2018 50 Book Challenge

109. The Killing Ground Jack Higgins 2008 Once again the title had nothing to do with the book. It was a thriller that didn't. Skip it.

110. A Room with a View E.M. Forster 1908 A very Jane Austen-ish tale of English almost-society. Lots of huffing and puffing about cads, abominable and vulgar people. The first 100 pages are excruciatingly boring. The remaining 100 only a bit less so. But against all odds, the guy gets the girl, and true love triumphs. All of which I could read in half the time in a more modern novel. The thumb is non-commital.

This makes 48 on the list. 2 more to go, but 2 of the thrillers I ordered are in at the library.



clockwise said:

Is good reads useful?

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I'm not a fan of the social media aspects of these apps, so I use it mainly as a reading diary. I like the fact it can scan a book off the bar code, and you can organise your reading into different shelves (eg books on the list). I give each book a quick rating when I'm done and paste in the review I do here. Not bad for a free app.

58. The End of the World in Breslau, by Marek Krajewski (2003)

The is the second Eberhard Mock mystery, set in 1927, almost a decade earlier than Death in Breslau.

In this novel Mock appears as an even darker character than the dissolute louche of the first novel. Here he is a wife-beating alcoholic whose marriage, family life and career are crumbling all around him. As he tries to save himself he must investigate a series of brutal murders that are completely unrelated, except that a page from a calendar is found at each crime scene.

This one was tough going, although I thought Krajewski pulled it off in the end. I found Mock to be a more repellent character this time, and I'm not sure I want to read all of these now. I'll park this series for a while and maybe pick them up again next year.

For 2013, i'm determined to finish the Martin Beck and Erast Fandorin series, so they will come first.

111 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 1905 The story of how a young, beautiful woman in her late 20s flits about her life. Her biggest goal is to marry into money, and thereby be accepted into New York's High Society circles. A number of men are suggested for her but she never finds the right one. Or at least she doesn't recognise him until the end of the book, a surprise ending. I rather liked it.

49 of 50 on The List...

112. The Lambs of London Peter Ackroyd 2006. Set in 19th century London and set around a small group of Shakespereophiles. Focuses on some newly discovered papers of the bard- where they came from and who is responsible for them. I wouldn't recommend it and I don't know why it's on the list.

That makes 50...

120 is very much in sight with 2 long plane trips.



Steve B. said:

112. The Lambs of London Peter Ackroyd 2006. Set in 19th century London and set around a small group of Shakespereophiles. Focuses on some newly discovered papers of the bard- where they came from and who is responsible for them. I wouldn't recommend it and I don't know why it's on the list.
That makes 50...
120 is very much in sight with 2 long plane trips.

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I think Ackroyd is far better as a non-fiction writer. I really enjoyed his biography of Charles Dickens.



California Dreamer said:

I think Ackroyd is far better as a non-fiction writer. I really enjoyed his biography of Charles Dickens.

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The book jacket more or less agrees with you.



Steve B. said:

112. The Lambs of London Peter Ackroyd 2006. Set in 19th century London and set around a small group of Shakespereophiles. Focuses on some newly discovered papers of the bard- where they came from and who is responsible for them. I wouldn't recommend it and I don't know why it's on the list.
That makes 50...
120 is very much in sight with 2 long plane trips.

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Flying around the world? 120 in a year is unbelievable. I am struggling to get to 51 and I am flying a lot.

I just missed John Burdett who today was at the biggest book store in Bangkok for book signing. I moved from Bangkok to Koh Samui before lunch. Burdett is an American with an amazing understanding of Thai culture and Buddhism. A series of excellent "thrillers" starting with Bangkok 8. Highly recommended.



clockwise said:

Flying around the world? 120 in a year is unbelievable. I am struggling to get to 51 and I am flying a lot.
I just missed John Burdett who today was at the biggest book store in Bangkok for book signing. I moved from Bangkok to Koh Samui before lunch. Burdett is an American with an amazing understanding of Thai culture and Buddhism. A series of excellent "thrillers" starting with Bangkok 8. Highly recommended.

Click to expand...

Nah- SA to LA and Back. 8 hrs/9hrs

Thanks for the tip on Burdett

113. A Death in Vienna Daniel Silva 2002 The book begins with a bombing and a "suicide" in Vienna. Of Jews of course. After some exhaustive research it's' found that a former Nazi is behind the killings. A Nazi who was in charge of covering up atrocities in Treblinka. Gabriel's group kidnaps him and lets him rot in an Israeli jail. His son has been elected Austrian Chancellor but will be under Israeli control lest they expose his lineage. One of Silva's better books. I highly recommend it.

114. The Confessor 2004. Daniel Silva Discusses the role of the Catholic search in aiding the Nazis before and after WW II. An attempt on the Pope's life by another famous assassin is foiled. Then he is hunted down and killed. Good eatin' (er- reading)

115. The Defector- 2009 Daniel Silva Pretty much a sequel of the Moscow Rules. Gregori Buhkanov is snatched back by arms deal Ivan Kharkov. He also kidnaps Allon's wife in an attempt to win his children back in trade. The Israelis mount almost a flawless escape, but half the team are caught, including Gabriel. The Kremlin intervenes to keep Gabriel and his wife from being shot. Then Allon and his team take revenge. 12 men...ended by Ivan himself. Proably the best Silva book I've read so far.

59. Narcopolis, by Jeet Thayil (2012)

This is another from this year's Booker short list.

A first novel, Narcopolis is about the owners, workers and patrons of a drug den in Mumbai.Thayil succeeds in making all of his characters at least somewhat sympathetic, without obscuring the damage that drug dependence does to them. He writes about an insular little world that rarely looks out beyond the khana and the surrounding slum. The novel has a light touch, with some laugh out loud moments. (I really enjoyed a sly dig at the song "Down Under"). The author gets a little into the metaphysical, as well as touching on love, death, plural marriage, the caste system, Hindu-Muslim rivalries, etc. He packs a lot in.

I really enjoyed this, and it's a lightning read. Was it better than the winner, Bring Up the Bodies? Heck, how can you even begin to compare this book to a giant piece of historical fiction surrounding the downfall of Anne Boleyn? Chalk and cheese; I really don't envy the Booker judges.

I'm already reading my 60th (and 61st) book, so looks like I'll have no trouble hitting my revised target.

116. The Rembrandt Affair 2010 Daniel Silva Allon's Israeli team once again investigate Nazi "dirty deeds done dirt cheap" 70 years after the fact. The key is a long lost Rembrandt painting "purchased" by an SS officer from a Jew. The SS officer disguises the list of Jews he's plundered with numbered Swiss bank accountsin the back wrap of the painting. Things get interesting when the painting becomes a deadly hot potato.

I like reading Silva's Nazi conspiracy books much better than the Arab-Israeli tomes.

A definite read.

60. The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey (2012)

This is a beautifully-written novel about an ageing couple who, mourning the loss of a baby, move to rhe Alaskan frontier to try and leave their grief behind. In their first winter there, they start to see a little girl, somehow living alone in the woods. Nobody else knows of this girl, so they start to wonder if she is real or if she is some kind of manifestation of the hunger for a child of their own.

Ivey reminds me of E Annie Proulx in her ability to make the wilderness come to life for the reader. At times I almost felt cold reading this book (in a Melbourne summer). She also keeps you guessing about whether the girl is real, and where she really came from. I really recommend this.