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?

I felt the same about Munich. Never read any Harris, though so had ne expectations. Fatherland is in my tbr pile. DS2 is pretending to read it.

DS1 not 2.

I've finished book 18, Stalin Rupert Colley a quick read, a good overview.

I seem to be in a bit of a reading slump at the moment.

Currently on A Brief History Of Seven Killings don't think it will be a quick read but I am enjoying it

32. Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson

Christine has amnesia and wakes every day not knowing who she is. She therefore relies on her husband - but is he telling her the truth? There are lots of plot holes here, but I still enjoyed it and found it a gripping story!

12. I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh compelling psychological thriller, a tragic hit and run accident involving a young boy causes Jenna to flee to the remote Welsh coast. A huge twist that I didn't see coming ensues, I enjoyed this. It felt very familiar, I don't know if this is because I've read it before and forgotten or because I've read so many new-ish thrillers recently with multiple narratives, the time frame changing each chapter, unreliable narrator and a huge twist making you change your opinion on a major character etc etc

For all you Margaret Forster fans Hunter Davies' A Day in the Life is 99p on Kindle daily deals. This one has quite a lot about his life with Margaret in. Love it when something on my too read list pops up in daily deals.

So tempting t o get that, Too Much, but I'm looking at my huge tbr pile

I quite liked the Worsley book on Jane Austen, but she's mainly just rehashing work by Paula Byrne and Claire Harman amongst others. She doesn't really bring anything new to table.

12. Heartstone by C J Sansom

I was a bit disappointed with this one. It took a long time to get going - nearly 3 hundred pages in fact - and not in a delicious slow burn, building tension kind of way, in a way that felt like cuts could easily have been made of some of the more repetitive sections to maintain interest. As with all Shardlakes though, the last 200 or so pages always feel like they were worth the effort. The pacy final sections as everything comes together aboard the embattled Mary Rose were very good. The mysteries themselves were good and skilfully woven in to the historical milieu, but Shardlake isn’t a great solver of mysteries, he rather doggedly hangs on until the bitter end when it all finally unravels and he does what needs to be done, but this time I felt his conclusions were a bit lacklustre and not really in keeping with his character. He is often accused of being overly moralistic, and accuses himself of being righteous, but some of his decisions were decidedly blurry on the moral side, and I felt that (a woefully underused in this story) Jack Barak spoke for me at the end when he looked at him incredulously and said “You are stark mad”. Still, I’m making too much of what is essentially a fun Tudor caper, and a world that I do enjoy inhabiting. It could have done with an edit though, and I hope Jack will get to do more than follow Shardlake around wanting to go home in the next one, as I like it when he is finding things out and roughing people up. Dark Fire and Revelation have been the best for me in the series, this one more on a (Catherine) par with Sovereign in that it was rather slow for the first half, despite an interesting setting.

Think might try and read a couple of short ones next, Miss Pettigrew first I think.

Interesting to hear the reviews of Munich. I really enjoyed it but then I think I really liked reading about the politics of the time.

9 Dissolution - C J Sansom - Previously reviewed on the thread and recommended to me by several rl friends. I thoroughly enjoyed this and looking forward to reading the next in the series.

10 Calling Major Tom - David Barnett - Read for my new work book club and thankfully due to a long train ride only took one day to read. Major Tom has had enough of living on earth so volunteers to go up to Mars on a one way mission. On his way to Mars though he becomes friendly with a family who changes his view of the world. Cliched, predictable and formulaic. I really did not enjoy. As, I don't know the people in the book club very well I will need to think of a tactful way to tell them.

11 Close to Home - Cara Hunter - DI Farley investigates the disappearance of 8 year old Daisy Hunter from a family party. Light weight thriller which kept me intrigued for most of the book but I found the ending disappointing and not very plausible.

Currently reading The Snow Girl by Eowyn Ivey for my other book club.

I agree - very interesting to read the reviews of Munich. Satsuki I also felt that about Heartstone . I think there are a lot of books I've read in the past few years that could have done with a good amount of editing. There does seem to be a fashion for publishing very big/long books - are we going back to Victorian times when writers had to produce a 3 volume set ?

9. No Fond Return of Love - I've been struggling the past 2 months with a cold/flu virus so have been reading "lighter books". I enjoyed Excellent Women so much that I decided to stick with Barbara Pym.

It was very funny in places and so well observed and zipped along very nicely. Much more of farce than Excellent Women and not as good IMO but still well worth a read. The main object of Lust is a good looking leonine man in his mid to late 40's who has no idea how to treat women or how to pick a suitable mate but becomes an object of desire for the main protagonist and her associated circle. I disliked the dalliance with a young girl. I kept forgetting that Dulcie the main character was only 29/30 and not a "middle aged spinster" of the same age as Alywin Forbes. I liked the references to the ending of Mansfield Park and short quotes that suited the situation from relevant books and poems.

I like how Barbara Pym gives little cameo appearances to characters from her other novels and has one of her books appear on someone's shelf or table. She even gives herself a little cameo.

It is kind of sad though that the unmarried women seem so under occupied and are scratching around for opportunities to be useful or basically stalking people to fill their lives. Dulcie studied at Oxford but works at home indexing books, a tedious and badly paid job whilst the idiot men get to write the books and be editors.

16. Insomnia, Stephen King

Re-read. I read this far too often because it's one of the few SK books I have in the house as a physical copy. I used to have heaps and they're in a box at my dad's - should get them back! Insomnia is the means for transcending to a different plane of reality, leading to a fight to save one specific person from the little bald doctors/Fates etc. Bit ropey in places - early 90s attitudes to feminism/women's place etc, plus the randomness of the whole little bald doctors thing anyway. Ralph is really quite gruesomely violent at one point, which put me off him. First re-read since finishing the Dark Tower series, and I have to say, it's not King's best work, but it is really arrogant to just decide that Insomnia doesn't count as part of his Dark Tower canon - random episode in DT 6 or 7 where they get given a copy of Insomnia and decide not to read it.

17. Falconer's Lure,
18. End of Term, both Antonia Forest.

I came to this series as an avid Elinor M Brent-Dyer fan looking for something similar. I was absolutely blown away by these! Forest has a very similar style to Noel Streatfeild with her portrayal of the stresses/relationships within a large family, and she doesn't shy away from serious life events either. They felt like very adult books despite being about children and the second one being set in a school. End of Term in particular was layered with themes and beautifully done. My heart sank a bit when I realised it was heavily centred around a Nativity Play, because I have read dozens of overblown descriptions of nativities at the Chalet School and so my expectations were low. But we had discussions of religion (Catholicism v Protestant, Jewishness and its intersections with Christianity), sisterly relationships (as a twin the relationship between Nicola and Lawrie is particularly interesting), resolutions of plot points relating to fairness/judgement/the way people are perceived by themselves and others, the impact of divorce on children and more. Oh yes, the importance of small facts and how they can change one's whole outlook - Lawrie plays her role in one way, but if she'd known a certain fact she might have changed her whole interpretation - which is a lovely little vignette on the book as a whole. It is beautifully done - never feels high-handed or preachy. I am now in Marlow mourning and lamenting the price of the rest of the books! Girls Gone By is republishing Peter's Room in June but all the rest of them seem to go for £45 or more. Still, that one's on my wishlist for June. Any suggestions for sourcing the others?

Have a look in your library, TooExtra! They can order any book you want from the BL too - it costs a bit, but nowhere near £45.
Glad to see you another Forest fan on here. I think she's brilliant.

19. Dark Fire, CJ Sansom.

Book 2 in the Shardlake series. I enjoyed the Tudor detail - it's a period of history I know only a little about and that focussed mainly on Henry VIII's wives, not on the life of the commoners at that point. Storyline dragged a bit in the middle, at around the point where it was clear that Shardlake had 10 days to solve the mystery and that for plot purposes we now had to get through 9 days with not much happening. Slightly pantomime villainry going on, which was a bit unconvincing. There's a pattern emerging here with Shardlake and pretty women, too! The character of Barak isn't doing it for me yet, mainly to do with him using the word 'arsehole' over and over and over again. I want to buy him a thesaurus!

20. The Break, Marian Keyes.

Reviewed upthread - after 17 years Hugh, husband of Amy, decides he needs a 6 month break involving backpacking round Asia and shagging other women. Despite the way that sounds, the novel spends a lot of time exploring Amy's role in this decision. Honestly, it read like MK had been reading the Relationships board and decided to write a novel to express the NAMALT/there are two sides to every story point of view. MK writes rollicking Irish family life very well, but the secondary characters didn't feel particularly fresh if you're familiar with her other works, which I am. There was Irish Mammy, overbearing older sister, feckless brother and the daughter Neeve was a dead ringer for Helen Walsh. I also wish the caring for a spouse with dementia aspect had been explored more and not just joked about. The clothes were a bit fantasy-land as well - Amy has someone who sources her vintage clothes for charity shop prices - now, we all know that proper vintage is bloody expensive, and the sort of charity shop finds that aren't involve vast amounts of time hunting for the good stuff amongst the dross, which a mother of 3 with a full-time job just can't do. I want a personal shopper to find me cheap vintage!

tooextra for me a Shardlake hasn’t really begun until Jack has uttered his first arsehole, and several truckle beds have been pulled out for use on a hot stinky London night. I said to my husband while reading Heartstone it’s like CJ Sansom has never heard insults used in real life, they always seem to have a strange rhythm. And yes Matthew does have a nose for a scented hand! It’s his only weakness (that and letting too many people die before he solves anything )

Does anyone know when the next Shardlake is expected to come out?

I had a look recently but couldn’t find anything cote. Am I right I’m thinking it will be four years this year, which will be the longest previous gap between books. There was mention of Sansom having been ill though. I’m holding fire on Lamentation for a bit.

7. The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers. Another 99p Kindle buy that made me feel I should be a bit more discerning, even if it is only a quid I'm spending. I've seen some positive reviews so I'm willing to accept I'm in a minority but^^ I struggled to get into this book and was glad when it was over. The book recounts the exploits of self styled 'King' David Hartley and his gang of coin forgers and is based on historical accounts and legal documents. Billed as an authentic His Bloody Project, but I'll take HBP every day of the week. Lots of lyrical descriptions of the Yorkshire countryside that did nothing to move the plot along. Lyrical language is not really my bag, but I can imagine those who enjoy poetic language in novels would like this aspect of the writing. A chunk of the book is made up of Hartley's self penned story (as imagined by Meyers) written in Yorkshire dialect with phonetic, Chaucer like, spellings for example: "Did I say lassed confayshun becors eyell be a Dutchman if you thinke King David Heartly is going to whittle when the hangmans got his neckweed around his scrag Hell no any learnit man nose a confayshun is what a man maykes when rong it is that he has done Confayshun is when he wants to make his pease with God and is seeking penans for them sins that he has cermitted And I tell you now with hand on both hart and borls it is no sin I have cermitted except those that any man cermitts over the cors of his lifetime." Sometimes deciphering these passages was more effort than it was worth imho. A dud for me I'm afraid, although I was curious to know more about Hartley's wife Grace who given the epilogue seems to have had more intelligence and foresight than the rest of the gang of forgers put together, she however is relegated to a bit player in a male dominated story.

Desdemona, that dialect is making my brain hurt!

desdemona that is so funny hand on both hart and borls “cermitted” is what Miss Piggy did when she married the frog. That doesn’t especially look like Middle English or Yorkshire dialect, just weirdly spelled

20. War of the worlds H G Wells Never read any Wells before and not in a hurry to again. I started this about five books back but have found it very dull in both style and story. The characters are not developed and it just feels like a slog. Im not sure why it's so famous really, am sure it was quite new and exciting subject matter at the time but its not at all engaging. Glad to have finished finally.

Shardlake 3 dragged and dragged and then had an amazingly gripping ending. I’m trying to keep 4 for m6 holidays but may not be able to resist.

I lost count for a bit during a vicious bout of flu where I could only read rubbish so I’m going to gloss over that and go straight to

1. Eiger Dreams-Jon Krakauer Short writings about mountain. It was ok. There were some good bits about Alaska and some dull bits.

10. Joanna Trollope - Balancing Act. Absolute rubbish. A mess of a book. I have no idea what the plot was or the resolution and most of the characters were interchangeable as far as I could tell. Pottery was involved.