Literary Rotating Nominations

[caleb72]

I liked Feersum Endjinn but it was a difficult read. I don't think I would reread it.

[caleb72]

Just noticed that Double Star will be on sale at Amazon on 12th June. It will apparently be available for 2.99 at the US store for a couple of days.

[sun surfer]

Who would like to take their turn selecting the nominations for the upcoming rotating month in August?


General info-

Spoiler:

The only requirements for the month's selections are that they are literary, that none have been the monthly selection of either book club yet (nominees can be previous nominees though) and that they number at least four. That’s it, pretty simple.

Lists of previous selections - Lit Club / General club

Previous volunteers by month this cycle (currently ineligible)-
2015 December, bfisher
2016 February, Bookpossum
2016 April, Spinnenmonat
2016 June, fantasyfan

First post

And any questions, just ask!

[sun surfer]

I'll go this time, if no one else would rather.

[Bookpossum]

Looks as if you are "it" for next month, sun surfer.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

Looks as if you are "it" for next month, sun surfer.

Great! I'll post my list on the first and try to come up with a selection to interest all of you. August was when I went my last time too so I guess it's my kind of month, heh.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Looking forward to your nominations, sun surfer!

[sun surfer]

My goal was to find books that haven’t been nominated here before and haven’t been read by many of you. I chose the selection with each regular and some semi-regular members in mind. Besides that there is no real cohesive thread to the bunch. These are all available as ebooks. With each nomination I give my own description here but you can also click the link to read the description at Goodreads and preview the book. I'll have the voting thread up soon.

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
Goodreads / 231 pages / Published 1967 / 3.73 stars average from 5,720 GR ratings
The basis for a classic Australian film I love and tells the story of a group of students and teachers at the Appleyard College for Young Ladies in the year 1900 who take a Valentine’s Day trip to a local natural formation called Hanging Rock, where some of them mysteriously vanish. The novel is famously ambiguous.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Goodreads / 214 pages / Published 1996 / 3.92 stars average from 15,557 GR ratings
The biography of Christopher Johnson McCandless, a young man who walked into the Alaskan wilderness and died shortly thereafter. It was 1992 and though he was from a well-off family he gave his money away, burned most of his possessions and set off to forge a new life for himself. It was also the basis for a film I love and his journey can be viewed in different ways ranging from inspirational to cautionary.

Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
Goodreads / 248 pages / Published 1939 / 3.94 stars average from 4,873 GR ratings
A semiautobiographical account of the ‘fictional’ Christopher Isherwood’s time in decadent but increasingly repressive early 1930’s Berlin loosely framed as short stories. It has been adapted many times including as another film I love, Cabaret (however, cabaret singer Sally Bowles is only a small part of the book). Other characters in the book include a gay couple and a Jewish family.

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Goodreads / 488 pages / Published 2004 / 3.68 stars average from 16,339 GR ratings
Booker prize winner about a young gay man in early ‘80s Britain who, recently graduated from Oxford, moves in with the wealthy family of his friend, the father of whom is a newly elected Tory MP. In Thatcher’s London he becomes caught up in their world and with his own obsession for beauty.

Show Me a Hero by Lisa Belkin
Goodreads / 352 pages / Published 1999 / 4.30 stars average from 330 GR ratings
About a seemingly very minor subject - urban planning in Yonkers, New York in the 1980s and ‘90s. However, this nonfiction book delves deep into what becomes an engrossing tale about a white middle-class neighbourhood’s resistance to efforts to desegregate public housing with a federally mandated scattered-site development.

Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara
Goodreads / 254 pages / Published 1934 / 3.82 stars average from 10,269 GR ratings
One well-to-do man’s self-destructive decline and fall over a few day’s time around Christmas in fictional Gibbsville, Pennsylvania. It's fast-paced and blackly comic, and originally sparked controversy due to some sexual content. #22 on the Modern Library’s best English-language novels of the 20th century list.

Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim
Goodreads / 292 pages / Published 1995 / 4.08 stars average from 6,783 GR ratings
Brian believes he was the victim of an alien encounter. Neil is a teenage hustler on a dangerous life path. The two are very different but have a connection. This deals with difficult subject matter and is the basis for yet another film I love. The film is devastating and so I expect the book will be, too. This is the only ebook of the group not available at the Kindle stores in the U.K. and Australia, but it is available in the U.S., Canada and India Kindle stores.

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Goodreads / 653 pages / Published 1915 / 4.10 stars average from 35,270 GR ratings
A bildungsroman about Philip Carey, a sensitive young man with a clubfoot who eventually begins a love affair with the alluring Mildred. It’s about infatuation and yearning for freedom. Theodore Dreiser wrote, ’Here is a novel of the utmost importance. It is a beacon of light by which the wanderer may be guided. . . . One feels as though one were sitting before a splendid Shiraz of priceless texture and intricate weave, admiring, feeling, responding sensually to its colours and tones.'

[Bookpossum]

An interesting selection sun surfer!

[AnotherCat]

Mmmm, another interesting looking Australian novel among those that I have not read.

My daughter was actually visiting a friend in Newham, Vic. a couple of days ago; she obviously didn't visit Hanging Rock while there as she didn't disappear.

[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

Mmmm, another interesting looking Australian novel among those that I have not read.

My daughter was actually visiting a friend in Newham, Vic. a couple of days ago; she obviously didn't visit Hanging Rock while there as she didn't disappear.

Fortunately, it only happens on St Valentine's Day.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

An interesting selection sun surfer!

Thanks!

[sun surfer]

Who would like to take their turn selecting the nominations for the upcoming rotating month in October?


General info-

Spoiler:

The only requirements for the month's selections are that they are literary, that none have been the monthly selection of either book club yet (nominees can be previous nominees though) and that they number at least four. That’s it, pretty simple.

Lists of previous selections - Lit Club / General club

Previous volunteers by month this cycle (currently ineligible)-
2015 December, bfisher
2016 February, Bookpossum
2016 April, Spinnenmonat
2016 June, fantasyfan
2016 August, sun surfer

First post

And any questions, just ask!

[Bookpossum]

No takers?

I am going away for a few days next week, so am hoping to see a list on which I can vote before Monday.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I will volunteer for October.