50 Book Challenge Part Five

If you are 20% the way through a book and it hasnt 'grabbed' you and you don't need to read it (book club/study etc) then why waste your precious time on it?

Finger now hovering over the Audible refund button, might give it another half hour or so.

Just a list of the names would help me out a bit.

It's disappointing as so many people say they love them and it's their comfort read. I was looking forward to it.
Think I'll return to Harry Potter as my comfort read

Just seen you've been listening to it - I read it on Kindle btw and still struggled to care who was who

Yep, I've managed War and Peace, Anna Karenina and several Ken Follets with a cast of 50+, but this is mystifying me.

fatowl I read the first one and found it really dull and I couldn't keep track of people for the reason they all seemed so similar. And I kept track of a half a dozen Rostovs in War and Peace! It was a non finisher for me.

Or give up altogether ?

Cazelet CHronicle fans- help please.

I'm 20% into the first one (The Light Years) and I'm really struggling. I'm listening on Audible, and I don't know if it's the narrator or what, but I cannot figure out who is who. I'm not even sure of the names of some, because the name is said once and then is referred to only as "he" or "she" for the next umpteen pages. One is called Filly or Lily (not sure which), one is pregnant with twins (that might be Filly /Lily) but might be someone else. One of the men is having an affair, but not sure if that is Filly/Lily's husband or someone else. There's a boy at boarding school but not sure who he belongs to. There is a maid, and a girl called Louise and another called Polly, but not sure who their parents are. There's another branch of the family whose mother has died in childbirth and he has remarried a bright young thing called Zoe, but don't know his name. Neville maybe.

I think I'm being thick.

I googled, and keeping reading references to a marvellous family tree, but cannot find the actual tree for move nor money, just references to it.

Is it me? Keep going and I'll sort them out eventually? Or switch to Kindle for this one?

16. Night School by Lee Child (Jack Reacher #21)

JR is my sort of beach read, and this was a one of the better ones. Instead of the usual 'helping a poor guy/girl in need' sort of plot, this was about stopping terrorists and preventing a global catastrophe which no doubt will be turned into a movie at some point.

Bringing my list over:

1. The North Water by Ian McGuire
2. The Snowden Files: Inside Story Of The World's Most Wanted Man by Luke Harding
3. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
4. The Cambridge Companion to Handel by Donald Burrows
5. Revelation by C. J. Sansom (Shardlake #4)
6. The Mask Of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
7. The Ladybird Book Of Mid-Life Crisis
8. The Schirmer Inheritance by Eric Ambler
9. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgkin Burnett

I seem to be reading more slowly this year. Not sure why, maybe it's because I've got Clarissa on the go as well, which will take most of the year.

Anyway, list as it currently stands:

1. The Spartans by Paul Cartledge
2. The Hedge Witch's Way by Rae Beth
3. Mort by Terry Pratchett
4. Mean Spirit by Phil Rickman
5. The Printer's Coffin by MJ Carter
6. The Raven's Head by Karen Maitland
7. The Sanctuary Seeker by Bernard Knight
8. The Thing About Prague by Rachael Weiss
9. Master of Shadows by Neil Oliver

This week I've also finished:

25. Into The Heart of Mindfulness by Ed Halliwell
    Part memoir, part instructional manual on mindfulness. I'm glad for Halliwell that he has found something so meaningful and helpful to him given the issues he sets out from earlier in his life, but I didn't really find this doing anything for me.

26. The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell
    First in the Warlord Chronicles, which is Cornwell's approach to the King Arthur legend. The three are possibly my favourites of his books. This one deals with battles between British kingdoms in the face of the Saxon threat, Arthur as protector of the throne of Dumnonia for his nephew, the infant king Mordred, and Arthur's marriage to Guinevere.

"Look at the use of religion to control the masses in previous centuries. People often blindly believe."

Yes, sure, let's look at the massive effort put into relentless religious conditioning that starts at birth and continues through the faithful's life. The book, the stories, the weekly conditioning sessions (Mass) in churches, continues use of litanies (prayer), etc.

None of the is in evidence in Never Let Me Go. Nothing. Nada. Kids are told they will one day be slaughtered and will die painful, early deaths for the benefit of others and they practically go "Oh, OK then"

Brave New World had brainwashing from birth through recordings played every night as children slept. 1984 had brainwashing, language control, even thought control. Never Let Me Go had... a huge gaping hole where the plot was supposed to be.

Fortuna yes, people may often blindly believe in religion etc, but off hand, I can't think of a single religion that tells it's believers that they'll be literally carved into pieces and killed for the greater good, there's no getting out of it, and that they should cooperate and let this happen.

Never Let Me Go is neither blackbird, nor steak, nor risotto. It's a lump of overdone pastry with insufficient filling to make it taste of anything.

Book 40
Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
A YA novel which I only bought because it was 99p on Kindle yesterday and I needed a book. So glad I did, because I really, really enjoyed it. A father, obsessed with surviving after a world disaster, takes his young daughter far into the woods, telling her it’s a bushcraft holiday. Then, after a storm, he tells her that the rest of the world has gone – it’s only the two of them left. We know from the start that this isn’t true, because the girl, now about 17, is back in London with her mother. What we don’t know for much of the book is what has happened to her father, and how she got back. Whilst I guessed the ‘twists’ well in advance, this didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this rather sweet little book, with its echoes of Little House on the Prairie and Room (but much better than the latter).

Happy (belated) birthday TheTurnOfTheScrew

Hope you enjoy your kindle!

And Never Let Me Go ....
I'm on the finding it annoyingly unbelievable side. No mention of a single one of them rebelling against their fate, or behaving in self destructive ways, and not even an attempt to explain it away. And that's before you think about the science behind organ transplants and tissue compatibility.

We can't have a debate today. I'm wallpapering and now my keyboard is sticky.

Look at the use of religion to control the masses in previous centuries. People often blindly believe.

I also started picking apart what is the point of education, how the UK system is a one size fits none, it limits social mobility etc. People are generally kept in their place and often don't know better to challenge it.
And as for self destructive behaviour, one lad did have 3 puddings!

"I need to feel the characters behaviour is realistic"

I do too, and would imagine do most people except fans of Station 11 and On The Beach

I'm not a fan of excessive, heartstrung-tugging, exaggerated feeeeeeeliiinnnnnnngs (... oh wow wow, feeeelinnnngss) in books. Normal human feelings and reactions are of course to be expected in a book.

You guys are making me hungry.

rmc I did the Child in Time for A level and it was good for an exam as it was packed with so many themes, but it's still usual write by numbers fare. He is jumping up and down all the time saying LOOK AT ALL MY THEMES! Ignore the fact it's all bollocks, look at my THEMES. And if you think you're getting out of here without a cringey sex scene, then my name's not Ian McEwan.

Agree social conditioning is strong, but none of them out of hundreds rebelling?! Or even just exhibiting self-destructive behaviour, seemed just too unrealistic, even if the main characters would conform.

It made me realise that I can go with sci-fi, dystopian or fantasy worlds in books, but I need to feel the characters behaviour is realistic, not just acting in a way that enables the story to bob along.

I know Cote isn't a fan of "feelings" over "action", but in some cases, authors do need to add more realistic responses!

"I do think social conditioning is stronger than we give it credit for. They had their own small rebellions, but none of them committing the ultimate taboo of refusing or just walking away. They were raised to accept their fate."

They were told they would be butchered for the benefit of others. No actual conditioning is described in the book. There is in particular no social conditioning, since they never lived in society but were always segregated from it. Nor is there any sort of attempt at an explanation of why on Earth they don't try to run away, or at least render themselves useless for example by doing drugs or getting infected with HIV, Hep B, etc.

This was one of my major problems with Never Let Me Go - clones' docility in willingly going to certain death made no sense. Even sheep would have better instincts of self-preservation and would make an effort to save themselves. In fact, I have seen sheep make more of an effort to escape slaughter once they start smelling blood. It looked like the author didn't know how to construct a a credible, internally consistent world and so just left it

The "science" made no sense, either. Clones' organs are harvested randomly, it seems, and given to whomever. Which totally runs against all logic and frankly the only reason why anyone would go through the trouble & expense of cloning in the first place: To have tissue identical to your own, so that there will be no tissue rejection.

Sci-fi/speculative fiction gets looked down on a lot, but it is not easy to write a good book in this genre. The author must imagine a background significantly different from our own, with myriad little details that make up a consistent and credible reality for the story to emerge from. Ishiguro fails on all counts in this book and seems to know it, too, because he satisfies himself with tugging on heartstrings, which frankly makes really pathetic speculative fiction.

"Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro Kazuo... No blackbirds here, this was definitely a steak dinner."

I'd contest that. Rather, it was a bland & uninspired dish with low nutritional value like rice, drowned in butter to make it taste somewhat appealing... It was risotto

Let the Never Let Me Go wars begin

I would agree with that InvisibleKitten and was practically shouting, "Run away!" during some parts.

However I do think social conditioning is stronger than we give it credit for. They had their own small rebellions, but none of them committing the ultimate taboo of refusing or just walking away. They were raised to accept their fate.

I think it's something he could have alluded to to round things off, but don't think it suffered too much from not being included.

FortunaMajor - Never let me go has divided opinion in the past - I was annoyed by how passive all the characters are, none of them rebelled, and while most would probably go along with what was expected of them, it felt unrealistic that that many teenagers all obeyed the rules about keeping their bodies healthy, none of them experimented with drugs or became alcoholic or shagged about with people from outside their "type", or even binge ate until obese.

I felt it was a massive bit missing, what happened if you didn't follow the rules, and the author just decided not to address it by making all his characters much better behaved than the average group of teens, despite having much worse childhoods and no future.

Stillloving There were parts of it I loved. The descriptions of the abduction and its aftermath were so gut wrenchingly real for example. But there were types when the writing just seemed overly indulgent. McEwan showing off basically. I found the whole Prime Minister thing a bit strange too, but was intrigued by the ongoing theme of childhood. It has stayed with me though, it's been one of those books I found myself thinking about after I have finished it, even while I am reading something else. Probably one of a reread at some point.
Rereading that 'review' I still sound hopelessly vague and waffling, but it's the best I can offer.

Finally caught up with the thread.

RMC I remember feeling haunted by the Child in time (Ian McEwan). I still remember aspects of the book, even though I read it years & years ago. What was it that made you not sure about this one? I thought that it was one of McEwan's better efforts.

boldlygoingsomewhere The Nobody told me poetry collection on motherhood you mentioned sounds wonderful, I'm definitely going to read this one.

PoeticLE I was very interested in your review of Swimming Home by Deborah Levy. It has been on my reading list for ages but haven't bought it, as I read half of Hot Milk by the same author and found, like you Swimming Home, the characters extremely unlikable, almost unbearable at times, and the writing quite irritating for reasons I can't put my finger on! In fact, I didn't finish Hot Milk, sitting on my shelf in nice (expensive!) hardcover, making me feel guilty! So many recommendations for Deborah Levy, and so far I really really didn't like her writing. I wonder what others think about this author, whether we should give her another chance?

27. Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro Kazuo about a group of special pupils at a boarding school and lives they were raised for once they leave. Once again it was a book I had heard of, but knew nothing about, so it unveiled as a complete surprise.

No blackbirds here, this was definitely a steak dinner. I'll be digesting this one for days. It has left me with so many questions about humanity, society, politics, ethics, mortality. It has also stirred up some old anger about current education policy and the reasons why I no longer teach. What is the point of it all? Am I too old to run away and join the circus?

Happy Birthday, Turn! 🎂

I read The Book of Daniel as an undergrad, and it really has impacted how I view narrative voice, reliability, and structure. I hope you enjoy it and your Kindle.