MobileRead July 2013 Special Run-Off Vote - Page 3

issybird · 06-29-2013, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

The voting isn't over yet, but in the event that Fanny and Stella wins (or even if it doesn't and you decide to read it anyway} you might be interested in a podcast by Neil McKenna in which he discusses the book.

Thank you! I'm looking forward to reading this in any case.

desertblues · 06-29-2013, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

The voting isn't over yet, but in the event that Fanny and Stella wins (or even if it doesn't and you decide to read it anyway} you might be interested in a podcast by Neil McKenna in which he discusses the book.

Go to Books in the iTunes store; type in Fanny and Stella and the book will appear (NB both Kobo and Kindle are much less expensive}. Underneath the book will be "Podcast Episodes". Below that is a single podcast episode entitled "Neil McKenna: Fanny and Stella". Click on that and listen. It is quite interesting and free.

BTW there will be "spoilers" in the discussion and if you don't already know what happened perhaps you might prefer to wait until you finish the book before listening.

Thanks. i couldn't get to it via iBooks, but I found it in The Faber Podcast in the
Itunes store. I saw that the BBC World Service has lots of book podcasts in the World Book Club.

And

Kobo didn't give me a price reduction. I think it's because I live in Europe.

fantasyfan · 06-29-2013, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by desertblues

Thanks. i couldn't get to it via iBooks, but I found it in The Faber Podcast in the
Itunes store. I saw that the BBC World Service has lots of book podcasts in the World Book Club.

And

Kobo didn't give me a price reduction. I think it's because I live in Europe.

Hmmm. I live in Europe too but did get the discount. Perhaps that is because the Republic of Ireland is possibly linked to the UK store for Kobo--as is now certainly the case with Amazon.

I'll have to check out the World Book Club.

It sounds like a good resource for exploring insights about books. Thanks for that information.

WT Sharpe · 06-30-2013, 07:15 PM

And it's Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England by Neil McKenna for the win. Not my first choice, but it could prove entertaining. Going to download it now. See you all on the 20th!

WT Sharpe · 06-30-2013, 07:25 PM

And the first thing I discover after downloading the book is that this same author wrote a book called The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde. Now that does sound interesting. Too bad it wasn't nominated. He was both a character and a literary giant.

sun surfer · 06-30-2013, 07:52 PM

Sometimes once the nominations are in I can pick out the book that will probably win the month before the vote even begins. And then there are months like this. I would've never thought that Fanny and Stella would've won a vote or even come close, and I'm happily surprised. The timing is certainly apropos.

I will admit though that this is what I couldn't help but think of when I first saw the nomination:

Spoiler:

I thought the selections in general this month were very good. I was most rooting for The True Believer or Stories from Rwanda, but quite a few of the nominations I'm very interested in and I'm happy with the winner. There were also three - A Night to Remember, Gulp and Sleepwalkers - that I wasn't particularly interested in at first, but upon seeing their high votes and reading the vote discussion, I read up a bit more on them and became interested in all three of those as well, heh. In the end I think I would've been interested in reading almost all of this month's nominations.

Bookpossum · 06-30-2013, 09:35 PM

I agree, sun surfer - I didn't really expect that this one would win, but am looking forward to reading it. It's on order from the library and I should get it this week.

I did get myself The Sleepwalkers and plan on reading that before long - when I can slot it in between Book Clubs!

medard · 07-01-2013, 01:35 AM

Here's a review from Kathryn Hughes in The Guardian with some pictures.

Spoiler:

Now, Oscar Wilde had a secret life? I didn't know that. So what did he do in his secret life? Oh.. Nevermind.. Maybe I don't want to know actually.

crich70 · 07-01-2013, 01:42 AM

From the Pic Gallery.

Quote:

Fanny (standing) and Stella with Lord Arthur Pelham-Clinton, with whom Stella conducted a lengthy relationship (pic. 5)

My 1st thought was, "I see Bill wasn't the only Clinton to get into trouble."

WT Sharpe · 07-01-2013, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by medard

...Now, Oscar Wilde had a secret life? I didn't know that. So what did he do in his secret life? Oh.. Nevermind.. Maybe I don't want to know actually.

In his day all homosexuals outside of prison walls had a secret life. When his came to light he was tried for "gross indecency", convicted, and spent two years at hard labor.

Hamlet53 · 07-01-2013, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by medard

Here's a review from Kathryn Hughes in The Guardian with some pictures.

Spoiler:

Now, Oscar Wilde had a secret life? I didn't know that. So what did he do in his secret life? Oh.. Nevermind.. Maybe I don't want to know actually.

Judging from that review Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England appears to inhabit a gray area between fiction and non-fiction. That is based on a true story but well padded with speculation and/or made up stuff.

Quote:

"Extrapolate" is the key word here, though. For letters, no matter how intimate and fine-grained, rarely tell the biographer the thing he longs to know: the moment his subject sighed, or felt a lurch in his guts, or longed to be somewhere else entirely. And, although McKenna scrupulously uses the sources when he's got them, at those points where the archive runs out he allows his imagination to take over. Using free indirect speech he ventriloquises Stella and Fanny's inner worlds, creating a camp stream of consciousness in which the two young men think and function as lascivious women.

Well rum, sodomy, and the lash it should be an interesting and topical [for Americans] read.

caleb72 · 07-06-2013, 01:45 AM

While this vote was going on I was thinking about Walter Lord's book A Night to Remember and about how I couldn't imagine putting myself through the details around the Titanic disaster.

But it turned out, the novel I was reading used the Titanic as a central image and provided many of the details, even referencing Walter Lord's book several times. At points I felt the horror of the ship sinking.

You can run, but you can't hide.

WT Sharpe · 07-06-2013, 05:01 AM

Bookpossum · 07-06-2013, 08:10 AM

Stalked by an ocean-going liner - pretty scary!

View Poll Results: Which of these two would you wish to discuss on July 20th?
A Night to Remember by Walter Lord	11	42.31%
Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England by Neil McKenna	15	57.69%
Voters: 26. You may not vote on this poll

06-30-2013, 07:52 PM	#36
sun surfer languorous autodidact ✦ Posts: 4,235 Karma: 44637926 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: smiling with the rising sun Device: onyx boox poke 2 colour, kindle voyage	Sometimes once the nominations are in I can pick out the book that will probably win the month before the vote even begins. And then there are months like this. I would've never thought that Fanny and Stella would've won a vote or even come close, and I'm happily surprised. The timing is certainly apropos. I will admit though that this is what I couldn't help but think of when I first saw the nomination: Spoiler: From Little Britain I thought the selections in general this month were very good. I was most rooting for The True Believer or Stories from Rwanda, but quite a few of the nominations I'm very interested in and I'm happy with the winner. There were also three - A Night to Remember, Gulp and Sleepwalkers - that I wasn't particularly interested in at first, but upon seeing their high votes and reading the vote discussion, I read up a bit more on them and became interested in all three of those as well, heh. In the end I think I would've been interested in reading almost all of this month's nominations.

07-01-2013, 01:35 AM	#38
medard Wizard Posts: 1,014 Karma: 5595784 Join Date: May 2012 Device: Electronic Paper	Here's a review from Kathryn Hughes in The Guardian with some pictures. Spoiler: Review: A world of 'lush longing for embroidered handkerchiefs and soft kisses' is interrupted by a police campaign to achieve the downfall of the cross-dressing pair Picture gallery: Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England – in pictures Now, Oscar Wilde had a secret life? I didn't know that. So what did he do in his secret life? Oh.. Nevermind.. Maybe I don't want to know actually.

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06-30-2013, 07:15 PM	#34
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,073 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.	And it's *Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England by Neil McKenna* for the win. Not my first choice, but it could prove entertaining. Going to download it now. See you all on the 20th!

06-30-2013, 07:25 PM	#35
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,073 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.	And the first thing I discover after downloading the book is that this same author wrote a book called *The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde*. Now that does sound interesting. Too bad it wasn't nominated. He was both a character and a literary giant.

06-30-2013, 09:35 PM	#37
Bookpossum Snoozing in the sun Posts: 10,137 Karma: 115423645 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: iPad Mini, Kobo Touch	I agree, sun surfer - I didn't really expect that this one would win, but am looking forward to reading it. It's on order from the library and I should get it this week. I did get myself The Sleepwalkers and plan on reading that before long - when I can slot it in between Book Clubs!

07-06-2013, 01:45 AM	#42
caleb72 Indie Advocate Posts: 2,863 Karma: 18794463 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: Kindle	While this vote was going on I was thinking about Walter Lord's book A Night to Remember and about how I couldn't imagine putting myself through the details around the Titanic disaster. But it turned out, the novel I was reading used the Titanic as a central image and provided many of the details, even referencing Walter Lord's book several times. At points I felt the horror of the ship sinking. You can run, but you can't hide.

07-06-2013, 05:01 AM	#43
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,073 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.

07-06-2013, 08:10 AM	#44
Bookpossum Snoozing in the sun Posts: 10,137 Karma: 115423645 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: iPad Mini, Kobo Touch	Stalked by an ocean-going liner - pretty scary!

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