New Leaf Nominations for March 2018 • The Book Came First

[orlok]

Originally Posted by CRussel

@orlok: A trick to finding ebook versions on amazon when they aren't properly linked to pbook versions. Start from: www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks (or the smile equivalent). This limits the search to ebooks only.

Thanks Charlie. When I looked again later it said something along the lines of "you cannot access ebooks from your location." I'll give your link a go.

[gmw]

I would like to nominate a short story by Ted Chiang called: Story of Your Life, this has recently been made into a movie called Arrival starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker.

This short story is available in the collection: Stories of Your Life and Others, a collection of 8 short stories by Ted Chiang.

Description of Story of Your Life (from me):

Two threads run through this story: a woman remembering her daughter growing up; and the woman being called as a linguistic expert to try and communicate with aliens that have landed. These two threads are related in an unexpected way.

Description for the book Stories of Your Life and Others (from Kobo):

With his masterful first collection, multiple-award-winning author Ted Chiang deftly blends human emotion and scientific rationalism in eight remarkably diverse stories, all told in his trademark precise and evocative prose.
From a soaring Babylonian tower that connects a flat Earth with the firmament above, to a world where angelic visitations are a wondrous and terrifying part of everyday life; from a neural modification that eliminates the appeal of physical beauty, to an alien language that challenges our very perception of time and reality. . . Chiang's rigorously imagined fantasia invites us to question our understanding of the universe and our place in it.

I think Ted Chiang is one of the best science fiction writers of recent years. (This collection is not all science fiction, or not really.) He writes things from a human perspective rather than hard science, and this makes them very approachable even if you are not normally a science fiction enthusiast. My only complaint is that he doesn't write enough. I would be happy to discuss any and all of the stories in this collection, but the Story of Your Life at 55 pages (approx 18k words) is probably complex and deep enough to keep us busy. If we end up twiddling our thumbs then stories: Understand, Hell is the Absence of God and Liking What You See: A Documentary are all excellent.

Amazon US, Amazon US, film tie-in edition, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon AU

Kobo US, Kobo UK, Kobo CA, Kobo AU

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by orlok

Thanks Charlie. When I looked again later it said something along the lines of "you cannot access ebooks from your location." I'll give your link a go.

I sometimes find that I have to use inPrivate/incognito mode if I'm checking a country other than my IP address might indicate, or if I have an account with the same email at a different country's store. (I can't buy eBooks in Canada on my main account because I use the same email as my U.S. account. I have to have a special account just for eBooks. )

[GA Russell]

I nominate Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

It's been nearly 50 years since I read it, and I'd like to read it again. One wag said that it was written during Korea, set in World War II, but about Viet Nam!

Amazon US - $11.99
https://www.amazon.com/Catch-22-50th...dp/B0048WQDIE/

Kobo - $11.99
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/catch-22-1

Nook - $11.99
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cat...781451632965#/

[Dngrsone]

*Of Mice and Men by Patricia Highsmith

.

Slight typo there... I'd happily read this book again (the Steinbeck version, that is). I tried Catch-22 once, but couldn't make it through. :/

There are so many good books that have been made into movies (good and bad,..), it's kind of hard to recommend just one.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

.

Slight typo there... I'd happily read this book again (the Steinbeck version, that is).

How mortifying! Thanks for catching it.

[bfisher]

I second Elmer Gantry.

[Alohamora]

I Second Story of Your Life

[Bookworm_Girl]

I second The Light Between Oceans.

[Dazrin]

I will third Story of Your Life and continue to try to find something else.

Spoiler:

Here's how tonight went:

So, what have I read and loved that was made into a movie...The Martian, Ready Player One, 11/22/63, Hunt for Red October... so many choices but I suspect many have already read them (although I wouldn't mind reading a couple again.)

How about Shoeless Joe? Nope, ebook doesn't appear to be available at (US) non-Amazon stores. Bummer.

How about something being made into a movie? Beneath a Scarlet Sky sounds interesting...Amazon - $5.99, Kobo - ???, Google - ???, B&N - $9.05 (paperback, NA for Nook), Kobo UK - ???, Kobo CA - Well, this isn't right. Argh. There are other Mark T. Sullivan books and they all say something along the lines of "...author of the best-selling Beneath a Scarlet Sky..." but it doesn't appear to be available at any of them unless I am doing something wrong.

Remind me why anyone owns something other than a Kindle? This is frustrating.

(And yes, I know BaSS is too new to actually nominate.)

[Bookworm_Girl]

I nominate Despite the Falling Snow by Shamim Sarif. She is an award-winning novelist as well as filmmaker. In fact she directed the movie version of the book starring Rebecca Ferguson, Antje Traue and Charles Dance.

From Goodreads:

The action of Despite the Falling Snow moves between present day Boston and 1950s Moscow. After an early career amongst the political elite of Cold War Russia, Alexander Ivanov has lived in the States for forty years. Here he has built a successful business; and here he has managed to bury the tragic memories surrounding his charismatic late wife, Katya - or so he believes.

For into his life come two women - one who will start to open up the heart he has kept protected for so long; another who is determined to uncover the truth about what really happened to Katya all those years ago. The novel's journey back to the snowbound streets of post-Stalinist Moscow reveals a precarious, dangerous world of secrets and treachery.

“a perfectly balanced novel of love and tragedy.…The beauty of the streets of Moscow is a majestic backdrop to a play of mistrust and deception where friends, even the best of friends, can turn against each other in fear.” Waterstones

Amazon US & Kobo ($3.99 USD)
Amazon CA ($5.99 CDN)
Amazon AU ($5.99)
Amazon UK (£2.99 GBP)

Also available via Overdrive and Scribd.

[Greg Anos]

I nominate M*A*S*H.

To read the parts that both the movie and TV series left out. . .

[Greg Anos]

I also nominate The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.

Chandler - what more can I say?

[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

I also nominate The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.

Chandler - what more can I say?

This was read in 2013 in the MR Club so is not eligible for nominating again.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

I nominate M*A*S*H.

To read the parts that both the movie and TV series left out. . .

Are the other books available as eBooks anywhere? I looked in the US and the UK and could not find any of the others.