50 shades of grey.

can't beat a secret santa off one of my other forums...in fact two of them...caused one member to emoquit and the other to get very snotty...

Fallible wrote:50 shades of grey.

I wish. It has already been alluded to in this thread.

?

?

1. notes from the upside down: inside the world of stranger things - guy adams - 4/5
2. mythos - stephen fry - 5/5
3. how to stop time - matt haig - 5/5
4. fever dream - samanta schweblin - 4/5
5. tourmaline - james brogden - 5/5 - very good read, like barker without the extreme stuff...will read the others in the sequence...

1. The Unseen - Roy Jacobsen.
2. Man's Search For Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl.



Fascinating, difficult to read in places and quite moving. Disappointingly strays into woo on occasion, especially when explaining his logotherapy model.

1. notes from the upside down: inside the world of stranger things - guy adams - 8/10
2. mythos - stephen fry - 9/10
3. how to stop time - matt haig - 9/10
4. fever dream - samanta schweblin - 8/10
5. tourmaline - james brogden - 9/10
6. the silent companions - laura purcell - 9/10 - was worried at the outset as the front cover quote is from essie fox, whose books neither fal nor i have been immensely impressed with...the back mentions the little stranger by sarah waters...online comments mention susan hill hill and shirley jackson.....luckily, the back cover and the online comments are the ones to rely on... a great gothic chiller in the susan hill style, very creepy in places and a great choice of subject matter...oh, and the cover of the hardback's lovely...



changed to scores out of 10 as i keep pitching too high, which leaves me nowhere to go if i read something astonishingly great....

1. The Unseen - Roy Jacobsen.
2. Man's Search For Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl.
3. The Sellout - Paul Beatty.



Well written, sometimes funny, but I often felt I was the giraffe crashing the polar bears only house party. I think i missed something. 3/5.

Audiobooks in Italics.

1. The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
2. Ask the Dust - John Fante

1. notes from the upside down: inside the world of stranger things - guy adams - 8/10
2. mythos - stephen fry - 9/10
3. how to stop time - matt haig - 9/10
4. fever dream - samanta schweblin - 8/10
5. tourmaline - james brogden - 9/10
6. the silent companions - laura purcell - 9/10
7. the surgeon of crowthorne - simon winchester - 8/10 - bit of a departure from the norm for me, more of a factual research piece than some comments had led me to believe...very interesting, though i felt it was slightly imbalanced, with a huge focus upon the background of each of the main characters then a comparatively rushed second half after their meeting...well worth a read, though, from a historical or lexicographical perspective...being/been made into a film apparently, not one i'm aware of...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5932728/?ref_=nv_sr_1

[i]1. A Forest of Stars - Kevin J. Anderson
2. A Dance With Dragons - George RR Martin.[i/] Took me 7 years to finally catch up with the boks. Started and stopped Feast for Crows many, man times. Finally persisted.

took me forever to get through the first one of soi&f...would love to go back and read through them all but not sure i will...want to work back through and complete the dark tower series first...

1. Autumn by Ali Smith
2. Elmet by Fiona Mozley

how was elmet? remember that being on the booker list

I liked it. Supposedly set in the present with a lot of current politics, but also somehow feels like it's set ages ago.

1. Autumn by Ali Smith
2. Elmet by Fiona Mozley
3. Women and Power by Mary Beard



It's basically her lecture notes written out in sentences and put in a book. Fine, but a complete waste of time if you've watched the lecture it's based on (which is on Youtube) because it genuinely adds absolutely nothing to what she says in that. The phrase "shameless cash-in" springs to mind. I watched an interview with Sara Pascoe whose book Animal I read last year (highly recommended) and she said that the publishers were desperate for her to put "Woman" in the title, because that's guaranteed sales at the moment. It seems to me like they've approached Mary Beard with the aim of making a big-selling book off the back of a prominent feminist with the minimum of effort.

The lecture is well worth a watch though.

1. notes from the upside down: inside the world of stranger things - guy adams - 8/10
2. mythos - stephen fry - 9/10
3. how to stop time - matt haig - 9/10
4. fever dream - samanta schweblin - 8/10
5. tourmaline - james brogden - 9/10
6. the silent companions - laura purcell - 9/10
7. the surgeon of crowthorne - simon winchester - 8/10
8. the storm watcher - graham joyce - 8/10 - fits more in with 'the facts of life' style joyce rather than 'the silent lands' - that air of magical realism seeps into both...a character study of a novel with disintegrating and dysfunctional relationships amid some creepy griminess that leaves you feeling like you need a wash....enjoyable, but feel like there could have been slightly more to the denouement...

1. notes from the upside down: inside the world of stranger things - guy adams - 8/10
2. mythos - stephen fry - 9/10
3. how to stop time - matt haig - 9/10
4. fever dream - samanta schweblin - 8/10
5. tourmaline - james brogden - 9/10
6. the silent companions - laura purcell - 9/10
7. the surgeon of crowthorne - simon winchester - 8/10
8. the storm watcher - graham joyce - 8/10
9. the unseen - roy jacobsen - 8/10 - 'an island is a cosmos in a nutshell'...sums the book up nicely, a detailed study of life in a harsh climate...a nice change of pace & a great translation...