2018 50 Book Challenge

[LonerMatt]

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
47. Throne of the Crescent Moon
48. Darkness at Noon
49. Abaddon's Gate
50. Into the WIld
51. Ready Player One
52. 1Q84
53. Red Pony
54. Bright lights, big city
55. All the pretty horses
56. A Short walk in the Hindu Kush
57. The Brief, Wonderous life of Oscar Wao

57. The Brief, Wonderous life of Oscar Wao

This was an excellent and engaging read. A story of a cursed Dominican family, it tracks three generations of he Cabals and their successes and failures. It is enticingly irreverant, and completely insane. One of those books that is a romp-like rollercoaster than a serious read. Delightly self-depricating, completely honest and absolutely no ***** given.

High Recomended.

 

[aKula]

19. Arc de Triomphe - Erich Maria Remarque.

This atmospheric novel is about a German refugee living in Paris just before the outbreak of the second world war. He manages to survive by using his medical skills to work - illegally - as a surgeon. He falls into a tumultuous relationship with an emotionally damaged woman he meets while walking the streets late at night. In the meantime he starts catching glimpses of the gestapo agent who haunts his memories.

Emotionally hard hitting and politically uncompromising, this is Remarque as you expect after reading Im Westen Nichts Neues (All quiet on the Western Front). If the focus were purely on the gestapo agent and the love interest this book could have been much shorter, but then one would miss the panache and nervy day to day existence of the doctor without valid papers.

 

[LonerMatt]

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
47. Throne of the Crescent Moon
48. Darkness at Noon
49. Abaddon's Gate
50. Into the WIld
51. Ready Player One
52. 1Q84
53. Red Pony
54. Bright lights, big city
55. All the pretty horses
56. A Short walk in the Hindu Kush
57. The Brief, Wonderous life of Oscar Wao
58. Ubik
58. Ubik

Phillip K Dick's mosy interesting nivel after DADOES.

 

[Saturdays]

Late start with my reading, but better late than never. In the past two months I've read some books I probably should have read years ago:

• The Tipping Point
• Freakonomics
• How to Win Friends and influence People

Any suggestions for books based on the above, apart from 'Super 'Freakonomics' and 'Seven Habits...' ? Anything business, economics, self-development etc...

 

[LonerMatt]

So good they can't ignore you.
Early Retirement Extreme.

 

[California Dreamer]



Late start with my reading, but better late than never. In the past two months I've read some books I probably should have read years ago:

• The Tipping Point
• Freakonomics
• How to Win Friends and influence People

Any suggestions for books based on the above, apart from 'Super 'Freakonomics' and 'Seven Habits...' ? Anything business, economics, self-development etc...

The best business book I've read this year was Orbiting the Giant Hairball. Recommended by some Stanford professors on a course I did as the best book on creativity in business ever.

 

[California Dreamer]



48. Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia, by David Hunt (2013)

Spoiler

Probably my all-time favourite book is 1066 And All That, a hilarious twist on English history. With Girt, David Hunt has delivered the Australian history equivalent, a side-splitting piss-take on the early Australian colonial history we were all fed in school, covering the period to the end of Lachlan Macquarie's Governership.

I mostly read Girt whilst in public, and can only wonder what others thought of my constant collapses into helpless laughter as I read Hunt's wry and outrageous commentary on some of our most sacred cows. Even the footnotes reward careful reading as they are peppered with scabrous jokes and amusing trivia.

Obviously such a book will appeal most to readers well-versed in Australian history and society, but I think others will still find plenty to laugh at, even if some references puzzle them.

Hunt says he aimed to write an Australian history that was both accurate and amusing. I think he's achieved that in spades, and am delighted to know that he is working on future instalments.

IIRC, I mentioned once that I also post my reviews on Goodreads. The day after I posted the above review, this comment appeared.

 

[Saturdays]



So good they can't ignore you.
Early Retirement Extreme.

The best business book I've read this year was Orbiting the Giant Hairball. Recommended by some Stanford professors on a course I did as the best book on creativity in business ever.

Thanks guys, these look really interesting, will keep me busy this month!

 

[clockwise]

Clockwise counting 83/50: James S.A. Corey - Leviathan Wakes (2011)

Leviathan is a biblical sea monster. Just as the traditional ingredients of a classical sea adventure has been transferred to space in this so-called "space opera", the "sea monster" has come to our solar system from outer space some billion years ago. We follow two main characters, one righteous commander of a space ship and one down-on-his-luck policeman from the asteroid belt. 

Our solar system is on the verge of an apocalyptic nuclear war with Earth, Mars and the Asteroid Belt as the three super powers. The unexplored life form from outer space, the Leviathan of this novel, is what triggers the events.

This is a straightforward adventure / horror story, a rather simplistic page-turner which sometimes reads like a James Cameron movie script. Decent entertainment but not much depth. I already purchased the second book in what will eventually become a trilogy.

 

[clockwise]

Clockwise counting 84/50: Fred Vargas - The Chalk Circle Man (1991)

The first novel in the series about Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg presents this unusual policeman as a modern version of Sherlock Holmes, with almost a 6th sense intuition and un-orthodox work methods.

Blue chalk circles start to appear on the streets of Paris and various objects are found inside the circles. When a dead mouse, a dead cat and a dead bird are found in three of the circles, Adamsberg correctly predicts that the circles with get bigger. He senses "cruelty" oozing from the circles. Together with his deputy, the logical but alcoholic Danglard, he sets out to catch the chalk circle man before the murders escalate.

Nice crime novel. It launched a series that has now grown to 8 novels in 22 years and many international prizes for female author Vargas.

 

[California Dreamer]

49. The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov (1966).

A triumph of magic realism, The Master and Margarita describes the havoc unleashed in Stalinist Moscow when Satan visits, accompanied by a dark magician, a homicidal demon and a mischievous talking cat. This troupe stages a seance at the theatre, the results of which blights the lives of several of the local literati. One of them, Ivan, ends up in a lunatic asylum. There he meets the Master, a failed novelist who dreams of his lost love amid his bitterness at his savaging by the critics.

Meanwhile Satan recruits Margarita, a respectable but bored wife, to be a witch and his partner at his annual ball. This part of the novel gives rise to a bravura piece of fantasy as Bulgakov describes Margarita's induction and her hostessing of the peculiar guests in attendance.

Intertwined with this narrative is a retelling of the story of the trial of Jesus, seen from the point of view of Pontius Pilate. Introduced by Satan as a rebuttal to Ivan's argument that Jesus did not exist, this story is fleshed out as part of the Master's failed novel. The scenes of the trial and its aftermath are truly affecting and beautiful; Bulgakov makes you really feel like you are present in the Jerusalem of the time, and at one with Pilate's pain and sorrow.

This was a great novel; I only wish I'd come across it sooner.

 

[clockwise]

Clockwise counting 85/50: Tana French - The Likeness (2008)

French' second novel about the Dublin police Murder Squad. A murdered woman is the doppelgänger of detective Cassie Maddox. The police suspects that the killer can be found among her four house mates and Cassie takes the identity of the victim, who has herself been an identity thief. 

An unusual crime novel with the focus on identities, loyalties and lies. This is not so much about catching the killer as it is about finding out how the female protagonist will come through her assignment. Just like French prize winning debut novel In the Woods, this is thoroughly entertaining and the 600-page novel is actually a quick read.

 

[Steve B.]

103 A Currency of Hope 1999 Direct advice about compulsive spending, perpetually being in debt, living beyond one's means etc.

The Style Forum Bible.

Seriously, a thoughtful and helpful tome to get and keep these things under control.

 

[California Dreamer]

50. (Yay!) Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn (2012)

Gone Girl is a thriller about a marriage that is falling apart, and the dire consequences for both husband Nick and wife Amy when Amy goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary.

Gillian Flynn narrates her story using parallel unreliable narrator devices, where the point of view switches in each chapter from Nick to Amy and then back again.

Gone Girl works pretty well as a thriller and has a satisfying number of twists and turns. It reminded me a little of some noir Hollywood classics like Double Indemnity. For all that, though, I found it pretty unsatisfying. I felt manipulated by Flynn's excessively artificial construction, where she would hint at a plot twist then switch to something else. It reeked of commercial TV's "we'll be back after this break", and felt like having a mostly interesting discussion with somebody who insists on changing the subject every five minutes.

 

[clockwise]

Congratulations CD! We are 4 who already reached the target, I think that is a Styleforum record. I am still targeting 100 for the year and it may work if I stick to lighter fare or really thin ones.