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50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Five

996 replies

southeastdweller · 23/04/2018 20:29

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?

OP posts:
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 09/05/2018 18:37

Regular readers will now that I CAN'T BLOODY STAND Ian M. The Cement Garden is the only one of his that didn't really, really annoy me, and I'll never read another.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 09/05/2018 18:37

know

Toomuchsplother · 09/05/2018 19:52

Piggy glad you enjoyed Gillespie and I. I second The Observations.

I have a love / hate thing going on with McEwan. Admired Atonement, Enduring Love. Pretty ambivalent about The Child in Time. Hated On Chesil Beach, Nutshell.
I think my problem with him is that he 'over writes'. He just can't help being a bit of a smart arse really!

68. This Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson. What a read, and one I doubt I would have found of it wasn't for this thread. It has taken me three times as long as anything else I have read this year. Partly because I am so busy but also because I wanted to savour it. So much to say, not sure where to begin. Fitzroy was a man ahead of his time but yet so tied to the past!
My heart genuinely broke repeatedly for him.
Will definitely be recommending and rereading.

KeithLeMonde · 09/05/2018 19:56

Oh dear, Ian McEwan and Never Let Me Go both kicking off at the same time

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 09/05/2018 19:57

Hurray for another This Thing fan. I ought to charge the publisher a fee for all these happy readers!

CorvusUmbranox · 09/05/2018 20:35

I have This Thing of Darkness on my shelves too. Am saving it to be my fiftieth book. Grin

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 09/05/2018 21:08

54: The Foundling – Georgette Heyer
This began really slowly, and was far too long, but I really enjoyed the second half of it. Some genuinely funny scenes in it and not as horribly predictable as some of her happy endings.

SatsukiKusakabe · 09/05/2018 21:57

Yes remus though it is disturbing to me how few others you can recommend as heartily considering how many you read. I shall never look upon its like again Sad

Glad you enjoyed it splother Smile

Speaking of This Thing of Darkness I acknowledge mine latest book:

21. Hag-Seed Margaret Atwood

This is a reworking of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, as part of a series by different authors. I should say that I LOVE The Tempest, it is one of my favourites and I have seen it live numerous times, so this could have fallen very flat indeed with me, but actually Atwood approaches it from such a sideways angle that it has its own charm and layers of interest, whilst weaving through the ideas from the original, echoing it, without imitating it as such. At first I found the writing style and lead character, Felix, somewhat reminiscent of the narrative voice in Coetzee’s Disgrace - a middle aged man trapped in the past, but the dark tone eventually opens up into quite an enjoyable romp. Felix, an established theatre director, is usurped from his role by the machinations of others, and so goes into seclusion, plotting his revenge, whilst grieving the loss of a loved one. When the opportunity comes to run a literacy course for prisoners, he uses his theatrical skills to turn them into actors and onto Shakespeare, with an eye to staging a cathartic production of The Tempest and get back at his enemies in the process. Play within a play within a play about a play high jinks ensue, and it’s all rather good fun if you go along with it, with some nuanced discussion of the play’s themes which set me falling in love with it all over again. Whilst I didn’t love the book itself quite as much, it was good to look at an old friend in a new way, and the distinct storyline of the novel ended up being quite moving and cleverly realised, if the journey was a little far fetched. If you were not familiar with the original I’m not sure how you’d find it. There is a synopsis at the back, but much of what I got out of it was the ways it set me thinking again and in different ways about a play I was already familiar with, and I liked picking up on the references within the text, so not sure how it plays as “an introduction”. It is well written though, as one might expect, and the second half flew by as the plot came together.

I think I’m going on to Mermaid next as I’ve had a slow old time of it lately.

MegBusset · 09/05/2018 22:33
  1. The Sword In The Stone - TH White

Well, this really wasn't what I was expecting. After recently enjoying lots of books based on the Arthurian legends (the Dark Is Rising series and the Mabinogion) I thought this would be an epic, mystical tale; instead I found a knockabout, farcical comedy set in a proto-Hogwarts that seemed to have more to do with public school (lots of people being beastly cads etc) than anything to do with romantic legends. Oh, and Robin Hood and Maid Marian cropping up totally randomly.

There are a few sections of beautiful writing which show what White is capable of, but overall the tone was just odd and I'm not minded to read further in the series. Perhaps if I'd read them first in childhood I'd feel differently.

PepeLePew · 09/05/2018 22:35

Agree 100% about The Sword in the Stone. I read it to ds a couple of years ago - we got to the last page and he looked at me and said solemnly “well that was odd”. And he was right!

Terpsichore · 10/05/2018 08:18

I'm enjoying the post-Bank Holiday activity on here but am frustrated at not being able to add anything to my list because I'm bogged down in not one but two very long books, one of which I'm enjoying and one, erm, hmm, ahem.

Just came on to say that it's interesting to hear several of you singling out The Cement Garden as the only Ian McE book you liked. I've read a book by Julian Gloag (and also seen the film made of it) called Our Mother's House, in which a family of children deal with the death of their mother by deciding to bury her in the garden and carry on life as 'normal'.....let's just say that Julian Gloag himself was very surprised indeed when The Cement Garden appeared 15 years after his book with an almost identical plot. There was quite a fuss about it, as some people may remember.

ScribblyGum · 10/05/2018 10:08
  1. A Darker Shade of Magic by V E Shwab.

YA/adult fantasy. Four Londons each on different planes. Grey (ours) ruled by one of the Georges, I forget which, maybe the III, which has no magic, Red (good magic and a nice shiny royal family), White (bad magic and extremely evil twin monarchs) and Black which has gone to hell in a hand cart and no one can access. Kell from Red London is an Antari (super wizard) and can move between the Londons. In grey London he meets Lila a feisty thief. They proceed to have exciting magical adventures together.
There is also an excellent coat which contains many coats.

This was a reasonably enjoyable, predictable, easy read. It’s the first in a trilogy and I have bought the next two. It’s the perfect sort bedtime book for me; half an hour of spells, swords and a hint of sexual tension and my brain is almost entirely switched off and ready for sleep.

lastqueenofscotland · 10/05/2018 14:08

I really like Ian M Blush
Atonement is one of my favourites of all time

SatsukiKusakabe · 10/05/2018 16:25

It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You’re welcome to him Grin

SatsukiKusakabe · 10/05/2018 16:28

I used to think I quite liked him, but I just can’t get over the bits that grate on me so haven’t bothered with him for years. So now it’s like when you bump into an ex-boyfriend and think “what did I see in him?” - you’ll be civil but won’t go out of your way to spend time with him. Have I taken this too far? Blush

Sadik · 10/05/2018 16:30

35 Poison or Protect by Gail Carriger

Romantic novella. Spy / assassin Lady Villentia (Preshea from the Finishing School series) is sent to a house party on assignment, where she meets Scottish Captain of guards, Gavin Ruthven.

I was a bit disappointed in this one. For me, the fun of GC's novels is in the minutiae - the gadgets and machinery, the social structures of werewolf packs and vampire hives, and the way Victorian etiquette deals with the supernatural. Unlike her other novellas & short stories that I've read, this felt very slight (although at around 200 pages it's near the length of a 'proper' novel) and lacked this sort of detail, or indeed much character development.

TheTurnOfTheScrew · 10/05/2018 16:34

On McEwan, I really liked The Cement Garden, The Innocent, Amsterdam and Enduring Love, even though the latter two do feature a good amount of the sort of middle-class male navel-gazing that gets on my tits. However, IMO it's been downhill all the way from there, and he seems to be getting worse with every novel. Unfortunately it took me until The Children Act to realise that, so I've read a lot of his inferior works on the way to that conclusion. Won't be going anywhere near Nutshell though.

Sadik · 10/05/2018 16:36

I love The Sword in the Stone, though - just a lovely fun book for me, probably because I first read it when I was young. I prefer the shorter version I had as a child, rather than the newer version with the ants, geese etc.

If you read the sequels, it's worth knowing they are even weirder . . . Grin

Frogletmamma · 10/05/2018 17:39

Read 26. Memoirs of a madman by Gustave Flaubert . This was written when he was very young and at times it shows. However there are some beautiful descriptions in there and it was sort of worth reading to glimpse the writer he would become. Now reading some Tove Jansson as I really like her adult books.

exexpat · 10/05/2018 17:43

Scribblygum - glad to be of service Smile. I'm amazed the bookseller couldn't identify the book as Lillian Boxfish immediately, with all the clues you gave her...

CorvusUmbranox · 10/05/2018 17:45

42.) Death and the Dancing Footman, by Ngaio Marsh - This is only the second Ngaio Marsh I've read, the first being A Surfeit of Lampreys. I enjoyed that, but loved this. I'm a sucker for an And Then There Were None set-up.

The eccentric and flamboyant Jonathan Royal gathers together a disparate group of guests for a dinner party at his mansion in Dorset, each with their own reasons for hating or fearing another guest. Who could have predicted it would end up in murder? apart from just about everyone.

It's not perfect. I guessed the murderer early on possibly because once you've read a certain number of murder mysteries (particularly Christies) you start to recognise the tropes and tricks. But I liked the set-up, and adored the main character (the delightfully awkward and self-conscious Aubrey Mandrake not, you may be surprised to know, his real name). Interesting to note that the servants are not nearly as well-drawn as the wealthier guests, which was something I also noted in A Surfeit of Lampreys. I also realise I need to pay more attention when I'm reading. I never quite get the locked-room mystery aspect because I'm not following closely enough, and that takes a little of the fun out of it.

Now reading Why Mummy Drinks, after which I'll start on the last book in the Ngaio Marsh omnibus. I never like to read two books by the same author in a row.

exexpat · 10/05/2018 17:47

I remember loving The Once and Future King when I was a child (and also A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court - I think I went through an Arthurian phase aged around 10) but after reading all the stuff about TH White in H is for Hawk a year or two, I wondered if I would see it all with rather different eyes if I re-read it now. Sounds like I probably would.

ScribblyGum · 10/05/2018 18:22

exexpat I have ordered Lilian from the library so thanks again for reminder.

TheTurnOfTheScrew · 10/05/2018 19:00

21. A Very English Scandal by John Preston
Story of the leader of the Liberal party Jeremy Thorpe, focusing on his clandestine encounters with male model Norman Scott, and ultimately his trial for conspiracy to murder Scott.

This is an incredibly compelling story told in a rather tabloid-esque way, which was unnecessary, as there was plenty of drama in the story itself. I would have liked to have seen more examination of the impact of Thorpe's downfall on the fortunes of the party as well as how it affected the individuals involved.

I also agree with Scribbly upthread that the author offers little criticism of or reflection on the behaviour of people involved in child abuse and non-consensual sex, to the extent that I checked the publication date, assuming it to be older than 2016. It's a very, very readable book, but that's all in the subject matter rather than how it was presented.

slightlyglittermaned · 10/05/2018 21:44

Just wanted to point out that Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem is 99p on Kindle today - science fiction that was much reviewed and enjoyed on last year's threads.