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

[iona]

1/25 A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin
2/25 A Life for the Stars - James Blish
3/25 The Triumph of Time - James Blish
4/25 A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow - George R. R. Martin
5/25 A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold - George R. R. Martin
6/25 A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin
7/25 The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths
8/25 The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths
9/25 The House at Sea's End - Elly Griffiths
10/25 King Rat - China Miéville
11/25 A Dance with Dragons: Dreams and Dust - George R. R. Martin
12/25 A Dance with Dragons: After the Feast - George R. R. Martin

 

[yield]

1. Half a King by Joe Abercrombie

2. The Power by Naomi Alderman

3. The Enemy Within: The Secret War Against the Miners by Seumas Milne

 

[colbhoy]

01/10 - Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
02/10 - The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill
03/10 - A Day in the Bleachers by Arnold Hano

 

[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

 

[Fozzie Bear]

1/30 Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Idiot
2/30 Cyrus Bozorgmehr - Once Upon a Time in Shaolin: The Untold Story of Wu-Tang Clan's Million Dollar Secret Album, the Devaluation of Music, and America's New Public Enemy No. 1
3/30 Gary Budden - Hollow Shores
4/30 Chris Kraus - After Kathy Acker: A Biography

5/30 Victor Pelevin - Omon Ra

Childhood dreams of space travel transform into the miserable, bleakly comic, reality of life as a cosmonaut.

 

[Beats & Pieces]

32. The Yellow Admiral - Patrick O'Brian
33. The Hundred Days - Patrick O'Brian
34. Blue At The Mizzen - Patrick O'Brian
35. A New View Of Society - Robert Owen
36. The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood
37. Utopia - Thomas More (Re-read)
38. The Sixteen Satires - Juvenal (Re-read)

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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

 

[butchersapron]

Cheers, not sure if that makes me want to read it or not
I've had this for a few years and not started it yet, maybe I'll have a go at this first
View attachment 127075

This may be something you're interested in, published a few months back. I'm linking to the amazon site so you can see the reviews/blurbs, rather than suggesting you get it from there. It may concentrate more heavily on doctrinal stuff than history but from a quick browse of my copy it seems to be nicely balanced. I have a epub but it's 77mb - let me know if you want a link.

 

[ringo]

This may be something you're interested in, published a few months back. I'm linking to the amazon site so you can see the reviews/blurbs, rather than suggesting you get it form there. It may concentrate more heavily on doctrinal stuff than history but from a quick browse of my copy it seems to be nicely balanced. I have a epub but it's 77mb - let me know if you want a link.

Thanks, I'll probably stick to the historical side of things but will have a look.

 

[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

 

[nogojones]

1/40 - Catherynne Valente - Deathless
2/40 - Robert Louis Wilken - The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity
3/40 - Chester Himes - Cotton Comes to Harlem
4/40 - Zadie Smith - White Teeth

5/40 - Geronimo - Fire & Flames: A History of the German Autonomist Movement

 

[May Kasahara]

1. Tim Ecott - Neutral Buoyancy
2. Susan Cooper - The Dark Is Rising
3. Naoki Higashida - The Reason I Jump

4. Jon Ronson - The Men Who Stare At Goats

 

[Me76]

1/50 Naturally Gifted, Lisa M Hawkins
2/50 Cold Lake, Jeff Carson
3/50 Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
4/50 Someone to Save You, Paul Pilkington

5/50 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman - loved this. Excellent read.

 

[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

 

[QueenOfGoths]

1. "The Last 10 Seconds" - Simon Kernick.

2. "Why Did You Lie" - Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Excellent Icelandic thriller

 

[iona]

1/25 A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin
2/25 A Life for the Stars - James Blish
3/25 The Triumph of Time - James Blish
4/25 A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow - George R. R. Martin
5/25 A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold - George R. R. Martin
6/25 A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin
7/25 The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths
8/25 The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths
9/25 The House at Sea's End - Elly Griffiths
10/25 King Rat - China Miéville
11/25 A Dance with Dragons: Dreams and Dust - George R. R. Martin
12/25 A Dance with Dragons: After the Feast - George R. R. Martin
13/25 Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler

 

[Fozzie Bear]

1/30 Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Idiot
2/30 Cyrus Bozorgmehr - Once Upon a Time in Shaolin: The Untold Story of Wu-Tang Clan's Million Dollar Secret Album, the Devaluation of Music, and America's New Public Enemy No. 1
3/30 Gary Budden - Hollow Shores
4/30 Chris Kraus - After Kathy Acker: A Biography
5/30 Victor Pelevin - Omon Ra

6/30 Stefan Szczelkun - Improvisation Rites: From John Cage's Songbooks to The Scratch Orchestra's Nature Study Notes - collective practises 2011-2017

 

[imposs1904]

1/25 Blood Sympathy by Reginald Hill (Reread)
2/25 Men in White Suits: Liverpool FC in the 1990s - The Players' Stories by Simon Hughes
3/25 The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War by David Lebedoff

4/25 "I Heard You Paint Houses": Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa by Charles Brandt

As it's a true crime book, I've finally got off the mark on my 2018 Reading Challenge Bingo.

 

[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

 

[Beats & Pieces]

39. The Laws - Plato

 

[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

 

[iona]

1/25 A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin
2/25 A Life for the Stars - James Blish
3/25 The Triumph of Time - James Blish
4/25 A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow - George R. R. Martin
5/25 A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold - George R. R. Martin
6/25 A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin
7/25 The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths
8/25 The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths
9/25 The House at Sea's End - Elly Griffiths
10/25 King Rat - China Miéville
11/25 A Dance with Dragons: Dreams and Dust - George R. R. Martin
12/25 A Dance with Dragons: After the Feast - George R. R. Martin
13/25 Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler
14/25 Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
15/25 MaddAddam - Margaret Atwood

 

[Voley]

1/30 The Bottom Corner - Nige Tassell
2/30 Long Road From Jarrow - Stuart Maconie
3/30 Withnail And I - Bruce Robinson
4/30 Tschick - Wolfgang Herndorff

5/30 Lonely Boy: Tales From A Sex Pistol – Steve Jones
6/30 Ruth And Martin's Album Club - Martin Fitzgerald

Give a famous person an album of some repute that they've never heard, insist they listen to it three times then get them to review it. A simple idea but a great one as you get the opposite of the NME-muso beard-stroky style of writing that I grew to loathe over the years. JK Rowling on The Violent Femmes first album was really good: didn't like it at first but loved it by the third listen and is spot on in describing the process of a record growing on you. Elsewhere, getting Tim Farron to review NWA was hilarious, Chris Addison tries his best not to offend every Marvin Gaye fan on Earth (and fails) and we get treated to the fine phrase 'before The Red Hot Chilli Peppers did 'Give It Away' and ruined everything.' Martin Fitzgerald's bits, while definitely muso in their encyclopaedic knowledge and research, are written with an enthusiasm that's absent in the beard-stroky stuff mentioned above. Very good book.
​

 

[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

 

[imposs1904]

1/25 Blood Sympathy by Reginald Hill (Reread)
2/25 Men in White Suits: Liverpool FC in the 1990s - The Players' Stories by Simon Hughes
3/25 The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War by David Lebedoff
4/25 "I Heard You Paint Houses": Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa by Charles Brandt

5/25 Ruth And Martin's Album Club by Martin Fitzgerald

Voley mentioned this book on the thread this morning, and I liked their wee potted review, so I thought I'd seek it out. I'm glad I did . . . despite the fact that Mr Fitzgerald seems to call upon too many Spectator journalists to pass judgment on this or that album.

 

[Beats & Pieces]

40. The Taming Of A Shrew - Anon

 

[Voley]

5/25 Ruth And Martin's Album Club by Martin Fitzgerald

Voley mentioned this book on the thread this morning, and I liked their wee potted review, so I thought I'd seek it out. I'm glad I did . . . despite the fact that Mr Fitzgerald seems to call upon too many Spectator journalists to pass judgment on this or that album.

If I had a criticism it was that, too. A few more people outside the media bubble would've added to it. I haven't had a chance to look at their website but I think that just started out as ordinary folk reviewing stuff and might be worth having a look for that reason.

 

[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 - Forver