2018 50 Book Challenge

I saw it ages ago (and got bored and didn't watch much of it after he started going up the river), but I'm considering re-retning it this weekend.

It's one of my favorite movies, but a COMPLETE rip-off of Heart of Darkness.

LonerMatt said:

1. The Undivided pt 1
2. The Undivided pt 2
3. No Country for Old Men
4. The Difference Engine
5. Wake in Fright
6. The River of Doubt
7. The Pearl
8. Crytonomicon
9. Shot in the Dark
10. Malcolm X - Biography
11. Final Empire
12. The Quiet American.
13. Habibi
14. The Invisible Man
15. Tender is the Night
16. Guardians of the West
17. King of the Murgos
18. Demon lord of Khandar
19. Sorcress of Darshiva
20. Seeress of Kell
21. Once We Were Warriors
22. Winter of our Discontent
23. Othello
24. A Scanner Darkly
25. The Well of Ascension
26. Hero of Ages
27. Alloy of Law
28. Marrow
29. The Prince
30. Leviathan Wakes
31. The Meaning of Sarkozy
32. The Death of Ivan Illych
33. The Devil
34. Lucifer's Hammer
35. The Yiddish Policeman's Union
36. Rainbows End
37. Palimpsest
38. Red Shirts
39. Caliban's War
40. The Ocean at the End of the Lane
41. The Communist Hypothesis
42. While Mortals Sleep
43. Spin
44. Werewolves in their Youth
45. Heart of Darkness

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46. A Model World

Michael Chabon's 2nd short story collection. Divorce after divorce after divorce - I found it tepid and quaint without being charming or whimsical. A better novelist, it seems, than concise writer.



Steve B. said:

It's one of my favorite movies, but a COMPLETE rip-off of Heart of Darkness.

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Well, that was the intention.

91. Hell's Corner David Baldacci 2010 First book I've read featuring the Camel Club, a group of sleuths and crime warriors. The primary character is an ex-CIA hit man. A bomb detonates between the White House and Lafayette Square. No obe seems to be able to determine who was responsible. Ultimately it's discovered to be an extremely wily double agen who proves rather difficult to catch. But she is.

92. The Forgotten David Baldacci 2012 Features a new hero who is a serving Army CID. A modernday slaver is operating off the coast of FL, Puller (hero)'s elderly aunt is killed, as are 3 or 4 of her friends. They have discovered the secret and reported it to a policewoman who's dirty. The good guys win, the bad guys lose and everyone lives happily ever after.

Both of these were pretty good.

Been flat on my back with an abdominal strain (or something?!) since Fri. These were the only books I had laying around.

93. Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 1977

Haven't read any scifi in a while and teh brother recommended this very highly.

A 6 year old boy (Ender Wiggins) is selected for Battle School to learn to fight aliens that had invaded earth twice and almost won the second time. He's subjected to rigorous training and promoted to commander school at age 10 along with several of his pupils from Battle School.

Don't want to give away the plot but Ender does indeed save the human race at the ripe old age of 12.

Excellent reading.

35. Positron, episodes 1-4, by Margaret Atwood (2013)

Margaret Atwood excels at dystopia, and her internet serial Positron is a worthy addition to her ouvre. The first four episodes have been published as Kindle and Byliner singles, although it's not clear how many episodes Atwood will ultimately publish. Given that it's a serial, I'll refrain from talking much about the plot.

Positron is set in a dystopian near future and is named after the prison at the centre of a new concept of closed community called Consilience (Cons + Resilience). The residents of Consilience live half of their lives inside Positron prison, and the other half on the outside. They share their jobs and houses with unnamed Alternates and swap between them and the prison on the first of each month. There is no communication with the outside world and contact with Alternates is banned.

The story centres on Stan and Charmaine. At the outset of the first episode, Stan finds a raunchy note under his refrigerator left by Jasmine for Max; it's sealed with lipstick and says "I'm starved for you". Stan is fired with curiosity about Jasmine, and the plot proceeds from there.

Atwood has produced a very good episodic serial, with lots of twists in plot and character. It's a great premise, and nothing is what it seems. I'm hooked.

36. Phantoms of Breslau, by Marek Krajewski (2005)

The third Eberhard Mock novel is set earlier than the others, in 1919, when Mock gets involved in his first Murder Squad case. The novel opens with the horrific murder of four young men, who have had their limbs broken and their eyes torn out. As the investigation proceeds, it becomes clear that the murderer is addressing his deeds directly to Mock, demanding that he acknowledge "his mistake" or the killings will continue. Mock has no idea what this means, and vows to find the killer and put a stop to the bad dreams this quandary is causing him.

Mock remains a debauched and flawed character, a drunk and a user of prostitutes. As usual, Krajewski's Breslau is a grim and gothic place, riddled with vice and horrific murders. Phantoms of Breslau is another good read in a highly original series that challenges our ideas of what a detective hero should be.

LonerMatt said:

1. The Undivided pt 1
2. The Undivided pt 2
3. No Country for Old Men
4. The Difference Engine
5. Wake in Fright
6. The River of Doubt
7. The Pearl
8. Crytonomicon
9. Shot in the Dark
10. Malcolm X - Biography
11. Final Empire
12. The Quiet American.
13. Habibi
14. The Invisible Man
15. Tender is the Night
16. Guardians of the West
17. King of the Murgos
18. Demon lord of Khandar
19. Sorcress of Darshiva
20. Seeress of Kell
21. Once We Were Warriors
22. Winter of our Discontent
23. Othello
24. A Scanner Darkly
25. The Well of Ascension
26. Hero of Ages
27. Alloy of Law
28. Marrow
29. The Prince
30. Leviathan Wakes
31. The Meaning of Sarkozy
32. The Death of Ivan Illych
33. The Devil
34. Lucifer's Hammer
35. The Yiddish Policeman's Union
36. Rainbows End
37. Palimpsest
38. Red Shirts
39. Caliban's War
40. The Ocean at the End of the Lane
41. The Communist Hypothesis
42. While Mortals Sleep
43. Spin
44. Werewolves in their Youth
45. Heart of Darkness
46. A Model World

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47. Throne of the Crescent Moon

Throne of the Crescent Moon is undoubtedly an amazing novel. Saladin Ahmed manages to weave together powerful human stories of love, loss, duty, selfishness and age within a Caliphate-context. Saladin's society is overtly Islamic, which adds quite a lot to the story - making both the setting and the characters easier to relate to.

The story follows a troop of people engaged in stopping an evil magician, but the story rarely (if ever) focuses on the magic. The evil/fantasty elements are, if anything, simply a vehicle for the much more human elements of the story to be told and, like all great fantasy, magic is used sparingly, rarely and never lazily.

The key protagonist - Abboud - is a ghul hunter who is seriously past his prime and this was one of the main draw cards of the story - the sense that this was as much a quest for Abboud to prove that he was still relevant to the world as much as a quest to stop excessive murder/destruction.

Highly recommended.

94. The Camel Club David Baldacci 2005

Oliver Stone and friends solve the mystery of who kidnapped the president and why. Under threat of a nuclear strike against the company claiming responsibility, the Club locates and frees the president.

Real page turner in the middle. A dud at the end.

95. The Castle of Crossed Destinies 1969 Italo Calvino

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Absolutely horrible book.

37. The Complete Maus, by Art Spiegelman (1996)

Maus is a deeply impressive graphic novel that captures the memories of Art Spiegelman's father, an Auschwitz survivor. The book is note perfect, right down to Spiegelman's use of animals to represent the various nations involved with Jews represented as mice, the smallest and most vulnerable of them, yet somehow always resilient. Spiegelman avoids sentimentalising his father's story, and his impatience with his father at times is evident. He also makes the occasional wry point that the survivors and their descendants did not necessarily learn the lessons that they should have.

Your first time with Maus?

Loved it the first time I read it. Absolutely genius.



LonerMatt said:

Your first time with Maus?

Loved it the first time I read it. Absolutely genius.

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I thought so, too. I devoured it whilst at university and re-read it a few times over the next couple of years.



LonerMatt said:

Your first time with Maus?

Loved it the first time I read it. Absolutely genius.

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Yep. It's one of those books that's been sitting on my shelves unread for years. Recently it was added to the VCE list, which prompted me to finally pull it out.