MobileRead October 2017 Book Club Vote

[WT Sharpe]

October 2017 MobileRead Book Club Vote

Help us choose a book as the October 2017 eBook for the MobileRead Book Club. The poll will be open for 5 days. There will be no runoff vote unless the voting results a tie, in which case there will be a 3 day run-off poll. This is a visible poll: others can see how you voted. It is You may cast a vote for each book that appeals to you.

We will start the discussion thread for this book immediately after a winner is chosen. You may join the discussion at any time. Select from the following Official Choices with three nominations each:

• England, Their England by A.G. Macdonell
Goodreads | Faded Page | Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub / Kindle
Print Length: 114 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

Banished from his native Scotland by a curious clause in his father’s will, Donald Cameron moves to London and decides to conduct a study of the English people; a strange race who, he is told, have built an entire national identity around a reverence for team spirit and the memory of Lord Nelson....

What follows is one of the funniest social satires ever written. Whether Cameron is haplessly participating in a village cricket match, being shown around an exclusive golf course, or trying to watch a rugby match in the thick London fog, his affectionately bemused portrait of his new countrymen is a joy to read.

Reminiscent of the gentle wit of P. G. Wodehouse and Jerome K. Jerome, England, Their England offers a delightful portrait of Britain in the 1920s.

• Alice, Let's Eat: Further Adventures of a Happy Eater (The Tummy Trilogy #2) by Calvin Trillin
Goodreads | Amazon Ca / Amazon US / Overdrive
Print Length: 192 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

In this delightful and delicious book, Calvin Trillin, guided by an insatiable appetite, embarks on a hilarious odyssey in search of “something decent to eat.” Across time zones and cultures, and often with his wife, Alice, at his side, Trillin shares his triumphs in the art of culinary discovery, including Dungeness crabs in California, barbecued mutton in Kentucky, potato latkes in London, blaff d’oursins in Martinique, and a $33 picnic on a no-frills flight to Miami. His eating companions include Fats Goldberg, the New York pizza baron and reformed blimp; William Edgett Smith, the man with the Naughahyde palate; and his six-year-old daughter, Sarah, who refuses to enter a Chinese restaurant unless she is carrying a bagel (“just in case”). And though Alice “has a weird predilection for limiting our family to three meals a day,” on the road she proves to be a serious eater–despite “seemingly uncontrollable attacks of moderation.”

• Post Office: A Novel by Charles Bukowski
Goodreads | Amazon US
Print Length: 162 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

"It began as a mistake." By middle age, Henry Chinaski has lost more than twelve years of his life to the U.S. Postal Service. In a world where his three true, bitter pleasures are women, booze, and racetrack betting, he somehow drags his hangover out of bed every dawn to lug waterlogged mailbags up mud-soaked mountains, outsmart vicious guard dogs, and pray to survive the day-to-day trials of sadistic bosses and certifiable coworkers. This classic 1971 novel—the one that catapulted its author to national fame—is the perfect introduction to the grimly hysterical world of legendary writer, poet, and Dirty Old Man Charles Bukowski and his fictional alter ego, Chinaski.

• Bucky F&%@ing Dent by David Duchovny
Goodreads
Print Length: 306 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

Ted Fullilove, aka Mr. Peanut, is not like other Ivy League grads. He shares an apartment with Goldberg, his beloved battery-operated fish, sleeps on a bed littered with yellow legal pads penned with what he hopes will be the next great American Novel, and spends the waning days of the Carter administration at Yankee Stadium, waxing poetic while slinging peanuts to pay the rent.

When Ted hears the news that his estranged father, Marty, is dying of lung cancer, he immediately moves back into his childhood home, where a whirlwind of revelations ensues. The browbeating absentee father of Ted’s youth tries to make up for lost time, but his health dips drastically whenever his beloved Red Sox lose. And so, with help from Mariana—the Nuyorican grief counselor with whom Ted promptly falls in love—and a crew of neighborhood old-timers, Ted orchestrates the illusion of a Boston winning streak, enabling Marty and the Red Sox to reverse the Curse of the Bambino and cruise their way to World Series victory. Well, sort of.

David Duchovny’s richly drawn Bucky F*cking Dent explores the bonds between fathers and sons and the age-old rivalry between Yankee fans and the Fenway faithful, and grapples with our urgent need to persevere—and risk everything—in the name of love. Culminating in that fateful moment in October of ’78 when the mighty Bucky Dent hit his way into baseball history with the unlikeliest of home runs, this tender, insightful, and hilarious novel demonstrates how life truly belongs to the losers, and that the long shots are the ones worth betting on.

Bucky F*cking Dent is a singular tale that brims with the mirth, poignancy, and profound solitude of modern life.

• The Worst Class Trip Ever (Class Trip, Book 1) by Dave Barry [WT Sharpe, Dazrin, GA Russell]
Goodreads | Amazon US / Amazon US (audiobook) / Audible
Print Length: pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

In this hilarious novel, written in the voice of eighth-grader Wyatt Palmer, Dave Barry takes us on a class trip to Washington, DC. Wyatt, his best friend, Matt, and a few kids from Culver Middle School find themselves in a heap of trouble—not just with their teachers, who have long lost patience with them—but from several mysterious men they first meet on their flight to the nation's capital. In a fast-paced adventure with the monuments as a backdrop, the kids try to stay out of danger and out of the doghouse while trying to save the president from attack—or maybe not.

• The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols
Goodreads
Print Length: 623 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

Joe Mondragon, a feisty hustler with a talent for trouble, slammed his battered pickup to a stop, tugged on his gumboots, and marched into the arid patch of ground. Carefully (and also illegally), he tapped into the main irrigation channel. And so began-though few knew it at the time-the Milagro beanfield war. But like everything else in the dirt-poor town of Milagro, it would be a patchwork war, fought more by tactical retreats than by battlefield victories. Gradually, the small farmers and sheepmen begin to rally to Joe's beanfield as the symbol of their lost rights and their lost lands. And downstate in the capital, the Anglo water barons and power brokers huddle in urgent conference, intent on destroying that symbol before it destroys their multimillion-dollar land-development schemes. The tale of Milagro's rising is wildly comic and lovingly tender, a vivid portrayal of a town that, half-stumbling and partly prodded, gropes its way toward its own stubborn salvation.

• Breakup (Kate Shugak #7) by Dana Stabenow
Goodreads | Amazon UK / Amazon US / Audible UK / Audible US / Kobo UK
Print Length: 260 pages

Spoiler:

From Amazon:

When winter’s done, but spring has not yet fully-sprung, much of Alaska turns to slush. Locally, it’s called “breakup,” and it’s a… messy time of year. It’s certainly messy for Kate Shugak; between doing her taxes, being chased by grizzlies and getting shot-at by feuding families, she has to cope with an NTSB investigation that hits very close to home. Then, of course, there’s the body in the woods. And up at the old mining town. And… being Kate Shugak, somehow she can’t leave well enough alone, and begins to tease-apart a well-planned and surprising crime.

[issybird]

For your viewing pleasure:





(I live in Red Sox Nation, but I'm from New York. )

[JSWolf]

I've decided on three books. But I'm still thinking if I want a fourth or not. So once I figure that out, I'll vote.

[CRussel]

For a change, I voted immediately. Of the others, I might read one or two of them. At least one not. (Tried many, many years ago, and it just wasn't me.)

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by issybird

For your viewing pleasure:





(I live in Red Sox Nation, but I'm from New York. )

Thanks for posting. I've been a Yankees fan since a child watching Mantle, Stottlemeyer, et al. Haven't seen that clip since I watched that game.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

Thanks for posting. I've been a Yankees fan since a child watching Mantle, Stottlemeyer, et al. Haven't seen that clip since I watched that game.

I had to listen to it on the radio and didn't see the clip until evening - when it led the news. Ah, weekday daytime baseball! New York and environs were pretty much at a standstill during that game, as I recall. Baseball was important, then. (Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?)

[CRussel]

Hey, folks. Even though it wasn't my nomination, I'd really like to urge everyone to give England, my England a nod. It's short, it's FREE, and besides, it actually sounds really interesting. I suppose some folks are afraid of it because it involves some cricket, but really, even though I know little, if any, more about cricket than anyone else born and raised in North America, I am still excited to read this book. So let's give it a try!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Hey, folks. Even though it wasn't my nomination, I'd really like to urge everyone to give England, my England a nod. It's short, it's FREE, and besides, it actually sounds really interesting. I suppose some folks are afraid of it because it involves some cricket, but really, even though I know little, if any, more about cricket than anyone else born and raised in North America, I am still excited to read this book. So let's give it a try!

I voted for it and I created the ePub and KF8 that we have. It's very well formatted and if you don't like the formatting, it's very easy to change because I kept the CSS very simple.

[CRussel]

And if Jon and I agree on a book, that alone is unusual enough to be worth a look.

(And thanks, Jon, for those conversions!)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

And if Jon and I agree on a book, that alone is unusual enough to be worth a look.

(And thanks, Jon, for those conversions!)

The last two times I read the winning book that I didn't push, they ended up being lousy. We had that very weak African detective book and then we had that Mr. Moto book were Mr. Moto was a background character.

Now if we get a different book winning, it's a good change to be not good.

[JSWolf]

Looking at the current numbers, why would there be so many votes for book #7 in a series especially when it's not standalone?

[CRussel]

Probably because it's such a funny book, Jon.

[BenG]

For the same reasons anyone votes for a book. They want to read it.

[sun surfer]

The sceptic in me has me wondering how much I'd like the sports angle of the winner, but I'm a believer that some of you will enjoy the subject matter very much.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Probably because it's such a funny book, Jon.

From what I've read of the series so far, I doubt it's as funny as some of the others.