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?

mynameisG yes, they're are nice and easy I agree and quite entertaining.

Sorry, mynameisMrG 😊

3 Places In the Darkness by Christopher Brookmyre

A dismembered body is found in a space station - newcomer Alice Blake has to investigate, teamed up with an ex-cop security team member with a tendency to turn a blind eye in return for 'favours'

I'm often wary of non-SF writers 'doing sci-fi', but I enjoyed this. There's nothing groundbreaking, and the ultimate villain is obvious from very early on, but Brookmyre has fun with various SF tropes and tells a good fast-moving story at the same time. I'm laid low with a nasty virus, and this hit the spot nicely.

Regarding the Game of Thrones books, I did the first 3 as audiobooks back to back, but when I started the 4th I found it impossible to follow with the introduction of so many new characters and gave up. I have since watched the tv series. Are they worth carrying on with? A friend mentioned the books went downhill a bit as the series went on. I'm not usually much of a fantasy fan.

They are quite a commitment. I had a 40 min walk to work at the time and they took MONTHS.

I managed two of the GoT books but found that I was only interested in a few of the characters' stories. I also thought they needed some serious editing.

Book 2 Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers thoroughly enjoyed this Lord Peter Wimsey book the one where Harriet Vane is accused of murder. It was obvious but I enjoyed how he worked out the killer

I agree that the GOT books needed more editing. The last book was torturous, I started to really ahte Tyrion with his constant mantra of "wherever whores go" and the introduction od sife characters into the plot who were then killed off and distracted from the main plot.

2 China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
One of my plans this year is to read some of the same books the DC read, and have mini book club meetings to discuss. This was DDs choice after we both read Crazy Rich Asians last year. I’m not sure I’d have sought out the sequel on my own but it was just like the first - great fun, an easy read and wildly and insubstantially entertaining. Rachel Chu is singularly annoying in the tradition of all such heroines surrounded by mad and dastardly villains and the plot was even less plausible than the first one but really what is not to like?

3 Conundrum by Jan Morris
This was captivating. Jan Morris writes beautifully and this is her account of her discomfort at being born a boy and growing up as a man, and of her transition in the 1970s. There were wonderful moments of insight and reflection on gender which I found fascinating in view of the current debate. I kept asking myself what she makes of it all. There were moments of frustration when I felt her understanding of being a woman was so clearly so far removed from mine - she talks of her relief at feeling she didn’t have to speak up and carry heavy loads any more and there’s a moment where she’s essentially sexually assaulted by a cab driver which she enjoys because it validates, in her mind, her view that she has now made the transition to a woman. For all that, it’s more a reflection of the time it was written than anything else, and it’s a really compelling memoir that I will think about for a long time.

4 I'll Be There For You by Kelsey Miller
Another “read along with DD”. The story of Friends. I’m not sure the story needed telling, and certainly not by Ms Miller. DD enjoyed it, though.

Am torn about what to read next. Have Heroes by Stephen Fry which looks good but am v tempted by The Silence of the Girls (though should really wait until the price drops on Kindle). And Infinite Jest is looking crossly at me from the bedside table. Where’s my readalong team to give me the push I need to get started?

2 Normal People by Sally Rooney

Much reviewed on last year's thread. I read Conversations with Friends last year and (perhaps against the flow) I preferred that book to this one. I felt there was more to it. Rooney writes extremely well and her books are a pleasure to read. I liked both the main characters (Marianne and Connell) and think she evokes that time when you're leaving school and starting university beautifully. I think I would have loved this when I was at university but reading it now I found it a bit lacking in depth. Maybe just me! I liked the ending though.

Oh yes, meant to add that I have read 67 books from the list posted upthread. There are some I'm never going to read (just cannot get on with Thomas Hardy at all) but I have very little knowledge of Indian literature and really think I should fill that gap this year.

Those reading GoT for the first time should be aware that the TV series wildly diverges from the books' plot, from key events happening to different characters, to different people living or dying. I think GRRM has said that the books will have an entirely different ending, if indeed he ever finishes the book series!

I’ve read 60 from the list and am pleased that I have read a few more classics recently. Some odd choices, reading the Da Vinci Code is time I will never get back😓. I’ve started and not finished a few as well.

Back a few pages, I was a Sweet Valley High reader but you lot have reminded me of Point Horror and Christopher Pike. I loved them!

I have finished my first two books of the year:

1. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson.

I really thought I had read the first Jackson Brodie but now I’m not so sure. In any case, I enjoyed this second instalment; the characters, the stories all connecting up and I even laughed out loud a couple of times. I’ll definitely read the next in the series, maybe go back and read/re-read the first one.

1. Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker.

The second of my Christmas haul, this book was written in the 1950/60’s and centres on two sisters who return home as one of the sisters is getting married. Reflections on identity and relationships, it has a serious tone. Although the writing is good, I felt a detachment from the characters, which kept this as an ‘okay’ book for me.

And am now reading The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, a Christmas present from DBIL.

Thanks for posting that list, Zebra. There's a lot of books by big hitters out this year. Very much looking forward to the latest Jackson Brodie, as well as the new books by Ian McEwan and David Nicholls.

1. The Diary of a Bookseller, by Shaun Bythell. I think a few people read this last year - as the title says, it's the diary of a bookseller in Wigtown, Scotland, which has become the Scottish equivalent of Hay-on-Wye, including hosting a very popular annual festival. I was predisposed to love this, as I'm a former bookseller and librarian who loves reading diaries. He has a very dry sense of humour and I found the whole thing hugely enjoyable.

1. Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain

The classic memoir of a WWI VAD nurse.
Absolutely heartbreaking - she lost her fiancé, two close friends and her beloved brother. The book also deals with the post war years where she becomes involved with feminism and pacifism. I remember reading this as a teenager and it had a huge impact on me. It moved me to tears more than once this time round and although I did feel on occasion that the last third could have done with some editing, the last chapters where she fears another war will haunt me for a while.

5. A very British Christmas by Rhodri Marsden thank you @bookmeonthesudexpress for bringing this one to my attention. I really enjoyed it and felt some nostalgia of my childhood Christmases whilst reading. I agree with the previous review though, the last couple of chapters felt a bit lazy but an enjoyable read all the same.

*1. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.
*
This was okay. I enjoyed the first half more, it did start to get somewhat silly after a certain point. There are others in the series but I won't be reading further. Police Procedural with magic and fantasy is a great idea but not for me i thing.

Pepe I Never knew Jan Morris was born a male. I lived in Hong Kong for a few years, and her book on the city was very important to me in getting to know the history and nuances of colonialism in the city. Her travel writing is prolific and I must seek out some more.

Books 2 and 3 finished yesterday. Both children's books read with my children:-

1. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. Started before Christmas and we read this as a family read over pretty much in real time over the period in which the book is set. It was a re-read for me, having read it with Robert Macfarlane's Twitter readalong in 2017. This book passed me by as a child, and I love it. It's complex and draws on many tales of myths and legends of Ancient Britain. A fantastic read.

3. Wed Wabbit by Lissa Evans. Hugely entertaining and very funny novel for children. So inventive. The plot involves Fidge and her cousin Graham dropping into a parallel world peopled by characters from Fidge's sister Minnie's favourite bedtime storybook. Wed Wabbit, Minnie's beloved bedtime cuddly rabbit is reinvented as a cruel dictator who has taken control of the Wimbley world by way of a coup and it is Fidge and Graham's job to return order to the world and put everything right. Would appeal equally to children from around age 10 upwards and also adults

I think GRRM has said that the books will have an entirely different ending, if indeed he ever finishes the book series!

I’m so annoyed that he still hasn’t finished the book series. I reread them all a couple of years ago in the hope the last book would come out soon.

He hasn't written a new book but the new season of the TV series will start soon. Producers have literally written it as they see fit

Welsh know exactly what you mean about Sally Rooney. I love the way she writes, particularly the dialogue between characters. However I found the subject matter in both Conversations with Friends and Normal People a bit insubstantial.

Book 3 The Highland Party by Lucy Foley It is new years eve in the Scottish highlands, nine friends gather for a celebration, one is the victim of murder. Deep snow prevents the police from arriving and also the killer from leaving.
A classic whodunnit setting and I was enthralled by how the characters and therefore story unfolded. An enjoyable read over a winter weekend .

I started Book 4 last night * Swing Time by Zadie Smith. Yet another that has been in my TR pile for a year .

Sonnet The Jackman and Evans police procedural is part of a series, so your dh can fully immerse himself in Lincolnshire crime idiocy if he so wishes 

Unfortunately he will do Scribbly

Yes I try and see the series and books as two different things as tv has different demands. I think they had to get on with it as the wait was enormous and I thought he intended to write another after that as well.

I’m reading Normal People at the moment, and while it is very readable and I’m mostly enjoying it I’m often feeling a bit blah about it and the lead female character is unbelievable to me.