50 Book Challenge Part Five

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2017, 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 the year is here, the second one here, the third thread here and the fourth one here.

What are you reading?

The Hare with the Amber Eyes. Anyone read it? I have had it on my Kindle app on my phone it is my book to read when I have forgotten my current book! If that makes sense! Thing is I have had it a while now about 20% of the way through and finding it a bit up hill. Is it worth really concentrating on it? I.e. Making it my 'main book'? Does the pace pick up ? Help!

RMC I was on this thread last year asking exactly the same question! I persevered with it and yes, I found that the pace picked up a bit when the narrative moved from Paris to Vienna. I ended up quite enjoying this.

But the problem is not conforming to a genre. NLMG is SF, whether you think it is or not. Tgere is no preset formula to confirm to. It talks about a future when people are cloned for organs, just like the book Spares and the film The Island. The fact that there is no such technology (and as a result, society) at present clearly defines the book as SF. It is also arguably Dystopian, which is a sub-genre of SF.

As someone else said, it is "scienceless sci-fi" which is an odd and sad thing.

Regardless of whether or not you like or have previously read SF, you presumable require books to make sense. That means, if author intends to make all characters do strange stuff like go meekly to their deaths without a thought for escape or rebellion, he needs to do a minimum of worldbuilding. Or (for a non-SF book) if main character hates her children, there needs to be at least a little bit of exploration into why - rape? past trauma? psychosis?

It's not about conforming to a genre. It's about the story making some sort of sense.

I don't care enough about NLMG to want to argue endlessly about it, so won't write again on the subject, but, really, the book does make some kind of sense. It makes sense to me. I appreciate it doesn't make sense to you, but that doesn't stop it making sense to me - nor does it make me wrong. Other people on this thread and elsewhere have said it makes sense to them too. There are plenty of people who think Wuthering Heights is a good book so there is room for diversity of opinion in literature, as in all art.

You say it is science fiction because part of its plot concerns something to do with science that we can't yet do. I think it is fiction and the science part is irrelevant to what the book is really about. That part doesn't matter to me, but it matters intensely to you. That part does not invalidate the book at all to me, but it invalidates it completely to you. You think it is an odd and sad thing. I think it is compelling and thought-provoking.

I'm sure we've both read many hundreds of books and will probably agree on some of them and disagree on others. You're obviously as irritated by NLMG as I was recently by All The Light We Cannot See (for completely different reasons). We all have our own lines we cannot cross.

Tarahumara thanks. Good to know it improves. Think I will leave it as my second best book at the moment. Loads is stuff going on here in RL so need something I can escape into without a fight. Won't abandon it though

I wasn't as wowed by The Hare With the Amber Eyes as I expected to be. I was a little bored, though some of the history is quite diverting. It is pretty short though.

Thank you RMC and Chessie- I wonder what book that was from then?! Think it was a series about pre and post was aristo family with lots of cousins; howeverbit was somewhat trashy and I wondered why peeps keep raving about it! Will try the real Cazelets instead!

Btw am very much enjoying 15) the Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris which was recommended on an earlier thread this year, I nearly didn't start it as I didn't realise it was historical (usually if I want to read post war detective fiction I will read something written in the 40s or 50s), but I am gripped so off to finish it right now!

Bored of NLMG. Everytime we 'fight' about it on here I end up thinking that it's too dumb a book to warrant all the discussion.

Book 41
The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey
Have I seen JT mentioned on here before? Never seen any before and then happened to spot two in the library, so grabbed them.

My first Tey. I quite enjoyed it – liked Inspector Grant and liked the way it was pretty obvious that it all looked too easy and that there were obviously going to be twists, but found the twist itself a bit daft and hated the way the author sometimes intruded, especially at the very end. A bit Enid Blyton overall. I’ll read the other since I've got it from the library but doubt I'll go out of my way to get more after that.

I recommended Miss Pym Disposes to you - that's Josephine Tey.

I love Josephine Tey, but I'm not that fussed about her Inspector Grant ones. He's a bit dull for me - I like my Golden Age crime with heiresses and evil butlers and priceless jewels. I prefer the Teys where it's about ordinary people suddenly having to deal with the fact that someone they know has done something dreadful. Brat Farrar is my favourite of hers, but The Franchise Affair is also worth reading.

Thanks, Cheerful. I'd forgotten about Miss Pym. Will look out for her!

I've never even been tempted to read NLMG, even before all the debate on here. I always want to have an opinion but don't want to go so far as actually reading it.

Please all go and read Brat Farrar if you haven't yet. It's the loveliest family story about fraud and murder you'll ever read.

1. Monster Love by Carol Topolski

Read this in one sitting today, and I haven't managed a book in a day for well over a year so I'm pleased. I think the Kindle cloud reader format was the main reason why though, because despite the fact that it was a very readable book, I don't rate it that highly.

I found the telepathic nature of the parents relationship implausible and therefore didn't like the last section of the book, it just stretched my willing suspension of disbelief too far. It was better from the beginning to middle, but even then, I never really felt truly interested by the parents, I didn't feel compelled to understand why they did it, and that's what I wanted to be made to feel. It was an easy read but unfulfilling.

Still reading The Girl With All The Gifts

"loveliest family story about fraud and murder"

Wait... what?

Ontop - Not specifically on NLMG but in general:

"You say it is science fiction because part of its plot concerns something to do with science that we can't yet do."

It's not me saying it Look up "science fiction" in any dictionary.

"I think it is fiction and the science part is irrelevant to what the book is really about. That part doesn't matter to me"

If a story takes place during the Fall of Constantinople but wrong on every conceivable detail, would you say "You think it's historical fiction because it's about a time & place in history. I think it's just fiction, history part doesn't matter to me"?

Or would you think that the author could have at least researched his subject and made his story more or less consistent with known facts?

The Power by Naomi Alderman

Reviewed several times on previous threads - dystopian novel with religious overtones in which women develop the ability to give electric shocks, resulting in a dramatic shift in gender roles. A good page-turner, but I didn't find it particularly subtle or thought-provoking. It reminded me more than anything of one of the more run-of-the-mill books from the Women's Press sci-fi list back in the day.

Sorry, that was no. 36

I love Brat Farrar- did anyone else watch it on TV in the 80s? A lovely book! I didn't enjoy Miss Pym or The Franchise Affair nearly as much.

Just finished the Hanging Shed- thank you to whoever reviewed it earlier! I will look for the others in the series. A good detective story, put me in mind of Desmond Bagley- did anyone else use to read those?!

sadik In relation to the sci-fi plausibility conversation, I haven't been tempted by The Power for the reason that it seems too silly - how do some women gain the power to give electric shocks, if it's not too spoilery? It just seems a bit daft to me but I know it's had a lot of ahem, buzz.

Change of plan , gave a bit of time to The Hare with Amber Eyes . 40 % of the way in and improving.

22. The Wisdom of Near Death Experiences - Dr Penny Satori

I read this thanks to a thread on MN where people were talking about their unusual interests. Dr Satori was a nurse who decided to investigate NDEs in a clinical setting to find out what causes them. This book is one of the results of her PhD research. It was fascinating - it had accounts from patients she had interviewed and she used this to illustrate how people are affected by NDEs. Her concern for helping patients come to terms with what is often a profound experience shines through.
She also examines common physiological explanations for NDEs.
It was a fascinating read.

I wasn't a sci-fi reader before joining these threads. I'd always headed straight for fantasy in that section of the bookshops.

Have never read NLMG but I do find it easy to suspend disbelief in worlds which are not our own. I think this may be years of reading horror/fantasy where strange things are just expected. Doesn't stop me hating a book which leaves something unexplained though!

I love the sound of Brat Farrar, right up my street. Have downloaded a sample.

Currently reading Ruth Rendell's The Vault which is just about the last Inspector Wexford. I had started on Shardlake 3 but struggled and given up. I don't know why because I really enjoyed Dissolution and Dark Fire. I will go back to it in a few weeks.

I'm wilfully ignoring the NLMG debate.

Satsuki - re. the electric shocks, there is an explanation within the story. It's not a wildly scientifically plausible one, but I thought it was good enough IYKWIM.

I don't think it's spoilery to say that you never hear much about it - the way the book is told you get events from the perspective of a small number of individuals, and a lot of their information is based on rumour and potentially unreliable / alarmist media reporting (so that'll be probably about 99% of media reporting of science stories ).

(There's a later event though which I thought was unrealistic even within the terms of her universe.)

I definitely wouldn't say to anyone to rush out and buy a copy, but I thought it was a good enough read given I got it from the library. Certainly not a patch on say Ursula le Guin for exploration of alternate-scenarios-for-gender-relations.

Cote
It is also arguably Dystopian, which is a sub-genre of SF.

Haven't read the book you are discussing but presumably you're not suggesting that dystopian literature is always a sub-genre of SF?

Ah, let the dystopian debate begin

Yes, dystopian fiction is a sub-genre of SF. I was thinking of Speculative Fiction when I wrote that abbreviation, but since there are very few books that are arguable Spec-fi but not Sci-fi (like J G Ballard's Vermillion Sands. I can't think of another book) the two terms are pretty much interchangeable. Actually, the term Speculative Fiction is increasingly used for Sci-fi because some dingbats like Margaret Atwood believe Sci-fi is about green Martians and realistic books that tell stories that might one day happen are not Sci-fi.