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?

Yes remus agree.

Agree Satsuki. I came late to the party with The Essex Serpent and this made it hard to judge it on its own merits.

I am reading Mariana and completely loving it, an absolute gem so far. So witty and accurately observed, and full of great period detail.

I agree about the Essex Serpent Satsuki. I really enjoyed it too. I treated myself to The Mermaid and Mrs Handock with my Xmas vouchers yesterday, hoping it will be similar.

I have just started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Loving it! Seem to be catching up with a lot of stuff at the moment.

(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
(13) The Magdalen Laundries by Lisa Michelle Odgaard
(14) Just What Kind of Mother Are You by Paula Daly

Read this after seeing it mentioned a few times on here. The blurb reminded me a bit of a Jodi Picoult. It was a good read and I never actually seen the ending coming.

Toomuch I started The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock today as my new audible book. Great joy to hear Juliet Stevenson narrating as she is my absolute favourite narrator.
Am only an hour in (listened while doing the RSPB birdwatch) but so far so good, very Sarah Waters in tone.

Scribbly that sounds promising

I loved The Essex Serpent - knew nothing about it other than that it was being heavily promoted, and it was very pretty. If it hadn't have cost pennies on Kindle, I'd have probably just ignored it. So glad I didn't.

I'm a bit wary of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock because of the already huge hype about it. Looking forward to reading the reviews on here!

I liked Essex Serpent, but didn’t love it. I came to it late though so again was probably influenced by the marketing and expected more than I got.

I was curious to read the Stephen King short story Survivor Type after ClashCityRocker described as possibly the best short story ever written. (Its available online as a pdf for some reason has a few typos but basically all present and correct.)
Woah that's a story I can't 'unsee' now! The plot summary is as follows: "Survivor Type" is written as the diary of a disgraced surgeon, Richard Pine (nee Richard Pinzetti), who, while attempting to smuggle a large amount of heroin on a cruise ship, finds himself marooned on a tiny island in the Pacific with very limited supplies and no food. A self-proclaimed "survivor" type, his diary entries documenting his day-to-day activities become more and more disjointed and raving, revealing his slow mental decay and eventual insanity caused by starvation, isolation, and drug use.
This is a masterclass in how to write a compelling short story but even King himself says of it "As far as short stories are concerned, I like the grisly ones the best. However, the story 'Survivor Type' goes a little bit too far, even for me." Not for the faint hearted!

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock is the sort of title I find off putting so will wait for the first reviews to appear on here!

13. The Unbroken Line of the Moon by Johanne Hildebrandt This is the first part of a series (two released at the moment but am assuming there will be more) This is part historical fiction part fantasy. Based in 10th century nordic lands. This is centred on a young chieftains daughter being sent as a peace bride and the ongoing battles. Weaved in is Norse Mythology and Gods. This was pretty good and I will no doubt read the next one in the series. I don't have kindle unlimited but they are currently free on there.

Survivor Type = so good!

I think I read Survivor Type. I certainly remember what he ate

The Blackwater Lightship is now on my wish list, thanks Indigosalt; sounds like the sort of thing I would enjoy.

16. The Trouble With Goats And Sheep by Joanna Cannon

Liked it, didn’t love it. It’s set in the heatwave of 1976, and it’s about two ten-year-olds investigating the disappearance of a woman on their street. Through flashbacks to the events of 9 years ago, you supposedly find out why she disappeared. However, you actually find out everyone else’s secrets and I’m still none the wiser why she disappeared.

Pressed post too soon!

17. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

The Queen discovers a mobile library calling at Buckingham Palace, and borrows a book. She falls in love with reading and starts to resent her duties and family from taking away her reading time. This is very short, but very funny!

1. Robinson Crusoe (or to give its full title The Life and Strange Suprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner) by Daniel Defoe

Blimey. I wasn’t expecting that. It’s an extraordinary book and actually feels silly and churlish to attempt to review it.

It’s certainly not an easy read. No chapters, capitalisation of nouns, a very odd pared down style of journalistic writing which makes it feel utterly realistic in parts (the scene where Robinson survives the shipwreck is just heart in mouth wonderful) but can be frustratingly dull at other times, very much like a 'What I Did On My Holidays' report but with Robinson cataloging bits of ropes and wood that he has salvaged.

The bookend sections to the main island story are incredibly dull and bizarre, although I did snort in amusement at his first shipwreck which is not upon a Carribean island but upon the wild and most terribly dangerous shores of Norfolk.

Too many great themes to mention, it’s worthy of several book club discussions. My greatest pleasure was reading the section where Robinson is attempting to grow barley on the island, willing him to succeed, and becoming aware that fairly recently I had felt the exact same emotions reading about a man trying to cultivate potatoes in his own shit on the surface of Mars. I wonder if Defoe in his wildest dreams could have imagined that three hundred years after writing his book readers would still be enjoying the same genre that he was father to.

7. The Woman who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes.

I'm not sure about this book, really struggled to keep up with it as it seemed to flick around to different people and parts of the story within the same chapter.

13. Arrow's Fall by Mercedes Lackey

The big advantage of these books is they are so short! And on a Sunday with nothing in particular to do I've got through the whole of the third in this trilogy.

Talia, Queen's Own Herald, has returned from her circuit of the northern territory with fellow Herald Kris and now takes up her position as a full member of the Queen's Council. But she finds intrigues surrounding Elspeth, heir to the throne. A marriage alliance it proposed with Prince Ancar, heir of a neighbouring kingdom. Talia first tries to find out whether there is anything sinister behind any of the factions vying for control of Elspeth's future, and is then sent on a mission to investigate the worth of the proposed marriage. But there is a greater threat than she realises, one which might endanger Valdemar itself.

It is my birthday today and I had asked for Amazon vouchers to put towards a fitbit (40 and fat, determined not to be 41 and fat). When I went on the one I wanted was half price so I had money left over for books !!

I bought a couple of cross stitch I wanted and then went into my wish list to spend the leftovers. I have ordered 6 books but in doing so I realised that there are still some crappy books in their that I have no intention of ever buying so managed to do another clear out in there too.

Happy birthday just

Happy birthday just!

6. The Good Widow - Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

Jacks husband dies in a car crash in Maui. But why was he in Maui when he should have been on a work trip to Kansas? And who was the woman he was with?

Another book available on kindle unlimited trying to get my moneys worth of my free trial! This was a good read and the twist wasn’t what I’d guessed it was at all! Some predictable bits but I enjoyed most of it.

Happy birthday Trying , and happy Fitbitting - I LOVE mine!

1. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang Collection of SCIENCE fiction short stories (capitalisation deliberate). This was hard work as a non scientific reader, but worth the effort. The stories were all different, but the typical scenario was that they were set in a recognisable world with one key element of science etc operating differently from ours, which allowed an exploration of how characters behaved in that situation. The style and the concepts tackled reminded me of Borges who I haven't read for years; in fact in one of the stories a situation is referred to as Borgesian. I think someone reviewed this last year, which is how it ended up on my kindle - thank you!