Help us select the book that the New Leaf Book Club will read for September 2018. The theme is
The Shortest, Gladdest Years of Life: School
Everyone is welcome to join the nomination process even if they'd rather lurk during the voting and discussion; if that is still a little too much commitment, please feel free to suggest titles without making a formal nomination.
The nominations will run through 7 AM EDT, August 7, 2018. Each nomination requires a second and a third to make it to the poll, which will remain open for four days. The discussion of the selection will start on September 15, 2018. Don't forget to show up for the discussion of the August selection,
The Great Halifax Explosion, on August 15.
Any questions? See below, or just ask!
FAQs for the Nomination, Selection and Discussion process
General Guidelines for the New Leaf Book Club
Official choices with three nominations:
The Blackboard Jungle by Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain) [Catlady, gmw, issybird]
Amazon U.S. $1.99 |
Kobo U.S. $1.99 |
Amazon CA $9.99 |
Kobo CA $14.39 |
Amazon AU $14.45 |
Kobo AU $19.35 |
Amazon UK, £7.59 |
Kobo UK £10.43 | OverDrive, Hoopla, Scribd, Freading
Spoiler:
Quote:
The “shocking” and “suspense-packed” bestseller about one teacher’s stand against student violence, and the basis for the Academy Award–nominated film (The New York Times Book Review).
After serving his country in World War II, Richard Dadier decides to become an English teacher—and for the sin of wanting to make a difference, he’s hired at North Manual Trades High School. A tough vocational school in the East Bronx, Manual Trades is home to angry, unruly teenagers exiled from New York City’s regular public schools. On his first day, Dadier endures relentless mockery and ridicule and makes an enemy of the student body by rescuing a female colleague from a vicious attack.
His fellow educators are bitter, disillusioned, and too afraid of their pupils to risk turning their backs on them in the classroom. But Dadier refuses to give up without a fight. Over the course of the semester, he tries again and again to break through the wall of hatred and scorn and win his students’ respect. The more he learns about their difficult circumstances, the more convinced he becomes that a good teacher can make a difference in their lives. His idealism will be put to the ultimate test, however, when a long-simmering power struggle with his most intimidating student explodes into a violent schoolroom showdown.
The basis for the blockbuster film starring Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier, Evan Hunter’s The Blackboard Jungle is a brutal, unflinching look at the dark side of American education and an early masterpiece from the author who went on to write the gritty 87th Precinct series as Ed McBain. Drawn from Hunter’s own experiences as a New York City schoolteacher, it is a “nightmarish but authentic” drama that packs a knockout punch (Time).
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358 pages
Holes by Louis Sachar [gmw, Dngrsone, Bookworm_Girl]
Amazon US $6.99 |
Amazon UK £3.32 |
Amazon CA $7.99 |
Amazon AU $4.29 |
Kobo US $6.99 |
Kobo UK £5.39 |
Kobo CA $7.99 |
Kobo AU $11.32
Spoiler:
From
Goodreads:
Quote:
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten- pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.
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241 pages
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie [Bookworm_Girl, gmw, fantasyfan]
Amazon Kobo $9.99 |
Amazon CA $12.99 |
Amazon AU $7.99 |
Amazon UK £4.99 |
OverDrive
230 pages
Goodbye Mr. Chips by James Hilton [drofgnal, fantasyfan, CRussel]
Amazon US $4.70
Spoiler:
Throughout his forty-three-year tenure at Brookfield, “a good public school of the second rate” in eastern England, Arthur Chipping has been Mr. Chips to his students. Beginning with his unpolished first years during the Franco-Prussian War, into the radical changes of the twentieth century and the outbreak of the First World War, Mr. Chips has shaped lives. But Chips has been inspired as well—by the unremarkable and the extraordinary, by his colleagues, by a woman who changes him forever, and not least, by his children, “thousands of them, all boys.”
72 pages
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro [astrangerhere, issybird, Bookpossum]
Amazon |
Kobo |
Google Play All $9.99
362 pages
Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl [fantasyfan, Bookpossum, Dazrin]
176 pages
A Separate Peace by John Knowles [drofgnal, CRussel, Dazrin]
Amazon US $10.99
228 pages
Tunnel In The Sky by Robert Heinlein [Ralph Sir Edward, June, Dazrin]
227 pages
Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris [Bookpossum, Bookworm_Girl, CRussel]
$US7.99, $C7.99, $A12.99, £0.99 - time to travel again! All from Kobo.
Spoiler:
Quote:
Audere, agere, auferre. To dare, to strive, to conquer. For generations, privileged young men have attended St. Oswald's Grammar School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric Classics teacher who has been a fixture there for more than thirty years. But this year the wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork, and information technology are beginning to overshadow St. Oswald's tradition, and Straitley is finally, and reluctantly, contemplating retirement. He is joined this term by five new faculty members, including one who -- unbeknownst to Straitley and everyone else -- holds intimate and dangerous knowledge of St. Oswald's ways and secrets. Harboring dark ties to the school's past, this young teacher has arrived with one terrible goal: to destroy St. Oswald's.
As the new term gets under way, a number of incidents befall students and faculty alike. Beginning as small annoyances -- a lost pen, a misplaced coffee mug -- they are initially overlooked. But as the incidents escalate in both number and consequence, it soon becomes apparent that a darker undercurrent is stirring within the school. With St. Oswald's unraveling, only Straitley stands in the way of its ruin. The veteran teacher faces a formidable opponent, however -- a master player with a bitter grudge and a strategy that has been meticulously planned to the final move, a secret game with very real, very deadly consequences.
A harrowing tale of cat and mouse, this riveting, hypnotically atmospheric novel showcases New York Times bestselling author Joanne Harris's astonishing storytelling talent as never before.
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422 pages
This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp [Catlady, June, bfisher]
Amazon U.S. $7.99 |
Kobo U.S. $8.69 |
Amazon CA $8.24 |
Kobo CA $10.59 |
Amazon AU $8.85 |
Kobo AU $11.87 |
Amazon UK £5.25 |
Kobo UK £6.59 | OverDrive, Hoopla, Scribd, Freading
292 pages