50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second 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, it's not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The first thread of the year is here.

What are you reading?

Wow ChessieFL you're doing amazingly at your reading!

Agree with Mr Tom being almost too sad to bear. The Michelle Magorian book I really liked was Back Home about Rusty, an English girl who was evacuated to the USA during the war returning home to her family. The mother has worked as a mechanic while the father was away in the forces and has made new friends but the father is still exactly as he was before Rusty left. The 'clash of cultures' between an American and English childhood of the period is really well painted and the characters are great.

Love Philip Kerr too but would definitely recommend the earlier books set in 1930s Germany - the one during the Munich Olympics was particularly good.

I love Back Home too, grim. Very good.

You did all warn me, but I wouldn't be told... I've been trying to read How I Escaped my Uncertain Fate by Stewart Lee on my phone, and I've had to give up. For obvious footnote related reasons. With this and the loss of my paperback copy of The Three Body Problem I'm feeling frustrated with my attempts to keep up with the fashions on the thread...

11: The Case of William Smith –PW
12: Through the Wall - PW
Two more Wentworth’s, both of which were enjoyable. I’ve been grateful to her for providing me with a series of cheap and easy reads, but I’m coming to the end of the 99p ones. Really need to find somebody else to read now!

Thanks grim. I also liked Back Home - my mind boggled at the idea of a period party.

@grim @bibliomania I’d forgotten about the period party in Back Home But as a kid I was desperate for the yellow ‘American’ coat she had (as much as I wanted the ribbons the girls have in The Railway Children film)

Two books I've started but don't intend to finish Crazy Rich Asians so far it seems gossipy and cliquey and has people spending way too much money

Her Name was Rose. I don't like the dead woman as a plot pivot. And the obligatory crazy woman. Because women can only be dead or crazy in a certain genre. Plus her (Rose's) husband seems so sad. And then the dead woman becomes a narrator.

I've only read to chapter 3 in both. Should I persist?

In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate The World by Simon Garfield

That sounds like my kind of book.

BonBonVoyage we share the same view of Crazy Rich Asians

5. The Hunting Party I found this very easy to read, galloped through it on my day off. It obviously left me wanting more however, whilst the descriptions of the Scottish landscapes were atmospheric , in places the language was quite basic and repetitive. I guessed part of the twist before the end and also found the characters pretty unlikable. I understand that she had to create intrigue and have readers guessing 'who dunnit' but honestly there was not one I related to or cared for (the story is told through the perspective of three women and one man and I found them all horrible bar Heather who was just a bit 'meh'). Overall enjoyable.

6. Sapiens I'm surprised at how easy this is to digest and how succinct the information is. I'm only halfway through and am finding it interesting and thought provoking.

BonBonVoyage, I really enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians but it does carry on in the same vein so don’t carry on expecting anything different!

17 Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy by Tim Harford

Listened to this as an audiobook thinking it was the author narrating. It was not and I felt cheated. Having got over that, this was a gentle canter through inventions that have had impacts - good and bad - on the global economy, from paper and antibiotics to the Pill and property rights. It was an easy listen and each chapter felt like a podcast although they all knitted together quite well with references back and forth. It wasn’t enormously deep but it was informative and entertaining.

18 The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Still mulling this over. I read little sci-fi though am increasingly seeking it out, and I read little translated fiction. This is the story of a video game that holds the secrets to a civilisation-threatening plan, set against the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution and its consequences for future generations. I found it quite disorientating initially - I originally bought it for DS who is 11 but he rejected it as a bit confusing - and it took me a few goes to get started but once I was in I was hooked. It didn’t - for me - have the appeal of Seveneves, which I read last year and loved but it was still very good and definitely felt like something specially non-anglophone which was refreshing. There are two more in the series which I will definitely read in due course.

I've dropped off this thread a bit as I've been away with work and (perhaps as a consequence) not getting much reading done. Have been attempting to read All Out War which is a very comprehensive and well written book about the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum. But it's 700 pages. 700 pages about Brexit. I'm about 150 pages in and losing the will to continue... I may need to put it aside and pick it up again another time.

A book in Russia which has been recommended to me by various people is Natasha's Dance by Orlando Figes - I own it but haven't read it so can't personally recommend.

My reading has been entirely lightweight and unsatisfying - I think I have only been choosing books as an avoidance tactic to keep me away from the Brexit one.

6. The Crown, Robert Lacey
Nice big hardback with loads of photos, comparing the events in the first season of the Netflix show to actual historic events. Particularly enjoyed all the photos of Elizabeth and Margaret's frocks :)

7. Sunburn, Laura Lipman
Noir thriller - two strangers show up in a small town in the US. Who are they, what secrets are they hiding and what is their connection? Cleverly plotted but not very nice - I'm not great with books that hinge on people being vile to each other.

8. Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan
Meh. I didn't hate it but didn't find it very enjoyable either. I'm guessing it's supposed to be funny but the humour totally bypassed me I'm afraid! The main characters were hideously wet and I really didn't care whether they ended up together or not. I did like the descriptions of shopping in incredibly exclusive designer boutiques, or the wedding reception that cost 40 million dollars - reminded me of the best bits of lying by a pool reading Jackie Collins in my pre-kids days

Couldn't get beyond the first couple of chapters of Crazy Rich Asians. Awful.

Keith, I thought All Out War was extremely good. But I do like that gossipy style of political journalism - it reminded me of Pretty Straight Guys. And I read it soon after it was published - I would think now it only tells half the story. There’s a huge update waiting to be written. If you do persist, you’ll be mad as hell with everyone by the end of it when he apportions blame for the whole mess. Assuming you think it is a mess, of course!

Finished #10 Dissolution today. Loved, loved, loved it. Really wonderful to time travel when commuting and this is what happened to me when reading this. Wonderful feeling of time and place. I didn't find it too bloody as I think another member of this thread did but realistic. For those who haven't read it Shardlake is one of Cromwells commissioners sent to investigate the murder of another who was negotiating for the surrender / dissolution of a monastry. All is not as it seemed. I read a lot of crime fiction and didn't work out who done it. I will definately be seeking out all of the other books in the series.

So had to start another and that is the much reviewed #11 Bird Box. I like a good post apocalyptic read so will see how we go.

KeithLeMonde I think I might be able to read a book about Brexit in about 10 years time...it's too much at the moment.

1. The Monogram Murders - Sophie Hannah

This is the first of a series of Poirot mysteries, which Hannah was given permission to write by the Christie estate. I like Hannah's Spilling CID series of psychological mysteries, so I came to this as a Hannah fan rather than a Christie fan. A lot of reviewers have complained this isn't the Poirot they know and love, but that wasn't an issue for me. I found it a page turner and rushed through it in days, but the denouement was very looong and has so many twists and turns I'm not sure I've completely grasped it. I'm left with the impression the murderer made life unnecessarily complicated for themselves, purely for the sake of narrative convolution.

I think I would have been better reading All Out War a while back when Brexit wasn't quite so Brexit-y. Agree that it's a great book and absolutely full of lively, readable information, but.... Oh man. I just need to escape. And Pepe, I am already as mad as hell! I can't imagine being much madder than I already am, so perhaps I'd better not keep reading.

I think The Poison wood Bible is Barbara Kingsolver'a best book by a mile! I've read possibly all her others but that's a stand-out novel.
In relation to Room mentioned by i can't remember who, sorry, the author was interviewed on perhaps the BBC4 book review podcast and said that her starting point was hearing about these abduction scenarios and thinking from the child's point of view, how lovely it would be as a child to have your mother's completely undivided attention. So it's not supposed to be a harrowing read. (Though you would be perfectly entitled to read it as such.)

1. Cider With Rosie - Laurie Lee

Finally forced myself to finish this. And I was forcing myself and practically propping my eyes open by the end. It’s lovely in a way, but yeah, made me sleepy!

Yes, I read at a the time when it was still reasonable to think the grown ups would sort it out. And there was no reason to think it would end in a massive and embarrassing omnishambles. I don’t know if I could face it now, thinking about it.

16. The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan

This is a dark story about a family of four children whose parents have both died. They keep their mother’s death secret as they don’t want to be taken into care and instead encase her in a cement tomb. The children attempt to go about their lives but their mental health begins to decline. The two older siblings begin to become attracted to each other, just as the sisters’s boyfriend starts to discover what has happened.
I really like McEwan as a writer especially the way he doesn’t lay all the facts on the table. He eludes to things and leaves a bit of mystery in the air. This wasn’t my favourite McEwan novel as things like this irritate me slightly (just tell someone she died!) but I enjoyed the stories of the siblings and their relationships. Fairly easy read and quite short as well.

BonBonVoyage I would recommend NOT finishing Her Name Was Rose! I finished it and it was a few days of reading I'll never get back. I won't spoil it for you in case you decide to persist but it's dull, far fetched and cliched. Plus all the 'padding' about barefoot and 'said softly' palaver that's repeated about a hundred times.
Can you tell I didn't like it haha.

Having looked on my shelves and my Kindle I've realised I have A LOT of books with the words wolf or wolves in the title so I have vowed to read one wolf book a month in 2019! Wolf me up. January's wolf book was:
12. Tell the Wolves I'm Home - Carol Rifka Blunt

I'm not the target audience but probably would have loved this had I read it aged 11/12. It's a YA novel that tackles the subject of HIV and AIDS set in the late 1980s near NY city. It was wholly unbelievable and over-long but I liked the way the subject matter was tackled so not all bad.
Which wolf book next I wonder? Possibly Wolf Winter.

9. The Darkest Secret by Alex Marwood

Crime fiction.
3 yr old identical twin Coco goes missing during her father’s 50th birthday celebrations, at a holiday home by the sea. Father and his friends there are rich and influential.

The novel switches between 2 times - the weekend Coco went missing, and the funeral of her father 12 years later, and gradually reveals the events around Coco’s disappearance. It’s all rather reminiscent of a real life famous missing child case from 10 / 11 years ago, which made for uncomfortable reading at times.

The cover of the book (with tag line “They said Coco went missing in the night. They lied”) did however make it clear before I started reading, that the adults at the 50th birthday weekend knew what had happened to Coco, and had all participated in a cover up. So not much mystery around that, although I was interested in finding out whether the truth would come out at the funeral.