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?

1. The Reservoir Tapes by Jon McGregor. Really really good. This is a prequel to Reservoir 13 but I don't think it matters reading this one first. I'm still on the waiting list for Reservoir 13.

1. Hardcore 24 by Janet Evanovich. This series is going down hill. They used to be good but have become very same-y now. Will still read them as they are light and easygoing but I think it's really about time Janet Evanovich brought the series to a conclusion. Morelli or Ranger? It's getting a bit old now.

Next up Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon. The cover is gorgeous. Makes me really want a slab of Battenburg cake :)

Crampton has just downloaded Reservoir tapes. Really enjoyed Reservoir 13

10 A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

Basically about the family fall out when an man in his eighties marries a 36 year old woman.
Funny and sometimes really heartbreaking

I'm amazed to see this have such mixed
reviews on good reads, I really really loved it.

I’ve read 3 stories from Skeleton Crew on my own (DH is away for work) with the rain lashing down outside and the wind howling. I’ve scared myself silly!

1. The End of Alchemy: Money, banking and the future of the global economy, by Mervyn King

I've been working my way through this one slowly since the start of the year. Overall I found it reasonably worth reading, with some interesting insights but not particularly earthshattering. Although supposedly aimed at a lay audience, I felt that it veered from overly superficial (given that realistically, anyone reading this book is going to have some prior knowledge/interest in the topic) to overly technical (some of the details of MK's proposals for reforming the lender of last resort role really could have done with setting in a wider context).

There are certainly better books out there about the financial crisis and the future of money/banking (eg The Shifts & the Shocks by Martin Wolf), about the impact of the 'unknown unknowns' (Nassim Taleb / The Black Swan - irritating and hard to read though it is), and about banking crises (Reinhart & Rogoff's This Time is Different).

(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
(15) Amber Earns Her Ears by Amber Michelle Sewell

I deleted a lot off free books on my Kindle but want to read the ones I actually paid for even if they were just 99p as otherwise a waste of money. This was both a waste of money and a waste of time. Don't bother with it.

lastqueen - I just looked for what I've said on that Ukrainian Tractors book and it goes something like this:

"It didn't make me laugh at all, by the way. Except maybe a pained grimace at the state of the world where that book makes it to the bestsellers' lists."

I don't know whether I'd dare read Stephen King books again. I used to love them, but some bothered me for years. I'm too much of a wuss for horror. And now I'm going to have to check the bathroom for clowns again.

1. Revelation (Matthew Shardlake, #4) by C.J. Sansom. Set against the court of Henry VIII. Matthew gets drawn in to investigate a serial killer after one of his friends is a victim.

I know these were done to death last year. I wasn't in a hurry to move on with the series as I found Sovereign hard work and a bit boring. I would say I have enjoyed this one most from the series so far.

I'm adding A Very English Scandal to my list. I have a rule that I have to read a book before watching any adaptations of it. I feel cheated if I do it the other way round.

Best remove Survivor Type from my count then!

Looking forward to the film of A Very English Scandal as some of it was filmed locally - we weren't allowed to park at DS's school because all the film crew were there - caused great excitement on the school run! Sadly no glimpse of Hugh Grant though - although from the pictures I saw in the press, he looked pretty ropey. Sounds like another one to add to the TBR list and then inevitably be disappointed because the film is never as good

Cote oh dear!! I really loved it. Different strokes for different folks and all that!

It certainly is, lastqueen. Most people go at the books I find fascinating.

Case in point: Someone told me that Oxford University Press has a quarterly publication called "Early Music"and I just subscribed to it. It's thick, dense, and will take me ages to read. Each "book" is basically research about a certain composer or musical style.

I think I'll count them as books and will cover & keep them in my library as books, too

Cote I get that! I did an anthropology masters on post colonial Africa and still read 3/4 really heavy really academic books on it a year, I adore them, most other people including people who I did my course with think they are like wading through treacle and would never read them for fun.

I finished Mariana last night and loved it, a real palate cleanser after some of the heavier stuff. Does anyone recommend any other Persephone books?

I am now starting Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, about a Korean immigrant family living in Japan (if ive remembered correctly!)

ellisisland thanks i will check out the virgin suicides movie, not sure if DP would enjoy it or not.
turnofthescrew I know what you mean about it being boring, I definitely felt that a bit at times it just was so focused on the small details and captured moments with no certainty in anything - weirdly enough by the end that is what I liked about it.

Satsuki, re Persephone - I bought a lot of them (far too many) when they first got going but have lost track a bit now because they publish so many titles and started straying away from their original remit somewhat. But one that definitely stayed with me was 'Hostage to Fortune' by Elizabeth Cambridge. It’s a quiet and beautifully written book about having children and how they bring you joy and pain and transform your life beyond imagining.

Actually my next book will be a Persephone because someone chose it for our book group, but unfortunately it's one of the ones I wouldn’t really choose to read off my own bat. So a spot of light teeth-gritting may be required...

Hope you managed to sleep, TooExtra!

Satsuki, not sure if they're Persephone or not, but a couple of mid-century "women's books" I enjoyed were The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer and The Tortoise and the Hare, by Elizabeth Jenkins.

Oh, and thanks Terpsichore, I quite fancy The Dig.

If anyone is looking out for a slightly quirky history book, Katherine Hughes' Victorians Undone is 99p on Kindle. The chapter on Darwin's facial hair is strangely compelling.

Persephone books - Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is really sweet. Noel Streatfeild’s Saplings is fascinating but disturbing. However, I don’t know if it’s been published by Persephone or not, but Grass in Piccadilly is lovely.

Ooooh, there’s a story in Skeleton Crew set in the same club as The Breathing Method! I always wanted to get more about that!

Tepischore, I've just looked up that book and it sounds so exactly like something I need to read on about four separate levels. I'm going to have to go buy a copy I think.

Miss Pettigrew is great. I liked The Making of a Marchioness too, though it's proper escapist silliness. Round About a Pound a Week I found utterly fascinating non-fiction about how the Edwardian working classes lived - it's an account of a sociological study though, not a novel. Like someone upthread I really enjoyed The Home-Maker. And Doreen is a very unusual novel about evacuation from the point of view of the child, the child's parents and the family she is evacuated to - a very frank look at what was fundamentally a very weird situation.

MusuemofHam think it was me who reviewed Stories of your life & others glad you enjoyed it! Gave a copy to my BIL for Christmas but as one of the Blind date with a book editions ....I thought I had guessed the clues correctly & wanted to see if I was right. I was! So lucky it was a good book really

I am interested to hear people's reviews of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock as have it on my list for when it comes out in paperback. I have also added A Very British Scandal to my list as this sounds right up my street and I would like to read it before watching the adaptation.

6 The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harry Fry - Rachel Joyce - Reviewed on these threads previously. I know I am in the minority but I found it predictable and in places fairly dull.

Now reading the Roanoke Girls which I am finding similarly tedious. I really need to get better at giving up on books I am not enjoying.

vistaverde I read the first couple of pages of Roanoke Girls in the library last week and it was so poorly written please don’t feel any shame in giving it up!

Thanks for all the mid century suggestions, I will look them all up and see what I fancy. I am looking for escapist but well written and witty and modern stuff just doesn’t hit the spot. I have a rotten cold and am craving a book equivalent of hot lemon and honey!

Funny seeing Hodgson Burnett and Streatfield - as with Monica Dickens I read their children’s books but hadn’t seen their adult novels.

Our tastes sound very similar, @CheerfulMuddler - it was me who recommended The Home-Maker . The Elizabeth Cambridge book really resonated with me despite the fact (dare I admit this) that I’m not a parent. I read it a long time ago but still think of it, and in fact I must re-read it.