MobileRead September 2015 Book Club Nominations

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

I'll nominate it.

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler was banned for sexual content and profanity by Carroll County Maryland superintendent Charles I. Ecker. If you want to nominate it, I'll second it, as it has some pretty good ratings at Amazon and Goodreads.

Although it isn't my normal type of book and I haven't checked availability from my library, which would be a per-requisite for me to actually read it, I will first it/third it, whatever. Part of the reason I try to participate is to get myself out of my comfort zone, this ought to be sufficient. I will try to get some links and a description later unless someone beats me to it.

As for Harry Potter, they were banned or at least challenged all over the place because ... reasons.

The most prominent objections to Harry Potter fall into three categories: they promote witchcraft; they set bad examples; and they're too dark.

Here is one link about it, there are many: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/banned-harry.html

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

Harry Potter? Banned by whom and when and where?



I'll nominate it.

Thirded.

[Nyssa]

I'll 2nd Beloved.

I actually tried reading it either in Jr. High or Highschool, and remember being haunted by the imagery to the point that I couldn't continue. I only read a few chapters at that time, so it'll be interesting (should it win) to see if I can finish now - oh so many years later.

[WT Sharpe]

I was thinking of adding a vote to Beloved, but I see Sun Surfer rated it only two stars at Goodreads, so I think I'll pass; at least for now.

[Almamida]

Oh! Oh! Oh!
I have just seen "Harry Potter" with 3 nominations in this thread, thanks to the news on the frontpage.
As I'm reading this one, but don't know what it means. I didn't participated in a book club but as far as I understand, you chose some books, read them and discuss about it, right ?
I'll happily participate if the fact I already started reading it doesn't exclude me.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Almamida

Oh! Oh! Oh!
I have just seen "Harry Potter" with 3 nominations in this thread, thanks to the news on the frontpage.
As I'm reading this one, but don't know what it means. I didn't participated in a book club but as far as I understand, you chose some books, read them and discuss about it, right ?
I'll happily participate if the fact I already started reading it doesn't exclude me.

Welcome!

You aren't too late at all, right now we are still deciding what to read for September. The theme is "Banned or Challenged" works and Harry Potter is the most commonly banned or challenged work of the last couple decades (and lots of people here have enjoyed it!). This book club is rather informal, you can join in any time you like and participate in as many or as few discussions as you want to.

You can read the first post for more detailed information but basically how this works is on the 20th of the month prior to a discussion we start getting nominations. When we have 10 nominations we vote and choose one for the next month. On the 20th of the month we start discussing. That gives us about 3 weeks to read the book before we discuss it and we can all discuss it at one time. Faster readers can just start later and try to time completion with the 20th.

[Almamida]

Thanks
I reread after posting and understood the rules : You nominate up to 10 books and after there is a poll to determine which book is selected.
That can be a great chalenge for me and in other hand a good way to choose a book and read it/discuss about it.

By the way, I didn't know Harry Potter Series was banned, that's why I think I didn't understand the first post entirely. After a search on the web, I had a confirmation...
I'm in

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

Harry Potter? Banned by whom and when and where?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/693779.stm

quote]A primary school head teacher is banning pupils from reading the best-selling Harry Potter children's books because she says they go against the Bible's teachings.[/quote]

And Harry Potter has been challenged as well.

[BenG]

I'll nominate The Golden Compass (The Northern Lights in the UK), the first volume in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.

Sometimes banned or contested because of a perceived anti-religion bias, though that's almost entirely in the later books. It's sort of the anti-Narnia. (Plus it has armored bears! I loved the armored bears. )

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Compass...=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Northern-Lig...orthern+lights

Edit to add summary:

Spoiler:

Lyra's life is already sufficiently interesting for a novel before she eavesdrops on a presentation by her uncle Lord Asriel to his colleagues in the Jordan College faculty, Oxford. The college, famed for its leadership in experimental theology, is funding Lord Asriel's research into the heretical possibility of the existence of worlds unlike Lyra's own, where everyone is born with a familiar animal companion, magic of a kind works, the Tartars are threatening to overrun Muscovy, and the Pope is a puritanical Protestant. Set in an England familiar and strange, Philip Pullman's lively, taut story is a must-read and re-read for fantasy lovers of all ages. The world-building is outstanding, from the subtle hints of the 1898 Tokay to odd quirks of language to the panserbjorne, while determined, clever Lyra is strongly reminiscent of Joan Aiken's Dido Twite.

A few years ago he was the second most banned or restricted author in the U.S.

[BenG]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I was thinking of adding a vote to Beloved, but I see Sun Surfer rated it only two stars at Goodreads, so I think I'll pass; at least for now.

Beloved would be interesting, but is not a light read. I'm not sure I'd be up for it immediately after Dhalgren.

[treadlightly]

I'll second The Golden Compass.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by BenG

I'll nominate The Golden Compass (The Northern Lights in the UK), the first volume in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.

Sometimes banned or contested because of a perceived anti-religion bias, though that's almost entirely in the later books. It's sort of the anti-Narnia. (Plus it has armored bears! I loved the armored bears. )

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Compass...=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Northern-Lig...orthern+lights

Edit to add summary:

Spoiler:

Lyra's life is already sufficiently interesting for a novel before she eavesdrops on a presentation by her uncle Lord Asriel to his colleagues in the Jordan College faculty, Oxford. The college, famed for its leadership in experimental theology, is funding Lord Asriel's research into the heretical possibility of the existence of worlds unlike Lyra's own, where everyone is born with a familiar animal companion, magic of a kind works, the Tartars are threatening to overrun Muscovy, and the Pope is a puritanical Protestant. Set in an England familiar and strange, Philip Pullman's lively, taut story is a must-read and re-read for fantasy lovers of all ages. The world-building is outstanding, from the subtle hints of the 1898 Tokay to odd quirks of language to the panserbjorne, while determined, clever Lyra is strongly reminiscent of Joan Aiken's Dido Twite.

A few years ago he was the second most banned or restricted author in the U.S.

Originally Posted by treadlightly

I'll second The Golden Compass.

Third! It's a very interesting trilogy.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I'm glad that Banned Books wasn't nominated, as history seems to show that the idea of celebrating banned books is better than actually reading many of them.

I hope Tom doesn't mind my quoting him from a different thread. I agree with this. Banned books at this point are a well-worn list of books that people mostly have read (because, Ooh! Banned!) and there's no point in even feeling superior, as people are all agreed that it's just silly. YA books, and so far three of the four nominated books are YA, are even more tedious in the context of being banned. Parents will be parents, even if everyone agrees they're wrong-headed.

So I thought I'd nominate three books that at least are for adults and might not have been read by everyone and are mostly free or cheap (depending on translation) and I won't provide links (except in one case) since all but Kafka are PD everywhere and Kafka most places, and choices will also depend on whether to get a paid or a free translation for Voltaire and Kafka.

Candide, by Voltaire. From Goodreads:

Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan. Fast, funny, often outrageous, the French philosopher's immortal narrative takes Candide around the world to discover that -- contrary to the teachings of his distringuished tutor Dr. Pangloss -- all is not always for the best. Alive with wit, brilliance, and graceful storytelling, Candide has become Voltaire's most celebrated work.

Can Such Things Be?, by Ambrose Bierce.

Ambrose Bierce never owned a horse, a carriage, or a car; he was a renter who never owned his own home. He was a man on the move, a man who traveled light: and in the end he rode, with all of his possessions, on a rented horse into the Mexican desert to join Pancho Villa -- never to return. Can Such Things Be? Once William Randolph Hearst -- Bierce's employer, who was bragging about his own endless collections of statuary, art, books, tapestries, and, of course real estate like Hearst Castle -- once William Randolph Hearst asked Bierce what he collected. Bierce responded, smugly: "I collect words. And ideas. Like you, I also store them. But in the reservoir of my mind. I can take them out and display them at a moment's notice. Eminently portable, Mr. Hearst. And I don't find it necessary to show them all at the same time." Such things "can" be. twenty-four tales of the weird by Ambrose Bierce, renowned master of the macabre

The Castle, by Franz Kafka.

A remote village covered almost permanently in snow and dominated by a castle and its staff of dictatorial, sexually predatory bureaucrats - this is the setting for Kafka's story about a man seeking both acceptance in the village and access to the castle. Kafka breaks new ground in evoking a dense village community fraught with tensions, and recounting an often poignant, occasionally farcical love-affair. He also explores the relation between the individual and power, and asks why the villagers so readily submit to an authority which may exist only in their collective imagination.

This translation, based on the restored text, looks good but there are cheaper options.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Third! It's a very interesting trilogy.

Darn, I wanted to third it.

This is an excellent read. Something we need after this month's.

[sun surfer]

I'll put forth One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. I haven't read anything by the famous Solzhenitsyn and this short book would be a good introduction.


From Goodreads:

First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union and confirms Solzhenitsyn's stature as "a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dosotevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy"--Harrison Salisbury


Book Extract:

As usual, at five o'clock that morning reveille was sounded by the blows of a hammer on a length of rail hanging up near the staff quarters. The intermittent sound barely penetrated the window-panes on which the frost lay two fingers thick, and they ended almost as soon as they'd begun. It was cold outside, and the camp-guard was reluctant to go on beating out the reveille for long.

The clanging ceased, but everything outside still looked like the middle of the night when Ivan Denisovich Shukhov got up to go to the bucket. It was pitch dark except for the yellow light cast on the window by three lamps - two in the outer zone, one inside the camp itself.

And no one came to unbolt the barrack-hut door; there was no sound of the barrack-orderlies pushing a pole into place to lift the barrel of nightsoil and carry it out.


Goodreads / Longer Extract / Amazon UK / Amazon US


I'll also second Candide.

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I was thinking of adding a vote to Beloved, but I see Sun Surfer rated it only two stars at Goodreads, so I think I'll pass; at least for now.

It's well-written and evocative. I wouldn't have minded that it was so dark and disturbing or confusing and difficult to follow if it weren't so heavy-handed.