it's the all-singing all-dancing 2018 reading challenge thread

[Ptolemy]

1/25. L'Assommoir - Émile Zola.
2/25. La Bête humaine - Émile Zola.
3/25. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert.
4/25. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë.
5/25. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Brontë.
6/25. The Turn of the Screw - Henry James (re-read).
7/25. The Prince - Niccolò Machiavelli.
8/25. After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie - Jean Rhys.
9/25. Days of Hope - Jim Allen.

A look at the Great War, the General Strike and the limitations of social democracy from a revolutionary left perspective. It really helped me fill the gaps of my knowledge about the early Labour Party.

 

[PursuedByBears]

1/30 Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
2/30 China Miéville - October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
3/30 Michael Wolff - Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
4/30 Philip Reeve - Mortal Engines
5/30 David Peace - Red Riding 1974
6/30 William Wordsworth - Selected Poems (ed. Stephen Logan)
7/30 Brandon Sanderson - Oathbringer
8/30 Frances Hardinge - The Lie Tree
9/30 William Shakespeare - Much Ado About Nothing
10/30 William Shakespeare - Macbeth
11/30 George Orwell - Keep the Aspidistra Flying
12/30 Fiona Staples - Brian K Vaughan - Saga issues 1-50
13/30 Larry McMurtry - Streets of Laredo

14/30 Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

 

[shifting gears]

1/40 Days Without End - Sebastian Barry
2/40 The High Window - Raymond Chandler
3/40 An Artist Of The Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro
4/40 The Steel Remains - Richard K Morgan
5/40 Simulacrum - Ken Liu
6/40 Here Comes The Sun - Nicole Dennis-Benn
7/40 Train Dreams - Denis Johnson
8/40 Voyage In The Dark - Jean Rhys
9/40 The Vesuvius Club - Mark Gatiss
10/40 The Red Pony - John Steinbeck
11/40 Nothing But The Night - John Blackburn
12/40 The Motel Life - Willy Vlautin
13/40 The Scar - China Miéville

How did you find The Scar?

I've just started it having recently finished Perdido Street Station, which I really enjoyed.

 

[ringo]

How did you find The Scar?

I've just started it having recently finished Perdido Street Station, which I really enjoyed.

Not quite as good as PSS, but a great read. I found the ending really disappointing though. Hope that doesn't put you off, hopefully it was just me and others who have read it will jump on and tell you I'm wrong and how great it is

 

[marty21]

1/76 The Thirst - Jo Nesbo
2/76 Alt-America : The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump. David Neiwert
3/76 Pursuit of Honour - Vince Flynn
4/76 American Assassin - Vince Flynn
5/76 Ardennes 1944 - Anthony Beevor
6/76 The Last Nazi - Andrew Turpin
7/76 The Old Bridge - Andrew Turpin
8/76 Surviving the Evacuation : Book 12 Britain's End . - Frank Tayell.
9/76 The Late Show - Michael Connelly
10/76 Kill Shot- Vince Flynn
11/76 The Last Man - Vince Flynn
12/76 Order to Kill - Vince Flynn with Kyle Mills
13/76 Nucleus - Rory Clements
14/76 The Survivor - Vince Flynn with Kyle Mills
15/76 East of Eden - John Steinbeck
16/76 The Adulterants - Joe Dunthorne
17/76 The Playboy of The Western World - JM Synge
18/76 The Darkest Days: The Truth Behind Britain's Rush to War , 1914 - Douglas Newton

*********

19/76 The Crow Trap - Ann Cleeves

 

[Orang Utan]

1/60 Michael Gillard & Laurie Flynn - Untouchables: Dirty Cops, Bent Justice & Racism in Scotland Yard
)
2/60 Ted Hughes - Crow: From The Life And Songs Of The Crow
3/60 Max Porter - Grief Is The Thing With Feathers
4/60 Mark Frost - The Secret History Of Twin Peaks - A Novel
5/60 JD Vance - Hillbilly Elegy
(unfinished) Joe Hill - N0SF3R2
6/60 John Douglas & Mark Olshaker - Mindhunter: Inside The FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
7/ Paul Kalanithi - When Breath Becomes Air

 

[Threshers_Flail]

1. Radclyffe Hall - The Well of Loneliness
2. Carson McCullers - The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
3. Olivia Laing - The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
4. Albert Camus - A Happy Death
5. Orlando Figes - A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924
6. Larry McMurtry - Comanche Moon
7. Hans Fallada - Alone In Berlin
8. Dannie Abse - Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve

 

[PursuedByBears]

1/30 Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
2/30 China Miéville - October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
3/30 Michael Wolff - Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
4/30 Philip Reeve - Mortal Engines
5/30 David Peace - Red Riding 1974
6/30 William Wordsworth - Selected Poems (ed. Stephen Logan)
7/30 Brandon Sanderson - Oathbringer
8/30 Frances Hardinge - The Lie Tree
9/30 William Shakespeare - Much Ado About Nothing
10/30 William Shakespeare - Macbeth
11/30 George Orwell - Keep the Aspidistra Flying
12/30 Fiona Staples - Brian K Vaughan - Saga issues 1-50
13/30 Larry McMurtry - Streets of Laredo
14/30 Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

15/30 Roald Dahl - The Witches

 

[ringo]

1/40 Days Without End - Sebastian Barry
2/40 The High Window - Raymond Chandler
3/40 An Artist Of The Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro
4/40 The Steel Remains - Richard K Morgan
5/40 Simulacrum - Ken Liu
6/40 Here Comes The Sun - Nicole Dennis-Benn
7/40 Train Dreams - Denis Johnson
8/40 Voyage In The Dark - Jean Rhys
9/40 The Vesuvius Club - Mark Gatiss
10/40 The Red Pony - John Steinbeck
11/40 Nothing But The Night - John Blackburn
12/40 The Motel Life - Willy Vlautin
13/40 The Scar - China Miéville
14/40 Madonna In A Fur Coat - Sabahattin Ali

 

[Beats & Pieces]

56. 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote To Chaos - Jordan Peterson

This is, apparently, the result of many years of study and deep contemplation. Yet why does it read as a muddles mess dressed up as folksy wisdom? Why, despite this alleged effort, does Peterson so obviously appear to have misunderstood the literature he claims to have read?

In short. It's rubbish. And he needs to read more deeply.

 

[PursuedByBears]

1/30 Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
2/30 China Miéville - October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
3/30 Michael Wolff - Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
4/30 Philip Reeve - Mortal Engines
5/30 David Peace - Red Riding 1974
6/30 William Wordsworth - Selected Poems (ed. Stephen Logan)
7/30 Brandon Sanderson - Oathbringer
8/30 Frances Hardinge - The Lie Tree
9/30 William Shakespeare - Much Ado About Nothing
10/30 William Shakespeare - Macbeth
11/30 George Orwell - Keep the Aspidistra Flying
12/30 Fiona Staples - Brian K Vaughan - Saga issues 1-50
13/30 Larry McMurtry - Streets of Laredo
14/30 Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
15/30 Roald Dahl - The Witches

16/30 Jonathan Coe - What a Carve Up!

 

[Beats & Pieces]

57. Hamlet (Q2 1604) - Shakespeare

Just to add - this is by way of a 3rd edition Arden - which reads as shockingly populist in comparison to the 2nd edition.

 

[8115]

1/25 Walk Through Walls: A Memoir - Marina Abramović
2/25 Human Traces - Sebastian Faulks
3/25 Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine - Gail Honeyman
4/25 Untold Stories - Alan Bennett

 

[QueenOfGoths]

1. "The Last 10 Seconds" - Simon Kernick.
2. "Why Did You Lie" - Yrsa Sigurdardottir
3. "The Collini Case" - Ferdinand Von Schirach

4 "Kill the Father" - Sandrone Dazieri. Slightly turgid but interesting Italian thriller

 

[billy_bob]

1/50 Christopher Moore - Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
2/50 László Krasznahorkai - Satantango
3/50 Dennis Baron - A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers and the Digital Revolution
4/50 Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
5/50 Mark Twain - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
6/50 Matt Sewell - A Charm of Goldfinches
7/50 Melissa Mohr - Holy Shit: A Brief History of Swearing
8/50 George Sanders - Pastoralia
9/50 George Sanders - The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil
10/50 Colson Whitehead - The Underground Railroad
11/50 Henry Marsh - Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery
12/50 Oliver Sachs - Anthropologist on Mars
13/50 Sara Wheeler - Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica
14/50 Bill Bryson - Troublesome Words
15/50 Vera Brosgol - Anya's Ghost
16/50 Jen Lee - Garbage Night
17/50 George Sanders - In Persuasion Nation
18/50 Roger Cohen - The Girl from Human Street

 

[PursuedByBears]

1/30 Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
2/30 China Miéville - October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
3/30 Michael Wolff - Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
4/30 Philip Reeve - Mortal Engines
5/30 David Peace - Red Riding 1974
6/30 William Wordsworth - Selected Poems (ed. Stephen Logan)
7/30 Brandon Sanderson - Oathbringer
8/30 Frances Hardinge - The Lie Tree
9/30 William Shakespeare - Much Ado About Nothing
10/30 William Shakespeare - Macbeth
11/30 George Orwell - Keep the Aspidistra Flying
12/30 Fiona Staples - Brian K Vaughan - Saga issues 1-50
13/30 Larry McMurtry - Streets of Laredo
14/30 Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
15/30 Roald Dahl - The Witches
16/30 Jonathan Coe - What a Carve Up!

17/30 Pat Mills - Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave! 2000AD and Judge Dredd: the secret history

 

[BoatieBird]

1/65 - Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
2/65 - Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
3/65 - Ruth Rendell - An Unkindness of Ravens
4/65 - Stephen King - Firestarter (1/10)
5/65 - Ruth Rendell - The Veiled One
6/65 - Joanna Cannon - The Trouble With Goats and Sheep
7/65 - Jerome K. Jerome - Three Men in a Boat
8/65 - Ruth Rendell - Kissing the Gunner's Daughter
9/65 - Donna Tartt - The Secret History (2/10)
10/65 - Jon McGregor - Reservoir 13
11/65 - Ruth Rendell - Simisola
12/65 - Jonathan Franzen - Purity (3/10)
13/65 - Judy Blume - Forever
14/65 - Ruth Rendell - Road Rage
15/65 - William Boyd - Armadillo
16/65 - Stephen King and Richard Chizmar - Gwendy's Button Box
17/65 - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Of Love and Other Demons
18/65 - Patricia Highsmith - This Sweet Sickness
19/65 - Ruth Rendell - Harm Done
20/65 - Willy Vlautin - Don't Skip Out on Me
21/65 - Hector & Malcolm MacLeod - Peter Manuel, Serial Killer
22/65 - Ruth Rendell - A Sight For Sore Eyes
23/65 - Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace
24/65 - Ruth Rendell - The Babes in The Wood
25/65 - Kazuo Ishiguro - A Pale View of Hills
26/65 - Val McDermid - Insidious Intent (4/10)

27/65 - Ruth Rendell - End in Tears

 

[8115]

1/25 Walk Through Walls: A Memoir - Marina Abramović
2/25 Human Traces - Sebastian Faulks
3/25 Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine - Gail Honeyman
4/25 Untold Stories - Alan Bennett
5/25 The Private Life of Mrs Sharma - Ratika Kapur

 

[Threshers_Flail]

1. Radclyffe Hall - The Well of Loneliness
2. Carson McCullers - The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
3. Olivia Laing - The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
4. Albert Camus - A Happy Death
5. Orlando Figes - A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924
6. Larry McMurtry - Comanche Moon
7. Hans Fallada - Alone In Berlin
8. Dannie Abse - Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve
9. Eduardo Galeano - Open Veins of Latin America

 

[marty21]

1/76 The Thirst - Jo Nesbo
2/76 Alt-America : The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump. David Neiwert
3/76 Pursuit of Honour - Vince Flynn
4/76 American Assassin - Vince Flynn
5/76 Ardennes 1944 - Anthony Beevor
6/76 The Last Nazi - Andrew Turpin
7/76 The Old Bridge - Andrew Turpin
8/76 Surviving the Evacuation : Book 12 Britain's End . - Frank Tayell.
9/76 The Late Show - Michael Connelly
10/76 Kill Shot- Vince Flynn
11/76 The Last Man - Vince Flynn
12/76 Order to Kill - Vince Flynn with Kyle Mills
13/76 Nucleus - Rory Clements
14/76 The Survivor - Vince Flynn with Kyle Mills
15/76 East of Eden - John Steinbeck
16/76 The Adulterants - Joe Dunthorne
17/76 The Playboy of The Western World - JM Synge
18/76 The Darkest Days: The Truth Behind Britain's Rush to War , 1914 - Douglas Newton
19/76 The Crow Trap - Ann Cleeves

****************

20/76 The Wolf - Alex Grecian

 

[SpookyFrank]

1/40 Mark Greif - Against Everything
2/40 Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon
3/40 Michele Wallace - Invisibility Blues
4/40 Connie Willis - Blackout
5/40 Kathleen Taylor - Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control
6/40 Margaret Atwood - Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth
7/40 Usrula K le Guin - A Wizard of Earthsea
8/40 Naomi Alderman - The Power
9/40 R. D. Laing - The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise
10/40 Rebecca Solnit - Wanderlust: A History of Walking
11/40 William Gibson - Pattern Recognition

12/40 Barbara & Karen Fields - Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life
13/40 Laura James - Odd Girl Out: An Autistic Woman in a Neuroptypical World

Thanks to danny la rouge for recommending the Fields' book.

 

[Beats & Pieces]

58. Sir Gawain & The Green Knight - Anon

 

[ringo]

1/40 Days Without End - Sebastian Barry
2/40 The High Window - Raymond Chandler
3/40 An Artist Of The Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro
4/40 The Steel Remains - Richard K Morgan
5/40 Simulacrum - Ken Liu
6/40 Here Comes The Sun - Nicole Dennis-Benn
7/40 Train Dreams - Denis Johnson
8/40 Voyage In The Dark - Jean Rhys
9/40 The Vesuvius Club - Mark Gatiss
10/40 The Red Pony - John Steinbeck
11/40 Nothing But The Night - John Blackburn
12/40 The Motel Life - Willy Vlautin
13/40 The Scar - China Miéville
14/40 Madonna In A Fur Coat - Sabahattin Ali
15/40 Avoidant - Jeb Kinnison

 

[elbows]

8/25 I'll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara. Excellent study of the as yet uncaught Golden State Killer / Original Night Stalker. Recommended for true crime fans.

Apparently caught, and a former police officer.

Ex-officer arrested in serial killer case

 

[8115]

1/25 Walk Through Walls: A Memoir - Marina Abramović
2/25 Human Traces - Sebastian Faulks
3/25 Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine - Gail Honeyman
4/25 Untold Stories - Alan Bennett
5/25 The Private Life of Mrs Sharma - Ratika Kapur
6/25 This Book Will Save Your Life - A.M. Homes

 

[Plumdaff]

Apparently caught, and a former police officer.

Ex-officer arrested in serial killer case

I KNOW! Good job I worked a half day yesterday so I could spend my time lost on the true crime internet.

 

[D'wards]

1/26 - Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction by Sue Townsend (reread)
2/26 - The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (reread)
3/26 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
4/26 - 11.22.63 by Stephen King
5/26 - The Kenneth Williams Diaries edited by Russell Davies
6/26 - Adrian Mole: The Lost Years by Sue Townsend (reread)
7/26 - Books of Blood Volume 4 by Clive Barker
8/26 - Books of Blood Volume 5 by Clive Barker
9/26 - Books of Blood Volume 6 by Clive Barker
10/26 - Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke (reread)
11/26 - Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
12/26 - Who on Earth is Tom Baker? by Tom Baker

 

[Signal 11]

1/10 - Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol - Steve Jones
2/10 - The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity and Love - Bell Hooks
3/10 - Capital vol. 2 - Karl Marx

 

[Beats & Pieces]

59. The Tempest - Shakespeare
60. Theses on the Philosophy of History - Walter Benjamin

 

[Pickman's model]

4/50 harold lamb, "warriors of the steppes"

5/50 lee child, midnight line
6/50 michael moorcock, von bek