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?

32. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

An entertaining retelling of selected stories from Norse Mythology, mostly featuring Thor and Loki.

27: Transcription - Kate Atkinson

I had a very pleasant, if idle, Easter Sunday reading most of this in between bouts of hacking back the garden. Having read some of the slightly equivocal reviews I wasn’t expecting much, and at first I thought it was a rather thin effort from Atkinson (sorry), but there came a point when it all came together and I was suddenly gripped. Ultimately I really enjoyed this and it’s much subtler and more layered than I initially gave it credit for.
(Coincidentally, I was also slightly spooked by the fact that literally every place mentioned in this novel is somewhere I’ve either lived or worked
)

32. Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro

After twenty years of a stable and reasonably loving marriage Maggie begins corresponding via email with James, a fellow poet and academic, a man with whom she can for the first time relate to at an intellectual and spiritual level. What develops at first is a relationship of words and eventually leads to a short lived passionate physical affair.

This book covers familiar ground in terms of the personal costs to one's self and one's family of adultery, but with an additional layer of examining the burden that Maggie's Christian faith plays within her soul searching for understanding and redemption of her actions.

Quatro's writing is sparse, sharp, intelligent and hard hitting. I enjoyed this book very much despite it being a difficult and unhappy read. As a Christian myself it was refreshing to read a contemporary take of someone grappling at an intellectual and emotional level with their faith alongside the psychological fallout and rebuilding of human relationships following an affair.

I managed to get And then there were none in Hatchards in January, I can't remember which publication it is but it is in hardback.

Weebarra how did the Trebizon books stand up. I loved these when I was at school, my favourite boarding school ones.

20 The Sisters Brothers by Patrick De Witt the has been sat on my bookshelf for a while since it was recommended for me on my rating spa at Mr B's Reading Emporium. It is the story of two brothers who are the henchmen of the Commodore and basically go around killing people on his orders. This story is them travelling from Oregon to California in search of their next target and how the people they meet on their way, all tragic in their different ways effects Eli the younger brother. It has some genuinely funny moments but at the heart of to is how tough it was in the West at that time and how many lives ended tragically.

My reading is stalling at the moment as my DH is has cancer and is not going to get better, and I am finding my attention is wondering a bit with him, DC's,work and my own business, and finding it difficult to focus on one book at a time.

Should have been 21

Five, I am so very sorry to hear about your DH

Five, so sorry to hear about your DH

Oh five , so sorry to hear that

Five

So very sorry, Five.

I seem to have reader's block. Can't find a thing I fancy reading, that OI haven't read already.

So sorry to hear that Five. I retreat into comfort re-reads when terrible things are happening

Five

Trying to get into house of leaves. Had anyone read it before? Meant to be a cult classic. I'm only around 50pages in and it's an absolute chore. Is it worth carrying on?

5

Five that is terrible and of course your mind is everywhere. So sorry

Five, I'm so very sorry. It's almost exactly 5 years since my last chemo but I do understand a small amount of what you are going through.
I'm enjoying the Trebizon books but I'm going to start looking for them second hand - or ban myself from buying anything on kindle till I read what's already sitting there!

five

five, I am so sorry to learn about your DH. I hope you have some comfort reads lined up for those moments when you have some time to yourself.

Five

Very sad Five

15. Names for the sea: Strangers in Iceland by Sarah Moss

An academic's non fiction account of her sabbatical in Iceland for a year with her young family. I adored this book. Sarah Moss's writing is excellent and she really let you know all the interesting details about living in Iceland. Can anyone recommend more like this?*

I’m sorry to read that five, wishing you and your family lots of strength

Finished a couple more disappointing reads,

25. Season of Light Katherine McMahon
    My aunt pressed this on me and I read it despite having low expectations because of the no kindle on holiday issue I mentioned. Aunt also loved and gave me The Rose of Sebastapol by the same author a few years back and I wasn’t mad on that either. The heroine of this one was annoying and the whole thing just too implausible for me.

26. The Autograph Man Zadie Smith
    Hated this, hated it hated it hated it. Urgh.

I've just seen your post, five , and I'm so sorry to hear what's happening

I’m so sorry to hear this five

18. Stalker - Lars Kepler This has been in my TBR pile for so long now! And I eventually picked it up and I’m very glad I did! Women are being videoed in their homes and the clips sent to the police while they are horrifically murdered. Can they stop the murders when it seems they are already too late as the killer is in the house already?

This was completely gripping and I had everyone fingered for being the murderer very surprised at the outcome. This is the fifth book of a series which I haven’t read any of but I still thoroughly enjoyed it and may go back and read more.

So sorry Five. Hope you can find some comfort rereading to give you a few moments of your own