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
Have just downloaded Nelly Dean. Have bought too much on Kindle recently!!!

Ooooh I'm going to go back and reread your review then Chessie I think I must have missed it!

16 Star Guard by Andre Norton

Mercenary Kana Karr and his comrades are crossed and doublecrossed by just about everyone on a hostile world, and have to try to survive and make it back to Earth. Old-school military/action sci-fi, a bit of a nostalgia read as I loved Andre Norton in my teens (this plus the sequel are available free on Kindle as Star Soldiers). Not a great deal to it, and rather predictable (I think the second book is probably the better of the two) but enjoyable for what it is.

Thanks for sympathy and

This is the second car I have had written off because of course a man has driven up the back end. Sigh.

All a bit of a hassle and some whiplash! On the bright side, the car was 11 years old anyway so due to be replaced and I hated almost everything about it!

Will get back to book reading soon!

More for you, Piggy. Hope not too sore.

Has anyone not liked The North Water? I have a second hand copy but I am a bit scared to try it. All those descriptions of it as brutal, visceral etc are putting me off a bit - yet everyone here has said it is brilliant.

keith I quite liked it - I found it graphic and gory to the point it became mundane and gave me the giggles which I don’t think is the effect he was going for but there are only so many ways you can describe a person shitting and he tries them all iirc. It is a good read, but it got a bit daft for me and the “baddie” is a bit over the top.

Scribbly I watched that clip earlier, thanks. I agree with her that *Exit West was Man Booker shortlisted because of it being 'important'. It's quite refreshing to watch a BookTuber be fairly disparaging about a book as most of the ones I follow on YouTube seem nervous to be anything other than gushing or neutral.

piggy

Scribbly thanks for the YouTube recommendation. She is very watchable, trying not to lose hours viewing!
Just leaving this here.
https://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/reading-room/news/longlist-2018**
It's the long list for the 2018 Women's Prize for Literature. Have only read 4 Elmet, see what I have done , The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, Home Fire.
But of those my money would be on Mrs Hancock. See Eleanor Oliphant has made it. Haven't read this and seen really mixed reviews- bit of a marmite book?

I'm surprised and disappointed that Conversations with Friends isn't on the list. I thought Winter would be there too.

I haven't read a single one. None are even on my TBR pile, although I have had my eye on Mrs Hancock. Right, well that's my secondary challenge for the year. Thanks for sharing the list.

Oh, wait, I have got Elmet somewhere. But apart from that, zilch

splother she is my favourite booktuber. Her reviews are always well worth a watch.

From the Women's prize for fiction I've read five from the long list, all the same as you splother (although I make it five ). Elmet, Home Fire, See What I Have Done, Eleanor Oliphant and The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock. Enjoyed all of them, some more than others. Would be very happy so see Home Fire shortlisted, that was a great read.

The list is the final poke I need to order The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Roy. Whenever I'm in the book shop I avoid making eye contact with it as I know it’s going to be a really good book, and I'll enjoy reading it, but keep chickeneing out for some pathetic reason. I’m going to get a grip order it now. Then I have to read it.

Really really shocked that Winter by Ali Smith didn’t even make the long list . Thought it was even better than Autumn which went a long way with several book awards last year.

Oh lord, humble apologies splother, it’s me who can’t count, not you.

I haven't read any of those either - plebeian tastes! Oh dear. I was eyeing up The Mermaid in Waterstones the other day but decided to wait for pay day.

Scribbly - I haven't read Eleanor Oliphant yet but it is a book club read coming up soon, so looks like I will be.
I really didn't enjoy Autumn that much so have given Winter a miss. I know lots of people love her but I really can't get on with Ali Smith.

scribbly I’m not sure about Elinor Oliphant being marmite - I quite liked it, so neither love nor hate. Subject - loneliness - and characterisation - someone on the outside of social norms - were both quite well done. An easy read that is not high literature, but intelligent and entertaining enough. From the thread on here I think if you are a bit of an oddball you’ll like it and identify with her, and so see past its flaws, if not you’ll find her weird, implausible and annoying

splother Eleanor Oliphant has certainly divided opinions on here. I enjoyed it overall despite it having plenty of faults. It’s an easy read. Fairly unforgettable though, and in truth I think I would have forgotten about it altogether had it not become so popular. I will do a if it’s shortlisted.

Sorry my post should have been addressed to splother. Agree not really an awards-worthy book, scribbly.

Eleanor Oliphant - I quite liked her oddness and loneliness, but hated the backstory about her mother. It felt weirdly exploitative, like writers who include a reference to the Holocaust to import some gravitas (I'm looking at you, Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society).

Book number 8 was a change from the previously advertised book! Just listened to Margaret Atwood- The Robber Bride.

Such a fantastic retelling of Grimm's The Robber Bridegroom. I don't often re-read books, but Atwood's novels are the exception.

Yes biblio agree

21. Hush, Eishes Chayil

I read this book initially as one thing, but would recommend it more as another. It's a fictional story, set in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in New York, about two childhood friends and how the community deals with an accusation of sexual abuse within a family. As fiction, it's OK - readable, and interesting as an insight into a very isolated community, but not hugely original.

However, when I reached the end I found that it's (allegedly) based on true experiences of the author and her friends. I then read some reactions to it, particularly in the Jewish press and blogs, and found that made me think differently about the book - about what she has chosen to put in and what she's left out, about the way she has chosen to depict the community, and about the questions that the book raises. The fact that the male characters in her book seem more open to tackling issues of secretive abuse, while women cover them up - and how this relates to the idea of an "Eishes Chayil" (www.aish.com/sh/ht/fn/48966686.html), and why she chose this as her nom-de-plume.

I felt that this was less subtle than Naomi Alderman's Disobedience, which covers similar ground to some extent, but the two make good companion reads - the contrasts between the two are thought-provoking.

17. Exposure by Aga Lesiewicz

Psychological thriller.
Everything is ticking along just fine in photographer Kristin’s life. But then, she starts to receive mysterious e-mails (titled “Exposure 1, 2, etc) with sinister photo attachments. Clearly sent by someone with a major grudge against Kristin who knows a lot about her. Soon Kristin’s life starts to spiral out of control. Can Kristin find out who’s behind it before it’s too late?

Overall fairly average.

18. The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

Fantasy. Teenager Thomas Cale has been raised to be a soldier in the brutal fundamentalist religious Sanctuary of the Redeemers. After he sees something he shouldn’t and does something irrevocable as a result, Cale and his closest friends escape the Sanctuary and flee. They end up in the rival city state of Memphis, but once again become embroiled in the Redeemers machinations.
A gripping book. Lots of action, some of it very, very violent, and overall a very entertaining read.

43. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks Cant believe I haven't read this before. This was outstanding but oh so hard to read.
Essentially a story of survival in the trenches of WW1. The sections with the tunnellers were breathtakingly terrifying. I am claustrophobic and I was literally shaking reading some sections, in fact I may definitely have been guilty of skim reading in parts. The description of the Battle of The Somme was ghastly. The padre watching from the spoil heap throwing away his cross was some of the most poignant and powerful writing I have experienced in a long time.