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?

Satsuki - I would second the recommendation for the Makioka Sisters. Also, if you like Murakami, you might also like Taiichi Yamada (Strangers, I Haven't Dreamt of Flying In A While).

I lived in Japan for years so can probably come up with some more ideas if you are interested.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast. Bringing my list over. No standouts so far, but then again, have more or less enjoyed everything I've read.

1. All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
2. Closely Watched Trains - Bohumil Hrabal
3. Women and Power: A Manifesto – Mary Beard
4. The Road Home – Rose Tremain
5. No is Not Enough: Defeating the New Shock Politics – Naomi Klein
6. Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie
7. The Blackwater Lightship – Colm Toibin
8. Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism – Yanis Varoufakis
9. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman
10. Thin Air – Michelle Paver

Have almost finished 11.The Beet Queen - Louise Erdrich - will pop back to review shortly.

The Beet Queen - Louise Erdrich

Orphaned Karl and Mary Adare stow away on a freight train from Minneapolis to rural Argus in North Dakota to find their Aunt Fritzie, in the hope that she will adopt them. The story begins in the depression era, and finishes in the 1970's, following the fates of Karl, Mary, their spoilt cousin Sita and Sita's long suffering friend Celestine.

This started really well, got a bit saggy in the middle and then finished with a flourish. As always Louise Erdrich's writing is beautifully descriptive and original. I really have to slow down my reading to savour it. Her books take a bit longer to read as a result, but I think it is worth it. I love her accounts of small town, rural American life on and around the native American reservations of North Dakota as they are so different from my own life.

However, I didn't think this was one of her best. I notice up thread a few comments about the generally "unlikeability" of the characters in The Goldfinch and I feel this book shared this problem. Erdrich tells the story from multiple points of view, which should have made it easier to empathise with the characters, but it didn't work for me as well as it has with her other books. With the exception of Celestine, the characters seemed to become more unpleasant, self absorbed and intractable as they aged. Despite its shortcomings, a satisfying read.

Catching up!
3) oryx and crake by Margaret Atwood
A Post-plague dystopian story. Took me about six months to get through this (read many in between) but I did like it. I think there's a lot of exposition which can make it a bit dry but I really love all her ideas and explanations of how the world came to be. Of the three in the series I preferred the year of the flood, tho I think that was meant to be the last?

4. behind her eyes by sarah pinsborough.
   A suspense novel about a trio of adults with a 'big twist' at the end. Yes the twist was kind of clever but the whole plot just wasn't believable enough for me to care.

5. Small great things by Jodi Picoult
   A black nurse is taken to court charged with the death of a white supremacists baby.
   I thought it was a fairly weak picoult novel, this time about race and racism and the ever present twist wasn't very shocking. (Sometime I guess which page it'll be on before I start reading I'm usually close) She'd done a lot of research for this novel, and at times (a lot of times) it felt like an information dump both of the midwifery stuff but especially the race debate. I think she'd have done better to write a non-fiction book to be honest. Does make u think about prejudice and what racism is tho.

The goldfinch next!

I absolutely adored The Goldfinch and might try and re-read it this year. I know a lot of people found the Vegas section in the middle to drag a bit but I loved the whole thing. The Secret History is one of my favourite books so perhaps I'm just fully in the Donna Tartt fan camp.

Having said that I still haven't read The Little Friend. Perhaps I should read that before I try and re-read The Goldfinch.

16. the diary of adrian mole. It was ok. It was a re-read but I didn't remember any of it. It was an easy read.

I'm starting artemis Andy Weir. I loved ready player one, so I have high hopes for this one, but it has sone pretty bad reviews on goodreads so I'm just hoping they are being a bit harsh.

no I lie it's armada Ernest Cline. Not sure what I did there.

I finally read book 17 after 3 weeks without reading practically anything. I just couldn't get out of this book slump. Hopefully it's over now.

17 was Death Stalks Kettle Street by John Bowen.
It's a cosy crime about a man with OCD who suspects that a series of accidents that have been killing his neighbours were in fact the work of a murderer. He teams up with an aspiring author and librarian who also has cerebral palsy.

It was ok. There were a few parts I'd have cut out, and the main character's stupidity annoyed me at first, but once it got going I did enjoy it as a fun, easy read, and I'm so happy that I was able to read a book at all.

Perhaps easy reads are exactly what I need to get myself out of this reading slump.

Perhaps

14. City of Bells, Elizabeth Goudge.

Finally finished my goddish book! Quiet sleepy book about a quiet sleepy cathedral town. It was so peaceful I kept either drifting off or MNing instead. Themes of life, death and rebirth, angelic children - this suffered a bit from having nothing unexpected happen in the entire thing. It rested solely on the attractiveness of the characters and lyrical prose. Sometimes that wasn’t quite enough. No Green Dolphin Country! It’s the first in a trilogy so I might investigate the next one, but not right now.

Out of Shardlake no 1, This Thing of Darkness and An Almond For A Parrot which should I start next?

A question for you all. If you find yourself in a book slump, what do you do to get out of it?

Also, why is it that I never seem to go into a book buying slump? I got this haul from the charity shops yesterday...

Strong In The Rain: Surviving Japan's Earthquake,Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster.
Out of A Clear Sky by Sally Hinchcliffe*
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson
The Accidental by Ali Smith
The Long Song by Andrea Levy
The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders
SPQR by Mary Beard
Mr Brigg's hat: A Sensational Account of Britain's First Railway Murder by Kate Colquhoun
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga*
And The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

£6.50 for all of those which wasn't bad, but I'm putting myself on a book buying band. I have so many unread that I really can't justify buying more.

Teufelsrad nice to see you back and good haul.
Tooextra can't beat a Shardlake but I know This Thing of Darkness has a lit of love. Still have it to read *

31. Unless - Carol Shields.* Loved Larry's party by her. Found this just dull. 40's Canada writer happily married 3 teenage girls. Eldest has a breakdown and becomes homeless. Mother starts to reflect on her own life and the lot of women in general. I am not adverse to novels where not much happens but there has to be a depth of character or strength of writing to pull it off! There was neither I am afraid

Teufelsrad (hope I've spelt that right, I'm on the app so can't see posts while replying!) I have a series of comfort reads for when life gets hard.

Some are terrible chick-lit, Harry Potter is a regular feature, and a few comedy books such as Dave Gorman. None of them are literary works of art, but they're easy and effortless.

Reading is great, but you do need to be in the right mindset. Even my 7 year old has come round to my way of thinking. He's meant to be reading one of the Alex Rider books, but I went up to his room tonight to find him reading a load of his old Julia Donaldson books - apparently his mind couldn't concentrate on a longer book!

Shardlake is an easy read but the first one isn’t the best one and moves quite slowly, but it’s an introduction. It’s a good light read. This Thing of Darkness is more demanding, but in a good way. Shardlake is a good lightish read, TTOD is really an excellent book.

Thanks exexpat that’s an author I didn’t know, have added to the list and will definitely try and get Makioka Sisters. I will no doubt be back for more

Good to see you back teufelsrad When I’m in a real rut I allow myself to take a break and then I forget everything I was trying to read previously and pick up something new that I fancy at that moment and still feel the excitement for, not something that’s been sitting for ages. That usually helps.

Miss Pettigrew and Saplings arrived in the post today, and I have Hostages to Fortune on its way, thanks for all the recommendations. Hoping to find some of the others at the library.

Book 16
Christine – Stephen King – A re-read, obviously! This was a bit too long and repetitive, and I got a bit annoyed with characters’ breath continually coming out in little gasping breaths, or harsh gasping breaths, but I enjoyed this tale of a crazy car very much. It’s actually quite an effective portrayal of the destructive nature of addiction, and rather touching in places. I felt it should have finished about 15 or so pages earlier than it did.

Cheddar I'm delighted to see 'Goddish' entering the 50 Books lexicon. I rate all three of those highly. The first Shardlake is fun in a crazy monks, semi gothic way, but you need to race through it and get to the second and the lovely Jack before it really takes off. Parrot is great fun and you should start with that if you want an easy read that will make you laugh, worry you a bit but leave you pretty satisfied at the end.
This Thing needs to be saved for when you have time to savour every last word of it (and have plenty of tissues to hand).

Teufel
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal - loved half of it but the rest less so.
The Accidental by Ali Smith - disliked a lot
The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders - made me furious
Mr Brigg's hat - okay but doesn't set the world on fire; like Mr Whicher in that the crime is interesting but there's a hell of a lot of padding to turn it into a book
The White Tiger - I liked this but read it when it first came out and can remember precisely nothing about it other than that I enjoyed it

Harriet Harman book is 99p kindle DOOD today. They've also put on a load of children's and YA books in a Half Term sale :). Haven't properly looked yet but I can highly recommend The Phantom Tollbooth.

Oh and good to see you, Teufelsrad. I noticed you hadn't updated for a while and hoped you were ok.

I have certain authors and genres that work for me when I'm struggling to read. For me it's trashy psychological thrillers (Girl on the Train type of thing) as they tend to be compelling and linguistically simple.

Keith - I have been planning to get the HH book for a while so that's a top tip. And re: the Kindle sale, how do I find the YA books? Dumb question but when I look for "daily deals" I get a lot of "gripping psychological thrillers".

Pepe annoyingly, I have the Amazon app on my phone and I can't see how to post a link. I will pop back later when I'm on the PC and post a link.

tooextra : Almond For A Parrot is a quick, entertaining read.

Thanks! I find the app a bit tricky for Kindle things (plus one can't then actually buy the books anyway!) so a link would be great.

So my list so far is

1. 6 Little Miracles - Janet Walton An autobiography of a mum of sextuplets. Very light read but quite interesting especially since I have 6 DC myself. 2 The Door that led to Where - Sally Gardener A re-read. She is one of my favourite authors. YA but really enjoyed still. Also quite light.
2. The Staircase Girls - Catherine Seymour
3. A Baby's Cry - Cathy Glass
4. Ink - Alice Broadway About halfway through. It's an okay, but fairly generic YA dystopian type thing.

Interestingly, in writing this out I have just noticed that all the authors are female. Coincidence or not I wonder?

Am planning to read Hidden Figures next. I have seen the film (which was really good) already but someone gave me the book as a gift recently so thought I'd give it a go too. Some reviews say that it is way better than the film whereas others say it is a bit slow, so we'll see. And another female author!

pepe it’s called “Half Term Sale” if that helps?

Teufelsrad, I wouldn't say I've been in a book slump as such, but I've been paging through a pile of books and deciding Now is Not the Time. I brought an unread pile back to the library yesterday, which felt very freeing.

I'm currently reading The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, by Catherine Gray, which doesn't pretend to be literature, but does what is says on the tin - raves about how good life is when you stop drinking. More quitlit as I'm extended Dry Jan for another few months at least.

11. Diary of an Ordinary Schoolgirl by Margaret Forster

I did enjoy reading this, but didn't love it. It's very short, a snapshot of her life as a 16 year old at school before she became a writer. Not sure that I could see the glimpses of the writer she was to become that other reviewers have said they could.

It's interesting, from a social history point of view but I'm not convinced that it really adds that much to Margaret Forster's writings.

Currently reading Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor which is very good so far.