[WT Sharpe]

MobileRead Book Club
September 2013 Nominations

Help us select the book that the MobileRead Book Club will read for September, 2013.

The nominations will run through midnight EST August 30 or until 10 books have made the list. The poll will then be posted and will remain open for five days.

Book selection category for September is:

Banned or Challenged Books

In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third).

How Does This Work?
The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the last week of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome.

How Does a Book Get Selected?
Each book that is nominated will be listed in a poll at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection.

How Many Nominations Can I Make?
Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person.

How Do I Nominate a Book?
Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest.

How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated?
Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP.

When is the Poll?
The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the initial poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed.

The floor is open to nominations. Please comment if you discover a nomination is not available as an ebook in your area.


Official choices with three nominations each:

(1) A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Spoiler:

In 1929, Italy banned Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms for its vivid description of the Italian Army's disgraceful retreat following the Battle of Caporetto during World War I.

(2) Complete Works of Sappho (Delphi Ancient Classics) by Sappho of Lesbos (Author), Peter Russell (Translator)
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Apple Store / Delphi Classics

Spoiler:

Sappho was an acclaimed Greek poet who lived around 600 B.C. During her lifetime, her works about love and longing were considered masterpieces. Their content, though, had a definite woman-to-woman element that was later found objectionable by the Church. Christians began destroying her works in the 5th century A.D., and her poetry was officially banned by Pope Gregory VII in 1073. The destruction was so thorough that only one complete poem survived for many centuries until a cache of papyri, discovered in the 1800s, that had been used to wrap mummies and stuff sacred animals was found to include her writings.

(3) Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: lrf

Spoiler:

In 1835 Tsarist Russia, under Nicholas I banned the sale of Andersen's Fairy Tales lest the violent nature disturb impressionable children. The ban remained in place until 1849. The stories were again banned in Soviet Union beginning in the 1930s because they glorified princes and princesses.

(4) The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / Sony (Also available on Overdrive.)

Spoiler:

Though it is not as immediately topical as it was a couple of decades ago it is still banned in every Islamic country with the exception of Turkey, apparently. That and there are not many books where people have died for being involved in publication. In September 2012, Rushdie expressed doubt that The Satanic Verses would be published today because of a climate of "fear and nervousness."

(5) Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
ePub and Kindle Links at bottom of page

Spoiler:

First published in a private edition in Italy in 1928, it wasn't openly published in the UK until 1960, leading to the famous obsenity trial where the chief prosecuting barrister, Mervyn Griffith-Jones, asked the jury if it were the kind of book "you would wish your wife or servants to read".

(6) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / Sony (Also available on Overdrive.)

Spoiler:

From Wikipedia:

Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel was initially poorly received for its rejection of racial uplift literary prescriptions. Today, it has come to be regarded as a seminal work in both African-American literature and women's literature. Time included the novel in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.

It has been banned for frank sexual content as well as it's depiction of life for a black woman in America at the time published (1937).

(7) No Orchids for Miss Blandish by James Hadley Chase [orlok, HomeInMyShoes, tlaine]
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Spoiler:

This novel is now widely regarded as one of the top thrillers of the last century. When it was originally published it pushed the social boundaries of the time through its relentless exploration of crime and sexual exploitation. Unlike most crime novels of that era, the characters are rich, deeply realized portraits of those who lived on the fringes of society during the Great Depression -- namely the gangsters, their women, and the men who hunted them. The novel broke sales records when published and has gone onto to sell over four million copies worldwide. Historically important, such literary greats as George Orwell and Graham Greene instantly recognized its merits. In a lengthy essay that securely placed NO ORCHIDS in an honored position in crime fiction, George Orwell wrote that, "In a book like NO ORCHIDS one is not, as in the old-style crime story, simply escaping from dull reality into an imaginary world of action. One's escape is essentially into cruelty and sexual perversion...a brilliant piece of writing, with hardly a wasted word or a jarring note anywhere."

(8) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes [caleb72, fantasyfan, Billi]
Amazon UK / Amazon US / B&N (US) / Google Play (AUS)

Spoiler:

Challenged/Banned Info:
Flowers for Algernon

Banned in Emporium, PA, due to sexually explicit passages that parents feared would awaken their children’s “natural impulses.” 1977

Challenged in Oberlin, OH, due to sexually explicit passages. 1984

Banned in Glen Rose, AR, due to language and sexually explicit passages. Objectors compared Flowers for Algernon to “books in plastic covers you see at newsstands.” 1981

Challenged in Glenrock, WY for sexually explicit passages and language. Objector compared the novel to Playboy and Hustler among other, um, photo-centric publications. 1984

Challenged in Plant City, FL, (and Arizona, Virginia, and Georgia) for sexually explicit passages, adult themes, and profanity. 1976, 1981, 1996, 1997

Banned from Aledo (Texas) Middle School, subsequently re-shelved at the school library, but not reinstated into the curriculum. (1999)
Frequently challenged due to objections to “sexually explicit” content.

Ranks no. 47 on ALA’s 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.

Full link at: http://suvudu.com/2008/10/challenged...-algernon.html[/i]

(9) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck [Synamon, John F, drofgnal]
No links provided.

Spoiler:

It won the Pulitzer and is 3rd on the ALA's list of banned and challenged classics.

(10) Fade by Robert Cormier [orlok, odiakkoh, Synamon]
Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Google / Kobo

Spoiler:

In the summer of 1938, the young Paul Moreaux who lives in a town outside of Boston called Monument, discovers he can "fade". "Fading" is the term used for being invisible and becoming invisible to the world. His family has had this ability generation after generation. It is passed down from uncle to nephew. First bewildered, then thrilled with the possibilities of invisibility, Paul experiments with his "gift". This ability shows him things that he should not witness. His power soon overloads him, shows him shocking secrets, pushes him over the edge, and drives him toward some chilling and horrible acts from which there is no forgiveness, no forgetting, and no turning back. His depressing downfall impacts the reader. Paul discovers how cruel, evil, and disgusting the world can be.

Paul sees so much by his gift. The ability to fade becomes a nightmare because he learns so much that he did not want to see or hear.

Because of the novel's content that includes scenes of murder and incest, it has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 at number sixty-five (Wikipedia)

The nominations are now closed.