valerie2 WILL make 50 in 2008...

After a disappointing effort in 2007 (during which my work-life balance was unfortunately tilted too far in favour of work!), I am committed to achieving at least 50 books this year. Kicking the year off so far have been:

1. Those Faraday Girls: Monica McInerney
2. The Sonnet Lover: Carol Goodman
3. Cat's Eye: Margaret Atwood
4. On Chesil Beach: Ian McEwan

Two of the above (numbers 2 & 3) were by authors I had not read before. While I enjoyed The Sonnet Lover it was not as compelling as I had hoped: the writing is beautiful, but the story was both predictable and far fetched (in various places). That said, I will happily seek out other books by Goodman and give her another go - I'm currently hunting for The Lake of Dead Languages. Cat's Eye was, I hope, a good insight into what I can expect from further Margaret Atwood books. I took a while to get into it, but ended up quite enjoying it (if 'enjoying' is the right word, given the somewhat disturbing subject matter). I have The Handmaid's Tale sitting in my TBR pile, and will probably elevate it up the list. Of the others, On Chesil Beach was a good enough read, but not among my favourites of McEwan's works, and Those Faraday Girls was, as expected, a fairly light read that suited my holiday mood.

In progress now are Kate Jacobs' The Friday Night Knitting Club and Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

Edited (unsuccessfully!) to try to fix touchstones :(

I have been a bit remiss in keeping this thread up to date. Here are my latest reads:

5. The Friday Night Knitting Club:Kate Jacobs
6. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay: Michael Chabon
7. A Walk to Remember: Nicholas Sparks
8. The Kite Runner: Khaled Hosseini
9. The Queen of the Tambourine: Jane Gardham
10. Mao's Last Dancer: Li Cunxin
11. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox: Maggie O'Farrell
12. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Thomas Hardy

Of the above, I really enjoyed The Kite Runner and Mao's Last Dancer. Although only one was non-fiction, both were educational as well as being a good read - and make you realise how lucky many of us are to be born into the lives and the world we inhabit. I also really enjoyed The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - a unique take on the (mis)diagnosis of mental illness and the repercussions for one now elderly lady - I definitely enjoyed this more than The Queen of the Tamborine, which also dealt with the issue of mental illness. Tess of the d'Urbervilles was my only re-read so far this year - an old favourite.

The two real lightweight reads in the above list were The Friday Night Knitting Club (fairly ordinary chick-lit) and A Walk to Remember (able to tug at the old heart strings despite fairly shallowly drawn characters).

OK - really, really bad at keeping this up to date!! At least I'm staying on track on the reading front, and am feeling pretty confident of getting to at least 50 this year.

13. The Alchemist: Paulo Coelho
14. Wonder When You'll Miss Me: Amanda Davis
15. Mister Pip: Lloyd Jones
16. 13 Little Blue Envelopes: Maureen Johnson
17. The Dream Life of Sukhanov: Olga Grushin
18. Change of Heart: Jodi Picoult
19. Marley and Me: John Grogan
20. The Secret History: Donna Tartt
21. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian: Marina Lewycka
22. The Glass Castle: Jeannette Walls

These have been a bit of a mixed bag: The Alchemist was a great disappointment given all the hype. While perfectly readable it was just a bit of a non-event -- maybe just not my cup of tea?? I have two more books by Coelho in my TBR pile, so I guess I'll find out whether it was just this book, or the author, that doesn't grab me. I was also disappointed with 13 Little Blue Envelopes - not enough character development to suck me in, and I wasn't surprised to learn that the author had never been to most of th places she sent her lead character to. YA literature comes much better than this! Wonder When You'll Miss Me, for example, had a lot more depth - but still nothing to rave about.

I usually love Jodi Picoult, and wanted to love her newest book - Change of Heart - but I didn't "believe" many of the characters, and didn't enjoy the supernatural aspects of the book (it had all been done before in The Green Mile).

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was just OK; Mister Pip, The Dream Life of Sukhanov and the Glass Castle were a step up. I also enjoyed Marley and Me - but I love dogs, so had fun imagining the havoc Marley wreaked on his unsuspecting family!

I did really enjoy The Secret History: just goes to show that it is possible to write a book about inherently unlikeable characters that still manages to make you care about what happens to them all. There is a certain pleasure in watching them all largely self destruct.

In progress at the moment:

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers

I liked The Secret History, too--I've read it a couple of times. Is this your first book by Richard Powers, or have you read others? I am always surprised that he doesn't have a larger readership, and always pleased when I see someone reading him.

I haven't read The Time of Our Singing--I've read Plowing the Dark, The Echo Maker, and Galatea 2.2. I'll look forward to your opinion on The Time!

Thanks for your comments, Medallia12. Yes, The Time of Our Singing is my first book by Richard Powers. He was a writer I was unaware of until coming across a conversation about this book somewhere on LT - the comments were enough to make me go straight out and buy it (I love the way this site has been able to introduce me to 'new' writers). So far I'm loving it - about 60 or so pages in, and sense that the story's still very much being set up. Given you already like Powers' work, I suspect the musical theme would be right up your alley (I sneaked a look at your profile page). Anyhow, I plan on pursuing this book further over the weekend and will let you know how I get on!

The next instalment... I've finished

23. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: Dai Sijie
24. Kafka's Soup: Mark Crick
25. Death and the Penguin: Andrey Kurkov
26. Animal Dreams: Barbara Kingsolver
27. Orpheus Lost: Janette Turner Hospital

In progress:

The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers. I'm extremely frustrated by this - it's a fabulous book that I was really enjoying, but I appear to have lost my copy! After hunting everywhere I've decided that I'll need to go and buy another copy because I just have to finish it!!

Giraffe by J.M. Ledgard

All in all, I'm confident of reaching my 50 books for this challenge by the end of the year - a definite improvement on last year!!