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?

But NLMG is narrated in the first person by someone who doesn't question things, so, quite rightly, the author only makes her comment on things that she thinks are important, and she either doesn't know, or doesn't want to know, or chooses not to tell us, about the science element. Frustrating as that might be for the reader, I think it's a legitimate way to play it, and doesn't make it not sci-fi. Not the conventional way sci-fi is done, I'll grant you

Nothing wrong with that, Museum. I like a bit of unreliable narrator

The problem here is that the scientific premise of the whole clones & organ harvesting thing is rubbish. If ever people are cloned for organs, it will be so that there is no tissue rejection when you need an organ - get tissue from your own clone. What doesn't make sense is going through all the trouble of making clones, and then harvesting their organs randomly and not according to the need of the person they are cloned from. Which means tissue rejection and a lifetime on immune system suppressants, just as is the case at present.

Some clones are chosen as carers, so their organs are not harvested - again, doesn't make sense. Why go to the trouble of cloning if you won't use them?

Cote what you're calling as 'rubbish', I'm calling as 'we don't really know how it works in this parallel universe because we haven't been told'. I can suspend disbelief when a book is good enough, and for me this one was (just about, though I may have wanted to slap the narrator a bit).

You wouldn't clone yourself. A baby's lungs would be no good to you - you'd have to wait years until your clone was old enough, by which point you'd probably be dead.

Updated list:

1. The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper
2. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding - Agatha Christie
3. Our Endless Numbered Days - Claire Fuller
4. Love Letters of Henry V111 to Anne Boleyn (totally counting this even though it's only about 70 pages, I'll read an extra long one at some point to balance it out!)

5. How to be Both - Ali Smith

1. Toast - Nigel Slater
2. A Man Called Ove - Fredrick Backman
3. Chess - Stefan Zweig
4. Beauvallet- Georgette Heyer

10. The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak 11. The Story of a New Name - Elena Ferrante 12. The Glorious Heresies- Lisa McInerney 13. The Girls at the Kingfisher Club -Genevieve Valentine 14. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 15. Soulless - Gail Carriger 16. She-Wolves: the Women Who Ruled England before Elizabeth - Helen Castor 17. Exposure - Helen Dunmore 18. The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert JK Rowling Galbraith 19. The Grand Babylon Hotel - Arnold Bennet 20. The Humans - Matt Haig 21. The Princess Bride - William Goldman

Just finished The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North - I'm not sure what to say about this one. It's taken me over a week to read because I gave up for a few days in the middle as I really didn't like it. But having just finished it I feel more favourable, it was clever and a good idea raising some interesting questions, and I found myself more invested in how it turned out than I would have predicted when reading the first 50-60%, but I did find so much of it either tedious or gratuitously grim in its returning to scenes of torture, that I can't say I enjoyed it. Follows the story of one Harry August, who discovers he is a 'kalachakra' - destined to live his life over and over again, remembering the past lives and reliving them. Eventually he discovers others of his kind and the novel plays around with ideas of morality, the butterfly effect and how far it is possible/desirable/wise to change events of history. Until Harry meets the villain of the piece who doesn't stick to the other kalachakras rules of not drawing attention to yourself and not messing with the overall arc of history, and so sets a course that will ultimately bring about the end of the world.

Thank you so much ChessieFL
Have about an hour and a half driving today, (So listening to Audible) -so it has until I get home to spark a flicker of interest or it's going back for a refund.

"You wouldn't clone yourself. A baby's lungs would be no good to you - you'd have to wait years until your clone was old enough, by which point you'd probably be dead."

Ideally, you would be cloned shortly after birth, so your clone would grow up with you and always have perfectly-proportioned organs for you to use.

Otherwise no need to go through the trouble and expense of cloning people for spare organs, since you will have the same tissue rejection problems as from any stranger.

Cote, this is boring. You find it unbelievable. I do not.

People clearly do not always rebel, frequently stand there and take it, including looming death.

But I am tbh v bored of the topic . I only engage in it at all to provide some balance to the unreasonably heavy criticism it gets here and assure others that this isn't actually a NLMG bashing thread.

Composteleana

Sorry finger slip!! Trying to say that She wolves has been on my radar for a while. Have I missed a review? Was it good? Assuming it was a highlight for you as it is in bold.

I agree with wiltingfast, to add ballast to the support for NLMG. I don't think it's the best book I've ever read but it's a well-written book that raises some interesting issues in an interesting way.

People accept their fate in all sorts of different societal situations that seem incredible from the outside. It is an alternative universe. Our narrator is part of that universe. I don't need a book to laboriously detail every single action that was taken to create the universe. You obviously couldn't practically clone everyone as you would double the population size and of course not everyone would ever need an organ, so you have a 'pool' of organ donors fresh and ready to give.

Currently skimming through The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefiore. Lots of sex and death with a side helping of dwarf-tossing. It's quite hard to get the tone right when discussing torture and horrible deaths over the centuries, because they were so many and so grotesque - I think the author occasionally slips into flippancy, but it's hard not to.

Not sure I'll add it to my total as I'm not reading it properly - skipping most the politics to alight on the more lurid anecdotes. Makes Game of Thrones look like a parish council meeting.

Blimey, I cannot believe how quickly this thread has moved in the last week.

Thanks for the new thread. Place marking with my list and update:-

1. The Kingsmakers Daughter - Phillipa Gregory

2. Girl with a Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson

1. How to Be Both - Ali Smith
2. The Observations - Joanne Harris
3. The White Princess - Phillipa Gregory
4. The Heart Goes Last - Margaret Atwood
5. Frazzled - Ruby Wax

8. I Let You Go - Claire Mackintosh

1. The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair

10. Our Endless Numbered Days - Claire Fuller 11. Now read A Boy Made of Blocks - Keith Stuart 12 The Tea Planters Wife - Dinah Jefferies 13 - We Were Liars - E Lockhart 14 - Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee 15 - Afternoon Tea at the Sunflower Cafe - Milly Johnson 16 - Belgravia by Julian Fellowes 17 - The Mother by Yvette Edwards 18 - The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell 19 - The Black Water LIllies - Michael Bussi 20 - 1984 - George Orwell 21 - Her - Harriet Lane 22 - The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry 23 - Everybody Brave is Forgiven - Chris Cleave

24 Days of Abandonment - Elena Ferrante - Olga's husband suddenly leaves her and this is her account of her struggle to cope with the loss. I read this for my book club and I feel it will make a good choice. I did not warm at all to the main character so found this book a chore. I can imagine that others would really love it though. Looking forward to our next meeting and the discussion.

25 Everything But The Truth - Gillian McAllister - Rachel and Jack have not been together long but Rachel is already pregnant. One day she reads an email on Jack's ipad which leads to her questioning how much she really knows him and how much he really can be trusted. This was an enjoyable and well paced thriller.

The Chilbury Ladies Choir - Jennifer Ryan - I ordered this from the library as I fancied something uplifting and easy to read. By the use of journal entries and letters this book tells the story of the women of the Kent village of Chilbury during World War 2. With most of the men off fighting the vicar disbands the Choir but the women ignore this and reform as the Chilbury Ladies Choir. This helps provide the women with companionship and emotional support to get through the turmoil of war. Telling the story through journal entries and letters worked really well in the book and I liked the different perspectives this allowed the reader to gain.

Currently reading The Hand That First Held Mine - Maggie O'Farrell

Hi all and thank you Southeast for the new thread. I'm just back from holiday so haven't read the updates yet.

Here's my holiday reading:

22. The Various Haunts of Men, Susan Hill
Inspired by whoever posted about these on the last thread :) I like police procedurals and books about difficult men who live in beautiful houses, but dislike books about people being murdered, so this was a love-hate for me :)

23. We were Liars, E Lockhart
Enjoyed this - YA book about a very privileged but troubled teenage girl recovering from a head injury. I like unreliable narrators - maybe avoid this if you don't :)

24. So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Jon Ronson
I haven't read any Jon Ronson before so can't comment on this as intelligently as someone who has read his other books. Thought this was a timely, if sometimes sloppy, examination of Twitter witchhunts and how they fit into our historical and social concepts of shaming. An entertaining read.

25. Don't Stop Me Now, Vassos Alexander
This is Vassos-from-radio-5-and-Chris-Evans' book about running. As a runner, I enjoyed his stories of the places he's run, and the experiments he's done with different training methods, but found it all a bit narcissistic as the book went on. Sorry, Vassos, you are not that fascinating.

26. Us, David Nicholls
I enjoyed this. It's the gentle story of a middle-aged man whose relationships with his wife and teenage son are breaking down. They attempt one last holiday together, with somewhat predictable but nonetheless readable results. Loved the characterisation of the father and son, though found the women characters rather lacking (I can't remember enough about One Day to say whether the same applied there - anyone?).

27. The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah
Story of two sisters living in occupied France during WW2. I've read a couple of her earlier novels which were rather schmaltzy YA-ish page-turners about teenage friendships and young love. This one gets people writing reviews like this on Goodreads:

^With tears still running down my cheeks I'm writing this review. I've started this review several times and I don't think I'll be able to adequately put into words the power in which this novel has moved me. Truly [sic] a remarkable story that I, literally, beg everyone who loves historical fiction to read.^

Perhaps my view was jaded by having read her previous books but for me, this was WW2 France as seen through the eyes of an American YA writer. Way too much drama in a short period of time, histrionics and heartbreak (is this what we call "feeeelliinnnggs"?). YES, the subject matter is heart-breaking, and I think a lighter hand with the tear-jerker scenarios would have done it much more justice and actually would have been far more moving. Seems like I am in the minority though.

28. Swimming Home, Deborah Levy
Really liked this. Clever, unnerving take on the middle-class-villa-holiday novel. I haven't read any of her others but will be seeking them out from now on.

Surely the point of Kathy et all in Never Let Me Go (sorry, catching up on the thread above) is that they are not merely super-institutionalised children, they are clones? They're almost like normal human children, but not quite, there's something missing. They don't feel, or react, or behave quite as a human being would in that situation, hence why the book is so uncanny.

I agree with Keith - that was my interpretation of NLMG. I really liked it when I read it and it is one that has stayed with me. I plan to reread it soon so will let you know if I change my view!!

Has Mumsnet started spell-checking postings or have I done something in my browser?

The reason for the snarky [sic] in the quote from Goodreads above was that truly had been misspelled. And I am sure I typed "et al" in my NLMG comment, whereas it's appeared as "et all"

[btw if it happens again, I typed it with one L but it seems to have autocorrected to have two]

Fatowl what did you do re the first Cazalet book?? DH bought me the whole set and I must admit I struggled with the first. The second was better and by the end I was hooked and gobbled down the rest of the series; feeling rather bereft when I finished it!

I'm doing a bit better now ChessieFL posted the photo of the family tree, and I listened to a fair chunk on my commute today. Still a bit confused about who is who, but beginning to engage a bit more.

I think I will plod on for now, and probably finish it.

Fatowl, the characters do come into their own more as the story develops. At the beginning, everyone seems very interchangeable but that improves :) Also she seems to narrow the cast down quite a bit in the second book.

Ah, the great Never Let Me Go throw down! I'll throw my late tuppence in; I quite liked listening to it on audiobook. I've nothing against the premise of not running away, it did not jarr with me or spoil the story.

In the 'meh' camp for WeAre All Completely Besides Ourselves. Could not understand what all the fuss was about. Slow year for The Booker.

Woah, this thread is moving fast - my first chance to post on it!

17. Terra Nullius - A Journey Through No One's Land - Sven Lindqvist

Picked up on a whim from the library. It's an elegant condemnation of the treatment of the Aborigines since white people arrived in Australia - heartfelt and moving, but light on historical details, and I would have liked more depth.

About we are all completely beside ourselves I agree, it wasn't that special (in terms of the writing). I too have a thing with 'issues' books and this was THE issue book of all issue books. At the same time, I do remember finding bits of it quite moving and tenderand parts of it have stayed in my memory, so it was definitely not a total write off for me.

Passmethecrisps me too about child in time, I remember scenes vividly so many years later. And like you, read it before becoming a parent, can't even begin to imagine what it would be like reading it as a parent. Anyway, still an 'issue' book as many have noted but one of the more memorable ones.

" they are clones? They're almost like normal human children, but not quite, there's something missing. They don't feel, or react, or behave quite as a human being would in that situation"

A clone is a genetic copy of a human being, his identical twin, therefore is human. There is no reason whatsoever for them not to act, feel, or behave like any other human, unless there has been some intervention somewhere (psychological conditioning or genetic modification), but the book has nothing of the sort.

"Way too much drama in a short period of time, histrionics and heartbreak (is this what we call "feeeelliinnnggs"?). "

Yes, it is