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?

57. Educated - Tara Westover I thought this story was incredible. Westover was brought up with a father who was paranoid about Government involvement in the family. She and her siblings experienced an unorthodox and often dangerous upbringing, where education, such as it was, happened at home, medicine was natural and her father was stockpiling food, fuel and weapons for the end of days. The memoir is peppered with serious accidents, for which professional help is seldom if ever sought. Although the family was Mormon in it's beliefs, they were isolated by their practices and beliefs even within their own Mormon community. This is the story of how the author educated herself to Doctorate level, but most movingly it is how she comes to terms with abuse within her family and accepting that the truths she has been told all her life are not realities. For me the most chilling portrait is of her older brother, Shawn.
Recommended, if sometimes difficult, reading

Yes Striped Pyjamas is young adults as are some of Boyne's other novels. Not however Heart's Invisible Furies or History of Loneliness (another excellent read).

10. Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls
YA novel (I think?!) set just before and during the First World War, focussing on the lives of three teenage girls, living in London, who become involved in campaigning with the suffragist and suffragette movements. Reviews of this book focus on the topic of the campaign for women's suffrage, and it has a lovely cover with a purple, white and green spine, but from previous comments on 50 books threads I've got the impression that YA novels often touch on lots of themes and this would seem to fit that format...as well as different approaches to campaigning for the vote, there's a lesbian relationship, class differences, and the huge impact of the War and it's aftermath. This sometimes made it feel like it was skimming over things that could have merited more attention, but overall I quite liked this book. The naivety of some of the characters is well written at the start of the novel, and seeing how they grow and cope with the opportunities and challenges of real life was worth sticking with.
11. Coffin Road by Peter May
Oooh, I got hooked on this! It reminded me again how much rattling through a book quickly is more enjoyable than the usual 10 mins per day before I fall asleep! Set in the Outer Hebrides, this is a standalone story with the same setting as the Lewis trilogy. A man wakes up on Luskentyre Beach. (If you've never heard of it, do look it up...stunning!) He has no memory of who he is, where he is and how he has ended up here. At this point, I felt I had to suspend my disbelief regarding how he reacts - an ominous feeling that something bad has happened hangs over him and strongly influences his actions. I'm wary of saying too much about the rest of the plot because the gradual revealing of the storyline is part of the enjoyment of this, but I thought the backdrop was interesting and topical, and the plot kept me rushing back to know how it would all unfold.
I'm now about halfway through The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie on Audible (found it very odd at first but it's growing on me a little), and The Four Pillars Plan by Ranjan Chatterjee which I keep dipping in and out of. Off on hols later in the week with an old Marian Keyes and a novel called The Fever Tree packed on the off chance that my 5 year old lets me sit down. Hoping April will be a good month for reading!

Striped Pyjamas and Things a Bright Girl Can Do are both YA. I enjoyed Striped Pyjamas but had huge issues with the way he treated the concentration camp. If you're going to write about something like that, you have to do it accurately and honestly, and he just didn't.
I have lost my Kindle and am not sure how to cope. I also really want to read Bookworm - think I might have to go and treat myself to the luxury of some paper books at a paper bookshop.

CheerfulMuddler, it is the kind of book worth having in hardback, I think. Appropriate and the cover is pretty.

Yes, I think I agree.

Two non fiction books for me:

14. Shadowlands: the True Story of C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman by Brian Sibley. Thanks to its tie-in with the 1993 film Shadowlands, this is one of the most popular biographies of C.S Lewis. I saw the film years ago but had never read the book. It is fairly short for a biography, so doesn't go into very much detail about his books, but covers his childhood, his Christian beliefs and of course (as per the title) his relationship with American Joy Davidman before her early death from cancer. Well written and moving, I enjoyed this very much. The film is excellent too.

15. The Pedant in the Kitchen by Julian Barnes. Recommended upthread. This is a charming book - warm and witty. I found myself reading several bits aloud to various family members over the Easter weekend. As a culinary pedant myself, I particularly liked the following quote: "Non-pedants frequently misunderstand pedants and are inclined to adopt an air of superiority. 'Oh, I don't follow recipes,' they will say, as thought cooking from a text were like making love with a sex-manual open at your elbow."

It's great that more of us are enjoying Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race. I read it a month ago and think about it pretty much every day.

25. Lies, Damned Lies and History by Jodi Taylor

Chronicles of St Mary’s book 7. More time travelling historians bouncing about the timeline getting into trouble. Including one of the more unusual fictional descriptions of a birth, although the logic around why it's important when the birth happened made no sense to me.

Similar in tone to other St Mary’s books, so if you like the series you’d probably like this instalment too.

Thanks for clarifying re: Striped Pyjamas, I might give his other stuff a chance. Yes cheerful I didn’t like it.

vanderly I’ll look out for The Interestings at the library, thanks

tara Shadowlands is one of my favourite films the pain now was part of the pleasure, then

Glad to see more love for Pedant

9. Two by two - Nicholas Sparks
I got very little out of reading this book. The writing was decidedly average and the storyline was predictable.

Pretty sure I'm not going to make it to 50 books at this rate :(

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

Just finished this one on the reccomendation of someone at work.
Not read any of her others before and though I liked it... it was a bit dry.

The story is about two early 19th century women who discovered some of the first fossilized marine specimens in Lyme Regis. It explores friendship, women being side stepped out of historical worthiness and the most difficult one, that fossils cause issue with the facts laid out in the genesis.

I think the writing was rather beautiful and handed very delicately around religion but at the same time screaming for rights for women.

Onto the next.

Finished 2 over the weekend. Lyndsay Davis The Ides of April This was still good although Falco wasn't in it. Spotted the murderer after about 20 pages but didn't really care as the whole thing moved along quite nicely. Then moved on to The Unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (20) which was quite gentle and moving. Didn't actually cry but got sad so obviously ok for invovement. Now on to The rivers of london By Ben Aaaronavitch which is a crazy mixture of CID and spectral presences. Enjoying.

I thought I was going g to fall off this group completely but I have picked up momentum again.

My list thus far

1. Hidden Depths - Ann Cleaves
2. Rather be the Devil - Ian Rankin
3. Our Endless Numbered Days - Clare Fuller
4. I Hear the Sirens in the Street - Adrian McKinty
5. Burial rites hannah Kent
6. Raven black - Ann cleaves
7. The Wonder - Emma Donoghue
8. The Witchfinders sister - Beth Underdown
9. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman

10. Heads or Tails - Damien Boyd 11. The Keeper of Lost Things - Ruth Hogan

There has been a few duds so far I have to say. The most recent dud was a book I was advised not to waste my time on by someone on this thread last year. However, maternity leave is coming to an end as is cash and I already had it so in for a penny in for a pound went I into The Keeper of Lost Things. I feel a bit bad for how much I disliked this book as its heart was in the right place. But every twee description made me wince, every utterly charming character made me roll my eyes so hard I saw my own brain and the ending made me regret the hours I invested in the dashed thing. Complete bilge I am afraid to say.

I have The Tatooist of Auschwitz lined up but might need something else before I start that

Passme that could well have been me re: Keeper of Lost things. I have spent the past year warning people off this book!

I think I would be put off anything else by John Boyne because of all his egregious errors in 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas'. I know it was for children, but it was just so ill-conceived, poorly thought out and manipulative that I don't think I trust his authorial judgment.

I think it might have been toomuch. I was reading it thinking of all the 5 star reviews it got but could find very little in the way of redeeming features. I thought there was an irony in the description of the publisher who just wanted happy endings.

In other books news, the latest Damien Boyd was disappointing sadly. Far too many characters and then characters assuming different identities. I was no further forward when I finished it than when I started. It reminded me of the Ian Rankin book I read early on in the year which suffered from the same issue.

I read Elenaor Oliphant for a book group. I remember it had mixed reviews on here last year so I was a bit unsure how it would play out. Overall, I enjoyed it. I think I enjoyed the experience of reading it than the book as a whole if that makes sense? I thought some of the descriptions were beautiful - the old lady’s house with the glass mug and single plate on the draining board and the wedding china with gilt edged roses made me emotional for my Granny - and the building picture of Eleanor’s relationship with Mummy was brutal and well-paced. When I finished the book and had time to reflect though, I felt that maybe the book was less than the individual parts

On Meg Wolitzer, I really enjoyed The Ten-Year Nap. It's a pretty perfect Mumsnet book, about what happens when you re-emerge from the fug of early childrearing.

I'm ploughing on with The Edge of the World, by Michael Pye and am currently on the Hanseatic League. I'm enjoying it - lots of vivid vignettes about life a thousand years ago - but it's the kind of book that you have to take at a run. If you stop, it's hard to get back into it again and it will sit beside your bed reproachfully for months.

12. The Gallows Pole - Benjamin Myers

Fictionalised account of the Cragg Valley Coiners who, led by 'King' David Hartley, ran a coin-clipping empire in a remote Yorkshire valley in the late 1700s - using violence and fear to keep the operation running, but also seeing themselves as Robin Hood types in the face of grinding rural poverty and the oncoming industrial revolution. This got great reviews last year and I can see why - Myers is great with language of place and his skills are put to good use in this compelling, claustrophobic tale.

Hi everyone, spurred by the thread I've read 2 books in 10 days which is fast for me! So just updating my list:

1. Why Mummy Drinks by Gill Sims.
2. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
3. Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie.

4 Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie.

1. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.
2. "Blink" Malcolm Gladwell.
3. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig.
4. "Persepolis RIsing" by James SA Corey.

9. “Guernica” by Dave Boling. Passed on by my mother in law. I didn’t know Guernica beyond the painting and found this novel (essentially a romance set in the Spanish civil war and WWII) to be captivating. It has also made me want to read more about Spain during that time as it is not something I know anything about. 10. “Harvest” by Tess Gerritsen. This was one of those ones that I picked up in charity shop wondering ‘have I read this already’ because I think I’ve read most of Gerritsen’s books. I don’t think I did read this one before (or at least I don't remember it!). Classic Gerritsen which depending on your taste is a good or a bad thing!

Really like the sound of Pedant - have added it to the ever-expanding list

Please stop with all the good reviews and recommendations people. My TBR pile is so high that it is interfering with satellites and can be spotted from the International Space Station. Just had an email from the library to say a book I reserved has arrived for me. It was a book recommended on this thread that I had forgotten I reserved. Help me.

25. Red Rising - Pierce Brown
Ah well, I kept on with this for some reason, probably because I'm a damned fool and have a pathological need to finish every book I start however dire I find it. Highly improbable YA drama set on Mars well into the future where Darrow, a lowly Red from the underground mining communities begins a challenge of the ruling 'Golds' in a bid to change the rigid and punishing societal norms. Or, more concisely, a looong book with lots of fighting.

26. Love, Hate and Other Filters - Samira Ahmed
Throwaway YA novel about an American muslim girl. Which incredibly cute guy will she choose? Hmmm. Some more serious issues here at least, which provides a backdrop to the implausibly cute guys.

27. The Cutting Season - Attica Locke
Southern gothic thriller that took me WAY too long to read but I dragged my way through it. It would have been ok but I read a bit here, there and everywhere, thus losing the momentum. Some good antebellum slave history plot quirks though but I don't read enough thrillers to judge its merits. I think one of her books is in the monthly sale actually.

Now reading The Party by Elizabeth Day, but it's due back tomorrow which is a shame as I am 'quite' enjoying it and The Dry which is ok so far. Phew.

clarabellski Pedant won’t take long to read, no need to marinade, couple of hours in a medium hot oven and it’s done.

Yes whippet re Red Rising. I thought it was awful, and not even especially “mars-y”.

Pedant won’t take long to read, no need to marinade, couple of hours in a medium hot oven and it’s done.

They need to get a bigger laughing smiley than this one ---->

Sounds like perfect bath fodder then. Will need to see if can reserve in library.

Just finished 17. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens on audiobook. It was a bit —lot— of a slog at times but Richard Armitage did a sterling job of the read, I’ve never really got on with Dickens in book format but Armitage’s performance kept me going through some of the duller bits! And helped me appreciate some of the genius character creations.

As for ‘proper’ books I’ve hit a bit of a wall, just over half way through Early One Morning by Virginia Baily and it’s fine but I’m not massively gripped.

Clarabellski read Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell . A really detailed and gritty account of the civil war.