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?

whitewine I read it for the first time - possibly second but can’t remember and obviously didn’t take - last year and was unimpressed with it.

whitewine I just added Brave New World to my kindle yesterday as it's one of those books people rave about and I've never read. It's one people often talk about at the same time as 1984 so I had high hopes. Doesn't sound promising now.

I feel 1984 stands the test of time in a way Brave New World doesn’t, and the writing is better quality. However, I would say it’s still worth reading for the ideas, keeping in mind the time it was written etc. And you may enjoy it!

Persist with Brave new world although the concepts in it are better than the plot.

It’s been a long while since I read Brave New World, I don’t think it’s as good a book as 1984 but echoing others above, I think the dystopia of control by consumption and fulfilment is a bigger danger right now.

Book 7. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
A reread as I watched the film the other day which made me want to read it again. I find with this that each time I read it, I get something else out of it. When I was younger it was the Rochester/Jane story but now I love the third act when she is with the Rivers family.

Not sure what to read next. Have Lincoln in the Bardo waiting plus Alias Grace but may be naughty and go to the book shop whilst I do the school run later. I knew it’s would be dangerous to take a day off work! Some good reviews here as well which I will check out.

I agree brave new world is no 1984 but it's an interesting read nonetheless.

Wasn't Huxley into eugenics? (As were lots of people pre the Nazi party I believe) I think that puts a slightly different spin on it.

"I feel 1984 stands the test of time in a way Brave New World doesn’t, and the writing is better quality."

My thoughts exactly.

1. Green Dolphin Country, Elizabeth Goudge.

This book has been developed around a true story of a man who emigrated to New Zealand in the 1840s and wrote home asking for his childhood sweetheart to come out to join him. However, he was writing to her father to ask for her hand, and he accidentally asked for her older sister. His mistake wasn't discovered until she arrived in NZ after a lengthy and difficult journey - so he kept his mouth shut and married her. I'm not giving anything away by explaining this because it's in the prologue to the novel. Elizabeth Goudge's novel tries to explain how this could happen, which seems a bit contrived in places (her hero mistakes the two names frequently in the early part of the novel, and is drunk when he writes the fateful letter). However, leaving that aside, this is a gem of a book - set in Guernsey and NZ, a folk tale about the island is woven into the story, and she achieves the difficult task of making the two sisters opposites but equally attractive. It's a bit Taming of the Shrew (which I haven't read!) with one plain but extremely intelligent and driven sister versus a beautiful and spiritual younger one. There's a lot of religion as well - I was introduced to the idea of immanence, which I had to look up (seeing God in the daily things of life/Nature) - which I heartily enjoy, despite not being very religious myself. I always like books that muse on the importance of God and the study of Christianity.

The only thing that jarred for me was the racism - it was written in 1944, and the descriptions of the Maoris were deeply problematic - numerous references to them as 'dusky children'. I don't know enough about the Maori culture to know whether the depictions of it are stereotyped or not - it does say in the foreword that the author had never been to NZ and was relying on a reference book.

I love Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom too! I've got an old-fashioned hardback of Rose that I found in a secondhand bookshop. I was far too shallow for Eight Cousins, though - in the bit where she has to decide whether to dress in bloomers and sensible clothes or to dress fashionably with a corset and tiny waist, I wanted the fashionable option! Might download Eight Cousins - Rose in Bloom is packed away for moving.

Oh, I loved Eight Cousins too, but only read Rose in Bloom recently. Of course I'm so aware now of how sentimental the stories are...

What a brilliant thread! Will have to make a reading list, but so far this year have read:
Thin air, Michelle Paver;
I am missing, Tim weaver;
Pretty girls, Karin slaughter;
The book of lost things, John Connelly.

Next up is hagseed, Margaret Atwood.

Thin air was excellent - well written ghost story set up a mountain in the Himalayas.

Satsuki - as always, I'm jealous of anybody reading This Thing of Darkness for the first time. For a book that I picked up at random in a charity shop years ago, it sure has gained a lot of love on here since!

Just in case anybody hasn't yet noticed - I really like Skellig. I think it's a sublime little book. Such a pity Almond hasn't really lived up to his early promise.

Cheddar - I like the sound of Green Dolphin Country except for the God stuff. Do you think I could tolerate it, or is the whole novel entirely Goddish (rather proud of my newly minted word here)?

People keep telling me to read thin air - is that the one by Michelle paver?

Is it scary?

I've just finished book 2/50 Class Trip by French writer Emmanuel Carrere. It's about a schoolboy on a ski trip. He's the class reject and during the trip something awful happens - I won't say what.

I was drawn to the novel because the author said he wrote it because he became obsessed with the true story of murderer Jean-Claude Romande, the man who managed to lie for 18 years to his parents, wife and friends that he was a successful doctor working for the World Health Organisation when in fact he'd flunked his first year at med school, never graduated and never had a job.
This novella was the author imagining what the man was like as a child, and apparently Romande read it in prison and contacted him and said it was so eerily accurate that Carrere could write his biography.
It's a very quick read. Psychologically very perceptive and creepy. But not a classic page-turning thriller. More a literary novella.

Just finished book 2) the poison tree by Erin Kelly. Described on here previously I think, tho can't find precious discussions.

I enjoyed it, which was a surprise as not usually that into psychological suspense, although I'd maybe have preferred it as without the 'suspense' bit and it almost could have worked without the final predictable 'twist'.

Will happily read more of hers now though.

Clash if you mean people on this thread (rather than IRL), you might be referring to Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer which is a completely different book!

1. According to Mark by Penelope Lively. Recommended by someone on this thread (sorry, can’t remember who). This is the story of Mark, who is writing a biography of the (fictional) author Gilbert Strong, and meets various relatives, friends and acquaintances of his during the course of his work - in particular, Strong’s granddaughter Carrie. I enjoyed this a lot. Recommended for fans of Anne Tyler.

Thin Air not terribly good. Into Thin Air VERY good!

Into Thin Air is fantastic! One of the best books I’ve read in years.

1. All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

2. Closely Watched Trains - Bohumil Hrabal

3. Women and Power: A Manifesto – Mary Beard

4. The Road Home – Rose Tremain
   Uplifting modern day fairytale about an economic migrant in London. Lev arrives in London from an unspecified Eastern European country searching for work after the timber mill in his home town shuts down. The first few chapters are quite harrowing, as Lev struggles to find his feet in a bewildering and unfriendly place. I felt Rose Tremain captured the way London can appear hostile and unforgiving, but is also a place full of possibility and hope, as Lev attempts to build a new life. Would recommend!

Book 8 the Other Mrs Walker by Mary Paulson Ellis
A woman arrives in Edinburgh after a failed relationship and stays with her mother. To make some money she works at a local centre that tracks down relatives of people who have died with no one to claim them.
The story centers around Margaret, the main character as she uncovers the life of her assigned deceased person, Mrs Walker.
This was ok, a quick read, and full of twists that kept me reading to find out what happened. Overall though there were lots of coincidences and characters doing extreme thins with no explanations for it to be great. I’d describe this as an airport read. Worth picking up if you want something to keep you entertained for a short time but I wouldn’t overly recommend it.

1. River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey an alternative historical fiction set in the Louisiana bayou of the 1800s, in which feral hippos roam the marshes and "hoppers" run hippo ranches, riding their domesticated hippos like cowboys.

I was hoping for a literary equivalent of Snakes on A Plane but sadly not! Too much time spent on the overly quirky characters and their back stories, too little hippo action! An enjoyable enough short novella though.

"Too little hippo action" - Excellent review.

I thought The Road Home began really well, but that it lost its way a bit by the end. Agree it's worth a read though.

Yes we all love Into Thin Air on here. Just made my dh read it too and we’ve been talking about it a lot since.

Remus I can tell I’m going to find it difficult to move on from it, I’m so attached to Fitzroy already. Yes, what a find - a lot of differing opinions on here, but not a lot of dissent on this one.

murine and from the first part of your review, I thought hippo action could pretty much be counted on. I can feel your disappointment. I can recommend Hippos Go Berserk for guaranteed hippo action on every page, not much in the way of plot, but it does help you learn your numbers to 10