50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Eight

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eighth (and probably final) 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 and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.The lurkers among you are also very welcome to come out of the woodwork and share with us 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, the sixth one here and the seventh one here.

How have you got on this year?

It's outrageous, isn't it?!

38. Ordinary Thunderstorms - William Boyd
A good intentioned middle-class climatologist tries to do a good deed and ends up thrown into an underworld where he's confronted with murder and a complicated conspiracy. The more Boyd novels I read the more I admire his writing style and his story-telling prowess.
Highly recommend.

I'm just limping towards the finishing line of a William Boyd novel Nicemum - Any Human Heart - and I'm just not getting the love. However, it is slightly growing on me. Right. I will finish it tonight.

131. The Long Take - Robin Robertson For my birthday my MIL bought me several of the books from the ManBooker short list. I would never have bought this one for myself. And I would have missed a treat, because this is one of my stand outs. The story is told in the form of a poem, with more than a nod to the cinematic feel of film noir.
It tells the story of Walker, a D-D veteran with post traumatic stress disorder. His mental anguish prevents him from returning home to Canada, instead he travels between NYC, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The poem deals with the treatment of veterans, the effects of PTSD, the destruction of down town cities in the name of progress, the rise of the homelessness, the rise of McCarthyism and the beginnings of the civil rights movement. It begins in 1946 and ends in the late 1950's.
The film noir motif is strong and employed to haunting effect. There is an underlying struggle throughout of a good man terribly scared by war, trying to turn his back on violence but being hopelessly drawn back in.
Highly recommend.

46. The Legacy - Yrsa Sigudardottir

Bought this on my Sigurdardottir spree earlier this year and didn't read it at the time as it was part of a different series which centres on the Children's House, a therapy type facility for children. Freyja, a child psychologist, works there and the novel is about a case she and a detective, Huldar, are working on. I liked the characters, although felt Freyja was insufficiently fleshed out. The plot is a bit far fetched and the deaths are quite brutal. It rattles along though. I guessed the killer and motive a bit before the end, but not so far as to spoil it for me!

In my fourth year of the challenge and first time I've been ahead! 45 books read so far. Favourites in bold

1. The Shetland Gypsy – Karyn McMillan
2. Sapiens – A brief history of humankind – Yuval Noah Harari
3. A Good Face for Radio – Eddie Mair
4. Lincoln in the Bardo – George Sanders
5. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a day – Winifred Watson
6. Bette and Joan – Shaun Considine
7. And Furthermore – Judi Dench
8. How to stop time – Matt Haig
9. This is Going to Hurt – Adam Kay
10. Shredded: Inside RBS – Ian Fraser
11. My Name is Leon – Kit de Waal
12. Elon Musk – Ashlee Vance
13. Death on a Longship – Marsali Taylor
14. *Women and Power – Mary Beard
15. The War on Women – Sue Lloyd-Roberts
16. A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles
17. Exit West – Mohsin Hamid
18. The Heart’s Invisible Furies – John Boyne*
19. The House of Dust and Dreams – Brenda Reid
20. Heavenly’s Child – Brenda Reid
21. The Island – Victoria Hislop
22. The Things We Learn when we’re dead – Charlie Laidlaw
23. Zorba the Greek – Nikos Kazantzakis
24. How to get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia – Mohsin Hamid
25. Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
26. Raven Black – Ann Cleves
27. The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
28. History of Wolves – Emily Fridlund
29. Poverty Safari – Darren McGarvey
30. The Ragged Trouser Philanthropists – Robert Tressell
31. Gone on the Turn – Danny Baker
32. With the End in Mind – Kathryn Mannix
33. Some Fantastic Place – Chris Difford
34. Yes - Robert Cialdini
35. City of Oranges – Adam LeBor
36. Strangeways – Neil Samworth
37. *Sugar – Bernice L. McFadden
38. Educated – Tara Westover*
39. White Nights – Ann Cleves
40. Welcome to the World, Baby Girl – Fannie Flagg
41. Red Bones – Ann Cleeves
42. The Secret Barrister – The Secret Barrister
43. Bueno – Christy Esmahan
44. *The Spy and the Traitor – Ben Macintyre
45. Milkman – Anna Burns*

Aargh - bold fail ! These should be emboldened/bolded

14. Women and Power – Mary Beard 15.The War on Women – Sue Lloyd-Roberts 16.A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles 17.Exit West – Mohsin Hamid 18.The Heart’s Invisible Furies – John Boyne*

37.Sugar – Bernice L. McFadden
38.Educated – Tara Westover

44.The Spy and the Traitor – Ben Macintyre
45.Milkman – Anna Burns

73. Unfed by Kirsty McKay

YA zombie novel, sequel to Undead.

Action packed with lots of zombies chasing a small group of teenagers across Scotland. Very readable although some of the near death escapes seemed a little improbable. Especially the bit where they steal a train - is train driving really something you can figure out in about 5 minutes?

49. Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer. Patrick is a young Anatomy student with Asperger's syndrome, learning how to dissect a body while also struggling to make sense of the death of his own father several years earlier. Fantastic! My favourite page-turner so far this year. Stayed up late last night to finish it.

I'm disappointed to have hit the 50 book mark with The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark. Set in 1963 and the 1940's, it's about group of women and how they live at the end of the war in a hostel together, culminating in tragedy. The story was mostly flat and the middle section sluggish to read.

I'm now reading Blowing the Doors Off by Michael Caine which so far is really enjoyable.

Just catching up.
The comforts of home - Susan Hill Last in the Simon Serrailer series, certainly felt like she was wrapping up all the loose ends.

72. Down Under - Bill Bryson comfort re-read.

Now reading East of Croydon - Sue Perkins

Picking up where I last left off I think

52. The Break - Marian Keyes

Amy’s husband Hugh is taking a break from their marriage. He isn’t leaving her but going to South Easy Asia to find himself. But a lot can happen in six months. And if Hugh is on a break, does that mean Amy is too?

This was a really enjoyable read. Few serious points but a break from the usual murder etc

53. Dead Woman Walking - Sharon Bolton

In the woods a man is killing a young woman. At the same time a hot air balloon crashes from the sky. One passenger survives. She has seen the murderer and he has seen her. Now she has to run.

I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns and this and went straight back to murder and grisly subjects. Some of the twists I guessed but most were a surprise to me!

Now onto
54. A Spark of Light - Jodi Picoult

Just read the new King. Bit of a rip off - will review later. Unless you're a big King fan and need to own everything of his, I wouldn't bother.

41. Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas Final in the Throne of Glass fantasy series. Really enjoyed this series, which I started on a whim looking for an easy read. They progressively get better through the series. With the last three being particularly good. This is almost a 1,000 pages and a big portion of it is battles. Some great characters and very exciting.

I don't think I'm going to quite manage to get to 50 this year but not bad for my first year on the thread and much more than I've read in recent years.

Bringing my list over:

1. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
2. North and South by Gaskell
3. Just one damned thing after another
4. La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
5. The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory
6. Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman
7. Mrs Zant and the Ghost by Wilkie Collins

The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

1. Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
2. The Witchfinder's Sister by Beth Underdown

10. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by Fitzgerald 11. Lord of the Flies by Goulding 12. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman 13. The Unbroken Line of the Moon by Johanne Hildebrandt 14. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides 15. Fatherland by Robert Harris 16. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 17. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova 18. The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida 19. Ubik by Philip K Dick 20. War of the World's by HG Wells 21. The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton 22. Good Omens by Gaiman and Pratchett 23. Temples of Delight by Barbara Trapido 24. Room with a view by EM Forster 25. Push by Tommy Caldwell 26. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley 27. The Ringmasters Tale by Helen Wallace-Iles 28. King Lear 29. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'engle 30. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie 31. The Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales by Theresa Breslin 32. Dan yr Ogof by Martyn Farr 33. A series of unfortunate events, Bad Beginnings by Lemony Snickett 34. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness 35. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell 36. The Philosophers Stone by JK Rowling 37. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton 38. All Quiet on the Western Front 39. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith 40. The Road by Cormac McCarthy 41. Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas

Toomuch great review of The Long Take. Have added to my wishlist.

48. How to Read Poetry Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster.

I’ve not read a lot of poetry but would like to read more so I bought T.S.Eliot’s Four Quartets on the recommendation from this thread. But each time I started, I wasn’t getting anywhere and decided to go back to basics. A Google search led me to this book and it was worthwhile; an engaging and informative short introduction to poetry. Next to listen to the Radio 4 In Our Time episode discussing Four Quartets.

Bringing over my list.

1.) Gossip From the Forest, Sara Maitland
2.) Ritual, Adam Nevill
3.) The Penny Heart, Martine Bailey
4.) Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman
5.) The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Library Volume 1: Histories
6.) The Fishermen, Chigozie Obioma
7.) The History of the English Puppet Theatre, by George Speaight
8.) The Year of Reading Dangerously, by Andy Miller
9.) Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch
10.) Women & Power: A Manifesto, by Mary Beard
11.) Wychwood, by George Mann
12.) Sleeping Beauties, by Stephen King and Owen King
13.) Last Days, by Adam Nevill
14.) The Owl Killers, by Karen Maitland
15.) Confessions of a Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella
16.) Happy, by Derren Brown
17.) A Surfeit of Lampreys, by Ngaio Marsh
18.) Death Knocks Twice, by Robert Thorogood
19.) Cheer up, Love, by Susan Calman
20.) The North Water, by Ian McGuire
21.) The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters
22.) A Morbid Taste for Bones, by Ellis Peters
23.) Rogues, edited by George RR Martin
24.) End of Watch, Stephen King
25.) Brave, Rose McGowan
26.) The Blackest Streets, Life and Death of a Victorian Slum, Sarah Wise
27.) Eligible, Curtis Sittenfield
28.) The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro
29.) The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry
30.) The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland, by John Lewis-Stempel
31.) The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, by Martyn Waites
32.) Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin
33.) The Fire Child, by SK Tremayne
34.) Death of Kings, by Bernard Cornwell
35.) Here Comes Everybody: The Story of the Pogues, by James Fearnley
36.) The Land of the Green Man: A Journey through the Supernatural Landscapes of the British Isles, by Carolyne Larrington
37.) The Break, by Marian Keyes
37.) Tudor Monastery Farm, by Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn, Tom Pinfold
38.) Under A Pole Star, by Stef Penney
39.) The Cheapside Corpse, by Susanna Gregory
40.) The Eyes of the Reindeer, Eva Weaver
41.) The Outcasts of Time, Ian Mortimer
42.) Death and the Dancing Footman, Ngaio Marsh
43.) Why Mummy Drinks, The Diary of an Exhausted Mum, by Gill Sims
44.) Colour Scheme, Ngaio Marsh
45.) Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
46.) A Clash of Kings, by George R. R. Martin
47.) The Harrowing, by James Aitcheson
48.) Odd Girl Out, by Laura James
49.) Day 4, by Sarah Lotz
50.) The Silent Companions, Laura Purcell
51.) This Thing of Darkness, Harry Thompson
52.) Spectacles: A Memoir, by Sue Perkins
53.) Beautiful For Ever: Madame Rachel of Bond Street - Cosmetician, Con-artist and Blackmailer, by Helen Rappaport
54.) Prince of Thorns, The Broken Empire Book 1, by Mark Lawrence
55.) Shopaholic Abroad, Sophie Kinsella
56.) Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes: The Story of Women in the 1950s, by Virginia Nicholson
57.) Foxlowe, by Eleanor Wasserberg
58.) A Head Full of Ghosts, Paul Tremblay
59.) Miss Burma, Charmaine Craig
60.) Brooklyn, Colm Toibin
61.) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by JK Rowling
62.) Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages, by Jack Hartnell
63.) The Witches of Warboys: An Extraordinary Story of Sorcery, Sadism and Satanic Possession in Elizabethan England, by Philip C Almond
64.) Men Without Women, Haruki Murakami
65.) How Not to be a Boy, Robert Webb
66.) Fools and Mortals, by Bernard Cornwell
67.) Black Tudors, by Miranda Kaufmann
68.) The Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin
69.) Badgerlands, Patrick Barkham
70.) The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, Imogen Hermes Gowar
71.) The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain, by Ian Mortimer
72.) On Editing, Helen Corner-Bryant & Kathryn Price
73.) Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
74.) Rotherweird, Book 1: Andrew Caldecott
75.) We Go Around in the Night and are Consumed by Fire, Jules Grant
76.) Ladder of Years, Anne Tyler
77.) Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, Lucy Mangan
78.) Vox, by Christina Dalcher
79.) A Conspiracy of Violence, by Susanna Gregory
80.) The Muse, by Jessie Burton

And my most recent reads:

81.) City of Brass, by S. A. Chakraborty -- The first in a new fantasy series, using Middle Eastern mythology as inspiration. Supposedly YA, although it's not obviously so. It deals with fairly adult themes. I enjoyed this a lot, although it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be entirely set in an alternate version of 19th century Cairo, but instead the main action centres on the Djinn city of Daevabad, inhabited by various different factions of magical beings as well as a half-human underclass. That disappointed me a bit. I've always found portal fantasy the least interesting kind of fantasy, and that's essentially what this is. The concept of a protagonist surviving in an alternative magical version of a real-world city strikes me as far more interesting (not to mention harder to write) than the YA trope of an entirely invented city, and if the Cairo at the start of the novel is the 19th century Cairo from our world, then I found the main character Nahri far too modern to be realistic, to the point where it interfered with my suspension of disbelief. The Cairo in the novel is well-drawn, but while I could believe it was an alternate version, I did NOT believe it was the Cairo of our world. It doesn't ring true.

But aside from that I really did like the novel a lot. The setting and the underlying mythology is interesting, and I liked the conflicting motivations of the various characters in Daevabad, as well as the note it ended on, which makes for a fantastic set-up for the next novel. I have some reservations about the way the climax progressed, but I can't fault the ending itself, and I'll certainly be reading the next in the series when it's released.

82.) Snuff, by Terry Pratchett -- An audiobook version of one of the later City Watch books. Sam Vimes is supposed to be on holiday, but ends up stumbling, rather inevitably, onto a crime. This was okay. I really need to go back and read the City Watch books from the beginning: I loved the early ones, but find the later ones a little lacklustre, although it is interesting seeing the Watch growing closer to modern policing.

The audiobook format didn't quite work for me either. The lack of chapters means it isn't always obvious when there's a scene change, and I really didn't like the way strong regional accents are used to identify each character.

83.) The Terror, by Dan Simmons -- A reread. Horror novel about the lost Franklin expedition. I liked it even better the second time round, and the Crozier/Silence stuff made more sense to me the second time round, although I don't think the folk tale chapters really help with the 'wait, WTF is happening?' feeling. Having read This Thing of Darkness since I read this the first time round, I found myself grinning at the references to the Beagle. It's also odd, considering the supernatural element to this book, how strongly I find myself believing that this could be what actually happened. It's one of those books that leaves me wanting to know more about the history behind it.

84.) Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett -- Old-school Pratchett which deals with religion, philosophy and the meaning of faith and belief. Enjoyable and engaging.

85.) After the Party, by Cressida Connolly -- A historical novel about members of Oswald Mosley's Britihs Union party. It's told from the point of view of Phyllis, who at the start we learn has been imprisoned for an unspecified reason, who is a follower of Mosley, although there's very little exploration of the party's political beliefs. I enjoyed it a lot, although I hate the way the blurb misrepresents the plot. It focuses a lot on domestic details, on the quibbling between Phyllis's sisters and on the shallowness of the set she runs about with, and it raises questions about freedom of belief and of speech that left me feeling a little uncomfortable. An interesting read.

~~

Anyone else shooting for 100 before the end of the year?

Currently reading The Feed, by Nick Clark Windo, which so far is more sci-fi post-apocalyptic thriller than the zombie horror novel the title had led me to believe it was. The writing is a bit disjointed, but I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it's deliberate. Good so far, and I like the way it deals with how over-reliance on technology has left the survivors stunted.

39. Iron Gold (Red Rising #4) by Pierce Brown

Well, I quite enjoyed this (sorry Remus ). It took a while to get going but then the story came together and gripped me. Our Red-turned-Gold protagonist Darrow is more human and less superhero than in the first three books. I thought that the Japanese ("Raa") cultural angle enriched the story, too.

I look forward to the next book in this series, which will be out in February.

35. Panic Room, by Robert Goddard. Feel quite conflicted about this one, recommended up thread. I absolutely loved 99% of the book - the writing, the way he grows the tension, the plot and characters - everything really. But the final reveal of what was in the panic room I found to be so bizarre that it ruined the end for me. So now I"m not sure if that means I 99% enjoyed it, or whether it ruined the whole thing for me . Nonetheless it was overall so well done that I will definitely read some more Robert Goddard. Any recommendations of where to start are gratefully received!

36. A Very English Scandal, by John Preston. Much reviewed on the thread, I found this wildly entertaining and also completely jaw-dropping in places. Will now be able to watch the series - I didn't remember how things had ended and wanted to read the book before I watched Hugh Grant work his magic.

37. The Recovering; Intoxication and its Aftermath, by Leslie Jamison. This was bloody brilliant. It's about addiction and recovery, and is a mix of memoir, the history of addiction treatment, and biographies of creative addicts - mostly writers, but it also touches on others including Billie Holiday and Amy Winehouse. The jacket says that Jamison wanted to "demonstrat[e] that the story of recovery can be every bit as electrifying as the train wreck itself" and I think she does this beautifully. The only issue I had is that her writing in the memoir sections is so spectacular that it made me want to rush through the other parts to get back to her own story. Will now seek out more of her work.

24: The Party by Elizabeth Day

Martin would do anything for his best friend Ben. He is besotted with him, even wants to become him, (Ben nicknames him LS for Little Shadow). The story centres around this bizarre friendship across social classes which culminate in the party.

I loved this book, Martin is such a misfit, trying to fit into a social set but also as a human (his Mum even says he's not human). Quite a chilling tale.

74. Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

Single mother Kate receives a call from her teenage daughter’s school telling her that her daughter’s been suspended for plagiarism.
By the time she gets to the school, her daughter is dead, an assumed suicide.

Kate struggles to accept that her daughter would kill herself, and then receives an anonymous text saying that Amelia didn’t jump.
So Kate starts digging to try and find out what did happen.

It’s told from 2 points of view - Kate in the present, and Amelia in the past, leading up to the day of her death, and gradually uncovers all the things Amelia hasn’t been telling her mother. There’s a fair amount of peer pressure and bullying going on. Overall quite a sad book.

Loving some of the most recent reviews - thanks all!
MuseumofHam I took me blinking ages to read Any Human Heart but overall I enjoyed it. Definitely my least favourite of his to date though.
I'm currently limping through Scoop - Evelyn Waugh which was recommended by somebody on this thread. I am definitely NOT feeling the love

I loved Scoop - really funny. It's a very long time since I read it though.

Cote - It's not that I didn't enjoy it. I liked lots of it - just didn't think it was anywhere near as good as the others.

95: Elevation – Stephen King

This was a disappointment. It’s pretending to be a novel (or novella) but is really just a short story in big print.

It’s a nice enough concept – man is losing weight without trying, but not getting any smaller – just weighing less, even with his pockets full of coins. Meanwhile a lesbian couple have moved into the neighbourhood, and are being ostracised. They become friends with man, but man hasn’t got much time left before he weighs nothing at all.

If it had been in a short story collection, I’d have thought ‘Oh okay – not his best, but quite sweet’ but as something I’d paid £7.50 for (and that was half price) I just felt quite ripped off. Not really sure why he bothered publishing it in this form.

82. Peter Frankopan - The Silk Roads

This has taken me a while to get through, but it is well worth it. I know it was very popular when it first came out and I have been meaning to read it for a while. Frankopan undertakes a reassessment of world history by focusing more to the east than on the European point of view, mainly at the meeting point of east and west in the Middle East, where the trade routes of the Silk Roads eased the flow of both goods and ideas. Inevitably there is a lot of focus on the European empires and the discovery and growth of the US as well, but it's interesting for looking at events from the alternative view points, right up to the present day.