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?

Just joining this thread to add my voice to those admiring Milkman. I completely agree with Satsuki - this is a wonderful, original, captivating book. It's quite unlike anything else I've ever read, and offers an entirely different perspective on the Troubles. It's not sentimental, it doesn't read like Irish literature, but it is very surreal in places - it conveys a sense, I think, of how people's values become completely topsy turvy in a community driven apart by civil war. And Satsuki is also right to say it's not pretentious or self-consciously difficult - it just requires concentration.

I've got Dark Matter sitting on my TBR pile Ham (given me by ex-H who definitely tends to blokey sci-fi )

Definitely adding The Right Stuff to my list!

Hmm, this reminds me that I was reading The House of Spirits by Isabelle Allende the first time I gave birth and I still haven't got round to finishing it. My eldest is now nearly 17 so maybe I should crack on.

Loving all the reviews. I too have Dark Matter by Blake Crouch waiting to be read on my Kindle and am now conflicted. Eek. I did enjoy Any Human Heart when I read it at the time though...

Nothing to add - just marking where I've read the thread to. :)

Sorry if I'm putting people off Dark Matter , it's really a decent - if blokey and short paragraph blighted - read, and definitely worth a whirl if you already have it TBR. Think I was just a bit grumpy last night

My eldest is now nearly 17 so maybe I should crack on

It's been sat on my TBR shelf since at least last Christmas and possibly the one before, so I don't think it's you putting me off Ham - more justifying my reluctance

Remus - "Cote I bought The Abominable and am about a quarter of the way in."

Great, I look forward to the clobbering you will give me once the story veers into the Yeti angle

I read Dark Matter last year. While not a masterpiece, it wasn't bad and felt like a fine beach read.

part of it is that it's just like sitting with a rather fussy and repetitive aunt, who nobody really wants to get cornered with

Pungent description, Remus!

I was on a bit of a roll with Queen Victoria, so have now finished:
135. Queen Victoria's Matchmaking, by Deborah Cadbury
Victoria and Albert had a masterplan of marrying their children and grandchildren into royal families all around Europe with a view to spreading peace and stability. This book shows what happened - royal adolescents being pushed with greater or lesser degrees of reluctance/dutifulness/enthusiasm into matches. On one hand you find yourself cheering on Alix and Nicholas, while on the other hand you know that their sincere love-match will turn out to be an utter disaster and will end in a hail of bullets in Ekaterinaberg. It's a bit hard to keep track of everybody, but the individual stories are interesting. The author humanises people who can feel fossilised in history books, and shows how you can be a terrible leader without being a terrible person.

47. Autumn by Ali Smith A novel loosely based around the life experiences of former neighbours 101 year old care home resident Daniel, and 32 year old lecturer Elisabeth.

The timeline flits about, sometimes jarringly so, and we encounter Daniel and Elisabeth both apart and together at various points from childhood on. Frequent reference is made to the atmosphere in post-Brexit Britain. The writing is more poetic than prose, and stunning at times, but although this works in some places, at others it feels at the expense of both plot and character. I'm still not entirely sure how much I liked it (or whether I'm clever enough to like it ), but I am certainly intrigued enough to continue with the quartet to see if reading the pieces as a collection provides more of a sense of narrative/thematic structure.

52. The Hours Before Dawn - Celia Fremlin. This was a MN recommendation from earlier in the year, which I'm really grateful for. It's a domestic noir novel set in 1950's England where an exhausted housewife called Louise is struggling to cope with looking after her three young children. To make ends meet, Louise and her unsupportive husband Mark take in a mysterious lodger called Vera Brandon, who gets on well with Mark, and strange things start to happen when she arrives. The characterisation here was excellent and Fremlin deftly balances this with a page-turning story and (sixty years after this was written) recognisable situations. Very enjoyable.

41. Anita and Me - Meera Syal - absolutely loved this - possibly because she evoked the era really well for me but also because I thought her characterisation and dialogue were great.

42. The Secret Teacher - Anonymous - I have not read the Adam Kay book or The Secret Barrister so cannot compare to others within the genre. Some parts were heartwarming but other parts made me, as a parent of school goers, quite alarmed at exactly how out of his depth he was. Not a must-read.

43. Pour Me - AA Gill - the autobiography of the journalist. Not quite what I was expecting but that's maybe because I didn't know enough about his career. Unsurprisingly, quite a lot about his alcoholism (and childhood) - not as much as I expected about his writing career (which was more wide-ranging than I realised - and very little about his three marriages. Well written and interesting.

Just about on track to hit 50 so long as I don't read anything too long!
Also bought, like others above, Testament of Youth on the Kindle offer but may pick something shorter first!

at 'pungent', Biblio. It's so annoying - everything about her books is such a disappointment for me. They look great, they sound great, they are about things I want to read about, but...but...zzzzzzz.

Alix and Nicholas,...end in a hail of bullets in Ekaterinaberg

I was a bit in love with Nicholas 2nd when I was at school. Yes - I was a rather strange child.

40. The Cows - Dawn O'Porter
This story follows 4 women, their interactions with social media and their quest (or not) to bear children. It was a bit of a roller-coaster ride for me in as much as every time I'd decided that I wasn't enjoying the book (for many diverse reasons) I then fell upon a thought or a paragraph or a turn in the story line that made me think again. Overall an enjoyable read.

181. Do Not Disturb by Claire Douglas

Average psychological thriller. Kirsty runs a BnB in Wales, when her cousin turns up who she hasn’t spoken to for years following a falling out. Then further things start happening. Ending annoyed me but I can’t really say why without spoilers.

182. I Am Missing by Tim Weaver

Latest in the series featuring missing persons investigator David Raker. This one is a bit different because the case isn’t a person who is missing, it’s a person who can’t recall his identity due to amnesia. Needless to say, as Raker discovers his identity it leads to trouble. I liked this and enjoyed the descriptions of the setting later in the book.

183. Origin by Dan Brown

Won’t convert any of the haters. It’s not great literature, but I do find his books page turning and this was no exception. Don’t bother if you don’t like him though as it’s just more of the same - Langdon has to solve a puzzle using his knowledge of symbols!

184. Fashion Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones

Part of the Babylon series where she writes a novelised version of what it’s really like to work in a particular industry, apparently all based on real events and gossip. Good fun, although this one is dated now. Didn’t enjoy it as much as others in the series as I’m not particularly interested in fashion.

185. Past Caring by Robert Goddard

Listened to this on audiobook. One of my favourites of his, although I hadn’t read it for a few years so had forgotten some of the twists. Really enjoyed listening to it again.

southeastdweller, that might have been me who recommended the Celia Fremlin book. I’m so glad you enjoyed it - it was refreshingly different and so honest about early motherhood, particularly given when it was written.

85. Terry Pratchett - Men At Arms

Feeling the need for something lighter in tone, I re-read this one. Captain Vimes is going to retire and marry Lady Sibyl Ramkin at the end of the week, and is having to get used to the idea of being a gentleman, if no longer an officer. Affirmative hiring imposed by the Patrician has seen the ranks of the Night Watch boosted by one troll, one actual dwarf (Corporal Carrot only be a dwarf by adoption) and one woman (most of the time). But something new and deadly is loose in the streets of Ankh-Morpork. Will the Watch be able to solve the mystery before Captain Vimes hands in his badge?

I love the Guards books. I'm gradually re-reading all the Terry Pratchett books. It might be time for another one.

I read several Robert Goddard books a few years ago, including Past Caring which I remember really enjoying. I haven't looked any of his up for ages, I must given them another go.

61 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Seen through the ideas of a woman living alone in a rural backwater of Poland, people are dying in mysterious circumstances. It is difficult to describe this book - it is in part a murder mystery but it also contains feminist meditations and some very dark humour. The writer beautifully evokes an isolated life at the end of winter and then through the following seasons. It is not a normal whodunnit so don't read it expecting to get that. Brilliant book.

Now I want to read both the Tokarczuk and Fremlin books. My library doesn't have either, so I'll have to keep them on a wishlist for now.

I was a bit in love with Nicholas 2nd when I was at school. Yes - I was a rather strange child
One of my first loves was Fatty in Enid Blyton's Five Find-Outers books. He took little Betsy out for tea, and left a 5p tip (presumably updated from a shilling). Such worldly savoir-faire! I swooned.

Well you guys have better literary taste than me. I was in love with both Mark AND Jason in the cartoon Battle of the Planets. I still don't know which one I prefer now. Dilemma.

I need to read the Tokarczuk book too now. If you could all stop reading until I catch up that would be great.

Biblio

Fatty - what a guy! Plenty of money to buy icecreams, cream teas etc AND a cute dog.

My heart initially belonged to Julian in 'The Famous Five'.

Trying to remember my first literary crush and they were probably Gilbert from Anne of Green Gables and Laurie from Little Women. I was one of those girls who could not understand how Jo could not love him!