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?

I’m going to soldier on with all the penises this weekend.

What are you reading ?!

I frequently mention the ‘pea from ear’ scene in Captain Corelli when patients are bemoaning the paucity of local ear syringing services. This attempt at lightening the mood of the experience of living with chronic impacted ear wax has (sadly) yet to result in a pleasant conversation about the merits of the novel.

Life & family problems have got in the way of reading for the last week or so.

I've been re-reading (for the umpteenth time) a couple of the Katy book & Anne of Green Gables. Can't count them as they are my escape & comfort reads.

I'd love to know what the maximum is you'll pay for a kindle book?

I looked for A Place for Us - recommended by ScribblyGum - it is £9.99 on kindle & I won't pay that for a kindle book. It's gone on my wish list & I will look out for it at the library.

£3.99 is just about my maximum - I have gone up to £4.99 but not often.

Would love to hear what others think.

Brizzle I’ve just started Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James, the much hyped first instalment of his epic African literary fiction fantasy.

piggy I read it because of my A Level teacher - she read it on her holiday and had it on her desk when we came back in. It opened up modern literary fiction to me and gave me an adult author I liked who was still alive and producing novels which seemed so exciting at the time And she probably had no idea that her tapping on it and saying “this was rather good” had such an effect.

I'm with you, magimedi - I'd say that normally £1.99 is my absolute Kindle maximum, with 99p as the preferred price....but then I remembered that I have paid £3.99 when I really, desperately wanted something and I felt like treating myself

My normal book-buying mantra is: 'Everything turns up in the charity shop eventually'. This has served me well for years and I very, very rarely pay full price for new books (having said that, I've just bought Stephen Walsh's Debussy biography but that was for Dh's birthday so doesn't count)

magimedi do you use IQ reader? for buying kindle books.

Someone on this thread suggested it a while ago. It’s great. Put the book in you want to read and the price you are prepared to pay for it and they email you when the ebook drops to that price.

The kindle daily deal is too dangerous for me but this method of buying kindle books feels more restrained.

I think it was me who suggested it, Scribbly !

It is really helpful.

I just can't get over the ending of Mandolin - it ruined the book for me, just because I couldn't believe that those characters would have behaved like that. Shame as the rest of it is so good.

I hated the ending in a way as it was so upsetting, but thought it was a powerful choice for the book. I don’t know that another ending would have fit so well - it certainly didn’t really work in the film.

There is a tendency for a lot of these sagas to end a book by skipping years ahead and setting something in concrete that could have been easily ended earlier with a sense of leaving it to be imagined and it is always a bit disappointing. All The Light We Cannot See is one that springs to mind that would have been wonderful if it stopped earlier.

Thanks Scribbly, I've been struggling to keep up with the thread.

I also use Ereaderiq, though it doesn't give me notifications as often as I'd like. I think my bank manager has bribed them

8. A line made by walking by Sara Baume

A young art graduate spends the summer at her dead grandmother's abandoned bungalow in the Irish countryside. Her thoughts are interspersed with descriptions of modern art pieces.

This is an unusual book. Nothing much happens and it is a very relaxing read. It captures depression quite well. I really enjoyed the modern art descriptions which I assume are all real works. I will look out for future works by this author.

Love, love, love Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Read a passage from my beloved, battered copy at my (also beloved!) brother's wedding.
Am long overdue a re-read....

A few years ago I read Louis de Bernières' first three books, a trilogy set in South America. Quirky, hilarious, brilliantly written and cleverly named (The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts was the first one!!) they may be but for me he clearly found his groove when he penned Captain Corelli.

Reckon I know what passage !

I have reread it several times to teach it. Never fails to move me.

Last time I taught it I was worried students would spoil it for me ; they were less enthusiastic than previous students but still warmed to Carlo : who wouldn't??

scribbly, I shall make a point of impacting some earwax just so I can pay you a visit and wax lyrical (boom boom) about Corelli for you.

I have an irrational dislike of the kindle 99p deals, because I feel like I am being manipulated into buying certain books rather than having a free choice I never spend over £5 though.

I don't spend over £5 either, somehow it seems like a lot of money when I don't have a book I can hold in my hands rather than a collection of bytes.

Good morning everyone, I seem to have fallen off the thread a bit - we've had the CQC in work doing their inspection and it does have a tendency to take over all other areas of one's life.

Last night I finished 6. All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriot. I remember snippets of this from the TV show years and years back when I must have been about six and my Mum loved the books. So finally reading one now feels like meeting an old acquaintance again. Someone on another thread described it as a 'soothing balm' and I couldn't agree more.

About to start The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne which I picked up at a charity bookstall last week. It is often referenced as a modern classic so thought I ought to read it, albeit tentatively as I am aware of the subject matter.

I also loved We Need to Talk About Kevin. The continuing sense of menace lurking on every page was chilling. I would also recommend Shriver's Big Brother, where she builds the intensity amongst a small group of enmeshed characters and the fall out at the end really hits the reader.

Re kindle prices, I've had a bit of an epiphany moment in the last few weeks. I'm reluctant to spend more than 99p on a kindle book, but will happily spend several quid a day on take out coffee and a muffin on the way to work. I've told myself that the pleasure from a book lasts much longer than a highstreet coffee, so I've cut back on buying these and will happily spend more on a book! why did it take so long for this to become obvious

Perfectly good books utterly spoilt forever by their endings: 1. Atonement 2. Captain Correlli's Mandolin. Feel free to add your own.

1. Mindful Thoughts for Walkers: Footnotes on the Zen Path by Adam Ford I bought this at a charity booksale where it would have been awkward to leave empty handed, and I had very low expectations, thinking it would be a trite and lazy extended magazine article cobbling together some platitudes based on the buzz words in the title. It was much better than that, erudite and comforting. I came away with a whole load more walking and nature related recommendations on my wishlist. It also made me Google the proper words to Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken, one of those poems I thought I knew by heart, but didn't quite.

10. Burning Bright by Helen Dunmore This is one of her early novels, and not generally thought to be one of her best, but I liked it very much. Written and set in the 1990s, it has an interesting cast of characters: sixteen year old Nadine who is overlooked at home and groomed by Kai, a Finnish 'businessman', and his partner Tony; Enid the sitting tenant in the house they all end up living in, who can't let go of a murder that happened over 50 years ago; and Paul the Cabinet Minister who discreetly uses Kai and Tony's business to meet his particular needs. It is well written and the inner dialogue of the two female characters is rich and moving, if the ending is a little inconclusive.

Another CCM lover (and sobber) here too.
Downloaded it yesterday.
Oddly when I try to see the other monthly Kindle deals it shows me about 4 books, all of which sound like self-published shite. I'm clearly not looking in the right place, or the app is trying to brainwash me.

cherrypi - I have A Line Made by Walking in my TBR pile, bought after reading her first novel Spill Simmer Falter Wither a year or so ago - emotionally intense without being overwrought, and brilliantly written. Would definitely recommend.

I really enjoyed Kevin but in the same way I loved A Little Life. Utterly compelling. I remember it took me a while to get into Kevin but thinking how glad I was that I had persevered.

Keith I have read a few Anna Quindlen books and they are good reads; remind me a little of Anne Tyler and Ann Patchett, although the latter is more literary.

17. Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I think this has been reviewed on here quite a lot. I picked it up on Kindle daily deals a while ago. I was a bit disappointed - I thought it would be more subliminal but it reminded me of a sort of 'Greek classical chick-lit' book. That said, I enjoyed being plunged into the Classical environment of Greek gods and wars so I will definitely read Circe when I see it in a charity shop or cheap on Kindle.

18. A discovery of witches by Deborah Harkness. This is a must for any (grown up) Twilight fans. I do enjoy a bit of vampire literature! This is a more intellectual version, set in academic Oxford in the world of ancient alchemy. Parts of this annoyed me especially the protagonist, Diana - who is a bit like Twilight's Bella. Yep, irritating character but I enjoyed the yarn enough to get past my irritation. On an aside, I remember enjoying the Anne Rice vampire books years ago, so might have to look them up again.

Totally agree re the endings of Captain C and All the Light. The latter, especially, would have been a far better book if it ended 30 pages or so earlier. If it had, it would have been one of my top ten for the year that I read it in.

Not read Captain Corelli, nor All The Light but on perfectly good books ruined by the ending, I offer Alias Grace. I'm still cross about that one now.

I loved Kevin as well. I have a weak spot for an unreliable narrator, and found Eva nigh on perfect in this respect.

I have no updates, but I do have a Valentine's Amazon voucher burning a hole in much pocket, and may even splurge on some full-price stuff when I've read the latest recommendations on the thread.

The ending of Shriver’s Big Brother infuriated me. I spilt my wine at book club I was so annoyed.

Was quite upset at the ending of Tenenant of Wildfell Hall too. All that great proto-feminism and then Helen goes and does that at the end. Urgh.

Terpsichore thanks again for the IQReader tip, has saved me a fortune (and helped me learn some book buying patience).

Piggy you’re on