50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Three

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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 and the second one here.

What are you reading?

The T of W Hall is my favourite Bronte.

20: Charity Girl- Georgette Heyer – simple and sweet. Not Heyer at her finest, because it wasn’t as funny as some of them, but a rather ‘lovely’ love story. I’d guessed the ending for one of the central characters but not the other – I’d got a choice of three and couldn’t decide which one said character would end up with! Unusual for a Heyer, and therefore rather refreshing.

I recommend A Town Like Alice - a bargain!

Thanks Remus, I'm definitely going for that one.

The only books that jumped out at me in the March Kindle deals are: A town like Alice, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, The Collector and Adrian Mole. Have read them all. Thoroughly recommend.
Could anyone recommend anything else in the monthly deals as I'm otherwise uninspired... ??

I only found out about kindle daily/monthly deals from this thread and now I'm going to bankrupt myself in 99p increments...

Just bought I Contain Multitudes (science of the microbes inside us) and Here be Dragons by Sharon Penman - first of the Welsh Princes trilogy, since I've got the second one on my shelf (20p charity shop find) so it would have been rude not to.

Someone on this thread was reading Black Leopard Red Wolf I think, but can’t remember reading a finished review.
Does it get less penisy? I’m 47 pages in and have already reached my monthly quota of literary knob.
How gorgeous is this cover though?

I only found out about kindle daily/monthly deals from this thread and now I'm going to bankrupt myself in 99p increments...

Just wait till you see the big deals Amazon do on Sundays, five or six books by the same author at 99p each. By some witchcraft most weeks they seem to have hit on authors that I really kind of wouldn’t mind reading.

~~

I ended up loving Wyntertide. Review to come.

I’m currently reading a fairly old 70s book about the history of public schools, and oh my GOD. I’m barely a quarter of the way in and it’s like Lord of the Flies... if, that is, Lord of the Flies was set in England and ten thousand times more brutal.

Like Lord Byron leading a pupil revolt at Harrow, going as far as spreading gunpowder through a corridor with the express intention of blowing up the school.

Or Kingswood school, started by John Wesley in 1748, which took boys at the age of 8 and then never let them leave the school even for a day or allowed any time to play.

It’s jaw-dropping.

I've dropped off a bit due to a stressful situation. I'm reading, but not enjoying, Educated at the moment but I'm persevering.
I can highly recommend A town like Alice

From the 99p specials I have bought The Collector, I contain multitudes, The house of hidden mothers and A morbid taste for bones,

The first book of the Raj Quartet - The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott is on monthly deals for 99p.

I've read them all & re-read - & loved the TV series with Geraldine James & Charles Dance.

Well worth a go.

@ScribblyGum it was me reading Black Leopard Red Wolf I put it down shortly after I wrote about it. Life was stressful and I couldn’t be arsed with the penis-y-ness. I’ve still got it by my bed side to look at the pretty cover so will retry later. I think I’m missing something a bit with him.

If anybody likes YA, Across the Nightingale Floor is 99p. It's excellent - I've read it twice before, but have bought it so I can read it again. I've also bought Cloudstreet by Tim Winton.

After getting off to a cracking start in January my reading ground to a halt in February thanks to a combination of having a bad cold, then being away for half term staying in a hotel room with the DC (not conducive to reading), plus having a free Netflix trial which took my attention away from reading somewhat

Anyway, back on it with another reread from my top 50:

11. A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

Been 20+ years since I first read this, but what a splendid book it is. Toole tragically committed suicide in his 30s with this unpublished and considered himself a failure, but it's a true comic masterpiece featuring the grotesque anti-hero Ignatius J Reilly and his trials in New Orleans dealing with his drunken mother, succession of dead-end jobs and his hippy kind-of-girlfriend Myrna Minkoff. Every sentence is a delight and it's very, very funny.

Placemarking and to say Crooked Heart is on the deals which I quite liked and is linked to Old Baggage

Thanks for the recommendations. I read a few Tim Winton novels when I lived in Australia and thought Cloudstreet was by far the best.

What are your views on Captain Corelli's Mandolin? I downloaded the sample and found it a bit uninspiring, but I've heard that it gets hugely better after the first 100 to 200 pages...?

Has anybody read The Popish Midwife please?

I came across it by chance and I'm wondering about giving it a go.

thanks.

Xposted. I really enjoyed Captain Corelli's Mandolin many years ago now.

14. *The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale

Non-fiction, true-crime investigation of the 1860 Road Hill House murder of four year old Saville Kent. This crime gripped society not only because of its gruesome nature but because it was investigated by Mr Whicher, one of the first detectives in Victorian Britain.
Summerscale does an incredibly detailed (sometimes veering off into the dull) job of examining Whicher's life and the impact he and his investigation made on investigative police work and detective fiction alongside retelling the story of the murder and the cast of upstairs and downstairs suspects living in the large house in Wiltshire.
I enjoyed this despite it getting a little bogged down with biographical details at points. I particularly enjoyed the mentions of Dickens who was (as everyone else in 1860 Britain appeared to be) fascinated with the case and who at regular intervals put forth his opinions on who done it. Whicher must have been an inspiration for Mr Bucket in Bleak House.

15. Erebus by Michael Palin Audiobook by Michael Palin

Reviewed several times on here already. Palin does a fantastic job of examining the adventures of HMS Erebus with particular focus on Captain Ross' Antarctic expeditions with HMS Terror in 1839-43 and the doomed Arctic expedition captained by Franklin in 1845.
A perfect book to listen to on audio; gripping historical non-fiction + Palin's lovely voice. Only thing missing is a map (required googling during listening intervals).

16. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

The novel starts at the wedding of Hadia, oldest daughter in an Indian Muslim family living in the USA. Amar her brother has returned for the wedding having been in non contact with the family for several years. Farheen Mirza flits about over the timeline examining the lives of Hadia and Amar's and their parents Rafiq and Layla living as devout Muslims in contemporary America.
This is a beautifully written, quiet but powerful book that explores how small decisions and events build to define entire lives.
For a debut novel it’s something pretty special. I hope in makes The Women's Prize longlist.

17. Upstairs at the Party by Linda Grant Audiobook narrated by Tricia Kelly

Adele, a working class Liverpudlian Jew gets a place at a newly built Yorkshire university (York all but in name) in the 1970s where she befriends a mixed bag of undergraduates including the mesmerising couple of Evie/Stevie. The book meanders along Adele’s life but an event during the final year of her life at York continually brings her back to trying to understand what happened to Evie and the part that she played in the tragedy.
This is my second book I’ve listened to by Grant and while this type of book is really not my usual cup of tea I think I’ve inexplicably rather fallen for her style of storytelling. Dependable writing, you’re in a safe pair of hands and a third of the way in you suddenly realise you care about these characters and want to know what’s going to happen to them.

18. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Audiobook narrated by Will Wheaton

A re-listen for me. Bought the DVD of the film while away at half term and after watching asked the dds if they wanted to listen to the book. What followed was something of a miracle. Dd2 (13) actually asking to listen to the story instead of watching YouTube videos or instagram. Repeatedly. We arrived home with only half the book listened to on holiday but this pattern continued. “Can we listen to Ready Player One now please.”

I love Captain Corelli's Mandolin - it's an old favourite of mine.

Palegreenstars that’s interesting that you’ve put in away. It is hard work isn’t it? I’m going to soldier on with all the penises this weekend.

I loved Corelli when I read it. You have to give it time to get into the alternating perspectives but it is a really good book. One of a handful to make me cry so much when I finished it that people questioned if something else had happened other than “a book”. I was 18.

Good for you, scribbly

I got shouted at by a (male and rather lumpen) A Level student once because he took Captain Corelli on a train and it made him cry in public.

Another boy used to take it to uni Open Days as a 'pulling device'.

I love love love it. Apart from the ending.

I'm taking one for the team here