MobileRead Book Club March 2013 Book Club Nominations

[desertblues]

I nominate
Amitav Gosh: In an antique land. History in the guise of a traveller's tale.

From Amazon:
Once upon a time an Indian writer named Amitav Ghosh set out an Indian slave, name unknown, who some seven hundred years before had traveled to the Middle East. The journey took him to a small village in Egypt, where medieval customs coexist with twentieth-century desires and discontents. But even as Ghosh sought to re-create the life of his Indian predecessor, he found himself immersed in those of his modern Egyptian neighbors.
Combining shrewd observations with painstaking historical research, Ghosh serves up skeptics and holy men, merchants and sorcerers. Some of these figures are real, some only imagined, but all emerge as vividly as the characters in a great novel. In an Antique Land is an inspired work that transcends genres as deftly as it does eras, weaving an entrancing and intoxicating spell.

I second The last days of old Bejing

[AnemicOak]

Nominate

River of Doubt:Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.

Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.

From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, here is Candice Millard’s dazzling debut.

[jemc]

Third The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by desertblues

I second The last days of old Bejing

This would actually be a 3rd. It has already received a 2nd.

Originally Posted by jemc

Third The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed.

It has already received a 3rd and is fully nominated. You still have 3 spots left.

[jemc]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

It has already received a 3rd.

Yes, I saw the 2nd Second after I posted.

[Nyssa]

I 2nd The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and 3rd Wild.

[tilia]

I would like to nominate In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. (It's also published as Down Under).

Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. In A Sunburned Country is his report on what he found in an entirely different place: Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. The result is a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a writer who combines humor, wonder, and unflagging curiousity.

Despite the fact that Australia harbors more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else, including sharks, crocodiles, snakes, even riptides and deserts, Bill Bryson adores the place, and he takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond that beaten tourist path. Wherever he goes he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly obliging, and these beaming products of land with clean, safe cities, cold beer, and constant sunshine fill the pages of this wonderful book. Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide.

[JSWolf]

I think we've has enough of Australia given that we've just read A Town Like Alice. You might want to withdraw your nomination.

[Asawi]

Second In a Sunburned Country

[jemc]

Originally Posted by Asawi

Second In a Sunburned Country

Third In a Sunburned Country

[desertblues]

I'll third The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

[pynch]

Fourth *In a Sunburned Country*

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

Library availability.

Please edit your message and change your Overdrive link for Wild to the one I've posted as it encompasses ePub, Overdrive Read, Kindle, and audiobooks. Yours only shows the ePub edition.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

*** Wild by Cheryl Strayed [JSWolf, Asawi, Nyssa]
Overdrive (FREE) / Amazon US / Kobo / Sony

Spoiler:

A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.

At twenty-six, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's devastating death, her family scattered, and her own marriage was soon destroyed. With nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than "an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise." But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone. Gorgeously told, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild is the vivid story of a young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Please remove the link to B&N and put in the links to Kobo and Overdrive as shown above.

[issybird]

Second Amitav Gosh: In an antique land.