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?

Fab phoebe let me know how that one is

I am starting 2: Daniel Deronda

Been sat on the shelf a while, will see how it is!

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

1. Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by *Sally Bedell Smith.

Read this as I've just finished the first season of The Crown. Enjoyed it very much. It follows the Queen's life through the six decades of her reign. Fascinating reading about her weekly meetings with PM's, her friendships with foreign dignitaries, her reactions to crises personal and national/international etc.

1. The Witches by Roald Dahl. Read it to the DC. A fabulous book to read out loud!!

DH got Munich for Christmas so I might give that a go at some point.

1. Two Kinds of Truth, by Michael Connolly. The latest in the Bosch series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are two strands to this mystery - the first is the case of two pharmacists murdered in their family-run store, which leads to an investigation related to the opioid crisis and 'pill mills'. The second strand is the re-opening of an old case where a prisoner is requesting release from death row, claiming that Bosch framed him, and new forensic evidence appears to support this.

This is very inkeeping with the series - Bosch remains a lone wolf who gets results, and Mickey Haller makes another appearance, representing him in the cold case. If you don't enjoy detective stories then this is unlikely to change your mind, but I found it well plotted, with consistent characters, and flew through it. An enjoyable first read of the year.

1. The Mitford Murders - I got given this as a present (albeit not in English but I swapped it!) - an enjoyable read for the Christmas period and nice detail.

2. The Woman who thought too much - really interesting account of OCD that led to some interesting discussions with DH about what most people are like!

1. What Happened by Hillary Clinton

Really enjoyed most of it, although it assumed some knowledge of the American political system that I don’t have.

1. Lightening Lucy by Jeremy Strong

Read to ds2 (7) over several nights. He’s only just getting into chapter books and enjoyed this one. Had picked up in a charity shop, but definitely an author worth finding more of, and good to have a heroine for a change.

1 The Plantagenents by Dan Brown
Didn't know as much about this period of history as I thought I did. Easy and interesting to read.
2 The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer
A reread that I thoroughly enjoyed as I hadn't read it in years
3 A Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer
Another enjoyable reread
4 A Magic Study by Maria Snyder
Quick easy read no need to engage your brain
5 The Financier by Liz Maverick
Second book in a series, got the first in the Kindle first thing one month when I couldn't find anything that I fancied. So as I have a free three month trial of kindle unlimited I thought I would read the second one. A quick romance not too bad but I would never have bought it.
6 Holy Island by L J Ross
The body of a young woman is found on the island of Lindisfarne, not a bad read again I read it through unlimited and will read the next in the series.
My aim is to read 50 books this year and to keep up with the threads and not get side tracked like I do every year.
If anyone can recommend books from kindle unlimited I will be grateful as I don't want to waste the trial

I'll try my best. Just finishing The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth...it's taken me a year but was presented to me by an excellent Occupational Therapist when I was in a mother and baby unit.

Right I've been in a major book rut since finishing Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult on Monday!

I've tried to read To Kill a Mockingbird but it's just not happening for me. Picked up my arc of The Wildflowers by Harriet Evans and it seems interesting, I'm hoping it will get me out of the slump!

1. War For The Oaks, Emma Bull.

Brilliant, sexy, rock and roll - this was exactly the fantasy book I’m always looking for and don’t often find. War between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts is modernised (relatively speaking - the book was written in 1987) by binding the mortality of a human, rock chick Eddi, to the Fae armies. The music made this book. I am crap at music and didn’t recognise most of the references here, but it didn’t matter. It was still amazing. I’ve already downloaded another Emma Bull novel. Fingers crossed it’s as good!

TheIntrovertedMum I love the Kim stone books. I don't actually find them well written, there's something very unpolished about her books that I don't like, but the storylines are really clever

2/50 just finished Origin by Dan Brown. He's a formulaic writer and this book followed the pattern of the others. An easy read but not as gripping as the others- this one fell a bit flat for me. The who/what/why were very obvious/easy to work out. Looking forward to the film version......can just imagine the sweeping vistas over Barcelona and in and around the Guggenheim.

Next up - The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes.

I’d like to join please!
Currently reading Gullstruck Island by Frances Hardinge

Only just found this thread, I am in! Part of new routine is to up to bed a bit earlier to read. Currently sneak reading my DHs copy of Silence by Erling Kagge

1. The Diet Myth: The Real Science Behind What We Eat - Tim Spector

Interesting exploration looking at the myths behind dieting and examines the science behind various claims. Some of the science I was aware of already but there was enough new material to hold my interest. The only downside for me was the focus on his own studies - it did feel a bit like a sell of his lab!

2. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell

Read as part of the book group here. I've wanted to read this book for years and never got round to it. I like Gaskell's style of writing although it does mean I have to read slower to properly absorb it all. There is no point skim reading it. From a modern viewpoint, I found Margaret annoying but can see how her attitudes were a product of her time and class. Won't say too much here in case anyone from the other thread also comes here. I very much enjoyed it though.

My aim this year is to read more classics - it means I probably won't hit 50 books as I tend to read at a slower pace with the older books. However, I've a long list of books I'd like to read so I'm going to try and tick some of those off this year. My aim is to read 10 classics this year.
I'd like to read Anna Karenina next - can anyone recommend a Kindle edition which has a good translation?

1. The Dry by Jane Harper

Policeman revisits his hometown to go to the funeral of his childhood best friend, who apparently shot his wife and child before shootings himself. The policeman ends up investigating. I thought this was really good, I really got the sense of the hot, dry small Australian town. I didn’t guess the twist either.

@cromwell44 The Roth you read is indeed one of the Zuckerman series of books so I should get there eventually!

1. Women and Power - Mary Beard

This is short so I demolished it on a train journey to London - based on two talks she gave, it presents the long view of how women have been silenced by men from the Greeks and Romans to social media. Very readable and I would heartily recommend this.

1. Between the Acts - Virginia Wolf

Her last novel and for that reason rather sad. Less experimental in form, the book lingers on one day in which a village puts on its annual play/pageant. Set on the eve of WW2 this has a very melancholy feel, the traditions of the village and indeed the characters and the country are about to change forever. Beautiful descriptions of nature, but not an easy novel to read through.

Have just started The Gift of Rain which I am loving.

Joining in!

Just finished A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. It follows the story of 4 college friends, set in New York over 30-odd years, focussing mainly on one character's attempts to live a normal life after years of horrific child abuse.

I really enjoyed it, had to suspend disbelief a few times but felt the author captured the grief and shame of the main character really well, I felt I knew them all which to me is always a sign of a well written book!

Reading Victoria Hislop's Cartes.. now and not a good start so far!

boldlygoing I like the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation. Think it’s 99p on the Kindle. The language is lovely. I love Anna Karenina.

I realised I didn’t read (or reread) any classics last year which is unusual for me. Going to make room for some this year and may start with North and South.

@whippetwoman I’ve reserved the Mary Beard at the library, thank you

1. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith You all know this is JK Rowling right? First Cormoran Strike detective novel. It seems that even writing under a pseudonym no-one dares edit her. There were good points: despite the superfluous waffle, her writing has a page turny quality, and the plot was worthy of a middling to good detective novel. The bad points: the superfluous waffle. The very worst thing for me was the phonetic rendering of dialogue for black / lower class / uneducated people, along the lines of 'e wuz wiv 'er vat night. We all have accents. The main characters, who are from Cornwall and Yorkshire respectively, and presumably have distinctive accents, are rendered in standard English, as are the majority of white middle class professionals. Surely day one, lesson one of dialogue writing school is don't do this unless you want to look like a racist classist twat, which I'm sure JK isn't, just in need of a brave editor.

I too want to read the Mary Beard feminist book, however the library just told me to get back in the kitchen.

1. The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz

Better than the Magpie Murders by the same author but nothing startling.

fortuna major I wish I could like your post!

@fortunamajor

Fortuna hilarious and tragic in equal measure!!
Mary Beard is on my list too.