07-01-2015, 12:08 AM | #1 |
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Journey around the World Nominations • July 2015
Help us select what the MR Literary Club will read in July 2015! This is our 50th month and what better way to celebrate than with a new category?
The nominations will run for four days until 5 July. Then, a separate voting poll will begin where the month's selection will be decided. The category for this month is: Journey around the World Nominations can be set anywhere, but they should be written by an author from a country that has not had an official selection yet. Current countries with at least one official selection, and therefore excluded- Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States Club Travel Map in Google Maps, created by HomeInMyShoes Club Travel Map in TravBuddy In order for a work to be included in the poll it needs four nominations - the original nomination plus three supporting. Each participant has four nominations to use. You can nominate a new work for consideration or you can support (second, third or fourth) a work that has already been nominated by another person. To nominate a work just post a message with your nomination. If you are the first to nominate a work, it's always nice to provide an abstract to the work so others may consider their level of interest. What is literature for the purposes of this club? A superior work of lasting merit that enriches the mind. Often it is important, challenging, critically acclaimed. It may be from ancient times to today; it may be from anywhere in the world; it may be obscure or famous, short or long; it may be a story, a novel, a play, a poem, an essay or another written form. If you are unsure if a work would be considered literature, just ask! The floor is now open! * Nominations closed. Final nominations: The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer, South Africa - Fully nominated Spoiler:
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam, Bangladesh - Fully nominated Spoiler:
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende, Chile - Fully nominated Spoiler:
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones, New Zealand - Fully nominated Spoiler:
The Plague by Albert Camus, Algeria - Fully nominated Spoiler:
Last edited by sun surfer; 07-05-2015 at 12:39 AM. |
07-01-2015, 02:11 AM | #2 |
languorous autodidact ✦
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I'll begin by nominating The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer, South Africa. The book won the Man Booker and the author won the Nobel.
From Goodreads: Mehring is rich. He has all the privileges and possessions that South Africa has to offer, but his possessions refuse to remain objects. His wife, son, and mistress leave him; his foreman and workers become increasingly indifferent to his stewardship; even the land rises up, as drought, then flood, destroy his farm. Amazon AU Amazon UK Amazon US |
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07-01-2015, 11:44 AM | #3 |
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My suggestion is The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende (author country Chile, setting Chile). From Wikipedia:
Spoiler:
Unfortunately my searching indicates that this book is not available as an ebook in English. For any who are literate in Spanish there is an ebook though as well as one in Dutch. If the lack of an ebook version [in English] is a problem I will substitute another Allende book, but would really prefer this one to be my offering. Last edited by Hamlet53; 07-01-2015 at 11:47 AM. |
07-01-2015, 12:01 PM | #4 |
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Second House of Spirits.
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07-01-2015, 01:50 PM | #5 |
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I'll second The Conservationist.
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07-02-2015, 10:13 AM | #6 |
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Hmmm...two countries I've already read.
I'll nominate, as suggested by another member for my around the world challenge: A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam. This would be for Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan.) I'm definitely intrigued by the Chile offering. |
07-02-2015, 12:01 PM | #7 |
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Second A Golden Age.
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07-02-2015, 12:40 PM | #8 |
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I'll third The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer. I could have sworn that I had read one of Gordimer's books as part of my "at least one book by every Nobel Prize for Literature" project, but on checking I see not. I was confusing her with fellow South African Doris Lessing.
I will also third A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam. What an interesting subject matter. |
07-02-2015, 05:40 PM | #9 |
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Fourth Gordimer and third Allende.
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07-02-2015, 08:26 PM | #10 |
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I will fourth A Golden Age.
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07-03-2015, 01:18 AM | #11 |
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We have nominations from Asia, Africa and South America so far, so I looked to the South Pacific for my final nomination. This is actually a challenging (though enjoyable) process - it took me awhile to even settle on my first nomination because I'd keep finding something that sounded good but was not exactly set in the same country as the author, such as a play I looked at from a Swiss author with the location's setting a town "somewhere in Central Europe" (The Visit) or a Chilean/international vagabond author with a book that starts in Mexico and travels the world (The Savage Detectives).
Such is the case with this nomination, but I'm offering it anyway, mainly because we haven't covered the country the author is from nor the country the book's set in and they're both in the South Pacific. I almost decided to go with Stonedogs which is from and set in the same country (New Zealand), but it seems like a somewhat ultraviolent book for this club (the author has been compared to film director Quentin Tarantino); still "showing the underbelly of New Zealand and Maori society with drugs, gangs and violence in the northern tourist city of Rotorua (aka Roto-Vegas)" seemed like it could be eye-opening concerning New Zealand culture. My nomination though is Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. The author is from New Zealand and the book is set on Bougainville, an autonomous island off Papua New Guinea. The book won the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book) and the Kiriyama Prize, and it was a Man Booker finalist. From Goodreads: In a novel that is at once intense, beautiful, and fablelike, Lloyd Jones weaves a transcendent story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the power of narrative to transform our lives. On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with most everyone else, only one white man chooses to stay behind: the eccentric Mr. Watts, object of much curiosity and scorn, who sweeps out the ruined schoolhouse and begins to read to the children each day from Charles Dickens's classic Great Expectations. So begins this rare, original story about the abiding strength that imagination, once ignited, can provide. As artillery echoes in the mountains, thirteen-year-old Matilda and her peers are riveted by the adventures of a young orphan named Pip in a city called London, a city whose contours soon become more real than their own blighted landscape. As Mr. Watts says, “A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe.” Soon come the rest of the villagers, initially threatened, finally inspired to share tales of their own that bring alive the rich mythology of their past. But in a ravaged place where even children are forced to live by their wits and daily survival is the only objective, imagination can be a dangerous thing. Amazon AU Amazon CA Amazon UK Amazon US Last edited by sun surfer; 07-03-2015 at 01:29 AM. |
07-03-2015, 06:23 AM | #12 |
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Second Mr Pip. Sorry for my terse messages as I am doing one finger typing on my iPad!
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07-03-2015, 06:32 PM | #13 |
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Okay, I've been considering nominating Albert Camus (Algeria). As you'd all be aware he is also a Nobel Prize winner. I'm thinking of one of the following two books, but I'm wondering how well read these books are before I nominate one:
L'Etranger (The Outsider) The Plague Both books are set in Algeria, and both works are considered representative of Camus' best works. So, who among the Club has already read either or both? NB: I'm quite aware of the already posted extraordinarily polished and stiff competition, but still I thought Camus also met the criteria and standard, and gave another flavour again. Last edited by Lynx-lynx; 07-03-2015 at 06:39 PM. |
07-03-2015, 06:38 PM | #14 |
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I nominate Mr Pip and The House of Spirits.
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07-03-2015, 07:32 PM | #15 |
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A day and a few odd hours left for nominations.
Great idea on nominating Camus, Lynx-lynx; I've read L'etranger (way back in school days) but not The Plague. I'm out of nominations though so I can't support anymore. |
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