New Leaf Nominations for October 2019 • Ya Gotta Believe: Life of the Spirit

[Victoria]

Originally Posted by Victoria

I find it very interesting too. I hope you have some luck seeking it out Bookpossom! Unfortunately it didn’t seem to be available in either kindle or kobo versions. But both stores recognized me as a Canadian, so I may not be able to see the full selection available to Australians.

(I hope your eyes are still going well.)

Originally Posted by issybird

I checked Australia as well; not that I doubted you, but only that sometimes two pairs of eyes can be helpful. No joy.

We were posting simultaneously, so just in case I'll point you to the article I linked to above, which might be of interest to you.

Double thanks issybird! A very interesting article, and the comments it provoked as well. I hadn’t heard about Pagel’s newest book. She’s one of my favourite biblical scholars, but was surprised to read she’d studied with Martha Graham.

And thank you for double-checking the stores - I kinda hoped you would

[CRussel]

I'll third Brother Cadfael

Charlie.

[Victoria]

I’ll second Magic and Mystery in Tibet

[CRussel]

OK, I found a book I want to read that fits the category. The Way of Japanese Whisky And it's just $10 US, so within our guidelines. But then I looked at the Australian price -- $24.99AUD Now, I know the Australian dollar isn't all that strong right now, but that's just ridiculous! Too bad, I'd like to learn more about Japanese whisky, even though my available examples here in British Columbia are fairly limited. And it's also a bit of a travel guide to Japan itself.

Sigh. Back to the drawing boards.

[Victoria]

What a great interpretation of the theme! And a fun book too, thanks. Personally I find the taste of whiskey a bit strong, or at least the samples of neat scotch my brother-in-law brings out at family gatherings. But the lore and craftsmanship through a Japanese lens sounds very interesting.

Thanks too for mentioning the price guideline - I hadn’t realized we had one, and I’m sorry to see that I’ve exceeded it. I’ll reread the guidelines - there’s a lot to take in when you first join the club. My apologies everyone.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Victoria

What a great interpretation of the theme! And a fun book too, thanks. Personally I find the taste of whiskey a bit strong, or at least the samples of neat scotch my brother-in-law brings out at family gatherings. But the lore and craftsmanship through a Japanese lens sounds very interesting.

Thanks too for mentioning the price guideline - I hadn’t realized we had one, and I’m sorry to see that I’ve exceeded it. I’ll reread the guidelines - there’s a lot to take in when you first join the club. My apologies.

Not to worry. It's not an enforced limit, more just a suggestion, the motive being that books that are too pricey won't be selected/won't be read if chosen.

Most of us seem to rely heavily on OverDrive at that, but there's no way at all to check availability for others.

[Victoria]

Originally Posted by issybird

Not to worry. It's not an enforced limit, more just a suggestion, the motive being that books that are too pricey won't be selected/won't be read if chosen.

Most of us seem to rely heavily on OverDrive at that, but there's no way at all to check availability for others.

Thanks for the background. That makes sense.

I just realized that about Overdrive. I always check my library first, and have assumed if it isn’t in mine, it isn’t available anywhere. But Charlie recently mentioned a book being available, and it wasn’t in mine. So it must depend on each library’s local budget.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Victoria

Thanks for the background. That makes sense.

I just realized that about Overdrive. I always check my library first, and have assumed if it isn’t in mine, it isn’t available anywhere. But Charlie recently mentioned a book being available, and it wasn’t in mine. So it must depend on each library’s local budget.

A great deal depends on their budget! I really see the difference between my two libraries. One is the BC Provincial library -- it's ebooks and audio books for the entire province. (Each library contributes, I'm told, but they get a better deal by combining them for the entire province.)

Compare that to one I have access to in the Seattle area which serves more actual users (All those Kindles in Seattle!), but which has both a bigger selection, and generally shorter wait times. (For example, when Michelle Obama's Becoming came out, they had initially only ordered ~150 each of the eBook and the audio book. They quickly changed that, adding first another ~150, then finally an additional ~100. The wait list at that point was still nearly six months for each, but now is down to a mere 2 weeks on the 412 copies they have.) The wait in BC for the book is several years if everyone keeps it for 3 weeks.

If you have a way to have access to other libraries, it can be worth the effort. I wasn't too worried about it while I was working, but now that I'm fully retired I very much need to pay attention. So I've been leveraging both libraries to keep the book club costs down.

ETA: You can check if a book is available at Overdrive at all by going directly to the Overdrive site and searching there, and you can check if it's available in Canada by checking if you can Recommend it while logged in to your library.

[Bookpossum]

I am using my third vote to third Magic and Mystery in Tibet.

I have just been reading up on Alexandra David-Neel - what an extraordinary woman, and what a life she led, including living to the age of 100.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I nominate This House is Haunted by John Boyne. Amazon US $9.99.

From Amazon:

Written in Dickensian prose, This House Is Haunted is a striking homage to the classic nineteenth-century ghost story. Set in Norfolk in 1867, Eliza Caine responds to an ad for a governess position at Gaudlin Hall. When she arrives at the hall, shaken by an unsettling disturbance that occurred during her travels, she is greeted by the two children now in her care, Isabella and Eustace. There is no adult present to represent her mysterious employer, and the children offer no explanation. Later that night in her room, another terrifying experience further reinforces the sense that something is very wrong.

From the moment Eliza rises the following morning, her every step seems dogged by a malign presence that lives within Gaudlin’s walls. Eliza realizes that if she and the children are to survive its violent attentions, she must first uncover the hall’s long-buried secrets and confront the demons of its past. Clever, captivating, and witty, This House Is Haunted is pure entertainment with a catch.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by Catlady

My second nomination is The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (2016, 303 pp.).



Available in all relevant countries and in Overdrive (e-book and audiobook).

Amazon U.S., $9.99

This book is excellent. I really enjoyed the writing. I was reminded of it when we were reading Alias Grace.

I have one ticket left and haven't decided yet what to use it on.

[gmw]

I third The Sleeper in the Sands by Tom Holland

[gmw]

I second The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

[issybird]

I'll third Black Narcissus.

[issybird]

I'm also going to nominated Why Homer Matters by Adam Nicolson.

"Adam Nicolson writes popular books as popular books used to be, a breeze rather than a scholarly sweat, but humanely erudite, elegantly written, passionately felt…and his excitement is contagious."—James Wood, The New Yorker

Adam Nicolson sees the Iliad and the Odyssey as the foundation myths of Greek—and our—consciousness, collapsing the passage of 4,000 years and making the distant past of the Mediterranean world as immediate to us as the events of our own time.

Why Homer Matters is a magical journey of discovery across wide stretches of the past, sewn together by the poems themselves and their metaphors of life and trouble. Homer's poems occupy, as Adam Nicolson writes "a third space" in the way we relate to the past: not as memory, which lasts no more than three generations, nor as the objective accounts of history, but as epic, invented after memory but before history, poetry which aims "to bind the wounds that time inflicts."

Titled The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters in Canada, Australia and the UK.

US $9.99, CA $11.99, AU $11.99, UK £4.99

320 pp.