50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Five

[southeastdweller]

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

How're you getting on so far?

I tend to think if you're really not enjoying it (and it sounds like you aren't), life's too short and there are far too many other books you could be reading instead. Then again I don't often take my own advice:

40.) The Eye of the Reindeer, by Eva Weaver -- Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I've had a run of books I've really enjoyed, so about time for one I'm 'meh' about. A young Finnish girl is sent away to an isolated lunatic asylum, where she meets and befriends a Sami girl, and together they escape and head north, paddling across the Baltic Sea in a stolen coffin.

I really wanted to like this, but it struggled to hold my interest (if much rather be reading about Thomas Chaloner instead - haven't had a fictional crush this strong in a while). I think the author tried to pack too much into too small a space - I most enjoyed the section where the two main characters escape and head north, but once they part ways I lost interest a little, and it started to skip over huge chunks of time, which didn't help.

Next up, Ian Mortimer's The Outcasts of Time, where two Medieval brothers escape the Black Death by skipping forward through time in 99 year increments. Which makes more sense in the blurb than I've described it here.

I'm halfway through This Is Going To Hurt and have suddenly taken up doing pelvic floor exercises again. If you've read it, you'll know...

Oh no remus , I've just bought Gillespie and I !!!

Corvus that Susanna Gregory series sounds right up my street. I wasn't really in the market for adding more to my wishlist; I need to read faster! Speaking of fictional crushes:

22. Nothing to Lose by Lee Child Jack Reacher book #12. Reacher is drifting through small town America and is intrigued by two adjacent towns, Hope and Despair. Something very dodgy is going on in Despair. Classic standalone Reacher, with him winning some implausibly stacked fights, doing some sensitive but no commitments attached shagging, buying some cheap clothes and just generally doing and saying the right thing. This was the last Reacher book on my dad's kindle, but I'll definitely read more.

Just going to add my list because it took me ages to find it on the last thread and then will read back.

1. Then she was gone - Lisa Jewell
2. Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine - Gail Honeyman
3. Class Murder - Leigh Russell
4. The Witchfinder's Sister - Beth Underdown
5. Friend Request - Laura Marshall
6. The vanishing year - Kate Moretti
7. Persons Unknown - Susie Steiner
8. Together - Julie Cohen - I really enjoyed this. It is the story of a couple, deeply in love and their story. It is written backwards and begins with the couple in their 70s and then travels back to them meeting in their early twenties.

17. Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge, by Paul Krueger: booze is magic and Chicago is beset by demonic creatures. After Bailey Chen makes these discoveries, she has herself apprenticed to a master bartender to learn how to mix a (literally) killer cocktail and kick demon ass. Good fun with cocktail recipes!

18. Score, by Victoria Danault: yep, it's a romance book about a member (HA!) of a fictional National Hockey League team who reconnects with a past love. I regret nothing!

19. Birds, Art, Life: A Year of Observation, by Kyo Maclear: a small, lovely, quiet book tracing a year in the author's life in which she becomes a birder. It also reflects on her parents, her marriage and children, and her life as an artist/writer. This book is one that's good for dipping in and out of as you please.

20. The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, by Joanna Cannon: much reviewed here and enjoyable.

13. The Forgotten by David Baldacci (John Puller #2)

This was actually a pretty decent thriller. This John Puller character is shaping up to be much better version of Jack Reacher - somewhat more intelligent, capable of longer sentences, far more tech-savvy, with better hygiene and technological capabilities.

And bringing my shamefully short list over:

12. An Evil Eye (Yashim the Eunuch #4) by Jason Goodwin
13. The Midnight Line by Lee Child
14. Extraordinary Powers by Joseph Finder

1. The Harpsichord and the Clavichord by Raymond Russell
2. Music In The Baroque Era - From Monteverdi To Bach by Manfred f. Bukofzer
3. Deep State by Walter Jon Williams
4. Bach à Son Temps by Gilles Cantagrel
5. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
6. Killer Instinct by Joseph Finder
7. A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale
8. High Crimes by Joseph Finder
9. Would They Lie To You? by Robert Hutton

Remus - Gillespie and I is definitely worth the effort. One of my go to rereads.

35 - Scissors, Paper, Stone - Elizabeth Day

I bought this cheaply on Kindle after hoovering up 'The Party', by the same author. I thought that contained some pretty unpleasant characters - well, this has one of the most skin-crawlingly repellent men imaginable as its central figure. It's the story of a marriage and the way one twisted, abusive individual calmly sets out to destroy a woman and a child, and the consequences for their lives. Actually at times it reminded me of reading some of the more chilling threads on the 'Relationships' board here.

Having said all that, it's compellingly written and just as gripping as 'The Party'. But I spent most of it feeling gripped by a feeling of genuine skin-crawling anxiety.

73. Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Much reviewed here already. Certainly opened my eyes and I’m very glad I read it.

99p Kindle daily deals are good today: Homegoing and Born A Crime, both been well reviewed on this thread :)

Born a Crime was one of my highlights of last year.

Gosh, Terpsichore, I don’t fancy that, don’t need more skin crawling anxiety in my life! I’m only just after buying The Party at quite a good price on Amazon, but haven’t got to it yet. Keeping on with my big hardback, Connect. Reading hardbacks is special, I do like it.

Bringing my list over:

1. Someone to Hold by Mary Balogh
2. The Sixth Extinction by James Rollins
3. Sky Key by James Frey
4. Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
5. The Reproductive System by John Sladek
6. Malice by Keigo Higashino
7. Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
8. Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
9. The Atlantis Plague by A. G. Riddle

10. Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino 11. Disclaimer by Renee Knight 12. Walk by Shoto Radford 13. Accidents Happen by Louise Millar 14. Departure by A.G.Riddle 15. Angel of Storms by Trudi Canavan 16. Anxiety for Beginners by Eleanor Morgan 17. Exposure by Aga Lesiewicz 18. The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman 19. The Power by Naomi Alderman 20. Haunting Christmas Tales 21. Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken 22. Uniquely Human by Dr Barry M. Prizant with Tom Fields-Meyer 23. Impact by Adam Baker 24. The Very First Damned Thing / When A Child Is Born / Roman Holiday / Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings / The Great St. Mary’s Day Out / My Name is Markham by Jodi Taylor 25. Lies, Damned Lies and History by Jodi Taylor 26. The Telling Error by Sophie Hannah 27. Starlight by Melissa Landers 28. The Fate of the Tearling by Erika Johansen 29. Autism and the Stress Effect by Theresa Hamlin 30. Zero Day by Jan Gangsei

I would be interested in forming a John Puller fan club with you cote.
David Baldacci is my go-to for easy to read thrillers.
And I second any recommendations for Born a Crime. Absolutely brilliant.

31. Empire Games by Charles Stross

World hopping espionage between a dangerously paranoid USA and an industrial revolution North America. Set in the same world as his Merchant Princes series.
An okay read.

32. The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

Final book in her All Souls trilogy. Continues the romance between witch Diana and vampire Matthew in the face of adversity.

This was hard going, mainly because I kept losing interest in the storyline. Lots of full bits, and the central romance felt very reminiscent of Twilight in places.

Let's do it, Hound Jack Reacher books have been getting steadily worse over the years. John Puller is far better.

I want to ask about The City and The City by China Mieville as I recall some discussion about this book a while back -

I’ve just finished watching the BBC adaptation, and I’m struggling to understand how the whole “unseeing” thing works. I can understand, to some degree, the notion that they’re deliberately ignoring each other.

But there’s some points where I can’t understand how they’re meant to know that they should be ignoring something unless they have a look at it first. Including things like gunfire on shared streets - I mean, how are they supposed to know they should be ignoring the gunfire without having a look to see where it’s coming from first?

So, does this make any more sense in the actual novel? Or am I likely to find the whole unseeing business even more confusing and frustrating if I read the novel?

I think the 'unseeing' thing si like a super advanced version of being blind to what's right under your nose. E.g we don't 'see' beggars when we are on a busy commute to work. When you become pregnant you siddenly 'see' hoardes of women with bumps everywhere who you'd never noticed before because your brain wasn't primed to 'see' them. people don't 'see' women over 50, so they get ignored in bars and shops in favour of pretty young things.

I think the unseeing is just that massively exaggerated, if that makes sense.

I found the book terribly dull mina and the unseeing got so ludicrous I gave up. I thought it was an interesting idea, but couldn’t shake off the ridiculousness of the execution of it. If that helps!

Re City & The City - "does this make any more sense in the actual novel?"

No

22. The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie Christie's first crime novel (and Poirot's first book). Not her best.

33. Cousins by Salley Vickers

I hadn't read anything by Salley Vickers since Miss Garnet's Angel, which I really enjoyed, but I somehow missed all her subsequent ones.

This was a very absorbing family story, told from the points of view of three women from different generations of the same family, in the aftermath of a near-fatal accident to a family member, but also looking back into the past to see the roots of what happened and how and why people behaved as they did. I think a lot of Vickers' own family history and emotions went into this book. It is set in fairly well-trodden territory of left-leaning, bookish, middle-class British families in the war and the following decades, but then that is where many writers come from. Anyway, a good read, particularly if you like writers along the lines of Jane Gardam, Penelope Lively or AS Byatt. I now have her next one, The Librarian, to look forward to.

Just finished This Is Going To Hurt which was interesting. I do think some of his laddish humour fell a bit flat : perhaps just for the female reader. Particularly his anorexia quip ground my gears. He is definitely playing to the audience. But it's a real insight and he did work tirelessly for years fro and with women in obs and gynae.

Also, I learnt something (not sure why the medical profession choose not to tell women these things). DS1 had shoulder dystocia, which led to lots of bleeping, several people entering the room and a large midwife seeming to yank him out , followed by some fairly extensive darning by a doctor . But it was all v quick. So , in Adam Kay's book he says it is one of the scariest experiences as an obstetrician... and a matter of moments before brain damage occurs. Well, they fussed over and fussed over me because I had high blood pressure before delivery but this they never told me! Nor did they tell me the increased risk of any further DCs having the same complication! Thanks for that.

Apparently, if the baby doesn't come out after attempted yanking, one of the genuine options is to stuff it back up, as it were, and try again !

On Amazon, some people seem only able to comment on Kay's bad language. Honestly...what the fuck? That's all they have to say??? Fuckwits.

ps further DC was born in less than 20 minutes with no yanking required.

31 Bookworm by Lucy Mangan

Reviewed by a few people already upthread. I found this absolutely delightful - I'm a smidge too old for her teenage reads (in 1986 I was selling Sweet Valley High in my Saturday job - in a bookshop, naturally ), but otherwise pretty much perfect.

It's also a beautifully made book, and my general enjoyment was added to even more by getting in there quick, and being the the first person to take it out of the library.