Book club this month was Sci Fi. I think the girls are on a quest to get me to like it. They keep picking books that challenge my opinions of sci fi. It's tough to describe the book in a succinct way so I thought I would cheat and use the publisher's summary:

"One day in early spring, Dorrit Weger is checked into the Second Reserve Bank Unit for biological material. She is promised a nicely furnished apartment inside the Unit, where she will make new friends, enjoy the state of the art recreation facilities, and live the few remaining days of her life in comfort with people who are just like her. Here, women over the age of fifty and men over sixty–single, childless, and without jobs in progressive industries–are sequestered for their final few years; they are considered outsiders. In the Unit they are expected to contribute themselves for drug and psychological testing, and ultimately donate their organs, little by little, until the final donation. Despite the ruthless nature of this practice, the ethos of this near-future society and the Unit is to take care of others, and Dorrit finds herself living under very pleasant conditions: well-housed, well-fed, and well-attended. She is resigned to her fate and discovers her days there to be rather consoling and peaceful. But when she meets a man inside the Unit and falls in love, the extraordinary becomes a reality and life suddenly turns unbearable. Dorrit is faced with compliance or escape, and…well, then what? "

The writing wasn't perfect but it was still a great read and an even better discussion. It's written in such a way that I vacillated between being horrified and thinking that life inside the unit wouldn't be so bad. At one point even Dorrit says "This whole thing...is significantly more humane than I could have imagined at first". Clearly I would never actually support a system like this - human guinea pigs and harvesting one person's organs for someone who is deemed more deserving. But it definitely made me think about the greater good vs. the rights and needs of the one.

Not the top of my list but it was definitely worth reading. If anyone wants to borrow my copy, let me know.

B+