Help us choose a book as the October 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 October 20th. Select from the following Official Choices with three nominations each:
I read it laughing out loud, rolling on the floor, totally devoured it and kept coming back for more for years until my original paperback was in tatters.
Victor Mollo was one of the all time most successful contract bridge players in the UK where they play it as a blood sport. I came across Bridge in the Menagerie when I was still in college, and playing bridge to feed my family. I read it laughing out loud, rolling on the floor, totally devoured it and kept coming back for more for years until my original paperback was in tatters. That original book was long out of print but has now come back in print, but has never been converted to eBook format. However, this sequel can be read without having read the original and by those whose knowledge of bridge is no more than passing. I haven't played a hand myself in probably 15 years, but I'd love to play out the hands in this.
— CRussel
Stillwater College in Virginia, 1966. Freshman Peggy, an ingénue with literary pretensions, falls under the spell of Lee, a blue-blooded poet and professor, and they begin an ill-advised affair that results in an unplanned pregnancy and marriage. The couple are mismatched from the start—she’s a lesbian, he’s gay—but it takes a decade of emotional erosion before Peggy runs off with their three-year-old daughter, leaving their nine-year-old son behind.
Worried that Lee will have her committed for her erratic behavior, Peggy goes underground, adopting an African American persona for her and her daughter. They squat in a house in an African American settlement, eventually moving to a housing project where no one questions their true racial identities. As Peggy and Lee’s children grow up, they must contend with diverse emotional issues: Byrdie must deal with his father’s compulsive honesty; while Karen struggles with her mother’s lies—she knows neither her real age, nor that she is “white,” nor that she has any other family.
Years later, a minority scholarship lands Karen at the University of Virginia, where Byrdie is in his senior year. Eventually the long lost siblings will meet, setting off a series of misunderstandings and culminating in a comedic finale worthy of Shakespeare.
"I'll absolutely second Rivers of London/Midnight Riot. This is witty more than funny, but definitely left me regularly chortling and reading passages to my DW. (Best nomination you've made, Jon!)"
— CRussel
My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit–we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to–and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England. Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden . . . and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair. The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos–or die trying.
• The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh Goodreads | Amazon US Print Length: 119 pages
Spoiler:
"[O]ne of the funniest books I've ever read."
— Issybird
From Goodreads:
Following the death of a friend, the poet and pets' mortician Dennis Barlow finds himself entering the artificial Hollywood paradise of the Whispering Glades Memorial Park. Within its golden gates, death, American-style, is wrapped up and sold like a package holiday-and Dennis gets drawn into a bizarre love triangle with Aimée Thanatogenos, a naïve Californian corpse beautician, and Mr. Joyboy, a master of the embalmer's art. Waugh's dark and savage satire on the Anglo-American cultural divide depicts a world where reputation, love, and death cost a very great deal.
"The temptation when reviewing a David Sedaris book is simply to quote liberally, and enviously, from his endless stock of pithy one-liners. A humorist par excellence, he can make Woody Allen appear ham-tongued, Oscar Wilde a drag. Me Talk Pretty One Day collects tales from both home and abroad, and picks up from where Naked - in which he first introduced his larger-than-life Technicolor family - left off."
— David Vincent
From Goodreads:
David Sedaris' move to Paris from New York inspired these hilarious pieces, including the title essay, about his attempts to learn French from a sadistic teacher who declares that every day spent with you is like having a caesarean section. His family is another inspiration. You Can't Kill the Rooster is a portrait of his brother, who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers of food and cashiers with six-inch fingernails.
"I saw it on Broadway when Linda Thorson was in the cast, and I laughed so hard during the first two acts, that I didn't have any laughter left inside of me for the third act!"
— GA Russell
From Goodreads:
Noises Off, the classic farce by the Tony Award—winning author of Copenhagen, is not one play but two: simultaneously a traditional sex farce, Nothing On, and the backstage “drama” that develops during Nothing On’s final rehearsal and tour. The two begin to interlock as the characters make their exits from Nothing On only to find themselves making entrances into the even worse nightmare going on backstage. In the end, at the disastrous final performance, the two plots can be kept separate no longer, and coalesce into a single collective nervous breakdown.
• Bellwether by Connie Willis Goodreads Print Length: 256 pages
Spoiler:
Pop culture, chaos theory and matters of the heart collide in this unique novella from the Hugo and Nebula winning author of Doomsday Book. Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation. Bennet O'Reilly works with monkey group behavior and chaos theory for the same company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. But a series of setbacks and disappointments arise before they are able to find answers to their questions.
• The Deadly Dowager by Edwin Greenwood Goodreads Print Length: 244 pages
According to a contemporary review, it was “quite the jolliest crime story that has come our way in many moons.” Yet it’s not at all comic in the manner of, say, a Donald Westlake caper about Dortmunder and his lovable gang of burglars. Black humor, gallows humor, sardonic humor — these better describe the overall tone of Greenwood’s tale of the 83-year-old Dowager Duchess Arabella, Lady Engleton, who decides to do away with a handful of her inconvenient relatives.
Arabella becomes a serial killer for what she believes is the best of reasons. Her own two sons having died, one in the Boer War and the other in the Great War, and the de Birkett family’s fortunes having precipitously declined, she has taken it upon herself to establish her 20-year-old grandson Henry in a manner befitting his noble station. Initially, she persuades various childless in-laws — a dotty clergyman, a blustery India hand, a Harley Street doctor, a stupid businessman, and a pair of sisters, one repulsively fat, the other mousy — to allow her to insure their lives, making Henry the beneficiary. Arabella will naturally pay all the fees against the day — no doubt quite distant, of course — when each finally shuffles off this mortal coil. While maintaining a demeanor of sweetness and innocence, she then starts killing them off, one after the other.
In this delightful and delicious book, Calvin Trillin, guided by an insatiable appetite, embarks on a hilarious odyssey in search of “something decent to eat.” Across time zones and cultures, and often with his wife, Alice, at his side, Trillin shares his triumphs in the art of culinary discovery, including Dungeness crabs in California, barbecued mutton in Kentucky, potato latkes in London, blaff d’oursins in Martinique, and a $33 picnic on a no-frills flight to Miami. His eating companions include Fats Goldberg, the New York pizza baron and reformed blimp; William Edgett Smith, the man with the Naughahyde palate; and his six-year-old daughter, Sarah, who refuses to enter a Chinese restaurant unless she is carrying a bagel (“just in case”). And though Alice “has a weird predilection for limiting our family to three meals a day,” on the road she proves to be a serious eater–despite “seemingly uncontrollable attacks of moderation.” Alice, Let Eat amply demonstrates why The New Republic called Calvin Trillin “a classic American humorist.”
Wild, dangerous, and flat-out unbelievable, here is the incredible memoir of the Canadian actor, gambler, and raconteur, and one of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time
Norm Macdonald tells the story of his life—more or less—from his rural origins on a farm in the backwoods of Ontario to an epically disastrous appearance on Star Search, from an unbelievable audition for Lorne Michaels to his memorable run as the anchor of Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” (until a couple of O.J. jokes got him fired). But Based on a True Story is much more than just a memoir: it’s the hilarious, inspired epic of Norm’s life.
Told as dispatches from a road trip to Las Vegas with his sidekick and enabler, Adam Eget—a plan hatched to regain the fortune he’d lost to sports betting and other vices—Norm recounts the milestone moments of his life: the regrets, the love affairs, the times that Fortune smiled on him, and the times it did not. As the clock ticks down, Norm’s debt reaches record heights, and he must find a way to evade the hefty price that’s been placed on his head by one of the most dangerous loan sharks in the country.
As a comedy legend should, Norm peppers these pages with classic jokes and long-mythologized Hollywood stories. This tense, wildly adventurous, totally original, and absurdly funny memoir turns the conventional “comic’s memoir” on its head and gives the reader an exclusive glimpse inside the mad, glorious mind of Norm Macdonald.
WT Sharpe
09-27-2016 09:18 AM
Crap. I meant to vote for Rivers of London and instead voted for The Loved One. That Rivers of London looks really good. I read a bit of the "Look Inside" sample at Amazon.
issybird
09-27-2016 09:24 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
(Post 3400788)
Crap. I meant to vote for Rivers of London and instead voted for The Loved One. That Rivers of London looks really good. I read a bit of the "Look Inside" sample at Amazon.
Everyone should read The Loved One. Flatly hilarious. :laughter:
Hamlet53
09-27-2016 10:31 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
(Post 3400794)
Everyone should read The Loved One. Flatly hilarious. :laughter:
I'm about two thirds through it. It started slow, introducing the characters and general theme, but than took off. Some comedy is what I needed at the moment so I just picked the one that was available from my local library and started on it. If it wins that's good.
CRussel
09-27-2016 01:08 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
(Post 3400788)
Crap. I meant to vote for Rivers of London and instead voted for The Loved One. That Rivers of London looks really good. I read a bit of the "Look Inside" sample at Amazon.
Whether Rivers wins or not, I highly recommend it. And since I know you sometimes listen to audio books, I'll go so far as to suggest getting the WhisperSync as well for $3.99.
I don't know The Loved One, don't have an opinion. I will probably only vote for Rivers of London/Midnight Riot and Alice, Let's Eat. Well, and Bridge in the Fourth Dimension, the Further Adventures of the Hideous Hog, of course, but I know that has almost no chance of winning. I nominated it primarily to bring it to folks attention if they are, or have been, bridge players. For those of us to whom that applies, it really is quite hilarious.
WT Sharpe
09-27-2016 01:29 PM
Had I voted as I intended there would be a four way tie now between Rivers of London, The Loved One, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Bellwether.
CRussel
09-27-2016 01:38 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
(Post 3400953)
Had I voted as I intended there would be a four way tie now between Rivers of London, The Loved One, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Bellwether.
You're a Moderator, can't you fix it? Or is that level of control only for Site Admins?
WT Sharpe
09-27-2016 04:04 PM
I could, but I don't think it would be playing fair. Besides, it would open up a can of worms should anyone else decide that they didn't intend to vote for something.
CRussel
09-27-2016 04:09 PM
I'd actually be OK with changing it for someone who realized and reported a mistaken vote within a few moments of their actual vote (as was the case here, I believe). Later change of mind, however? No, that's a can of worms you don't want to open. The difference is a mistake, vs a change of mind.
Thanks, Tom. My OverDrive libraries also carry it, so people might look there.
JSWolf
09-28-2016 10:16 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by CRussel
(Post 3401034)
I'd actually be OK with changing it for someone who realized and reported a mistaken vote within a few moments of their actual vote (as was the case here, I believe). Later change of mind, however? No, that's a can of worms you don't want to open. The difference is a mistake, vs a change of mind.
I agree it's OK to fix a mistaken vote as long as the request to fix was right after the mistaken vote was made.
JSWolf
09-28-2016 10:19 AM
Come on people. Do you want to read something very witty and clever funny and very good? If you do, then vote for Rivers of London aka Midnight Riot.
CRussel
09-28-2016 06:24 PM
I have nothing against the Waugh, other than the very high price for a very short book, but Midnight Riot/Rivers of London is such a good book I'd really like to see it win. And I say that knowing that some people will be inclined to dismiss it based on "type" (it can't decide if it's Urban Fantasy or Police Procedural), thinking it isn't for them. It is. It's a delightfully witty book, and even my DW, who does not read anything classified as Urban Fantasy, ever, loved it.
badgoodDeb
09-28-2016 06:30 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by CRussel
(Post 3401867)
I have nothing against the Waugh, other than the very high price for a very short book, but Midnight Riot/Rivers of London is such a good book I'd really like to see it win. And I say that knowing that some people will be inclined to dismiss it based on "type" (it can't decide if it's Urban Fantasy or Police Procedural), thinking it isn't for them. It is. It's a delightfully witty book, and even my DW, who does not read anything classified as Urban Fantasy, ever, loved it.
Oooo, if I'd noticed that "type" earlier, I would have voted for it. It looks like it was on some sale this past June, cuz I apparently bought it then. Guess I'll go read it anyway, and then see where the vote goes!
Dazrin
09-28-2016 08:02 PM
I voted purely on library availability but it turns out that I have read or would be willing to try all of the available ones anyway.
It is too bad Rivers of London/Midnight Riot has been missed a couple times. It is an excellent book and series. I just finished books 2 and 3 in less than a week. :) It would be nice to have it in a run-off at a minimum. Of course, if it stays in second place that may be ok too; I think it would have a decent chance in January.
JSWolf
09-30-2016 12:22 PM
For those who have yet to vote, please only vote for Rivers of London aka Midnight Riot. You won't regret it. It just needs three more votes to win and you'll love reading this.
CRussel
09-30-2016 02:55 PM
A last push for Midnight Riot/Rivers of London. Two more votes and it's in a runoff, or three for the win. Come on, folks. If both Jon and I agree about this book, it's clearly got something going for it, since we never agree about anything! And, seriously, it's a fun book, a good read, reasonably priced, and available for both eBook and Audible versions, WhisperSync'd if you want. And available in many libraries. And Peter Grant is a great character.
JSWolf
10-01-2016 07:21 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by CRussel
(Post 3402950)
A last push for Midnight Riot/Rivers of London. Two more votes and it's in a runoff, or three for the win. Come on, folks. If both Jon and I agree about this book, it's clearly got something going for it, since we never agree about anything! And, seriously, it's a fun book, a good read, reasonably priced, and available for both eBook and Audible versions, WhisperSync'd if you want. And available in many libraries. And Peter Grant is a great character.
Speaking of reasonably priced. If you are lucky to have it via Overdrive at your local library and it's available, then it's more than reasonable because it would then be free.
And we just need 2 more votes for this to take the win and give us the best read in the list. So please vote for this and not any other. to help push it over the top for the win and for your pleasure.
Here is a positive review from one of our long-time members.
Quote:
Originally Posted by alansplace
(Post 3308094)
My enjoyment of the Peter Grant books stems from Aaronovitch's tongue-in cheek writing style which makes me laugh (I tend to chuckle throughout the entire book). :)
:bookworm:
WT Sharpe
10-01-2016 07:28 PM
Less than 2½ hours remaining.
issybird
10-01-2016 07:32 PM
I wasn't going to say anything, but I thought I'd get started on Midnight Riot in case it won, but I abandoned it this afternoon. Admittedly, it's not my thing, but it's also not what I would call humorous. A few witty comments do not put it into the humor category; it's strictly urban fantasy. Now, The Loved One is most definitely humor of the LOL type. :D
WT Sharpe
10-01-2016 07:40 PM
On the other hand, Midnight Riot has police who must contend with a witness who's also a ghost, warring gods, and other strange things that would be perfect for Halloween. But as I plan to read both, I don't care too much which one wins.
issybird
10-01-2016 07:48 PM
Oh, I'm glad for whatever will result in the best discussion to win. I just got to the point where I was asking myself why I was listening to it and it's hard to come back from that thought
issybird
10-01-2016 07:54 PM
Just to amplify my reaction. I was about three hours into the audiobook, so I think I gave it a fair shot. If I were reading it, I could have skimmed and maybe muscled on, but listening is so time-consuming that it's hard to continue once you've acknowledged you'd rather not. So many books, etc.
Dazrin
10-01-2016 08:46 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
(Post 3403704)
I wasn't going to say anything, but I thought I'd get started on Midnight Riot in case it won, but I abandoned it this afternoon. Admittedly, it's not my thing, but it's also not what I would call humorous. A few witty comments do not put it into the humor category; it's strictly urban fantasy. Now, The Loved One is most definitely humor of the LOL type. :D
I don't know about strictly urban fantasy but I can certainly understand not putting it in the humor category. I wouldn't have called it that either; police procedural, mystery, thriller, urban fantasy are all represented though. I did enjoy it a lot though.
WT Sharpe
10-01-2016 09:56 PM
The poll is closed, and The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh is our winner.
issybird
10-01-2016 09:58 PM
That was close! Now I can return Midnight Riot to OverDrive with a clear conscious. I'll reconsider if it wins in January.
Hamlet53
10-02-2016 07:52 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
(Post 3403704)
I wasn't going to say anything, but I thought I'd get started on Midnight Riot in case it won, but I abandoned it this afternoon. Admittedly, it's not my thing, but it's also not what I would call humorous. A few witty comments do not put it into the humor category; it's strictly urban fantasy. Now, The Loved One is most definitely humor of the LOL type. :D
Couldn't have said it better. I also started on Midnight Riot a couple of days ago. Seemed to me just to be a detective story with a twist, ghosts. Wasn't seeing any humor in it though. So I'm glad it wasn't just me there. On to better things. ;)
JSWolf
10-02-2016 11:25 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hamlet53
(Post 3403932)
Couldn't have said it better. I also started on Midnight Riot a couple of days ago. Seemed to me just to be a detective story with a twist, ghosts. Wasn't seeing any humor in it though. So I'm glad it wasn't just me there. On to better things. ;)
That's because you've not gotten far enough into it. Look at the review I posted in #19 of this thread. You will see that it's an amusing/funny book.
badgoodDeb
10-02-2016 11:01 PM
I just began on the free sample of "The Loved One" .... And already I am disillusioned. Evelyn Waugh is a man?? Nowadays, and on this west side of The Pond, Evelyn is more often a female. I've run into this use before, but it never occurred to me!
issybird
10-02-2016 11:08 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by badgoodDeb
(Post 3404363)
I just began on the free sample of "The Loved One" .... And already I am disillusioned. Evelyn Waugh is a man?? Nowadays, and on this west side of The Pond, Evelyn is more often a female. I've run into this use before, but it never occurred to me!
Even better, his first wife also was named Evelyn. They were known as He-Evelyn and She-Evelyn. Oh, and in Britspeak, that first "E" is long, as in Eve.
JSWolf
10-03-2016 07:06 AM
Why would parents do this to their child? Sometimes parents don't have a clue what the name they give their child could do to said child. Changing the pronunciation doesn't change the fact that his name is a girl's name.
Dazrin
10-03-2016 01:15 PM
I certainly didn't expect it but I have seen it before. It's almost like different names are acceptable in different time periods and in different regions. This is my shocked face. :rolleyes:
"Edith is a boys name!"
issybird
10-03-2016 01:16 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
(Post 3404542)
Why would parents do this to their child? Sometimes parents don't have a clue what the name they give their child could do to said child. Changing the pronunciation doesn't change the fact that his name is a girl's name.
Even though in America it's a girl's name, it's always been more androgynous in Britain. Like the name Dana here, for example.
As for the pronunciation, it's yet another example of two nations divided by a common language. The name Maria also comes to mind, or the way most Americans mispronounce Bernard and Augustine.
BenG
10-03-2016 01:43 PM
"Leslie" would be another example.
JSWolf
10-03-2016 01:57 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
(Post 3404694)
Even though in America it's a girl's name, it's always been more androgynous in Britain. Like the name Dana here, for example.
As for the pronunciation, it's yet another example of two nations divided by a common language. The name Maria also comes to mind, or the way most Americans mispronounce Bernard and Augustine.
Actually, England and the US had the same version of English back when the Pilgrims came to America. It is from there that things changed for both countries. Even Australia's English changed.
To say the US pronounces things wrong is itself wrong. It's just different.
badgoodDeb
10-03-2016 04:37 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by CRussel
(Post 3402950)
A last push for Midnight Riot/Rivers of London. .....Come on, folks. If both Jon and I agree about this book, it's clearly got something going for it, since we never agree about anything! And, seriously, it's a fun book, a good read, reasonably priced, and available for both eBook and Audible versions, WhisperSync'd if you want. And available in many libraries. And Peter Grant is a great character.
The "free sample" of this month's winner [Evelyn Waugh, "something Love"] didn't take me far enough to know if I'd like it or not. Since I had already bought Midnight Riot/Rivers of London a bit ago, I decided to try it for a bit.
Turns out I had tried it when I got it, and abandoned it when I reached the ghost witness. Somehow, today I'm in a different mood, and was intrigued rather than put off by that! I'm several chapters in, and quite enjoying it! It's fun, but I wouldn't (so far?) call it funny. Still, I'm going to enjoy it!
JSWolf
10-03-2016 06:19 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by badgoodDeb
(Post 3404850)
The "free sample" of this month's winner [Evelyn Waugh, "something Love"] didn't take me far enough to know if I'd like it or not. Since I had already bought Midnight Riot/Rivers of London a bit ago, I decided to try it for a bit.
Turns out I had tried it when I got it, and abandoned it when I reached the ghost witness. Somehow, today I'm in a different mood, and was intrigued rather than put off by that! I'm several chapters in, and quite enjoying it! It's fun, but I wouldn't (so far?) call it funny. Still, I'm going to enjoy it!
I've just added the Moon Over Soho to my H2O. I'll be reading it sometime this month. I have the book I am reading now and maybe one other before I get to it. I am looking forward to it.
issybird
10-03-2016 06:57 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
(Post 3404929)
I've just added the Moon Over Soho to my H2O. I'll be reading it sometime this month. I have the book I am reading now and maybe one other before I get to it. I am looking forward to it.
Don't forget to leave time for The Loved One. :)
JSWolf
10-04-2016 08:55 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
(Post 3404959)
Don't forget to leave time for The Loved One. :)
Got it from the library. It's ready to be loaded on my H20.