2022 50 Book Challenge

[mak1277]

48 - The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy

His brand new novel that came out last week. For the first 150 pages, I couldn't believe this was written by the same man who wrote The Road and Blood Meridian. After that, he pretty much abandoned any notions of a plot and the book became much more interesting. Best description I can come up with is that this is an 89 year old man's meditations on coming toward the end of life. I suppose I'm going to be stuck reading Stella Maris, the companion novel that comes out next month.

 

[Fueco]

54. A Walk In The Woods, by Bill Bryson

I started reading this book more than twenty years ago, but never finished it. Well this time, I did.

Bryson and a friend set out to hike the Appalachian Trail. They are woefully undertrained and I’ll-prepared, but they learn a lot along the way and come to appreciate the woods.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

74. A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin.
I've lost touch with what number novel in the Inspector Rebus series this is now, but it's now two too many to be honest, as Rebus is well into retirement but still somehow involving himself with active cases. This one starts off with a bang with Rebus in court, and not in the witness box. It then goes backwards to explain how he got there after being 'hired' by also-supposedly-retired gang boss and former nemesis, Big Ger Cafferty, to find a man that most people think Cafferty killed some time before, apparently to say "sorry." It seemed pretty obvious this wasn't going to be true, but apparently not to Rebus. Meanwhile Siobhan Clarke is confronted with a tricky case involving a notoriously corrupt and violent police station that inevitably overlaps with Rebus's career, and Rebus's ambitious former subordinate, Malcolm Fox, now based at the Scottish Police HQ, lurks, seemingly trying to nail his former boss. It still passes the time but I stand by what I said last time around: the series should have been retired with Rebus.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

74. A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin.
I've lost touch with what number novel in the Inspector Rebus series this is now, but it's now two too many to be honest, as Rebus is well into retirement but still somehow involving himself with active cases. This one starts off with a bang with Rebus in court, and not in the witness box. It then goes backwards to explain how he got there after being 'hired' by also-supposedly-retired gang boss and former nemesis, Big Ger Cafferty, to find a man that most people think Cafferty killed some time before, apparently to say "sorry." It seemed pretty obvious this wasn't going to be true, but apparently not to Rebus. Meanwhile Siobhan Clarke is confronted with a tricky case involving a notoriously corrupt and violent police station that inevitably overlaps with Rebus's career, and Rebus's ambitious former subordinate, Malcolm Fox, now based at the Scottish Police HQ, lurks, seemingly trying to nail his former boss. It still passes the time but I stand by what I said last time around: the series should have been retired with Rebus.

Machine for making money…neither publisher or author are going to quit while the bloods still flowing.

 

[mak1277]

Anyone here read much Rilke and have a recommendation on where to start? I have read so many books that quote or mention him I figure I should do some reading.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

Vale Ian Jack. Just read The Guardian obit Throughly enjoyed his editorship at Granta wrote some of the best long form journalism I’ve ever read.

Still have most of those volumes of Granta.

 

[mak1277]

49 - A Sport and a Pastime, James Salter

someone had mentioned it up thread and I enjoyed Solo Faces so I picked it up. Really really fine writing. Sex scenes weren’t bad either.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

49 - A Sport and a Pastime, James Salter

someone had mentioned it up thread and I enjoyed Solo Faces so I picked it up. Really really fine writing. Sex scenes weren’t bad either.

Ha reading this reminded me of Hell by Henri Barbusse. To my 21 year old self it was very erotic. I wonder what my impression would be now..“I had the perfect necklace of your legs around my neck” the reason I remember that line is…

 

[SixOhNine]

43. Angels In The Moonlight, by Caimh McDonnell
Book 3 of The Dublin Trilogy, so you're thinking this wraps up the various storylines that played out through the previous two books, right? Oh, but you'd be so very wrong. In classic Irish fashion, McDonnell goes for misdirection and serves up a prequel, focusing on an influential, but somewhat peripheral, character, Detective Bunny McGarry. Here we learn more about his past and some of the events that make him the entertaining and colossally flawed person he is in the present. It's quite good, though I think there are a few continuity issues, which is probably inevitable when writing a prequel.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

75. The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Naylor
This is a very effective if depressing piece of ecological science fiction, which focuses on consciousness (human, animal, artificial) and the possibility of communication between diverse consciousnesses, particularly in an era of environmental collapse. The story centres on a Vietnamese biologist whose life work is the study of octopuses and what happens when observations are made that would seem to indicate that they are capable of using symbolic language. Of course she is far from the only person interested and there are those who would want to both exploit and destroy these creatures, including a powerful and shady corporation interested in perfecting AI. Definitely worth reading.

 

[mak1277]

50 - All the Pretty Horses, C. McCarthy

Somehow I got this without reading the Border Trilogy.

Now that I hit the completely arbitrary goal of 50 I'm debating just reading random short stories and poetry for the rest of the year instead of stacking up more books...not sure.

 

[Fueco]

50 - All the Pretty Horses, C. McCarthy

Somehow I got this without reading the Border Trilogy.

Now that I hit the completely arbitrary goal of 50 I'm debating just reading random short stories and poetry for the rest of the year instead of stacking up more books...not sure.

This is the time of year I read something that takes longer, and catch up on magazine articles.

 

[mak1277]

This is the time of year I read something that takes longer, and catch up on magazine articles.

Something daunting that I would normally hesitate to pick up is a good call too

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

75. The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Naylor
This is a very effective if depressing piece of ecological science fiction, which focuses on consciousness (human, animal, artificial) and the possibility of communication between diverse consciousnesses, particularly in an era of environmental collapse. The story centres on a Vietnamese biologist whose life work is the study of octopuses and what happens when observations are made that would seem to indicate that they are capable of using symbolic language. Of course she is far from the only person interested and there are those who would want to both exploit and destroy these creatures, including a powerful and shady corporation interested in perfecting AI. Definitely worth reading.

Definitely will get a copy but the PB is not available till Feb 23 WTF? Sadly due to the pathetic state of the Pacific Peso the HB is an absurd price. By the way have you watched The Capture more Gibson than what The Preipheral has become.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

By the way have you watched The Capture more Gibson than what The Preipheral has become.

I have not. Will check it out for sure.