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?

Thanks all. Looks like I'm adding War and Peace to my TBR list then.

I've added War and Peace to my list too, thank you as without this thread I wouldn't have considered attempting it.

1. Diary of an Ordinary Schoolgirl by Margaret Forster

A very quick read, reviewed by others earlier on the thread. An odd one - the fifties seem very remote now, and yet there are so many phrases that are utterly familiar. She does talk about school a lot!

I’m not sure what I think about life then in general. This is only three years before “You’ve never had it so good”; but Margaret’s mother had to give up her job the moment she got married; and Margaret, when mother is away, just expects to make meals for her father and older brother, without question. And yet, dad’s job in a factory pays for their secure council house and everything else they need. Margaret ends up going to Oxford, but went to Grammar school before that - presumably there must have been others as creative and intelligent who just missed out on the 11 plus - maybe they were later developers - who therefore missed out on Grammar school and the world missed out on their great novel or play or whatever.

Of course putting any of that on a sixteen year old schoolgirl is clearly ridiculous! This is in the end a period piece, and entertaining enough. And I love the fifties style, cloth covered small format hardback, happily for my eyes it isn’t set in vintage type!

1. Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward

Blurb on the back says that the play was written in 1941 and remained the longest running comedy in the history of the British Theatre for three decades thereafter.

Following a dinner party Charles and Ruth Condamine inadvertently recall Charles' first wife Elvira from the other side during an ironic seance. Witty ascerbic repartee, cucumber sandwich consumption and ornament breakages ensue.

Really enjoyed this. Properly laughed out loud many times.

scribbly blithe spirit is one of my most favourite b&w films. Yet funnily enough I've never read the play. Need to add it to my good reads "to read" that is growing fast

I’ve not seen the film or the play comeagain. Will add them to my to watch' list

I once went to an afternoon matinée of Blithe Spirit while at a loose end. A touring production in a major city with some well-known actors in it.

There were about 6 of us in the audience and there are 7 in the cast. Everything went wrong - phones rang when they weren’t supposed to. Scenery fell over. The cast corpsed. It was like 'The Play That Goes Wrong' years before its time. At the end the cast gave us a round of applause.

Happy memories

That’s brilliant Terpsichore

6. The Furthest Station - Ben Aaronovitch
A very quick read, as this is just a novella in the Rivers of London series. It has all the usual elements, without a huge amount of depth as it is so short, but fun and I preferred it to the last full-length one. Interesting to see Abigail shaping up as a more major character - I assume we are going to be seeing more of her in the next few books.

Thornbirds has just reached point Very Bad News for the Family (sad about the first and thought the second seemed a bit daft). Priest remains mostly smocked but has discovered snogging.

Meanwhile

1. Killer Instinct by Joseph Finder

This was a very good corporate thriller. A salesman with little prospects of promotion has a chance meeting with an ex-military guy, and gets him a security job in his company. Very soon, everything starts going his way and his rivals are having freak accidents making them lose deals. He gets a promotion and life is looking good, but then people start dying.

I would totally recommend this book.

And bringing my list over:

1. Would They Lie To You? by Robert Hutton
2. High Crimes by Joseph Finder
3. A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

1. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. Written from the perspective of Frances, a student, this is about her relationships with friends and family, and especially her affair with a married man. I think this one has had mixed responses on this thread but I really enjoyed it. I found Frances an interesting and believable character.

1. The Lost Plot by Genevieve Cogman

I needed something a bit lighter to calm down after The War on Women so chose the fourth in the series featuring Irene Winter, Librarian, who works for the Library which is a world between worlds that collects copies of all books and helps to maintain balance between the rigid order of the worlds in which dragons are in control and the chaos of the fae. She is sent to a version of 1920s America on one world where two dragons are seeking a rare book as part of determining which of them will win high office in one of the dragon courts. A young Librarian has been drawn into the conflict and Irene, assisted by her apprentice Kai (a dragon), has to avert possible disaster if the Library is believed to have broken its long-held neutrality. Cogman has improved as this series has progressed - the first novel was a good idea with weak execution but it feels like she has settled into it now.

1. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Based on an idea from Carnegie Medal winning author Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself.) Thirteen year old Connor is coping with bullies at school and his mothers life threatening illness at home. As things spiral out of control in Connor's life an ancient monster, in the shape of a walking talking yew tree, arrives to tell him three tales and demand that Connor tells the fourth story himself - revealing Connor's reoccurring nightmare and the truth he is refusing to articulate. A children's/YA book that deals sensitively with the subject of Cancer and doesn't try to wrap everything up with a neat 'happy ever after' ending.

I thought this book was brilliantly done and I look forward to seeking out the animated film which has similarly received many plaudits. I'd also read other Patrick Ness books.

18. Life after Life - Kate Atkinson Started this yesterday and finished today, honestly couldn't put it down. Explores the idea of one person having many different lives on the basis of the decisions they make and things that happen to them. Takes the form of a family saga with a twist. Covering the period from 1910 to beyond the Second World War it had echoes of the Cazalet Chronicles but with a twist. Really,really enjoyed it. Believe there is a follow up God in Ruins which I will certainly read. Will also look out others by this author.

too much definitely read Behind the Scenes at the Museum it is excellent. God in Ruins follows Ursula's brother Teddy, and takes a different narrative approach to Life but still playful.

A God in Ruins is one of my all-time favourite novels - I'm very envious of anyone reading it for the first time!

Thanks Satsuki and Southeast. Tempted to download them now but was being very strict with myself about trying to get through the too read pile. Tempted to look on awesomebooks.com and see if I can pick up second hand copies. Life after Life is a paper copy and I feel the need to own these books. Doing my Special 'I have found a new book / author I love' dance!

I totally agree with you on A God In Ruins and Life after Life, they're wonderful! There is a new Kate Atkinson coming out this year, Transcription (I think), that I'm very much looking forward to.

Yes I have it wishlisted murine it sounds good. I have to say I didn’t get into her crime ones, but it’s not a genre I really like anyway.

Just finished American Gods, book number seven.

Really enjoyed it, much more so than the first time I read it. Will read more of Neil Gaimen I think - the only other ones I've read are Good Omens with Terry Pratchett which I enjoyed and The Ocean At The End of The Lane which I can't remember...

On to Nix now.

I finished backwards Rob Grant. It's the 3rd red dwarf book. Actually it was the 4th to be released but it followed on from the second so it's the 3rd in the series. It was ok, it was only written by one of the two men who wrote red dwarf and the previous 2 were written by both and you could tell. I wont bother with the last one.

I'm just starting number 14 the warsaw anagrams Richard Zimler.

Anansi Boys well worth a read - Gaiman's best by far, in my opinion.

1. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

This was a reread. I first read it when it won the Booker Prize in 1989. I don't think I fully appreciated it then, but this time I thought it was poignant and rather sad.

Yes, Stevens the butler can be a tedious, pompous old fart. He can also be incredibly naive, unobservant and irritating. That is rather the point, I thought, revealing his faults, miguided pride, ignorance.

I enjoyed the slow reveal of his life, the misunderstandings, unintentional comic moments, and episodes of great sorrow suppressed for professional appearances.

He is emotionally repressed, only finally reaching full understanding of how empty his life really has been, and is, as old age approaches. Beautiful writing. Looking forward to reading more Ishiguro.