[WT Sharpe]

December 2015 MobileRead Book Club Vote

Help us choose a book as the December 2015 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 You may cast a vote for each book that appeals to you.

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

• The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories by Nicolai Leskov
Amazon US / Kobo / Overdrive

Spoiler:

Written over the course of Leskov's career, each story in The Enchanted Wanderer elucidates the very essence of the human condition; themes of love, despair, loneliness, and revenge are explored against the backdrop of nineteenth-century working-class Russia. Leskov deftly layers social satire and subtle criticism atop myth and fable, resulting in a richly entertaining collection.

• The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler
Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Spoiler:

“Anyone who cares about the best mystery writing of the past century and beyond would be lucky to receive this thick volume during the holidays. . . . One of the joys of the collection is how many are delightfully funny. . . . Note that many of these stories turn on simple theft, of diamonds or candlesticks or a lottery ticket; they hark back to simpler days before the modern thriller began to provide endless serial killers and ax murderers for our edification. To read today’s talented crime writers can be a pleasure, but it’s good to be reminded that they build on the work of others whose talents remain undimmed."
—The Washington Post

• The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: THE BOOK edited by Michael Amadio
Goodreads | Amazon CA / Amazon UK / Amazon US

Spoiler:

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes is a British television show, which includes two series of 13 fifty-minute episodes aired in 1971, the first, and 1973, the second.

The program presented adaptations of short mystery, suspense or crime stories featuring, as the title indicates, detectives who were literary rivals, and contemporaries, of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes took its inspiration–and title–from a number of published anthologies edited by Hugh Greene, elder brother of author Graham Greene. Hugh Greene, a former director-general of the BBC, is credited as a program creative consultant.

All the stories adapted to the show are included in this ebook, with the exception of “The Sensible Action of Lieutenant Hoist” (Episode 6) and “Anonymous Letters” (Episode 8) of the second series, a Danish and Austrian detective story non readily available in English.

However, this ebook includes, as a bonus, the complete book Hagar of the Pawn Shop by Fergus Humes, from which the story for Episode 12 of Series 2 (“The Mystery of the Amber Beads”) was taken.

The stories are presented here in the order in which they appeared in the TV series.

• Alice Munro's Best: Selected Stories by Alice Munro
Amazon CA / Amazon UK / Amazon US / Kobo

Spoiler:

From Amazon:

In her lengthy and fascinating introduction Margaret Atwood says “Alice Munro is among the major writers of English fiction of our time. . . . Among writers themselves, her name is spoken in hushed tones.”

This splendid gift edition is sure to delight Alice Munro’s growing body of admirers, what Atwood calls her “devoted international readership.” Long-time fans of her stories will enjoy meeting old favourites, where their new setting in this book may reveal new sides to what once seemed a familiar story; devoted followers may even dispute the exclusion of a specially-beloved story. Readers lucky enough to have found her recently will be delighted, as one masterpiece succeeds another.

The 17 stories are carefully arranged in the order in which she wrote them, which allows us to follow the development of her range. “A Wilderness Station,” for example, breaks “short story rules” by taking us right back to the 1830s then jumping forward more than 100 years. “The Albanian Virgin” destroys the idea that her stories are set in B.C. or in Ontario’s “Alice Munro Country.” And “The Bear Came Over the Mountain,” the story behind the film Away From Her, takes us far from the world of young girls learning about sex into unflinching old age.

This is a book to read slowly, savouring each story. It deserves a place in every Canadian book-lover’s library.

• Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx
Goodreads | Amazon Au / Amazon Ca / Amazon UK / Amazon US / Kobo

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes comes one of the most celebrated short-story collections of our time.

Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in these breathtaking tales of loneliness, quick violence, and the wrong kinds of love. Each of the stunning portraits in Close Range reveals characters fiercely wrought with precision and grace.

These are stories of desperation and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both stark and magnificent -- by an author writing at the peak of her craft.


Sometimes known as "Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories"