50 book challenge 2018 thread two

[brizzledrizzle]

Just seen the other one us on 997!

New thread, I've asked mnhq to change the 100 to 50.

Bringing my post here ..

Just finished book number 3 in a day! I've currently read

1. Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
2. Bring me Back by BA Paris
3. The Last Laugh by Tracey Bloom (read in one day)

Books 2 and 3 aren't out yet but they are must reads when they do come out! I know BA Paris has got a lot of hype in the past. I read behind closed doors and it disturbed me so I didn't read her second but I really enjoyed Bring Me Back!

Also has anyone ever read the DCI Ryan mysteries or the series by Joy Ellis? I have kindle unlimited and I see they're quite popular with loads of books in series and dying for a new series so I may as well put my kindle unlimited subscription to good use!

Marking place!

Sorry if this makes me come across as nob, I really don't mean to.

Please could you let @southeastdweller set up the new threads. She hosts the challenge each year and does the threads with all the info at the top and adds all the links in as the year goes on which makes them easier to search. It comes in handy later in the year and lets the late joiners follow what's happening.

Ooh, yes...do you all mind if I do the new thread when I get home? I did notice the other thread was almost at an end so was in my list of things to do anyway tonight...sorry if I sound bossy!

But thanks anyway brizzle

@southeastdweller sorry !

If this isn’t the ‘proper’ new thread, can we have a link please.

Bringing my (short) list over:

1. Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch - Sally Beddell Smith
2. The Witches - Roald Dahl
3. The Betrayal - Helen Dunmore

1. The Story of a New Name - Elena Ferrante. The second in the Neapolitan quartet. Much preferred this to the first volume. I was gripped. This volume follows Lina and Lenu as the former navigates the early years of her marriage, and the latter continues her studies. Looking forward to the third instalment.

Link below:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/what_were_reading/3138942-50-Book-Challenge-2018-Part-Two?watched=1

1. The Ice Princess Camilla Lackberg

Not sure what to say about this! It’s supposed to be ‘Nordic noir’ and I read it for a popsugar reading challenge prompt, not read much of the genre so did some googling and this came up in a few lists of recommendations - I chose it because it was a female author and wasn’t the girl with the ..... series which is what came up most on the recommendations lists but I can’t deal with the graphic depictions of rape. This was recommended as less grizzly/gruesome than others of the genre, which I guess is true, it wasn’t particularly gruesome. It was also about as ‘noir’ as the my little pony movie, at least for large portions of the book. I actually went back to the listicles/review sites where this was recommended a few times to check I had the right book, as the writing is almost comically bad in some parts, Lackberg clearly having never heard of ‘show don’t tell’, lacking in any emotional depth and riddled with cliche and inconsistency, not to mention a supposed ‘heroine’ who flits around meddling in police investigations, finding blatantly obvious things that clearly would have been picked up by the police (the victims phone records are mentioned at one point and point suspicion in one direction, yet heroine is able to press redial on the phone and find out key and previously undiscovered information). She also enjoys picking and choosing which pieces of evidence she will and won’t share yet never gets pulled up on that. Plus lots of instances of “h/she examined the document that was inexplicably and helpfully left in an incongruous place for anyone to find and what h/she read there caused all the pieces to fall into place, pieces that have not yet been shared with the reader and which, whilst crucial to the plot, the character decides to do nothing about for a chapter or two whilst we progress the completely unconvincing romantic storyline/fret about whether to wear a thong or Bridget Jones pants/ return to the upsetting but completely irrelevant sister’s subplot which in no way adds anything to the story.

And yet - I finished it. I’m not sure why other than I wanted to know whodunnit, so the case at the centre of it must have been compelling enough to keep me going. The various ‘twists’ along the way were all pretty obvious, but the actual killer was a surprise to me, as was the fact that I even cared by that point!

Is this thread going to be deleted? I can see it might cause confusion if it continues and gets posted on by mistake, bringing it to the top.

Good idea Crampton. I'm pretty sure I can't get threads I haven't started zapped so Brizzle please can you report your first post and MNHQ will delete it? Hope that's OK.