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?

Yet??? I meant MUCH!

On Gutenberg UK it's even easier, as it gives you the option to download the book as a kindle book. You then save it to your computer and simply email it to your kindle. I read loads of Gutenberg books on my kindle (and work documents, as it's easier than lugging a laptop abou) - I bloody love it.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, You can also download books directly from Project Gutenberg by using the (slightly rubbish) experimental browser on your Kindle. No need to email

Thanks for all the tips on kindle stuff!

I've never read any of the Peter Wimsey books and I know that Gaudy Night is beloved by many people here. Do you have to read them in a particular order?

Keith you don't need to read most of them in any order. Peter does get older across the series; he's early thirties in the first one and forty-five in the last, so it's quite interesting to see him develop, but the stories themselves basically stand alone.

However, you MUST read the four Harriet Vane novels in order: Strong Poison, then Have His Carcass, then Gaudy Night, then Busman's Honeymoon.

Gaudy Night particularly is the glorious culmination of five years of unresolved sexual tension, to the point where just Harriet watching Peter reading becomes massively erotic. That book should come with a PART THREE warning, honestly.

Whose Body? is the first one (also available on Gutenberg Canada). It is much less well-written than the later ones - very, very much a first novel, to the point where she almost feels like a different writer. But it does have the advantage of setting out a lot of the key facts about Peter - his experiences during the War, his ambivalence towards the criminal justice system etc - which are useful to know when you read some of the later ones.

Fab, thank you Cheerful. Looks like the first three are available via Overdrive from our local library - might treat myself over half term!

God, I am a sucker for a good old bit of UST. Precious little of that in my life these days, old married woman that I am :)

It worked! Thanks again, Cheerful.

Book 15 -Everything I know about love by Dolly Alderton

Memoir by the journalist and podcaster. The first half of this book covers her growing up and experiencing relationships for the first time. It’s funny and would appeal to anyone born between 1983-1989 as it gets very specific with msn messenger and aol internet remberences. The second half though gets more serious and covers her friendships that have meant so much to her

Essentially this book is about the importance of female friendship. How often women sacrifice these for men and how a good friend can get through almost anything. Alderton writes really well and I enjoyed the book and the message. I will be recommending it to my friends but I think this is very much aimed at late 20s - early 30s and if you don’t fall in that category I could see this being seen as self indulgent.

So glad you can read them now Remus!

18. Death at the bar by Ngaio Marsh. Another well constructed story - I think she has hit her stride now and I am enjoying them (after enjoying a couple mentioned on here I am now in chronological order). Not Sayers, but still enjoyable.

11 Cold Comfort Farm

I really didn't like this at the start and really really hated flora.
Then I started to get into it and get that it was meant to be funny and ended up enjoying it a fair amount

10.) Women & Power: A Manifesto, by Mary Beard -- This probably doesn't need much introduction, since quite a few of you have read it already. A very short examination of how women have been silenced throughout history, with reference to the classics. Horribly relevant at the moment.

11.) Wychwood, by George Mann -- Mediocre. Elspeth, a journalist who's returned to her home town after being made redundant, gets involved in a series of ritualistic murders based on pagan folklore. Not terribly well written, with shallow characters, dull dialogue, and too many moments which just didn't ring true and left me .

It feels like everything I've read has been leaving me underwhelmed lately. I haven't been really properly hooked by a book in ages.

Going to pick up Sleeping Beauties next. SK's normally always a safe bet, although reviews for it have been mixed.

Ugh Remus, hope you feel better soon. I’m on week three of this horrible flu and it’s affected my reading - can’t concentrate. May have to dig out Bill Bryson’s Down Under to cheer myself up.

Lots of waiting around today at dentist, teenage clubs so finished 28. The more you ignore me - Jo Brand. And it was truly bloody dire. Bought it in the Kindle Sale because I thought Jo Brand might write well about mental health given her background. How wrong I was! Story of a girl with a mother who suffers from serious mental illness. Said girl copes with this by immersing herself in Morrissey. Simplistic, cliche ridden and down right dire. Some cliches just rankle others are more offensive. The image of the typical local teenage girl is 'hard faced girls, who seemed only to be interested in drinking, cackling and being penetrated so hard they were almost unable to walk' !!!!
Any book that thinks a triple wedding is s convincing way to end it....
How this got so may 4 and 5 star reviews on Goodreads I will never know.

I’ve slogged my way to the end of 12. The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain - Ian Mortimer

A certain amount of over-committing went on here; this was a library ebook and I didn’t fully appreciate how long it was. It suddenly dawned on me that the page count was over 700 and to be perfectly honest, it felt like a bit of a worthy slog, even though history is my subject. It’s one of a series in which the idea is that you're placed within the daily life of the period in question. It’s not dauntingly academic, is told engagingly and quotes some interesting sources (though inevitably good old Samuel Pepys looms large) - but it’s very heavy on facts and figures and is therefore a long and dense read. I felt compelled to finish it, in the spirit of this thread, but have to admit that I’d have given up otherwise - partly because I’m pretty familiar with the period anyway. It did make me want to go back to browse Pepys's diaries at my leisure, though, so a partial win.

(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
(16) Breathe by Sarah Crossan
(17) Kiss of Death by Rachel Caine

As mentioned before I had got the full set of the Morganville Vampire books and do want to read them but I can't seem to read a series one after the other, I am attempting the next in the series now but can feel myself getting bored with it already and I am only about 50 pages in.

I also loved The Virgin Suicides I've read it many times now.

Finished City of Ashes - your usual teen angst drama that I can't seem to stop reading!

Book 19 is A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - a bit late to the game with this series but it's been on my TBR list for a while.

Mo I also have A Discovery of Witches on my tbr book shelf. I have no idea if it's meant to be good or not, picked it up years ago and never got round to reading it.

I thought A Discovery of Witches was okay.
I found the second in the series less interesting. All the time travelling dragged a bit IMO.
I started the third in the series ages ago and lost interest about half way through. It’s still on the shelf with a bookmark in it, so I haven’t given up completely on the idea of finishing it, but I keep passing it over in favour of other more exciting looking books.

Sorry I’ve not had a chance to read both threads, but will go back and do so. So far 2018 reading has been fabulous for me, here are the first 3 I have finished, top 2 recommended here in 2017 :

1. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman - reviewed on here many times. I loved this book about a dysfunctional loner, it’s funny and sad and just a lovely read.

2: Dark Fire by CJ Sansom - Shardlake number 2 and I liked this one better than the first one. Thanks to all those on this thread who recommended Shardlake. For those not familiar with him, Matthew Shardlake is a hunchback lawyer who solves crimes in Tudor times. This book was particularly evocative of a hot, smelly London summer and the mystery was intriguing. I’m looking forward to the next one.

3.Endurance by Alfred Lansing - a fabulous book about Shackleton's famous expedition to Antarctica. An amazing tale of survival against seemingly impossible odds. I listened to the audiobook and actually gasped aloud a few times. The narration is perfect. Highly recommended for anyone who likes to read true stories of adventure.

1. Crimes against Magic by Steve McHugh

The first in the Hellequin Chronicles, usually my kind of thing, I like Jim Butcher, Simon R Green etc, so magic, wizards, alternative worlds with a bit of sex and gore. This was recommended by DH but didn't thrill me. Protagonist has lost his memory but is adept in a range of fighting skills and magic. Turns out his neighbour's daughter is wanted by Mordred (yes, that one) and battles ensue to get her back.

7. Mummy’s Favourite - Sarah Flint

Mothers and their “favourite” child are buried, one alive one dead, in pairs. Can DC Charlie Stafford stop the killer?

Another kindle unlimited book and it was quite enjoyable but just your usual serial killer investigation book. Nothing particularly new!

16. Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris

Fairly gentle urban fantasy. Midnight is a small community in a dried-up western town, centred around a crossroads. There's not much there - a pawnshop, a diner, witch-focused shop, nail bar-cum-antique shop, general store/petrol station, small chapel, and very little else. There's also a new resident in town, an online psychic called Manfred, who thinks he has found the perfect place to work in private. As he settles in he learns that the girlfriend of the owner of the pawnshop has disappeared and his new neighbours are stranger than they at first appear.

MoNigheanDonn City of Ashes is much the worst of the Cassandra Clare books IMO - they do pick up from there on (and particularly from the second trilogy onwards. (There is a lot of teen angst though )

Best - Hope you feel better soon.

14 - Strong Poison – Dorothy L Sayers
I liked this - perfect not feeling terribly well reading matter. I especially liked the ‘Cattery’ women and especially a scene with a secretary and the ‘baddie’ which made me laugh. I’m v fond of Lord Peter, but wish he wittered rather less. Found the ‘love at first sight’ thing a bit daft, and didn’t think HV was terribly well drawn (assume she gets padded out as the series progresses?), but overall jolly good fun.