50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2021, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read. Could everyone embolden their titles and/or authors as well, please, as it makes the books talked about easier to track?

The first thread of the year is here.

I enjoyed Circe, but that may be because I read it on a sun drenched beach in Santorini while waiters brought me drunks while my parents looked after my children back home. It certainly helped set the tone...

Chessie apparently Jodi Taylor is planning on publishing another Elizabeth Cage book this summer.

I read Dark Light and it’s prequel last year, and I did enjoy them, but they do feel like ones where you have to be careful not to think too hard about the plot! Particularly Dark Light.

I’m interested to see where she goes with the next book though.

Pepe that sounds blissful (but experiences like that also seem as mythical as Circe herself - foreign travel?? Mixing families???) Hope you enjoyed having drunks brought to you

Thanks Fortuna and Tanaqui - I'll hold my nerve and see what I think of them (or maybe just Circe myself). Maybe it'll become one of those 50 bookers shibboleths, like NLMG or TTOD (neither of which I've read )

1. Troubled Blood Robert Galbraith The best one yet in the series in my option.
2. Our House Louise Candlish Plot a bit far-fetched but gripped me anyway. Liked the writing style and the twist at the end!

@Matilda2013 I'm a bit wary of books that have won prizes, especially the Women's Prize for Fiction (Sadly)- They obviously go for a style I don't like (Sing Unburied Sing was a prime example of a good story trying to get out of a shockingly bad bit of writing)
I steer clear of overly hyped books as well, as they often go from being the most amazing book ever to sinking without a trace within a year. I've not read Crawdads for this reason. (I might love it, but waiting for the millions of copies to turn up for 50p in the charity shops before I give it a whirl) Eleanor Oliphant falls into this category for me too.

I'm looking out the window at the wind and rain and vicariously enjoying the image of Pepe with her book and the sunshine and the drunks

Ravenclawsome personally I thought Crawdads was in a different league to Eleanor Oliphant. Far more original and less cliched. (Admittedly there were feeeelings in both. I like a bit of feeeelings personally.)

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

How does your divinity feel? Am I the only one whose mind slid completely into the gutter here?

Remus yes I did think the same!

1. The Raven's Tower by Ann Leckie. I really liked her Ancillary Justice SF series, so thought I'd give this a go, it's her first foray into fantasy. It's about Gods (not the Circe kind!) who inhabit a world where what they say becomes reality unless it is impossible, in which case it kills them. This basis gives for some interesting talks around language. The basic story is told by a God who is a big rock, the Strength and Patience of the Hill. Half the story is from his first person perspective about what happened in the past to get to where the story is now, and the other half is a rather controversial second person perspective of the Prince's aide Eolo about what is happening in the present. I liked it, I was never entirely sure what was going on, there was a bit of the gender fluidity typical of Leckie, and a lot about the trickiness of gods, but it was all brought together in quite a dramatic and abrupt ending. I would expect a sequel. I can see it being quite marmite though, elements of NK Jemisin in the narration techniques, so one to avoid if you dislike second person narratives.

Bit late to the thread but thanks south and I'm thinking of you magimedi

3. Misery - Stephen King

I am reading Stephen King chronologically and this is the first re-read for me I think. I borrowed it out the library at about 15 before young adult fiction existed. Given how closely my parents patrolled what I watched on TV I don't know what they were thinking letting me read this!

Over the years I have blocked the horrors from my memory so actually I couldn't remember what was going to happen and that kept me turning the pages. I'd struggle to describe this as a good book as its gruesomely evil but it certainly set a scene and kept you reading.

Time for something a bit less intense while I look for the cheapest way to get hold of Tommyknockers.

Btw someone else said they might do this, some of his books under pen names are not available as kindle and either not easily found or horrendously expensive online. I think I've missed two or three so far. I am trying to be relaxed about this as I don't want to spend a fortune. Especially as some of his early stuff is really imaginative and some of it not good!

Another one here wanting to know what Pepe was doing to all those drunks.

Tara I don't mind feeeeeelings, but I do get a bit irritated with over-describing. I know I wouldn't look twice at Crawdads if it wasn't for the hype, so I get irritated with myself for being sucked in.

15% through book no 3 and really not enjoying it. What is the general consensus on here...stick with it or move on to another book?

Move on, life is too short to read all the good books, let alone wasting time on ones you are not enjoying.

The Alchemist is on 99p deals today. Worth it or over-hyped nonsense? (Sticking to the theme of stubbornly not reading over-hyped books) I notice it was first published 25 years ago so I suspect not fluffy nonsense

Ok will move on, it is just woefully crap. It was the best of a bad bunch on the kindle first reads a few months ago...going to keep momentum going by reading something I have chosen myself. Thanks!

Save your money RavenclawesomeCrone, I thought it was self indulgent twaddle!

Everyone was reading it while I was traveling in the 90s @RavenclawesomeCrone. I don't think my middle aged self would appreciate it in the same way my idealistic hippy 19 year old did!

I am not a fan of Paulo Coelho. Now that is a great example of over-hyped nonsense!

Book 5: Paris Echo – Sebastian Faulks

The book follows Tariq, a Moroccan teenager searching for the past life of his dead half French mother whilst seeking escape from his life in Tangiers, and Hannah, an American academic researching the lives of Parisian women during the Nazi occupation.

I found Hannah's narrative by far the more interesting, as she listens to recordings of French women describing their experiences during World War II. She also finds herself confronting the painful memories of a brief love affair she had in Paris a decade ago and which she still pines for. Tariq was less convincing and the purpose of his story seemed rather vague at times.

This is not the best of his work but nevertheless I enjoyed it immensely due to the beautiful descriptive nature of the prose. I read this book over four days and was totally immersed in Paris, wandering the streets and Metro with Hannah and Tariq.

My Book 6 choice was inspired by @TimeforaGandT - I'm going to start a chronological re-read of Dick Francis novels interspersed with other reads of course! I'm starting with the first of his standalone novels Dead Cert

Razorstormunicorn there's a copy on World of Books for £4.79 with free postage if that's of interest.

Circe has been on my TBR pile for about a year now. I keep not quite picking it up, but now I'm curious ...

Also how long do you stick with a book before you give up? Is it just when you know you know or a certain number of pages?

1. (Audible) Adam Kay Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas

Shouldn't really have bothered, but wanted to use up my credits. I read the first one in an airport when it was riding high on the WHS top whatevers.

This is just a short (couple of hours on Audible) collection of all his notes on Christmasses-he-worked.

Adam Kay is not nearly as funny as he thinks he is. If he really cares about his former patients and career, he does a good job of convincing us otherwise. His misogyny shines through (thank Christ and all the angels he was never my gynae doctor- he seems to loathe women in general, and ones who dare to need medical help in particular)

He's a snob, who belittles patients, colleagues and his partner's family at whim, (possibly for the lolz he thinks he's going to get) and his gleeful scattergunning of "fucking this" and "fucking that" together with cocks, knobs, and shits galore, leaves you thinking less that you're reading the memoirs of an ex doctor, and more some kind of 14 year old boy fantasy.

I find his tone, both in writing and speaking, scathing and unpleasant.
He goes on at length about changing patients' names (obviously) and all the Great Things he offered to do for them. Now, if that part of his reminiscing is true, then is all the slagging them off false, or does he treat them well and then whinge that they are fucking pains? Because I'm at a loss to see how someone who agrees to deliver twins one just before midnight and one just after, and who was (understandably) devastated about performing a late termination to save the mother's life, can then spew out all the "fucking/dick/cock/knob" stuff. And it's not gallows humour that a physician uses to deal with the horrors of the job. It's done gratuitously because he genuinely thinks he's hilarious.

I think he wanted a USP. He wasn't sure that straightforward, serious memoirs would top the WHS list, so he went for the cock'n'dick approach. Yuck. Judging by the reviews on Goodreads I'm pretty much alone in thinking (to use language he'd understand) a twat.

I'd say don't give up the day job, but I think that ship has sailed.

Tbh I'm not great at giving up on books, I tend to plough on unless they really are complete crap. I know life is too short and my wish list is too long but still struggle!

The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith and Susannah Jones
This is the one I'm struggling with. Has anyone read it? Worth persevering or just utter twaddle?

mackerella - I agree with Fortuna, ditch A Thousand Ships as The Silence of the Girls and Circe are better.

@Sonnet - I hope you enjoy your Dick Francis reads. On that note I have just finished:

4. Banker - Dick Francis

Our hero works at a merchant bank which decides make a loan to a allow a stud farm owner to acquire a successful stallion. Also in the mix is a celebrity horse healer. Inevitably the bank’s money ends up at risk because of problems at the stud (no spoilers here!) and our banker sets out to try and resolve everything. Thrills and spills along the way. No jockeys but visits to racecourses and stables and the inevitable deaths. Francis is not shy about killing off characters. I enjoyed this but not one of my favourites.