07-27-2011, 01:59 PM | #1 |
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August 2011 Book Club Nominations
Help us select the next book that the Mobile Read book club will read for August 2011.
The nominations will run through Aug 1 or until 10 books have made the list. Voting (new poll thread) will run for 5 days starting Aug 1. Book selection category for July per the "official" club opening thread is: August 2011 Free For All (any genre) In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third). How Does This Work? The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the last week of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome. How Does a Book Get Selected? Each book that is nominated will be listed in a pool at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection. How Many Nominations Can I Make? Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person. How Do I Nominate a Book? Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest. How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated? Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP. When is the Poll? The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed. The floor is open to nominations. Official choices each with three nominations: Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse [Hamlet53, HomeInMyShoes, colinsky] (translated into English by John Bester) Inkmesh search Spoiler:
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurk Vonnegut [WT Sharpe, vxf, sun surfer] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres [vxf, Hamlet53, Ea] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton [GA Russell, fbrII, Ea] MR's Patricia Clark Memorial Library - Mobi/PRC and BBeB/LRF uploaded by Patricia | Inkmesh search Spoiler:
Life of Pi by Yann Marte [VioletVal, WT Sharpe, jgaiser] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
Ask the Dust (1939) by John Fante [beppe, Ea, issybird] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
The Help by Kathryn Stockett [JSWolf, Nyssa, VioletVal] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh [sun surfer, issybird, colinsky] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer [JSWolf, Asawi, pilotbob] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
Hounded by Kevin Hearne [JSWolf, Nyssa, siraks] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
The nominations are now closed. Last edited by WT Sharpe; 07-29-2011 at 02:55 PM. Reason: updated to post 77 |
07-27-2011, 02:00 PM | #2 |
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Sorry this is so late. I must have deleted my reminder email without creating the thread.
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07-27-2011, 02:28 PM | #3 |
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I'll nominate the same book I nominated last month.
The Voyage of the Minotaur by Wesley Allison Spoiler:
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07-27-2011, 02:56 PM | #4 |
Nameless Being
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So I would like to nominate I book I have been thinking about recently, and would like to read once more after a number of years.
Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse (translated into English by John Bester). This is a fictional novel (based on real life diaries and accounts) of survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. It is told from the point of view of an ordinary family, and is not any sort of one-sided polemic against the bombing. In fact it is equally critical of the militaristic regime in Japan. It's the best novel on the subject ever written in my opinion. Here is a link to the Inkmesh search for the ebook; both Kindle and epub formats are available. http://inkmesh.com/ebooks/black-rain...?qs=black+rain Ibuse was a highly regarded writer in Japan. The fact that he is relatively unknown elsewhere is due to the fact that few of his books have been translated. As far as I am aware only Black Rain and a collection of short stories titled Salamander and Other Stories. Here is a nice obituary I found for Ibuse: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/pe...e-1484652.html |
07-27-2011, 03:07 PM | #5 |
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I second the nomination for Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse. Although I don't have enough money to purchase it in my book allowance yet, I might be able to library this one.
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07-27-2011, 03:20 PM | #6 |
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Birds Without Wings, by Louis de Bernieres.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3..._Without_Wings One of the best pieces of historical fiction I have read, set in a small town as the Ottoman empire falls apart. A very entertaining read, at the same time very enlightening. It carries a very colorful set of timeless characters. I think the author is under-rated and certainly not as well known as he would deserve. I am looking forward to re-reading this book and would recommend it to everyone. |
07-27-2011, 06:14 PM | #7 |
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I'd like to nominate The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell's seminal study of World War One as the dawn of the modern era, using the the narratives of British memoirists and poets as the prism with which to view it. Fussell pinpoints accounts which were both historical experience and artistic rendering, with the overarching leitmotif of tragedy.
The book, published in 1975, won both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. I think it's especially relevant as we approach the one hundredth anniversary of the start of the Great War, as we see how much the world has changed and to what extent the world hasn't learned the excruciating lessons of that conflict. Links to inkmesh and Goodreads. Last edited by issybird; 07-27-2011 at 06:17 PM. |
07-27-2011, 07:58 PM | #8 |
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I nominate The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton.
Amazon quotes a critic who wrote about it: "Chesterton's tour de force is a thriller that is best read slowly, so as to savor his highly anarchic take on anarchy." The Man Who Was Thursday is availalble from MobileRead's Patricia Clark Memorial Library. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15837 |
07-27-2011, 10:08 PM | #9 |
Bah, humbug!
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The first bok I'd like to nominate is Slaughterhouse Five by Kurk Vonnegut.
From Wikipedia: .....Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969) is a satirical novel by Kurt Vonnegut about World War II experiences and journeys through time of a soldier called Billy Pilgrim. Ranked the 18th greatest English novel of the 20th century by Modern Library, it is generally recognized as Vonnegut's most influential and popular work. |
07-27-2011, 10:09 PM | #10 |
Bah, humbug!
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The second book I'd like to nominate this month is The Hidden Reality: Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
From CultureLab editor Amanda Gefter's review ("A tour of the multiverses") for New Scientist: .....Arcane yet exciting physics, wrapped up in effortless prose. Yes, Brian Greene has done it again. His new book, The Hidden Reality, does for multiverses what his bestseller The Elegant Universe did for string theory: it provides the general reader with a thorough, engaging survey of the subject that manages to make highly abstract ideas sound implausibly comprehensible. ... [T]here couldn't be a better time for a book to sort out the many strange passages of the multiverse. To start, there is more than one notion of a multiverse; Greene tackles nine. They range from the bubble universes spawned by a continuous chain of big bangs to the possibility that we may one day create simulated universes on our desktops. You may be reading this in a simulated world right now. Or perhaps infinite versions of you are reading this over and over, scattered throughout relentlessly expansive space. One thing, though, is common to all views: reality is not what it seems. |
07-27-2011, 10:15 PM | #11 | |
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Quote:
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07-27-2011, 10:52 PM | #12 |
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I'll third "Black Rain". And thanks for pointing it out...I hadn't realized that anything from Kodansha had made it to ebook...
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07-28-2011, 12:01 AM | #13 |
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Nominations so far... Please let me know of any errors.
Thanks, Tom for the help. updated to post #77 There are now 10 fully nominated books. The nominations are now closed. The Voyage of the Minotaur by Wesley Allison [John F, caleb72] Inkmesh search | Smashwords Spoiler:
* [3] Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse [Hamlet53, HomeInMyShoes, colinsky] (translated into English by John Bester) Inkmesh search Spoiler:
* [3] Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres [vxf, Hamlet53, Ea] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell [issybird, Hamlet53] inkmesh search Spoiler:
* [3] The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton [GA Russell, fbrII, Ea] MR's Patricia Clark Memorial Library - Mobi/PRC and BBeB/LRF uploaded by Patricia | Inkmesh search Spoiler:
* [3] Slaughterhouse Five by Kurk Vonnegut [WT Sharpe, vxf, sun surfer] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
The Hidden Reality: Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene [WT Sharpe] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
Embassytown by China Mieville [caleb72] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle [HomeInMyShoes, lila55] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
* [3] Ask the Dust (1939) by John Fante [beppe, Ea, issybird] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
A Fortune-Teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani [lila55, vxf] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
* [3] Life of Pi by Yann Marte [VioletVal, WT Sharpe, jgaiser] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
* [3] The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer [JSWolf, Asawi, pilotbob] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
* [3] The Help by Kathryn Stockett [JSWolf, Nyssa, [VioletVal] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
* [3]Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh [sun surfer, issybird, colinsky] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
Shōgun by James Clavell [bookwormat, beppe] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
D'artagnan romances volume 2 by Alexandre Dumas [The Terminator] MR's Patricia Clark's Memorial Library - ePub and Mobi/PRC uploaded by HarryT Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone by Martin Dugard [sun surfer] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
* [3] Hounded by Kevin Hearne [JSWolf, Nyssa, siraks] Inkmesh search Spoiler:
Last edited by WT Sharpe; 07-29-2011 at 02:52 PM. Reason: Updated through post #77 |
07-28-2011, 03:05 AM | #14 |
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I third Slaughterhouse-Five.
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07-28-2011, 03:38 AM | #15 |
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I'll nominate Embassytown by China Mieville. I didn't need to waste a nomination on Slaughterhouse-Five which is good.
I think I'll just hang out and help others over the line for my other two. |
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