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?

Joan Aikin is great, but I was always more of an Arabel's Raven girl myself.
"Nevermore!"

Definitely missing out Chessie - they're equally (maybe more?) fabulous)

I re-read Midnight is a Place either last year or the year before. Agree with 'haunted' - it had stayed with me so much.

Glad you're dad's out and home, Best.

Wondering if I dare show my face after wandering off in February? I’ve just had an epic catch up and to quote Satsuki from thread three this thread is like the Hotel California, you can check in any time you like. But I think you can leave, though I’ve never tried it Nope, you can't.

I have tried to have a digital detox this year and get off the internet, but after making my challenge target of 36 , I realised it’s been a largely disappointing reading year quality/enjoyment wise. Last year was marvellous with a lot of nudging in the right direction on here.

I’ll crack on with the list, but will comment where worth it rather than review everything because I think they are all fairly well known books on here. I’ve also taken a few out of order as I have read a good chunk of a medieval murder mystery series that I know will be of little interest to most.

Great in bold, stinkers in italics

A Wicked Deed by Susanna Gregory
A Masterly Murder by Susanna Gregory
An Order for Death by Susanna Gregory
A Summer of Discontent by Susanna Gregory
A Killer in Winter by Susanna Gregory
The Hand of Justice by Susanna Gregory
The Mark of a Murderer by Susanna Gregory
The Tarnished Chalice by Susanna Gregory
To Kill or Cure by Susanna Gregory

All from the Matthew Bartholemew series set in 1350s Cambridge. Worth reading if you are a Caefael fan.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

The Graveyard of the Hesperides by Lindsey Davis

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

The Third Nero by Lindsey Davis

Revelation by CJ Sansom

Women and Power by Mary Beard

Why I am not a Feminist by Jessa Crispin, this read like a whiny blog post and was poory written

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, chapters too short to get going, took me forever and was too easy to put down, but ultimately I enjoyed it.

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, brilliant idea by poorly executed, I thought it could have been a lot better. Not on a par with 1984 as billed.

The Muse by Jessie Burton

King Solomon’s Mines by H Rider Haggard

Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome, I was on holiday on Coniston, so would have been rude not to. Lovely nostalgic read, much beloved in childhood.

Different Class by Joanne Harris

Winter Siege by Ariana Franklin and Samantha Norman

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, I still don’t know how I feel about this one. Glad I read it, but I couldn’t say I enjoyed it.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty, I'm either not clever enough or American enough to get it. Felt it had a lot of cultural references that went straight over my head.

Heartstone by CJ Sansom

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

The Conqueror by Georgette Heyer

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, first few chapters were outstanding but by the end it was ludicrous. Such a shame.

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, probably one I should keep my opinion to myself on.

Dracula by Bram Stoker, enjoyed, but I wanted more Dracula and less Van Helsing

11/22/63 by Stephen King, I’d forgotten what a good storyteller he is.

A Very English Scandal by John Preston, written in a way I wasn’t execting but enjoyed all the same.

I have abandonded

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome, sold to me as funny and it wasn’t.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, I got half way and decided the rambling didn’t have a point.

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

The Spire by William Golding, Mr Golding and I do not get along, even in the medieval period.

Currently 70 pages into Lolita by Valimir Nabokov, I feel like I shouldn’t be enjoying it but the writing is sublime.

It's been lovely to have a catch up and I've come away with a list of about 20 books that I feel the need to start next. Sorry for the very long post, but it's been a while...

Good to hear your dad is home Best.

Welcome back Fortuna. I felt exactly the same amount The Sellout, I bet it was a much funnier book if you understood the cultural references.

I've never read The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Has it got a similar dark vibe to The Dark is Rising? I'd love to find something that a 13 and 14 year old would enjoy listening to in the evenings during the holidays for short spurts of enforced non screen time. They did enjoy The Dark is Rising last year (astonishingly) and I'd love to attempt it again.

91 (I think) The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
Audiobook narrated by Amelia Fox and Richard Armitage

My first Angela Carter. Short story collection (although The Bloody Chamber felt more like a novella in length) of modern retelling of fairy tales with a dark and feminist twist. One of those books where you can marvel at the skill of it but the finished effect is not to your personal taste. It just felt all entirely too much, the prose is so rich. Can you get overfaced by a book? This did it for me. I'd get in my car listen for five minutes and then have to turn it off. Richard's lovely voice being a sexy Puss in Boots was the highlight.

92 Tombland by SJ Sandsom

Agree entirely with the other reviews on the thread. Too long, almost ground to a halt with all the hokey-cokeying between Mousehold and Norwich. Fgs Shardlake just get on with it will you. From a professional pov did enjoy the several comments that his back pain improved with activity and exercise. Quite right.
Sad to hear that Sandsom is so ill. Will be very sad if the series finishes here.

93. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss

Slim little book about a family who join a university Iron Age reanactment in Northumbria during the summer holidays. Written from the perspective of the daughter and her relationship with her violent abusive father. Very dark and ominous. The quality of the writing is excellent and Moss gets inside the teen mind really well, but I can’t say I enjoyed it much as the subject matter is pretty grim.

Thais all for the good wishes. The NHS staff were amazing. He’s on the mend I hope.

Best wishes for your dad, Best

Winter In Madrid by C J Sansom (author if Shardlake books) is £1.19 in Kindle Monthly Deals. Is it worth a read?

De-lurking (and I promise to try not to fall off the thread in February next year) to say that Winter in Madrid was good until the final part when you felt that the author had got fed up with the book & just wanted to finish it. The ending was a real let down. Not a parch on the Shardlake books.

And aren't the monthly deals rubbish?

Winter in Madrid is very good but also has a couple of ridiculous passages and I Wasn’t keen on the ending. For £1.19 I’d say yes on the whole.

patch not parch.

Hope your dad’s recovery goes well Best

Glad your dad is home Best

@ScribblyGum there’s a slightly dark vibe to The Wolves of Willoughby Chase but I wouldn’t compare it to The Dark is Rising. It’s a bit cosier and everything is all resolved quite simply with hot milk drinks. The titular wolves are not really made that much of to be honest. It had a slightly Famous Five vibe to me actually! I’m not sure if the 12 and 13 year old would be looking for something a little more sophisticated?

Thanks Alias, yes hot milk drinks will probably induce room exiting teen-scorn. Has anyone got a suggestion for a wintery/Christmas book that would hit the mark for a very bookish dd1 and an allergic-to-reading dd2? We were astonished last year that The Dark is Rising actually held her interest. Looking for an audiobook under ten hours long so we could listen for an hour per night while doing a naff jigsaw puzzle over the Christmas holidays. Inclusion of zombies or the supernatural would be an added bonus

Not asking for much am I?

I LOVE The Dark Is Rising . DS2 liked it too so it has obviously aged well.

There are quite a lot of anthologies of Christmassy Ghost Stories on Amazon?

ps have dutifully read my Bleak House chapters! Loved the last one!

I honestly don't know how it would measure up nowadays, but I loved Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen when I was around 12.

I've got the whole The Dark is Rising sequence as Dh bought it for me last year - I really must get round to reading it!

Oh lordie - just realised I wrote 'you're' instead of 'your' earlier. The shame.

Agree re Magi& about Winter in Madrid. The ending was very poor; Dominion* was the same - a great first half and then got silly.

The Kindle sale is utterly terrible. I don't know why they bother anymore. I bought I Feel Bad About my Neck, but I suspect it will irritate me.

I adore The Dark is Rising & all the others in the series.

Scribblygum I wonder if John Masefield's Box of Delights would fir the bill for your DCs? I don't remember reading it but I adored the 6 part TV adaptation of it, made in the early 1980s.

THIS is quite a good link about it.

And I will now go back to lurking for the rest of 2018 but vow to join in properly in 2019.

Terpichore yes Weirdstone is perfect but dh already read it to them a few years back. I have The Owl Service sitting on the shelf, is that similar?

magimedi The Box of Delights would also have been perfect but alas dd1 has read it. OMG total ‘80s nostalgia at remembering the BBC series. I can hear the theme tune right now, The First Noel in a minor key played on ?harp, something tinkly tinkly. I'll ask dd1 if she's happy to listen to it again.

Piggy wasn’t that last chapter brilliant! Totally back in love with BH again. I’ve also bought my Victorian ladies bonnet and cape to wear for my BH themed New Year’s Eve Party. No idea what I'm going to cook yet.

Ooh now then, just headed over to Audible to check out who they have narrating The Box of Delights only to see they have just released a new version of The War of the Worlds with Michael Sheen. That might work. Not terribly festive mind.

Scribbly yes! The Owl Service would also be worth checking out, I reckon.

Well I just went and rooted out The Owl Service and it sounds lovely, so I'll be reading it even if no other bugger wants to hear it.

Now that sounds like an interesting party!