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?

bobinks I read Jane Austin at Home earlier this year. Hope you enjoy it I did.

weebarra I read the second in that series last year The Curse Of The House Of Foskett last year I'm not going to be reading any more of them...

Off to check out the monthly deals. I reduced my reading backlog by 5 books last month so it's OK to buy a few isn't it?

1. My thoughts exactly by Lily Allen.

I enjoyed this. I always thought Lily Allen came across as a bit of pain in the backside. Remember seeing her on Graham Norton's show with Dominic Cooper and Miriam Margoyles. She was, I felt, dismissive and sneery of Miriam Margoyles. Having read her book, I wonder now if she wasn't under the influence of something.

She comes across well in the book. Very truthful and upfront about her childhood, relationships (dysfunctional) with her family. The section post fame/post marriage/post children is pretty shocking. She had a lot to deal with - one thing after another. I didn't know about George and my heart went out to her at that point; she wrote very touchingly about it.

3. The President is Missing - Bill Clinton and James Patterson

America is under threat from a cyber terrorist. The president is under suspicion. And then he disappears. Can America be saved from a threat that would change the world?

This was good but not brilliant in my opinion. I wanted more White House inside info. It may have also struggled because I seem to be in a bit of a lull. Three books in a month is just not like me! But it was alright and an interesting terrorism concept on how it would damage civilisation as we know it.

Up next is another James Patterson on loan from the library and I have a long weekend off so will try get my reading mojo back and get it finished!

Bird Box is 99p on Kindle. I've heard mixed reviews of the film but the book seems to get largely positive reviews.
I enjoyed The Girl With The Pearl Earring far more than I expected to and that is also 99p in the monthly sale.

Emgee good review, I'm adding My Thoughts Exactly to my 'Want To Read' List, sounds like more than your standard celeb bio, I'm interested in her relationship with her father, Keith Allen, too who's always come across a thug who got lucky to me. Maybe she'd convince me otherwise.

Reporting in to the group as I've just finished:

2 - Dear Mrs Bird It was a light read but I enjoyed it very much. It's set in WWII about a young woman going to work as typist for a formidable agony aunt. I did agree with an Amazon reviewer that not much happened and now the scene is set for book 2. I definitely want to find out what happens next, so that a good thing hey!

On to book 3 - The Cut Out Girl. I got the last copy in Waterstones yesterday and really looking forward to it after hearing some commentary on Radio 4 this week.

14. The calling - Alison Bruce. The third of a series of detective novels set in Cambridge. Still enjoying this series. Several young women disappear while another young woman knows who the perpetrator is and tries to warn other victims and the police.

15. The tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris. Not sure enjoyed is the right word to describe the subject matter but I did. I read it with a mix of horror and anger and sadness at the way humans can treat each other. I read it on Holocaust Memorial Day (unintentionally but the library emailed to say it was available for download and then saw what day it was later) and was saddened to read of the numbers of Britons who claim that the holocaust didn't happen. I do worry about the human race sometimes (a great deal, actually).

16. Inside/outside - Jenny Hayworth. To top off my subdued feelings about the holocaust I then read this; not a good combination of books tbh. This was the story of a Jehovah's Witness who has been disfellowshipped following her questioning of the way the Witnesses dealt with her sexual abuse and grooming. I have a friend who was disfellowshipped and am familiar with the isolation that it brings but was still shocked by some of the reactions and thought processes and beliefs she describes. A difficult read as she and her four children were subjected to almost unbelievable abuse (not all by Witnesses). The book could also have benefitted from a bloody good edit.

17. Erebus - Michael Palin. I freely admit I only read this because it was written by Michael Palin but I loved it. It was well written, well researched and I felt totally blown away by the immensity of undertaking polar exploration in wooden boats when no-one knew where you were and a rescue party could take months/years to arrive. Were they brave or foolish? I enjoyed the brief mention of how women would sometimes travel undetected on explorations by disguising themselves as men. I now intend to seek out further books about exploration and travel and derring-do (especially by women) if any one has any suggestions. I'm considering the Lansing book about Shackleton if my library has it on e-book.

18. Sleeping in the ground - Peter Robinson. The latest in a long series of detective stories that I've been reading for many years. I like the main character, DS Alan Banks. A mass shooting takes place at a wedding and the shooter kills himself shortly after. But is everything as it seems? A good read.

Erebus is one that I really want to read when it comes down in price.

Re the kindle, Amazon expect me to believe that two kindles and the kindle app have all developed the same technical fault on the same day. I have managed to get it to actually show the books in my library now and will just have to download them all manually from the kindle as sending them from the amazon page doesn't work. As it's wifi only it's not much of a hassle.

I just bought a book to test it out and see if it worked (what a hardship!) and got The Last Wolf: The Hidden Springs of Englishness from my wish list - might as well stick with the current thread theme.

thanks for all the advice, a mixture of things worked.

Have been looking at Monthly Deals again - haven't seen so much I want in a long time.

Has anyone read The Moscow Trilogy by Simon Sebag Montefiore? The first one is on offer at 99p. Any good?

ritzbiscuits look forward to reading your review of The Cut Out Girl, I heard an interview with the author yesterday and it sounded fascinating.

On the subject of the monthly Kindle deals, I’d fairly strongly recommend Adam Nevill’s Ritual for horror fans. Four English friends go hiking in Sweden and unwisely decide to take a short cut through a forest. Creepy as hell, and well worth 99p.

And The Terror is in there too, which I loved, although I think opinions of it are a bit mixed here.

1. Eve of Man Giovanna and Tom Fletcher

I have a soft spot for these guys having followed them on Instagram and had kids around the same age. A similar soft spot for Dystopian teeny bopper fiction. However, I need to acknowledge that my reading tastes have changed in the last decade and these days surface only books just don’t do it for me. An interesting concept that in more competent hands good have been great. It also frustrated me that in a world dominated by men they couldn’t have one non-Hetro relationship. Bland.

1. On Palestine Noam Chomsky & Ilan Pappé

I’m very inexperienced with non fiction and trying to read more of it this year. I chose this as I’d never read anything by Chomsky and I knew little (to my shame) about Palestine. I raced through this and found it completely fascinating.

The structure was quite odd to me, a mixture of commentary, articles and conversations not necessarily in chronological order. There was quite a lot of repetition and my biggest issue is that it was written 5 years ago and much has changed now (I think). I’d be interested to read something more up to date.

14. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett Two families torn apart and thrown together by infidelity. Follows the fall out over several decades and weaves all of the threads together beautifully. Patchett is quite the storyteller. Marvellous.

Bought The Talisman by Stephen King/Peter Straub for 99p in the Kindle deals as it's in my top 50 reading list for this year but I don't have a copy. It's a brilliant book, so if you haven't read it and like King, fantasy, horror, YA, just great storytelling or any combination of the above then it's 99p well spent.

Thanks, Meg, for making me feel better - I promised I would not buy any more books until I had made a decent dent in my TBR pile but that I would make an exception for Stephen King. Have downloaded The Talisman with a clear conscience!

15. The silence of the girls - Pat Barker A modern retelling of the myth of Achilles but from the perceptive of Briseis. Briseis was once a Queen but when Achilles sacks her city she is handed to him as a trophy of war and becomes a slave.
This was stunning. I love Barker's work. Her portrayal of the futility of war, the bravado of men and the unbearable grief of lost children.
5 stars on Goodreads and highly recommended.
Now about to carrying on riding the Greek wave by reading The song of Achilles- by Madeline Miller. Loved Circe and many 50 Bookers has said this is better so I have high hopes.

Just catching up with the thread!

I read Mister Tom when I was about ten, same as ChessieFL and have loved it ever since. I remember being outraged in Year 8 when my teacher described it as “boring”. I agree from an adults POV it’s a little clunky in the sad-happy-sad-happy plot, but I think Magorian got it spot-on for that age group. Interestingly A Little Life as someone mentioned (sorry can't recall who) is also a favourite of mine. Turns out I've always loved a sad story

4 The seven deaths of evelyn hardcastle by stuart turton. I don't usually read crime and (whispers) I've never read an Agatha Christie novel, but I really enjoyed this. Described as a "body-hopping, time-travelling, murder-mystery", I felt this cracked along at a great pace and I was able to keep up as long as I didn't try to keep every detail in my head. Much more fun than the current trend of psych-suspense where the "twist" is always so predictable, or if it isn't, it's because it's so out of base that it's been created so the front cover quote can read "I never guessed the ending". In summary - I'd recommend!

Finally finished Tangerine

Started so well but got very dull. Should've been about 80 pages shorter.

Moving onto

1. The Last - Hannah Jameson

bibliomania I can't stop thinking about your review of The Cactus. I haven't read the book but your review has really struck a chord.
I like spiky heroines, but am heartily sick of the Shrew being Tamed, the woman learning to conform to social norms and thus finally to be happy....I want the heroine to evade the clutches of the hero and run, cackling, towards the wide blue horizon.
I read a chick lit novel last year and found myself thinking something similar, but couldn't have described it as eloquently! Now if you wrote up a novel with that ending I think I'd like to read it and use it as an inspiration for my own life!

13: Miss Silver Comes to Stay – Patricia Wentworth

I particularly enjoyed this one. I guessed the killer but was tricked for quite a while into thinking it was somebody else. And it’s always nice to have a detective story in which only unpleasant people die.

I've bought Scrublands, which the Grauniad mentioned a few weeks ago iirc. Also The Boys in the Boat which I've had my eye on for a while.

The Terror is needlessly long, but definitely worth a shot for 99p if you're into exploration and snow!

1. This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay
2. Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O’Porter
3. The Glass menagerie by Tennessee Williams
4. Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
5. Endurance by Alfred Lancing
6. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
7. Animal Farm by George Orwell

8: Hagseed by Margaret Attwood

9: Heartstone (Shardlake #5) by CJ Sansom
This is the fifth in the Shardlake series, and having read them all, I can say I enjoyed this one the most.
Set towards the end of Henry VIII's reign, lawyer Matthew Shardlake is asked by Queen Catherine Parr to investigate a claim by one of her servants that a ward of court, Hugh Curtys, has suffered a "monstrous wrong". The investigation takes him to Portsmouth, where he finds a dysfunctional family with a huge secret. Matthew takes the opportunity to also make additional investigations into a separate case (a loose end from the previous book Lamentation). A mysterious inmate of the Bedlam asylum, Ellen Fettiplace, came originally from the same area and Shardlake takes it upon himself to find out more about how she ended up in Bedlam.
The two storylines continue along at quite a pace, both with the threatened French invasion looming in the background, culminating with the gathering of the English fleet in Portsmouth harbour, along with the flagship the Mary Rose.

I rattled through it pretty quickly, complex enough to be interesting but not over-complex. Believable characters and an enjoyable story with genuine historical events (the sinking of the Mary Rose)
Probably the best fiction book I have read this year.

Correction - previous book is Revelation, not Lamentation . Lamentation is the next book - #6

Anyone else struggling with Milkman? I'm finding it so tedious and tempted to give up.

I gave up on it around Christmas time. Life's too short to read books you're not enjoying.