50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

Thread six of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2016, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, it's not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The first thread of 2016 is here, second thread here, third thread here, fourth thread here and fifth thread here.

Cote, I have seen the recent comments on Never Let Me Go and they make for interesting reading. I can't say I found the book particularly pleasant reading , but it did give some pause for thought. I do totally get the fact that the clones would not rebel , they were resigned to their fate.They had a purpose to fulfill and accepted that death would be the inevitable outcome ( as it is for us all).
It's only when the clones get older that it becomes apparent that the clones have urges and needs which are as "human" as "normal" people , even though they have never known normality. I think it throws up several questions about humanity and ethics.
Of course, I could be talking a load of old codswallop,😄

The trouble with a structure like that in OK is I found at the beginning you think what a good idea, but towards the end I just wished there was more concerning the central characters and felt a bit "oh I don't really care about these people" at one or two of the others. But too much and it might have seemed heavy handed, so. It was well done overall, and it's had me thinking about it since. I'd quite like to see what they do with the TV series tanaqui, has some great actors in it.

Ah, just realised I didn't answer your question on scaring myself silly at the responsibility, Phoenix. I was in the second year (of three) of training as a counsellor, when I read the first book on the reading list. It was about ethics and responsibilities - from both a legal and moral perspective. I was just starting to put into practice what I'd learned and found it terrifying, as its sole focus was on everything that could go wrong. In hindsight, it was a year three book. Interestingly, I don't believe anyone else in my year read it. They all read Yalom in one form or another and I think his honest, but light-hearted tone would've been more helpful at that point in training.

Satsuki thank you for your comment on the structure of OK and I think you've hit the nail on the head. I had two ideas which I'd been playing with which would've been in the same structure. I've now put them on the back burner whilst I work out how else to do them, as I wasn't happy with how the structure worked overall. I'll look out the TV series too, thanks tanaqui.

Oh and I've also re-read Morvern Callar by Alan Warner. It's one of those books I can read time and again. The Secret History is another one I've read more times I can remember. Speaking of Donna Tartt, has anyone read The Goldfinch ? After reading The Little Friend ( I hated it), I am a bit reluctant to try it.

Clarence, I really enjoyed The Goldfinch. It's not as good as The Secret History in my opinion but still good none the less.

Satsuki, I read Olive Kitteridge earlier this year and loved it. It's the quality of the writing I think, it's just immensely good, readable, not overblown but wonderfully measured. It just got to me. Lucy Barton I enjoyed but not nearly as much.

clarence (just realised what your name is - that is one of my favourite films of all time) The Goldfinch is readable but I have to say I disliked it. Not read The Little Friend but enjoyed The Secret History. I wouldn't be falling over myself to read her next one after The Goldfinch, put it that way. (I may change my mind in ten years though!)

whippet yes, agree totally with everything you've said there about OK

Hi Clarence, and welcome.

95. The Point of Rescue, Sophie Hannah
I read a lot of Sophie Hannah at the start of the year and complained endlessly that she did great set-ups but terrible endings. This is one of her earlier ones and also one of her better ones. You still have to suspend disbelief, but the strain is less compared to some of her others. Lots in there about the dark side of motherhood, which is always fun.

I didn't like The Little Friend but loved the Goldfinch. The SEcret History is one of my favourite books and agree it is not as good as that.

Still an excellent read though.Give it a go!

Pity we can't lend each other kindle books....

On Writing is well worth a read.

Is anybody reading The Fireman yet? I hated the beginning but it seems to have picked up now and I'm quite interested. Nowhere near as good a writer as his dad at his best, but I'm liking the concept now.

Apparently you can lend kindle to kindle in the US so maybe we will be able to here one day.

Iirc, for the TV version they changed OK quite a bit to give it a chronological narrative. It was good though, (but slow!) and Elizabeth Stout was qite interesting talking on radio 4 about it, but I can't find the elisode on I player any more to link to.

Attention Edward fans! The third Craig Lancaster Edward book is out. It's called Edward Unspooled and is currently £3.76 on kindle.

This thread has made me want to read The Secret History, so that's been added to my (already groaning) Amazon saved for later basket.

Joyless You're welcome re: the toxic parents books, I will update when I have finished the one I'm on. Ah I see what you mean now about Yalom being a lovely soft fluffy option compared to the book decided to read which would have put the fear of God into me to. Did it put you off altogether or did you push through?

Book 100
The Dark Tower by Stephen King
The final one of the series, and a magnificent finale. Lots happens in it, and lots of it is pretty depressing if you’re a constant reader and have loved the series. King could never be accused of making his books too short, and people who don’t appreciate him would be pretty fair if they called him a bit self-indulgent and overblown at times, but I’m willing to forgive him anything on his way to the Tower. Sigh.

Just checking as the thread's fallen off my active list. I'm in a bit of a hiatus at the moment. I've just given up on A Darker Shade of Magic (picked up from someone's list upthread I think) about 2/3 of the way through because it still just isn't gripping me.

On audio I'm about 1/2 way through the second Quicksilver book, King of the Vagabonds by Neal Stephenson which is fine but not a patch on the first, so it's also taking me a long time to get through.

I'm not sure now whether to go for a re-read, or try to find something new that will just hit the spot.

Definitely not manage 50 before end of the year but hope I make 35. Think I'm on 20 but will need to find my list. Need to catch up with this thread, have really missed it the last few months.

Remus - I'm about 30% of the way through The Fireman and have been enjoying it so far, although I've been having a break for something less demanding and lighter in tone this week.

Thanks for the heads up Cote, snapped up The Shining. More books!

Giving up on The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson. I expected to love it - early twentieth century women's fiction - but I can't take this much girlish whimsy. I read the reviews and it said the first part deliberately mixes up the narrator's fantasy with reality and the second part exposes it, but nope, even with that prompt, it's still not working for me.

Half-way through the script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The time-slip stuff is fairly bog-standard - "Oh no, we changed things and now the future is all wrong!" - but it's fun just to dip back into that world for a bit.

Ah, I've just got the reference too Clarence. I've never been keen on Jimmy Stewart, but Clarence and the bell ringing thing was my favourite bit and is something my family have always said! I am another who loved The Secret History but I'm afraid that I was very disappointed in The Goldfinch. Still, it won a Pulitzer (as did Olive Kitteridge which I was also disappointed in), so what do I know?

Phoenix, I did opt out of training and never returned, although that damn book was by no means the only factor! In all seriousness, my father suffered from heart failure and suddenly needed a huge amount of care at home, that led on to dementia and so I don't have the time or emotional energy for other people's problems the way I used to.

53. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro I wish I could fall into either the 'love' or 'hate' camp on this one, but I'm stuck on the fence, maybe with one foot touching the ground on the 'love' side. Because it is narrated in the first person, we can only know what Kathy knows, or what we can read between the lines of what she says. Almost any other author would, I think, have made a first person narrator the one that got away, or the one that found out the truth. That he chose to tell this story through the eyes of someone who is very much goes with the flow, and never properly challenges anything, was a brave decision, but the one that made the book so frustrating and sad.

I agree with those saying things don't add up, and don't make sense. It's clear we still do not know the truth about the whole coming programme by the end of the book. Even when Kathy and Tommy get some 'answers' from characters who they saw as authority figures in their childhood, it's clear that these characters never held all the power, and were misguided and ultimately sidelined. Even then, Kathy did not ask the right questions, didn't get angry. So many missed opportunities, things unsaid, questions unasked, in their relationships with each other, as well as the expectation that they would fulfil their role and quietly die. It's a book that makes you question what we accept as 'just the way things are' in our own lives and in wider society. It was a beautiful but frustrating book, it's made me think a lot, and I'm awfully glad I read it.

I loved The Goldfinch, Clarence.

Well done Remus for reaching 100!

I'm not doing too well at the moment - reading The Hare With The Amber Eyes and struggling with it.

That's an interesting review of NLMG museum, thanks. Made me tempted to read it, when I had been on the side of "Can I be Bothered?!"

joyless "never been keen on Jimmy Stewart"

Tara, The Hare with the Amber Eyes bored me to tears. I expected to like it but nah, dull.