Literary The MobileRead Literary Book Club June 2011 Nominations

[Loosheesh]

I'm seconding the nomination of A Question of Upbringing. I had this grand idea that, this year, I'd read all 12 books in Powell's Dance to the Music of Time but haven't got around to any of them yet. This would be a great way to start

Edit
Oops, I took so long to post looks like I'm 'thirding'

[GA Russell]

I fifth On the Beach.

I second The Time Machine.

[toomanybooks]

I second Persuasion and Seven Japanese Tales.

I nominate Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. It is a retelling of the Faust legend set in Soviet Russia.

[JSWolf]

I'll third The Time Machine.

[jbcohen]

Although none of mine will probably make the cut here is one that is similar to On the Beach:

Scarlet Dreams by Rik Hoskins:

In the fetid swamps of Louisiana, the dead rise, commanded by their new, powerful queen. Facing off against an army of zombies, Kane, Grant and Brigid must somehow kill the undead. If they fail, the crazed voodoo priestess will infect her minions with a pre-dark biological weapon designed to destroy all life on earth. and then the dead will truly rise.
Back Cover:

Damnation Games

The poisonous alien race masterminding centuries of calculated chaos and destruction for mankind underestimated the sheer tenacity of the human spirit. Now these technologically superior aggressors must contend with a dedicated group of warriors sworn to reclaim their planet. The odds against the Cerberus rebels are long, but the fight goes on...

Death March

In the fetid swamps of Louisiana, the dead rise, commanded by their new queen. Her power lies in death and in its secrets - the sadistic culmination of the insane power unleashed during her fragmented rebirth from dark goddess Lilitu. Facing off against an army of zombies, Kane, Grant and Brigid must somehow kill the undead. If they fail, the crazed voodoo priestess will infect her minions with a pre-dark biological weapon designed to destroy all life on earth. And then the dead will truly rise...


Enter the future -- a postholocaust world where the struggle between the classes takes on a whole new reality...where the misery of the final conflagration gives way to a promise of a new beginning...and where the inhabitants of the planet find themselves facing a new, all-powerful enemy....

A Judgment Day, a shocking new reality begins!

In the aftermath of the Russian-American conflict in that end-of-the-world year 2001, America became the Deathlands. Two centuries later, a new order emerges to inflict its rule on the fortified cities. Beyond the walls are the Outlands, where a fragile freedom remains. Once a fearsome warrior of the new order.

[AnemicOak]

I'll fourth(?) Persuasion.

[jbcohen]

Nominated thus far and costs of each:

Age of Innocence: $0
On the Beach $12
Time Machine $0
Pride and Prejudice: $0
Persuasion: $0
Seven Japanese Tails $4
Feast of All Saints: $7
Age of War:$8
A Question of Upbringing $6.30
Master and Margarita: $8.30
Scarlet Dreams: $8

So in terms of cost they go: On the Beach, Master and Margarita, Age of War, Scarlet Dreams, Feast of All Saints, A Question of Upbringing, then the remainder are free.

[JSWolf]

Please, can we do away with books from dead authors for this round?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Please, can we do away with books from dead authors for this round?

What difference does it make if they're dead or not?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

What difference does it make if they're dead or not?

It makes a difference in that the chances for something more modern will be chosen. No all books from dead authors are bad. Just that a lot of the ones that get nominated for books clubs around here feel old and stale.

[Kevin2960]

Like ME I feel old and stale, AND I'm not dead !

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It makes a difference in that the chances for something more modern will be chosen. No all books from dead authors are bad. Just that a lot of the ones that get nominated for books clubs around here feel old and stale.

[ficbot]

jbcohen, I feel I should point out (again) that On the Beach is free in life+50 countries And is available on this forum

JSWolf, why restrict the nominations? You can vote for whatever you want to. If others agree with you, it will come out in the vote.

[TGS]

I'd like to nominate After Dark by Haruki Murakami. The narrative takes place over about 12 hours and involves a young musician and a young woman who's sister is in a coma. What is remarkable about it is the point of view of the narrator - which appears to be first person plural. This is (part of) what The Guardian said about it:

After Dark is perhaps the closest Murakami has yet come to composing a pure tone-poem. Aspects of his earlier styles - the dark, surreal farce of A Wild Sheep Chase, the mournful realism of Norwegian Wood, the supernatural yearning of Sputnik Sweetheart - here intermingle in a story that spells out less but evokes as much if not more. Exposition is set to the minimum, while the mood-colouring is virtuosic. Morning, at the end of the novel, is an extraordinary blend of the hesitant blossoming of romance and an ode to renewal. The novel could be an allegory of sleep, a phenomenology of time, or a cinematic metafiction. Whatever it is, its memory lingers.

It really is a remarkable book.

[orlok]

I'll nominate Time's Arrow by Martin Amis (a living author...):

Amis attempts here to write a path into and through the inverted morality of the Nazis: how can a writer tell about something that's fundamentally unspeakable? Amis' solution is a deft literary conceit of narrative inversion. He puts two separate consciousnesses into the person of one man, ex-Nazi doctor Tod T. Friendly. One identity wakes at the moment of Friendly's death and runs backwards in time, like a movie played in reverse, (eg, factory smokestacks scrub the air clean,) unaware of the terrible past he approaches. The "normal" consciousness runs in time's regular direction, fleeing his ignominious history.

[TGS]

I'll second Time's Arrow