50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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, the second one here and the third one here.

How're you getting on so far?

Oh, that reminds me - bought DH Ready Player One for Christmas thanks to this thread, and he really liked it. So thanks for that!

And I managed to persuade a grumpy and reluctant DS into boots, bike helmet and coat this morning using various techniques suggested in How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen (acknowledging feelings, being playful and offering choices, if anyone's interested). DH was very impressed. So their suggestions do seem to work.

The North Sea book does sound good biblio . I have just checked my library catalogue to see if they have it (they don't), but it has thrown up just how many books have 'the edge of [something]' in the title. I bet it's more than have 'the middle of...' Are edges more interesting than middles? I guess they are.

15. Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child Reacher pulls his old army unit together to get to the bottom of what happened to a former colleague who met a particularly nasty end. They find themselves up against baddies who will stop at nothing to rob the US military of weapons in a risky scam, and want rid of Reacher and his crowd. One of them even stamps on Reacher's folding toothbrush. Bastards.

I found their techniques worked too, Cheerful. It certainly reduced my shouting a bit which gives me a silly amount of satisfaction.

21. SPQR by Mary Beard.

The result of a lifetime’s work investigating, discussing and teaching on the topic of the Romans of ~200BC to ~200CE. Mary Beard clearly knows her stuff and writes engagingly. Interesting as it was, the book still dragged at times for me and I’m sure that the reason is that I’m just not THAT interested in this topic. Still, glad I read it.

Listening to Tess of the D’Urbevilles read by the lovely voice of Peter Firth.

Sourdough -Robin Sloan. Lois works as a programmer developing robot arms and eats beige food every day until one day she orders spicy soup and sour dough bread from two brothers and falls in love with the food. When they get deported they leave the Sourdough starter with her and so begins her journey into the foodie underworld of farmers markets. It’s a very sweet little book with a dark undercurrent, a bit of long distance romance and a bit of sci-fi thrown in.

A bit daft but I liked it. Definitely worth 99p which is the current Kindle price.

I also bough Ready Player One as a Christmas gift for someone, also a success.
Hoping to go and see the film this weekend. Anyone else going?

21. He Said/She Said - Erin Kelly

Kit and Laura go to Cornwall in 1999 to witness the eclipse. In the aftermath they discover a man and a woman and Laura knows exactly what she seen. When the man denies the act the victim is grateful for Laura’s support but when bad things start happening Laura begins to doubt what she seen. 15 years later Laura and Kit are living in hiding. As Kit travels to another eclipse will the past catch up with them?

Had a lot going on while reading this so took a bit longer than expected. Quite and enjoyable read that keeps you wondering.

Sigh. This morning, however, there was much screaming, and all that worked was the Muppets on repeat on YouTube while I stuffed his arms into armholes. Two-year-olds are HARD. (Fortunately his childminder is open on bank holidays - hurrah!)

I am just discovering what a slow reader I am! So far ....

*1. The Road - Cormac McCarthy

1. The Little Friend - Donna Tartt*

*3. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson

1. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
2. The Dry - Jane Harper
3. And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini
4. Days Without End - Sebastian Barry

* I have also listened to quite a few audiobooks. Probably not going to make it to 50, but will keep plodding on at my own pace.

Clinky, I'm slow too. But I do love deep reading. I only skim read trashy crime novels. Some people on thsi thread have already read 50 novels this year. I can't believe that's possible as well as having a life, unless you're skim reading, and if a book is good, I don't want to miss stuff.

20. The Silmarillion (Tolkien, audio). Honestly. I enjoyed The Hobbit and then found that The Lord of the Rings became progressively more faux-King-James and turgid as it progressed. This origin story, world-creating series of myths is absolutely like all the worst bits of The Return of the King. Just a series of daft names woven together into dull tales of good vs evil. "And then Flimsaris the son of Autocue, known to the dark elves as Ridderstrijd or World-Cleaver, because of his mighty sword Leftinitshilt, departed the vale of Oneiros and borne by his fierce steed Trotsancantas crossed the raging Wetherspoon into the hills of Magentikrill, where Crapulos the daughter of Moribund still possessed the shimmering Glimnots."
21. The Last Day: Claire Dyer. This was lent to me by a friend and it's not really my sort of thing. The writing itself is good but it's a women's romancey impausibly plotted sort of thing.
22. Perdido Street Station: China Mieville. I found this fascinating though it went on a bit. Interestingly conceived but the plot itself was a little weak.
23. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K Dick. I loved this. I've only recently seen Blade Runner so was interested in the similarities and differences. I particularly enjoyed the focus on the animals and the significance of the electric sheep of the title.
24. The Night Circus: Erin Morgenstern. Again, this went on a bit. Beautiful descriptions but some major plot flaws. SPOILER. Don't read on if you want to read this book in the future. Who were the magicians and what had their previous rivalry encompassed? Why did they pit students against each other? We never knew any of the rules or the point of the contest and it seemed the author didn't either. How did the fire work? Why was the circus a night circus? Why was Bailey important? How do you acquire magic? The daughter is 'gifted' but the boy is plucked at random from an orphanage. Can anyone do it? Why did no one have any character? Why were the twins given tweely nauseating names? Etc
25. The Power and the Glory: Graham Greene (audio book). This was very good, interesting viewpoint on Catholic persecution in Mexico and a series of flawed but well developed characters.

Welcome Clinky , honestly no one cares how many books you do or don't read. It is a friendly thread, where people chat about books and grow their too read pile to mammoth proportions!

Scribbly - I am actually quite enjoying Ministry of Upmost Happiness. Probably about a third of the way through- is it all going to go horribly wrong???

*too = to

splother I would say if you are enjoying Utmost now you will continue to.It was the beginning that I didn't like much!

clinky I wouldn't say those books are light reads so you are doing very well!!

Welcome aboard clinky, we just enjoy yammering on about books here!

ontopof are you an Archers listener? Lynda Snell is reading The Silmarillion atm - or rather, she isn't, after casting it aside and having some very choice words to say about it

Ontopof you’ve captured Tolkien very well there. You could make fortune.

I'm also a super slow reader Clinky and this year has been alarming in terms of my lack of reading progress. I think I've had a touch of the winter blues as I've found it really hard to focus on reading since before Christmas. Anyway, here is my list so far:

1. I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons by Kevin Hart
2. This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay
3. Recovery, Freedom From Our Addictions by Russell Brand
4. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
5. The Tattooist Of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

I'm just approaching the end of The Bear and The Nightingale by Katherine Arden which I'm loving; it took me a bit of time to get into it but it's become very gripping for the last half! Can't wait to read the next in the series, which came out in Jan. I should probably not buy any books for a bit, mind. My to-read shelf is getting crowded.

Ooh, I didn't know that about Lynda Snell. I'm an intermittent Archers listener, in that I often catch enough of it to have just about an idea what's going on. Don't know what possessed me to listen to The Silmarillion and I probably zoned out for half of it!

I saw Ready Player One today. Loved it. A little bit slow to get going but then really good fun.

Book 36: The Silent Companions – Laura Purcell - A ghost story, bought because it was cheap and The Guardian had given it a pretty good review. I liked the beginning but thought it got worse as it progressed, and the ending was stupid.

*11. The Four Pillar Plan - Dr Rangan Chatterjee
*
Dr Chatterjee practises progressive/lifestyle medicine. He prefers to prescribe exercise, diet and lifestyle changes rather than drugs. His four pillars are Relax, Eat, Move and Sleep. The book shows you how making small changes in each of these pillars can improve your health.
He's not re-inventing the wheel here and most of his suggestions are quite simplistic: don't use your phone before bed, don't eat processed foods. But the science behind a lot of it, which he does touch on here, is fascinating.
Worth reading if you have an interest in health and well-being or if you suffer from a long-term condition like type-2 diabetes.

Best, I'm pleased that you found Sourdough as charming (and, yes, daft) as I did. Have you also read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore?

No, I haven’t Vanderly but I’ve downloaded a sample now. I seem to recall it having mixed reviews from the 50 bookers.

Dropping in with another shout-out because I've just pounced gleefully on a book that's been on my wish list forever - not remotely literary, I'm afraid, but any cooks on here might be interested in Chicken by Catherine Phipps. It had great reviews, is full of nothing but recipes for chicken, and was £20 - down to £1.99 today!

splother have you left the graveyard and joined Biplap and Tilo in their misery yet? It was at that point that it started becoming reading toil for me.

Sing, Unburied Sing on Kindle has dropped to £1.94. I haven''t read it but a couple of others here have loved it. I expect it'll make the Man Booker longlist this year.