MobileRead February 2015 Book Club Nominations

[pistoli]

Me second vote goes to Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro !

[Moe The Cat]

Originally Posted by pistoli

Me second vote goes to Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro !

I will third Never Let Me Go. Kazuo Isiguro is an excellent author.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by SeaWolf

Been a while since I've been active on here and what better way to get back than some nominations!

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Amazon AU

Spoiler:

As a child, Kathy – now thirty-one years old – lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory.

And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed – even comforted – by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham’s nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood–and about their lives now.

I've read this. It drags in a lot of places. I've also tried to watch the movie. The movie was really poorly done (and rather boring). So bad that I was unable to finish it. The book, not wonderful. I was able to finish it though.

[pynch]

Wharton’s The Age of Innocence can also be found in the Complete Works epub, btw.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pynch

Wharton’s The Age of Innocence can also be found in the Complete Works epub, btw.

...which is a phenomenal tome, my source for all Wharton's Great War books.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm going for something different this time. I'm going to nominate The fault in Our Stars by John Green. It has an average 4.41 (out of 5) stars on Goodreads with 1,285,489 ratings.

I don't read cancer books, but this also is available at Audible for $6.95 in the current sale.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Moe The Cat

I will third Never Let Me Go. Kazuo Isiguro is an excellent author.

pistoli's vote was the third, so you have that vote back.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by pynch

Wharton’s The Age of Innocence can also be found in the Complete Works epub, btw.

Thanks for the link. Now added.

Originally Posted by issybird

I don't read cancer books, but this also is available at Audible for $6.95 in the current sale.

Do you have any idea how long the sale will last?

[issybird]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Do you have any idea how long the sale will last?

Until January 27. Audible is lenient with returns, so one could make a preemptive purchase and return it if it's not picked.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by issybird

Until January 27. Audible is lenient with returns, so one could make a preemptive purchase and return it if it's not picked.

Thanks, issybird.

[HomeInMyShoes]

My library has a 163 paper copies and 10 electronic copies of The Fault in Our Stars. I'm pretty sure anyone with access to a library can survive this one without a purchase. There's only 1.1 million people in my province.

Never Let Me Go interests me. I'm also curious (if any have read it yet) as to how science fiction / dystopian it is as opposed to romance. I was looking through GoodReads members' shelving of the book. Romance was way down the list of shelves.

Right now I'm leaning to Ali and Nino and The Fault in My Stars as my votes, although I think the two public domain classics would also be fine, although Jane Eyre being another mid-doorstopper length book might lose my vote if it makes it.

Just my thoughts so far.

[drofgnal]

I'm going to nominate the Plum Tree by Ellen Wiesman. I've read it but loved the book so much I thought I'd nominate it as a suggestion for the rest of the group. I was enthralled with it. Romance isn't typically my genre. I picked this up more as a historical fiction book, but it has a central theme of romance.

From Amazon

A deeply moving and masterfully written story of human resilience and enduring love, The Plum Tree follows a young German woman through the chaos of World War II and its aftermath."Bloom where you're planted," is the advice Christine Bölz receives from her beloved Oma. But seventeen-year-old domestic Christine knows there is a whole world waiting beyond her small German village. It's a world she's begun to glimpse through music, books--and through Isaac Bauerman, the cultured son of the wealthy Jewish family she works for.
Yet the future she and Isaac dream of sharing faces greater challenges than their difference in stations. In the fall of 1938, Germany is changing rapidly under Hitler's regime. Anti-Jewish posters are everywhere, dissenting talk is silenced, and a new law forbids Christine from returning to her job--and from having any relationship with Isaac. In the months and years that follow, Christine will confront the Gestapo's wrath and the horrors of Dachau, desperate to be with the man she loves, to survive--and finally, to speak out.
Set against the backdrop of the German homefront, this is an unforgettable novel of courage and resolve, of the inhumanity of war, and the heartbreak and hope left in its wake.

Available as an ebook from Amazon and others.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

...Never Let Me Go interests me. I'm also curious (if any have read it yet) as to how science fiction / dystopian it is as opposed to romance. I was looking through GoodReads members' shelving of the book. Romance was way down the list of shelves....

I haven't read it yet but I've seen the film, which I really liked. It's a soft dystopian, nothing radical really except for certain major aspects which I won't reveal here. Otherwise, it's very modern-day British or rather period British even in feel.

It's more love story set against a dystopian background, but it's not just either of those. Even though I've already seen the film and so the story is spoiled for me, I still want to read the book because I loved Ishiguro's writing in Remains of the Day (another book I read after seeing the film and still loved the book).

[HomeInMyShoes]

Thanks sun surfer. I just found it odd that it is rated more often as dystopian than romance and by a very wide margin (about five times as often.)

I've only read An Artist of the Floating World. I liked it enough, but I can see JSWolf's point and the potential for it to be a slower read. I'm not averse to that, but I think we've read enough period British works with the bookclub. I shall have to ponder my vote on this one. I know I'd read it if it wins, but I might vote for change within the bookclub.

[sun surfer]

I have no idea why it's listed so much more often as dystopian than romance. Maybe some difference with the book compared to the film. Maybe something to do with the difference in rigidity of classification - if a book has even a hint of sci-fi, it's usually called sci-fi, whereas a book can have romance in it without being called a romance book.

I'd consider Never Let Me Go a drama story with elements of romance, dystopian, mystery/thriller and even a sort of bildungsroman. There's actually a problem with labelling this story, but I can't get into my opinion on that without being too spoilery.