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.

69. Terry Pratchett - Making Money

Re-read. Following the further adventures of Moist von Lipwig, con artist and now Ankh-Morpork Postmaster, who is given the unenviable task of sorting out the banking system and the Royal Mint after he is left a dog who happens to be the majority shareholder of the bank.

I wasn't overly keen on this character when I first read Going Postal but actually he has grown on me after a few reads of his story arc. The Watch remains my favourite story thread, but then since this in Ankh-Morpork you do get appearances from Vimes, Carrot, et al, and of course quite a lot of the Patrician, who is brilliant.

@Dottierichardson You're very welcome on this thread so please don't leave for good!

Dottie and Remus, I love reading both of your posts, always erudite and entertaining. Please don't leave. There will always be books that we disagree on here, and I guess it's also inevitable that sometimes one of us will misread another's post. I'd hate to lose either of you from the thread.

I hadn't planned on going anywhere, but am feeling rather bemused to be honest.

For my part I didn’t mean to fan the flames of anything that followed, though I fear I may have inadvertently- it just felt like dottie was responding to a position that remus hadn’t actually taken and I couldn’t quite see what the issue was, and, it seems, neither could remus. But instead of clearing up a misunderstanding it continued apace! I think the last few posts directed at remus must have been based on some further misreading/cross posting as it was all a bit boggling. Anyway I hope you think twice dottie - the thread isn’t really about meeting (or exceeding) the challenge so much as the, erm, great discussion

Hear hear Keith

And more for me too please

@BestIsWest

Agree with Keith, it would be a shame to lose either dottie or remus from the thread.

Bringing my list over :

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 40. The Apartment by S.L. Grey 41. Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb 42. The Four Legendary Kingdoms by Matthew Reilly 43. Firefight by Brandon Sanderson 44. Did You See Melody by Sophie Hannah 45. Touched by Joanna Briscoe 46. Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly 47. Zoo by James Patterson 48. And The Rest is History by Jodi Taylor 49. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 50. The Six Sacred Stones by Matthew Reilly 51. Perception by Terri Fleming 52. Never Alone by Elizabeth Haynes 53. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick 54. The Five Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly

I would also miss Dottie's reviews if she left the thread.

I would hate to lose either of you- we are usually good at disagreeing here! How many books have you agreed on now Remus and Cote, is it still in single digits?! Tone can be hard to judge in type.

I like crime for light reading, and think Christie does it very well; however, until Dottie mentioned it I wasn’t aware that her racism was possibly more than a product of her time and now I am I will look out for it.

Piggy, I have not seen the German film of The Wave, but I have read that it is good (and by the sounds of the changes, avoids the misogynism I found troubling). But I am reading it to 11 year olds and think the film is a 15.

Ah yes, the film is a 15 . Shame. Watch it yourself though - it's good. I read the book many many moons ago and I think the film makes a lot of changes : it is inspired by rather than based on the book. There is still the sports team thing but it is water polo, which I guess must be big in German schools! Every time the group start working together though there remains an undertone of menace,

I have been racking my brains about your question and will keep thinking. 11 year olds is quite tricky...

Is it the whole of The Wave you have to read aloud? What is the reason/ theme / topic ?

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. 17. "No Logo" by Naomi Klein. 18. "French Children Don't Throw Food" by Pamela Druckerman. 19. "The Martian" by Andy Weir. 20. "Freedom Climbers" by Bernadette McDonald. 21. "From Dictatorship to Democracy" by Gene Sharp. 22. "Children of Time" by Adrian Tkchaikosvky. 23. "Three Body Problem" by Cixin Liu. 24. "Poverty Safari" by Darren McGarvey. 25. "Quite Ugly One Morning" by Christopher Brookmyre. 26. "The Secret Lives of Colour" by Kassia St Clair. Bought by my husband (an amateur artist). It is based on a series of articles the author wrote for Elle Decoration about colours and their origins/uses and is the kind of book you can dip in and out of but I basically devoured it in a few sittings because it was so interesting.

Off to library at lunch time to pick up the next in the Cixin Liu trilogy

Just catching up.
Can add nothing to the Christie debate as I have never read one. But echoing others in saying that I would be very sad if @Dottierichardson disappeared from this thread.
109. The land of green ginger - Winifred Holtby Thank you to who ever recommended this. I have spent a while weighing it up and I really did enjoy it. I was so pleased with the choices that Joanna finally made but I had spent a lot of time silently and not so silently screaming at her up until this point. I think I initially struggled to engage with the characters, no one was very likeable to begin with. I was also actively willing her sick , and unpleasant, husband to get on and die ! Which was uncharitable to say the least. It was an interesting portrait of life in the years following WW1 and it's far reaching implications. It was also subtle but quite penetrating in it's portrayal of double standards and down right unfairness in the treatment and perception of women.
110. Your blue eyed boy - Helen Dunmore Simone is a successful lawyer, now female judge. She is the mother to two small children and wife to a near bankrupt architect who is slowly recovering from a breakdown. She is struggling to keep her head above water, has taken the promotion to save her family and has relocated to an isolated coastal hamlet. The world believes she has everything but she is far from financially secure or happy.
She suddenly begins to receive letters and photographs from an ex boyfriend from a completely different time in her life.
This was readable if at times unbelievable. I have read several of Helen Dunmore's novels now. They always seem to nearly hit the spot but there is something missing. Or maybe it is something I am missing?
Just started Circe by Madeline Miller. Slow going due to jet lag and it's unfamiliar style but enjoying it so far.

I too hope you stay, Dottie. I'd miss your reviews, and this fallout ain't nothing to the Never Let Me Go wars ...

I tired and v.unwell with gastroenteritis, so have paused Ragtime - it's good, but the various interwoven narrative strands require more brainpower than I can muster currently. Have re-read an easy one from last year, and am so drained I'll even paste my review verbatim:

34. Moving by Jenny Eclair Elderly widow Edwina is moving from the house she's lived in for fifty years. As she gets ready to leave, the story of her time there unfolds, different memories prompted by each room of the house. Later we hear the story from the different perspectives of her stepson, and her own son's girlfriend.

The story was a little predictable, but pacey enough to keep interest, and I think Eclair writes well.

Started H is for hawk but I got pulled up in my tracks when her father died. It reminded me of when the same thing happened to me and a might have to leave this book for a while before continuing.

Reading The Qu'ran' Oxford edition. 4 surahs in and so far it is reasonable although a product of its time re women and slaves. Contains some really good points about faith. Probably more accommodating of Judaism and Christianity than you would expect-says we can settle our differences in the after life. Holy war seems a matter of self defence. Enlightened attitudes to charity and benevolence. DH has read it and says it gets a bit incomprehensible towards the end. I have read the book of revelations. I am not daunted!

Get well soon, Screw.

I'm reading and liking An Officer and a Gentleman by Robert Harris, about the Dreyfus affair.

Tanaqui -I think Cote and I might even be into double figures by now. We're about due a really divisive one though.

Half the fun of this thread is the disagreements!

I really did not like The Three Body Problem at all if that's of any use.

I’ve got that one remus. Got Munich too finally, but you didn’t think that as good as Fatherland iirc?

Sorry you’re poorly screw.