2018 50 Book Challenge

[California Dreamer]

53. The Even More Complete Book of Australian Verse, by John Clarke (2003)

​

The Even More Complete Book Of Australian Verse by John Clarke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In The Even More Complete Book of Australian Verse John Clarke, one of the great satirists, turns his attention to poetry and reveals how nearly all of the world's great poets were really Australian. He presents selections from the works of literary legends such as Rabbi Burns, Very Manly Hopkins, b.b. hummings and Carol Lewis (renowned author of Alison Wonderland and Who are You Looking At?).

The book has been through a few editions from 1989 to 2003, so some of the target's of Clarke's satire may be a bit obscure to a contemporary audience, and might make little sense to a audience not au fait with Australian politics and sport. I'm not a huge poetry reader but recognised enough of the references to get a lot of belly laughs; those more familiar with the poetry that Clarke is lampooning will get a lot more out of it.

View all my reviews

 

[California Dreamer]

54. We Need New Names, by NoViolet Buluwayo (2013)

​

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

NoViolet Bulawayo's first novel made the 2013 Booker shortlist, which gives an insight into her talent. We Need New Names is the story of Darling, a young child living in poverty in a Zimbabwean shanty town. Darling and her friends run riot amid the squalor, and their games innocently reflect the horror going on around them.

Darling eventually escapes this environment and moves to the USA, where she struggles to get to grips with her new life. She feels the strings attaching her to her old country, but knows she can never go back.

The first half of the book is both amusing and shocking as Darling describes the games she plays with her friends. However, the second half is a more mundane account of a young immigrant in a new country. That said, there is one chapter called How They Lived which is as good an account of the experiences of a third world migrant to the new world as I've ever read. Gems like this chapter make We Need New Names a very worthwhile addition to African literature.

View all my reviews

 

[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
59. Return of a King
60. In trouble again
61. Dance, Dance, Dance
61. Dance, Dance, Dance

Fantastic characterisation paired with nearly flawless narration. Masterclass in elegance and subtlety. A joy to read from start to end, with just enough weirdness to keep things interesting. High entertaining, engaging and provoking.

Should be 62 by the end of today fellas.

 

[noob in 89]

Why was I not told of this.

This is great. Will there be a 2014 thread?

 

[California Dreamer]



Why was I not told of this.

This is great. Will there be a 2014 thread?

First you have to qualify, by reading and reviewing 50 books this year. Off you go...



Welcome to the team. Never too late to start.

 

[Steve B.]

109. A Princess of Mars 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs

Like a big-budget Hollywood action film. An earth man mysteriously ends up on Mars and fights green men and red men and wins the girl. Somehow he winds up back on earth girl less. I think he'll be back as there are 11 books in all.

 

[LonerMatt]

62. This is how you lose her

Unmatched. Gorgeous. Brilliant.

 

[FLMountainMan]



I just that there was so much happening in Blood Meridian - each page was a separate story - impressive, but compeltely draining.

Outer Dark is probably my second favorite book of his. Completely demented, but really good.

 

[California Dreamer]

55. The Testament of Mary, by Colm Toibin (2012) Another from the 2013 Booker shortlist.

​

The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Testament of Mary is an account of the death of Jesus from the point of view of the one who knew him best, his mother Mary.

Toibin's Mary is an aged woman preparing herself for the end of her life and seeking to clarify in her own mind the events surrounding her son's death. She recounts her son's inexorable slide into the clutches of his political enemies and gives us a grim eyewitness account of the crucifixion. Mary's account of the aftermath varies dramatically from the traditional account.

Toibin's novella is ridden with heresies that are subtly and gently delivered in a way that is absolutely believable, although the book will no doubt ruffle many feathers. It is however a succinct and beautiful account of a mother's special bonds to her child, and a very human portrayal of a person who tradition has presented as more of a semi-divine figure.

View all my reviews

 

[clockwise]

Clockwise counting 87/50: Fred Vargas - This Night's Foul Work (2006)

The Adamsberg policiers maintain a high and even standard. I will try to read the whole series. 

Two men are found in a Paris suburb with their throats cut, a number of stags are killed in Normandy and have their hearts cut out, some people report seeing ghosts and a few graves of recently diseased young women are disturbed. Commissaire Adamsberg has a sense of an evil presence, connects the various events and relies more on intuition than logic.

 

[clockwise]

Clockwise counting 88/50: James S.A. Corey - Caliban's War (2012)

The continuation of Leviathan Wakes is another classic adventure / horror story in a magnificent space setting. The three super powers are Earth, Mars and the Outer Planetary Alliance (OPA). A serious threat to all three powers is the mysterious virus that made its powerful presence in our solar system known in the previous book. This new power is now taking unexpected shapes and initiates violent action but Earth and Mars fail to keep peace internally in order to make a united front against this future enemy.

This book has a more pronounced political focus compared to its predecessor. There is also a strong emphasis on human relations, even if often presented in a rather simplistic way, as is often the case in adventure stories. Very little high-tech geek-friendly stuff. 

This is decent entertainment and the 600 pages turn quickly. But it is nowhere near the level of Iain Banks' best, e.g. Player of Games.

 

[clockwise]

Clockwise counting 89/50: Yasunari Kawabata - Thousand Cranes (1952)

A brilliant little novel about tea ceremony rituals, guilt and love. The protagonist is 25-year old Kikuji whose father has recently died. At a tea ceremony, he is introduced to a beautiful intended future wife by one of his father's old mistresses. He instead falls in love with another of his father's mistresses, the guilt-ridden and highly emotional Mrs Ota. After Mrs Ota's death, her daughter Fumiko enters his life as a continuation of the guilt and hopeless love.

Despite its small format, this novel tells a lot about human relationships and it leaves many questions unanswered in a perfectly satisfactory way. This is a minimalistic masterpiece and very similar to Snow Country, which I read earlier this year. Highly recommended.

 

[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
59. Return of a King
60. In trouble again
61. Dance, Dance, Dance
62. This is how you lose her
63. Drown

63. Drown

Junot Diaz's second short story collection was generally enjoyable. Focusing more on the effects of immigration and a little less on the effects of love, lust and lost, Diaz explores what one has to assume is part of his heritage and upbringing in a nostalgic, but unromantic way. Balanced, engaging, entertaining the stories contain elements of magic realism (impossible to tell where one stops and the other starts, or where biography begins and fantasy ends), but I was a bit tired of his subject matter and prose after reading his other two works recently.

An excellent author with a unique voice, I highly recommend any of Diaz's works.

 

[Steve B.]

110. Scarecrow Returns 2012 Matthew Reilly

A plot by a well armed revolutionary army takes an old Russian army base. They leak gas into the atmosphere to ignite it and cause havoc and a geopolitical shift. They are foiled by the Scarecrow.

Plenty of credulity strains but I liked it overall.

10 more to go.

 

[LonerMatt]

"Plenty of credulity strains, but liked it overall."

...that's how I feel about all MR books.

Great guy (met in person several times) though, instantly likeable.

Temple is still my favourite of his works.