50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second 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, it’s not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The first thread of the year is here.

What are you reading?

12. The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend

Listened to this on audiobook. Have read this a few times over the years and still find it funny!

13. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I never read this as a child. I really enjoyed it - it’s a bit preachy in places but most children’s books of that period were. I loved the four girls though.

ScribblyGum - not only posh crisps but homemade cake and scones too depending which of us is hosting

Had a busy week so only 100 or so pages into This Thing of Darkness. I’m enjoying it so far.
I now seem to be starting a virus so think a quiet weekend reading by the fire is just what is needed 😷

Ellis, thanks for the recommendation. I really like the look of The Wild Other and have added it to my wish list.

Chessie I also tried a children's classic I never read as a child Swallows and Amazons but didn't get on with it at all, so have had my first DNF of the year. I got it on audible for DS and thought I would listen myself but, perhaps as I have no childhood nostalgia for it, I just found it dull. And because I am very mature I did not find characters called Titty and Roger the ship's boy at all amusing.

Is the Wild Other Clover Stroud? I read an article by her bad thought her book sounded interesting but has been expensive on Kindle.

The thing that always comes up from Swallows and Amazons is “better drowned than duffers” we said it the other day in fact, but otherwise don’t remember it as well as some.

I don't think the names in Swallows and Amazons were supposed to be amusing - they were just names, like Dick and Fanny in Enid Blyton, that have assumed meanings they didn't previously have. S and A is a bit dull, to be honest. I enjoyed it (and all the other 11) as a child but have never wanted to re-read any of them.

"But what are DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS?" asked Susan. I notice that Stranger Things is produced/directed by The Duffer Brothers which tickles me and I have started to use it to refer to my sons.

5 Angelas Ashes Frank McCourt
This is an autobiography of the author growing up in poverty.
At times quite a distressing read but a really enjoyable coming of age novel. One of the few that will stay on my bookshelf and not get given away!

museum they were based on real children and he used their real names. Titty was a nickname obviously, but she was called that, and Roger was really Roger. He gave them a different surname. They changed it to Tatty for the film and the family were annoyed about it.

3 Think of England by KJ Charles

I needed a bit of light reading after How to Survive a Plague, and this hit the spot perfectly. It is set in 1904, where Captain Archie Curtis is just back from the Boer War suffering from serious injuries caused by faulty guns. Part country-house thriller (was it sabotage?) and part smutty m/m romance, a quick enjoyable read.

It's also conveniently got me back on track for my 1 book a week target for this year. I'm not sure whether I'll return to The End of Alchemy for my next book, or read The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin which dd got for Christmas.

I loved it as a child, but am not sure I would if I read it for the first time now- I wonder if the class distinctions would jar.

9. *Murder in Ecstacy by Ngaio Marsh. This one I found a little dated, but still enjoyable- a woman dies during a cult religious ceremony, handily witnessed by Inspector Alleyn’s journalist friend Nigel Bathgate. Investigation ensues.

I really like the sound of that one, toomuchsplother, maybe because I am also in the stuck-with-a-toddler-when-actually-I'm-a-serious(ish)-adult-with-a-real-job-too-you-know stage of my life. And I love remote Scottish islands.

I adored Swallows and Amazons as a child - we used to go the Lake District every year and mess about on boats on the lakes (though my mother entirely unreasonably never let us camp out on islands for weeks at a time on our own). My grandad read us all the books over the years we were there and I wanted to be Nancy Blackett so badly.

I am reading Through the Looking-Glass which is slightly less awful than Alice, but only slightly. Sigh.

(1) Witch is When Life Got Complicated by Adele Abbott
(2) Witch is Where It All Began by Adele Abbott
(3) Coming Clean by Kimberly Rae Miller
(4) Die Last by Tony Parsons
(5) Restaurant Babylon by Imogen Edwards Jones
(6) The Sugar Men by Ray Kingfisher
(7) The Hospital by Barbara O'Hare
(8) Fade Out by Rachel Caine
(9) Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
(10) Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
(11) Would You Like Some Magic With That by Annie Salisbury

This was a fairly quick and entertaining read about working at Walt Disney World Guest Relations. It was a glimpse behind the scenes and lets you see that Disney really does work hard to create the magic.

Just wanted to update. Have now finished;

1. The Good People by Hannah Kent
2. The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman
3. The Lost Plot by the same author
4. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

So pleased to have discovered this author and can't wait to read the others in this trilogy ! Have now started Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor. It's about a group of people emigrating from Ireland to America in1847. Sounds right up my street !

Thornbirds update - The priest just got naked but remained flaccid, so all is still well with the world.

1. An Old fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott. Needed something simple to read today and having enjoyed Rose in Bloom, went to the motherlode. This is just as sententious and preachy, but has the dark elements as well (attempted suicide, bankruptcy) which she handles amazingly well for children. It's great to have the chapter about the independent earning women as well, making it clear that the main problem with women working was not that it was new, but that women struggled to be paid a living wage that allowed any genuine independence. This is made into entirely a women's issue, in that what seems to make working respectable for women is to work for other women, whether in direct employment or in creative work which women buy, and it's the women who then decide the wages. Female landladies also decide the rent. No gentleman ever employs or houses a lady they're not married to.

I deliberately chose not to promote all these Victorian favourites to my nieces (and to ds) because they do have a peculiar effect. The endless moralising and guilt do remind me of my own childhood. It's a little comforting to read about how 'modern city children' of 1874 were considered to have just as unhealthy a lifestyle by older people as children now.

(1) Witch is When Life Got Complicated by Adele Abbott
(2) Witch is Where It All Began by Adele Abbott
(3) Coming Clean by Kimberly Rae Miller
(4) Die Last by Tony Parsons
(5) Restaurant Babylon by Imogen Edwards Jones
(6) The Sugar Men by Ray Kingfisher
(7) The Hospital by Barbara O'Hare
(8) Fade Out by Rachel Caine
(9) Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
(10) Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
(11) Would You Like Some Magic With That by Annie Salisbury
(12) The Ride Delegate by Annie Salisbury

Yet another super fast read but actually quite good. Not so much from a Disney point of view but more how we treat customer services people and how much we expect when we are paying a lot of money.

Virginqueen, I read my way through all Robin Hobb's books last year. You're in for a treat.

Just be aware that for chronology, you may want to read the Rainwild Chronicles and the Liveship Traders before the last Fitz trilogy.

I read all the Fitz books first and then moved on to the others - it was a bit weird knowing what the ultimate outcome was for some of those characters.

5.No is Not Enough: Defeating the New Shock Politics – Naomi Klein
This is gong to seem like a very dull post after Remus's Thornbird's update. Haven't read Thornbird's but loved the mini series as a teenager. Never quite understood the attraction with Richard Chamberlain though. I remember quite fancying the horrible husband and feeling bad about it, as he was really, really horrible.

Anyway! Back to Naomi Klein and shock politics. The first time I have read anything by this author; she explains how Trump's rise came to be, why ordinary Americans voted for him and how he will use his position to further the interests of the super rich. In the final third of the book she focuses on the fight back, how saying "no" won't be enough, and puts forward an alternative agenda. Very readable and thought provoking.

No idea why I've gone apostrophe mad this afternoon. Thornbirds not Thornbird's.

1. Infinite Home by Kathleen Alcott.

Quite enjoyed this. Very nicely written, in quite poetic prose, it's about an elderly woman, Edith, who lives in a large house in NYC and rents out rooms on different floors to Edward, a depressed comedian, Thomas, a famous artist who is recovering from a stroke, Paulie who suffers from William's Syndrome and Adeline, who is agoraphobic.

It's very much about people and their relationships together, how we can find comfort in such relationships and how important a home is. There are some very moving scenes. I think it would make a good film!

Re Thornbirds, the 'horrible husband' (aka Bryan Brown) is actually 'Meggie's' real life husband!

Remus Brilliant update!

1. A discovery of witches by Deborah Harkness

Diana is an academic who discovers a magical book at the bodleian. She comes from a family of witches and befriends a scientist who is a vampire. Adventures ensue.

I started this five years ago and enjoyed it but hadn’t finished it. I loved the beginning where Diana was feisty and the Oxford setting. Didn’t really like Matthew much so didn’t enjoy the second part of the book. Not sure if I’ll read the next part. Does the series improve?

EmGee obviously he was much less horrible in real life!