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?

Feels like an age since I posted. Life has been crackers!
I remember the 'snobbery plopper' ! I asked them to elaborate on their comment but they just disppeared!
I have just finished 55. A Little Life - I know this divides opinion on her but I found it amazing. The subject matter is hard. It took me an age to digest because I had to keep taking breaks from it. It was a comprehensive account of how childhood abuse affects a life and those of others around the abused. It broke my heart repeatedly.
Another reason it's been a bit crazy is that the book blog is taking off. I have been asked to participate in two blog tours and seem to be getting a few Advance Reader Copies of books to review. It's all a bit strange! But still enjoyable.
Thank you lovely 50 bookers for the encouragement.
I will always be a Shardlake fan, agree that the appearance of Jack enhances the books. Numbers 2 through 4 are the best in my humble opinion.

Still here, managed to get another book in before the end of the thread.

23 Dear Mrs Bird my thoughts are very similar to piggywaspushed up thread

Ooh how exciting Splother. Will you remember us when you are a famous book-influencer?

Pretty please can you remind us of your blog link as I didn't bookmark it when you posted before?

Here you go Keith
https://bookbound.blogg*/
Don't think there is much danger of me a) becoming a famous book influencer or b) ever forgetting this thread.

In other news book club last week was another ruddy shambles. 50% hadn't read the book and talked about it for 4 mins max before we descended into banal chitchat. Think it might have had it's day.

36. How to Own the Room: Women and the Art of Brilliant Speaking by Viv Groskop

I didn't read the blurb very thoroughly on this one and realised after starting it that it's not really aimed at me - I do quite a bit of speaking in public & generally enjoy it, so really I was just looking for tips on better presentation, getting my message across more clearly etc. This book is aimed much more at women who hate speaking in public and/or are very nervous about it.

Having said that, there's plenty of useful material in here and I'm sure I'll use some of her tips in the future. I like that she references different talks available on TED, Youtube etc, & I plan to spend some time watching some of them with her comments in mind.

I agree with splother 2 and 4 Shardlake have been my favourites (Jack appears in 2). They can be a bit ploddy, but satisfying and easy reads. Whenever DH or I are in one we start swearing Tudor-style. Hell’s teeth!

And congratulations on blog - how lovely and thoroughly deserved, enjoy it.

Splother Menna Van Praag is one of my favourite authors, if not my favourite author so I'd love to know what you think of the Hope Street book.

I think I last updated at 18 so the rest of the list so far as follows;
19. Becoming - Michelle Obama
Much reviewed and I was very much looking forward to this. An insight into the life of a first wife who wanted to achieve what she could with her voice. Very interesting to note that she only agreed to Obama running for president cause she didn’t think he’d win! And her views on trump and where America went after her husband.

The next two are a series on kindle unlimited that I picked up before my trial runs out. DI Winters deals with child kidnappings in both books whilst also dealing with the revelation that she is the biological child of a pair of serial killers. Quite reminiscent of the Wests. Made for good reading and may follow up on more books once available!
20. Truth and Lies - Caroline Mitchell
21. The Secret Child - Caroline Mitchell

Thanks Satsuki
Flora will be reading House next, so will let you know. Have read nothing by this author and wouldn't naturally have been drawn to it. That is the good side of book club, pushes you to try new authors.

I seem to have been a bit lax about updating recently and have fallen off this thread. Latest reads are:

23. Bath Tangle - Georgette Heyer

Similar to her others with feisty heroine in denial about who she loves and plenty of confusion along the way. Entirely predictable but good fun

24. My name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout

I must be one of the few people who has not read this (or any Elizabeth Strout). I was not sure what to expect from this but really enjoyed reading Lucy's thoughts whilst in her hospital bed and the delight in her conversations with her mother. I would have loved it be longer as it is very short!

25. 4.50 from Paddington - Agatha Christie

A quick read as I was without my Kindle and picked this up off a bookshelf at home. Must have read it before but still failed to identify the murderer (unlike Miss Marple!). A page turner.

26. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

Absolutely loved this book set in the high society of nineteenth century New York and all about the expectation of society, duty to family (and society), love and marriage.

Off to catch up now on what everyone else has been reading!

Tanaqui, I'm not the biggest Shardlake fan either. I've read the books and I think they're fine, but they're longer than they need to be and I sometimes get a bit (whisper it) bored.

splother, congats on the blog success! Considering the number of books blogs out there, it's very impressive to get that much attention so quickly. Well deserved!

Did a library run yesterday and picked up The Invention of Nature and Waterlog. I'm also reading In Search of England, by E V Morton. Written in the 1920s, this account of a motoring tour is like a prose version of Eric Ravilious paintings.

What does 'falling off the thread' mean? Is it just when you don't post for a while, or is it something that happens on the forum?

Posting in fear of falling off...

35. The Comforts of Home by Susan Hill

Comfort indeed in going back to Simon Serrailler in his 9th outing. As with many of the later books in this series, I enjoyed this more for the continuing tale of the principal characters (Simon, his sister Cat and her children, and his father Richard) than for the murder plots which feel pretty incidental. An exploration of character rather than a fully formed plot driven crime novel, but no less enjoyable for that. The only thing that annoys me about these books is that I still can't work out how to pronounce Serrailler. Any ideas?

36. The Door by Magda Szabo

Recommended upthread (or possibly on a previous thread), this is a brooding, apparently semi-autobiographical study of the intense relationship between an author and her housekeeper, Emerence. Szabo successfully creates an oppressive atmosphere, really painting a picture of Emerence and her world. This is not a cheery book but it's an impressive achievement, although I did worry a bit about the author and her clear feelings of guilt!

Also... I have a gripe about Shardlake, amongst others! It's this trend for book covers that are kind of peachy textured and matte,which immediately get covered in fingerprints! They may look more stylish, but they don't once they have been touched. I have no known OCD but I find this irksome!

Not as annoying as the fact that my Lubetkin Legacy fell apart : shame on you, Penguin, of all publishers!!

InMYOwn - nothing to worry about. It's just when real life gets in the way of the thread/reading for a while so people stop posting for a bit. It's not some odd initiation ceremony or anything.

I consider myself to have fallen off when the thread stops appearing in my ‘Threads I’m On’ tab. Luckily this one is easily found again to clamber back aboard.

I have a five stars to share, I haven’t finished it yet, but I don’t need to to tell you it’s very special:

23 The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair. Really cool book with not a single picture, just a different coloured edge to every page with an account of why each shade is interesting from a scientific, historical, or artistic point of view. I’m loving it. I’m reading a colour or two to DD as a bedtime story just now, and she’s blown away by the stories and facts too, she told her father that he just has to read it as soon as I’m done!

Welsh - Serailler pronunciation guidance here - from the horse's mouth, as it were!

Well finished my YA trilogy. Still not my favourite but there are worse things that DD could be reading.

Now reading #43 Vox. Much reviewed on this thread. I am enjoying it and finding it compelling. Racing towards the end.

I've been so quiet on here I fell off the thread too (i.e. it fell off my 'threads I'm on' list. I have been reading, but also distracted with visitors and DCs with big exams (GCSEs and uni finals) about to kick off.

I've got about three or four books on the go at the moment, so should really take one in turn and finish it, but I think since I last posted I have finished:

23 The Muse - Jessie Burton
I'm sure loads of you have read this, so won't go into detail. I enjoyed The Miniaturist, and this, though different setting, was enjoyable and not too demanding to read at a busy time. I liked the art-related story line, although the plot was a bit implausible at times.

24 Princes on the Land - Joanna Cannan
A classic Persephone Press revival of a pre-war novel. Woman loses touch with herself during the course of her marriage, and invests all her hopes and ambitions in her children, who disappoint her by taking off in completely different directions, proving that she understood them as little as they understood (or even really notice) her. In a dramatic event towards the end of the book she strikes out and shatters her image as a nice, reliable mother and wife of an Oxford don, but then is left in limbo. The book was published just before WWII, and it struck me that if she had been a real person, she would probably have come into her own during the war years.

25 Astonishing Splashes of Colour - Clare Morrall
You probably all read this when it was Booker-shortlisted about 15 years ago, which is about how long it has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. It's sort of a classic theme of a family with hidden secrets, and the lead character has a sort of neurological/psychological peculiarity; the plot is a little implausible and some of the characters seemed a bit one-dimensional but it was interesting nonetheless.

pepe I think I suggested Please Look After Mother for your world reading challenge. I'm glad at least one of you enjoyed it! And good luck with the rest of Infinite Jest (I haven't missed your review have I? Just skimmed through the thread since I've been off so long...).

Thank you Biblio a bit bemused to be honest! Will carry regardless. It is a welcome distraction from DS2 and GCSES- dyspraxia and revision not a match made in heaven.

The secret lives of colour looks like a 'must buy' book but I've put it on my wish list. If you like that you may like travels through the paintbox by Victoria Finlay.

I'm reading Good ground by Tracy Winegar at the moment, it's about a man who loses his wife and child in child birth but then something happens which makes his life take a turn for possibly better, possibly not and it takes an unusual turn. I wasn't sure about it but now I'm half way through having started it yesterday and it's quite good. In the blurb on Amazon it talks about how God gave him this that and the other but it's not religious fiction.

Thank you for your Secret Lives of Colour review YesILikeItToo - reserved from the library.

I still haven't started TTOD - I think I'm too afraid I'll hate it and you'll all throw me off the thread . In the meantime:

37. Proper English by KJ Charles IIRC this was described as "Edwardian lesbian romance country house murder mystery", and it unquestionably does what it says on the tin. The romance is much more prominent than the murder (which doesn't actually happen until about 2/3 of the way through the book), but overall a charmingly fluffy read with delightful lead characters and some fun set piece scenes.

(BTW, what did you reckon to Henchmen, Pepe? I do always worry about recommending things - one of my friends once said that my taste
in books veered directly from the unbelievably trashy straight to the incredibly long and boring. TBF at the time I was swapping between Zelazney's Amber books and the making of the English working class...)

Sorry, I think that was me who talked about falling off the thread and caused confusion. I meant I had not been updating as I read and also failing to keep up to date with everyone else’s reviews and recommendations.

I have now caught up!

Pleased to see others are joining those of us reading A Dance to the Music of Time - it was a slow burn for me and took me a while to get into but thoroughly enjoying it now.

Really annoyed I missed TTOD when it was on Kindle offers as I think I have persuaded my book club to read it over the summer - we don’t read quickly enough to have it as a regular monthly book.

Someone (sorry can’t remember who) asked about Any Human Heart and whether it was similar to The Heart’s Invisible Furies. I have read and would recommend both but whilst both follow the life of a man they are quite different in style - less obvious humour in Any Human Heart.