50 Book Challenge 2019 Part One

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2019, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

Who's in for this year?

And I do agree with all you wrote about Darwin!

satsuki I would go back and check if it was a son or daughter but I lent my copy of this thing to a friend and have just realised they still have it. Does anyone else get twitchy about borrowed books being gone too long ? Or is that just me?

Happy New Year all!
I'm keen to be in again this year and have been finishing off books from over the hols...
1. Conclave by Robert Harris
Really enjoyed this, the setting gave a sense of drama and the plot moved along quickly. Having enjoyed this and The Ghost, which other Robert Harris novels or other authors would I like? Recommendations please!
This was also the first book I've read on my phone as an e-book loan from the library. It kept me distracted from the cold while my DS and his friend were playing happily at the park and I wonder if it might up my reading a little this year to have another format to use when physical books and audiobooks don't suit.
2. The Atlas of Happiness by Helen Russell
From the author of The Year of Living Danishly and Leap Year, this kind of follows the same theme of looking at how other people live to learn how to make our own lives happier. It's a topic I'm interested in and I like her style, but this might have made a really good series of magazine articles rather than a book. It lacked the overarching storyline (for want of a better word) that the other books had - she's not trying out what she finds out, just talking to people from around the world and condensing what she finds out into tips at the end of each discrete chapter. I listened to it as an audiobook - in a paper copy I think I'd have dipped in and out.
I've got Reservoir 13 from the library and was given Doddie Weir's autobiography for Christmas so my January reading is pretty much piled up beside my bed, perhaps with an audiobook or another e-book thrown in if I get the chance.
Aiming to make it to 50+ books this year from mid 40s the past two years, and would like to try reading some poetry in 2019 too.

Just galloped through to finish my n1 of 2019.
Like Chessie it was I invited Her In my first (and last) Adele Parks. Far too long and predictable with cardboard cut out male characters and unpleasant female ones. Ridiculous dialogue by teenage son Liam. "they are being very circumspect" (said no teenager ever)
It go so TV mini series by about 75% in I actually laughed out loud. Hey ho

(Crayolaa- The woman in the window was my last read of 2018 and I loved it! Agree with your review)

About to start A Very British Christmas picked up on Amazon (am a Christmas-holic) this seems to be little snippets of people reminiscing about their traditions.

Have just checked Wiki : Darwin's daughter, Annie (aged 10), is the one mentioned in This Thing. She died in 1851, so 7 years before the year Ashton deals with. However, Ashton does rather make it sound like Darwin's son was the only child of his who died, which did puzzle me,as Thompson is clear that several did. And, yes, how awful that must have been for someone who proposed natural selection to deal with.

splother, I need to stop lending books out, too. My beloved Diane Atkinson was mentioned as MIA on about thread 3 of 2018 and still is!!

1. I'll be gone in the dark: one woman's obsessive search for the golden state killer - Michelle McNamara Really enjoyed this and went straight off to listen to a podcast about the arrest of the suspect.

@bookmeonthesudexpress I like the sound of that Christmas book. That sort of thing is right up my ally

Am 10 pages in, it's funny. Like a combination of Grumpy Old and Victoria Wood style wtf-ery. Very easy reading.

Will have to get a copy of that then. Slightly obsessed with Victoria wood so I’m sure I’d enjoy it

I haven't read all of the posts (as it's 15 pages) but I'd like to join in.

I'm currently studying an English Literature degree PT, but would also like to continue to read for me. Therefore, I should read quite a few books this year (some will be with my ears though).

As it's still (just) the Christmas break, I'm not doing any uni reading this week. Therefore, I have two books on the go - one paper, one audible: Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman and The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle. I think the next uni book that I'll be reading is Frankenstein, but I'll update on the thread when I know for certain.

Rather relieved to have got off the mark at last (!) with my first completed 2019 read, mentioned earlier upthread:

1. The West Pier - Patrick Hamilton

I didn't realise when I began this that it's the first in a trilogy, so I'm now looking forward to two more outings for Hamilton's diabolical main character - if 'looking forward' is the right expression. Except it is, because he makes it so compelling.

This is set in Brighton in the early 50s, where the monstrous Ernest Ralph Gorse remorselessly manipulates all around him, like a repellent spider in the middle of a web. His target is young, beautiful and naive Esther Downes, but his two erstwhile schoolmates Ryan and Bell are also drawn into his schemes, though without realising it.

I won't say more for fear of spoilers but Hamilton had a unique style and this book is both chilling - Gorse is so horribly conniving - and blackly funny. I've read some reviews which are pretty lukewarm, and I can see that this isn't Hamilton's finest work (the trilogy made up his last published novels), but Gorse's innate evil had the ring of realism for me.

@ FiveGoMadInDorset I enjoyed Pilgrim so much I intend to revisit it. I could not put it down. I had a similar experience as you did with Plgrim with a book my FIL recommended (TH1RT3EN by Steve Cavanagh) which he could not put down. I read it and thought it was ok but nothing to rave about.

@ boldlygoingsomewhere thank you for sharing you thoughts on The Haunting On HillHouse. I think I will also have a look at your preferred choice We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Hi all, slightly late joining (I was distracted reading!) and have read through and added a tonne more to my WTR list. I hit 100 last year finishing the 100th on NYE so have gone for 120 this year. I am not very good and updating the thread as I tend to fall into an internet black hole but will try better this year. Sofar

Leigh Russell - Fatal Act
This is a crime series that I am reading that I have to finish. I really don't like the writing of this author but I do enjoy the plots and they are quick reads and I have this weird need to finish the series!
Nicole Krauss - The History of Love
I did enjoy this but wanted to love it just a bit more than I did. It is a story of love and loss and untold stories within stories and was really moving. Some beautiful words that really stick in my mind throughout too.
Katie Kirby - The Daily Struggles of Archie Adams
Feel a bit cheeky claiming this as a read!! Very quick read, anyone was has had or been around 2 year olds will relate. Just a bit of a fluffy time filler. All very typical Mummy-blogger type stuff.
Mark Dawson - The Cleaner
This book annoyed me no end! It has such promise at the beginning - an ex-SAS man still working for the government as basically an assassin on their 'dirtier' jobs (hence The Cleaner) has had enough and wants out. He befriends a woman living in a rough council estate in London whose son has joined a gang. Our hero is off to sort everything out whilst trying to dodge the government because you don't just pick when you retire. Except he doesnt, he kinds of makes things worse and is very naive for someone with decades of secret service/spook experience. It could have been so good. Is part of a series but I won't continue.

Hello, may I join please? I have lurked for the past couple of years, and had many good suggestions from these threads. I think I did hit 50 last year but lost track when I changed my phone and lost my list.

First 2 of 2019:
Cassandra Darke by Posy Simmonds - a wry, funny graphic novel, perfect start of year fare.
If on a winter's night a traveller by Italo Calvino - I am mid way through this - a clever, frothy book of literary tricks, but the skill and quality of the writing gives it weight. I've read other books which are 'experimental' (eg Attrib by Eley Williams) and found them rather irritating, all about the style not the substance, but I'm really enjoying this one.

My best of 2018;
The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnett (I also read The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau but that wasn't nearly so good).
My Year of Rest & Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

I did not like This Thing of Darkness - it started well, but the introduction of the indigenous people killed it off for me, and I gave up halfway through. These characters spoke fluent English, including subjunctive and conditional expressions, within 3 months? The author didn't seem sure whether he was handling the story from the protagonist's perspective or from his own, ie with 21st century or 19th century values. I was disappointed, because I do love a good nautical story and obviously the Darwinian themes are potentially fascinating.

Here’s a link some of you might like, BBC’s top 100 books to read before you die:

www.listchallenges.com/bbcs-top-100-books-you-need-to-read-before-you-die

I’ve read 62 of the books on the list. And following on from the earlier discussion on this thread, Swallows and Amazons is on there, so maybe I should make time to read it after all....

There are some rather odd entries though, including gems such as The Da Vinci Code, Bridget Jones Diary, Enid Blyton’s Magic Far-away Tree series. Not ones I’d class as “must read before you die”!

I've read 70 of them - but it's a really strange list.

Joining this thread will spur me on to spend more time reading. I'm currently reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante chosen because we no longer have Sky so I can't watch the tv series!

That list of 100 books looks like an American list with a few contemporary British books inserted. It makes no sense to have 4 Jane Austens and 4 Dickens, barely anything from the mid-20th century, and 1 Enid Blyton at the expense of all the other classics of children's writing.

I agree with someone on another thread who said they felt they'd read a lot of the books without actually having done so; isn't it interesting how some books become part of the landscape in that way. Is that what it should take for a book to be on a list like this, I wonder?

It’s fair criticism mrs aird but I think in general it is so difficult to create an authentic representation of the past and past communities, something is always found wanting, but I thought his attempt was reasonable and I felt he endeavoured to be as rounded as possible in his depiction of the Fuegians and to the issues surrounding them, as he couldn’t very well not do so. As to the language, I seem to remember the thing was they were extremely gifted mimics, however far that stretches? I have the book Savage on my to read list which is a non fiction that centres on the story of Jeremy Button which might be interesting to you? I got it as a companion piece on a recommendation from here (sorry I can’t remember who first suggested it) as I did really enjoy This Thing of Darkness but was also left wanting to flesh out my understanding of the Fuegians and to see how accurate their portrayal was in the book, as fiction has its restraints.

And welcome to the thread

Just found it, written by Nick Hazlewood

Thank you SatsukiKusakabe - I will check out Savage

I’ve read 77 - I didn’t include Shakespeare or the Bible though I’ve read a lot of both I’ve not done the whole lot! Some of the ones I hadn’t I had no intention of reading - are The Time Travelers Wife and The Lovely Bones all time classics? It seems to recent to say. Some that I have read I could easily have done without!

I'm really enjoying So Disdained by Nevil Shute- I'll finish it today as it's in a category of can't put it down. I quite like the female character he's introduced and can see the similarities with Jean Paget, it's something I quite like with his books as he often has a strong female which is less usual for a male writer of his era.
Thank you cheminotte for the recommendation. I've now added several other of his books to my list but can recommend Trustee from the toolroom as that is a long standing favourite of mine.

I am looking forward to I Pilgrim, downloaded the other day and interesting to read reviews.

Has anyone read Gordon Stevens? Kara's Game (sas/Bosnia) Provo (sas IRA) etc. Nobody I know has ever heard of them but they are read-in-one-shocked-sitting for me. I'm always surprised they have never been adapted for TV or film as they have that horror/violence mixed in with historical news at the time and human relationships. May reread this year. (Am reorganizing my bookshelves and thinking of having a whole "reread" shelf but that would disturb my alphabetical order. Hmm.

The 100 book list is odd. Many seem more like "zeitgeist" books that may have sold millions but are not classics.
Bridget Jones spawned chick-lit as we know it, TTW tapped into the whole fresh fascination with stuff like Dr Who and magical realism. (I hated it ) etc etc. The Kite Runner/Splendid Suns to me seemed like the writer thought "ooh Afghanistan, now, I need a couple of mines, a badly treated woman, a kind foreigner" A minestrone of lazy pseudo-archetypes.