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?

@cotedazur I guess I mean a lot all of the time! But I like a bit of reading that’s not a reminder of real life. My books aren’t very high brow I guess except the few that I get inspired by on here.

Diamantegal I just loved it!! Can't you tell?
However all is not lost used it to fill the 'Book with an ugly cover' prompt on the Pop Sugar reading challenge.

11. Ella Minnow Pea Mark Dunn - residents of a fictional island struggle to live with censorship and an increasingly totalitarian regime as letters of the alphabet become banned from use in the order they fall from a town statue. Clever wordplay and satire, though it felt really quite light and not particularly emotionally engaging. A quick, easy read.

1. Deep State by Walter Jon Williams

This is the sequel to This Is Not A Game: You Don't Get A Second Life which I read and enjoyed last year. Unfortunately, it was a huge disappointment.

It shouldn't have been. A techno-thriller (supposedly) that takes place in Turkey sounds like it would be right up my street. CIA recruits an online game designer, our hero Dagmar, to orchestrate a resistance movement in Turkey against the military who has recently seized power in a coup d'état. Write the script, as it were. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? And if Neal Stephenson were to write it, I bet it actually would be interesting.

Sadly, this one wasn't written by Stephenson and all the "orchestrating" she did was setting up the times & places for the street demonstrations, which could have easily be done on Facebook.

Also, like most books that supposedly take place in Turkey, this one was also laden with impossible names (yes, there is such a thing), wrong spellings, cultural misunderstandings, and the like.

Don't bother with this one.

1. Hostages to Fortune Elizabeth Cambridge

Recommended upthread. Catherine marries a young doctor and has his child in the early years of the First World War. She wants to write books, but her ambition ends up being swallowed by the hard work of raising a family in a large, inconvenient house in an Oxfordshire village where there's never quite enough money to go around. Her relations feel she ought to be disappointed, but despite it all she finds happiness with her children, a husband she loves deeply, and small moments of interest and beauty. I liked this a lot. It starts with the birth of Catherine's oldest child (she has three) and ends with them as teenagers. It's about motherhood, but also about accepting the path your life ends up taking, even if it's not what you planned when you were eighteen. And about the generation growing up after the War and how different they were to their parents. Lots of the parenting stuff is VERY Mumsnet. There's Catherine's friend who's raising her child on a different system and diet every month. There's lots of worrying about the fact that "we do so much to entertain our children - previous generations just let them get on with it!" Catherine's husband tells her that the children have too many toys, that she never lets them get bored, that she shouldn't spend all their free time taking them on day trips. Another friend overschedules her kids with horse riding and dance classes and her kids are still always complaining that they're bored. "It wasn't like that when we were young!" they wail. Which made me laugh given that this is the twenties and we're still having these conversations today. Yes, it was. I liked how individual the children were, and how realistic she is about how much of motherhood is a slog. And about how much you get wrong, and how little it ends up mattering. Her descriptions of life during and just after the War are fascinating too. It's a VERY Persephone book, but if you like them, you'll probably like this.

Cheerful - phew. It was me that recommended it and I then got cold feet, thinking you might hate it

TooExtra as previously stated, I’m another of this thread's Antonia Forest fans, and now have all her books, but it got very expensive indeed towards the end! I think I’ve got a spare copy of 'Autumn Term' knocking around if it's any good to you? (Will check that, as I’m not 100% sure, but I know I've got a duplicate of at least one in the series).

I really came on to say I’ve fallen horribly behind but have just finished
17: The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst - Nichaolas Tomalin & Ron Hall

This was a 99p Kindle deal, bought because I saw a haunting film documentary about Crowhurst, 'Deep Water', about 10 years ago - though they’ve now made a feature film starring Colin Firth. I think Remus also read this. Basically Crowhurst was an amateur sailor who entered a round-the-world race and - realising he couldn’t win - decided to fake the account of his progress. Over many months of solitude and the ordeal of coping with a sub-standard craft, he effectively disintegrated mentally and his boat was found floating with no-one on board. He's presumed to have jumped overboard and committed suicide when, by various freak coincidences, it turned out that he was going to win after all - or at at least appear to - and his fakery would probably be exposed.
I know zilch about sailing and a lot of this was pretty technical. But it’s a compelling and tragic story which I felt drawn into, despite a rather pedestrian writing style.

Good review cheerful I’m looking forward to reading it.

20. Heartburn by Nora Ephron So many people have recommended this to me, and said it is the funniest book they have read. I didn't laugh once, so whether this is just my sense of humour or theirs I don't know. Its a small book and is essentially a version of events from Ephrons real life marriage breakdown when she was 7 months pregnant. There are some witty lines and it is easy and enjoyable read but I didn't love it, like I know so many people did.

I am currently reading The Shining still which is great but then I need some inspiration for the next book so will be stealing some ideas from this thread.

Thanks, Terpsichore, but I've got Autumn Term - it's the only one available cheaply! If you've got any other duplicates hanging around, though, I'd be delighted to take them off your hands! Bidding on Ebay for a copy of The Marlows and the Traitor atm - fingers crossed!

No problem, TooExtra, iirc that's the reason I’ve got 2 copies! Accidentally forgot I had one already and sent for another that seemed like a bargain

Well, if anyone else wants it, they’re very welcome. Just ask away!

10. Memories of the Dead - Evelyn James - a young woman starting a detective agency in the early 20s with assistance of her brother, who came back from WWI unable to walk. The case is of a widow who had visited a spiritalist who gave some clues to the location of a large sum of money her dead husband had hidden. The widow turns to our detective for help. All very silly, light and fluffy mystery.

11. Uprooted - Naomi Novik - fantasy book. Every 10 years, a 17 year old girl is chosen from the villages of the valley to be taken to the Dragon's tower (who is a wizard), and will remain until her 10 years are up. There's evil forces in the woods next to them, and this is the cost of the wizard's defence. Everyone expects one particular girl chosen, as she is so special, beautiful, skillful in every way etc, but Dragon picks our messy, clumsy heroine instead. Rather YA, fun and a bit creepy in bits.

Neither book has been particualry mentally taxing, which seems to be what I need at the moment as DC2 has decided sleep isn't something you need to do for more than 3 hours at a stretch...

ellis Heartburn was quite original in its style and humour at the time and beat a path for others that came after, but I felt it had dated a bit. Enjoyable and I did laugh a few times but it felt slight to me after buzz around it.

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Ephron is in the Kindle deals if you’re interested in her non fic. I’ve just got it.

Thanks Chilli for the recommendation of the existentialism book. I had heard it recommended on a R4 books podcast as well so it is definitely going on the TBR.

17. The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas

YA book about an American black schoolgirl who is in the car with an unarmed friend who is shot dead by a policeman. This book has been hugely praised by both critics and readers, and it's certainly both a rattling good read (funny, and moving) and an important book about a contemporary issue. It's not a comprehensive look at race relations in America - Thomas chooses to concentrate closely on the lives of the protagonist, Starr, her family and friends - but it's none the weaker for that. In fact, it's a lot of what makes it special - there's so little either in the media or the arts that puts voices like Starr's at the centre of a narrative.

I heard Angie Thomas talking on the radio (R4 podcast again, I think) about how she was inspired by scenes in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, and how much it meant to her, as a black girl from Mississippi, to read a book about a black girl from Mississippi. She mentions it in this interview too: www.goodreads.com/interviews/show/1226.Angie_Thomas. "There is nothing quite like the moment you finally see yourself in a book.".

(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
(18) Ghost Town by Rachel Caine
(19) A Pocketful of Holes and Dreams by Jeff Pearce
(20) Dead Man Running by Martin McGartland
(21) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
(22) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
(23) The Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
(24) Cell 7 by Kerry Drewery

The sticker on the front likens it to the Hunger Games which is why I bought it, 99p Kindle buy. It follows the story of a young girl who is caught holding a gun with a dead body at her feet. The legal system is different to ours. If suspected of murder you go on death row for 7 days, spending each day in a different cell before facing the public vote on day 7. The public ring and vote. However it is such a flawed system as each call costs so much and only the rich can afford to do this over and over again. It was a good story and I went on to buy the 2nd book as bedridden with the flu at the minute so it was easier to click buy next than to scroll and try and make up my mind what I wanted. 2nd book proving to be ok but not as good as the first.

12 Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
Kindle cheapy. I found this very hard going - the author is VERY keen to make the point that we don't sleep enough, and sleep is REALLY important. Unfortunately, I found the book rather like being hammered over the head with a lead weighted pillow. There were a few useful tips about how to improve the quality and quantity of sleep, and I persevered mostly to get what I could of these.

13. Significant Others by Armistead Maupin. (No. 5 of the Tales of the City series). A re-read picked up in a jumble sale at the weekend. I loved the Tales of the City books when I first read them in the 80s/90s, and this was one of my favourites, so a perfect antidote to no. 12 above.

19. Ernest Cline - Ready Player One

In 2044, the world is a pretty awful place - the climate is ruined, the oil has run out, there's famine, poverty and disease everywhere. So the majority of the planet spend their free time plugged into OASIS, a free to enter total immersion virtual utopia where you can be anything and do anything over thousands of worlds. Wade is in his late teens and, like millions of others, is on a quest. James Halliday, creator of OASIS and uber nerd with an obsession for 80s pop culture, has died and his death triggered the release of a message revealing the existence of the ultimate gaming Easter egg - the first person to find three keys and complete the three gates they open becomes heir to his vast fortune and owner of the OASIS. Wade is a grunter, one of the egg hunters, all of whom loathe the Sixers, staff of the IOI corporation who are seeking the egg to enable them to monetise OASIS by charging a monthly fee to play, increasing advertising, and basically pricing people out of the world. When Wade stumbles across the key to the first puzzle he soon learns just how ruthless IOI are and how far they are prepared to go to win.

I did enjoy this, but can't hep thinking this is one of those rare books that might just work better as a film. It relies so much on the visuals of 80s computer games and films that if you're not familiar with them (I'm not a gamer) it's hard to picture. Fortunately, the film comes out at the end of March so I guess I will find out then if I'm right.

Just catching up. Have read a couple, but too tired to review until tomorrow.

Had to smile at the Jack Barack and his arseholes complaint. I am very much on TeamJack, arseholes and all.

14. The Places In Between by Rory Stewart.

Travelogue of Rory Stewart, who in 2002 walked the same route as the Mogul Emperor Babur the Great through Afghanistan from Herat to Kabul. This walk occurs in the winter snows and the last stages are through more hostile Taliban areas. Each night he depends on traditional Muslim courtesy for food and board. Mr Stewart is very single minded, reminding me of the adventurers on Everest, people who are goal orientated, stopping at nothing.

Overall I quite liked it. You certainly get a flavour of the area but only through a male point of view as he is certainly not allowed to speak to any women. For a more in depth discussion of the issues of Afghanistan and the interventions by the West/US/UN I thought Christina Lamb’s Farewell Kabul was better, although, essentially they have similar conclusions. Diverse cultures, religions, hierarchies all within in one country; there is no quick fix to the end of conflict in Afghanistan.

15. The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch.

Very short instalment of the Peter Grant series. Not his best; a bit dull and too smug for its own good. Hopefully the next instalment will be better.

Agree chillie about Ready Player One maybe working better as a movie.

9. The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym This is one of her later books that was rejected by lots of publishers when she fell out of favour but published in 1978 a couple of years before she died when Philip Larkin and others championed her writing. It has a very 60's feel and is an unusual book.

An elegant, perfectly coiffured and dressed woman in her early 40's called Leonora Eyre meets a 60 year old antique dealer and his very handsome nephew (mid 20's maybe?) in Sotheby's saleroom. The uncle becomes one of the many older men who like to take Leonora out to expensive dinners and events. Leonora has had many admirers but always draws away when it looks like anything more "romantic" is about to happen. She gets on incredibly well with the nephew, James and they start spending lots of time together. James gains a "girlfriend" which Leonora puts paid to when he is on an overseas buying trip and organises for him to move into the upstairs flat in her house. On James' next trip he brings back a male lover, Ned who is harder to shift!

Barbara Pym always alludes to gay couples in her books - close friends who are "not the marrying kind" etc but this is a bit more explicit. Everyone seems to accept that James has a somewhat fluid sexuality. His relationship with Leonora is interesting - she knows just how to please him and make him eminently comfortable, they like the same furnishings and events and he loves her exquisite clothes. But what is she to him - mother, potential lover, best friend?

Well worth a read. Pym is a master at describing interactions between people and their not always rational thought processes.

Checking in. Big reader here, but in awe of all your prolific reading!

Hi longtall, jump in and tell us what you're reading!

21. The Lie of the Land, Amanda Craig
Smug middle-class London couple find themselves less smug when their marriage breaks down and they're both made redundant. They let out their London home and move with the children to Devon. The author has a lot of fun debunking any Escape to the Country fantasies. The novel has a lot of disparate ingredients - a wry look at relationships, a state of the nation element about the very different lives people live based on class, and a rather Gothic murder mystery involving a headless corpse. I thought it all worked surprisingly well together and I really enjoyed it.

That sounds like fun biblomania - one to put on the list for when I need a light read.

I would recommend it, Kikashi. Rereading my review, I might have made it sound a little bit more frothy than it is. There's an elderly dying father, some child abuse, and a lament about the problems affecting farmers as well. It's still a good read, but I wouldn't want to mislead you!

(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
(18) Ghost Town by Rachel Caine
(19) A Pocketful of Holes and Dreams by Jeff Pearce
(20) Dead Man Running by Martin McGartland
(21) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
(22) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
(23) The Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
(24) Cell 7 by Kerry Drewery
(25) Day 7 by Kerry Drewery
(26) Final 7 by Kerry Drewery

This was a trilogy that could have easily been one book if they had of removed some of the crap that really didn't need to be there. Quite a good story line but even though she had 3 books to wind up everyones stories she doesn't do a good job of ending them all.