July 2016 Book Club Vote
 

July 2016 MobileRead Book Club Vote

Help us choose a book as the July 2016 eBook for the MobileRead Book Club. The poll will be open for 5 days. There will be no runoff vote unless the voting results a tie, in which case there will be a 3 day run-off poll. This is a visible poll: others can see how you voted. It is http://wtsharpe.com/Pictures/Multiple-Choice_C3.gif You may cast a vote for each book that appeals to you.

We will start the discussion thread for this book on July 20th. Select from the following Official Choices with three nominations each:

• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Goodreads | Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo US / Overdrive
Print Length: 610 pages


• City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple
Goodreads | Amazon UK
Print Length: 352 pages


• The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker
Goodreads | Amazon UK / Amazon US
Print Length: 657 pages


• Nothing But Blue Skies by Tom Holt
Goodreads | Amazon US / Kobo US / Overdrive
Print Length: 336 pages


• Something Fresh (original title: Something New) by P.G. Wodehouse
Goodreads | Amazon US / Audible / Many Books / Whispersync
Print Length: 284 pages


• Death in the Dordogne (Bruno Chief of Police Book 1) by Martin Walker
Goodreads | Amazon UK
Print Length: 262 pages

All the selections look so good that I'm tempted to skip the vote altogether and just read what wins. My grandson will be a senior when high school resumes in the Fall, but as part of a special program in which he's enrolled will be taking college English rather than senior English. Over the summer, he's been assigned to read Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man as part of that program, so a few days ago I decided to grab my own copy from Amazon so we could discuss it and have already started reading it. If the Ellison wins, I'll be one up on everyone who hasn't yet read it, but I'm confident I'll be happy with whatever wins.

I've read Bruno so I hope it's not chosen; other than that, while I have a few preferences, I just want the selection to engender a good discussion and which books are likeliest to do that?

...and written a rather disparaging review of it of goodreads, although most reviews have been considerably kinder (3.82 stars* averaged from 684 reviewers). ;)

I suspect you're not a fan of "cozy" mysteries. Am I right?

:D I was trying to be polite!

I seem to have gone off mysteries altogether, although I used to inhale them.

Part of what I didn't care for in Bruno was the "quaint peasantry" schtick, which irritates me. I mentioned Peter Mayle in my review and that's not a positive, for me. However, I freely admit that generally speaking, my response is an aberrant one, although those who disliked it seem to have similar objections. I'm also willing to acknowledge that the series as a whole, not atypically, might have improved on a rocky start. But it's the whole so many books, so little time syndrome at work; I'm not likely to pursue a series after an indifferent first experience.

Sorry, Charlie! Only the best tuna.... Oops, kinda went off the rails there.

I am happy with all the choices but whichever book wins hopefully it leads to a lively discussion.

That's OK, issy, I still like it. :)

Part of what I really like is the food and wine insights about the region. And yes, it's schtiky, but sometimes I like a bit of that. Not often, and not as an unalloyed diet, but perfect for a lazy summer read.

I'm voting for four this time, though I don't think there's any I won't read.

Hey, folks, did we all go on vacation? No one wants to help decide what we read for our summer read?

I know we have a couple of days left, but it seems like we usually have both more voting and more discussion by now. Or did everyone just decide that all the books are good and they'll take what comes? Surely you have a preference, no matter how much you like them all?

I think it's obvious I won't be voting for Bruno :o so my holdup is that I'm torn about Invisible Man. I'd like to read it myself, but my guess is that we wouldn't get much participation in the discussion. :( But I could be wrong, of course.

ETA: That said, I've lined up copies of everything, just in case. I even squandered some of my Apple settlement money on City of Djinns.

My take:

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison would make for a good discussion. It's not nearly as dark as the subject matter suggests. Although it does have some very dark moments they are balanced by the book's humor and compassion. 610 pages and the serious nature of the work, however, makes it anything but a "light summer read" (even though I'm currently reading it).

City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple. No real opinion either way, though it would be an excursion to a place I've never been. It could be an enriching experience.

The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker sounds like something I'd like to experience as an audiobook, but the Audible price is $33.07 isn't in my budget, and at $24.98 ($11.99 for the ebook and $12.99 for the audio add on), the Whispersync deal isn't exactly calling my name either. For some, the 657 page length may be off-putting

Nothing But Blue Skies by Tom Holt looks like it could well be the fun, light, summer book everyone loves. I'm not sure how much discussion it would engender, but I bet everyone would enjoy reading it. I'm surprised it hasn't more votes at this time.

Something Fresh/Something New by P.G. Wodehouse. It's Wodehouse. It's 284 pages. That's all that needs to be said, as everyone is familiar with the author's textbook British humor. The only people I could see not liking this one being chosen would be those who have already read it and were hoping for something they hadn't yet read.

Death in the Dordogne by Martin Walker. I've never read it, but I sense Murder She Wrote cozy mystery vibes coming from this one, and I like cozy mysteries. It's garnered some pretty good reviews from people who don't have "issy" in their names.

I read Invisible Man back in the 70's, and would actually like to read it again. But Tom's right, it's not exactly light summer reading. The two books with Djinn in their title didn't really excite me, though I don't have anything against them, other than the length of one of them.

Nothing But Blue Skies by Tom Holt looks like fun. I don't understand the lack of love either. I'm quite glad issybird nominated it - I'd likely not have found it else. I really hope we can get some more votes for it.

Wodehouse is what he is. My guess is even better in audio format, since we have a Frederick Davidson narration available, always a pleasure. There's also a Jonathan Cecil narration, which would be good, but appears to have serious audio problems, so the Davidson one will be my choice if we go for this.

And Death in the Dordogne / Bruno, Chief of Police, despite issy's dislike, is a (mostly) cozy that I quite enjoyed the first time, including an excellent audio version. I haven't re-read it before, so I'll be interested to see how it holds up to that if we choose it.

OK, Tom convinced me; Invisible Man would engender a good discussion, so even if it's only a few, that's fine.

I didn't vote for the Golem and the Djinni, because it's not my type of thing. But I'm on board if it wins; I like books set in New York, so long as they get it right.

I am warming upto something fresh..Read Golem and Djinni last year and it was quite enjoyable but I get to read something new.

Just 10 votes so far? Come on Mobilereaders vote..!

Only 14 votes, and it looks like we're reading P.G. Wodehouse. Not anything I regret, since his books are always fun, plus I already have a copy of the Frederick Davidson Audible narration. But I'm surprised at the low turnout for the vote.

We are going to have a big list to choose from in January at this rate. We already have 9 selections for the runner-up poll and we will have at least 5 more.

Now the question is which version of audiobook should I choose :chinscratch:

Jonathan Cecil or Frederick Davidson..Decisions decisions.

From the reviews, there appear to be technical problems with the Jonathan Cecil version. I know I heard some fairly horrible noises in the sample. Otherwise, I'd say it's a toss up.

Thanks Charlie. Frederick Davidson version it is then :)

You can't go wrong with David Case (aka, Frederick Davidson.) One of the best narrators of all time, IMHO. For a recent MobileRead Book Club selection, he was the narrator of The Golden Compass (as David Case). He's also done several of the Richard Sharpe novels, and a bunch of Wodehouse. Overall, a couple of hundred that I'm aware of.

His obituary says that he narrated over 700 audiobooks.

After midnight I'll be posting the July Discussion and the August nominations. HEADS UP for those who might have missed this in the Announcement forum: From 4-6 a.m. EST MobileRead will be undergoing maintenance. All traffic during that time will be temporarily re-routed, so if you're online during those hours and trying to nominate a book, expect delays.

Thanks for the warning, Tom. I, for one, had missed it. Or rather, I saw it but didn't actually _register_ it.

Meanwhile, a long trip tomorrow with the Frederick Davidson version of Something Fresh should finish of the reading.