[pilotbob]

Hello,

Since I have not seen PsyDocJo around I decided to take it upon myself to open this thread. Per her original schedule the nominations will run thru Nov 20th.

Book selection for December per the "official" club opening thread is:

December
MobileRead Classic (can be any genre, but must be a classic and must be available in our library)

I suggest that in order for a nomination to be included in the poll it gets seconded by two other members. I think we should also limit it to no more than 10 books... I would rather have a selection closer to 5.. but I don't see that happening considering the WIDE range that December's category allows for.

So, please the floor is open to nominations.

BOb - self-appointed vice president of the MRBC.

Official choices each with three nominations:

1) The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
Novella, one of the earliest SF tales. Adventure story, scary in places. Under the hood all sorts of interesting things are being said, not least about the British class system in the 19th century

2) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
...is the only novel of Emily Brontë, who died a year after its publication, at the age of thirty. A brooding Yorkshire tale of a love that is stronger than death, it is also a fierce vision of metaphysical passion in which heaven and hell, nature and society, and dynamic and passive forces are powerfully juxtaposed. Unique, mystical, with a timeless appeal, it has become a classic of English literature.

3) A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
It was the best of times,' it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

4) Three Men In A Boat - Jerome K Jerome
Three Men in a Boat is a humorous account by Jerome K. Jerome of a boating holiday on the Thames between Kingston and Oxford. The book was intended initially to be a serious travel guide, with accounts of local history of places along the route, but the humorous elements eventually took over, to the point where the serious and somewhat sentimental passages now seem like an unnecessary distraction to the essentially comic novel. One of the most praised things about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to modern readers. The jokes seem fresh and witty even today.

5) Augustus Carp Esquire, by Himself: Being the Autobiography of a Really Good Man - Sir Henry Howarth Bashford
Augustus Carp is a sidesman, churchwarden, Sunday school superintendent, secretary of the Glee Club, and President of the St. Potamus League for purity. He undertakes his book as a necessary corrective to what he sees as the complete moral collapse of society ... "I had a great deal of trouble at the microphone when I read Augustus Carp for the BBC, caused by the need to stifle my laughter." (Kenneth Williams)

6) The Hound of the Baskervilles - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
There is a curse that hangs over the house of the Baskervilles at Dartmoor in Devon England. It is the curse of the great hound the attacks and kills people on the moors. Now after many years of peace the beast has struck again. Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr Watson are called in to help solve the mystery of the Hound of the Baskervilles.

7) The Man Who Was Thursday - G. K. Chesterton
British writer GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON (1874-1936) expounded prolifically about his wide-ranging philosophies-he is impossible to categorize as "liberal" or "conservative," for instance-across a wide variety of avenues: he was a literary critic, historian, playwright, novelist, columnist, and poet. His witty, humorous style earned him the title of the "prince of paradox," and his works-80 books and nearly 4,000 essays-remain among the most beloved in the English language Considered by many readers to be his best work, this 1908 novel is an outrageous satire about a club of gentlemen in London at the turn of the 20th century who have vowed to destroy the world. Subtitled "A Nightmare," and bursting with Chesterton's trademark wit and abundant in surprising metaphors about religion, nature, and human civilization itself, it is a philosophical and ironic wonder, a delight to read and an even greater delight to ponder.

8) The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout.

9) Dracula by Bram Stoker
A true masterwork of storytelling, Dracula has transcended generation, language, and culture to become one of the most popular novels ever written. It is a quintessential tale of suspense and horror, boasting one of the most terrifying characters ever born in literature: Count Dracula, a tragic, night-dwelling specter who feeds upon the blood of the living, and whose diabolical passions prey upon the innocent, the helpless, and the beautiful. But Dracula also stands as a bleak allegorical saga of an eternally cursed being whose nocturnal atrocities reflect the dark underside of the supremely moralistic age in which it was originally written -- and the corrupt desires that continue to plague the modern human condition. Pocket Books Enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. This edition of Dracula was prepared by Joseph Valente, Professor of English at the University of Illinois and the author of Dracula's Crypt: Bram Stoker, Irishness, and the Question of Blood, who provides insight into the racial connotations of this enduring masterpiece.


NOMINATIONS ARE CLOSED!!!