Literary Rotating Nominations

[desertblues]

Thank you, Issybird, this is a marvelous selection. I will be tempted to read more than one, I think.

[Billi]

My thanks too, issybird. I'm already looking forward to the reading and discussion.

[sun surfer]

Great June choices and it's interesting to have such a specifically defined list. issybird, if you are not a Great War historian or historical expert, then you should consider it as you are a fount of interest on the subject!

Originally Posted by desertblues

Me too. I can have a go at the rotations next time, I think. When is it, in August? I' m thinking of the theme " a trip around the world".

Spoiler:

do not think...Jules Verne.....no way......I've read that in my youth twice and don't want to spoil this marvellous experience then by my adult insights......

Yes, the next one will be August and your possible theme sounds very interesting. So as not to book things too far in advance or put too much advance pressure in case circumstances change, we'll leave it up in the air for now and I'll ask for a volunteer around the normal time (which should be sometime mid-July) and, if I don't forget, I'll mention your interest for the month when I do so, and you can affirm then if you'd still like to.



ETA - The poll is now up!

[paola]

Shame on you issybird, my TBR is going to explode :-)
Yes agree, a tough choice this month, and thanks for the great selection!

[fantasyfan]

What a FABULOUS list, Issybird.

[sun surfer]

desertblues has volunteered to have a go at August, and for August only we will be starting on the 5th instead of the 1st. desertblues, August is yours!

[desertblues]

Thanks Sunsurfer! As I will be traveling from the 24th of July to the 9th of August, that is; cycling in East Germany with shaky wifi, I will send you my list of nominations before I'll depart. I will be back in time for the end of the votes.

[sun surfer]

Here are desertblues' nominations for August as sent to me. The poll will be up a little later.

Originally Posted by desertblues

The theme for this month: exploring foreign cultures.
My motivation has come from an ongoing curiosity while traveling. From a professional but also a personal view I feel myself enriched by the knowledge I acquire on the way. (and, by the way; what are borders, but an artificial construction?)
Though it is nice to travel around in person and speak to foreign people, one can also go on an easy-chair-journey. Sit back with a book and let it’s contents be the means of transport and the mind do the talking.

The journey starts with the tale of the French knight Roland, who fights the Muslim in Spain in 778 A.D. This epic poem has been handed down since and recorded in the 11th century.
The next stop is a 15th century book about the quest of an ancient monk and his three companions who pilgrimage to the ‘West’; from China to India between 618-907 A.D, in search of enlightenment.
And on it goes to Italy in the 17th century, where a young scholar is captured into slavery to Constantinople. This book highlights the enigma of the identity of East and West.
And further to Indonesia, which is a Dutch colony in the 19th century. A colonial civil servant and writer tell the sad story of the Indonesian under colonial government: a tale that will change things.
Also of the 19th century is the book of a modern Indian author. He describes the Indian’s precarious position and the British’ demand for opium, for their overseas trade with China.
In the 20th century the relations with the West influences and mingles with lives in the Orient. An example is Egypt, with a book about the life of a traditional Cairo family under changing political conditions in the first decades of the century. And in Iran, about half a century later, another traditional family struggles with the demands of modern age, religion, changing politics and the influence of foreign powers.

Turold(?). The Song of Roland (la Chanson de Roland)

Spoiler:

The Chanson de Roland or the Song of Roland is an epic poem based on the Battle of Roncevaux in 778, during the reign of Charlemagne, emperor of the Carolingian empire (Western Europe). The knight Roland, a bold warrior of Charlemagne’s court, is the hero of the tale. It tells the story of his role in Charlemagne’s campaign against the Muslim in Spain.
The poem is a ‘chanson de geste’ or a song of heroic deeds: composed in ten-syllable occasionally rhymed laisses (types of stanza of varying length). It is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. The tale is not of the Crusade itself, but it is first written down in a date very close to that of Pope Urban’s call (1095) for the First Crusade.

There are free eBooks and I found one for $1,20 on Amazon. http://inkmesh.com/ebooks/song-of-ro...song+of+roland
A good translation is the one by Dorothy Sayers. Her version is as pbook from Penguin and I found it as eBook on a Canadian site where it is in the public domain (check if this applies for your country). http://www.fadedpage.com/books/20130224/20130224.html

Wu Cheng’en. Journey to the West.

Spoiler:

The Journey to the West is a Chinese novel, published in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng’en (1500-1582). It is one of the Four Great Classical novels of the Chinese literature and still very alive in China and Asia. The book has strong roots in Chinese folk religion, mythology, and Confucianism-Taoist- and Buddhist philosophy.
The novel is an extended account by Wu Cheng’en of the legendary pilgrimage of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who travels from China to India to obtain sacred Buddhist texts, the sŭtras. It retains the broad outline of the monk’s own account with elements from folk tales and his own invention, the appearance of Monkey and his three companions.
http://inkmesh.com/search/?qs=journe...nE=Find+Ebooks free eBook

Orhan Pamuk. The white castle.

Spoiler:

Ferit Orhan Pamuk (Istanbul 1952) is a Turkish novelist and academic. He received the 2006 Nobel Prize in literature. In 2005 Pamuk is put on trial in Turkey after he made a controversial statement regarding the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. As a result his books were burned at rallies and he became the target of assassination attempts.
The White Castle is a work of historical fiction and at the same time a treatise of the enigma of identity and the relations between East and West.
The story: in the 17th century a young Italian scholar, sailing from Venice to Naples is taken prisoner and delivered to Constantinople. There he falls into the custody of a scholar known as Hoja,-master-, who is his exact double. The two interact; the slave instructs his master in Western science and technology and they each becomes curious about each other’s culture…..with unexpected results.
http://inkmesh.com/ebooks/white-cast...2C+Orhan+Pamuk
from $9,99 Amazon eBook

Multatuli. Max Havelaar or the coffee auctions of the Dutch Trading Company.

Spoiler:

Max Havelaar or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company is a socially significant 1860 novel by Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker 1820-1887). Multatuli is the author, but also an official of the Dutch colonial government in Indonesia at the time.
This novel is important in shaping and modifying Dutch colonial policy in the Dutch Indies in the 19th-20th century. In the 19th century the Dutch colonial policy in the Dutch Indies implement a Cultivation System (Cultuurstelsel) in order to increase revenues. This system mandates Indonesian farmers to grow a quota of commercially tradable crops as sugar and coffer, instead of growing staple foods as rice. At the same time, the colonial government implements a tax collection system in which the collecting agents are paid by commission. The combination of these two strategies causes widespread abuse of colonial power, especially on Java and Sumatra.
Multatuli writes in the Max Havelaar poignant stories about the Indonesian, in protest against these colonial policies and also in an attempt to reinstate him. It will raise the awareness of Europeans living in Europe at the time that the wealth that they enjoy is the result of suffering in other parts of the world.
(the pseudonym Multatuli is from the Latin multa tuli ‘ I have carried much’ or ‘ I have suffered much’. )
http://inkmesh.com/search/?qs=Max+Ha...nE=Find+Ebooks
free eBook or for $4,83 at Amazon

Amitav Ghosh. Sea of poppies.

Spoiler:

The Sea of Poppies is a novel by Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh (Calcutta 1958) which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008. It is the first volume of what will be the Ibis trilogy. The story is set prior to the First Opium War (1839-1842), on the banks of the holy river Ganges and in Calcutta.
At the heart of this saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean. Its purpose is to fight China’s vicious nineteenth-century Opium Wars. As for the crew, they are a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a free spirited French orphan. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers.
http://inkmesh.com/ebooks/sea-of-pop...Sea+of+Poppies from $7,76 WHSmith, UK eBook

Naguib Mafouz. Palace walk.

Spoiler:

Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) is an Egyptian writer who wins the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature to explore themes of existentialism.
Palace Walk is the first book of the Cairo Trilogy. It begins in 1917, during World War I, and ends in 1919, the year of the nationalist revolution. The book highlights the cultural and political transition Egypt experiences at this time, developments brought into focus by the lives of the el-Gawad family in Cairo. Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad is the tyrannical head of his household, demanding total, unquestioning obedience from his wife, his sons, and his daughters. The characters in the book are important mediators between issues of local and wider scope.
http://inkmesh.com/ebooks/palace-wal...2C+Palace+walk from $12,16 WHSmith UK, used pBook from Amazon $2,48

Kader Abdolah. The house of mosque.

Spoiler:

Kader Abdolah (Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani.1954 Arak, Iran) is a writer, poet and columnist. He joins the left-wing movement opposing the Shah in 1977- and later the Khomeini- regimes. He flees to the Netherlands as a political refugee in 1988. (the pseudonym Kader Abdolah is composed of the names of two executed friends).
The House of Mosque follows the life of an Iranian family during the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, through the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the installment of the Khomeini government. It primarily explores how the Iranian people cope with the second half of the 20th century’s American influence over Iran. It shows the struggle between the leaders of the (significant economic force) bazaar and the religious rule of the imans. But also the differences between the children who are caught up in revolutionary ideas and do not follow the old rules of the house.
http://inkmesh.com/ebooks/house-of-m...+kader+abdolah
from $8,34 Amazon eBook

[Bookpossum]

What an interesting and varied selection, desert blues! Thank you.

[Billi]

Yes. I will be happy with reading every book that will win the voting.

Thanks, deserblues. And I hope very much you enjoy your holidays in Eastern Germany despite our peculiar weather at the moment!

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by Billi

Yes. I will be happy with reading every book that will win the voting.

Thanks, deserblues. And I hope very much you enjoy your holidays in Eastern Germany despite our peculiar weather at the moment!

Thanks Billi and Bookpossum. I cycle about 5 hours a day : shaky roads, shaky wifi, weather is about O.K (in Sietow an der Müritzsee) and the beer is good.
I have no favorite, am happy with whatever wins, but can recommend the audiobook of the Song of Roland ( free audio with some medieval music, lots of weapon noise and in the whole it transports one to that particular age)

btw: excuse grammar and other as editing on my iphone is a bit of a pain....

[sun surfer]

The poll is now up! (and great pic desertblues)

[paola]

great list! I've just done my duty, but I am now thinking that Palace Walk may not be eligible, as it was voted "Regions" round last November
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=2685210

[issybird]

Originally Posted by paola

great list! I've just done my duty, but I am now thinking that Palace Walk may not be eligible, as it was voted "Regions" round last November
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=2685210

You and fantasyfan cancel each other out!

I'm pretty sure the lit club doesn't have a rule about renominating books, but I won't vote for Mahfouz since we did just read something by him.. That's as far as I've got making up my mind, though!

[sun surfer]

Well, at least every nomination already has a vote! And yes, thanks for pointing that out paola about Palace Walk but issybird's correct so it's eligible. Our only requirement like that is no past monthly selections in rotating months.