the grand 2015 reading challenge thread

[QueenOfGoths]

I fancy starting out on a new crime series - which would you recommend between Stuart MacBride's Logan McRae and Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne?

The Stuart MacBride ones are a bit more, what's the right word, hardcore than the Mark Billingham series. A little like Val MacDiarmid. The next one (for me) in the series has been criticised for being very, very graphic and one of his other novels (A Song for the Dying which isn't a Logan McRae novel) I found quite disturbing.

Mark Billingham's novels are very good but don't always hold together in terms of the story, little inconsistencies which mean I keep having to check back with things (though maybe that's just me being anal!) however Tom Thorne is probably a more rounded character than Logan McRae. I was, however, a little disappointed by the last one I read. Mind you the last Stuart MacBride one had some naive descriptions of amateur theatre and the BDSM scene!

I think I would go for the Logan McRae ones, on the whole I've enjoy reading those more.but it's a close thing

 

[BoatieBird]

Thanks QueenOfGoths

 

[BoatieBird]

1/60 - JM Barrie - Peter Pan*
2/60 - Joe Hill - NOS4R2
3/60 - Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons*
4/60 - Belinda Bauer - Rubbernecker
5/60 - Roddy Doyle - The Guts
6/60 - Phillipa Pearce - Tom's Midnight Garden*
7/60 - Mildred D Taylor - Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry*
8/60 - Denise Mina - Exile
9/60 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Americanah
10/60 - Jon Ronson - Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries
11/60 - Iain McEwan - The Children Act
12/60 - Denise Mina - Resolution
13/60 - Neil Gaiman - Stardust
14/60 - Karen Joy Fowler - We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves
15/60 - Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle
16/60 - Ian Rankin - The Complaints
17/60 - Annie Proulx - Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and other stories
18/60 - Willy Vlautin - Lean on Pete
19/60 - Stephen King - Cell
20/60 - Philip Reeve - Mortal Engines*
21/60 - William McIlvanney - Laidlaw
22/60 - Melvin Burgess - Junk*
23/60 - Val McDermid - The Skeleton Road
24/60 - Heather Montgomery & Nicola J Watson (eds.) - Children's Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends
25/60 - Janet Maybin & Nicola J Watson (eds.) - Children's Literature: Approaches and Territories
26/60 - Children's Literature Study Guide
27/60 - Gavin Extence - The Universe Versus Alex Woods
28/60 - Kevin Brooks - The Bunker Diary*
29/60 - James Sallis - Cypress Grove (A Turner Novel)
30/60 - James Sallis - Cripple Creek (Turner Vol. 2)
31/60 - Jake Arnott - Johnny Come Home
32/60 - James Sallis - Salt River (Turner Vol. 3)
33/60 - Belinda Bauer - Blacklands
34/60 - Iain Banks - Transition
35/60 - Irvine Welsh - The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins
36/60 - Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
37/60 - Hilary Mantel - Every Day is Mother's Day
38/60 - Lewis Grassic Gibbon - Sunset Song*
39/60 - Ruth Rendell - The Girl Next Door
40/60 - Willy Vlautin - The Free
41/60 - Frank Skinner - Frank Skinner
42/60 - Anton Chekhov - The Cherry Orchard*
43/60 - Belinda Bauer - Darkside
44/60 - Virginia Woolf - Orlando*
45/60 - Jessie Burton - The Miniaturist
46/60 - Philip K Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?*
47/60 - Belinda Bauer - Finders Keepers
48/60 - Peter James - You Are Dead
49/60 - Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie
50/60 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun
51/60 - Manuel Puig - Kiss of the Spider Woman*
52/60 - Abdulrazak Gurnah - Paradise*
53/60 - Pat Barker - The Ghost Road*
54/60 - Nathan Filer - The Shock of the Fall
55/60 - Caitlin Moran - How to be a Woman
56/60 - David Mitchell - The Bone Clocks
57/60 - Kate Tempest - Hold your Own
58/60 - Minette Walters - The Tinder Box
59/60 - Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend in a Coma
60/60 - Zoe Heller - Everything you Know
61/60 - Hilary Mantel - The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
62/60 - Robert Galbraith - Career of Evil
63/60 - Kent Haruf - Plainsong
64/60 - Kate Atkinson - Life after Life
65/60 - Kent Haruf - Eventide

66/60 - Neil Gaiman - The Ocean at the End of the Lane

 

[Pickman's model]

six week warning: a new thread will be started round the end of december for next year's reading.

 

[Sea Star]

It's been a crap year for reading! Bought a lot of books, read about three.

 

[marty21]

1/60 - 'Til Death - Ed McBain
2/60 - How to Connect with Nature - Tristan Gooley
3/60 - The Dead Women of Juarez - Sam Hawken
4/60 - Jericho: Season 3 Civil War - Dan Shotz,Robert Levine,Jason Burns (Graphic Novel)
5/60 - Jericho: Season 4 - Kalinda Vazquez (Graphic Novel)
6/60 - The Black Echo- Michael Connelly
7/60 - The Black Ice - Michael Connelly
8/60 - Concrete Blonde - Michael Connelly
9/60 - The Last Coyote - Michael Connelly
10/60 - Trunk Music - Michael Connelly
11/60 - The Enemy Within - Seumas Milne
12/60 - Private Island:Why Britain Now Belongs to Someone Else - James Meek
13/60 - Angels Flight - Michael Connelly
14/60 - City of Bones - Michael Connelly
15/60 - A Darkness More Than Light - Michael Connelly.
16/60 - Lost Light - Michael Connelly
17/60 - The Narrows - Michael Connelly
18/60 - The Closers - Michael Connelly
19/60 - Echo Park - Michael Connelly
20/60 - The Overlook - Michael Connelly
21/60 - When Village Bells Were Silent - Fred Archer
22/60 - Nine Dragons - Michael Connelly
23/60 - The Drop - Michael Connelly
24/60 - The Black Box - Michael Connelly
25/60 - The Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly
26/60 - The Burning Room - Michael Connelly
27/60 - The Martian - Andy Weir
28/60 - The Empty Throne - Bernard Cornwell
29/60 - Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
30/60 - A Colossal Wreck : A Road Trip Through Political Scandal, Corruption and American Culture - Alexander Cockburn.
31/60 - Rebel Cities :From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution - David Harvey.
32/60 - The Poet - Michael Connelly.
33/60 - The Neon Rain - James Lee Burke.
34/60 - Blacklisted : The Secret War Between Big Business And Union Activists - Dave Smith & Phil Chamberlain.
35/60 - Gods and Generals - Jeff Shaara.
36/60 - Killer Angels - Michael Shaara
37/60 - Half the World (Shattered Sea Book 2) - Joe Abercrombie.
38/60 - The Tent, the Bucket and Me - Emma Kennedy.
39/60 - Ice - Ed McBain
40/60 - Canada - Richard Ford
41/60 - Ghosts - Ed McBain
42/60 -Eight Black Horses - Ed McBain
43/60 - Savage Continent : Europe In The Aftermath of World War 2. - Keith Lowe
44/60 - Plainsong - Kent Haruf
45/60 - Eventide - Kent Haruf
46/60 - Benediction - Kent Haruf
47/60 - Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
48/60 - Moon over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch
49/60 - Whispers Underground - Ben Aaronovitch
50/60 - Week to 10 Days - Raphael Dogg
51/60 - The Red House - Raphael Digg
52/60 - Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch
53/60 - Foxglove Summer - Ben Aaronovitch

 

[Pickman's model]

40. younghusband: the last great imperial adventurer

41. identifying insurgent infrastructure

 

[billy_bob]

1. Eleanor Catton - The Luminaries
2. Ian Fleming - You Only Live Twice
3. Ian Fleming - The Man With the Golden Gun
4. Ian Fleming - Octopussy and the Living Daylights
5. Lucia Berlin - Where I Live Now: Stories 1993-1998
6. Grace McCleen - The Offering
7. Joe Sacco - Bumf
8. Ernest Hemingway - Green Hills of Africa
9. Chuck Thompson - Better Off Without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession
10. NoViolet Bulawayo - We Need New Names
11. Charles Dickens: Tale of Two Cities
12. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea.
13. Roald Dahl, Collected Stories Vol. 1
14. Roald Dahl, Collected Stories Vol. 2
15. Ali Smith - How to be Both
16. Karen Joy Fowler - We are all Completely Beside Ourselves
17. Bill Bryson - Notes from a Small Island
18. Stewart Lee - The 'If You Would Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask for One' EP
19. Ernest Hemingway - The Snows of Kilimanjaro
20. Gillian Slovo - Ice Road
21. Hilary Mantel - Eight Months on Ghazzah Street
22. Lorrie Moore - Bark
23. Graham Swift - Last Orders
24. Richard Flanagan - The Narrow Road to the Deep North
25. Giles Milton - Samurai William: The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan
26. Colm Toibin - The Testament of Mary
27. Norman Mailer - The Gospel According to the Son
28. Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
29. Joshua Ferris - To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
30. Nigel Slater - Toast
31. Howard Jacobson - J
32. John Waters - Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America
33. Jonas Jonasson - The 100 year Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window and Disappeared
34. Rebecca Hunt - Everland
35. Charles Dickens - The Old Curiosity Shop
36. Andrea Levy - Fruit of the Lemon
37. Neil Young - Waging Heavy Peace
38. Andrea Levy - Never Far From Nowhere
39. Simon Donald - Him off the Viz
40. Chris Donald - Rude kids: the Inside Story of Viz
41. John Lloyd and Jon Canter - Afterliff
42. Ernest Hemingway - Fiesta: the Sun Also Rises
43. Jenny Erpenbeck - End of Days
44. David Crystal - Words in Time and Space
45. Hilary Mantel - Bring Up the Bodies
46. Barney Hoskyns - Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits
47. Ernest Hemingway - A Moveable Feast
48. Miranda July - The First Bad Man
49. David Crystal - Spell It Out: the Singular Story of English Spelling

50/50. Marilynne Robinson - Lila
Fittingly, as I've reached my target with it, this is certainly the best book I've read this year. Beautifully written, the kind of book that spoils all other books for you for a while.

 

[Me76]

50/50. Marilynne Robinson - Lila
Fittingly, as I've reached my target with it, this is certainly the best book I've read this year. Beautifully written, the kind of book that spoils all other books for you for a while.

What's it about?

 

[imposs1904]

1/52 The In Between Time by Alexander Baron
2/52 King Mob : A Critical Hidden History by David Wise with Stuart Wise & Nick Brandt
3/52 Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
4/52 The Beiderbecke Affair by Alan Plater (Reread)
5/52 The Hour of the Innocents by Robert Paston
6/52 The Beiderbecke Tapes by Alan Plater (Reread)
7/52 Bellies and Bullseyes: The Outrageous True Story of Darts by Sid Waddell
8/52 In The Thirties by Edward Upward
9/52 Bright Summer, Dark Autumn by Robert Barltrop (Reread)
10/52 Journey Through a Small Planet by Emanuel Litvinoff (Reread)
11/52 The Child Thief by Dan Smith
12/52 Books: a memoir by Larry McMurtry
13/52 Since the Layoffs by Iain Levison (Reread)
14/52 Where's My Money? by Mike Manson
15/52 The People of Providence: A Housing Estate and Some of Its Inhabitants by Tony Parker (Reread)
16/52 A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember by Iain Levison (Reread)
17/52 The Beiderbecke Connection by Alan Plater (Reread)
18/52 While My Guitar Gently Weeps by Paul Breeze
19/52 Shoestring's Finest Hour by Paul Ableman
20/52 The Rules of the Game by Georges Simenon
21/52 The Way We Die Now by Charles Willeford
22/52 Blue Moon: Down Among the Dead Men with Manchester City by Mark Hodkinson
23/52 The 10 Football Matches That Changed The World ... and the One That Didn't by Jim Murphy
24/52 The Hedge Knight by George R. R. Martin
25/52 Comrade O Comrade, or, Low-down on the Left by Ethel Mannin
26/52 The Last Days of Disco by David F. Ross
27/52 Flawed Genius: Scottish Football's Self-Destructive Mavericks by Stephen McGowan
28/52 Marxism in a Lost Century: A Biography of Paul Mattick by Gary Roth
29/52 Blood, Salt, Water by Denise Mina
30/52 The Kindest Thing by Cath Staincliffe
31/52 The House of Twenty Thousand Books by Sasha Abramsky
32/52 Even Dogs In The Wild by Ian Rankin

33/52 Maigret's Boyhood Friend by Georges Simenon

 

[billy_bob]

What's it about?

Well, on the surface of it it's about a woman who grows up an orphan, tagging along with a group of itinerant workers, who's never had home or family, who falls in love with and marries an elderly preacher. It follows on from Gilead and Home, which tell aspects of much the same story but from other characters' perspectives, but you don't need to have read them to get it. The plot isn't really the point. It's about belief, faith, redemption, the nature of and limits of one human being's responsibility to and for another.... As with all of her books (there's only one other fiction one, Housekeeping) it's got some grand themes but the writing is direct, almost terse, and it feels profound and serious but never pretentious or pompous. It's quite significantly about aspects of religion and aspects of faith, but I didn't get anything less from it because of that, although I'm an atheist.

 

[BoatieBird]

1/60 - JM Barrie - Peter Pan*
2/60 - Joe Hill - NOS4R2
3/60 - Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons*
4/60 - Belinda Bauer - Rubbernecker
5/60 - Roddy Doyle - The Guts
6/60 - Phillipa Pearce - Tom's Midnight Garden*
7/60 - Mildred D Taylor - Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry*
8/60 - Denise Mina - Exile
9/60 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Americanah
10/60 - Jon Ronson - Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries
11/60 - Iain McEwan - The Children Act
12/60 - Denise Mina - Resolution
13/60 - Neil Gaiman - Stardust
14/60 - Karen Joy Fowler - We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves
15/60 - Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle
16/60 - Ian Rankin - The Complaints
17/60 - Annie Proulx - Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and other stories
18/60 - Willy Vlautin - Lean on Pete
19/60 - Stephen King - Cell
20/60 - Philip Reeve - Mortal Engines*
21/60 - William McIlvanney - Laidlaw
22/60 - Melvin Burgess - Junk*
23/60 - Val McDermid - The Skeleton Road
24/60 - Heather Montgomery & Nicola J Watson (eds.) - Children's Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends
25/60 - Janet Maybin & Nicola J Watson (eds.) - Children's Literature: Approaches and Territories
26/60 - Children's Literature Study Guide
27/60 - Gavin Extence - The Universe Versus Alex Woods
28/60 - Kevin Brooks - The Bunker Diary*
29/60 - James Sallis - Cypress Grove (A Turner Novel)
30/60 - James Sallis - Cripple Creek (Turner Vol. 2)
31/60 - Jake Arnott - Johnny Come Home
32/60 - James Sallis - Salt River (Turner Vol. 3)
33/60 - Belinda Bauer - Blacklands
34/60 - Iain Banks - Transition
35/60 - Irvine Welsh - The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins
36/60 - Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
37/60 - Hilary Mantel - Every Day is Mother's Day
38/60 - Lewis Grassic Gibbon - Sunset Song*
39/60 - Ruth Rendell - The Girl Next Door
40/60 - Willy Vlautin - The Free
41/60 - Frank Skinner - Frank Skinner
42/60 - Anton Chekhov - The Cherry Orchard*
43/60 - Belinda Bauer - Darkside
44/60 - Virginia Woolf - Orlando*
45/60 - Jessie Burton - The Miniaturist
46/60 - Philip K Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?*
47/60 - Belinda Bauer - Finders Keepers
48/60 - Peter James - You Are Dead
49/60 - Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie
50/60 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun
51/60 - Manuel Puig - Kiss of the Spider Woman*
52/60 - Abdulrazak Gurnah - Paradise*
53/60 - Pat Barker - The Ghost Road*
54/60 - Nathan Filer - The Shock of the Fall
55/60 - Caitlin Moran - How to be a Woman
56/60 - David Mitchell - The Bone Clocks
57/60 - Kate Tempest - Hold your Own
58/60 - Minette Walters - The Tinder Box
59/60 - Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend in a Coma
60/60 - Zoe Heller - Everything you Know
61/60 - Hilary Mantel - The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
62/60 - Robert Galbraith - Career of Evil
63/60 - Kent Haruf - Plainsong
64/60 - Kate Atkinson - Life after Life
65/60 - Kent Haruf - Eventide
66/60 - Neil Gaiman - The Ocean at the End of the Lane

67/60 - Stuart Macbride - Cold Granite

 

[Me76]

Well, on the surface of it it's about a woman who grows up an orphan, tagging along with a group of itinerant workers, who's never had home or family, who falls in love with and marries an elderly preacher. It follows on from Gilead and Home, which tell aspects of much the same story but from other characters' perspectives, but you don't need to have read them to get it. The plot isn't really the point. It's about belief, faith, redemption, the nature of and limits of one human being's responsibility to and for another.... As with all of her books (there's only one other fiction one, Housekeeping) it's got some grand themes but the writing is direct, almost terse, and it feels profound and serious but never pretentious or pompous. It's quite significantly about aspects of religion and aspects of faith, but I didn't get anything less from it because of that, although I'm an atheist.

Sounds really interesting. Thanks.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

1/27 The Universe in a Single Atom -- The Dalai Lama
2/27 The Last President -- John Barnes
3/27 Walden -- Henry David Thoreau
4/27 Walden on Wheels -- Ken Ilgunas
5/27 Walk to the End of the Word -- Suzy Charnas
6/27 Leading the Way: Asian American Artists of the Older Generation -- Paul Karstrom, et al.

7/27 Vacant - Alex Hughes
8/27 Earthbound - Joe Haldeman
9/27 Insurgent - Veronica Roth
10/27 The Visitors - Clifford D. Simak

11/27 Tale of the Body Thief - Anne Rice
12/27 Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins
13/27 Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling Our Modern Plagues - Martin J. Blaser, MD
14/27 Star Trek: To Rule in Hell - Greg Cox
15/27 To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design - Henry Petroski
16/27 Allegiant - Veronica Roth

17/27 Imago - Octavia E. Butler
18/27 Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler
19/27 How the Rich are Destroying the Earth - Herve Kempf
20/27 The Parable of the Talents - Octavia E. Butler
21/27 The Pluto Files - Neil deGrasse Tyson
22/27 The Big Short - Michael Lewis
23/27 Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right - Thomas Frank
24/27 Village Japan: Everyday life in Rural Japan - Malcolm Ritchie.

25/27 Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food - Gene Baur
26/27 Folks This Ain't Normal - Joel Salatin
27/27 Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser
28 The Unnatural Inquirer - Simon R. Green
29 Article 5 - Kristen Simmons

30 Cowed: The Hidden Impact of 93 Million Cows on America's Health, Economy, Politics, and Environment - Denis Hayes and Gail Boyer Hayes
31 The Unincorporationed Man - Dani Killin and Eytan Killin
32 The Painter - Peter Heller

33 Weedless Gardening - Lee Reich
34 Etiquette and Espionage - Gail Carriger
35 The Witching Hour - Anne Rice
36 Damage Control - J.A. Jance
37 Getting Off - Lawrence Block
38 Assholes: A Theory - Aaron James

39 Prudence: Gail Carriger
40 Animal Liberation - Peter Singer
41 Iron Cage - Andre Norton
42 Breaking Point - Kristal Simmons
43 Blythewood - Carol Goodman

44 Ravenclyffe - Carol Goodman
45 Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks - Andrea Lankford

46 If Then - Matthew De Abaitua
47 The Martian - Any Weir

48 White Trash Zombie Apocalypse - Diana Rowland
49 House of Bush, House of Saud - Craig Unger
50 How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Grove Back - Diana Rowland
51 Indoor Kitchen Gardening - Elizabeth Millard

 

[BoatieBird]

Well, on the surface of it it's about a woman who grows up an orphan, tagging along with a group of itinerant workers, who's never had home or family, who falls in love with and marries an elderly preacher. It follows on from Gilead and Home, which tell aspects of much the same story but from other characters' perspectives, but you don't need to have read them to get it. The plot isn't really the point. It's about belief, faith, redemption, the nature of and limits of one human being's responsibility to and for another.... As with all of her books (there's only one other fiction one, Housekeeping) it's got some grand themes but the writing is direct, almost terse, and it feels profound and serious but never pretentious or pompous. It's quite significantly about aspects of religion and aspects of faith, but I didn't get anything less from it because of that, although I'm an atheist.

It does sound interesting, I've added it to my ( ever increasing) wish list.

 

[billy_bob]

It does sound interesting, I've added it to my ( ever increasing) wish list.

I know, too many books.

I would rank Robinson alongside Cormac McCarthy and Lorrie Moore as one of the best US writers of fiction alive today, definitely worthy of a high number on the wish list.

 

[ringo]

I've seen a couple of Marilynne Robinson's books mentioned in a few top 100 novels lists, keep meaning to get one.

 

[colbhoy]

1/20 - Strange Loyalties by William McIlvanney
2/20 - Calico Joe by John Grisham
3/20 - Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane
4/20 - Band of Brothers by Stephen E Ambrose
5/20 - Joyland by Stephen King
6/20 - 1356 by Bernard Cornwell
7/20 - Indigo Slam by Robert Crais
8/20 - The Forgotten by David Baldacci
9/20 - One Summer, America 1927 by Bill Bryson
10/20 - Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo
11/20 - The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy
12/20 - Mr Mercedes by Stephen King
13/20 - Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
14/20 - The Summer Game by Roger Angell
15/20 - Firehouse by David Halberstam
16/20 - Sycamore Row by John Grisham

 

[belboid]

1/31 - Ken Wishnia - 23 Shades of Black
2/31 - Richard Ayoade - Ayoade On Ayoade: a cinematic odyssey
3/31 - Iain Banks - The Quarry
4/31 - Raymond Chandler - The High Window
5/31 - Raymond Chandler - The Lady in the Lake
6/31 - Ric Rawlins - Rise of the Super Furry Animals
7/31 - Heiner Flassbeck & Costas Lapavitsas - Against the Troika: Crisis and Austerity in the Eurozone
8/31 - Kim Gordon - Girl In A Band.
9/31 - Henry James - Washington Square.
10/31 - Tim McLoughlin (Ed) - Brooklyn Noir
11/31 - David Stubbs - Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany
12/31 - Caroline Lucas - Honourable Friends: Parliament and the Fight for Change
13/31 - Raymond Chandler - The Little Sister
14/31 - Raymond Chandler - The Simple Art of Murder
15/31 - Sarah Ward - In Bitter Chill
16/31 - Harper Lee - Go Set A Watchman
17/31 - Maj Sjowall, Per Wahloo - Roseanna
18/31 - Philip Kerr - March Violets
19/31 - Stephen Witt- How Music Got Free
20/31 - Bridget Christie - A Book for Her
21/31 - Paul Mason - Postcapitalism
22/31 - David Lagercrantz - The Girl In The Spiders Web
23/31 - Laura Lippman - After I'm Gone
24/31 - Sunjeev Sahota - The Year of the Runaways
25/31 - Michael Moorcock - The Whispering Swarm

26/31 - David Belbin - The Great Deception
27/31 - Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings

 

[ringo]

1/45 Head On - Julian Cope
2/45 Bad Monkeys - Matt Ruff
3/45 The Ladies Of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke
4/45 Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary Mantel
5/45 The Blacker The Berry - Wallace Thurman
6/45 Once You Break A Knuckle - D W Wilson
7/45 The Child Thief - Dan Smith
8/45 The Epicure's Lament - Kate Christensen
9/45 East Of Eden - John Steinbeck
10/45 We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler
11/45 The Prison House - John King
12/45 First Love - Ivan Turgenev
13/45 The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett
14/45 Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
15/45 Ridley Walker - Russell Hoban
16/45 We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
17/45 My Outdoors Life - Ray Mears
18/45 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - Raymond Carver
19/45 The Last Kingdom - Bernard Cornwell
20/45 The Half That's Never Been Told: The Real Life Reggae Adventures Of Dr Dread - Dr Dread
21/45 The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins - Irvine Welsh
22/45 The Pale Horseman - Bernard Cornwell
23/45 Original Rude Boy: From Borstal To The Specials - Neville Staple with Tony McMahon
24/45 Fine Just The Way It Is - Annie Proulx
25/45 Satantango - Laszlo Krasznahorkai
26/45 Amsterdam: A Brief Life of the City - Geert Mak
27/45 The Peripheral - William Gibson
28/45 One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson
29/45 Life Drawing - Robin Black
30/45 A Star Called Henry - Roddy Doyle
31/45 Breakfast At Tiffany's - Truman Capote
32/45 Benediction - Kent Haruf
33/45 Go Set A Watchman - Harper Lee
34/45 The Lottery - Shirley Jackson
35/45 American Rust - Phillip Meyer
36/45 What You Want Is in the Limo: On the Road with Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, and the Who in 1973, the Year the Sixties Died and the Modern Rock Star Was Born - Michael Walker
37/45 Reheated Cabbage - Irvine Welsh
38/45 Generation X - Douglas Coupland
39/45 A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James
40/45 High-Rise - JG Ballard
41/45 Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
42/45 Kill Your Friends - John Niven
43/45 John Crow's Devil - Marlon James
44/45 A Change Of Climate - Hilary Mantel
45/45 I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

 

[QueenOfGoths]

1. "A Colder War" - Charles Cumming
2. "Sleepyhead" - Mark Billingham
3. "Lamentation"- CJ Samson
4. " The Child Thief " - Dan Smith
5. "The Murder Bag" - Tony Parsons
6. "Stolen Souls" - Stuart Neville
7. "NOS 4R2" - Joe Hill
8. "Storm Front" - Jim Butcher
9. "Scaredy Cat" - Mark Billingham
10' "Rush of Blood" - Mark Billingham
11. "A Place of Strangers" - Geoffrey Seed
12. "Prayer for the Dead"- James Oswald
13. " Ostland" - David Thomas
14. "Lazybones" - Mark Billingham
15. "The Burning Girl" - Mark Billingham
16."A Song for the Dying" - Stuart MacBride
17. "The Twelve" - Stuart Neville
18. "Kolymsky Heights" - Lionel Davidson
19. "The Windup Girl" - Paolo Bacigalupi
20. "Lifeless" - Mark Billingham
21. "A Song of Shadows" - John Connolly
22. "Buried" - Mark Billingham
23. "The Martian"
24. "The Great Zoo of China" - Matthew Reilly
25. "Cold Granite" - Stuart MacBride
26 "Dying Light" - Stuart MacBride
27. "The Fear Index" - Robert Harris
28. "The Farm" - Tom Rob Smith
29. "Death Message" - Mark Billingham
30. "Broken Skin" - Stuart MacBride

31. "Even Dogs in the Wild" - Ian Rankin. Very good as ever, the characters familiar, like putting on an old comfy overcoat, and well written

 

[belboid]

1/31 - Ken Wishnia - 23 Shades of Black
2/31 - Richard Ayoade - Ayoade On Ayoade: a cinematic odyssey
3/31 - Iain Banks - The Quarry
4/31 - Raymond Chandler - The High Window
5/31 - Raymond Chandler - The Lady in the Lake
6/31 - Ric Rawlins - Rise of the Super Furry Animals
7/31 - Heiner Flassbeck & Costas Lapavitsas - Against the Troika: Crisis and Austerity in the Eurozone
8/31 - Kim Gordon - Girl In A Band.
9/31 - Henry James - Washington Square.
10/31 - Tim McLoughlin (Ed) - Brooklyn Noir
11/31 - David Stubbs - Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany
12/31 - Caroline Lucas - Honourable Friends: Parliament and the Fight for Change
13/31 - Raymond Chandler - The Little Sister
14/31 - Raymond Chandler - The Simple Art of Murder
15/31 - Sarah Ward - In Bitter Chill
16/31 - Harper Lee - Go Set A Watchman
17/31 - Maj Sjowall, Per Wahloo - Roseanna
18/31 - Philip Kerr - March Violets
19/31 - Stephen Witt- How Music Got Free
20/31 - Bridget Christie - A Book for Her
21/31 - Paul Mason - Postcapitalism
22/31 - David Lagercrantz - The Girl In The Spiders Web
23/31 - Laura Lippman - After I'm Gone
24/31 - Sunjeev Sahota - The Year of the Runaways
25/31 - Michael Moorcock - The Whispering Swarm
26/31 - David Belbin - The Great Deception
27/31 - Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings

28/31 - David Mitchell - Slade House

 

[belboid]

1/31 - Ken Wishnia - 23 Shades of Black
2/31 - Richard Ayoade - Ayoade On Ayoade: a cinematic odyssey
3/31 - Iain Banks - The Quarry
4/31 - Raymond Chandler - The High Window
5/31 - Raymond Chandler - The Lady in the Lake
6/31 - Ric Rawlins - Rise of the Super Furry Animals
7/31 - Heiner Flassbeck & Costas Lapavitsas - Against the Troika: Crisis and Austerity in the Eurozone
8/31 - Kim Gordon - Girl In A Band.
9/31 - Henry James - Washington Square.
10/31 - Tim McLoughlin (Ed) - Brooklyn Noir
11/31 - David Stubbs - Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany
12/31 - Caroline Lucas - Honourable Friends: Parliament and the Fight for Change
13/31 - Raymond Chandler - The Little Sister
14/31 - Raymond Chandler - The Simple Art of Murder
15/31 - Sarah Ward - In Bitter Chill
16/31 - Harper Lee - Go Set A Watchman
17/31 - Maj Sjowall, Per Wahloo - Roseanna
18/31 - Philip Kerr - March Violets
19/31 - Stephen Witt- How Music Got Free
20/31 - Bridget Christie - A Book for Her
21/31 - Paul Mason - Postcapitalism
22/31 - David Lagercrantz - The Girl In The Spiders Web
23/31 - Laura Lippman - After I'm Gone
24/31 - Sunjeev Sahota - The Year of the Runaways
25/31 - Michael Moorcock - The Whispering Swarm
26/31 - David Belbin - The Great Deception
27/31 - Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings
28/31 - David Mitchell - Slade House

29/31 - Umberto Eco - Numero Zero

 

[BoatieBird]

1/60 - JM Barrie - Peter Pan*
2/60 - Joe Hill - NOS4R2
3/60 - Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons*
4/60 - Belinda Bauer - Rubbernecker
5/60 - Roddy Doyle - The Guts
6/60 - Phillipa Pearce - Tom's Midnight Garden*
7/60 - Mildred D Taylor - Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry*
8/60 - Denise Mina - Exile
9/60 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Americanah
10/60 - Jon Ronson - Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries
11/60 - Iain McEwan - The Children Act
12/60 - Denise Mina - Resolution
13/60 - Neil Gaiman - Stardust
14/60 - Karen Joy Fowler - We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves
15/60 - Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle
16/60 - Ian Rankin - The Complaints
17/60 - Annie Proulx - Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and other stories
18/60 - Willy Vlautin - Lean on Pete
19/60 - Stephen King - Cell
20/60 - Philip Reeve - Mortal Engines*
21/60 - William McIlvanney - Laidlaw
22/60 - Melvin Burgess - Junk*
23/60 - Val McDermid - The Skeleton Road
24/60 - Heather Montgomery & Nicola J Watson (eds.) - Children's Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends
25/60 - Janet Maybin & Nicola J Watson (eds.) - Children's Literature: Approaches and Territories
26/60 - Children's Literature Study Guide
27/60 - Gavin Extence - The Universe Versus Alex Woods
28/60 - Kevin Brooks - The Bunker Diary*
29/60 - James Sallis - Cypress Grove (A Turner Novel)
30/60 - James Sallis - Cripple Creek (Turner Vol. 2)
31/60 - Jake Arnott - Johnny Come Home
32/60 - James Sallis - Salt River (Turner Vol. 3)
33/60 - Belinda Bauer - Blacklands
34/60 - Iain Banks - Transition
35/60 - Irvine Welsh - The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins
36/60 - Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
37/60 - Hilary Mantel - Every Day is Mother's Day
38/60 - Lewis Grassic Gibbon - Sunset Song*
39/60 - Ruth Rendell - The Girl Next Door
40/60 - Willy Vlautin - The Free
41/60 - Frank Skinner - Frank Skinner
42/60 - Anton Chekhov - The Cherry Orchard*
43/60 - Belinda Bauer - Darkside
44/60 - Virginia Woolf - Orlando*
45/60 - Jessie Burton - The Miniaturist
46/60 - Philip K Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?*
47/60 - Belinda Bauer - Finders Keepers
48/60 - Peter James - You Are Dead
49/60 - Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie
50/60 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun
51/60 - Manuel Puig - Kiss of the Spider Woman*
52/60 - Abdulrazak Gurnah - Paradise*
53/60 - Pat Barker - The Ghost Road*
54/60 - Nathan Filer - The Shock of the Fall
55/60 - Caitlin Moran - How to be a Woman
56/60 - David Mitchell - The Bone Clocks
57/60 - Kate Tempest - Hold your Own
58/60 - Minette Walters - The Tinder Box
59/60 - Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend in a Coma
60/60 - Zoe Heller - Everything you Know
61/60 - Hilary Mantel - The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
62/60 - Robert Galbraith - Career of Evil
63/60 - Kent Haruf - Plainsong
64/60 - Kate Atkinson - Life after Life
65/60 - Kent Haruf - Eventide
66/60 - Neil Gaiman - The Ocean at the End of the Lane
67/60 - Stuart Macbride - Cold Granite

68/60 - Kent Haruf - Benediction

 

[Signal 11]

10/15 - The Next Revolution - Murray Bookchin

 

[May Kasahara]

1/50 Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations - Jules Evans
2/50 Sponge, X and Y - Harry Barton
3/50 The Watcher in the Shadows - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
4/50 The Disaster Artist - Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell
5/50 How to Build a Girl - Caitlin Moran
6/50 League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century - Alan Moore etc.
7/50 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
8/50 Stone Spring - Stephen Baxter
9/50 Bronze Summer - Stephen Baxter
10/50 Iron Winter - Stephen Baxter
11/50 H is for Hawk - Helen Macdonald
12/50 Revival - Stephen King
13/50 Notes On A Scandal - Zoe Heller
14/50 NOS4R2 - Joe Hill
15/50 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald.
16/50 When Will There Be Good News? - Kate Atkinson
17/50 A Dance With Dragons - George R R Martin
18/50 The Queen's Gambit - Walter Tevis
19/50 Carbonel - Barbara Sleigh
20/50 London Orbital - Iain Sinclair
21/50 The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making - Catherynne Valente
22/50 Borderline - Lawrence Block
23/50 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - J K Rowling
24/50 From Russia With Love - Ian Fleming
25/50 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J K Rowling
26/50 The Double - George Pelecanos
27/50 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J K Rowling

28/50 Bleeding Edge - Thomas Pynchon

 

[Pickman's model]

41. identifying insurgent infrastructure

42. jacko stories

 

[Me76]

1/50 Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
2/50 The Child Thief, Dan Smith
3/50 Wanted, Nick Stephenson
4/50 The Graft, Martina Cole
5/50 Stardust, Neil Gaiman
6/50 Alys, Always, Harriet Lane
7/50 Bad Things Happen, K Leitch
8/50 Post Human Book 1, David Simpson
9/50 Bolthole, AJ Oates
10/50 Post Human book 2, David Simpson
11/50 The Bees, Laline Paull
12/50 Barracuda, Christos Tsiolkas
13/50 The Interpretation of Murder, Jed Rubenfeld
14/50 Her, Harriet Lane
15/50 Mobile Library, David Whitehouse
16/50 Salvage The Bones, Jesmyn, Ward
17/50 Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce
18/50 The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
19/50 Geek Love, Katherine Dunn
20/50 The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
21/50 Us, David Nicholls
22/50 Finders, Keepers , Stephen King
23/50 The Miniaturist, Jessie Burton
24/50 Upstairs at the Party, Linda Grant
25/50 Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healy
26/50 Revenge, Martina Cole
27/50 The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
28/50 The Shock of the Fall, Nathan Filer
29/50 The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
30/50 Caller 107, Matthew S Cox
31/50 The Commitments, Roddy Doyle
32/50 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
33/50 Loaded, Christos Tsiolkas
34/50 Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
35/50 Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, JK Rowling
36/50 Moranthology, Caitlin Moran
37/50 Between a Smile and a Tear, Robert Bucchianeri
38/50 The Understudy, David Nicholls
39/50 Embryo, JA Schneider
40/50 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
41/50 Forever Fredless, Suzy Turner

42/50 Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Stepehn King

43/50 The Submission, Amy Waldman - enjoyed this. Not an easy or gripping read but interesting. A jury is deciding on a memorial for 9:11 and the winning submission is designed by a Muslim. America then goes mad

 

[8115]

1/20 We are all completely beside ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler.
2/20 Stasiland: Stories from behind the Berlin wall, Anna Funder.
3/20 In the realm of hungry ghosts: close encounters with addiction, Gabor Mate.
4/20 Glow, Ned Beauman.
5/20 Capital, John Lancaster.
6/20 The Cost of Living, Arundhati Roy.
7/20 Reasons to stay alive, Mark Haig.
8/20 Underneath the Lemon Tree: A Memoir of Depression and Recovery.

I thought they were both pretty shit, depression for Guardian readers.

 

[BoatieBird]

1/60 - JM Barrie - Peter Pan*
2/60 - Joe Hill - NOS4R2
3/60 - Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons*
4/60 - Belinda Bauer - Rubbernecker
5/60 - Roddy Doyle - The Guts
6/60 - Phillipa Pearce - Tom's Midnight Garden*
7/60 - Mildred D Taylor - Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry*
8/60 - Denise Mina - Exile
9/60 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Americanah
10/60 - Jon Ronson - Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries
11/60 - Iain McEwan - The Children Act
12/60 - Denise Mina - Resolution
13/60 - Neil Gaiman - Stardust
14/60 - Karen Joy Fowler - We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves
15/60 - Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle
16/60 - Ian Rankin - The Complaints
17/60 - Annie Proulx - Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and other stories
18/60 - Willy Vlautin - Lean on Pete
19/60 - Stephen King - Cell
20/60 - Philip Reeve - Mortal Engines*
21/60 - William McIlvanney - Laidlaw
22/60 - Melvin Burgess - Junk*
23/60 - Val McDermid - The Skeleton Road
24/60 - Heather Montgomery & Nicola J Watson (eds.) - Children's Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends
25/60 - Janet Maybin & Nicola J Watson (eds.) - Children's Literature: Approaches and Territories
26/60 - Children's Literature Study Guide
27/60 - Gavin Extence - The Universe Versus Alex Woods
28/60 - Kevin Brooks - The Bunker Diary*
29/60 - James Sallis - Cypress Grove (A Turner Novel)
30/60 - James Sallis - Cripple Creek (Turner Vol. 2)
31/60 - Jake Arnott - Johnny Come Home
32/60 - James Sallis - Salt River (Turner Vol. 3)
33/60 - Belinda Bauer - Blacklands
34/60 - Iain Banks - Transition
35/60 - Irvine Welsh - The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins
36/60 - Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
37/60 - Hilary Mantel - Every Day is Mother's Day
38/60 - Lewis Grassic Gibbon - Sunset Song*
39/60 - Ruth Rendell - The Girl Next Door
40/60 - Willy Vlautin - The Free
41/60 - Frank Skinner - Frank Skinner
42/60 - Anton Chekhov - The Cherry Orchard*
43/60 - Belinda Bauer - Darkside
44/60 - Virginia Woolf - Orlando*
45/60 - Jessie Burton - The Miniaturist
46/60 - Philip K Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?*
47/60 - Belinda Bauer - Finders Keepers
48/60 - Peter James - You Are Dead
49/60 - Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie
50/60 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun
51/60 - Manuel Puig - Kiss of the Spider Woman*
52/60 - Abdulrazak Gurnah - Paradise*
53/60 - Pat Barker - The Ghost Road*
54/60 - Nathan Filer - The Shock of the Fall
55/60 - Caitlin Moran - How to be a Woman
56/60 - David Mitchell - The Bone Clocks
57/60 - Kate Tempest - Hold your Own
58/60 - Minette Walters - The Tinder Box
59/60 - Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend in a Coma
60/60 - Zoe Heller - Everything you Know
61/60 - Hilary Mantel - The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
62/60 - Robert Galbraith - Career of Evil
63/60 - Kent Haruf - Plainsong
64/60 - Kate Atkinson - Life after Life
65/60 - Kent Haruf - Eventide
66/60 - Neil Gaiman - The Ocean at the End of the Lane
67/60 - Stuart Macbride - Cold Granite
68/60 - Kent Haruf - Benediction

69/60 - David Mitchell - Black Swan Green