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?

Somewhat annoyingly I've already read Wolf Hall, and The Wolf Border. I'm saving The Wolves of Willoughby Chase for my December wolf read. See, I'm planning ahead with my wolves people. If anyone has any good wolf suggestions I'd be happy to hear them

Whippet wolves seemed to be a thing recently in publishing along with girls and female relatives of people with unusual professions.

I read Tell the Wolves I'm Home a few years back and found it really moving. I hadn't thought of it as YA but it definitely has that YA combination of unrealistic plot and sucker-punching emotions from what I remember.

Don't forget The History of Wolves, The Tenderness of Wolves and A Wolf in Winter (not to be confused with Wolf Winter)

Wolf Of The Plains by Conn Iggulden was one of my top reads in 2017, it's about the early years oh Genghis Khan.

Dances With Wolves?

20 In a Cottage in a Wood - Cass Green yet another psycho thriller. A slacker-type with emotional issues witnesses a suicide on the way home in London & is bequeathed the victim's cottage for her trouble. There were a few good lines in this one which I thought would lift it above the usual poor standard but it soon deteriorated into a story with gaping plot holes and the denouement was worthy of a "Scooby-doo" episode.
21 Give me your hand - Megan Abbott this was much better writing. Another one about the transformative effect of education coupled with female rivalry& friendship in the form of a gripping thriller. As usual it could lost 100 pages with some judicious editing but the best one I've read so far this year. I now feel I should read some non-fiction or something worthy but will see how I get on.

Thanks Angielou I'll leave Her Name Was Rose. I've plenty of more deserving books in my tbr pile!

Loving the wolf suggestions! Thank you. They do seem to be a thing at the moment

Was The Wolf of Wall Street based on a book? Mind you I hated the film.

My list so far
Still no outstanding reads yet this year unfortunately

1. Normal People by Sally Rooney
2. The Core by Peter V Brett
3. Murder never misses by Faith Martin (a Hillary Greene detective novel. I love Hillary Greene!)
4. The Wife by Meg Wolitzer
5. Cactus by Sarah Haywood. Fine, easy read.
6. A Fatal Obsession by Faith Martin
7. Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver. Took me ages to finish. A bit of a plod to be honest, I didn't love it. From online : "It follows two families living in the same house at two separate time periods in Vineland, New Jersey. One family lived in the house in the 1800s and one is there in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy" A bit depressing and dreary and could have been 150 pages shorter (all my books seem to share the same complaint this month - overly long). I think it's getting good reviews though so.... And I've begun two but will not finish them Her Name Was Rose and *Crazy Rich Asians

1: Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O'Porter
2: This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay
3: The Glass Menagerie by Tenesse Williams
4: Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
5: Endurance- Shackleton's Incredible Journey by Alfred Lansing
6: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

7: Animal Farm by George Orwell

8: Hag-seed: The Tempest Retold by Margaret Attwood

This is the second of the Hogarth modern re-tellings of the Shakespeare plays I have read (the previous one being The Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler)
I feel the writing and plot intricacy of this one is far superior to The Vinegar Girl - but then again, I feel The Tempest is a far superior play)
It is the story of Felix (Prospero), whose beloved three year old daughter Miranda died of meningitis. He has thrown himself into his work as artistic director of well known theatre festival. His palys become more and more outlandish, and Tony (Antonio) gets him fired and usurps his position. Felix retreats from the world, rents an old cabin in a remote area and over the next few years, plots his revenge. Eventually, the opportunity arises, when he is asked to help with a literacy programme at a prison, and he stages various Shakespeare plays with great success.
When he hears that his old adversary Tony, who is now an aspiring politician, is going to visit the prison as part of his campaign, he know his next production with the prisoners will be The Tempest.

I found it very readable, and I did enjoy it more than Vinegar Girl, but I do feel the plot was confusing, and Attwood might have done better if not constrained by the Tempest plot. (I might also have found it less confusing if I was more familiar with The Tempest.)

Very enjoyable though.
Will read Jo Nesbo's Macbeth in the series next (One of my favourite Shakespeare pays, and one I am much more familiar with, so I have high hopes)

whippet, don't forget How to Cook a Wolf by MFK Fisher, the queen of food writing (imho). It was 'written to inspire courage in those facing wartime shortages'. So might prove useful in case of a no-deal Brexit

7. Kindred – Octavia E. Butler

Dana, an educated and accomplished black woman living in 1970’s Los Angeles travels back in time to 1815 Maryland where she is assumed to be a slave . Inexplicably, her ancestor Rufus is able to call on her whenever his life is endangered. She has no control over this process, and so finds herself summoned many times and without any choice in the matter.

The blurb for this book promises an exploration of race, sex and power, so I was looking forward to challenging and thought provoking read. Unfortunately Kindred did not live up to my expectations and I found it really quite disappointing. For starters there were some glaring plot holes – how is Rufus able to keep summonsing her back in time for example? Why does she appear to accept it so easily? I also thought the characterisation was really weak and inconsistent , producing flat and one dimensional protagonists I felt little for. Ultimately there was not enough description or feeling in this book to transport me back to either the 1970’s or the 1800’s and the world(s) she created were not convincing. I usually enjoy historical fiction for its ability to transport me out of my own time and place, but this book fell flat for me and if not for the fact that it’s less than 300 pages long, I probably would have given up. In my opinion, a great idea poorly executed.

BonBonVoyage I also found Unsheltered a bit of a plod and I'm a huge fan of Barbara Kingsolver. Not her best imho.

Whippet what about Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf - Catherine Storr.

@whippetwoman
Ooh! Try Bareback by Kit Whitfield. Main character is an indentured civil servant due to being a non-werewolf (a "bareback") in a society where werewolves are the dominant class. Part police procedural/part urban fantasy.

Tonight's reading time has been eaten into by a) some work that I should be doing and b) having to do a factory reset on my kindle because it wouldn't download any books - now I am having to download all of my books so am waiting impatiently for it to finish!

I'll finish Reading Allowed tonight and then see what I fancy. I've got two actual books to read about travellers which should be quite interesting but I'm not quite sure when I'll get round to them at the moment.

Crazy Rich Asians seems to be a very marmite book.

9 Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare

Third and final book in her Dark Artifices series, 12th (I think - ignoring short stories etc) of her books set in the Shadowhunter world. Its not one of her best - it's too long (900 pages), there are some unusually improbable plot devices (even for a series featuring super-human beings who keep the world safe by battling demons), she plays 'issues bingo' even more than usual, the political analogies are ridiculously clunky, and the book switches between points of view far too much, particularly in the first half. It's very telling that for a book that really is only going to be read by fans, there are a significant number of 3 star reviews on Amazon.

Having said all that, I read all 900 pages in 3 days, and kept picking it up any time I had a free moment. As always Clare does a great job of creating characters that you care about, who feel real and plausible (even for superhuman beings who spend their working hours battling demons and their spare time having angst-ridden impossible love affairs), and making you want to find out what happens to them.

I actually returned this on Audible when it first came out, but I'm glad I read it in the end, and no doubt I will read her next series as and when it arrives.

Whippet if you haven't read it you must read The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas (it will take you all of 5 minutes, but it's fabulous)

*Romancing Miss Bronte" is 99p at the moment:

In this critically acclaimed novel of historical fiction, Juliet Gael portrays the poignantly courageous life of Charlotte Brontë, the woman who transformed her heart’s loss into one of the most enduring literary works of all time – Jane Eyre.

Ooh, I wholly second abookandgin’s recommendation for Bareback. It’s excellent. The mention has also prodded me to check if Kit Whitfield had written anything else and apparently she’s written a novel about an alternative Tudor timeline where merpeople exist. Knowing what she did with werewolves in Bareback this is going straight on my TBR list.

And as for Wolf titles, there’s also Wolves of the Calla in the Dark Tower series.

I really enjoyed Wolf Border when I read it. Wonderful sense of place.

Wolf of the Plains is really good. I was totally gripped throughout it.

I'm left with the impression the murderer made life unnecessarily complicated for themselves, purely for the sake of narrative convolution.

Has anyone mentioned Virginia Wolf Woolf yet?

Finished #11 Bird Box turned out to be very enjoyable not a difficult read and I like the claustrophobia of the situation and that not everything is neatly tied up at the end.

I need a bit of a change of pace so #13 The Definitive Biography of Freddie Mercury is next. I'm a huge Queen fan and this was a Christmas gift from my mum (she knows me well).

On the Wolf recommendation I enjoyed Daughter of the Wolf by Victoria Whitworth last year. Historical fiction rather than fantasy and told from an interesting viewpoint.

There actually is a Daughter of the Wolf? That’s checking 2 boxes on title bingo We just need The Wolf and his Girl or The Girl and the Magician’s neice’s Wolf for a full house!

I suppose Call of the Wild doesn’t count?