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?

Viola is nicknamed Villy

35 The Murdstone Trilogy by Mal Peet

Philip Murdstone is a once-successful YA author whose books have fallen out of fashion. His agent instructs him to write a fantasy novel, despite the fact that he loathes the genre. At which point a strange dwarf-like creature turns up and offers him a Faustian bargain. . .

Definitely a light quick read, but very, very funny in places. Just the thing for a slightly hung-over Sunday :) (I imagine even funnier for the friend who lent it to me who is a children's author & quite frequently cries off social engagements looking distinctly frazzled at the edges because she has to produce something for her agent )

50. The Dark Net by Jamie Bartlett

Already reviewed quite a lot on these threads. Told me some stuff I didn't know about.

51. The No-Spend Year: How I Spent Less and Lived More by Michelle McGagh

A freelance journalist decides that for a year, she will spend nothing other than her essential bills. She allows herself and her husband £30 per week to cover food, essential toiletries and cleaning products. On the one hand I really admire her because she made it quite tough for herself - she allowed herself no travel budget so had to cycle everywhere, and her list of essential toiletries was very short - no moisturiser for example. On the other hand, the book irritated me because a lot of her suggestions for saving money only really work if you're in London or another large city. For example, for entertainment she suggests going to watch TV shows or DVDs being filmed. Great in London, not so great elsewhere! It was also easier in her job to get away with not spending money in some circumstances - anyone with client-facing jobs would struggle turning up to work in ripped/worn/smelly clothes as she admits she did towards the end of the year. She also doesn't have children! It was quite thought provoking though, as by the end of the year she had managed to save up £22,000 which she used to overpay her mortgage. It did make me think about the areas I waste money. I will try and make more effort to spend less!

52. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

After the discussions upthread I was a bit nervous about this. It's about a young Irish girl in the Fifties who emigrates to Brooklyn. It was.... ok. Nothing much happened in the story and the main character had no personality. I don't understand why so many people rave about it. I was also baffled why the priest would pay for her to emigrate - I kept waiting for some revelation but no, there was no reason but they all just accepted it. Strange.

53. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler.

Narrated by Rosemary, looking back at her childhood and the disappearance of her sister Fern. There is something odd about Fern, revealed about a third of the way in. This was another book where I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. I didn't particularly like or care about any of the characters and didn't find the story particularly engaging. I did know the 'twist' before I started reading though - maybe it's better if you don't know in advance?

Not everyone is you cote. People make unbelievable choices. They kill their children. Live peacefully amid a murderous regime. Blow themselves up for god. Etc etc.

It's been many years since I read Never Let Me Go but it has stayed with me. I was able to suspend my disbelief and be open to a world where cloned children were brought up separately with limited access to the outside and subjected to a particular education and indoctrination. I didn't feel I needed to interrogate all the preconditions that led to that world being as it was portrayed. And as for people being willing to believe that clones don't have souls, people throughout history have been willing to believe many things that absolve them of guilt about fellow humans or animals (slavery, concentration camps, 'struggle sessions' in communist China).

15 Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Read inspired by you lot! Thoroughly enjoyed it, will recommend on actually to DF. Not his usual thing (written in last 50 years) but I think the structure will appeal to him. My only reserve would be that my mental health wasn't quite up to keeping track of who all the characters were when I met them second time around. However that's what flicking back though the book is for!

Now going on to Terry Pratchett's The Truth!

Chessie, I felt the same about We are all completely beside ourselves, and it falls into a category of highly acclaimed novels that I can't understand what all the fuss was about. I did, however, think there were some powerful scenes towards the end when they were reunited although it's years since I read it. Just thought I would let you know you're not alone.

I also read Never Let Me Go and really did not like that one either. I don't remember enough of it to expand upon that statement. Although I do remember that I read it because it was highly recommended by my local newsagent who was 80+ at the time, I think I was about 29, and that was a pleasant surprise for me. That recommendation was the beginning of an unlikely friendship based on love of reading.
Am enjoying The Kitchen House so far.. back to it.

chessie re: Brooklyn and the sponsorship by the priest - it was apparently very common and it never struck me as being something that was pending revelation. It's all laid out what happened and for what reasons. The Catholic Church was strong link to home for thousands of people who left a weak Irish economy for the prospect of employment in America and facilitated the transition. The main character helps a lot with Church activities when she's there and there is a strong Irish community around the Church that the Priest obviously wishes to continue to strengthen. Also I feel she did have a personality - some personalities are however, quiet, reserved, uncertain, and watchful, and I want to read stories about those kind of personalities too, so I liked it for that. I think when we discussed it here before, those it appealed to identified a bit with the feeling of rootlessness and of being an outsider.

I would do anything, go anywhere to escape looming death. Are you saying you wouldn't, unless a destination is nicely presented to you?

I can imagine scenarios where I would accept the looming death, TBH. Although they'd tend to be the kind of scenario where I'd be sacrificing myself to save my DC, not a "we need to kill you so a stranger you've never even heard of can live" scenario.

It'd have to be some very powerful indoctrination to have all these clones marching acceptingly off to the slaughter, especially when they're given ample opportunity to attempt escapes.

wilting - "Not everyone is you cote."

They are not? What do you mean?

"People make unbelievable choices. They kill their children. Live peacefully amid a murderous regime. Blow themselves up for god. Etc etc."

Yes, sure, everyone makes different choices BUT we all have one thing in common: When you know you will get horribly mutilated & killed, you run and hide. People do it. Animals do it. Insects do it. There is even evidence that plants take measures not to be eaten (communicate between themselves when an animal comes to graze and make their leaves bitter).

Ultimately, it is just not believable that these humans will hear "We'll butcher you & kill you when we feel like it, for someone else's benefit" and do nothing whatsoever to avoid that fate except ask nicely if they can have an exemption. Without any attempt at an explanation, no conditioning, no genetic modification to render them docile, no nothing at all. Just a big gaping plot hole that I can throw 20 of those pathetic, whiny clones through. (Sorry, just couldn't resist it )

"I can imagine scenarios where I would accept the looming death, TBH. Although they'd tend to be the kind of scenario where I'd be sacrificing myself to save my DC, not a "we need to kill you so a stranger you've never even heard of can live" scenario. "

Of course. Needless to say. The alternative has to be far worse a thought than being butchered & left to die.

The Cazalets does start slowly Fatowl bit picks up pace, I'd say it's worth persevering. I don't do audible though so not sure what difference that would make.

I also liked We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves. I read it for a weekend when I was away from my children, and the physicality of the descriptions really resonated.

Nice to see the Never Let Me Go debate rearing its head again, didn't we do this last year? I'm on the snap out of it & do something side, but tend to spend half my life mentally shouting at annoying protagonists.

25. The Hydrogen Sonata - Iain M Banks. This made me think of Cote, music and sci-fi. There's a musician trying to play an almost impossible piece of music on an instrument that you need four arms to play, the Antagonistic Deconstring, a group of amusingly named Culture Minds, a man who is thousands of years old, and an alien race that is about to sublime. There's an added poignancy to the story as it was Iain Banks' last sci-fi book before he died, and it is kind of about mortality. I'd forgotten how much I like the Culture books, they were probably the first sci-fi I got into. I'd recommend but probably best to read some of the earlier ones first to get into the world.

There is even evidence that plants...communicate between themselves yes, Triffids, right?

I quite liked We are all completely beside ourselves. It was ok.

We are all completely beside ourselves - I thought this was quite an entertaining read but I can't quite understand why people rave about it. I didn't know about the twist so that's probably what kept me interested. I have a feeling it's on our book club list for later in the year. Might stick it on audible rather than 'read' it again

Hope Jahren discusses plants' self protection and communication techniques in Lab Girl. (Monthly plug accomplished!)

I really didn't like We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I knew there was a twist, but not what the twist was but had guessed it pretty quickly from Fern's treatment etc. Then I thought it just got really boring and animal liberation front. I skim read the latter half of the book.

Fascinating discussion. Vaguely reminds me of advice my education tutor gave me at uni "passme, never forget that every single pupil could just get up and walk out and there is nothing you could do about it" the fact that most kids don't is a debate in itself.

I thought We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was alright. I enjoyed it at the time and some of the description is good but not one I would rush to recommend.

The discussion about A Child In Time was interesting as well. I read that before becoming a parent and I am not sure I could read it now. I genuinely think of it almost every single time I am in a supermarket. I suppose in that respect it has changed my life without meaning that to sound too hyperbolic. I remember the supermarket scene so vividly and then the father having to face going home without her to tell the mother. Absolutely hideous and makes my heart race just thinking about it.

Nothing like starting a bunfight and walking away. I wasn't expecting such a reaction.

I enjoyed Never Let Me Go, it gave me a lot to chew on, not to mention all these buns you have thrown at me.

I could ignore the science element, it is fiction after all. I thought it showed what it is like to be institutionalised well. They readily accept things because that is just how it is done. For those born into cult settings or extreme religions, if you are indoctrinated from birth and with limited access to external influences how much would you question the world you live in? In 'A Few Good Men', one soldier is asked if the directions to the mess hall are in the rule book. When he says no, he is asked how he knew where it was. The answer - he simply followed everyone else.

I know the book didn't explicitly lay out every element of every point, but I don't think it needed to. Sometimes things just are that way as a societal norm and people accept it without question.

Yes the supermarket scene is awful. He can certainly write but rarely uses his power for good imo.

I think if Never Let Me Go had been narrated by 'the one that got away' or 'the one that questioned it all and rebelled' it would have been a more conventional and less interesting book (and we wouldn't be having this discussion again). That the narrator is so passive about her fate, and so unquestioning about, well, anything, adds to the dreamlike - sleepwalking - quality of the book, but also means the mechanics of it all are never explained to the reader (a.k.a. 'plot holes'). I liked it and found it frustrating in equal measure... but I think I liked being frustrated by it

I have only ever read that and the one with the hot air balloon. It's all a bit determinedly issue laden

Stokey - Yes, we did the Never Let Me Go debate last year and the year before, all the way back to 2013

Re Iain Banks - I read 8 of his books in quick succession and had to admit that his stuff is just too airy fairy, too sanitised, too... happy for me. People, robots, everyone just gets along etc. I thought Player Of Games wasn't bad just because I like the idea, but it just wasn't well developed at all. It would have been one hell of a story if Neal Stephenson wrote it IMHO.

Fortuna - "all these buns you have thrown at me"

No no no, this isn't a bun fight. It's a book debate. This is what we do If 50-Bookers fell out every time we rip into debate Never Let Me Go, we would not have made it past the 2nd year (and we are on the 5th year now).

"I could ignore the science element, it is fiction after all."

Whaaaat? This is science-fiction. The science has to be there in a book that talks about cloning and harvesting organs for transplants, and it has to be solid. That is why it is so hard to write good SF, which makes sense and is not only internally consistent but also consistent with everything we know about the universe.

Never Let Me Go is one of those sad SF books that was aptly described as "scienceless SF" in an earlier 50-Book thread along with Station 11. As a big SF fan, I assure you that SF books in particular cannot "ignore the science element"

Yes passme re: issue laden. I think sometimes he is the male version of Jodi Picoult (not that I've read any, but, still) but with more critical cachet.