MobileRead September Book Club Vote

[WT Sharpe]

September 2013 MobileRead Book Club Vote

Help us choose a book as the September 2013 eBook for the MobileRead Book Club. The poll will be open for 5 days. There will be no runoff vote unless the voting results a tie, in which case there will be a 3 day run-off poll. This is a visible poll: others can see how you voted. It is multiple-choice: you may cast a vote for each book that appeals to you.

We will start the discussion thread for this book on September 20th. Select from the following Official Choices with three nominations each:

• A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Spoiler:

In 1929, Italy banned Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms for its vivid description of the Italian Army's disgraceful retreat following the Battle of Caporetto during World War I.

• Complete Works of Sappho (Delphi Ancient Classics) by Sappho of Lesbos (Author), Peter Russell (Translator)
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Apple Store / Delphi Classics

Spoiler:

Sappho was an acclaimed Greek poet who lived around 600 B.C. During her lifetime, her works about love and longing were considered masterpieces. Their content, though, had a definite woman-to-woman element that was later found objectionable by the Church. Christians began destroying her works in the 5th century A.D., and her poetry was officially banned by Pope Gregory VII in 1073. The destruction was so thorough that only one complete poem survived for many centuries until a cache of papyri, discovered in the 1800s, that had been used to wrap mummies and stuff sacred animals was found to include her writings.

• Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: lrf

Spoiler:

In 1835 Tsarist Russia, under Nicholas I banned the sale of Andersen's Fairy Tales lest the violent nature disturb impressionable children. The ban remained in place until 1849. The stories were again banned in Soviet Union beginning in the 1930s because they glorified princes and princesses.

• The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / Sony (Also available on Overdrive.)

Spoiler:

Though it is not as immediately topical as it was a couple of decades ago it is still banned in every Islamic country with the exception of Turkey, apparently. That and there are not many books where people have died for being involved in publication. In September 2012, Rushdie expressed doubt that The Satanic Verses would be published today because of a climate of "fear and nervousness."

• Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
ePub and Kindle Links at bottom of page

Spoiler:

First published in a private edition in Italy in 1928, it wasn't openly published in the UK until 1960, leading to the famous obsenity trial where the chief prosecuting barrister, Mervyn Griffith-Jones, asked the jury if it were the kind of book "you would wish your wife or servants to read".

• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / Sony (Also available on Overdrive.)

Spoiler:

From Wikipedia:

Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel was initially poorly received for its rejection of racial uplift literary prescriptions. Today, it has come to be regarded as a seminal work in both African-American literature and women's literature. Time included the novel in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.

It has been banned for frank sexual content as well as it's depiction of life for a black woman in America at the time published (1937).

• No Orchids for Miss Blandish by James Hadley Chase
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Spoiler:

This novel is now widely regarded as one of the top thrillers of the last century. When it was originally published it pushed the social boundaries of the time through its relentless exploration of crime and sexual exploitation. Unlike most crime novels of that era, the characters are rich, deeply realized portraits of those who lived on the fringes of society during the Great Depression -- namely the gangsters, their women, and the men who hunted them. The novel broke sales records when published and has gone onto to sell over four million copies worldwide. Historically important, such literary greats as George Orwell and Graham Greene instantly recognized its merits. In a lengthy essay that securely placed NO ORCHIDS in an honored position in crime fiction, George Orwell wrote that, "In a book like NO ORCHIDS one is not, as in the old-style crime story, simply escaping from dull reality into an imaginary world of action. One's escape is essentially into cruelty and sexual perversion...a brilliant piece of writing, with hardly a wasted word or a jarring note anywhere."

• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Amazon UK / Amazon US / B&N (US) / Google Play (AUS)

Spoiler:

Challenged/Banned Info:
Flowers for Algernon

Banned in Emporium, PA, due to sexually explicit passages that parents feared would awaken their children’s “natural impulses.” 1977

Challenged in Oberlin, OH, due to sexually explicit passages. 1984

Banned in Glen Rose, AR, due to language and sexually explicit passages. Objectors compared Flowers for Algernon to “books in plastic covers you see at newsstands.” 1981

Challenged in Glenrock, WY for sexually explicit passages and language. Objector compared the novel to Playboy and Hustler among other, um, photo-centric publications. 1984

Challenged in Plant City, FL, (and Arizona, Virginia, and Georgia) for sexually explicit passages, adult themes, and profanity. 1976, 1981, 1996, 1997

Banned from Aledo (Texas) Middle School, subsequently re-shelved at the school library, but not reinstated into the curriculum. (1999)
Frequently challenged due to objections to “sexually explicit” content.

Ranks no. 47 on ALA’s 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.

Full link at: http://suvudu.com/2008/10/challenged...-algernon.html[/i]

• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

No links provided.

Spoiler:

It won the Pulitzer and is 3rd on the ALA's list of banned and challenged classics.

• Fade by Robert Cormier
Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Google / Kobo

Spoiler:

In the summer of 1938, the young Paul Moreaux who lives in a town outside of Boston called Monument, discovers he can "fade". "Fading" is the term used for being invisible and becoming invisible to the world. His family has had this ability generation after generation. It is passed down from uncle to nephew. First bewildered, then thrilled with the possibilities of invisibility, Paul experiments with his "gift". This ability shows him things that he should not witness. His power soon overloads him, shows him shocking secrets, pushes him over the edge, and drives him toward some chilling and horrible acts from which there is no forgiveness, no forgetting, and no turning back. His depressing downfall impacts the reader. Paul discovers how cruel, evil, and disgusting the world can be.

Paul sees so much by his gift. The ability to fade becomes a nightmare because he learns so much that he did not want to see or hear.

Because of the novel's content that includes scenes of murder and incest, it has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 at number sixty-five (Wikipedia)

[odiakkoh]

Fade was the only one that interested me this month so I went ahead and borrowed LA Library's only copy. I plan on reading it even if it doesn't win.

[WT Sharpe]

I voted for exactly half of them.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I voted for exactly half of them.

So did I.

[desertblues]

This seems to be an interesting list.

I read a few of the books when I was 12 or so: Lady Chatterly's lover was, together with books as Nana by Emile Zola, on the not-to-be-read-at your age- list, so I read it and it disappointed me then. Much ado about nothing I thought…well…perhaps it's time for another try, but not now. Andersen, of course is a classic; I wept bitter tears about the fate of the Little Match Girl. The same fate for the Farewell to arms and the Grapes of Wrath that I read at an early, perhaps too impressionable age.

So, I think I will be voting, as Issybird and W.T.Sharp, for half of the list. The ones I don't know or was also on that above mentioned list (Sappho, which I couldn't find at the time). Ahem.

[WT Sharpe]

Whether it wins or loses, I just plunked down the $1.99 for the Delphi Ancient Classics edition of the Complete Works of Sappho at Amazon and will be reading it this month. That isn't to say that I won't be reading the winning selection if it isn't the Sappho, but at only 136 pages, I don't see it as taking a major bite out of my time, even if it is poetry.

[pdurrant]

Wow - it's a close race. Six titles in joint second place at the moment, just one vote behind the leader!

[caleb72]

For some reason I didn't think The Satanic Verses would do well, but obviously my instincts were not worth much for this vote.

[fantasyfan]

Flowers For Algernon first appeared as a very fine short story and many think that the shorter piece is more powerful than the novel. Whatever your opinion, it is worth reading.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

Flowers For Algernon first appeared as a very fine short story and many think that the shorter piece is more powerful than the novel. Whatever your opinion, it is worth reading.

What I can't figure is how it made the banned books list. I can understand some like Sappho and Lady Chatterly's Lover but Flowers for Algernon has me stumped as to what earned it banned book status.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by crich70

What I can't figure is how it made the banned books list. I can understand some like Sappho and Lady Chatterly's Lover but Flowers for Algernon has me stumped as to what earned it banned book status.

Here's my post from the nomination thread:

Challenged/Banned Info:
Flowers for Algernon

Banned in Emporium, PA, due to sexually explicit passages that parents feared would awaken their children’s “natural impulses.” 1977

Challenged in Oberlin, OH, due to sexually explicit passages. 1984

Banned in Glen Rose, AR, due to language and sexually explicit passages. Objectors compared Flowers for Algernon to “books in plastic covers you see at newsstands.” 1981

Challenged in Glenrock, WY for sexually explicit passages and language. Objector compared the novel to Playboy and Hustler among other, um, photo-centric publications. 1984

Challenged in Plant City, FL, (and Arizona, Virginia, and Georgia) for sexually explicit passages, adult themes, and profanity. 1976, 1981, 1996, 1997

Banned from Aledo (Texas) Middle School, subsequently re-shelved at the school library, but not reinstated into the curriculum. (1999)
Frequently challenged due to objections to “sexually explicit” content.

Ranks no. 47 on ALA’s 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.

Full link at: http://suvudu.com/2008/10/challenged...-algernon.html

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by crich70

What I can't figure is how it made the banned books list.

You'd be surprised at some of the books that have been challenged/banned in various places.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Difficult choices indeed. I'm finding the whole challenged thing sad instead of interesting. Hemingway and Steinbeck are both high on my lists of authors to read more by, but Hemingway isn't interesting me on this one. I think I'd rather read The Sun Also Rises by him. I'm tossed on the Rushdie entry.

What to vote for, what to vote for?

[caleb72]

3 out of 4 that I voted for are equal leaders at the moment. Looking interesting.

Wow, overnight the Joad family saga that seemed out of it roared back into contention. Great, great book but I have read it so many times already. That and one read of Flowers for Algernon (and seeing the film version) was enough for that. Go Satanic Verses!