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?

Thanks, diamantegal. I have a thing about murder mysteries and horror novels set on cruise ships. That’s gone straight on my TBR list.

Oh, and I love And Then There Were None.

Bell and Daphne the Fforde arrived but my OH has pinched it! Is about half-way through I calculate, asked for comments but all I got was: I'm whizzing through it, I don't know why.

Anyway it has already paid its way!

Remus - "really like The Virgin Suicides. Hos other books haven't come close to it imho"

Really? I found The Virgin Suicides dull and overblown. The same author's Middlesex, on the other hand, was a great book.

16. 401 - Ben Smith
This is subtitled, the amazing story of the man who ran 401 marathons in 401 days and changed his life forever.
I was fortunate enough to hear Ben Smith speak at an event earlier this year and he really is a very inspirational man, so when I saw he'd written a book I was very keen to read it.
Ben ran 401 marathons in 401 days to raise money and awareness for Kidscape and Stonewall. He was bullied to the point of a suicide attempt at school and only came out as gay in his thirties, having lived his early adult life in a state of denial.
This is the story of an ordinary person doing amazing things. Parts of it are very moving. He's not a fantastic writer, lots of the book reads "I did this, then that, then this happened" but I would recommend this anyway to both runners and non-runners. It's definitely made me think about what small, positive changes I can make to my own life.

17. The Girl from Venice - Martin Cruz Smith
Cenzo is a fisherman, living just outside Venice at the end of the Second World War. One night a Jewish girl washes up by his boat while he's out fishing. It turns out she has jumped in the lagoon to escape the Nazis.
I struggled a bit with the author's writing style a bit. The plot jumps around a lot and there are a lot of incidental characters. Sometimes I got a bit lost and felt like I'd turned over two pages at once. Not bad, but not great either.

@Dottierichardson - sounds like you won't have to buy the rest - hopefully DH will best you to it 😂

Bell could be that was my fiendish plan all along!

Remus and Cote I liked Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides but they're so different it's hard to compare them. I thought Suicides was very atmospheric and almost like a myth or a fairy-tale, whereas I enjoyed the detail in Middlesex have never forgotten all the stuff about working for Ford and living in their houses. But I read Suicides when I was really busy so got a bit confused about what was going on, helped to watch the film later.

Picnic in Hanging Rock has anyone read this? Saw the BBC are going to dramatize it soon. I've been meaning to read it for a while but then I found out that it has a final chapter. It was cut to make the book more mysterious, so want to find a version with that included. I saw the film but all I remember about it is that it had a lot of rocks and floaty white dresses.

Or even PIcnic On Hanging Rock sorry slept badly because of the heat.

Never read it but the film is seared on my consciousness. I loved that film as a teenager. No idea why I never read the book. It was even fleetingly on the GCSE spec once upon a time.

The BBC are going to do it? Oh, that's exciting. Hopefully they'll capture all the weirdness without having to add any modern stuff.

I thought it was Picnic AT Hanging Rock

Cote - I found Middlesex far too long and rather dull; ditto The Marriage Plot. In contrast, I thought Suicides had hardly a wasted word. We'll have to agree to disagree (as usual)!

I've read Picnic at Hanging Rock - I enjoyed it, but seem to remember feeling a bit frustrated by the ending. It's absolutely ages since I read it though, so can't remember the details.

splother did you see InsertLiteraryPun's review of Three Things About Elsie? She doesn’t hold back

Watched it this morning Scribbly. 100% agree with everything she says! And more.

88. Need You Dead by Peter James

Number 13 in the series featuring detective Roy Grace. More of the same, although at least this one wasn’t as twisted as some of them are!

46. JD Oswald - The Rose Cord

Further adventures of Sir Benfro, the young orphan dragon seeking a teacher in the north of Gwlad, and Errol, a boy completely unaware that he is the rightful heir to the throne and who is to be used as a weapon by Inquisitor Melyn against the neighbouring country. Both have an innate ability with magic but little knowledge of how to use it. Benfro comes under the thrall of one of the greatest dragons who ever lived while Errol has to work out how to survive amidst the various intrigues around him.

I like the idea of a dragon called Pembrokeshire, Chillie

44 A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the great betrayal, by Ben Macintyre
Recommended upthread by Scribbly I think. I knew a bit about Philby et al, but this is a really good read which goes right through his life from his schooldays, and gives you a real sense of how he managed to get away with it all for so long.

Interesting you say that, Cote about The Virgin Suicides. I was utterly bored by it, which put me off Middlesex, although I'd previously fancied the latter. Might give it a go now if it's definitely a different beast.

25. Lullaby by Leila Slimani We find out at the very start that a nanny has murdered her two young charges, with the rest of the plot devoted to looking at how and why this could have happened.

There is much musing on the nature of parenthood, both from the perspectives of the bourgeois family for whom the nanny works, and the nanny Louise, who seems to be estranged from her own adult child. However I didn't find any of this very interesting or revelatory. Also, as with The Girl On The Landing which I read earlier this year, I didn't find the character's rapid descent from experiencing some relatively common mental health problems to unravelling so entirely that they would commit homicide at all credible.

Remus and Piggy thanks for the loan of a preposition - slippery little things. The ending of Picnic was confusing because it wasn't the intended ending, the author wrote another chapter which was cut to make the book more mysterious and fuel the idea it might be a true incident. It meant the book changed genre from SF/fantasy to crime. I haven't read the book but I've read the final chapter. It was probably the right idea as the mystery of the fate of the girls fuelled an industry in its own right.

Am fascinated by editing processes and publishing history of books for some bizarre reason. Also interested in how easily some books can be reframed by cuts - was very annoyed by the BBC adaptation of Parade's End where by cutting out the final book they made it into a love story. If the whole trilogy had been covered would have been an entirely different story and not made Ford's work seem as if he was a 'marriage plot' author.

Agree with you re: Eugenides never liked anything else and not entirely sure about representation of issues re: gender in Middlesex so have never gone back to it, just in case!

I

I thought it was real! I was convinced..

Just finished Burial Rites which, as many have said on here, is very good. well written and elegant, without being forced or contrived , I felt. I went to Iceland recently and she captures its wildness. I am massively impressed by her research and detail.

Whilst it was a creative writing degree (post grad as it goes) think , like Gowar's and many others, this one doesn't feel overwritten.

Not sure I'd read her other book. Maybe at some point. Certainly a very accomplished writer and the stuff at the back is also interesting.

Sorry dog leant on keyboard, but you get my gist I'm sure.
Turnof I haven't read Lullaby but have assumed it's done well because it's based on the American case. Is that unfair?

I read an article about it in the New Yorker. The book sounded a bit like Rendell's A Judgement in Stone in turns of social issues but with added dimension of playing into a range of cultural concerns re: motherhood/work and the fact that it's based on a real case.

I think I'll probably wait for an analysis of the actual source material. Although did make me want to re-watch the Chabrol version of Rendell's novel.

Piggy - the other one doesn't come close to Burial Rites imho.

Piggy This article by Maile Meloy covers how book came to be amended:
lithub.com/what-really-happened-to-the-girls-at-hanging-rock/

And original ending available here (if can't face reading book):
carusopascoski.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/secret_hanging_rock.pdf

I suspected it wouldn't remus having read the blurb. I do wonder why Burial Rites is not very well known compared to say , Mermaid, Or Essex Serpent, or The Miniaturist. Is it juts because she is Australian?

Her style actually reminded me a bit of the Essex Serpent writer and also of Jessie Burton when she is on form.

Thanks for the link dottie : will peruse!!

Thanks, Dottie. Just read the final chapter - VERY odd!

Piggy, I really enjoyed both of Hannah Kent's books and although I think Burial Rites is superior in terms of craft it is actually The Good People I remember more about. Looking back at my list for last year I recorded it as one of my standouts. I would say it's definitely worth a read.