Literary Open Vote • December 2012

[sun surfer]

Help us choose the December 2012 selection to read for the MR Literary Club! The poll will be open for two days.

The vote is multiple choice. You may vote for as many or as few as you like.

A discussion thread will begin shortly after a winner is chosen.

In the event of a tie, there will be a one-day non-multiple-choice run-off poll. In the event that the run-off poll also ends in a tie, the tie will be resolved in favour of the selection that received all of its initial nominations first.


Select from the following works:


Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Spoiler:

The novel that raised Haruki Murakami to literary superstardom ranges across the seasons, but the heart of its meaning is found in winter. When 30-something Toru Watanabe hears a fragment of the titular Beatles track after a long airplane flight, his memories are returned to his days as a young student and his love affair with the beautiful but damaged Naoko. from UK Guardian.

Kindle edition at Amazon

Nook edition at Barnes & Noble

EPUB at Sony Reader Store

Ebook at Kobo

Kindle or EPUB at Free Library of Philadelphia

The Silent Steppe by Mukhamet Shayakhmetov

Spoiler:

The Silent Steppe is an enthralling story of a family living through one of the most traumatic periods of Soviet history, as seen through the eyes of a young boy growing up in a family of Kazakh nomads. It encompasses the horrors of political persecution and famine in the 1930s, and culminates in the author's first hand account of the Battle of Stalingrad and his long trek home through freezing winter conditions after being wounded and discharged from the Red Army.

(from here)

Available as pbook here

In the US, libraries that borrow from WorldCat shouldn't have a problem obtaining a copy.

The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Spoiler:

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Spoiler:

When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."

Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. Written with stunning emotional intelligence and introducing "an inspiring heroine" (The Wall Street Journal), Brooks blends love and learning, loss and renewal into a spellbinding and unforgettable read.


Amazon (US)
Amazon (UK)
B&N (US)
Kobo

Found also in many e-libraries through overdrive and is fulfilled in epub and even in Kindle format (for applicable regions/libraries). Even Australia hasn't missed out.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Tough to choose. Thank you multiple choice.

[fantasyfan]

I voted for Year of Wonder. I haven't a particularly strong preference for one or more of the other three and would be equally happy with any of them.

[HomeInMyShoes]

It's a tie! Only fourteen voters for, what I thought, was a very strong selection of interesting books.

[caleb72]

Oooh a tie! How exciting!
What happens next? Do we have a run-off vote?

[issybird]

Run-off. Interesting; only one person voted for both and one voted for neither. A near perfect split. If we don't get a new voter, it's down to spindlegirl's preference unless Synamon forces another tie (in which case it's Norwegian Wood).

Assuming of course everyone revotes and no one changes his mind.

[sun surfer]

And we have a tie! That was an exciting horserace to watch - first Norwegian Wood in the lead, then Year of Wonders pulls ahead, then they draw even by the end.

The one-day run-off vote will be up shortly.