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 like wuthering heights, although I only read it last year. I found it more sad than romantic, I think.

There was some confusion in my mind before starting the book as I kept wondering when Mr Darcy would pop up (have since also read P&P!)

Lordy this thread is moving far too fast! Just finished book number 1. The dark is rising by Susan Cooper. Started as a read a long on twitter- i can’t believe i hadn’t read it before. Very dark fantasty style YA novel following a teeneagers fight against ‘dark’ forces. I enjoyed it.

4) A God in Ruins - Kate Atkinson
Finished this on my commute this morning. I had this one on my bookshelf for ages and just never got round to reading it. I flew through it and really enjoyed it. I loved the character of Teddy and although there was one character that annoyed me a lot, it didn't distract me. I thought the last chapters were beautifully done and I can see me re-reading it again at some point.

And for any Anne Bronte fans I really recommend the biography Take Courage: Anne Bronte and the Art of Life by Samantha Ellis. I read it last year and enjoyed it a lot.

I read 3/4 of Wuthering Heights years ago and gave up. I was bored.

I also have books I'm convinced I've read but can't remember a bloody thing about them. I've definitely read War and Peace and I think Anna Karenina, but the only thing that comes to mind from either is a woman running up some stairs. I was in 6th Form at the time so it is quite a while ago. I'm sure I've done For Whom the Bell Tolls as well, but I just don't know. I'm not sure I could face any of them to find out.

I'm on the tail end of the lurgy so have been up and about a bit more trying to turn the puppy into an acceptable member of society. It's not going well. Now in a bit of a reading funk. I've got Cold Comfort Farm on the go, but I keep falling asleep reading it. It's not the book I'm just ailing by the evening.

I'm going to put on audiobook this afternoon while I return the house to some sort of order.

1. White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Obviously I’m massively late to the party on this one. For some reason I’ve never read anything by her, even though I grew up in north London and was born at around the same time as the younger generation in this book. The format is slightly unusual - instead of having one or two or three protagonists, there are three families involved (the Iqbals, the Joneses and the Chalfens) and the viewpoint shifts between various members of these families, focusing on different people during the book. The ongoing theme is the experience of immigrants (especially second generation immigrants) in Britain. Anyway - I can see what all the fuss is about. This is a book that actually lives up to the hype.

Very late but can I join please?
Have read 2 books so far 'Flight of Dreams' set on the Hindenburg and the new biography of Mary Shelley which was excellent.
I'm a History/historical fiction fan so any recommendations along those lines would be great :)

Do books about books count?

I am still labouring through Middlemarch (40 % woo hoo!) but have nearly finished a book about God Of Small Things...

Of course they count!

Phew!

For me Wuthering Heights is not romantic. The thing that truly staggers me about it is how a young woman of that period in time, who had lead a remarkably sheltered life, was naturally introverted wrote such a work. Her understanding and description of mental torment including the depression Heathcliff suffers towards the end of the novel is breathtaking in my opinion.

Anyone wanting Icelandic crime thrillers - there is a really good Desmond Bagley (Running Blind iirc) set in Iceland, I recall enjoying it very much and would recommend - probably rather dated now though!

Biblio, I seem to recall quite enjoying Kate Charles many years ago, but maybe the whole gay/ detective/ priest thing had a novelty factor, maybe 20 years ago?

4. Death and the Dancing Detective by Ngaio Marsh. Having said I probably wouldn't bother with another, this was on my kindle (set of 3 from Overdrive) and I was on a plane back from Oslo, so just suited my exhausted travel worn mood! Overall I enjoyed this (its exactly like an Agatha Christie, I even think I have seen the "trick" somewhere else before), but quite competently done - with one caveat: how she presents one of the characters - if you happen to have read it, did you think we were supposed to like William, like the main narrator claimed to?

Am interested in the Gaiman Mythology book - think I read a Roger Lancelyn Green (?) one years ago when I was into Norse myths after reading Diana Wynne Jones's 8 Days of Luke (an excellent book if you
haven't read it).

Fortuna, I'm the same. I know I've read every word of the books, but can I remember what happens in them? At least it means I can re-read without knowing what's going to happen!

Just finished 6. The miniaturist by Jessie Burton. Have the Muse by soon and will definately read soon as I enjoyed miniaturist so much and even put off my ironing to finish. Next book Anton Chekhov and The story of a nobody

tanaqui I would think if you are already familiar with Norse myths that Gaiman's book wouldn't be that worthwhile. I only knew one of the stories so really enjoyed being introduced to the characters and tales but they are all pretty short and basic. Nicely written but I think more an introduction for people who don't know the stories.

2. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Read for the MN book club. This follows Margaret Hale, who having spent much of her youth in the gentrified south, finds herself and her family in reduced circumstances living in a fictional northern industrial town.

This was quite a refreshing read; I had read some of the more well-known classical literature last year and often found myself frustrated with the female protagonists who were always wealthy (even when the author went to Great pains to point out they weren't) and never seemed to have much to do other than attend balls and worry about who was marrying you.

Margaret is a frustrating but ultimately likable character who develops really well over the course of the novel. The other characters are also generally well drawn.

It feels slightly dickensian at times with its portrayals of the millworkers and their lives.

I enjoyed reading it, and was glad I read it. I would recommend to anyone that thinks Elizabeth Bennett is a bit of a wet hen.

Book 4. the Book of Dust, Phillip Pullman how very comforting to be back in Pullman's world. I love the original trilogy and really enjoyed this offering. Good characters, good story, well written as one would expect. What I'm not sure about is whether it's furthering the story at all. All the tantalising ideas presented we already know the answers to, this prequel doesn't help us understand the main players any better than we already did really. So not sure really, perhaps we'll learn more in the next two. I understand the next one is set ten years after The Amber Spyglass.
Despite that I very much enjoyed it and hope we learn more about Malcolm and Alice.

Gosh I am going to have to go back and catch up on this thread.....

I have just finished book 1 - When I was invisible by Dorothy Koomson

A bit long - I find it hard when they switch between characters but it was an absorbing story with plenty of twists! Would recommend!

1. Magic's Promise - Mercedes Lackey

About a decade on from Magic's Pawn and Vanyel is the strongest Herald-Mage of Valdemar, spending a year defending the borders of the country and in serious need of a rest. But his intended restful break at his family's holding is disturbed by a desperate cry for help which take Vanyel and his Companion Yfandes (a magical being in the shape of a horse) across the border into the neighbouring kingdom and to the discovery of a massacre by magic. In endeavouring to find out what happened, Vanyel has to determine whether the young prince Tashir, newly Chosen by a Companion and with the Gifts of a Herald, was responsible or whether he is the pawn in a more deadly game.

I've finished the liar. A woman has a baby that dies, the baby has a birthmark on it's face. 10 years later she sees a girl of the same age with the same birthmark and becomes convinced it is her daughter. It was ok. I finished it and I give up on books very easily if the are not holding my attention, but it wasn't brilliant just ok.

So I'm starting book 10, die trying Lee Childs.

Marking place. Should finish The Berlin Wall: My Part in its Downfall tonight ready to review over the weekend, I think.

Bought The Dry today from Fopp for just £3 based on all the love here. Even Remus liked it and she usually hates contemporary fiction!

Teufelsrad so jealous of your charity shop finds - what a haul!
Ontopofthesunset - book group discussion this week raised my interest in the OJ case - may put that on my TR list
Thanks for the Gallows Pole tip MegBusset - just purchased
anotherwastedsecond I totally agree with you , love a bit of Hyslop For a sunbed read but this was dire
Enjoyed the Summer Queen last year Toomuch - must read the other two at some point!
Not read Wuthering Heights since 1983! Fancy a re-read! This thread just makes me realise how little time I have! Off to bed now to read Small Island
Happy Reading everyone

I quite liked Warm Bodies which I think somebody said they'd just bought - that's contemporary! Romeo and Juliet with zombies - what's not to like?