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?

Iris1 I have a pathological loathing of The Keeper of Lost Things since reading it for book club last year. Possibly my worst read of the year. Can not understand all the 5 star reviews for the life of me .

1. Alice Through the Looking-Glass Lewis Carroll

More nonsense. Clever but not really me at all.

I finished my no. 8 today.

Two Kinds of Truth - Michael Connolly

This is genre (detective) fiction but of a pretty high order; the latest in Connolly's Hieronymus 'Harry' Bosch series. I’ve read them all and they’re old favourites that I love coming back to. Nobody would claim that they're of towering literary merit, but Bosch is a rounded character with a rich back-story, and I really enjoyed this one, in which he has to defend himself against accusations of botching a past case, whilst also going undercover to try and tie up a current murder investigation. Enough said!

I also made the possible error of investigating the ebook situation with my library card and have somehow ended up with two books on loan, so I’m halfway through one of them and impatient to get onto the latest Nicci Gerrard, another series I’ve read from the beginning and have been keen to continue with. More on those asap...

Terpsichore, really glad you enjoyed the latest Bosch, I thought it was excellent as well. Have you seen the TV series? I was a bit dubious at first as that wasn't how I'd imagined Harry, but I got over it pretty quickly and have really enjoyed watching it.

4. They All Fall Down - Tammy Cohen

Hannah had everything until she found herself in a psychiatric clinic. And when the patients start dying she is in a race against time to convince someone that they are being killed before she falls victim to them.

I didn’t enjoy this book as much as When She Was Bad but it was a good quick read especially after the Jilly Cooper book . I did guess the twist but not the full reasoning.

I love Gerald Manley Hopkins, just beautiful. Emily Dickinson always makes me think of the Wendy Cope poem (Higgledy Piggledy / Emily Dickinson / Liked to use dashes / instead of full stops / Nowadays faced with such / ideosyncracy / Critics and editors / Send for the cops)

4 The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
Award winning fantasy novel (won the Hugo in 2016, shortlisted for various other SFF awards) with lots of good points, but sadly this didn't really do it for me.

The setting is interesting - an extremely seismically active world in which the culture is highly focused on surviving periodic 'seasons' when volcanic eruptions or quakes cause years-long crises. Some humans ('orogenes') have the ability to supernaturally manipulate & control seismic activity, and there are also non-human intelligent beings who come into the story.

Unfortunately I didn't find the writing style particularly engaging - it's written in the present tense, which for me has to be done exceptionally well to come off. There are three separate strands to the story - actually something I often like - but in this instance I felt it made the book rather fragmented. It was also just relentlessly down-beat - one of those books where you just know that if things are apparantly going well for someone, the world will crap on them comprehensively within a chapter or so. I won't rush to read the sequel, though I guess if dd brought it home (book is hers) I might pick it up.

Re. Bosch, no, noodle, I haven’t seen the series, for exactly the same reason as you - in my mind the actor playing him is just too young.....I’ve only glimpsed stills, I haven’t even seen any of the programmes. That’s how resistant I am! I really ought to try and make myself watch it sometime, though, as I’d probably enjoy it.

Did you read his new non-Bosch book, which I guess is going to be a new series? I thought that was good too.

6 restless William Boyd
Basically a spy thriller told in the 40s and the 70s.
A good man in Africa is one of my all time favourites and I've not read any other Boyd and I really didn't think this was up to much cop. An easy enough read but fairly average... I have any human heart and Brazzaville beach on my TBRlisg so hopefully they are a bit better!

Breadline Britain up next

1. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. A re-read so not sure I can legitimately count this in my 50 but hey-ho. Brilliant book. A page turner and fascinating to boot. Couldn't decide whether I really admired Alice or whether she really got on my wick. I think this a much-read book on these threads but for those who don't know it, it tells the story of Alice who ultimately becomes 'First Lady'. Loosely based on the life of Laura Bush. Def one of my all time top 10 reads along with East of Eden, Jamaica Inn and The Map of Love.

4.Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

This is a bit of a doorstopper so took me a while to get through. It's Hillary Clinton's account of her four years as Secretary of State. Her writing style is a bit dry in places (and the phrase 'clear-eyed' is repeated many times) but it's very interesting to read a first-hand account of high-level diplomacy and recent events. I also admire her efforts to promote the rights of women and girls and to recognise the importance of tackling climate change. And now we have Trump...

19. A thousand acres - Jane Smiley . This was incredible. A modern retelling of King Lear based on a large farm (1000 acres surprisingly enough!) in Iowa in the last 1970's. The key Shakespearean characters and plot are very cleverly drawn and sympathies lie in very different places to the original play.
I reads trilogy by her a couple of years ago, Some luck, Early warning , Golden age about generations of one family, also based in Iowa. Very talented author.

Have discovered a copy of A God in ruins in the 'book cupboard' on my MIL street. It's where people put books and exchange them for others. So thrilled. Have a poorly DD today so a quiet afternoon reading awaits!

I recall enjoying A Thousand Acres as well, toomuchsplother, though it's a good few years since I read it.

I've got the chance to fit in a good amount of reading time this week so I’ve galloped though
9. The Party - Elizabeth Day

This is one of those books you read through your fingers with a sense of gathering dread, but can't quite tear yourself away. Martin is one of life's misfits, acutely aware that he's somehow not 'normal', not from the right background, not from the charmed circle. Sent away to boarding school after an 'incident', he meets the handsome, entitled, perennially self-assured Ben, and the entire course of his future life changes. The climax of the novel is at a party given by the adult Ben, but the narrative flips back and forth to build the whole queasy picture.

At one point I was tempted to give up because I disliked the main character so much, but I think persistence paid off, because it’s a page-turner with some nice turns of phrase and sharp observations.

1. The Strangest Family: The Private Lives of George III, Queen Charlotte and the Hanoverians

by Janice Hadlow

I really enjoyed this, very accessible and easy to read, but there is a lot of depth and detail.
Very interesting account of the Hannoverian Kings starting with George I and finishing with George IV, but the bulk of the book dealing with George III and his queen Charlotte.
It is not a period of history I know particularly well, (I've read a lot on the War of the Roses), but found it absolutely fascinating.
George III is known as being the mad king, and his mental health did dominate the last years of his reign, but the lives of George and Charlotte were so much more than that, they had 15 children (most of whom grew to adulthood), but none of the girls were allowed to marry until much later in life. Their sons were mostly interested in the high life and kept numerous mistresses, so despite the 15 children, they only had two legitimate grandchildren, one of whom was the future Queen Victoria.
George is still the longest reigning King of Britain, the last King of the Colonies (America) and the first King of Australia.

A long read that really didn't seem long, very interesting

1. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer I have nothing to say that will diminish this book's undisputed crown of The Book Everyone Enjoyed. A totally fascinating tale of what can happen when extreme people meet extreme challenges.

Had an author visit from Tammy Cohen at work today which was actually very interesting and discussing the books we’ve been reading with her and her publicist best hour at work in a while!

I read about a quarter of The Girls by Lisa Jewell yesterday, the previous owner of my charity shop copy has circled mistakes they found, such as "she said to him" when the character is talking to her daughter
It's very absorbing so far though, I'm enjoying it!

So nice to see all the Into Thin Air praise. I don't think I've ever seen anyone on here not love it.

6 Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie

Booker prize long- listed novel about two families set in present day London, America, Syria and Karachi. A re-telling of Sophocles' Antigone, I didn't know the story of Antigone before I read the book so took it at face value. It's a fast paced story told from the perspectives of the three Pasha siblings and then Eamonn Lone and his Father Karamat Lone, a fictional Home Secretary.

I liked this book very much but I didn't love it. The characters lacked a bit of depth somehow, at times their actions seemed to conveniently drive the plot along and fit in with the pre-determined direction the story needed to follow. Perhaps this is hard to avoid when trying to fit new characters into a story which already exists? I felt the same way about Margaret Atwood's re-imagining of The Tempest in Hagseed.

10. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

Really did not like this. Told in the first person by Frank, aged 16, who lives with his father in an isolated house which is sort of on its own island. His father Angus used to be a hippy of some sort and Frank doesn't officially exist, since his birth was never registered. Frank spends his days hanging animal heads frorm his 'Sacrifice Poles', shooting rabbits, blowing things up with homemade bombs, and feeding wasps to the Factory in the attic which, in his personal mythology, foretells the future. Before the age of 10 he killed three children, although has got away with it. His older brother Eric was locked away in a secure unit after a bad experience as a medical student led to him losing his mind and start setting fire to dogs and trying to feed worms to children. But Eric has escaped and is making his way back to the 'island', where Frank and Angus wait in a state of nervous tension.

I can't remember if I ever managed to finish The Wasp Factory, or if I've just started it and got too freaked out by it numerous times.

Ooo I loved The Wasp Factory, especially the bit about maggots!

It's very Scottish...

I loved the Wasp Factory... maybe it's a Scottish thing.

I read The Wasp Factory many years ago and can't really remember it now, I remember it was weird and good but disturbing but beyond that nothing. I haven't read much of his stuff just that and Complicity which is a much easier read.

11. Lord of the Flies am sure I'm one of the few people who had never read this. Very enjoyable, allegorical tale of shipwrecked boys and their descent into savagery. I'd recommend to anyone who has never read it.

5. This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson

This book is chiefly the story of the life of Robert Fitzroy, Captain of the Beagle, and covers the time directly preceding the second voyage, on which Darwin became a passenger, and the years following, as the significance of the trip played out for all those concerned. I was utterly captivated by this from start to finish. It is well researched, carefully and intelligently written, pacy, exciting, thoughtful, and sad. The tension which arises between Darwin and Fitzroy and their differing perspectives could have been treated as a straightforward case of science vs religion, but, just as the book manages to be both adventure novel and novel of ideas, so it manages to interrogate all sides of the argument in a way that is nuanced and interesting, and which respects the complexities of the discussion. It gives a fresh perspective on a lot of “old” ideas, so you feel that we are very much still in the midst of the conversation which began in earnest on that voyage; that of how we came to be. The characterisation and dialogue are brilliantly done; the end of the book is like a parting from old friends, and the postscript which informs you how much of the unsung heroism and injustice you have just read about is true, only serves to twist the knife. I haven’t even touched on what it has to say about politics, colonialism, fame, mental illness, justice, and how it skilfully weaves the theme of Darwin’s discovery, of how the strong thrive at the expense of the weak, into every thread of the story. Noble sacrifice is my kryptonite; suffice it to say there was enough here in the life of Robert FitzRoy to ensure I’m not putting the red and blue suit back on in a hurry. He may be a historic figure, but still the lines from Middlemarch, that describe the effect of an individual as being “incalculably diffusive, for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts”, seem to fit nonetheless.

How on earth am I going to follow it?! Well, by reading Burial Rites, is the short answer, as I have to give it back to the library next week.