back by popular demand it's the 2017 reading challenge thread

[May Kasahara]

1/49 - Dave Eggers - The Circle
2/49 - John Masefield - The Box of Delights
3/49 - Jenny Nimmo - The Rinaldi Ring
4/49 - Sarah Helm - If This Is A Woman
5/49 - Art Spiegelman - Maus
6/49 - Will Ferguson - 419
7/49 - Bram Stoker - Dracula
8/49 - Paul Cornell - Witches of Lychford
9/49 - John Connolly - Night Music

10/49 - Kristin Cashore - Graceling

 

[marty21]

1/75 Sanctuary : After it Happened Book 5 - Devon C Ford
2/75 1916 : The Morning After - Tim Pat Coogan
3/75 Last Stand at Saber River - Elmore Leonard
4/75 After : The Shock - Scott Nicholson
5/75 After : The Echo - Scott Nicholson
6/75 After : Milepost 291 - Scott Nicholson
7/75 After : Whiteout - Scott Nicholson
8/75 After : Red Scare - Scott Nicholson
9/75 Surviving The Evacuation : Ireland - Book 9 -Frank Tayell
10/75 Crisis - Frank Gardner
11/75 Outcast London : A Study in the Relationship Between Classes in Victorian Society - Gareth Stedman Jones
12/75 After : Dying Light - Scott Nicholson


**************************
13/75 The Ruins - T W Piperbrook

 

[Pickman's model]

16/50 joe abercrombie, sharp ends: stories from the world of the first law (london: orion, 2016)

17/50 georges simenon, night at the crossroads (london: penguin, 2014)

 

[Pickman's model]

1/30 Substance: Inside New Order - Peter Hook
2/30 The Illustrated A Brief History Of Time - Stephen Hawking
3/30 A Clash Of Kings - George R.R. Martin
4/30 Reelin' In The Years: The Soundtrack Of A Northern Life - Mark Radcliffe
5/30 Look Back In Hunger: The Autobiography - Jo Brand
6/30 Dodgers - Bill Beverly
7/30 Altamont: The Rolling Stones, The Hells Angels And The Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day - Joel Selvin
8/30 Live At The Brixton Academy: A Riotous Life In The Music Business - Simon Parkes
9/30 Travels With Charley: In Search Of America - John Steinbeck
10/30 A Storm Of Swords Book 1: Steel And Snow - George R.R. Martin

This is where 'A Song Of Ice And Fire' really gets good. Tyrion plots, Daenaerys kicks slaver arse, Jon Snow knows nothing but teaches Ygritte a thing or two, Bran starts to open his mystical third eye, Hodor says ''Hodor.'' Very enjoyable. Tempting to dive straight into 'Blood And Gold' straight away but I've been reading this on and off for a couple of months now so a break is due.

When you're done with game of thrones try joe abercrombie

 

[ringo]

That's one of many books on my bookshelf that I've never got around to reading. I think I will now, ta.

One of the few books I wanted to read in one sitting, captivating.

 

[marty21]

1/75 Sanctuary : After it Happened Book 5 - Devon C Ford
2/75 1916 : The Morning After - Tim Pat Coogan
3/75 Last Stand at Saber River - Elmore Leonard
4/75 After : The Shock - Scott Nicholson
5/75 After : The Echo - Scott Nicholson
6/75 After : Milepost 291 - Scott Nicholson
7/75 After : Whiteout - Scott Nicholson
8/75 After : Red Scare - Scott Nicholson
9/75 Surviving The Evacuation : Ireland - Book 9 -Frank Tayell
10/75 Crisis - Frank Gardner
11/75 Outcast London : A Study in the Relationship Between Classes in Victorian Society - Gareth Stedman Jones
12/75 After : Dying Light - Scott Nicholson
13/75 The Ruins - T W Piperbrook

*****************
14/75 Confederates - Thomas Keneally

 

[inva]

1/60 The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America by Naomi Murakawa
2/60 The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights by William P. Jones
3/60 The Lost Promise of Civil Rights by Risa L. Goluboff
4/60 Helen Macfarlane: Red Republican: Essays, articles and her translation of the Communist Manifesto edited by David Black
5/60 All-American Anarchist: Joseph A. Labadie and the Labor Movement by Carlotta R. Anderson
6/60 Behind the Crisis: Marx's Dialectics of Value and Knowledge by Guglielmo Carchedi
7/60 The Long Drop by Denise Mina
needed to read some fiction after that lot

 

[Voley]

1/30 Substance: Inside New Order - Peter Hook
2/30 The Illustrated A Brief History Of Time - Stephen Hawking
3/30 A Clash Of Kings - George R.R. Martin
4/30 Reelin' In The Years: The Soundtrack Of A Northern Life - Mark Radcliffe
5/30 Look Back In Hunger: The Autobiography - Jo Brand
6/30 Dodgers - Bill Beverly
7/30 Altamont: The Rolling Stones, The Hells Angels And The Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day - Joel Selvin
8/30 Live At The Brixton Academy: A Riotous Life In The Music Business - Simon Parkes
9/30 Travels With Charley: In Search Of America - John Steinbeck
10/30 A Storm Of Swords Book 1: Steel And Snow - George R.R. Martin
11/30 Girl In A Band - Kim Gordon

Enjoyed this so may thanks to Fozzie Bear for sending me his copy. It's up on the recycle board here if anyone wants it. She's good on the hypocrisy of the music industry, tells a few good tales of Courtney Love being bonkers, and has a good take on the rock world coming at it from an art pov rather than a rock'n'roll one. She mentions some gigs I was at, too, and I always like reading what the people on stage thought of stuff I've seen. Had me digging 'Daydream Nation' and 'Dirty' out which is no bad thing. I fucking love Sonic Youth.

 

[ringo]

1/45 And The Ass Saw The Angel - Nick Cave
2/45 Rant - Chuck Palahniuk
3/45 Thank You, Jeeves - PG Wodehouse
4/45 Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee
5/45 Dodgers - Bill Beverly
6/45 Fup - Jim Dodge
7/45 Dirty Havana Trilogy - Pedro Juan Gutierrez
8/45 Silk - Alessandro Baricco
9/45 Breakfast Of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
10/45 The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
11/45 Rodigan: My Life In Reggae - David Rodigan
12/45 Empire Of The Sun - JG Ballard
13/45 Post Office - Charles Bukowski
14/45 Chronicle Of A Death Foretold - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
15/45 The Saga Of Erik The Viking - Terry Jones

 

[D'wards]

1/26 - Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy (reread)
2/26 - Dead Funny: Horror Stories by Comedians - Edited by Robin Ince and Johnny Mains
3/26 - Frank Skinner on the Road by Frank Skinner
4/26 - Karlology by Karl Pilkington
5/26 - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
6/26 - Pennine Walkies by Mark Wallington
7/26 - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole age 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend (reread)
8/26 - All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
9/26 - 2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (reread)
10/26 - Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
11/26 - The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
12/26 - Dead Funny Encore: More Horror Stories by Comedians - Edited by Robin Ince and Johnny Mains

 

[nogojones]

I've had a bit of a slack month. I'd best get my head back into some books.

1/35 Jim Thompson - Savage Night
2/35 Phil Edwards - More Work! Less Pay! Rebellion And Repression in Italy, 1972-77
3/35 Martin Ford - Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobleess Future
4/35 Franya J. Berkman - Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane
5/35 Anthony Burgess - The Wanting Seed
6/35 Theresa Urbainczyk - Slave Revolts in Antiquity
7/35 Iain M. Banks - Matter
8/35 Marvin E. Gettleman - Vietnam History, Documents and Opinions on a Major World Crisis
9/35 Ursula LeGuin - The Dispossessed
10/35 Studs Terkel - American Dreams Lost & Found
11/35 Mikhail Bulgakov - Heart Of A Dog
12/35 John Edwards - The Spanish Inquisition
13/35 Kevin Doogan - New Capitalism? The Transformation of Work

14/35 - Bill Beverly - Dodgers - Well everyone else read it so I thought I'd best
15/35 - Vilem Flusser - The History of the Devil

 

[BoatieBird]

1/65 - Laurie Lee - Village Christmas and Other Notes on the English Year
2/65 - John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany (1/10*)
3/65 - Ben Aaronovitch - Moon Over Soho
4/65 - William Boyd - Any Human Heart (2/10)
5/65 - Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
6/65 - John Steinbeck - Tortilla Flat
7/65 - Andrew Michael Hurley - The Loney
8/65 - Tana French - Into The Woods (Dublin Murder Squad 1) (3/10)
9/65 - Larry McMurty - Lonesome Dove (4/10)
10/65 - Denise Mina - The Dead Hour (Paddy Meehan 2)
11/65 - Ian Rankin - The Flood
12/65 - Denise Mina - Slip of the Knife (Paddy Meehan 3)
13/65 - Neil Gaiman - Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances
14/65 - Bill Beverly - Dodgers
15/65 - Ruth Rendell - The Face of Trespass
16/65 - John Irving - The World According to Garp (5/10)
17/65 - Val McDermid - Out of Bounds

18/65 - Stuart Maconie - Hope and Glory: A People's History of Modern Britain

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

1/40 This Changes Everything: Capitalism versus the Climate - Naomi Klein
2/40 Feed - MT Andersen
3/40 Unstoppable - Bill Nye
4/40 Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies - Jane Austin and Seth Grahame-Smith
5/40 Uglies - Scott Westerfeld
6/40 Pretties - Scott Westerfeld
7/40 Specials - Scott Westerfeld
8/40 Extras - Scott Westerfeld

9/40 The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood
10/40 Gone - Michael Grant
11/40 The Telomere Effect - Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn
12/40 Fated - Benedict Jacka

 

[Manter]

1/29 Volker Kutscher Babylon Berlin
2/29 Philip Kerr The other side of silence
3/29 Bill Beverley Dodgers
4,5,6/29 Robert Wilson Charlie Boxer series. (Capital punishment, you will never find me, stealing people)
7/29 Jay Kristoff Stormdancer - lotus trilogy
8/29 Amid the ruins- Ausma Zehanat Khan
9/29 the language of secrets- Ausma Zehanat Khan
10/29 a conjouring of light- VE Schwab
11/29 strangers in their own land- Arlie Russell Hochschild.
12/29 A death in Sarajevo- Ausma Zehanat Khan
13/29 still midnight (Alex Morrow)- Denise Mina
14/29 Sometimes I lie- Alice Feeney

Really creepy story of a woman in a coma. Pretty much everyone in it is horrible.

This is apparently now #1 seller and is 'the next girl on a train'.

Everyone is still horrible tho

 

[Manter]

1/29 Volker Kutscher Babylon Berlin
2/29 Philip Kerr The other side of silence
3/29 Bill Beverley Dodgers
4,5,6/29 Robert Wilson Charlie Boxer series. (Capital punishment, you will never find me, stealing people)
7/29 Jay Kristoff Stormdancer - lotus trilogy
8/29 Amid the ruins- Ausma Zehanat Khan
9/29 the language of secrets- Ausma Zehanat Khan
10/29 a conjouring of light- VE Schwab
11/29 strangers in their own land- Arlie Russell Hochschild.
12/29 A death in Sarajevo- Ausma Zehanat Khan
13/29 still midnight (Alex Morrow)- Denise Mina
14/29 Sometimes I lie- Alice Feeney
15/29 the wheel of osheim- Mark Lawrence. Fantasy but with an interesting twist, as it sort of turns out to be sci-fi, and is on a post nuclear earth. This is #3 in the series. Good writing style too, nicely anti-hero-y

 

[Beats & Pieces]

21. In The Shadow Of The Sword - Tom Holland

The worst kind of 'popular history' drivel.

 

[kropotkin]

1. Tom Rob Smith - child 44
2. Louisa Lim - People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited
3. Robin Yassin-Kassab, Leila Al-Shami - Burning Country: Syrians in revolution and war
4. Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow
5. John Courtenay Grinwood - Arabesk
6. Harsha walia - undoing border imperialism
7. Howard zinn - a people's history of the united states
8. Simon Mawer - the glass room
9. Taking Sides: Revolutionary Solidarity and the Poverty of Liberalism - Cindy Milstein (Editor)
10. Platform Capitalism - Nick Srnicek
11. The Meaning of Race - kenan malik
12. The name of the wind- Patrick Rothfuss
13. Folding Beijing - Hao Jingfang
14. Stories of your life and others- Ted Chiang
15. House of God - Samuel Shem
16. The Sellout - Paul Beatty
17. Capitalist Realism - Mark Fisher
18. The Clockwork rocket- greg egan
19. Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class - Immanuel Ness
20. The power- naomi alderman
21/45 Stalin: court of the red tsar - Simon sebag-montefiori




Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[Me76]

1/50 Teenage Revolution, Alan Davies
2/50 The Third Woman, Jonathan Freedland
3/50 The Art of Peeling an Orange, Victoria Avilan
4/50 Courting Trouble, Lisa M Hawkins
5/50 Dr Vigilante, Alberto Hazan
6/50 the Husband's Secret, Liane Moriarty
7/50 Sleep Tight, Rachel Abbot
8/50 A Dark Adapted Eye, Barbara Vine
9/50 Patchwork Man, DB Martin
10/50 Gone Bad, JB Turner
11/50 The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger
12/50 The Cry, Helen Fitzgerald
13/50 While My Eyes Were Closed, Linda Green
14/50 Total Victim Theory, Ian Ballard - quite grizzly serial killer stuff. Really enjoyed it.

 

[marshall]

20/109 - Belinda Bauer - Rubbernecker, liked it a lot, excellent crime solving kid with Asperger's/autism.
21/109 - Bernard Cornwell - Empty Throne, 10th in the series, know what you're getting.
22/109 - Tony D'Souza - Mule - US economic downturn leads guy to run primo weed from Cali to Florida, fun read.
23/109 - Scotty Bowers - Full Service - autobio, think Hollywood Babylon, lover and pimp to the stars of post WW2 Hollywood, who knows how true it is, but top goss.

 

[BoatieBird]

1/65 - Laurie Lee - Village Christmas and Other Notes on the English Year
2/65 - John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany (1/10*)
3/65 - Ben Aaronovitch - Moon Over Soho
4/65 - William Boyd - Any Human Heart (2/10)
5/65 - Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
6/65 - John Steinbeck - Tortilla Flat
7/65 - Andrew Michael Hurley - The Loney
8/65 - Tana French - Into The Woods (Dublin Murder Squad 1) (3/10)
9/65 - Larry McMurty - Lonesome Dove (4/10)
10/65 - Denise Mina - The Dead Hour (Paddy Meehan 2)
11/65 - Ian Rankin - The Flood
12/65 - Denise Mina - Slip of the Knife (Paddy Meehan 3)
13/65 - Neil Gaiman - Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances
14/65 - Bill Beverly - Dodgers
15/65 - Ruth Rendell - The Face of Trespass
16/65 - John Irving - The World According to Garp (5/10)
17/65 - Val McDermid - Out of Bounds
18/65 - Stuart Maconie - Hope and Glory: A People's History of Modern Britain

19/65 - Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake

 

[inva]

1/60 The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America by Naomi Murakawa
2/60 The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights by William P. Jones
3/60 The Lost Promise of Civil Rights by Risa L. Goluboff
4/60 Helen Macfarlane: Red Republican: Essays, articles and her translation of the Communist Manifesto edited by David Black
5/60 All-American Anarchist: Joseph A. Labadie and the Labor Movement by Carlotta R. Anderson
6/60 Behind the Crisis: Marx's Dialectics of Value and Knowledge by Guglielmo Carchedi
7/60 The Long Drop by Denise Mina
8/60 From Power to Prejudice: The Rise of Racial Individualism in Midcentury America by Leah N. Gordon

 

[colbhoy]

1/19 - D-Day:The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor
2/12 - The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

 

[marty21]

1/75 Sanctuary : After it Happened Book 5 - Devon C Ford
2/75 1916 : The Morning After - Tim Pat Coogan
3/75 Last Stand at Saber River - Elmore Leonard
4/75 After : The Shock - Scott Nicholson
5/75 After : The Echo - Scott Nicholson
6/75 After : Milepost 291 - Scott Nicholson
7/75 After : Whiteout - Scott Nicholson
8/75 After : Red Scare - Scott Nicholson
9/75 Surviving The Evacuation : Ireland - Book 9 -Frank Tayell
10/75 Crisis - Frank Gardner
11/75 Outcast London : A Study in the Relationship Between Classes in Victorian Society - Gareth Stedman Jones
12/75 After : Dying Light - Scott Nicholson
13/75 The Ruins - T W Piperbrook
14/75 Confederates - Thomas Keneally
***********


15/75 Black Water Lilies - Michel Bussi

Excellent French murder mystery ,set in Giverny, home of Claude Monet, a 70 year old mystery unfolds.

 

[kropotkin]

19/65 - Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake

I thought this was really good- how are you finding it?


Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[BoatieBird]

Loved it. Only discovered Margaret Atwood last year, looking forward to reading the other 2 in the series.
I might go for something a bit more cheerful next though

 

[kropotkin]

Don't read the other two in the series then!

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[polly]

1/29 Garth Risk Hallberg, City on Fire
2/29 Raymond Chandler, The High Window
3/29 Nathan Englander, The Ministry of Special Cases
4/29 Dennis Covington, Salvation on Snake Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
5/29 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
6/29 Octavia E Butler, Kindred
7/29 Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
8/29 Bill Beverly, Dodgers
9/29 Xiaolu Guo, Once upon a time in the East

This was well written and interesting - a Chinese artist remembers her fairly eventful early life, in unemotional and funny short stories - but I just couldn't read more than a page without falling asleep, and now I'm way behind. It wasn't even long!

 

[kropotkin]

1. Tom Rob Smith - child 44
2. Louisa Lim - People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited
3. Robin Yassin-Kassab, Leila Al-Shami - Burning Country: Syrians in revolution and war
4. Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow
5. John Courtenay Grinwood - Arabesk
6. Harsha walia - undoing border imperialism
7. Howard zinn - a people's history of the united states
8. Simon Mawer - the glass room
9. Taking Sides: Revolutionary Solidarity and the Poverty of Liberalism - Cindy Milstein (Editor)
10. Platform Capitalism - Nick Srnicek
11. The Meaning of Race - kenan malik
12. The name of the wind- Patrick Rothfuss
13. Folding Beijing - Hao Jingfang
14. Stories of your life and others- Ted Chiang
15. House of God - Samuel Shem
16. The Sellout - Paul Beatty
17. Capitalist Realism - Mark Fisher
18. The Clockwork rocket- greg egan
19. Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class - Immanuel Ness
20. The power- naomi alderman
21. Stalin: court of the red tsar - Simon sebag-montefiori
22/45: The dark forest - Cixin liu

 

[Beats & Pieces]

22. The Battle For British Islam - Sara Khan with Tony McMahon

This has to be one of the finest UK Government propaganda pieces published in quite some time, masquerading as informed critique.

 

[D'wards]

1/26 - Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy (reread)
2/26 - Dead Funny: Horror Stories by Comedians - Edited by Robin Ince and Johnny Mains
3/26 - Frank Skinner on the Road by Frank Skinner
4/26 - Karlology by Karl Pilkington
5/26 - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
6/26 - Pennine Walkies by Mark Wallington
7/26 - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole age 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend (reread)
8/26 - All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
9/26 - 2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (reread)
10/26 - Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
11/26 - The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
12/26 - Dead Funny Encore: More Horror Stories by Comedians - Edited by Robin Ince and Johnny Mains
13/26 - 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C Clarke (reread)