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?

8.Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism – Yanis Varoufakis

Accessible and interesting description of how market societies came to be, and why they contain the seeds of their own destruction. Designed to be read and understand by the author's teenage daughter, the style worked well for me as this is a topic I'm not very clued up on. If you are an expert economist, this is probably not for you. Many references to Greek myth, works of literature such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and contemporary culture such as Star Trek and The Matrix, used effectively to illustrate different view points. A thought provoking read.

@Indigosalt that sounds interesting! Adding it to the list.

I just finished 6. The Talented Mr Ripley Patricia Highsmith on audio. Really enjoyed this despite not expecting to at first, the audible narrator had such a flat voice to begin with and I thought it would be a slog, but things picked up and I found myself still sitting in the car in the drive at times wanting to listen to more. I’m not quite sure what it says about me that I really wanted Tom to get away with it all (despite stretching the boundaries of credibility fairly often).

I also bought the Nora Ephron in the kindle sale and the latest Elly Griffiths and Little Deaths by Emma Flint. Some very odd things in there this month, very slim pickings.

12. The Attenbury Emeralds – Jill Paton Walsh – This was okay – not as enjoyable as the previous one. I don’t think it had enough plot to hold it together, and the wittering levels were higher than in the previous one. I definitely want to read some of the real Harriet Vane ones now.

IndigoSalt if you liked the Varoufakis book, you might also like "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism" by Ha Joon Chang. It's easy to read & thought provoking (despite the title, the author isn't actually anti capitalism, rather looking at the political choices that underlay economic decisions).

NCed from ghostiechicken.

9.) Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch -- The third book in the Gentleman Bastards sequence. Locke Lamore, close to death after the events in Red Seas under Red Skies, is dying. When they receive an offer from the very last faction they expected to help, the bondsmagi they fucked off in the first book, they have no choice to accept, and are hired to rig an election in the bondsmagis' city of Karthain. Only there's a complication: the other side has hired Sabetha, Locke's ex-lover and fellow thief.

I'm so torn about this. I wanted to like it (and I did for the most part), but it's a too long, and dragged a bit at times. The stakes aren't all that high (they really are just trying to win the election, not fighting for their lives as they are in the first two novels), so it's tricky to see why it matters. I was also torn between finding the relationship between Locke and Sabetha adorable and deeply, deeply irritating although it did improve towards the end. The epilogue was great though -- I just wish it had got there a bit quicker.

Next up, I'm not sure. Probably the Mary Beard Women and Power one, since it's so short.

Oops. I just bought several things in the not-very-good Kindle sale. Plus two charity-shop books yesterday (John Guy's biog of Elizabeth I, and a novel I’ve been stalking on Kindle for ages without success).

The Kindle things - a different Jon Krakauer book (not the MN favourite), plus Nicholas Tomalin's book about the last voyage of Donald Crowhurst (v interesting - there was an excellent film about it a few years ago too). Oh, and after enjoying The Party, I was pleased to see Elizabeth Day's first book is on there - Scissors, Paper, Stone.

I liked the other John K book, but it's not another Into Thin Air.

I bought the one about that bloke on a boat.

I'm not sure why I picked up the first one bibliomania - it's really not my usual style at all! But in spite of the fact that everyone is beautiful/talented/rich as they tend to be in this sort of thing, I did find the story well told and it managed to draw me in enough to continue the series.

15. The Travelling Bag by Susan Hill

Four short ghost stories. The title story is told by a paranormal detective in a St James' club recounting one of his most memorable cases. 'Boy Twenty-One' is the tale of a lonely boy who makes a friend, although the friend is not quite what he seems. 'Alice Baker' is about a new office worker who is accompanied by a lingering smell of decay, and 'The Front Room' is the tale of a devoutly Christian mother trying to protect her children from the malign influence of their grandmother, both before and after her death.

They're okay, not really that spooky. MR James is better at this sort of thing, although The Woman in Black was very good.

Thank you cedar I’d heard of Greenbanks, have made note of all.

terpsichore there is a new film (movie, not doc) coming out shortly about Crowhurst, with Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz. There was a feature about Crowhurst in the paper at the weekend.

I've bought into the wild too terpsichore. Haven't read Into thin air yet so have no expectations.

I guess as it’s Oscar month they’ve got for that as a theme. I wasn’t that keen on Into the Wild but hadn’t realised it was same writer until I read Thin Air.

8 Good Cop, Bad War by Neil Woods

An account of the 14 years the author spent as an undercover policeman infiltrating the drugs trade.

He ends up seeing his role as part of an arms race between police and gangsters, resulting in more rather than less violence on the streets. He has since left the police & has become a campaigner for legalisation & regulation.

I picked this up from the library, having seen an interview with the author linked from the spycops website. I've run into a few people who've been on the other side of police surveillance (activists rather than addicts), & it's fascinating to read the other side of the story. Even leaving that aside, it's a gripping book & he makes an excellent case for ending the war on drugs. Definitely a stand out read for me.

The film of The Talented Mr Ripley is pretty good too iirc Alias.

Remus, my local library has some Sayers on Overdrive so that might be worth a look?

I really really want to read Noel Streatfeilds adult books but they are £££. I did hope they would come up on Project Gutenberg, but I guess not if Persephone are publishing them- and it’s not the kind of thing that hits our charity shops :(

Ha! Ellis I was going to post practically the same message about toomuch’s review of PriestDaddy. It’s on my tbr list too!

Tanaqui - you can get Saplings at least cheap on ebay (copies for under £3 inc postage)

tanaqui there are a few copies of Saplings for 3 or 4 pounds on Abe books. Greenbanks seems to be harder to get hold of second hand. Worth checking library too.

Thanks Sadik, have added to my wishlist. Hope you find the Varoufakis book as entertaining as I did AliasGrape.

I bought Fall of Giants by Ken Follett in the kindle sale because I really enjoyed Pillars of the Earth recently.
I've also discovered Bookdonors website (a Scottish not for profit social enterprise selling secondhand books), they have a 3 for £6.99 offer and free postage so I got:
Mudbound by Hilary Jordan
Talking to the Dead Helen Dunmore
State of Wonder Ann Patchett

Strong Poison is on Gutenberg Canada, Remus ...

www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/sayersdl-strongpoison/sayersdl-strongpoison-00-h.html

(And anyone else interested in some Wimsey, this one's a good place to start. It's the first Harriet Vane novel, the writing's tightened up a bit (the first couple are a bit ropey) but it's still earlyish in the series.

Thanks, Cheerful. I find it really hard to read large chunks of text on the laptop though - don't suppose there's any way of getting it onto Kindle (am technologically inept, so don't even know if this is a really stupid question or not!).

Thanks Satsuki and Sadik, I had forgotten Abebooks- I put myself on a ban from there a few years ago after spending ££ on a Chalet School book, and it clearly stuck! Off to have a look.

Remus, which Kindle? You can on a fire; or do you have a smartphone? I can read quite well on mine?

Just a bog standard Kindle and a teeny tiny v old allegedly smart phone. Think I'll have to go to the library.

13. An Almond for a Parrot – Wray Delaney I really enjoyed this. I’ve been ill in bed and this was perfect as I could read it in small chunks in between naps, and it wasn’t taxing at all. It’s the account of how a prostitute ended up in prison accused of murder, but it’s also a fairy tale, a love story and a celebration of sexual relationships between men and women, and women and women. There were many, many proud members and a lot of body fluids but all of this was done with the tongue very firmly in cheek. It’s been compared to Sarah Waters’ work a lot, it seems, but it’s so much more fun than her writing. It’s more like Wilkie Collins, if he’d been allowed to fill his novels with sex.

Haha remus you read the rude book! think you are less easily embarrassed than me

Doesn't it have a lovely cover?