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?

mynameisMrG I am doubtful about Kindle Unlimited.

Firstly I doubt that the books I want to read will be included (particularly as some of my favourite authors dislike the model and won't sign up to it).

Secondly I don't like what I've read about the business model and how authors are compensated. As I understand it Amazon decide on a pot to divide and how to divide it. Not transparent at all. Creatives need to eat so they can afford to create. I don't mind paying them appropriately for their work.

3. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.

Recently reviewed upthread, I started the book sceptical because firstly I’m not all that keen on the crime genre and secondly I wasn’t sure how the author was going to make the story work and end without being silly, knowing the premise. I know that he wanted a new take on Agatha Christie; the setting was fairly Christie - big mansion, plethora of characters both low and high class with the feel of the early to mid 1900’s. I agree with previous reviews that the characters can get confusing and I often referred to the character list at the start of the book. I didn’t mind the final reveal of whodunnit but wasn’t convinced by the explanation for the waking up in a different body each day. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it- this was an alright read.

Satsuki, I’ve added Fiesta to my to-read list, it sounds interesting.

Stitches, I’m waiting till Grey Sister comes down in price a bit, I did enjoy Red Sister last year.

my aim is to read 50 on different things mostly non fiction

1. Eastern Horizons Journey on the Silk road by Levison Wood this was quite good about travelling through Georgia Iran and Afghanistan etc

2, have just started my Arctic expedition by Alexander Armstrong

@bakewelltarts i think that is why I am hesitant as I doubt is find books i want to actually read . That's interesting what you say about the business model. Think I'll pass on that then.

Fair play to you Dot, I consider myself a fairly accomplished reader; adored Ulysses, Middlemarch, Altas Shrugged.
Found Catch-22 inpenaterable

3 *The Glass Menagerie by Tenessee Williams

This was a book club choice, obviously a classic with all the merits it deserves.

The main character Tom, is trapped being the breadwinner for the family after his father abandoned the family. Tom hates his job and is an aspiring poet. The other family members are his overbearing mother Amanda and his fragile sister Laura. There is a large photograph of his father, who is a constant presence despite not appearing in the play.
Amanda discovers that Laura has secretly stopped attending secretarial college and now focuses on finding her a husband, and insists Tom finds a "gentleman" to call on Laura. Tom invites Jim, an acquaintance who works at the same warehouse as him. Unbeknown to Tom, Laura already knows Jim, as they were at Highschool together and Laura has been in love with him for years.

I can see it is a strong play, you could write a whole stack of essays about it, and I recognise it's literary merit. However to read for pleasure- not really. I would go and see it at the theatre (which is of course how it should be seen!)

Sorry, bold fail ^

Finally finished my first book of the year!

1. The Secret Barrister
I was quite looking forward to this but actually found myself avoiding it and frequently falling asleep during it. I felt that although interesting from the perspective of the failings of the justice system it didn’t contain as many stories about the law and cases as I was expecting. I did learn some things (mainly to combat my knowledge of law from an American point of view, but also I’m Scottish so can’t be certain it all applies anyway!)

Now to read something that I won’t avoid. I’ve felt dreadfully out of sorts while pushing through this as I normally love reading.

Falling asleep while reading a book is definitely a sign matilda !

1. Nobody's Son by Cathy Glass. Picked up from the library as I used to work with looked after children so it piqued my interest. Author is a long time foster carer and has written loads of book about her charges' stories. All very sad obviously but this was difficult to read at times as it almost read like a manual on fostering with lots of descriptive content and quite slow moving. She is a big advocate of fostering so maybe it is meant to be a manual! I skipped large swathes of text as it was information I already possess due to my profession. A good story though.

Now on to number 4 which is The Power by Naomi Alderman. Intriguing so far.

shakeitoff I’m not a Hemingway fan particularly, but I do like that one. It has an odd compelling glamour to it.

ShakeItOff2000 I got Grey Sister out from the library for a 40p reservation fee.

I love my local library

@DotOnTheHorizon

NC just to say I love Hiawatha so much. To the extent I named my daughter Minnie after MinnieHaha. Tragic character but amazing epic story.

@Haiawatha - that is dedication! Such a lovely name though - it was on our list for DD. But it didn't quite work for our last name.

Glad to have found another lover of Hiawatha 😀

@lastqueenofscotland - I think we are reading polar opposites - I've never got on with Ulysses or Middlemarch (or any Eliot). I've not tried to read Atlas Shrugged, but I'm not fancying my chances with it

Good job we're all different .....I love reading the reviews on here and trying new stuff though.

Am loving Catch-22, I know parts of it by heart

@Teacupdrama both of those books (Levison Wood and Alexander Armstrong) are on my TBR pile as I quite like travel books.

I've just purchased Guns, Germs And Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13000 Years by Jared Diamond as it's been on my wish list for ages and is 99p on the kindle today.

I've started a few books recently and skipped onto something else, I'm now reading The Best Friend by Shalini Boland; I've read others of hers and enjoyed them and this one doesn't seem any different - I can't put it down.

As for Kindle Unlimited, I'm another sceptic. I've had free trials in the past and always cancelled them as it got in the way of reading books I wanted to read.

Remus, I’m nearly throughout Lethal White and can confirm that yes, there is a story there but it does not improve in terms of editing. A paragraph on Kinvara lighting a fire was entirely unnecessary to plot, atmosphere or character development. She tells a decent tale but could do with reading some Hemingway, I think!

I’m currently reading Ready Player One. Loving the geeky eighties references.

Matilda I felt the same as you about The Secret Barrister And was left underwhelmed.

And agree with the others about kindle unlimited - I’ve had a couple of free trials and not found much that I wanted to read. I think there’s a lot of generic crime stuff on there so if that’s your thing it might be worth it, but you could probably pick up some of those for 99p each anyway so unlimited would only be worth it if you would read more than 8 of those books per month.

I'm afraid The Secret Barrister was the only book I actually gave up on last year.

On to my next, a very quick inhale because this is my sort of comfort reading.

4: Dark Sacred Night - Michael Connelly

It seems almost inevitable that genre writers of long-running series come under pressure to create new characters, and then very quickly find that readers don't want to wave goodbye to their old character (cf Ian Rankin's Rebus and Malcolm Fox). Connelly introduced his new female detective Renée Ballard a couple of books back, and here she is sharing the billing with old faithful Harry Bosch.

Actually I really enjoyed this, and I like Connelly's nuanced and thoughtful approach to his female characters, which I found refreshing in genre fiction. A thumbs up here.

The Missing sounds fascinating and I think I'm the right age too - thank you Sadik

I started An Almond for a Parrot last night. Another one that has been on my kindle for a while. I was prompted to read it as it was mentioned as one of last years "good reads" on here. I deliberately have not read any of your reviews though
I've read 50% last night and it really living up so far to its description of a gripping and decadent historical page turner

3.) Meddling Kids, by Edgar Cantero -- The bastard lovechild of Stephen King's It and Scooby Doo.

Thirteen years after supposedly unmasking the Sleepy Lake monster as Old Man Wickley, who disguised himself as a salamander in order to uncover Damien Deboen's secret stash of pirate gold (no, really), the haunted and traumatised remaining members of the Blyton Summer Detectives Club return to town to finish solving a mystery that was never really solved.

This was an utterly bonkers mash-up between Enid Blyton, Scooby Doo and Lovecraft, with some twisty mystery bits at the end, none of which I guessed and which I thought (batshit as this novel is) were handled pretty well. I picked up on a whim because I liked the title, and turned out I loved it.

1. The Luminaries Eleanor Catton. A Booker winner. 800 pages. Finally finished this. That’s one week of my life I’m never going to get back.

Very clever and all I’m sure, I just found it extremely dull. So many boring characters who have dull conversations endlessly, but usually only talk to one other person at a time. Some guy goes to talk to some guy, then some other guy has a conversation with some other guy, then another guy has a conversation with, wait a minute, oh it’s a woman at least, so mildly more interesting. I’m sure I missed something that reveals the true genius of this book. Let me know if you know what it is. I’m going to read something really short for my book group next.

nuffaluff I enjoyed the Luminaries mainly for its clever structure and how it all fit together. I wrote quite a long review of it going into all the horoscope stuff which at least does a bit explain all the seemingly disconnected interactions between people. I could dig it up if you are interested? Or maybe you’ve had enough

Oh thanks Satsuki, but you’re right I think. I’ve had enough. More than 800 pages enough.
I think she could have fitted it all together in 500 pages personally. (Yeah, I know AIBU).
Thanks for the kind offer though.

Guns, Germs and Steel is brilliant, brizzle, although it might be harder to read on Kindle. With big books requiring concentration, I find that they can languish on my Kindle for quite some time. I'm better off with a hard-copy library book so I can flick back and forth and have a deadline by which I have to finish. I'm reading Nicholas Crane's The Making of the British Landscape on Kindle, and it's taken me forever to get to the Bronze Age.

Meddling Kids is an odd one, isn't it Dec? I liked the concept and the start when you (re)encounter the characters as adults, but I got a bit weary of all the fighting and running from monsters by the end.