Literary Silence Is Golden • January 2020

[sun surfer]

Help select what we'll read and discuss to start off the new decade!


The topic is Silence Is Golden.

There are many possible ways to interpret this such as the idea of quiet, muteness, secrets, threats to be silent, pacts, meditation, etc.; or the idea of gold or other precious, heavy or well really any metals; or the idea of golden as in lighting, goodness, shining, being glorified, the colour, etc.; or a word or concept in a title that is related to the topic.


Detailed nominating and voting guidelines can be found here. Basically, nominations are open for about four days and each person may nominate up to three literary selections which will go automatically to the vote. Voting by post then opens for four days, and a voter may give each nomination either one or two votes but only has a limited number of votes to use which is equal to the number of nominations minus one. Any questions, feel free to ask.

We hope that you will read the selection with us and join in the discussion.

*

Nominations are complete. Initial voting is complete. Run-off voting is complete. Final results-

• Tin Man by Sarah Winman
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 214 Pages . Votes 1 . Run-off – . 2017 . England
  
  
• Goldfinger by Ian Fleming
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 297 Pages . Votes 2 . Run-off – . 1959 . England
  
  
• The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 108 Pages . Votes 1 . Run-off – . 1883 . Scotland
  
  
• Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 170 Pages . Votes 5 . Run-off 3 . 1921 . England
  
  
• The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra by Pedro Mairal
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 117 Pages . Votes 5 . Run-off 2 . 2008 . Argentina
  
  
• Three Horses by Erri De Luca
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 144 Pages . Votes 2 . Run-off – . 1999 . Italy
  
  
• Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 242 Pages . Votes 5 . Run-off 0 . 1929 . U.S.
  
  
• Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 330 Pages . Votes 2 . Run-off – . 2012 . U.S.
  
  
• Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 399 Pages . Votes 3 . Run-off – . 1995 . England
  
  
• The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 136 Pages . Votes 1 . Run-off – . 1961 . Italy

[sun surfer]

Whilst everyone is looking for nominations, might I (possibly antithetically) suggest some listening music?

[sun surfer]

I've got about 15 books now to ruminate on nominating. Some are on the theme of silence, some about treasure/gold, some relating to "golden", some to metals. My first nomination may only be tangentially related because of the metal in its title, but it seems like there could also be something about silences in the story. It is:

Tin Man by Sarah Winman

The description really interested me. It's a novel about 'love and all its forms' and an 'autoworker in a small working-class town'. Goodreads, Preview, 214 pages, 2017, England

A novel celebrating love in all of its forms and the little moments that make up the life of an autoworker in a small working-class town.

This is almost a love story. But it's not as simple as that.

Ellis and Michael are twelve-year-old boys when they first become friends, and for a long time it is just the two of them, cycling the streets of Oxford, teaching themselves how to swim, discovering poetry, and dodging the fists of overbearing fathers. And then one day this closest of friendships grows into something more.

But then we fast forward a decade or so, to find that Ellis is married to Annie, and Michael is nowhere in sight. Which leads to the question, what happened in the years between?

Tin Man is a love letter to human kindness and friendship, and to loss and living.

[AnotherCat]

First is a choice from "Popular Literature", a best seller of the mid 20th Century that seems to be surviving time to become part of "Proper Literature" . The second a Stevenson travel memoir not so well known as his Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes and the third is set in Crome with its title a twist on Chrome Yellow (lead chromate, crocoite).

Goldfinger - Ian Fleming
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfinger_(novel)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3759.Goldfinger?

The Silverardo Squatters - Robert Louis Stevenson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silverado_Squatters
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...ado-squatters#

Crome Yellow - Aldous Huxley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crome_Yellow
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53672.Crome_Yellow

The only one I have read is Goldfinger, that long ago so could stand rereading it.

[Bookworm_Girl]

My first nomination is The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra by Pedro Mairal, an Argentine author. Literary Awards: BTBA Best Translated Book Award Nominee for Fiction longlist (2014).

From Goodreads:

At the age of nine, Juan Salvatierra became mute following a horse riding accident. At twenty, he began secretly painting a series of long rolls of canvas in which he minutely detailed six decades of life in his village on Argentina’s river frontier with Uruguay. After the death of Salvatierra, his sons return to the village from Buenos Aires to deal with their inheritance: a shed packed with painted rolls stretching over two miles in length and depicting personal and communal history. Museum curators from Europe come calling to acquire this strange, gargantuan artwork. But an essential one of its rolls is missing. A search that illuminates the links between art and life ensues, as an intrigue of family secrets buried in the past cast their shadows on the present.

[Bookworm_Girl]

My second nomination is Three Horses by Erri De Luca, an Italian author.

From Goodreads:

Somewhere along the coastline of Italy, a man passes his days in solitude and silence, tending a garden and reading books of travel and adventure. Through these simple routines he seeks to quiet the painful memories of the past: a life on the run from Argentina's Dirty War; a young bride 'disappeared' by the military; a terrifying escape through the wilds of Patagonia.

Yet everywhere he turns, new life is pulsing, ready to awaken his senses, like the force that drives his fruit trees into bloom. People and events from the past and present migrate into patterns assigned by a metaphysical geometry. A woman of the world re-introduces him to love. An African day laborer teaches him the meaning of gratitude.

[Bookworm_Girl]

My third nomination is Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck. I was surprised to learn his first novel was historical fiction about pirates!

From Goodreads:

From the mid-1650s through the 1660s, Henry Morgan, a pirate and outlaw of legendary viciousness, ruled the Spanish Main. He ravaged the coasts of Cuba and America, striking terror wherever he went. Morgan was obsessive. He had two driving ambitions: to possess the beautiful woman called La Santa Roja and to conquer Panama, the “cup of gold.” Steinbeck’s first novel and sole work of historical fiction, Cup of Gold is a lush, lyrical swashbuckling pirate fantasy, and sure to add new dimensions to readers’ perceptions of this all-American writer.

[Bookworm_Girl]

There were several books that I wanted to nominate but had trouble finding them in multiple countries. I like Rose Tremain and her book The Colour about the gold rush in 1860s New Zealand sounded very good.

Another book that looked fun was Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton by Philip Kerr. Lots of secret conspiracies and Sir Isaac Newton is a detective.

The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett about a lost English soldier found by French children during WWI is an award-winning children's novel that looks charming and has beautiful illustrations.

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

My third nomination is Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck...

Am glad to see that nominated as it was one I liked too, but as I had read it (not that I can remember the story itself) I did not want to nominate 2 already read so was a tossup between that and the much less illustrious Goldfinger.

[sun surfer]

My next nomination is something light:

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

I thought it fit because Bernadette is a shut-in who prefers no people around which seems to fit 'silence is golden', and there are hints at secrets she's keeping which also fit. From what I gather this is something of a mystery/comedy/satire all concerning the disappearance of Bernadette. The preview had me laughing in the first few pages and I think it'd be a fun read. Goodreads, Preview, 330 Pages, 2012, U.S.

Bernadette Fox has vanished.

When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Ms. Fox is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces--which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades. Where'd You Go Bernadette is an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are and the power of a daughter's love for her mother.

[sun surfer]

A little over half a day left for nominations!

[fantasyfan]

I’ll offer Philip,Pullman’s. Northern Lights aka The Golden Compass.
This is a very fine novel set in an alternate Oxford in which one’s deep personality Is visible as an accompany “daemon”. The wonderful heroine wields a strange artefact called the “Golden Compass”.

[sun surfer]

My final nomination is:

The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia

This is an Italian book about a murder in a small Sicilian town and the detective who suspects the Mafia. I thought it fit perfectly because you could almost say the motto of the Mafia is that silence is golden, and the detective finds himself against a 'wall of silence', and the preview begins with the random witnesses to the public murder immediately acting like they hadn't witnessed anything. The ebook is not available in the U.S. or Canada despite the fact that it was available as an ebook in the U.S. and Canada before (Google Play even still has the U.S. ebook preview although you can't buy it). However, it is available as an ebook in the U.K. and Australia and may be available to borrow from your library as an ebook, so should be easy enough to get for anyone with the desire. Goodreads, Preview, 136 Pages, 1961, Italy

A man is shot dead as he runs to catch the bus in the piazza of a small Sicilian town. Captain Bellodi, the detective on the case, is new to his job and determined to prove himself. Bellodi suspects the Mafia, and his suspicions grow when he finds himself up against an apparently unbreachable wall of silence. A surprise turn puts him on the track of a series of nasty crimes. But all the while Bellodi's investigation is being carefully monitored by a host of observers, near and far. They share a single concern: to keep the truth from coming out.

This short, beautifully paced novel is a mesmerizing description of the Mafia at work.

[sun surfer]

Well, I had everything ready to go ahead of time... and then I forgot to actually start the voting at that time. So, without further ado,


Nominations are complete and voting is now open!

Voting will close exactly four days from this post.

Each person has NINE votes to use.

[sun surfer]

I've read all the previews and the problem for me is that I'm having a hard time deciding which book not to vote for, lol. Usually I can at least eliminate one if the full slate looks good to me.