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Vote for August 2019 • First Things First: Debuts
Let's select the book we'll read and discuss in August 2019!
We love new participants. We're happy for you to vote, but we'd like to request that you not vote unless you plan to join the discussion whatever the selection, in the interest of a vibrant conversation. So if you haven't posted in a book club thread yet, do please say a quick hello here or in the Welcome thread.
This is a poll. Vote for as many books as you'd like. Questions? FAQs | Guidelines Or just ask!
Choices:
The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin
US$12.99 | CA$13.99 | AU$12.99 | UK£8.51 | OverDrive | Audible
Spoiler:
Quote:
Moscow, May 1876: What would cause a talented young student from a wealthy family to shoot himself in front of a promenading public in the Alexander Gardens? Decadence and boredom, most likely, is what the commander of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Moscow Police thinks, but still he finds it curious enough to send the newest member of the division, Erast Fandorin, a young man of irresistible charm, to the Alexander Gardens precinct for more information.
Fandorin is not satisfied with the conclusion that this is an open-and-shut case, nor with the preliminary detective work the precinct has done—and for good reason: The bizarre and tragic suicide is soon connected to a clear case of murder, witnessed firsthand by Fandorin. There are many unresolved questions. Why, for instance, have both victims left their fortunes to an orphanage run by the English Lady Astair? And who is the beautiful “A.B.,” whose signed photograph is found in the apparent suicide’s apartment? Relying on his keen intuition, the eager sleuth plunges into an investigation that leads him across Europe, landing him at the deadly center of a terrorist conspiracy of worldwide proportions.
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290 pp.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Amazon $13 | Amazon & Kobo CA $0.99 | GoodReads
337 pp.
Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym
Amazon US $9.99 | Kobo US $14.39 | Kobo AU $12.99 | Kobo NZ $16.99 | Kobo UK £3.99
Spoiler:
Quote:
A novel of two sisters in postwar England that lets you “step into the Jane Austen–like lives of Harriet and Belinda Bede” (The Christian Science Monitor).
Belinda and Harriet Bede live together in a small English village. Shy, sensible Belinda has been secretly in love with Henry Hoccleve—the poetry-spouting, married archdeacon of their church—for thirty years. Belinda’s much more confident, forthright younger sister Harriet, meanwhile, is ardently pursued by Count Ricardo Bianco. Although she has turned down every marriageable man who proposes, Harriet still welcomes any new curate with dinner parties and flirtatious conversation. And one of the newest arrivals, the reverend Edgar Donne, has everyone talking.
A warm, affectionate depiction of a postwar English village, Some Tame Gazelle perfectly captures the quotidian details that make up everyday life. With its vibrant supporting cast, it’s also a poignant story of unrequited love.
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Quote:
It was odd that Harriet should always have been so fond of curates. They were so immature and always made the same kind of conversation. Now the Archdeacon was altogether different . . . '
Together yet alone, the Misses Bede occupy the central crossroads of parish life. Harriet, plump, elegant and jolly, likes nothing better than to make a fuss of new curates, secure in the knowledge that elderly Italian Count Ricardo Bianco will propose to her yet again this year. Belinda, meanwhile has harboured sober feelings of devotion towards Archdeacon Hochleve for thirty years.
Then into their quiet, comfortable lives comes a famous librarian, Nathaniel Mold, and a bishop from Africa, Theodore Grote - who each take to calling on the sisters for rather more unsettling reasons.
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272 pp.
I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume
Amazon $10 | GoodReads
480 pp.
Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout
Kobo CA $9 | Kobo US $5 | Kobo AU $10.22
285 pp.
Every Day is Mother's Day by Hilary Mantel
Kobo: $US7.99, $C11.99, $A12.99, £3.99
274 pp.
Last edited by issybird; 07-07-2019 at 07:09 AM.
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