50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

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

How're you getting on so far?

Of course I have the physical book! I am addicted to book buying! It is a lovely cover.

I just find her style very intricate and it needs proper concentration.

Hi guys first post for me wasn't sure if there was an introduction section...couldn't really see one.

Started trying to read more again after quite a turbulent personal year. Only been a few weeks...so only have 1 under my belt so far....

1: The Long Ride Home: Sydney to London - Nathan Millward

I have listed this in bold as it's my current favourite book. This must be the third or fourth time I have read it.

But after doing a bit of satisfying hard reading you can close it and then mindlessly marvel at the lovely shiny cover. I liked tilting it in the sun.

Welcome to the thread Ratcarguy . No intros necessary, just tell us about the books you’ve read/are reading.

Thanks ScribblyGum. In that case...I'm also currently reading...

Strongman: My Story - Eddie "The Beast Hall
The Old Man and the Sand Eel - Will Millard

Bringing my list over, and thanks for the new thread :

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 31. Empire Games by Charles Stross 32. The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness 33. The Spark by Kristine Barnett 34. The Girl Before by JP Delaney 35. Lily Alone by Vivien Brown 36. The Expats by Chris Pavone 37. My Sweet Revenge by Jane Fallon 38. Rules of the Game by James Frey 39. My Not so Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella

Terpsichore my local library is still using Overdrive for e-books. Although they have changed their provider for digital magazines recently.

Thanks for the thread. When you talk about bringing a list over, do you mean cut and paste ? Or do we have to type it all again ? I'm a bit of a luddite when it comes to computers ! Anyway my latest are;
24. Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
An interesting read about a young woman attempting to escape her mother's domination.
25. Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell
The last one she wrote, not her best, but still a wonderful author.
26. The Sell out by Paul Beatty
I wanted to like this more than I am. Extremely wordy and seems to hammer home his point. But I will probably finish it.

40. The Apartment by S.L. Grey

Holiday house swap goes badly wrong, complete with malevolent supernatural entity.
Mediocre.

41. Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb

Book 3 of Fitz and The Fool.
I’m not going into detail about the plot, except to say that this final book brings in characters from the Liveships trilogy and the Rain Wild Chronicles. I found myself dipping back into those several times while reading Assassin’s Fate to remind myself about the history of those characters.

I loved this book. Thoroughly absorbing, emotionally wrenching in places, and I’m sad to have finished it and have none of it left to read.

This isn’t one for readers new to Robin Hobb though. Definitely best to start at the beginning with Assassin’s Apprentice, the first book featuring Fitz, and to read on from there.

Tanaqui - the mystery of the haybox oven! This seemed terribly strange when I was a child. I am still not convinced that it would work although it is clearly the same idea as a slow cooker. Toward the end of the book there is a terrible worry about how they are going to manage for clothes as they have all grown and don't have any money. But there is their parent's money there, just not given to them except for a small amount. It's also interesting that they don't have any domestic help at the start of the book but they somehow have the money for two airfares to Europe. If you could afford to fly in 1930 something I would have thought you could afford a cleaner.
Anyway, clearly overthinking a children's book

Hi new thread!

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.
5. “Guernica” by Dave Boling.

10. “Harvest” by Tess Gerritsen. 11. "Grit" by Angela Duckworth. 12. "The Hive" by Gill Hornby. 13. "The Nix" by Nathan Hill. 14. "That's My Boy" by Jenni Murray. 15. "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K Le Guin. 16. "Room" by Emma Donaghue. Picked up for 10p discard as vague memory of wanting to read it back when it came out and never did get around to it. Whilst horrific and fantastical I found the premise fascinating and [SPOILER] wished the author had spent more time in the room.

29 Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
In which Rindwind the wizard and Twoflower the Disc's first tourist continue their adventures having fallen off the planet in the first book. Lots to enjoy, including some silly jokes/puns. A re-read which I thoroughly enjoyed.

30 The Floating Admiral by the Detection Club
Slightly odd book. Written in the 1930s by various members of the Detection Club which is/was a club for the writers of detective fiction. Each member wrote a chapter of the book and then passed it forward to the next one. This book contains chapters written by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and G K Chesterton among others. The book is slightly uneven because of the different writing styles. And I think it became a bit confusing in places because each author had a different idea for the solution. The various solutions are posted at the back. I am giving nothing away by saying that Agatha Christie's proposed solution involved the main female character turning out to be her long lost brother dressed up as a woman which sounds preposterous. The main plot is that a boat is found early one morning floating upstream containing the body of an admiral who has been stabbed. Whodunnit and why. I quite enjoyed it but the plot was over plotted.

31 The Chateau by William Maxwell
This is a very good book. An American couple visit France shortly after World War 2 and spend some of their time as paying guests at a Chateau. The book is about their worries about how they are perceived by their hosts. There are misunderstandings - large and small. It is very well written. The author describes the stresses and uncertainties of travel in a country where you don't speak the language well - the generosities and kindness, the snubs and rudeness. Very much enjoyed reading this - I'd never heard of the author before and picked it off the shelf at random in the library.

Cedar really interested in your thoughts on Maxwell, he's been on my wishlist for a while, I thought that one sounded good, but wasn't sure.

Do you listen to Backlisted Podcast? If not, you might enjoy it. I started because they'd covered a few of my favourite books and it got me hooked. They do a fortnightly show online, each one highlights a particular book - always from the past - as well as other reviews. The last one was on Willa Cather's My Antonia with her biographer Hermione Lee as a guest. It's a bit like a radio show with guests, a bit of gossip and reviews, headed by Andy Miller who did The Year of Reading Dangerously. They cover a surprisingly wide range of books from Hubert Selby, Ian Fleming, Georgette Heyer to Barbara Comyns, George Saunders and Hilary Mantel.

The reason I brought it up now is that they did one on William Maxwell and his So Long, See You Tomorrow it was quite a good episode and included a reading of one of his stories.

The next one's up in a few days: Angela Carter. But all the old episodes are online:

soundcloud.com/backlistedpod

Cedar - I haven't read The Children who live in a Barn, but I have used a haybox oven :) You bring things to the boil, then put them in the haybox and they cook in the retained heat, it works really well. Works for pulses (except you have to boil them hard for 10mins first), rice, soup/stews etc etc - I've never used a slow cooker but I guess it's the same principle.

Virginqueen re: lists, I don't know how others do it, I just have a list on my laptop, when I post I update it, and I copied & pasted the most recent version into a post when everyone else starting posting theirs. Word numbers it automatically so no major computer know-how needed!

Thanks Dottie. I've never heard of that podcast, will check it out.

Sadik ah so a haybox oven is a real thing then!

Welcome @Ratcarguy407

83. The Children's Act - Ian McEwan
The love /hate thing strikes again!!!
The premise of this book is good. The central character is a female judge who specialises in Family Law and making moral and ethical judgements. E.g should Siamese Twins be separated against wishes of parents, etc. I find these dilemmas fascinating and wish the book had more of this. It focuses on the case of a young boy, almost 18 (this is important) who has leukaemia. He and his parents are Jehovahs Witnesses and therefore opposed to the blood transfusion that could save his life. Fiona (central character) has to rule on this. Meanwhile her marriage is in crisis. I was actually enjoying this until about 2/3 of the way through. And then McEwan makes the main character do something so bizarre that I was actually angry! It was a catalyst for the climax of the book but unnecessary and unbelievable in my opinion. It undermined everything that went before and made his character unbelievable.

On another note I see Home Fire has won the Women's Prize. I enjoyed this one but want my stand out from the short list.

Here's my list so far:

1. White Teeth - Zadie Smith
2. According to Mark - Penelope Lively
3. Conversations With Friends - Sally Rooney
4. Grief is the Thing With Feathers - Max Porter
5. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
6. The Game Theorist's Guide to Parenting - Kevin Zollman and Paul Raeburn
7. Out of Time - Miranda Sawyer
8. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
9. Gut Symmetries - Jeanette Winterson

10. Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury 11. Born A Crime - Trevor Noah 12. The Silence Between Breaths - Cath Staincliffe 13. A Girl is a Half-formed Thing - Eimear McBride 14. Shadowlands: The True Story of C.S.Lewis and Joy Davidman - Brian Sibley 15. The Pedant in the Kitchen - Julian Barnes 16. City of Friends - Joanna Trollope 17. The Position - Meg Wolitzer 18. A History of Britain in 21 Women - Jenni Murray 19. With the End in Mind - Kathryn Mannix 20. I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O'Farrell 21. Amsterdam - Ian McEwan 22. Bookworm: a Memoir of Childhood Reading - Lucy Mangan 23. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes 24. Burial Rites - Hannah Kent 25. The End We Start From - Megan Hunter 26. We Were Liars - E. Lockhart

Thanks Stitches. I suppose it varies from library to library but it's frustrating as I've only recently managed to get Overdrive to work, and fiddled around downloading the app etc. Grr.

Cedar I loved The Chateau too. A perfect little gem of a book.

Welcome ratcarguy Just join in the chat wherever you are interested, and post a short review of what you’ve read when you’ve finished.

Enjoying all the reviews and haybox oven chat, too lazy to contribute

My list, hihglights in bold:

1. Jacob’s Room Is Full Of Books by Susan Hill
2. Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
3. The Dry by Jane Harper
4. Best Friends by Jacqueline Wilson
5. Oh My God What A Complete Aisling by Emer McLysart
6. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
7. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
8. The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
9. Mrs de Winter by Susan Hill

10. The Rebecca Notebook And Other Memories by Daphne du Maurier 11. Wuthering Heights According To Spike Milligan 12. The Growing Pains Of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend 13. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 14. All She Wants by Jonathan Harvey 15. Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott 16. The Trouble With Goats And Sheep by Joanna Cannon 17. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett 18. Confusion by Elizabeth Jane Howard 19. The Outcasts Of Time by Ian Mortimer 20. The Power by Naomi Alderman 21. How To Stop Time by Matt Haig 22. The Secret Library by Oliver Tearle 23. Close To Home by Cara Hunter 24. Arrowood by Laura McHugh 26. Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years by Sue Townsend 27. Pemberley by Emma Tennant 28. When She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell 29. The Child by Fiona Barton 30. The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence 31. Burnt Paper Sky by Gilly Macmillan 32. Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson 33. Casting Off by Elizabeth Jane Howard 34. Timekeepers: How The World Became Obsessed With Time by Simon Garfield 35. The Hiding Places by Katherine Webb 36. Dangerous Days In Elizabethan England by Terry Deary 37. Nelly Dean by Alison Case 38. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 39. The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory 40. The Sisters Who Would Be Queen by Leanda de Lisle 41. All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard 42. Britain By The Book: A Curious Tour Of Our Literary Landscape by Oliver Tearle 43. Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes 44. Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory. 45. The Runaways by Ruth Thomas 46. Under The Duvet by Marian Keyes 47. The Bookshop That Floated Away by Sarah Henshaw 48. Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain by James Bloodworth 49. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Tales From The Crematorium by Caitlin Doughty 50. The Vanishing Of Audrey Wilde by Eve Chase 51. Animal Farm by George Orwell 52. Odd Child Out by Gilly Macmillan 53. Relight My Fire by Joanna Bolouri 54. Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman Of Pleasure by John Cleland 55. Before You Die by Samantha Hayes 56. In The Unlikely Event by Judy Blume 57. Turn Right At The Spotted Dog: And Other Diversions by Jilly Cooper 58. The RMS Titanic Miscellany by John D T White 59. Quiet Power by Susan Cain 60. The Reunion by Samantha Hayes 61. Quiet by Susan Cain 62. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald 63. America’s Back Porch by Daniel Jeffreys 64. Notes From The Sofa by Raymond Briggs 65. Saturday Requiem by Nicci French 66. Never Greener by Ruth Jones 67. Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh 68. This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay 69. A Wild Life by Martin Hughes-Games 70. Anything You Do Say by Gillian McAllister 71. The Years She Stole by Jonathan Harvey 72. Posing for Picasso by Sam Stone 73. Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge 74. Five Children On The Western Front by Kate Saunders 75. The Corpse Bridge by Stephen Booth 76. Bookworm: A Memoir Of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan 77. The Time Traveller’s Guide To Restoration Britain by Ian Mortimer 78. Sunday Morning Coming Down by Nicci French 79. Victoria Wood: Comedy Genius - Her Life And Work by Chris Foote Wood 80. A Piano In The Pyrenees by Tony Hawk 81. Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella 82. The Lido by Libby Page 83. Our House by Louise Candlish 84. The Mermaid And Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gower 85. The Greedy Queen: Eating With Victoria by Annie Gray 86. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell 87. The Betrayals by Fiona Neill 88. Need You Dead by Peter James 89. Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

Thanks for the new thread, South, bringing my list across.

1. The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette De Bodard.
2. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout.
3. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.

4. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

1. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin.

6. The Outrun by Amy Liptrot.

1. The Story of the Lost Child (Book 4 of the Neapolitan novels) by Elena Ferrante.
2. The Lunatic Cafe (Anita Blake novel 4) by Laurell K.Hamilton.

9. The Three Body Project by Cixin Liu. 10. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. 11. Small Island by Andrea Levy. 12. The Invisible Guardian by Dolores Redondo. 13. The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman. 14. The Places In Between by Rory Stewart. 15. The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch. 16. The War on Women by Sue Lloyd-Roberts. 17. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Audible narration by Simon Callow. 18. World of Trouble (The Last Policeman Book 3) by Ben H.Winters. 19. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. 20. The Risk of Darkness (Simon Serailler Book 3) by Susan Hill. 21. SPQR by Mary Beard. 22. Tess of the D’Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy. 23. Bloody Bones (Anita Blake Book 5) by Laurel K Hamilton. 24. Autumn by Ali Smith. 25. Malice by Keigo Higashino. 26. The Crow Road by Ian Banks. 27. In a dark, dark wood by Ruth Ware. 28. The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry. 29. The Endless Summer by Madame Nielsen. 30. Red Sister (Book of the Ancester, Book 1) by Mark Lawrence. 31. To Be a Machine by Mark O’Connell. 32. La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman. Excellent narration by Michael Sheen.

Currently reading Do not say we have nothing by Madeleine Thien.

Oh so long since I last posted an update, so this is a long overdue catch up...
Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris
Married couple have a relationship and lifestyle that appears 'perfect' to those around them, but all is not as it seems. Psychological thriller, this turned really quite dark and I wasn't enjoying it, but I felt like I had to bear with it to see if there was any kind of positive turn on it's way. Even when I wasn't enjoying it I could see that maybe it was doing what the author intended in making the reader feel uncomfortable. Listened on Audible and it was well narrated, just not really my cup of tea.
The Four Pillar Plan by Rangan Chatterjee
Health and lifestyle advice from the GP who appears on Doctor in the House on TV. I found this interesting - would echo a previous reviewer who said that it includes lots of common sense advice backed up by scientific research. I've read it all, but this is a book I will also dip into again and again.
The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh
A young woman in late 1800s London is left poor and alone after her father's death, so agrees to a marriage proposal and moves to live in South Africa, a kind of frontier setting where life is hard and diamond mining attracts greed and exploitation. To me, one of the key themes of this novel was the limit of options available to a young woman at this time (money, society's expectations etc.), but the main character is a bit pathetic and makes some really bad decisions which had me wishing I could give her a shake!
The Marches by Rory Stewart
This was kind of billed as the MP walking along Hadrian's Wall and exploring the border between Scotland and England with his father, against the backdrop of the Scottish independence referendum and the evolving relationship between Scotland and England. It interested me because the borderlands are my part of the world, but this wasn't quite what I was expecting. The chapters are very short so it doesn't feel like it flows, parts become bogged down in historical detail (especially around the Romans), and some parts are really a tribute to his father who had an extraordinary life. At times he speaks to local people in the borderlands and is quite critical of them personally without really explaining how he came to meet them. There are bits that will stay with me - his views on how we preserve historical sites and artefacts are interesting, as are his thoughts on the way environmental schemes are carried out. Overall a bit disappointing though.
Bring Me Sunshine by Charlie Connelly
Non-fiction book about the weather, by the author of Attention All Shipping about the shipping forecast. Enjoyable, lots in here about some of the amazing characters who have contributed to our knowledge of the weather and how it is recorded. It made me want to read more about weather so will be on the look out.
Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
A true standout for me, a rare novel that I finished and wanted to almost immediately start to read again! Some of the events described are brutal and horrific, but the poetic language grabbed me early on and I became more drawn in by the characters and plot as the novel went on. I listened on Audible and thought at times that I would have liked to have been reading in print so that I could reread passages to keep track of what was going on and savour some of the particularly special descriptions and observations, but the narration was very good and probably helped me to make sense of the dialect which was really useful. Of all of the above, this is the book I would recommend!
I think that's book 22, have started Harvest by Jim Crace but too busy and tired to manage more than 5 pages a night this week...roll on the weekend!

Thanks for the new thread, South :)

Continuing a run of great reads, and carrying on the Kent coast theme after Derek Jarman's diaries, we have:

24. All The Devils Are Here - David Seabrook

Somewhat of a lost esoteric classic by the Canterbury-based writer, who wrote prolifically but only had one other book published before his death in mysterious circumstances in 2009. Seabrook describes the strange, shabby Thanet towns with frequent, sometimes dizzying diversions into tales of madness, murder, and seedy sexual encounters, with occasional dark allusions to his own troubled state. A deeply odd but compelling book and a huge shame that so little of his writing survives.