Goodreads/Pop sugar 2019 reading challenge

As promised in the last blog post I said that I would share some books read.
If you know me well, you'll know that I like books, not like, LOVE books, the look of them, the feel of them and the smell of them. Second hand books, especially those that I find with messages in, with dates, I particularly love. I often wonder about the person who gifted that book and of the receiver, did they like it? who were they? It brings a book alive for me, one of the reasons I could never own a kindle or such a gadget, it has no soul.
Back in February I did a post, here, listing the books I had read so far then promised to be back with more. Well clearly I'm a big fat liar and didn't come back at all. Well I'm back now now ain't I?
My Goodreads target was 52 books, I often try to read some from the BBC big read list and because I really like a challenge I'm doing the Pop Sugar 2019 challenge too!
The BBC list is ongoing and there's a lot I won't read on that list, same goes with the Pop Sugar, I'm doing quite well but I don't think I'll manage all 50.
So, carrying on from where I left off let's start with the first 12, I have 24 to share, next 12 tomorrow:

Hardy tells the story of Tess Durbeyfield, a beautiful young woman living with her impoverished family in Wessex, the southwestern English county immortalized by Hardy. After the family learns of their connection to the wealthy d'Urbervilles, they send Tess to claim a portion of their fortune.
My review ★★★★★
Such a range of emotions with this book, how I wanted to slap Tess around the chops! Alec is a dangerous predator who needed castrating, as for Angel Clare, well he was rather pathetic, I mean who calls a bloke Angel, Hardy referred to him constantly through the book as Clare, bluddy hell I kept thinking he was a woman! Oh for a modern age woman in her place who would give 'em all the finger and say to all that used her, "F*ck you!". A page turner for me though, as frustrating as it was.

Challenge: BBC big read; Pop sugar - A book about a family; A book that includes a wedding

The astounding yet true rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father who raised and cared for his son on the mean streets of San Francisco and went on to become a crown prince of Wall Street

More than a memoir of Gardner's financial success, this is the story of a man who breaks his own family's cycle of men abandoning their children. Mythic, triumphant, and unstintingly honest, The Pursuit of Happyness conjures heroes like Horatio Alger and Antwone Fisher, and appeals to the very essence of the American Dream. 

 At the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. Considered a prodigy in scientific research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him as part of the city's working homeless and with a toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children, the two spent almost a year moving among shelters, "HO-tels," soup lines, and even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station.

Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an astonishing transformation from being part of the city's invisible poor to being a powerful player in its financial district.

My review ★★★★★
A fascinating read, which took me on a bit of a roller coaster ride, it was brutal at times. It made me laugh and cry, there are some hugely emotional moments. It's not an easy read, being quite graphic in content, I can understand from other reviews why some people didn't get on too well with it. Having said that, his story isn't one that should be made all "fluffy" so as not to offend anyone. If you're offended or upset by swearing or graphic sexual content, then maybe this isn't the book for you, but imagine what living it must have been like! Some people have the tenacity to endure, no matter what life throws at them, Chris Gardner is one of those people. But don't take my word for it, read it for yourself. 

Monique Dembele saves lives and dispenses hope in a place where childbirth is a life-and-death matter. Her unquenchable passion to improve the lot of the women and children in her West African village is matched by her buoyant humour in the face of unhappy marriage and backbreaking work. This is the deeply compelling story of the rare friendship between a young development volunteer and this midwife who defies tradition and becomes - too early in her own life - a legend.

February's book club selection

My review ★★★★★   Incredible story, it broke my heart 

The inspiring story of an elderly woman's battles with her family who try and force her into a nursing home.
My review ★★★★★  Loved it, initially I felt quite angry and very sad but as the story went on I was rooting for the underdog. Quite a few laugh out loud moments, plenty of happy tears too. My only complaint, it was over all too soon, I wanted more. 

Heart of Darkness, a novel by Joseph Conrad, was originally a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899. It is a story within a story, following a character named Charlie Marlow, who recounts his adventure to a group of men onboard an anchored ship. The story told is of his early life as a ferry boat captain. Although his job was to transport ivory downriver, Charlie develops an interest in investing an ivory procurement agent, Kurtz, who is employed by the government. Preceded by his reputation as a brilliant emissary of progress, Kurtz has now established himself as a god among the natives in “one of the darkest places on earth.” Marlow suspects something else of Kurtz: he has gone mad.

A reflection on corruptive European colonialism and a journey into the nightmare psyche of one of the corrupted, Heart of Darkness is considered one of the most influential works ever written.

My review zero stars! What load of cobblers! The book had about as many pages of notes as story, if you need as many pages to explain a book, then the author hasn't done a very good job has he! Painful from beginning to end, I nearly gave up but dragged my way through it. Watching paint dry is infinitely more interesting, I could have happily gouged out my one good eye with a spoon but it is on the BBC big read list, one more book crossed off the list. I won't even give it one star, I hated it so much. I was reminded of the movie Apocalypse Now throughout. 

Challenge: BBC Big read

 Ruth is widowed, her sons are grown, and she lives in an isolated beach house outside of town. Her routines are few and small. One day a stranger arrives at her door, looking as if she has been blown in from the sea. This woman—Frida—claims to be a care worker sent by the government. Ruth lets her in.
Now that Frida is in her house, is Ruth right to fear the tiger she hears on the prowl at night, far from its jungle habitat? Why do memories of childhood in Fiji press upon her with increasing urgency? How far can she trust this mysterious woman, Frida, who seems to carry with her own troubled past? And how far can Ruth trust herself?
The Night Guest, Fiona McFarlane’s hypnotic first novel, is no simple tale of a crime committed and a mystery solved. This is a tale that soars above its own suspense to tell us, with exceptional grace and beauty, about ageing, love, trust, dependence, and fear; about processes of colonization; and about things (and people) in places they shouldn’t be. Here is a new writer who comes to us fully formed, working wonders with language, renewing our faith in the power of fiction to describe the mysterious workings of our minds.

My review ★★★★★ An unsettling book, immensely sad, I was unable to put it down. A fascinating read and a very well written story. I won't go into the plot as there are plenty of other reviews that do that.

March's book club selection
Challenge: Pop sugar - A book you think should be turned into a movie; A debut novel

In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party she is to give that evening, while in her mind she is much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house she is flooded with memories and, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa re-examines the choices she has made, hesitantly looking ahead to growing old. Undeniably triumphant, this is the inspired novelistic outline of human consciousness.

My review ★★   
Pfffrt! Reading this was like listening to someone telling you a story, who every so often would go off on a tangent, digress as it were. Most of the book was ok, but she lost me once in a while with parts so boring I threw my head back in despair. I know she's one of those writers from the 1920s that were supposed to have changed the course of writing but puleeze! A rather pointless story line, a bit like the characters really, from a privileged class with no real purpose. Yawn. It was however, beautifully written waffle. 

Challenge; Pop sugar - A book that takes place in a single day; A book with no chapters

When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless élite among them, masterminded by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, starts to take control. Soon the other animals discover that they are not all as equal as they thought, and find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is replaced with another. Orwell’s chilling ‘fairy story’ is a timeless and devastating satire of idealism betrayed by power and corruption.

My Review ★★★★★  I remember reading this at school and not having a single clue what it was about. I'm rather glad I didn't understand it back then, I may have had nightmares because re-reading it as an adult it's truly terrifying and very relevant 

Challenge: BBC big read; Pop sugar - A book with at least 1 million ratings on Goodreads; A book you meant to read in 2018

It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.

As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch combines vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and suspense, while plumbing with a philosopher's calm the deepest mysteries of love, identity, and art. It is an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.

My review ★★★★★  I really, really liked this, I didn't think I would, I saw 771 pages and thought, Uh Oh, this is going to drag on. But it didn't, not really, not for me anyway. It's not a fast paced book by any means, it chugs along at it's own pace, it's not entirely boring and not entirely exciting but there was a certain something that kept me reading, strangely compelling, pulling me in to the point that in the last 2-300 pages, I didn't want to put it down. I knew it was building towards something; I was hoping rather; had that not happened I think I may well have been very disappointed. It was just the last few pages that went on a little bit too long for me. At the end of the 3rd and final (thank God) LOTR's movies, I yelled at the big screen, "Get on the damned boat Frodo!!"the end was a bit like that, but definitely not like the end of A Suitable boy that went on for 1474 pages, took me months to read and when I read that final page, I threw it across the room in anger! Narrowly missing the husband! The Goldfinch is a very well written story otherwise.

Challenge: Pop sugar - A book becoming a movie in 2019

Heart - warming and compulsive reading, this is an entertaining, lively and moving novel from one of New Zealand's favourite authors.

My review ★★★★ What a lovely story, an enjoyable read. Light hearted, even with the serious undertone. 

April's book club choice
Challenge: Pop sugar - A book with and item of clothing on the cover 

Olivia is a young mother coping with the loss of her autistic son. She comes to Nantucket to separate herself from the life she led as wife and mother, and to start afresh, even as she tries to make sense of her tragedy: why was Anthony born autistic, only to live such a short life?

My review ★★★★★ 
My rating as I was reading was initially going to be 4 stars, it wasn't until I read the last two chapters that it instantly went to 5. It was really hard not curl up on the sofa and read until it was finished. It really resonated with me and I shed happy tears at the last few pages. Beautifully written.

Challenge : Pop sugar - A book with LOVE in the title

Gossip Girl meets Mad Max in this breakneck thriller where the divide between rich and poor is the line between life and death.
'The windows on all the skyscrapers are smashed . . .
No power, no lights, no people . . .
It's a parallel New York of some kind.'
THE COMING END
When Skye Rogers and her twin brother Red move to Manhattan, rumours of a coming global apocalypse are building. But this does not stop the young elite of New York from partying without a care.
CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?
And then suddenly Skye is invited to join an exclusive gang known as the Secret Runners of New York. But this is no ordinary clique - they have access to an underground portal that can transport them into the future. And what Skye discovers in the future is horrifying . . .
RUN! AS FAST AS YOU CAN!  

My review ★★★★
I would have liked to have put 5 stars, but 5 stars means "It was amazing". It wasn't quite amazing but I really, really liked it. Extremely difficult to stop reading and do other stuff, but a girl has to pee occasionally. Not read anything like it in years and years, loved this kind of genre as a teenager.
Great story and loved the way how it all wove together, with plenty of ah ha moments. I'd like to see this made into a movie, as long as they movie makers don't cock it up!

Challenge: Pop sugar -  A cli-fi (climate fiction) book


Also if you look down the left side of my blog you'll see that there is a Goodreads gadget that lists all of my books read to date since joining Goodreads.

💓💓💓💓💓💓💓 

That will do for today, a really gloomy one it is too, it started out foggy, a real pea-souper which turned into rain and now we have thunder rumbling around. Time to close all the curtains, shut it out and snuggle under a blankie with my current book.

Will try and finish off that list tomorrow