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50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Seven

999 replies

southeastdweller · 06/08/2018 21:23

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

OP posts:
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 09/09/2018 14:36

The Lonesome Dove sequel is called Streets of Loredo.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 09/09/2018 14:37

Thanks so much for the rec, Indigo.

Piggywaspushed · 09/09/2018 17:02

Have just finished Like Water For Chocolate. I have read this before when it first came out but reread it to remind myself as DS is doing it for A Level Spanish. It's a whimsical book. It's quite erotic... am trying to imagine DS reading it and discussing it in class Blush
It is basically Hispanic chick lit in my opinion and I am sure something more 'suitable' must be on the spec! Or maybe all books in Spanish are magical realist sex romps?

ScribblyGum · 09/09/2018 21:14

Great review Indigo. Have put it on my Goodreads want to read list.

MuseumOfHam · 10/09/2018 10:02

  1. Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers Third book set in the Small Angry Planet universe. I did love this, and hope there will be more, because these three books didn't really have the arc of a trilogy, with only loose connections between them. This is about the Exodan Fleet, ships that left Earth many generations ago whose inhabitants have never settled on a planet. Hence they are thrifty and resourceful, with a strong sense of community. There are shifting narrators, so we see the fleet from a range of viewpoints - the incomer human, the alien anthropologist, the settled older person, the young person who wants to leave etc. There isn't a lot of plot and there isn't one main character to follow throughout. With the Exodan Fleet itself being the main character, the world building though is excellent. As with her previous two books I'm left with the overall warm feeling that humans are pretty decent really.

  2. Dying Fall (Ruth Galloway #5) by Elly Griffiths Another top class archaeological murder mystery. The main characters and their relationships continue to develop and I've become very fond of then all. This one got a bit silly and frantic towards the end, but all good fun.

  3. Maria in the Moon by Louise Beech Catherine is a bit of a prickly character who has never really settled down. She volunteers on a helpline following the Hull flooding, and through this starts piecing the missing 9th year of her childhood together. Well written and moving. There are some coincidences that are a bit hard to swallow, but they do fit in with the almost dreamlike inevitability of where this is going.

I've got Like Water for Chocolate lined up for a reread soon Piggy - I am surprised it's a school text too (but I am quite prudish!)

SatsukiKusakabe · 10/09/2018 10:20

panda my Shel Silverstein arrived and it’s delightful thanks for the review I’m looking forward to reading a couple with ds later.

Indigo The Diaz sounds great have wishlisted.

36. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

This was a short and melancholic meditation on life’s futility, springing from the complicated relationship between a man and a geisha he visits over annual trips to a hot spring resort on the mountains. It is bleakly beautiful in its stark descriptions of the landscape and I can feel its influence on later Japanese literature with its spareness, disjointed dialogue, off kilter relationships and heavy use of symbolism. However, it was hard going at times for such a short book - I found it had originally been published as a series of short stories which makes sense.

I haven’t had much time to read this week and I’m feeling the pain. Following this with Murakami’s latest short stories as and when I can fit one in.

SatsukiKusakabe · 10/09/2018 10:21

Also it’s new Kate Atkinson week! Hope to get my hands on it at some point.

bibliomania · 10/09/2018 10:45

Just popping in to wave at you all. I am reading but haven't been able to catch up on here - life a bit hectic at the moment. Should be better in Oct!

EmGee · 10/09/2018 11:36

Pepe I loved those Anne Rice vampire books!!

ScribblyGum · 10/09/2018 11:43

I'm about a quarter of the way into the new Kate Atkinson book Transcription. Started off well but I hate to say it I'm becoming increasingly underwhelmed and even a little bored. Hoping it will pick up again.

SatsukiKusakabe · 10/09/2018 13:31

Noooo scribbly! Shock

Piggywaspushed · 10/09/2018 13:56

I have it. Not started it yet (random number generator and all that). It got a very lukewarm review in the ST. I didn't really like her last two all that much, must be honest, whereas Behind The Scenes At The Museum is one of my favourite books.

Indigosalt · 10/09/2018 16:58

Was about to buy Transcription for DM's birthday as she is a huge fan...I quite liked Life After Life but never got round to reading A God in Ruins. Is it any good?

EmGee · 10/09/2018 19:47

Yes Indigo. I preferred A God in Ruins (that's the one from Teddy's perspective isn't it??)

SatsukiKusakabe · 10/09/2018 20:38

I preferred Life After Life I think but would say God in Ruins worth a read.

Guardian review of Transcription was favourable. Also a very good review of Galbraith/Rowling’s latest in the Times for those following that series.

Indigosalt · 10/09/2018 21:29

Thanks Satsuki and EmGee. Sounds like it's worth raiding DM's bookshelf next time I'm over there.

Matilda2013 · 10/09/2018 21:48
  1. Let Me Lie - Clare MacKintosh

Anna is still struggling to come to terms with both her parents committing suicide. That is until someone hints that it may not be suicide on the anniversary of her mum’s death. When she tries to find out more someone tries to stop her. What secrets are being hidden and what really happened to her parents?

I struggled to finish this but think that was more due to me than the book. Once I sat myself down last night I finished the second half no problem and whizzed through it to find out the twists. Had a soft spot for the retired police officer and his wife who suffered from mental health problems and would have liked to hear more of their story.

ChillieJeanie · 11/09/2018 05:52

I'm part way through a history book which, as per usual for non-fiction, is taking me ages to read, so I broke off to read this:

  1. Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray

Although I knew the story I had never read the book before. A young man is entranced by his own beauty in the portrait of himself painted by a friend and becomes filled with horror at the thought of himself ageing and losing his looks. His wish that the portrait would age instead and reflect his life rather than himself come true, and as a consequence Dorian becomes an amoral character, always living for pleasure and experience, however vicious and degraded it is. His face remains so young and innocent that people do not believe the rumours of him, but the portrait changes to reflect his soul.

Wonderful writing, especially the descriptive passages, and there are a smattering of Wilde's most famous aphorisms too.

clarabellski · 11/09/2018 08:53

Good morning everyone

I've hit the big 3 - 0 ! Wooop! Feeling like I might manage 50 by the end of the year, particularly as it is getting into the season of big jumpers and cups of tea on the sofa.

30. "How to Talk so Kids with Listen and How to Listen so Kids will Talk" by Adele Faber and Elaine Maslish

I have a 2 1/2 year old and keep finding myself getting sucked into irrational battles. Borrowed this from the library after hearing so many folk talk about it on mumsnet and think I might buy it to read again from time to time. The cartoons were somewhat old fashioned but I liked the summary pages of tips/tricks that they suggested to keep handy to remind yourself of the tips.

mamapants · 11/09/2018 14:04
  1. The Philosophers Stone by Rowling a reread as wondering about reading it as bedtime story for my son. Enjoyed very much even though have read it a couple of hundred times.
  2. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton Figure most will have read this already so not bothering with a synopsis. Not sure about this one. Really enjoyed it whilst reading it but a bit flat as we don't learn very much about the purpose / intent of the miniaturist in the end. An interesting read though.
YesILikeItToo · 11/09/2018 14:11

28 Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin

Andy Martin watched Lee Child write the twentieth Jack Reacher novel, Make Me, and wrote this book about it. There is an obvious risk that reading this would put you off reading the books themselves, but I was a bit scunnered with Reacher, and decided that if this didn't re-invest me in the series it would alternatively make an interesting end.

It turns out that there is a world of great material in the story about how Lee Child writes the Jack Reacher books. His method is utterly surprising, too me at least. His engagement with the author of the meta-book is very cool, he has lots to say about language and writing and they both seem to get something from discussing matters as things progress. I didn't really like the way that Andy Martin writes, though, so that was a bit of a let down. The book could surely have been more than a bunch of shiny factoids about Lee Child and a joke about Tom Cruise.

Having read it, I'm convinced I will actually read more of the Reacher stories.

ScribblyGum · 11/09/2018 16:45

I have had to DNF Transcription and return it to Audible for a refund. Monthly credit too precious to use on something so mediocre. Really disappointed Sad

Tarahumara · 11/09/2018 16:47

  1. Ammonites and Leaping Fish: A Life in Time by Penelope Lively. This is a sort-of memoir, written when Lively was 80 (she's now 85). It's not always chronological, but full of random snippets, sometimes based around objects which are precious to her, or her memories of historical events. It also contains her musings on what it is like to be an 80-year-old, and thoughts about the workings of our memories. Overall I found this quite good (but slightly dull).

  2. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot. I unexpectedly ended up loving this. It starts slowly; I think we've discussed previously on this thread how reading Victorian novels (this was published in 1860) makes you realise how our lives have sped up / attention spans have got shorter. And this was exacerbated because I listened to it on Audible - no chance of skim reading the lengthy descriptions! But by the end I had adapted to the gentle pace (in fact I found it rather soothing) and was fully immersed in the joys and sorrows (more of the latter than the former Sad ) of Maggie Tulliver's life from childhood to womanhood.

LadyWithLapdog · 11/09/2018 19:21

Transcription is on Book at Bedtime. I've also just read it. Not as good as her previous ones but I liked the characters and it was a bit of history I didn't know all that much about. Enjoyable but a bit light overall.

CoteDAzur · 11/09/2018 21:35

Pepe - I read and loved Interview With The Vampire and its sequels in my early 20s. The first 6 books were great but subsequent books got worse and worse IIRC.

You would also like Anne Rice's The Witching Hour and its sequels, I think.