50 Book Challenge 2018 Part One

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2018, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

Who's in for this year?

FortunaMajor would audiobooks whilst knitting be too distracting?

CQ good idea to abandon books you don't enjoy. Nobody's keeping track.

Well didn't end up starting Dan Brown as my husband was already asleep when I went to bed and he doesn't like the light on so I had to read on my phone instead. I had downloaded Witch Is Where It All Began by Adele Abbott

I started it on the 1st of January and finished it on the 2nd January.

It is about a young woman who has been adopted since birth. She hears from her birth mother and finds out that she is dying but has enough breath to call her a witch first.

It was quite a good read and I have downloaded the 2nd to start tonight. There is about 23 or 24 books in the series and I can't see how they will manage to keep the content going but we'll see

I've started Just what kind of mother are you? by Paula Daly, I'm about a 1/3 of the way through and it's good so far. It's 99p at the moment - I got it yesterday at that price.

Book description:

Your friend's child is missing. It's your fault.

No family is perfect.

A husband, three children and a full-time job, so many plates to keep spinning.

No wonder you forgot you were supposed to be looking after your friend's daughter.

But no one has seen her since yesterday.

And she's not the first to go missing from your small town.

So who's hiding something?

At the ripe old age of 51 I have recently formed the opinion that my reading time is too precious to waste on a book that hasn't grabbed me, so if I'm not enjoying it by page 75 it gets dumped! I think that's a fair crack of the whip.

CQ I do the same, life is too short. I keep them on my kindle and sometimes (rarely) will go back and revisit one but that's not a common occurrence.

I lurked on last year’s thread and have decided to join the challenge. Hopefully it will encourage me to read instead of too much MNing in the evening.
I’m reading The Human Stain by Philip Roth. Some excellent writing, although self indulgent ( the author, not me), long descriptions in places. It is excellent on academic vanitythough and will resonate with those who work or mix with academics. I’m enjoying it whilst reading it but it hasn’t grabbed me. I’ll finish it but it will be a challenge. I’d be interested to know what others think of it.

1. Jacob’s Room Is Full Of Books by Susan Hill

This is the follow-up to Howards End Is On The Landing. It’s a series of her musings, mainly on books and reading but quite a bit about the birds and other wildlife she sees. I liked it but didn’t love it - I got a bit bored with the bird bits, and I haven’t read or even heard of several of the books and authors she mentions, but I enjoyed her writing about the ones I did recognise. I would have liked a bit more depth on some of her points though - sometimes she will only spend a paragraph on something before moving on and I often felt I wanted more of that point and less about birds!

Hello, can I join in to? Have lost my reading mojo since being prescribed AD's and want to get back in the swing of things. Have this years and last years Christmas books unread as well as about 25 unread books on my Kindle......

Currently just finishing up Mythos by Stephen Fry, I've loved it (1st Christmas book ticked off the list ) not a taxing read and not an in-depth study of the myths, but interesting and humorous would recommend it as a good into to the Greek myths. Origin by Dan Brown is my next book - starting that later this morning.

Are there any "rules"......or is it just a quick summary about the book you've read and the one you're starring next , kinda thing?

Thanks

CoffeeorSleep I also have no problem (as the years have passed) to abandon books that don't grab me. I usually give them 50 pages and if by that point I'm not fully taken by the book, I leave it for the time being. Maybe (I tell myself) some other time! Life is too short.

Hi all, first time on here. Lovely idea and I'll look forward to all of your recommendations. I've just started The Sisterhood by Helen Bryan. 50 might bus little ambitious but I'll give it a go 👍🏻

1. Someone to Hold by Mary Balogh

Regency romance. Follows on from Someone to Love. Predictable but an entertaining light read.

A few bits. The main character takes a teaching job to about 20 orphans of mixed ages and abilities, with zero teaching experience, and turns out to be just about the most inspiring teacher the orphanage has ever seen. Surely learning how to teach isn’t normally so easy? And there’s an awful lot of people getting massive life changing fortunes from relatives they’d never heard of in this series.
But then I guess I’m not reading these for their gritty realism.

Hello everyone, I had forgotten how quickly this thread moves in January!

1. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. I think this was reviewed by Stitches on the last thread and it piqued my interest- it is told in alternating chapters, one the diary of a Japanese schoolgirl who has returned to Japan from America, and one the story of the women who discovers and reads the diary. It is interesting on both Japanese and Canadian life, and the diarists narrative tone is convincingly (if at times irritatingly!) teenaged. I was less keen on the semi- mystical parts, but appreciate how the author was using to tie all the many threads together- overall I would recommend this.

Just finished 2. Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman. A curious and eldritch collection of tales. Very satisfying and what a versatile writer. Now reading Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. Fancied a bit of spice.

tanaqui I quite enjoyed TFTB too, but same reservations as you. The science/time stuff was a bit fluffy but it covered a lot of ground that was interesting, especially the historical parts. I found the present day bits more boring so it felt uneven I think. She did write the teenager very well.

You are all such fast readers. I can't keep up!

Half way through And the Mountains Echoed and absolutely loving it. Reviews I'd read suggested it was not as good as his first two but it's still gripping. Maybe not as much emotional depth to the characters and their backstories, but the descriptions of Kabul are so vivid, and I love Nabi.

1. He Said/She Said – Erin Kelly
2. The Mitford Murders – Jessica Fellowes

The Mitford Murders I chose this as it came up on my suggested reads on Amazon cheap! I love the 1920’s period and thought a cosy crime would be perfect for this time of year.
The blurb: It's 1919, and Louisa Cannon dreams of escaping her life of poverty in London, and most of all her oppressive and dangerous uncle.
Louisa's salvation is a position within the Mitford household at Asthall Manor, in the Oxfordshire countryside. There she will become nurserymaid, chaperone and confidante to the Mitford sisters, especially sixteen-year-old Nancy - an acerbic, bright young woman in love with stories.
But when a nurse - Florence Nightingale Shore, goddaughter of her famous namesake - is killed on a train in broad daylight, Nancy and amateur sleuth Louisa find that in postwar England, everyone has something to hide
I found it a quick, easy and fairly interesting read. I thought the “whodunit” was dragged out a little when to me it was fairly obvious but that didn’t really detract from the comfort read I think this is. I enjoyed the Mitford link and I am now inspired to re-read In Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate that I last read 17 years ago when pregnant with DD2! Whilst I enjoyed it as a one off cosy- post-Christmas- beside- the-fire- read I won’t be rushing to read the rest in the series unless they are on a 99p kindle deal

Started number 3 - The Cold Calling by Phil Rickman and am listening to Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

1. The Dry by Jane Harper - I see someone else up the thread has just finished it too. I really enjoyed it. It's a crime thriller about a murdered family and a policeman having to return to his small home town and face the secrets of the past. Her next book is on the kindle for £6.99 and I'm tempted!

Not sure what book 2 will be yet, possibly Lincoln in the Bardo

Not me Tanaqui, I’ve never read A Tale for the Time Being . Were you thinking of Satsuki maybe?

It does look interesting though.

1. The Island Of Sheep by John Buchan It's about some gangsters who think they have a claim to a dead mans estate and go after his son. I'm not sure about it, at points I found it really captivating and at others really tedious? Felt dated too. Wouldn't read again.

Finally getting round to Middlemarch next.

Haha good luck with Middlemarch, lastqueen

I chose it a few years ago for our book club's Summer Read - we always used to go for a classic as we had a longer period to wade through it.

When we reassembled in September every single one of us had failed to finish it. I only got to about page 17. It is regularly mentioned when we talk about books nobody likes

And yet some people rave about it. Horses for courses!

Thanks... it's my mothers favourite book and she was horrified when I said I'd not read it and I found it for a quid in the charity shop.

lastqueen I love Middlemarch but the first hundred pages are hard going - absolutely worth keeping that in mind and persevering past it. Execeptional book. So many lines to treasure. I even had an English professor who would give every book over 100 pages to get into and called it “the Middlemarch rule”.

I always aim to never give up on a book, the only one I can remember throwing in the towel on was Catch 22 which I thought was a load of old shite.

I read A tale for the time being a couple of years ago, I can’t remember that much about it though I do remember being a good way through before getting the pun in the title!

Stitchosaurus - I’ve just finished The Dry. Did you get the murderer on your own? I didn’t!

Blimey, this thread is moving quickly at the moment.

Stitch Thanks for the heads up about Jane Harper's new book. I will keep an eye out for it my local library. I really enjoyed The Dry when I read it last summer.

1 The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas YA book dealing the the aftermath of the shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer. Told from the perspective of a black female friend of the victim who witnessed the incident. A thought provoking read and gave me a real sense of the frustrations felt by sections of society when they feel that their voice is not being heard.

Finished book one of 2018 Our Endless Numbered Days. Seems to have split opinion on the thread last year but I enjoyed it, 3.5/5 if I was giving a star rating. A young girl is abducted by her Survivalist father and taken to a remote cabin where he convinces her that they are the only people left alive in the world. Told in two time periods: firstly during her nine years in the wilderness and secondly after her return to society, and the difficulty of that readjustment, as several twists in the tale (all of them heavily signposted unfortunately) come to light.
Now to finish the non fiction book that was sent to me by a friend it deals with many of societies modern ills such as climate change, population growth, pollution etc and feels a bit like homework. I'm much more of a 'head in the sand' type generally and it's depressing the hell out of me.