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?

Good review, fortuna I’ve been unsure about reading it. I’m still unsure, but have a much better idea of it, thanks.

Hoorah, I have finally finished my first book so can join in properly.

1. A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled by Ruby Wax

Wasn't sure what to expect from this - I'm not a big fan of hers but have been recommended her books on mental health issues. The book's main strength is definitely the way she writes about her own depression: lucid and very relatable. The mindfulness sections are very accessible and easy to understand, and she gives you a number of exercises to do (being absolutely honest, I didn't read all of this chapter in depth as I want to try the simple exercises myself before skipping ahead). There are a couple of chapters on mindful parenting and mindfulness exercises that you can do with children and teens.

Her "voice" can be very annoying though - my God, the puns, and the wisecracks! I believe that she's written about creating this tough, "funny" persona after a difficult childhood, and it's noticeable that she drops it when she's depressed. "I'm not funny", she writes, plaintively, but actually she's so much more likeable (to me, at least) when she stops making the awful jokes all the bloody time.

I also got very frustrated with the neuroscience chapters, which were sketchy at best. They may well be based on proper evidence-based science, but she gives few references and talks about everything using strange non-scientific terms and metaphors, so that it's impossible to tell what is real science, what is cod science and what is just made up. If you're a "proper science" fan (as I know many people here are) then you might want to swerve this one.

I think instead of a reading spa, I would choose a couple of hours mooching round a good library, followed by a good coffee and a slice of cake next door :)

Burial Rites was great, one of my best reads from last year as well, especially as I managed to coincide reading it with a visit to autumnal Iceland.

I haven't re-read it, but seem to remember Cat's Eye as being painfully excellent about bullying female childhood "friendships" (that's for those looking for Atwood recommendations BTW).

I read Burial Rites last year too for work book club. I remember being impressed at how clever the ending was. No spoilers, but I was taken by surprise, even though it was the premise of the book's situation.

Anyone been to Hay-On-Wye recently?I want to go! Think would prefer to book spa as can just browse, go drink coffee, have cake and browse again. Not as Cheap as library though Keith . Went this morning (library) and they didn't have the GoT I'm on or Our Man In Havana but still came out with 4 books. Mostly successful.

I'd worry they'd get it wrong at a book spa too and then feel obliged to get stuff I didn't want.

I have an unexpected book twin who does the job far better. It's my friend's elderly mother. We have a remarkably similar taste in books. We tend to do our own thing for most of the year and meet up at christmas with a pile of swaps and a list of recommendations. She recently got facebook and I moved quite near her not so long ago. If anything is desperately good we now tend to message online or if it's urgent, turn up on each other's doorsteps brandishing a copy. We rarely disagree.

Everyone should have one.

Take the point about the Reading spa , possibly could get the same feeling from a wander round a lovely library/ book shop. However I like the idea of chatting about books with someone really knowledgable and having them push my boundaries slightly. It's one of the things I love about this thread. I also would love to visit Hay and 'do' the festival.
fortuna seems like you have had a very similar response to Underground Railroad as myself. Have tried to find my review from last year but can't. Seem to remember I felt the lack of feeling too. I would definitely recommend the book I have just finished 4. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. My first 5 star rating of the year. It follows the path of 2 sisters Effia and Esi, one sold into Slavery one married to a Slave traders wife. Neither knowing if the existence of the other If follows their lineage in a series of stories. Taking each generation in turn it charts the progress to the present day. Through US slavery, civil rights, missions schools and beyond it gave me a real insight into African American heritage and the implications for today's world.
Cant recommend it highly enough. Far superior to the Underground Railroad in my opinion. Can believe I haven't heard mor about it.

Toomuch, I have that one waiting on my Kindle. It sounds very interesting!

Oh, the thought of being at a book spa and hating their recommendation but being too British to turn it down! That would be me, I would hate myself for years afterwards every time I saw the book I had been too awkward not to buy.

I have Babylon Berlin on my Kindle, I think. Had forgotten about it!

Haven't read The Wall Jumper but it's on my list. I read Berlin Now by the same writer, and was v disappointed with it.

I really like the Bernie Gunther Berlin books. Unlike Museum of Ham I am very fond of the main character, warts and all!

Thanks Toomuchspolther, I'll look out for it. I've just added The Book of Night Women by Marlon James to my TBR list. Set much earlier and in Jamaica rather than the US.

Toomuch have you read Rootsby Alex Haley about slavery over 200 or so years. Doubts have been cast on whether this book is a proper historical record, but if it is not it makes a very good work of fiction. Will look out for Homecoming

Sorry Homegoing

Froglet haven't read Roots but actually was looking at it the other day.
fortuna - this is only part set in US and part of the Gold Coast of Africa. Starts in 1700's.

May have just sold my soul to the devil and bought the notorious Trump 'exposure' book! Not my normal genre but... Trying to allay the guilt by saying I used gift vouchers... I feel a bit dirty...

I really like the look of The Book of Night Women, and I enjoyed A Brief History of Seven Killings so I might have to add that to my TBR list too.

Sorry the book I am reading is called A Place Called Winter not A Place Of Winter.

Hay-on-Wye is paradise for book lovers. We go a couple of times a year and stay in a house overlooking the river. I would live there if I could. Plenty of coffee and cake to be had too.

Cote, I seem to recall that one got some rather mixed reviews last year - I remember because I have it on my Kindle and it made me think twice about bothering.

1. The dark is rising by Susan Cooper

On his eleventh birthday Will Stanton discovers he is one of the old ones and has to protect the world from evil forces. It is set in Buckinghamshire over Christmas. This wasn't really my cup of tea though I did enjoy reading it as part of a Twitter read-a-long in real time organised by Robert MacFarlane. It reminded me of The owl service by Alan Garner which I had to read at School and hated.

Next is continuing Autumn by Ali Smith. I think I should try and read one fiction book at a time this year. I currently have nine books on the go.

Keith - It's a bit weird. I don't mind reading it if something will happen soon but it's all a bit... Crimson Petalish.

Cote
I read A Place Called Winter. Had really hoped to like it, but didn't much. Will try to find my review, if no spoilers.

Here:
This had all the elements of something I should have loved – it’s the right time period, it’s got madness and the treatment of patients with mental health issues, it’s got a place on the edge of civilisation and some good, hard manly labour. What it hadn’t got was the ability to drag me into it and hold me captive in the world created, and committed to the characters I’m journeying with. Why? Well, part of it was to do with the fact that the central character, Harry, is almost entirely passive, other than when he’s busy digging holes and shoving fences in. The few times he does actually make a decision are moments of real strength from a generally weak and rather frustrating character. Gale can certainly write and knows how to drive issues home without ramming them down people’s throats: there were some sections of really good writing and (unlike many books recently) I liked the ending, but overall this felt like too much effort for too little outcome, with the sections with the ‘baddy’ being as cartoonish as the 'baddy' in The North Water. The sections in Bethel (the ostensibly more benign institution for those with mental health issues) were by far the weakest and the sections on his homestead with a neighbouring brother and sister infinitely the strongest.

2. The Calligrapher by Edward Docx

Book is based around a world class calligrapher who is a serial cheat, he's most recent ex-girlfriend seeks revenge in a very weird and slightly unbelievable way. It's quite pretentious and the language is quite flowery but I actually enjoyed it apart from the ending which I won't spoil but did annoy me as it felt too contrived. I usually read non-fiction as I get irritated by fiction but genuinely could have read more of this.

Next up is North and South.

Finished two books now.

1: Sarum by Edward Rutherford.

I bought it on a recommendation much earlier in this thread & also because it was 99p on kindle. I enjoyed the first 20% or so but then found the ongoing stories of the 3 families throughout the ages somewhat formulaic. And I know Salisbury & the cathedral very well, I lived near there for many years, and not one bit of the writing about the place gave even an inkling of the sense of wonder of the place.

2: The Unseen World by Liz Moore.

Picked this up in the library earlier this week. I've copied & pasted the synopsis:

"Ada Sibelius is raised by David, her brilliant, eccentric, socially inept single father, who directs a computer science lab in 1980s-era Boston. Home-schooled, Ada accompanies David to work every day; by twelve, she is a painfully shy prodigy. The lab begins to gain acclaim at the same time that David's mysterious history comes into question. When his mind begins to falter, leaving Ada virtually an orphan, she is taken in by one of David's colleagues. Soon after she embarks on a mission to uncover her father’s secrets: a process that carries her from childhood to adulthood".

Ada discovers the truth about her father via his work with virtual reality/language programming.

I really enjoyed this book, it was beautifully written, not a comma out of place & having watched my mother descend into the hell that is dementure I found the writing & observations about it very acute.

It may only be my second book of the year but it's going to take something special to displace it from a high ranking.

Am not sure what I am going to read next - need to check all the unreads on my kindle.

I was intrigued by the bleak landscape element of Place called Winter but ultimately held off as the description seemed wishy washy. Speaking as someone who enjoys your reviews, cote, fingers crossed nothing happens

magimedi, I read The Unseen World last year and was quite moved by it, particularly Moore's treatment of David.