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?

Welsh am quite jealous of you having State of Wonder to enjoy. It was one of my standouts of 2017.

I've totally fallen off the reading wagon in the last month or so. Here's what I read before this happened!

72. The Paris Wife Paula McClain
73. Black Beauty Anna Sewell
74. Jill's Gymkhana Ruby Ferguson
75. Poppy Field Michael Morpugo
76. The Girl who saved Christmas Matt Haig
77. Miller's Valley Anna Quindlen

As you can see, I have revisited a couple of childhood favourites :)

54. Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel

Seems to be one of Mantel's less-known novels but definitely worth a read for those who like her. Alison is a medium who really does see dead people and earns her living on the psychic circuit of the suburbs around London; she takes on an assistant, the practically minded Colette, to sort out her business affairs, but her down-at-heel spirit guide Morris and his dodgy mates are up to no good, and there are questions that must be answered about her own childhood. I know Mantel divides opinion on here but imo she is head and shoulders over pretty much any current fiction writer, and this is typically brilliant - dark, insightful and run through with the blackest of black humour.

198 and 199 The Midnight Folk and The Box Of Delights by John Masefield

I read TBOD a couple of years ago and found it quite confusing, but assumed that was because I hadn’t read the prequel. I therefore read TMF followed by TBOD and can confirm that both books are utterly baffling!! TBOD does have some lovely Christmassy descriptions though. I suspect I might have enjoyed these more if I had read them as a child but they both passed me by (not sure how!)

I hated Beyond Black. HM and I are destined never to be friends, I'm afraid.

112 – The Smile of the Stranger – Joan Aiken

This was very, very silly and felt quite a lot longer than its 280 pages. It’s Aiken’s attempt at a kind of cross between Wilkie Collins and Georgette Heyer with touches of Fanny Burney and Samuel Richardson thrown in.

It involves mysterious strangers, the French Revolution, an intrepid flight in a hot air balloon, dashing officers, several dastardly abduction attempts, a smugglers’ passage, the Prince Regent and a monkey, amongst various other antics.

I quite enjoyed it, although the Collins-esque moment of a villain mumbling all of their thoughts aloud in a rambling soliloquy is clumsy when Collins does it and far worse in the hands of Aiken, and at times the heroine seemed abominably stupid for such a feisty figure. Of course, it all turns out okay in the end, and even the monkey survives its experiences intact.

Chessie I'm so glad you said that about The Box of Delights, baffling pretty much sums it up for me too.

78. Touching the Void Joe Simpson. Not as good as Into Thin Air but compelling account of a 25yr-old Simpson, climbing a hitherto-unclimbed Andean peak with fellow mountaineer Simon Yates. Disaster strikes on the descent but both live to tell the tale.

85 The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Much reviewed on here. I think I must be the only one who wasn't particularly taken by this. I feel like I've read the repeating day/life thing too many times before and done better, perhaps not helped by the fact that I'm not a particular fan of murder mysteries & don't really like books written in the present tense. I did finish it to find out what happened, but was definitely skimming by the end.

Sadik - I'm with you.

This was my review:
"Began with some promise – a man finds himself at a country house, trying to solve a murder or save the potential victim, forced to enter a different ‘host’ in sequence and thus getting various clues (and facing various dangers) according to which host he’s in. Unfortunately it got increasingly long-winded, then silly and then all fell apart a bit. Ultimately really rather disappointing, after a clever premise."

Glad I'm not the only one! I feel like I've been reading it for weeks, kept picking it up & putting it down. I'm doing the same thing with Sharp on audible - it's not bad enough to return, but I just don't feel motivated to finish it.

It’s my month of not-very-taxing reading!

53. The Rook by Daniel O’Malley.

Fantasy novel about an institution populated by people with super powers. The central character loses her memory, changes her personality and investigates why. More X-files than elves. And quite entertaining.

54. Uprooted by Naomi Novic.

Re-read of this very good fantasy novel from last year. It was still good.

Having failed miserably to read anything in the last week I am on book 49. Can she make It? Will I cheat and try a novella. Does anyone care?

Just popping in briefly to say the 12 Days of Kindle Sale has started and it's not bad 😊😊 Definitely better than recent offerings!!

I have a review of The Box of Delights to post when I have time.

I couldn't finish The Box of Delights. I gave up after three months.

30. Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin

The story of a doomed love affair between an American man and an Italian bartender in Paris. It explores the constraints and dangers imposed on gay men at the time (it was written in 1956) and how the characters internalize society’s judgments, with tragic consequences. I knew of Baldwin’s poetry and a bit about his part in the civil rights moment but had never read any of his fiction. It’s short - a novella not a novel - so could probably be read in one sitting.

No rules, frogletmamma. Time to dust down that novella and go for it!

87. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Rachel agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend Nick, only to discover that he’s neglected to mention that his family are obscenely wealthy. And they’re not as accepting of Rachel as Nick had hoped.

I picked this up at the library after seeing it recommended on this thread, and I’m glad I did, it was great fun to read.

63. America City by Chris Beckett Novel extrapolating forward the consequences of climate change, particularly on global politics and population movement, as seen through the eyes of a few largely forgettable characters. Thought provoking read, but not a patch on his Dark Eden trilogy.

64. The Red Beast / The Panicosaurus by K.I. Al-Ghani Two short books aimed at children with ASD who have anger and anxiety issues respectively. Counting as one, as I've read them over several times, with and without my son. Definitely some useful stuff in there, in terms of practical strategies. The Red Beast introduces some useful imagery / terminology for talking about anger.

65. Lethe by Tricia Sullivan Sci-fi set in a future after the gene wars, which have led to some humans being modified. Like other books by this author, strange and hard to follow in places, but worth the effort.

66. Village Christmas by Laurie Lee As mentioned upthread, a collection of essays covering the whole year. A bit of a mixed bag, but mostly, I think, written in later life when he was already established as a National Treasure. I don't always agree with him, but my goodness he could write evocatively.

I’ve given up with The Sparsholt Affair. It’s just too verbose for me.

Interested to hear your views on TBOD Keith!

I loved Giovanni's Room.

40. Mrs Gaskell and me by Nell Stevens I loved this one. It was two narratives one following a PhD student in London studying Elizabeth Gaskell and another told in the second person about Elizabeth Gaskell. I loved the themes and the settings and the short chapters made it very readable.

Definitely temptation in the kindle sale. I’ve acquired the Curtis Sittenfeld short story collection and considering Convenience store woman.

I loved Giovanni’s Room too. YesI, that crochet looks amazing! Have you done the whole blanket?

southeastdweller, it was a little on the wordy side, wasn’t it? After a while I got into the rhythm and didn’t mind that not much really happened but it did take quite a bit of effort to get to that point.