50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Three

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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 and the second one here.

What are you reading?

30. The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

Picked this recommendation up from this thread. It’s along similar lines to A Man Called Ove, The Rosie Project and Eleanor Oliphant. I did like this but didn’t engage with it as much as the other three I’ve mentioned. Also, it was set quite near where I live and there were several inaccuracies which grated on me - little things but would have been so easy to get right, which then made me wonder about the accuracy of anything else mentioned!

The Bleak House readalong has been created by a Booktuber who I follow. She's running it on goodreads too, I'll find the link in a moment.
I've c&pd the chapter lists with dates (and made a pretty copy to stick on my fridge ) both attached.

Goodreads group

Ooo! Think I might join in with that Scribbly! Thanks for sharing.

Team Jane here!

1. Out of Time by Miranda Sawyer. Non fiction about mid life crises - why we have them, and what we can do to bring ourselves out of them. A nice mix of the general and her personal experiences. My main feeling while reading this was relief, as I haven’t really experienced anything like this. I’m 43 so I guess it could be waiting around the corner!

Mary Beard's SPQR is on Kindle Daily Deals today - £3.29 - for anyone who might be interested.

My 1001 Books To Read Before You Die book has a very different list by the way. The book was updated last year so has some recent entries.

It had lots of German books in it, so I did better.

If anyone likes splashing out on books, this one is a real beauty. And it has Austen and Dickens and Hardy in it!

www.amazon.co.uk/1001-Books-Must-Read-Before/dp/1844037401/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&keywords=1001+books+to+read+before+you+die&dpID=51v4RE9dEpL&preST=SX218_BO1&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1518775830&sr=1-1,204,203,200_QL40&dpSrc=srch

Might give the Bleak House thing a go.

I have never heard of BookTubers. Who knew they were a thing!!

Not sure I can read that slowly but I'll give it a go!

Am not on Goodreads either but will have a look.

Austen was a genius and so was Dickens. Unfortunately, Dickens was an overly sentimental genius with a tendency to waffle and a dire need for a decent editor, but you can't have everything.

Hardy on the other hand I can't be doing with. Though I did like Tess.

She does say ' really' and 'really really' a lot!

It reminded me of a children's book... ring a bell to anyone? Someone kept going 'really really?' in it. Possibly Charlie and Lola?

She is really really very very excited about it yy to Lola

Sorry if I have opened up a huge new time vampire for you Piggy. There are several excellent reviewers on YouTube in amongst a bazillion fresh faced enthusiasts of YA fiction.

I think you might have done scribbly...

Sorry

16 The Prince's Chambermaid by Sharon Kendrick (audiobook)

Arrogant smouldering Prince Xiaviero of Zaffirinthos (not a real country) visits an English country hotel whereupon he meets the meek but astonishingly proportioned Cathy, a chambermaid. Struck by her physical attributes and aquamarine widely spaced eyes (important detail) he pretends to be a painter and decorator and as such speaks the best line in the book “Yes, I'm here to do the measuring up.” Lusty romps, furrowed brows and whistful heart searchings all follow.

I recommend this audiobook is listened to at 1.5X normal speed to really ramp up the sexual tension and general plot excitement.

Questions I am now pondering upon finishing:

1. Can true love really conquer all?
2. Gold cutlery studded with rubies: dishwasher proof?

I've just had a read of the Guardian list on my (early!) lunch break. As someone who only studied English to GCSE I'm really under-read as far as the classics go. I have read 68 on the list, most of which are post-war. I did find the list odd, and often the chosen titles were not IMO the author's best work - eg Fingersmith, The Murder at the Vicarage Several of the books I have read on it were fairly unmemorable - Girlfriend In A Coma, The Beach, and I've started and cast aside as least as many as I've read - clearly I have no stamina!

I've only read Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol, so I'm in no way qualified to weigh in on the Austen V Dickens front. I am however interested in the Bleak House read along. I started this a year or so ago, and was quite taken with the premise, but the billion and one characters and parallel storylines all go a bit confusing for me. I think with the right company and a notebook I might enjoy though.

I've signed up for the Bleak House readalong too, not sure I'll sustain interest over that period of time, or conversely get really into it and read more than I should but you're doing wonders for that Youtubers membership and profile Scribbly!

Great review Scribbly

Cheerful
I like that summing up of Dickens. I think he'd have made a brilliant TV/film writer, where 80% of his stuff would have to end up on the cutting room floor.

Re: Hardy - I could call him many things, but 'trite' certainly wouldn't be one of them.

I've read Bleak House but confess I enjoyed the 2005 TV adaptation more. I love the Phil Davis character - "Shake me up, Judy!'

I finished 10. Orange is the New Black - My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman as I've been enjoying this on Netflix. The TV adaptation is very very loosely based on the book. In the latter she's much more liked and likeable, and no-one serves her used tampons for lunch or threatens to kill her.

35. A Very English Scandal - John Preston Reviewed before on these threads. The story of the Jeremy Thorpe affair. Hilarious in places but down right shocking how the establishment protects it's own. Given revelations about various abuse scandals over the years I don't suppose I should be shocked but I was. Yes, Cyril Smith and Jimmy Saville are mentioned! Well written and compelling, my enjoyment was slightly sullied by the author's closing message of thanks which included Michael Gove and Sarah Vine.

ghosts the BBC version was very good - and we still say shake me up Judy. I mean, when it feels appropriate.

17. The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida Written by a 13 year old boy with autism. Just read this in one sitting. I've seen it recommended a few times. I really enjoyed this, touching and beautiful in places. Interesting to hear such a different experience of the world. Particularly enjoyed the bits that resonated with my son's behaviour.

10. The Son by Jo Nesbo a standalone thriller, I enjoyed this more than the Harry Hole books I've tried by the same author!
    The Son is imprisoned for several horrific crimes which it soon emerges he did not commit. Following a fellow inmates revelations of the truth about Sonny's father's death, he escapes and seeks to exact revenge upon the real culprits of the crimes and his fathers killers, with likeable detective-with-a-dodgy-past Kefas in pursuit. Took me a little way to get into but enjoyed this and didn't see the twist coming.

11. Nothing on Earth by Conor O' Callaghan this is excellent. Creepy and claustrophobic, I can't stop thinking about this short,beautifully written, surreal read. It begins with a terrified twelve year old girl pounding on the narrators door during the hottest August in memory, who tells him of her strange home life in the show home of an eerie, abandoned housing estate where paprika like red dust permeates all surfaces. It's unclear who is telling the truth and a lot is left unanswered, I think unsettling would probably be the best word for it.

1. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout. Book of short stories about or connected to Olive, a retired schoolteacher living in Maine in the 80's and 90's. I wasn't keen on this apart from the lack of sentimentality in the writing and the very recognisable titular character, and I thought the screenwriter of the superb TV adaptation wisely scrapped most of the boring stories from the book. Much more focus on Olive would have made the book more successful but what do I know - this book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2008. I liked My Name is Lucy Barton even less so won't bother reading anymore from this author.

1. How to Be Champion - Sarah Millican. Very enjoyable memoir from the comedian, often crude in places so it won't be for everyone. Lots of wisdom and laughs here, a good bargain for 99p when it was on Kindle Daily Deal. A fun and thoughtful comfort read.

southeastdweller I feel the same about Elizabeth Strout (and Olive Kitteridge). I also read Amy and Isabelle and the Burgess Boys as they were a cheap tie in on Kindle for 99p each but ultimately felt the books were flat and unrewarding(for my effort). There was some really well observed pieces and interesting premises but ultimately did not deliver.

Maybe I just don't get on with "small town" American stories. I disliked Anne Tyler's, A Spool of Blue Thread (ducks down) and We were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Craol Oates too.