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?

I am definitely in for this as i am an avid reader and just the other day in the Waterstones books sale i picked up six new books at bargain prices so i am looking forward to reading,relaxing and having some much needed ME Time

1. Silver On The Tree - Susan Cooper

Last of the Dark Is Rising fantasy series, and actually I thought it was weaker than most of the others - the plot dragged a bit and the Drew children seemed a bit superfluous. The Grey King was much stronger. Still not unenjoyable as a finale to a great series.

Would love to join this year. Reading time is being eaten into by Words with Friends and other iPad distractions, so I definitely need something to get me back on the straight and narrow!

2 Hollow City by Ransom Rigg

This is the second in the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. The children are now out of the loop and heading to London to get their headmistress changed from bird to human again by th only ymbryn remaining who can. Travelling through loops to help find the ymbryn they travel through different times but main,y set in 1940. All the while trying to keep free from the wights and hollowgasts. It is aimed at YA and my DD has grabbed it to read next. Easy read, read it in a couple of days, kept my interest and I love the photographs.

Oh gawd, I absolutely bloody loathed And the Mountains Echoed. Will try to dig out my review, as I remember Cote enjoying it. The writer came on here for a chat, I think.

Pillars of the Earth I thought pretty readable for misogynistic trash. The second one was nonsense though.

Love The Dixie Pig scene - makes me cry In fact, loads of stuff in The Dark Tower makes me cry. The bit in the forest with Roland/Jake (no spoilers) breaks my heart every time. And I will never drink hot chocolate again without thinking of Susannah.

Book 4
Our Man in Havana – Graham Greene
Hmmm – this just didn’t do an awful lot for me. I definitely didn’t find it funny, just a bit irritating and then rather sad. In the hands of Evelyn Waugh, it could have been hilarious. It all just felt rather pointless/meaningless, which with Waugh would have been the point, but I'm honestly not sure what point Greene was trying to make, other than "English people are rather stupid, aren't they, but then so is everybody else too."

Next up is the fourth in Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series

I’m in. Just finished the woman in the wood by Lesley pearse. Now starting cruel to get kind by Cathy glass. Love both these authors

Sorry typo!! cruel to be kind

MN doesn't seem to want to open some of the older 50 Books threads, so my review seems to be lost. Maybe better that way - it was quite rude.

I'm in! My three month old might prevent me from reaching 50 but I enjoy the recommendations. Just finishing Northern Lights by Philip Pullman - I always assumed the His Dark Materials trilogy was for children but I'm loving it so far.

I'm in, sounds like my sort of challange

1. Munich

Took me many days to get through the first 100 pages or so. never read Robert Harris before. Once Hitler turned up, things looked up. The last 100 or so pages are much tighter and more enthralling .

Have heard of appeasement and The Munich Agreement but not sure there is much fiction about it so it was interesting, historically. Never been much of a fan of dual protagonist narration (well, sort of ; it's all 3rd person) but it seems the fashion these days once more.

It was all a bit masculine (unsurprisingly) . Middlemarch next. This may take some time....but I am trying to work my way through some unread classics.

I am just reading a Christmas present Nigel Slater The Christmas Chronicles. I am really enjoying it and can reccommend, its written in diary form studded with recipes. A lovely relaxing read at any time of year but the optimum time would be starting the date the diary starts November 1.
The other book I am reading in bed ( formentioned book is too heavy!) is harrowing and heartbreaking. It is called The Food of Love by Amanda Prowse. Hands up I have suffered with eating issues over the years and am finding this book which covers the agonising journey of a family and anorexia so amazing, both as a sufferer and a Mum. Please read this,

I really want to read Munich but waiting for it to come down in price.

That's why I read it remus as I have this silly desire to buy hardbacks when I see them in shops (if I like the cover...). Then they join my huge pile but then I feel I have to read them first because they cost me so much ... so all the paperbacks bump their way back down the pile!!

Nigel Slaters book is on sale at Sainsbury's, might give it a go then

Remus I can understand why people don't like And The Mountains Echoed. It's not got much of a story. And if you're hoping for it to be about Abdullah and Pari (which is how it's very dishonestly marketed) it's very disappointing. I just loved the splinter effect of all these lives and generations being affected by the war. Thought it was really clever to keep spinning out further and further into the world - sort of six degrees of separation from the war. But I love short stories so didn't feel short-changed by that aspect of it.

Hele jane I read The Food of Love last year and as a someone whose family member has suffered for years this was heartbreakingly real. Not my usual choice of book but read it with tears pouring down my face at times.

I think my biggest problem with it was its attempt to shove in virtually every 'issue' the author could think of. Coupled with the fact that there wasn't really a 'central' character to care about, it meant I couldn't really engage with any of it. It was more like a tick list than a novel.

Greene worked for M15 so I think the intention was to send them up, based on his real experience. I’m going to reread this year. It’s funny you mention Waugh though remus as when I read Brideshead I thought that his handling of the religious stuff was Greene-lite

Also waiting for Munich after chickening out of hardback...

Ooh yes - the religious stuff is the thing I dislike about Brideshead too, so that would explain a lot. I think I'm probably done with Greene now.

Yes definitely a taste thing because I found Brideshead quite dull until that all kicked in and I love Greene.

Have you read his others? Our Man is a bit different from the rest, really.

Have read Brighton Rock and The End of the Affair.