Literary sun surfer Vote • December 2017

[sun surfer]

Help us select what the MR Literary Club will read in December 2017!

The options this month are courtesy of our rotating nominator, sun surfer (me).


Voting will run for four days. The vote will close exactly four days from this; even if the final tally doesn't occur immediately after voting closes, no votes made after that time will count.

Votes will be made by post. Each person has FIFTEEN(!) votes to use.

You may give each nominee one or two (or no) votes. You may vote all at once in one post or vote in separate posts at different times, so long as you have more votes remaining to cast. You may use any number of your possible votes up to the maximum. Any extraneous votes per person (past their maximum or more than two for one nominee) won't count. Votes cannot be changed once they are cast.

The rotating nominator may not vote. Once voting is complete, the count will be tallied and a winner declared. In the event of a tie, there will be a one-day run-off vote, also in this thread. If the run-off also ends in a tie, then the tie will be resolved by the nominator.

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


*

Initial voting is closed. Run-off voting is closed. Final results-

• The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
  Post / Goodreads / 357 Pages / Votes- 0
  
  
• Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan
  Post / Goodreads / 376 Pages / Votes- 0
  
  
• Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
  Post / Goodreads / 268 Pages / Votes- 0
  
  
• The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald
  Post / Goodreads / 246 Pages / Votes- 0
  
  
• Family Chronicle by Vasco Pratolini
  Post / Goodreads / 121 Pages / Votes- 0
  
  
• Home Fires Burning by Georgina Lee
  Post / Goodreads / 312 Pages / Votes- 0
  
  
• If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino
  Post / Goodreads / 255 Pages / Votes- 0
  
  
• The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King
  Post / Goodreads / 294 Pages / Votes- 0
  
  
• Island Tales (aka On the Makaloa Mat) by Jack London
  Post / Goodreads / 142 Pages / Votes- 2 / Run-off- 2
  
  
• Job by Joseph Roth
  Post / Goodreads / 226 Pages / Votes- 2 / Run-off- 0
  
  
• Kicking the Sky by Anthony De Sa
  Post / Goodreads / 307 Pages / Votes- 0
  
  
• The Mystic Masseur by V.S. Naipaul
  Post / Goodreads / 216 Pages / Votes- 2 / Run-off- 0
  
  
• No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym
  Post / Goodreads / 267 Pages / Votes- 0
  
  
• The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
  Post / Goodreads / 284 Pages / Votes- 0
  
  
• Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
  Post / Goodreads / 215 Pages / Votes- 2 / Run-off- 0
  
  
• Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
  Post / Goodreads / 528 Pages / Votes- 2 / Run-off- 0

[Bookworm_Girl]

I start with votes for the following:

2 Sea of Poppies
2 Picnic at Hanging Rock
2 The Mystic Masseur
2 Job
2 Island Tales

[sun surfer]

Less than half a day left to vote; come one, come all!

While I'm here, meet my main man Mac:

Spoiler:

He's the new addition to compliment the life of Riley:

Spoiler:

[Bookworm_Girl]

How adorable! Congratulations on the new family member!

[sun surfer]

Thanks, Bookworm_Girl!


Initial voting is complete and we have our first ever five-way tie! It is between:

-Island Tales by Jack London
-Job by Joseph Roth
-The Mystic Masseur by V.S. Naipaul
-Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
-Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh


We will have a one-day run-off and voting is now open.

Voting will close exactly ONE DAY from this post.

Each person has FOUR votes to use.

Please refer to the first post for all other information.

[fantasyfan]

I'll give 2 votes to Island Tales.

[sun surfer]

Run-off voting is now closed and the winner is Island Tales by Jack London!

This is my first time ever reading Jack London and I'm looking forward to it.

Just to note, this is not his similarly titled South Sea Tales, and this month's winner is just as often known as On the Makaloa Mat (Goodreads uses this as the main title). We have it gratis in the MR library; here's the Kindle version but there are also IMP and LRF versions in the library too if you search.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Sounds like an interesting read!

[sun surfer]

The discussion thread is up!

After a bit of research while preparing the discussion thread, I've gone with the alternate name of On the Makaloa Mat for the thread title. The only published hardcover photo that I could find used that as the name and that seems the name it was originally published under. Honestly I'm not even sure where 'Island Tales' or even 'On the Makaloa Mat and Other Island Tales' as names for it comes from. Since it was posthumous maybe London never named the collection himself but I'm going with the found hardcover title (which also seems to be the GR consensus title).

[fantasyfan]

I have read some of Jack London’s work (though not this specific work) and he was an interesting person. He had a remarkable ability to distance himself from his subject and create a sense of objectivity with simple naturalistic description which was highly effective and powerful. A good example is the short story “To Build a Fire” in which he distances himself from his main character which adds a remarkable twist to the end.

He had a genuine compassion for the poor but unfortunately was still able to hold racist opinions. As a journalist he wrote a series of articles which were instrumental in causing the retired heavyweight boxing champion Jim Jeffries to foolishly challenge the reigning champion, the great Jack Johnson, to a match aledgedly to demonstrate the superiority of the white race.

The so-called “Fight of the Century” on July 4th 1910 (attended by London) was a fiasco as the aging Jeffries was easily defeated in 15 rounds.