50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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, the second one here and the third one here.

How're you getting on so far?

Ooh splother I bet she is on this thread!!

And thank you InMyOwn those sound good.

Keith I never thought of that.
Well if you are Daisy thank you!!

I have not splother . Will look it up.
I think it is the RealDaisy Goodwin ! Surely!?

46. I'd Rather Be Reading- Anne Bogel Lovely.

47. Anna- Niccolò Ammaniti Bleak.

I've had it since 2010 or so and it's just accumulated !

Keith, The Talented Mr Ripley is set in Rome and other Italian locations, if you've not already read it.

Keith I would second the Falco series recommendation.

Just checking in. Too ill and too many children to make much reading headway this week and had several DNF not knowing if it is me or the book. Enjoying your reviews and making sure I don’t fall off the thread.

Great blog toomuchsplother, will be checking in often. Tempted to start a wave of “I’m Daisy Goodwin” in the manner of Spartacus, but it isn’t me, though it has got me wondering if I’m anybody interesting. Was also going to add that Malcolm Gladwell has an Elvis episode on his Revisionist History podcast if you haven’t come across it and are still on a Presley spree.

I did once manage to persuade a Line of Duty thread that I was Jed Mercurio.

I may be Jed Mercurio.

Now I'm worried about my Kindle

I'm just going to have to speed up my reading and delete some books.

17 just done Made In Scotland , Billy Connolly's book tie-in with his recent BBC sreies. I very much enjoyed this, although you might have to be Scottish, and preferably Glaswegian to really get along with it. I am much, much younger than Billy, and from a completely different Glasgow from him, but I do think the Glasgow I grew up in really had not changed much from his in the 50s! So, it was a nostalgic read for me. The BBC programme made me cry : the book didn't move me in that way but it still has touching moments of reflection.

Piggy that's for that review I love Billy Connelly.

Just popped on to say when Breath becomes air is not Kindle Daily deals today .

13. My Siister The Serrial Killer by Oykan Braithwaite. Altthough I enjoyed this short quirky crime thrilller, I was left wanting more from it.

@brizzlemint how many books is a full kindle?

AliasGrape You may find some of your answers in the follow up Anything is Possible.

I've just finished Amy and Isabelle, which I enjoyed very much, but my favourite is still Olive Kitteridge. If you're looking to read more Elizabeth Strout, I can thoroughly recommend it.

I second Olive Kitteridge, I also have The Burgess Boys on my huge and growing pile of books.

@Bakewelltarts I'm embarrassed to say! Several thousand, I've read about 1/2 of them.

Brizzle you are not alone. I also have an obscene (size not content) ebook collection, but keep mine on computer and move to tablet as and when I fancy them. Do you have a PC/laptop that you can connect to the kindle and shift them over to for storage?

46. Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (audiobook)

Coming of age story of 2 girls living in 1990s Colombia at the height of the political unrest and Pablo Escobar's reign of terror. Drug cartels, communist guerillas, government corruption, political assassinations, kidnappings and bombings are rife and all part of normal life along with power cuts and water supply issues. The book is told from 2 alternating perspectives. Seven year old Chula lives in a gated middle-class community and she forms an unlikely friendship with her 13 year old live-in maid Petrona from the slums, a friendship which puts them both in to danger. This is an extraordinary story based on the real life experiences of the author and does a very good job of explaining their everyday lives from different ends of the socio-economic spectrum and the choices women have to make in difficult times.

Overall very good, but could have done with a better editor. The pacing is off, it is very slow going early on and can be a little rambling in places and all of the action is in the final 3rd, but it is worth persevering with. The author paints a very vivid picture. I found it especially interesting having recently read Malala Yousafzai's Displaced about young women who are internally displaced and those who go on to be refugees in another country.

For Robert Macfarlane fans he has a new book out 2nd May.

Some nice recs for autobiographies in the i newspaper. Don’t know if the photos will load well enough to read but here goes.

Some good recommends there Best. Hopefully this is a link to the article. inews.co.uk/culture/books/30-best-memoirs-read-lifetime-michelle-obama-keith-richards/

Doh! Why didn’t I think of linking? Thank you Desdemona.

Thanks Boiled I have Anything Is Possible on Borrow Box my library ebook thing. I’ve ordered a second hand copy of Olive Kitteridge also but it’s not arrived yet.

16. The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides
Yet another hyped up psychological thriller. Alicia keeps a diary as she doesn’t want to worry her husband. Until one day she shoots him five times in the face and then doesn’t speak another word. Theo is a psychotherapist and he believes he can help Alicia speak again. But will he want to hear the truth?

Again I was lured into this book with all the hype but didn’t find it particularly thrilling. It wasn’t the type of book I couldn’t put down. The twists towards the end were all just a little too far fetched for me and I didn’t really enjoy the ending. Another story where I couldn’t have cared less about any of the characters either.