50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Seven

[southeastdweller]

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.

31. Divas and Dictators by Charlie Taylor

Another self-help book re parenting from the library (did I mention I have a 2 2/12 year old??? ). Books like this annoy me. The actual message could have been done in a pamphlet. It didn't need to be 300 pages. Also I'm not sure it helps to label kids as 'divas/dictators' - self-fulfilling prophecy?!? Although I'm sure i have jokingly said it behind my kid's back...

64: Day of the Dead - Nicki French

The last book in the Frieda Klein series. Frieda has gone into hiding and awaits a final encounter with her nemesis, Dean Reeve. Into the picture blunders a young (and remarkably annoying ) student, Lola, who decides to do her final dissertation on Frieda. Now read on...

I know people take issue with the saintly Frieda, who so often seems to be portrayed as a near-godlike figure, and to a degree I share that irritation. Having said that, I did stay up till 1.30 to finish this, so it definitely drew me in. Let's just say that if you like this series, and have followed it through all the previous instalments, you'll want to read this book to see how the story ultimately pans out. And in fact I liked this much more than some of the earlier, more convoluted and less-believable novels; it flows more easily and is all the better for it.

Oops - that should be Nicci French. Maybe I shouldn't have stayed up reading till 1:30

I am very late to this but thought I would try to piece together what I've read so far this year. I tend to binge a bit when I find an author I like and this is evident from my list! I am sure I've missed some but here's what I can remember (and work out from my Kindle).

1. Fall Out - Tim Shipman
2. All Out War - Tim Shipman
3. In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl - Rachel Tresize
4. Amy & Isabelle - Elizabeth Strout
5. You think it, I'll say it - Curtis Sittenfeld
6. Last Rituals - Yrsa Sigurdardottir (hereafter YS)
7. My Soul to Take - YS
8. Ashes to Dust - YS
9. The Day is Dark - YS

10. The Silence of the Sea - YS 11. Someone to Watch Over Me - YS 12. Blacklands - Belinda Bauer (hereafter BB) 13. Dark Side - BB 14. Finders Keepers - BB 15. Rubbernecker - BB 16. The Facts of Life and Death - BB 17. Shut Eye - BB 18. The Beautiful Dead - BB 19. Snap - BB 21. Close to Home - Cara Hunter 22. The Party - Elizabeth Day 23. Scissors, Paper, Stone - Elizabeth Day 24. The End of Everything - Megan Abbott 25. Dare Me - Megan Abbott 26. Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney 27. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng 28. Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge 29. Resin - Ane Riel 30. Hunger - Roxane Gay 31. Women & Power - Mary Beard 32. Broken Ground - Val McDermid 33. Lullaby - Leila Slimani 34. This is Going to Hurt - Adam Kay 35. Notes from an Exhibition - Patrick Gale 36. Who Killed Roger Ackroyd - Pierre Bayard 37. High Rollers - Jack Bowman 38. The Secret Barrister

That's all I can remember. It may be fairly obvious that I am a crime nut, and my big discoveries this year were (obviously) Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Belinda Bauer. I think the latter's first novel, Blacklands, is one of the best crime novels I've ever read. I have bought but am a little wary of YS's later more supernatural books starting with The Legacy, so would be interested to know what those who have read them think (I think I saw The Legacy on someone's list further upthread).

My favourite books from the list so far (apart from Blacklands) were Little Fires Everywhere, the two Shipman books and Conversations With Friends. I read Why I am no longer talking... and Hunger one after the other and found them complementary and very interesting in the context of one another. I preferred Hunger as a book.

I am about to embark on Kate Atkinson's Transcription; I loved both Life after Life and A God in Ruins so hope this lives up to them.

Hi Welshwabbit, that's a really interesting list. I've never heard of Yrsa Sigurdardottir before so I'm going to have a look right now on Amazon. I presume it's an Icelandic name? I hardly ever read crime, apart from all the Henning Mankell books and sometimes there seems to be so much choice it's difficult to know where to start!

Oh that might have been me, Welshrabbit, I read The Legacy last month and I thought it was excellent. A ten year old girl is the only witness to her mother’s murder but is so traumatised she is unable to communicate, and the police have to tread very carefully to try to discover the culprit. Very dark, twisty, and difficult to put down, the chapters involving the first murder (involving the weirdest murder weapon I’ve ever encountered in a novel....how do they come up with these ideas?!) are genuinely tense and creeped me out so much! It’s the first of her novels I’ve ever read, would you recommend the others?

Thanks whippetwoman - yes, she's Icelandic. And thanks also Murine - I did enjoy the others, hence binge reading afterwards. I really liked her detective, Thora Gudmundsdottir, and found the books quite funny in parts. I will give The Legacy a go on your recommendation! If you like dark and twisty I would also recommend Resin by Ane Riel - a very unusual crime novel with a sort of dark fairytale feel to it. The author is Danish.

Hi welshrabbit looking forward to see what you think of Transcription

Welcome Welsh rabbit! I am on the last few pages of Lullaby, which has been an interesting read so far. What did you make of it?

Hope you enjoy it, Welshrabbit! I’m adding Resin to my endless to-read list, thankyou!

Indigosalt, I thought Lullaby was very well written (and obviously well translated) and quite disturbing and thought-provoking. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it but I'm glad I read it.

38.All Quiet on the Western Front
Finally finished this which I started and loved back in May then had a reading slump and just finished reading it now. Must confess I read the book thinking it was a memoir until I got to the afterword.
Fantastic novel about the first world War, very upsetting reading in places but very well written and philosophical. A highlight for the year and very interesting reading about the author afterwards.

Would you recommend Anne Rices witch series vote have had the first one on my bookshelf for ages but not got round to reading it.

cote not vote

Mama
I think All Quiet has been universally loved on here, which probably makes it unique!

Not enjoying Streets of Laredo anywhere near as much as Lonesome Dove, but it's okay. For me, it's suffering by having too much focus on the bad guys, and turning them into central characters which are a bit cartoonish and two-dimensional, instead of the really well-realised and fully developed central characters of Dove.

I've read All Quiet in German. random boast

Welsh have now finished Lullaby and yes, very well written. There was a real sense of tension throughout, even though the ending had already been revealed in the first few pages. Would like to read more by the same author, but I don't think any of her other books have been translated into English.

Remus so disappointed to hear Streets of Laredo doesn't quite live up to Lonesome Dove! I did notice the reviews on Amazon were not as universally positive as they were for Lonesome Dove though. I think I will see if I can get it from the library in any case, as I would like to know what happens next.

mamapants - I loved them around the time I loved her vampire series so if you liked one I think you would enjoy the other. I don't know what I would think about it all if I read them now

75% in and I'd say it's still worth a read, Indigo. It's just far stronger when the perspective isn't with the bad guys. It's also so unremittingly, hideously brutal that I'm finding it a bit exhausting.

I have just finished The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon which I enjoyed (but didn't love). The best things about it was reading about all the snacks from my childhood. Nostalgia!

I have purchased Lullaby in French ( Chanson Douce ). I aim to read one book a year in French which is pretty poor going since I live here, and have a degree in French, but better than nowt.

Going to start The Muse now by Jessie Burton and hope that it is better than The Miniaturist which was disappointing.

48 Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
Started reading this and then realised that it was actually a sequel to The Scandal (also published as Beartown). I don't feel I need to read the earlier book as the plot is summed up at the start so read the other one first before reading this one.
Beartown is a small rural community that is struggling economically and still coming to terms with the impact of the plot of the Scandal. The local council are planning to stop funding the local ice hockey team and put their resources into rival local town Hed because half the team have moved as a result of the Scandal. But if Beartown doesn't have a hockey team what does it have? The story follows various characters as they attempt to save the hockey team. It is very well written, there are some beautiful descriptions. He describes a couple falling out of love and how it is the loss of the little touches and glances, and shared enjoyment which show that the love is going.
I think he evokes the sporting rivalry and the importance of colours, gestures and chants to each team's fans.

49 The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude
Local man is murdered one stormy evening. Who killed him, how and why. This is one of those reissued murder mysteries which was first published in the 1930s. It is definitely more about the technical plot - the how it was done - than the why it was done. I do wonder about the police in these books as well. Niece of the deceased behaves very very suspiciously but no-one really pushes her to find out why so that they don't upset her. How likely is it that the police wouldn't push a bit further? Overall it was OK but nothing special.

Horrible insomnia last night (which I'm really paying for today), so I ended up finishing:

86: Streets of Loredo – Larry McMurty

The sequel to Lonesome Dove and not a terrible read by any means, but nowhere near as good as Dove.

I think it should have been subtitled, “The Many and Varied Ways of Dying Horribly in the West”, with chapter headings including, “I Am a Bad Man Being Bad”, “I Am Not a Bad Man but Nor Am I a Good Man and Boy Am I Hurting Bad”, “I Am a Woman Trying to Not Be Too Bad in a Bad World” and “Men Are Really Bad Except Sometimes the Occasional One Has Good Bits as Well as Bad”.

It reminded me a bit of A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry in its layering of misery upon misery and man’s inhumanity to man, except that this one only made me a bit tired and even amused, whereas I ended up hating the Mistry.

It comes to the point where so many horrible things happen that it gets a bit silly and cartoonish, and it would have been a better book had it been more subtle.

72. Susan Hill - The Small Hand

Antiquarian bookseller Adam Snow gets lost on the return from a client visit and stumbles across a derelict Edwardian house with an overgrown garden. As he stands alone looking over the gate at the faded grandeur, he feels a small cold hand like that of a child creeping into his own. Puzzled by the experience, he starts to suffer attacks of panic and fear, and increasingly sinister visits from the small hand.

Small and perfectly formed, it's a very creepy story although there was a fairly obvious twist towards the end.

69 Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer
I've read all GH's books many times but don't own this one, so picked it up on Kindle deal. Not one of her best, I'd say - all the individual elements are done better elsewhere and it feels a bit like she's dialling it in. Still, it has some nice set-piece moments, and was just the thing for an early night after a busy week.