1. Knots and Crosses Ian Rankin

2.Oliver's Story truly the worst book I have ever read ever, makes the DeVinci Code look alright

Lol. I bet you whipped through it just to be done. Hope you like your next one better.

#2--Ha! At least you began the year with Rebus! Good luck with your challenge.

Thanks, feel like I've paid my dues to bad writing for this year

3. Trans-Siberia by Rail and a Month in Japan by Barbara Lamplugh

4. Things I Want My Daughters to Know Elizabeth Noble
5. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas John Boyne

What did you think of Things I want my Daughters to Know? I bought it from a charity shop yesterday, forgetting Noble had written the Reading Group which I thought was awful! I'm now wondering whether to bother with Things...

Message edited by its author, Jan 15, 2009, 11:41am.

I had forgotten that she had written The Reading Group which I agree was awful, 'Things...' was better though it was predictable but a nice easy read (also I'm one of 4 sisters so nice to read about 4 sisters that are Little Women)

6. Handbags and Gladrags really bad, I don't know if I'm getting old but I can't find any 'chicklit' I actually like anymore

7. My Life in France by Julia Child

at this rate you'll definitely make it to 50! Way to go :)

Thank girlunderglass, looked at your list, loved your reviews.
I've got enough books to read just have to avoid the telly and actually read them!

8. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

9. Miss Pettygrew Lives for a Day

10. Elvis Sightings pure class

Way to go! I'm thinking I should also watch less tv and spend more time reading, would definitely help with the book count! What did you think of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society? I read it recently and quite enjoyed it.

Message edited by its author, Feb 20, 2009, 3:09pm.

aaaarrrggghhh! it's all gone wrong, stopped buying books for lent cause I've got so many books I haven't read and now have realised why, try to read a book on tube get bored and read the metro, play rubbish game on mobile and buy a glossy mag for the trip home. Oh dear.

aaaarrrggghhh! it's all gone wrong, stopped buying books for lent cause I've got so many books I haven't read and now have realised why, try to read a book on tube get bored and read the metro, play rubbish game on mobile and buy a glossy mag for the trip home. Oh dear.

Maybe you could check a book out of the library or swap books at a used book store. Oh, I think that you can get books for free online at Project Gutenburg (not sure how to spell that). Lent is too long without books. Good luck! :)
--BJ

Give yourself a break! Sometimes you just want magazines and games.

I've had long periods when all I wanted was brain candy like fashion and gossip mags but I always come back to good literature sooner or later. Why force it if your mind is elsewhere? The books will always be there for you when you're ready to get back to them.

Aaah thanks all xx

Yay I finally finished a book seems like ages!!
11. Reading Lolita in Tehran

Enjoyed isn't the word I found it hard going but very interesting, wish I knew more about the history of Iran and the revolution.

>22 I remember that one. I hadn't read a lot of the books discussed in it at the time that I read Reading Lolita in Tehran, but it was still very interesting. I have gone back to it after reading The Great Gatsby and all of the Jane Austen novels and I felt like I got more out of it that way. I've been thinking about rereading the whole thing for a while now, I need to get on that one of these days.

Some quick light(ish) reading
12. Loving Frank

Maybe not so light(ish) posted before reading the final two chapters, dear God I never knew about that part of Frank Lloyd Wright's Life (they didn't mention that in the channel 4 schools documentary I watched on him! That'll teach me to say I've read something before I have

13. The Wedding Officer I have now decided that I will only eat and cook italian food from now on!!

Sounds like a great book! By the way, can I come over for dinner? :D (Just kidding!)
--BJ

Books and food my 2 favorite things!

14. Resistance by Owen Sheers

15. Festival on the River about the development of the South Bank/Royal Festival Hall found it suprisingly really interesting and easy to read for something so factual.

16. Dear Exile

Message edited by its author, Sep 17, 2009, 4:18am.

17. In Cold Blood

jillianmarie;
How did you find In Cold Blood to be? It's coming up on my list and I just finished Capote's The Complete Stories of Truman Capote which is a group of short stories by him and I loved it but I haven't read anything else by him. So am just curious?????
By the way, you are doing great after your little dry spell! (and we all have them)
Happy reading.
belva

jillianmarie, I finished In Cold Blood recently and I'd also be interested to read what you thought about it. I loved the writing, even though the story itself was horrible. I knew nothing about the murders so there was a lot of suspense in it, which there wouldn't have been for the people who read it when it was originally written, I suppose. How are those free newspapers going? ;-) I'm just lucky they don't have them on the buses, or I'd be sunk.

I found In Cold Blood really gripping, Capote really builds up the tension throughout and I thought handled the actual description of the murder in a non-sensationalist/grusome way. I've only ever read Breakfast at Tiffany's before. I've been reccomended to watch Capote to understand the background of why he wrote the book as it is such a massive leap from Tiffanys to this. So in all I'd reccomend it. (And it is better than the free papers, though I'm still reading the morning Metro I have broken free from the London Paper/Lite.)

18. The Night Watch

Message edited by its author, Apr 19, 2009, 8:10am.

20. Shakespeare The World as a Stage

Message edited by its author, Sep 17, 2009, 4:21am.

21.

21. The Wilderness My World
22. Digging to America
23. My Best Friend's Girl I've been on a very long coach trip

jillianmarie; (pretty name)
Did you enjoy Digging to America? I had a hard time getting into it, but when I did I really liked it and found it very interesting.
It appears you are moving right along with your challenge. Happy reading and enjoy your day.
belva

Back off holiday with lots of long coach journeys.

I liked Digging to America but I didn't love it, it was kind of just a book that was for me, like watching a snapahot of someone's family.

24. Anybody out There?
25. Empty Cradles
26. Life Swap
27. Spellbound
it's been a chicklit fest!

Message edited by its author, Sep 17, 2009, 4:42am.

28. Love is a Mixtape

29. Wartime Britain 1939-1945, Juliet Gardiner

jillianmarie, did you enjoy Wartime Britain? I have just looked it up on amazon and it looks like exactly the sort of thing I would enjoy. I'm really getting into social history this year. I see this author has a new one just out - Sitting on a Jigsaw: Britain in the Thirties - which also looks good. If you enjoyed Wartime Britain you might also like a couple that I've just read - Silvertown and Hopping, both by Melanie McGrath, which have a lot about the east end of London during WWII.

Hi Susanj67
I really enjoyed Wartime Britain and found it really fascinating and shocking how much I didn't know about Britain during WWII, how much we're not taught even though I studied WWII in GCSE and A'level. It was interesting to me as it didn't just concentrate on London but the rest of Britain I lived in Cardiff for 11 years I never knew that it got bombed, and I come from Liverpool so it was interesting to read about how it was affected espcially as my Grandma would tell me about her experiences there during the war. I live in East London now so I'll keep an eye out for the two you've reccomended, thanks

30. Got you back quick easy read

31. Bad Food Britain: How A Nation Ruined Its Appetite

32. The Agency by Ally O'Brien

Hello jillianmarie, just noticed that you had read Wartime Britain. I'm attempting the 999 challenge this year and WWII and its aftermath is one of my categories. Wartime Britain is on my TBR pile, but I've been putting off reading it because it looks a bit of a doorstop. Did you find it easy to get into? If you're interested in that period, you might enjoy some of the Mass Observation books - they're anthologies of diaries kept by 'ordinary' people during WWII and are fascinating. Nella Last's War is one of them (I think Victoria Wood adapted this for TV and won an award for it, and there are also two edited by Simon Garfield, We Are at War and Private Battles.

Hi Vestafan, I really got into Wartime Britain I work in a book shop and started reading it on my lunchbreak and had to buy it, from then until I finished (think it took me two weeks mainly on the tube) I found it really gripping, the only chapter I had trouble with was the one on Spitfires as it was more about the planes than the people. I'll look out for the mass observation books.

Jillianmarie, I've bought Wartime Britain and so far read the foreword and it looks really good. I'm so pleased I saw it here, and I'm really looking forward to getting into it when I finish my current library books. It is nice to have my own copy of such a huge book, so I don't feel pressured to finish it in three weeks!

suanj67, hope you like it! I know what you mean I can't read a book if I'm given a deadline, must come from having to read for school.

33. The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte just silly, like Patricia Cornwell's Jack the Ripper, though atleast Tully put it in novel form and didn't claim it as fact, but it did grip me and kept me reading.

34. The Northern Clemency epic and excellent

jillianmarie;
I just reread through your entire thread and realized something and HAD to go up and star you. While we do not read the same books, or rarely do, the books you tend to enjoy are books I would love to read. I found that interesting and ended up with 6 recs off 52 messages. Not too shabby so I will be checking back with you often. Thank you.
belva

.

Message edited by its author, Jul 24, 2009, 9:46pm.

Thanks Belva x

35. Dylan Thomas
36. Twenties Girl
37. Address Unknown Kressmann Taylor

Message edited by its author, Sep 17, 2009, 4:46am.

38. Let The Right One In

39. He's Just Not That Into You it came free with a magazine I was on a coach..there's no excuses really
40. The Road

Hello Jillianmarie

What did you think of The Road? I read it earler this year after putting it off because of the subject matter, but I'm very glad I read it, even though it is very bleak.

Hi Vestafan

I found the road a quick and engaging read though I think this was because of the writing style; paragraph, paragraph, paragraph .... It was reccomended to me by a friend as it's her all time favourite book, I liked it but didn't love it and not because it was so bleak (ever since reading When the Wind Blows, Z For Zachariah etc... at school nuclear fallouts and distopian futures have been a morbid fascination/phobia for me) I just didn't connect with the father and son in the way the 'blurb' on the back seemed too, also it didn't help that I knew that it was being made into a film so I was constantly thinking 'how is this going to be a film?'

Ooh I have Let the Right One In- I got it for my birthday in April- how was it ?
I was thinking of reading it soon because it's just come out on DVD so there's ads all over for it... have you seen the film ? (I haven't).

41. I am the Messenger

Did you like I am the Messenger? Another LTer recently posted an enthusiastic review. All copies were chedked out fro the library, or I might have brought it home yesterday. Just as well, I guess -- I am trying to make my way through the piles of TBR books all over the house.

Hi Wonderlake

Let The Right One In I thought was brilliant but only after I saw the film, I first tried to read it before and had to put it down, just really graphic and as I didn't know what to expect and the direction it was going in I just couldn't handle it, but after I saw the film I had a better understanding about what was going on. I don't think watching the film before reading the book ruined the book as the film is very faithful to the parts of the book that it uses and the actors are brilliant. The book is much more than the film and really gripping, my boyfriend's reading it now and he really is a slow reader but he can't put it down either.

Hi AMQS

Yes I really liked it I am the Messenger, it was quick and easy to read and a bit cheesy and I raced through it kind of like a grown up The Solitaire Mystery Jostein Gaarder

42. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
really good, so glad that I stuck at it as the first chapters were hard going but defo worth it.

43. Estates: An Intimate History

Hi jillianmarie, I'm glad you're winning the battle against those free papers!

I've just started reading Estates: An Intimate History and am really enjoying it so far. What did you think?

Hi Rebeki

I really liked it, I'm interested in social history so it was right up my street, what was interesting for me is that I now live in East London so when she goes on to talk about the estate she lives in in Tower Hamlets it's interesting to see how even since she wrote the book the area and social housing is developing. I've started reading Family and Kinship in East London as a follow up now...Let me know what you think of Estates...

44. Cold Spring Harbor I should have learnt from reading Revolutionary Road that it would leave me feeling all bleurrggh like.

I love the sound of Estates - another one for the library reserve list! I've also written down Family and Kinship in East London. Thank you for the recommendations! I still have the one about the war to read, but the library books keep piling in on me. Yes, I know I click the button...;-)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, more recx for my TBR listing.:-( Dontcha know my notebook is almost full and there are 25 lines per page and 120 sheets per notebook? Hmmmmmmmmmmm??????????
But they sound really good so how can I resist?
Thanx,
belva

Hi Jill, I'm stopping by tell you that I loved Estates. I moved to London just over a year ago and, since then, have started to become interested in social history in general and learning more about the city, so I shall look out for the book you mention. I've also heard good things about The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum.

I'm glad to hear Tower Hamlets is developing for the better. I found reading about the negligent approach taken to council housing from the 60s onwards (particularly the tale of Ronan Point in Canning Town) quite depressing.

Thanks for all your comments...I'm struggling a bit with 'Family and Kinship in the East End' though it's interesting to see how writing has changed..sort of that history is now for everyone not just academics, and I like it when they actually quote people from the EastEnd...so took a break and;
44. America Unchained Dave Gorman
45 'Salem's Lot I was ill, it was easy

46. Mrs Woolf and the Servants

and now I will finish Family and Kinship... I will!

Hi Jillianmarie--I remember when #46 came out. The reviews made it sound interesting and I put it on my "mental" TBR list. How did you like it?

I'm woefully behind, not on my reading, but on my posting to my 50 thread. Maybe I'll catch up soon!

Teresa

Hi Teresa

I found it a really interesting read, I know I did some Virginia Woolf in University but it's all gone either hazy or I really wasn't paying attention so I found this a really good introduction to Woolf and her writing in terms of her attitude to the working class, her sense of otherness. I also found it interesting as it was through the servants of Virginia Woolf and her family a history of domestic service how it changed and how people's attitudes towards the employment of servants changed espcially because of the two World Wars. I also espcially liked that it didn't put Woolf on a pedestal.

Let me know what you think of it

Jill

Thanks, Jill. You make it sound even more interesting. I'll let you know when I get to it.

47. The Friday Night Knitting Club bloomin' awful

> read 47... how come you read it in the first place ?

p.s. you're definetly going to reach 50 this year !

Wonderlake that is a question I have been asking myself...I just wanted some easy chick lit to read after all that social history and I'd bought it for my sister 'cause she likes knitting (I wont be giving it to her she's ten times cleverer than me) and then when I looked on the Librarything will you will you not like it meter it said I definetly wont like it so I was intrigued to see if it was right...it was.

I thought about giving up half way through but I couldn't see where it was going as the 'couple' got together half way through so it held my intrest in that way (begrudgingly)

anyhow onwards and upwards...

Message edited by its author, Sep 15, 2009, 7:01am.

I didn't care for it much either, jillianmarie. I thought it was strange that Jacobs would call the book the Friday Night Knitting Club but then we barely really ever got much about the club throughout the book. It seemed like we were just supposed to accept that the club formed and continued to exist and all was well without getting to see too much of that bonding process.

Funny how that LT meter sometimes gets things so wrong but every once in a while, you wish you'd listened to it :)

Message edited by its author, Sep 15, 2009, 9:17am.

48. cheating a bit 'cause I read the fist two book in this earlier this year or maybe last year but have now finished Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

My bookshop's cellar is flooded, it's really depressing to look down there and see floating books. So I had to spend the day waiting for the council to pump the water out, there are worse places to be trapped waiting (all bloomin day!) so 49. Bone in the Throat it's the big clear out of damp books today so I might tackle Proust as my 50th...or maybe not

50. Never The Bride

Done it...now what do I do?

1. Knots and Crosses Ian Rankin
2. Oliver's Story Erich Segal
3. Trans Siberia by Rail and a Month in Japan Barbara Lamplugh
4. Things I Want my Daughters to Know Elizabeth Noble
5. The Boy in the Strped Pyjamas John Boyne
6. Handbags and Gladrags Maggie Alderson
7. My Life in France Julia Child
8. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society Mary Anne Shaffer
9. Miss Pettygrew Lives for a Day
10. Elvis Sightinngs
11. Reading Lolita in Tehran
12. Loving Frank
13. The Wedding Officer
14. Resistance Owen Sheers
15. Festival on the River
16. Dear Exile
17. In Cold Blood Truman Capote
18. The Night Watch Sarah Waters
19. Shakespeare: The World as a Stage Bill Bryson
20. The Wilderness My World
21. Digging to America Anne Tyler
22. My Best Friend's Girl
23. Anybody Out There? Marion Keyes
24. Empty Cradles Margaret Humphreys
25. Life Swap Jane Green
26. Spellbound Nora Roberts
27. Love is a Mixtape
28. Wartime Britain Juliet Gardiner
29. Got You Back Jane Fallon
30. Bad Food Britain: How a Nation Ruined it's Appetite
31. The Agency Ally O'Brien
32. The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte
33. The Northern Clemency
34. Dylan Thomas
35. Twenties Girl Sophie Kinsella
36. Address Unknown Kressman Taylor
37. Let the Right One In
38. He's Just Not That Into You
39. The Road
40. I am the Messenger
41. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
42. Estates and Intimate History
43. Cold Spring Harbour Richard Yates
44. America Unchained David Gorman
45. 'Salem's Lot Steven King
46. Mrs Woolf and the Servants
47. The Friday Night Knitting Club
48. Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky
49. Bone in the Throat Anthony Bordain
50. Never the Bride

31/50 I enjoyed

Congratulations! Now I think you see if you can read 25 more before Christmas and then wonder whether you'll do the 75 book challenge next year ;-)

I'm reading Estates at the moment, and the new Sebastian Faulks, but that's a brand new library hardback so I can't take it on the bus in case of rain at the bus stop. I hope to finish them both this weekend.

I hope you got all your damp books sorted out - how heartbreaking when it's books, in a way that it wouldn't be for cereal or washing powder...

All cleaned up now...had much needed holiday and onwards and upwards..

Half way through Sarah Waters The Little Stranger but too heavy for the tube...

51. Whatever Happened to Janie? (I read The Face on the Milk Carton years and years ago)

52. Cleaving Julie Powell ; hated it and not the butchery that really doesn't bother me..I don't know if it's brave or just really strange to write about yourself in such an unlikable way?

53. Our Own Piece of Paris Ellie Nielsen, I want to buy an apartment in Paris too!

54. Delicious by Nicky Pellegrino, 1/2 set in Italy 1/2 in England loved the descriptions of New Brighton on the Wirral where I used to spend my summers very nostalgic.
55. Small Island Andrea Levy - brilliant
56. Year of Wonders Geraldine Brooks really good, hard going & gruseome

(edited cause I keep forgetting what I've read...my mind is mush like the books from my damp damp cellar)

Message edited by its author, Oct 7, 2009, 12:48pm.

57. Heart Shaped Bullet

58. If You Could See Me Now

59. Ring by Koji Suzuki

60. Something Borrowed by Paul Magrs

61. Elizabeth David by Lisa Chaney

Message edited by its author, Nov 2, 2009, 12:45pm.

62. The Time of Our Lives Imogen Parker absolutely loved it, each chapter is a day of a year 1953 to 1969 set in a southern seaside resort.

63. Wendy by Karen Wallace, a children's book with quite adult themes told through a child's eye

64. Idlewild by Mark Lawson

I just looked up The Time of Our Lives on the Librarything-ometer and it says I will love it ("certainty: very low") lol ;-) so I will add it to my list!

I loved it so much, I've bought the next two books off amazon (usually I wait until books turn up at my charity book shop) and I've got a waiting list of people waiting to borrow it I've gone on about it so much...I hope other people like it now...gulp!

I got it out of the library on Thursday and a quick flick through a few pages suggests I will indeed love it. I didn't realise it was the first in a trilogy, which is even better, as I have been asking around for "saga" suggestions and this seems perfect. I should get off here and go and finish the book I am currently reading so I can start it!

I've just started the second one and loving it already!

I'm 400 pages into the first one, and it's fantastic - just the sort of thing I like! It is particularly interesting having read Dominic Sandbrook's Never Had It So Good, because it means I know a bit about what was going on at the time of The Time of Our Lives. I must reserve the second one now, so I don't have too long to wait...

65. The Little Stranger I've been reading this on and off since September, because it was hardback it's been too unweildy to take on rush hour on the tube and so I've been reading it at home occasionally, I say occasionally because it didn't really grab me. I devoured The Night Watch, couldn't put it down so was really looking forward to reading The Little Stranger but it just dissapointed me, it seemed very in tune with the era it was set, and read rather like a Nevile Shute novel formal and detached. I also just felt for what was sold as a ghost story there wasn't much ghosting or explanation, I know things in real life go unexplained but I do like an explanation espcially after reading a very long book. In summary it just left me a bit flat when I came to the end.

66. On Brick Lane I loved this book it really made me consider where I live and the history of the area.
67. Bad Science really interesting but very much like The God Delusion preaching to the converted (and it was a bit too sciencey for me)

68. The Things We Do For Love

69. Don't look at me like that

70. An Education by Lynn Barber