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.

I have @nowanearlyNicemum I particularly liked his next one The irresistible inheritance of Wilberforce all about wine. The girl on the landing was good too. Very tempted by the 99p Celeste Ng.

nowanearlyNicemum I read The Girl on The Landing by Paul Torday this year, and found it pointless, lazy and ludicrous. I did longer review with a more detailed slagging off on one of the earlier threads.

'pointless, lazy and ludicrous' I like a reader who doesn't sit on the fence

I'm not actively seeking out more books by this author as I thought Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was OK but nothing special. I was just curious to know whether his other books are in a similar vein as this one.

Very late to the literary birthday twin discussion, but I’m excited to say nowanearlynicemum that my DD also shares her birthday with Roald Dahl - so our DDs are birthday twins too! 🎂

which year Tarahumara? DD1 has just turned 14

Just had the new Jasper Fforde, the sequel to Crazy Rich Asians and a Malcolm Gladwell I'd ordered all arrive in the library at once. Typically, I have a busy weekend coming up and not much likely reading time. Mind you dd has already swiped the Fforde, and I know my dad wants to read it too, so it will be gainfully in use and not sitting in a pile at least!

Long overdue catch-up - have finally submitted my PhD thesis so suddenly the pressure is off. I did it part-time over 7 years so don't quite know what to do with myself....

Late to the discussion about A Dance to the Music of Time, but I also downloaded the first and have found it pretty unengaging so far. A shame, as I expected to like it.

Here we go:

102. The Man Who Broke Out of the Bank and Went for a Long Walk across France, Miles Morland
Nothing special - does what the title says. It's an account of a walk in France in the early 1990s, which feels a long time ago in technological terms, with the author relying on paper maps and pages torn out of guidebooks.

103. You Think It, I'll Say It, by Curtis Sittenfeld
Short stories in which middle class, middle-aged American women brood about their emotional challenges. A mixed bag: I enjoyed some while others didn't resonate.

104. The Celtic Revolution, by Simon Young
On my bookshelf for ages, so glad to finally read it. Non-fiction - not as strange and fun as AD500 by the same author, but miles better than The Celts by Alice Roberts, which I found unreadable. Concentrates on three significant moments - ancient Celts attacking Rome; Irish saints setting out in exile in the Dark Ages; and how the Welsh story of Arthur became transformed into the pan-European legend of Camelot.

105. The Art of Not Falling Apart, by Christina Patterson.

Non-fiction - woman is made redundant and reflects on how life didn't quite work out as intended. When your health fails, loved ones die, Mr Right doesn't come along and you don't have children, what's left? Laughing with friends over a bowl of crisps and a glass of wine comes high on her list. I found this one rather consoling.

106. The Something Girl, by Jodi Taylor
A bit of an oddity - not sure who it's aimed at. Comic/sentimental story of woman living on farm with eccentric husband/friends. She is also friends with an imaginary golden horse who helps her through ordeals involved kidnapping and attempted murder by wicked relatives. A bit unsatisfactory.

107. Delight, J B Priestly
Short essays about everyday pleasures, a kind of forerunner to a gratitude journal. I liked the idea, but I found the essays too much on the slight side.

108. Standard Deviation, by Katherine Heiny
Fiction - a man watches as his wife chatters indiscreetly with anyone and everyone and brings them home for dinner, and contrasts the life he has with her to the one he had with his ex-wife. I enjoyed this and I thought it was a good portrayal of how amused exasperation is tied in with love.

109. The Plague Road, L C Tyler
Conspiracy and crime in Restoration England. Lightweight and reasonably amusing (I enjoyed the rescued child who likes to announce brightly to strangers that she has the plague) but I won't rush to seek out the others in the series.

110. Talking about Detective Fiction, PD James
I thought this was okay, but no major insights and fairly unmemorable, although I liked her exasperation at getting a detail wrong about motorbikes and being subject to correspondence for years afterwards correcting her (all from men).

(Abandoned Girl with Dove by Sally Bayley and Autobiophilosophy by Robert Bowland) Both exercises in autobiography where the author tried to be stylistically adventurous and where I got bored)

111. A Necessary Evil, by Abir Mukherjee
     Crime fiction set in the British Raj. Not bad, but I wasn't so intrigued by the characters that I want to seek out the rest of the series.

112. Why We Die, Mick Herron
     Having enjoyed his spy fiction, I'm now enjoying his crime fiction featuring a female PI. I like his writing and there are the usual genre pleasures - hairbreadth escapes from a menacing character with a cross-bow and a good old double-cross.

Currently on (113) Gaudy Night, by Dorothy Sayers - malicious doings in a women's Oxford college in the 1930s.

biblio that’s brilliant, well done! Too bad you only managed to read 112 books alongside your PhD - my mind boggles at what your total will be now you’ve got time on your hands

Ha Satsuki! My total might go down if I can muster up the effort to read big challenging books now. Mind you, I've been looking at blogs by other people about the final stages leading up to submission, and one person said she'd been reduced to reading Bobbsey Twins books at this point.

39. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith Latest Strike novel finished. A mentally ill young man approaches Strike about a crime he witnessed as a child, before fleeing the scene. We then follow the investigations. Well written, well paced and enjoyable. As ever from JK a host of memorable characters. Plenty of ongoing personal story alongside the crime elements. My favorite so far.

Congratulations bibliomania! I am seriously impressed.

nowanearlynicemum - my DD is three years younger than yours

Long silence from me - sorry . Apparently I share my birthday with Salman Rushdie and Blaise Pascal, neither of whom I've ever read.

Aaaaanyway......book no. 65: Time of Death - Mark Billingham

God, this was dull. And long. Moved at a glacial pace, nothing happened for aeons, and then the reveal suddenly occurred within about 5 pages and I was left wondering what the hell just happened. I suspect this was a classic case of a popular crime writer having to produce a book for contractual reasons because he referred in the acknowledgements to 'dragging this one across the line', or some such phrase, so he was aware that it wasn't one of his best.

However, I'm continuing with Wilkie Collins's No Name and enjoying it greatly. Magdalen (wronged heroine) is executing her plan of revenge against the evil relations who cheated her and her sister out of their rightful inheritance. Cracking stuff.

Just finished number 40 Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday. It's a book in 3 parts, the first and the last about the same characters and the second seemingly (but not) unconnected. I enjoyed reading it, particularly the second and third sections, and thought it was a clever idea, but felt that the author had almost stopped with the clever idea and not really thought about how precisely to tie it up. As a result, the second section is rather left hanging. Still, a very good first novel and I would be interested in reading more by the author.

34. The Camel Club by David Baldacci

This was a pretty good thriller. Details felt real, characters were complex and well-developed (even the terrorists) and I especially liked how many of the American characters actually understood the issues in the Middle East.

Recommended. I'll be reading the sequels, too.

35. The Target (Will Robie #3) by David Baldacci

I just realized that I forgot to count this among the books I read this summer. It was a great beach read - a head above most books of the genre - albeit somewhat improbable in places.

Terpsi - Glad you're enjoying No Name. I think I might be about due for a re-read of it soon, maybe in November when a big, fun book will be just what I need.

Here are the books I have read this year. I didn't think I would get anywhere near 50 so I thought 25 would be ample but I have now read 29.

I am currently reading There was a man by Jeffrey Archer. The last book in the Clifton Chronicles. Very samey as all the others and getting a bit bored of them now but they are a good easy read and he finishes each one which such a cliffhanger you have the read the next one.

Engleby- Sebstian Faulks
I saw man- Owen Shears
To Kill a mockingbird- Harper Lee *
The Girls- Lori Lansen **
What a carve up – Jonathan Coe ** fab
Bone meal for roses- Miranda Sherry
A God in ruins- Kate Atkinson **
One moment, One morning – Sarah Rayner
Elizabeth is missing – Emma Healy *
The only story – Julian Barnes **
The silent Tide – Rachel Hoare *
A perfectly good man – Patrick Gale
Only time will tell- Jeffrey Archer
The Postmistress - Sarah Blake **
The sins of the father- Jeffrey Archer
I see you- Clare Mcintosh
Left Bank – Kate Muir
Best Kept Secret- Jeffrey Archer
Perfect- Rachel Joyce *
Be Careful what you wish for- Jeffrey Archer
The house at Riverton- Kate Morton **
Mightier than the sword- Jeffrey Archer
My husbands wife – Jane Corry
We are all completely beside ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler **
The only way is up – Carole Matthews **
Number 11 – Jonathan Coe **
The truth about goats and sheep- Joanna Cannon
Cometh the hour- Jeffrey Archer
A dictionary of mutual understanding- Jackie Copleton *

I have given them star ratings. I loved Number 11 and A God in ruins.

Its taken my stars away so ignore them as Number 11 definitely isn't one star!!!!!

The Moon’s a Balloon by David Niven

Runaway bestselling memoir - talk about being a classic for a reason. He portrays a life of simply roaring through one escapade after another, I couldn’t put it down. For quantities of drinks drunk, girls bedded and names dropped look no further.

Me: David Niven’s just been snubbed by the oldest member in Boodles, but someone who turns out to be Ian Fleming has come to his aid.
DH (who’s been listening to these snippets all week): Of course he has.

David Niven led an incredible life didn’t he? He seemed to know everyone.

Absolutely everyone, best. Some combination of his class, his professions (army as well as movie stardom) and his magnetic personality adds up to never being more than a stone’s throw from a chum, and most likely than not a chum with a ploy.

121. Conversations with friends - Sally Rooney . I nearly abandoned this one but the fact that so many people had raved about made me keep trying. To be honest,although I can appreciate the skill of the author the novel left me cold. It felt in essence a miserable book about screwed up people with a unhealthy dose of pretentiousness. And I wish she would learn to use speech marks!

Now onto Lethal White which I picked up today along with a History of the world in 21 woman By Jenni Murray.

Interesting you felt that way about Conversations with Friends, toomuch. I felt I couldn't fully engage with it because I'm so very much not part of the rootless self-obsessed twenty-something student world she's writing about, but I was interested enough to carry on reading.

Then it got to the section where Frances is diagnosed with her illness (being slightly vague here in case anyone else hasn't read it and might want to), and my suspension of disbelief evaporated. I've suffered from the same condition and Sally Rooney's research let her down badly here, I think.

It got me thinking about other books I've read where something, perhaps quite a small point, just wasn't quite right, or the details were a bit slapdash - but those details happened to be something I knew about, and it ruined the whole book for me in an instant.

terpsichore yes to that - I read something about the bit you’re talking about and it would have blown it for me too. Zadie Smith made a small but very important error in White Teeth, and that had the same effect for me.

38. A Month In The Country - JL Carr

A beautiful, heart-wrenching short novel about a man who, coming home from the Great War, spends summer in a small Yorkshire village to uncover a medieval mural in its church. Not sappy at all, although a love story is part of it; the writing is gorgeous, funny and wistful at the same time. Really very highly recommended.