday, the kids don't finish until lunchtime today. Currently lying in bed with the dog next to me about to dive into my To Read Pile. Bliss!

Sorry you were so wrong about Rush Oh remus

Whilst the ending wasn’t as strong as the first half, I didn’t feel that was because it didn’t know what it wanted to be - I thought the comedy and romance represented her rose tinted view of the past, and the industry, whereas the ending gradually reflected the sadness and disillusionment that came with the passage of time, a reality which she was still fighting against. I think if the romance or comedy had been the main theme it would have been too sentimental. I enjoyed the writing and set pieces in the beginning so much.

Meanwhile the kids are off school and I’m still up Everest in the middle of a storm

94 Dangerous Crossing - Rachel Rhys - Similar to Clueless I loved the setting of this both in terms of the period of time and that it was set on a cruise liner. I found the narration a bit clunky in places but I did keep me hooked and I was pleasantly suprised by the ending. However, I think I can understand why Clueless felt a bit disappointed by one aspect of this.

Satsuki - agree re losing the rose-tinted glasses, but I just thought that getting bogged down in the sister and then the 'revelation' around that was so much less interesting and felt like a side-line, rather than something purposeful, as if she realised it wasn't going to be a sentimental happy ending, but didn't know what to fill the novel with instead. I found it frustrating and not terribly effective.

Up Everest in a storm = a great place to be (in book form; absolutely not in reality). I've got a couple of new polar books, so I'll also be in snowy mayhem at some point soon too).

Look at this beauty:

32. Harry Potter and the cursed child. I rather enjoyed this. A lovely Christmas read. Nineteen years after the last book we’re back at Hogwarts with Harry Potter’s middle son Albus and Draco’s son Scorpius. They have lots of adventures and the original gang are heavily involved. This was better than I was expecting.

Going to start Scarlett Thomas’ children’s series next.

Ah well, that’s fair enough.

That’s a good find - I’ll review Into Thin Air soon. It’s ignited a bit of a craving for more of the same I’ve got the Apsley Cherry Gerrard to go into. It’s just so fascinating.

The Cherry Garrard is DIVINE - really hope you like it.

Garrard - Oh god I know I’m going to annoy myself by continually misspelling this. Like Olive Kitteridge/redge/tridge all over again

And there was me trying to be so subtle and not let on that I'd noticed.

Just started The dark is rising by Susan Cooper. Robert MacFarlane is doing a real time read a long on Twitter.

I’m reading Artemis, the 2nd book of the guy who wrote The Martian and it’s rubbish. Or YA. I’m colorblind in that range.

There isn’t much science, either. Bah humbug.

140. Kid Gloves, Adam Mars-Jones
I expected to love this account of a man looking after his father, a former judge, in his final years. It's reasonably amusing - the writer is gay and describes his attempts to persuade his homophobic father that it's really okay, as well as his later indignation when his father denounces homophobia in others (oh no - you don't get to claim the moral high ground that easily!) I didn't love his account of the big cases his father was involved with. I've read a lot of cases in my time, so I couldn't shake my sense that he was summarising them all wrong.

Lost track of exactly how many books I have read this year but its about 30 I think. Finished the Surrogate by Louise Jensen yesterday. Great Books. If anyone else has read it any similar books?

119. The Good People - Hannah Kent This was a beautiful and heart breaking read. Wonderfully written. The tale of a woman in rural Ireland at the beginning of the 1800's who is left to care for her disabled grandson after the death of her daughter and husband. Surrounded by grief and folklore she believes that the child is a changeling and sets about trying to drive the fairy out with the help of the local wise woman.
All my working life I have taught children with complex physical and learning needs. My colleagues and I have often pondered how these young people would have been received in days gone by. Was a poignant read. Will definitely look out for her previous novel Burial Rites.

RMC - I thought Burial Rites superior to The Good People, so hopefully you'll really like it.