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?

Piggy - I last posted on this thread when it was thread two as it took me almost a month to read. Enjoyable but not gripping in the way some books are, and not enough to keep me off Mumsnet in the evenings so I was only reading 1/2 hour in the bath and in bed.

Thanks Chillie- I have started it and only had to do a couple of explanatory googles so far!

Yalea I believe there are 66 Agatha Christie’s- I feel I may have missed one or two myself!- plus some short stories.

Hello. I stalled a bit over the last couple of weeks, work stuff mainly, but am on holiday this week visiting family in Spain so hoping to make up for lost reading time.

1. The Wicked Boy Kate Summerscale - Well written and researched story of Robert Coombes, a child killer convicted of killing his mother in Victorian England. I did not enjoy this as much as The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, despite being rich in interesting historical detail there was very little to connect with emotionally in the case, just felt like a retelling of every aspect of the trial and its aftermath that is was possible for the author to glean at this distance. Whilst the research is admirable and raises some points of interest, it just didn’t add up to that compelling of a story for me - the possible reasons for the murder are touched on but, to me, there was not enough evidence to make a convincing case and the lack of further information and impossibility of gaining any further insight into Coombes’ interpretation of events felt more frustrating than anything.

Midnight's Children is one of those books that I know I've read, but couldn't tell you a thing about the plot . I don't remember hating it though, and it was certainly more successful than A Suitable Boy, which I've started three times now and still not finished.

Either I skim read really badly, or I'm getting older Or more likely both.

Haha diamante :A Suitable Boy is also on my list....

I’ve read a disproportionate amount of Rushdie for the amount I enjoy him.

Just a quick one to say that Fatherland is £2.99 on Audible today.

1. The Wonder Emma Donoghue - This was ok, took me under a day to read and wasn’t too taxing. Thought it lacked a bit of subtlety at times, and any so called twists or the ‘mystery’ part of how the girl was surviving and why she’d taken this path were fairly obvious long before the reveal. The romantic subplot was unnecessary I thought, and the ending implausible though satisfying- that being said I did enjoy it!

I remember when Rushdie had to go into hiding because some Iranian mullah put a fatwa on his head for his book The Satanic Verses. Living in a Muslim country at the time where it was banned and being quite the atheist rebels me and a number of friends found smuggled English copies and tried to read it.

Tried and failed. It was the dullest collection of words I had come across until that point in my life. None of us managed to get beyond the fist 10 pages.

19. Ubik by Philip K. Dick. Set in the future (1992) where space travel and psychic powers are common place, Joe Chip works for an anti-psi company. But when the boss appears to be killed in an explosion everything starts to unravel. This is a very successful sci fi mystery with as you would expect plenty of mind bending and exploration of the nature of reality. Fantastic ending. Well worth reading.

PepeLePew - I absolutely loved the Endurance audio book as well, I actually cried at the end, even though I vaguely knew the ending.

I am really struggling this year, I am reading every day but often only have time to snatch a few pages. Here goes:

1. Morning Star by Pierce Brown - the third book in the Red Rising series. I wasn't a massive fan of the first book but the second and third have been great. A bit Game of Thrones in space with less sex, lots of death and complicated family trees. Bonkers but fun to read.

1. The Amazing Teenage Brain Revealed by Nicola Morgan - I bought this cheap on Kindle sale thankfully. It didn't reveal anything I didn't already know about teenage brains - namely their brains make them more prone to risk-taking, addiction and depression. This book is meant to be read by teenagers but I know mine wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.

1. True Faith and Allegiance by Mark Greaney - a thriller, part of the Jack Ryan franchise, originally written by Tom Clancy but now continued by other writers since Clancy's death. A popcorn novel, and a guilty pleasure for me. The characters are either good or bad and the plot is utterly implausible but I really enjoy these spy thrillers. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well the women are drawn in this, they are not just victims but are properly kick-ass and high-ranking.

I've joined the Bleak House group, sounds great, thanks for the heads up Scribblygum.

mama - I enjoyed Ubik, too, and would recommend the same author's Martian Time-Slip and A Scanner Darkly. They are brilliantly brainhurty

Glad I'm not the only person who struggled with midnights children!

Have been mainline offline over half-term, but read:

17. Bookworm, by Patricia Craig
I was really looking out for the book of the same name by Lucy Mangan (due out next month!) which I'm salivating over in advance. This was also a memoir of childhood reading. It could have done with some tighter editing - there was a bit more detail about public libraries in 1950s Belfast than I really wanted. I love her 1970s book with Mary Cadogan, You're a Brick, Angela. I enjoyed her comments thirty years down the line, when she notes that she berated authors for adhering to the orthodoxy of their times, when she was doing exactly that herself. Not bad, but You're a Brick, Angela is still the better read.

18. The Lost City of the Monkey God, by Douglas Preston
A true-life account of finding archaeological remains in Honduras. Took a few chapters to warm to this - wasn't keen on the account of the various hucksters who claimed to have found the city. The account of entering the ruins is compelling though, as it the aftermath, when a large number were struck down by leishmaniasis. He talks about how the expedition was challenged in some quarters as a macho, imperial project, and he imagines what it was like as whole civilisations were wiped out by disease. More thoughtful than the impression given by the title.

19. Hunger, by Roxane Gay
The essayist writes about life as a very fat woman (her term). It's actually more about the life-long impact of sexual violence against a child, and her grief about how it derailed her life and stopped her being the person she might otherwise have been. I read extracts in The Guardian when it first came out, and to be honest, the whole book doesn't add a lot more, but I did find myself racing through it.

1. White Bodies by Jane Robins A thriller describing a concerned sister looking out for her sister who is trying to protect from an emotionally abusive relationship. Not my normal style of book I read this as was given a preview copy. It was a gripping read and I will look out for any more by the author.

7.Mount! by Jilly Cooper Another installment in the lives of Rupert Campbell-Black, family, friends and enemies. These books are a real guilty pleasure and the latest didn't disappoint

I've never got very far with Rushdie either, but A Suitable Boy is a wonderful book.

Book 19 Watch me by Anjelica Huston
This was a disappointing and quite sad read. The second installment in her memoirs ( I haven't read the first) this chronicles her moving to LA and starting her acting career, her relationship with Jack Nicholson and her subsequent marriage and later movies.

The writing style isn't great, its more of a list of people and places and there is not much substance or depth. As an actress, I know I shouldn't expect her to be an amazing writer as well, but when you compare it to Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run for example, this is in the poorly done section of autobiography's.

The sad sections are essentially around her relationships. She details her relationship with Nicholson and whilst I think we are supposed to be on her side, I actually found myself getting cross with her. He said he doesn't want to marry her, freely admits to other women and doesn't hide it and then she gets upset with him when he has affairs but admits she likes the presents he gave her when they made up. She seemed to suffer from a chronic lack of self esteem within relationships and wanted to be adored, even if it was false and untrue. She admits on her engagement to her husband she was still wondering what Nicholson would think when he heard the news. The relationships board on here would have a field day.

Overall, its not worth the read, if you have interest in her and her life I would say read one of the interviews she has done instead as that basically covers it all.

Next up is The Shining by Stephen king as I have only read one other of his novels and his short stories before so am starting with the classic. Am one chapter in and enjoying it already.

I also enjoyed A Suitable Boy but it took me few chapters to get on with it. It's a real thumper of a book. It was written from a very (upper) middle class point of view, kind of a modern Indian Jane Austen. I have to say though I left out large chunks of the political/partition ramblings as I also did with War and Peace (hangs head in shame)

Just checking in - am back to the sleep book, which I'm working through very slowly! I picked up the first Shardlake and one of my favourite Tales of the City books for 50p each at a jumble sale on Saturday, as well as Smoke Gets In Your Eyes in the Kindle deal, so may go onto one of them for a bit of a break.

I must read A Suitable Boy - I know it's one of my mum's favourite books, and we generally have pretty similar tastes (her extreme love of Trollope aside).

Thanks for the recommendations cote. I haven't read any PKD for years and forgot how good he was, definitely keen to read some more. I enjoyed the animated movie of A Scanner Darkly so might go for that.

Lived A Suitable Boy , found Midnight's Children turgid.

36. Jane Austen at Home - Lucy Worsley Beautiful book to look at and well researched and well written, as I would expect of Worsley. However I found this pretty dull to be honest. It was a book club read and not something I would have picked up otherwise. I have read and enjoyed Austen but I am not a 'fan'. I feel I am risking have my head torn off but quite honestly Austen's day to day life really wasn't that interesting. Worsley gives very detailed domestic dealings but admits that Jane's family sanitised her life after her death. Much correspondence was burnt and only the good, gentle, domestic Jane seems to remain. Interesting to note in itself but not enough to sustain a whole book, unless you are an Austen devotee. Worsley seems to have slim pickings for her sources, illustrated by the fact that on at these three occasions she uses the same quotations to support different points throughout the book.
Will be interested to see what others make of it.

I've had the Worsley book on my bedside table since it came out. It's really boring. I'm a huge Janeite but I find Worsley a lazy and boring writer.

Book 20
Munich – Robert Harris
A disappointment, especially considering how much I loved Fatherland. This focuses on Chamberlain’s attempts to keep ‘peace in our time’ in 1938, which is interesting historically but just didn’t really come to life terribly well as a novel. The central character was pretty one dimensional, and the stuff that’s supposed to flesh him out and make him a real person just didn’t really work and felt like a bolt on. Moments of what should be real tension turn into yet more ‘watch Chamberlain draft out another document’ moments instead, and the thing that was supposed to be the main point of the novel -two friends, one British and one German, doesn’t even start until almost half way into the novel. This just didn’t work very well for e, I’m afraid.

remus that’s disappointing