MobileRead November 2014 Book Club Nominations

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by John F

I see we voted on it in January 2014. Is there a one year rule?

Unless I'm mistaken, we're still on a six-month rule, so a book nominated in January is okay.

Originally Posted by John F

As far as the language question, I say let the nominations sort it out.

[bfisher]

Please do leave it in. I just got it from Overdrive, and it doesn't happen for me very often that a nominated book is available.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by John F

I see we voted on it in January 2014. Is there a one year rule?

As far as the language question, I say let the nominations sort it out.

I don't know. I had forgotten that it had been nominated that recently to be honest.

[treadlightly]

I'll use my final vote to nominate The Iron King by Maurice Druon. George RR Martin called it "the original Game of Thrones", which is why I had it on my wish list.

Goodreads blurb:

The Iron King – Philip the Fair – is as cold and silent, as handsome and unblinking as a statue. He governs his realm with an iron hand, but he cannot rule his own family: his sons are weak and their wives adulterous; while his red-blooded daughter Isabella is unhappily married to an English king who prefers the company of men.

A web of scandal, murder and intrigue is weaving itself around the Iron King; but his downfall will come from an unexpected quarter. Bent on the persecution of the rich and powerful Knights Templar, Philip sentences Grand Master Jacques de Molay to be burned at the stake, thus drawing down upon himself a curse that will destroy his entire dynasty

Originally published in 1955 in French.

Amazon
Kobo
Also available on Overdrive

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

Also available on Overdrive

Link(s)?

[crich70]

The Iron King doesn't appear to be available at Kobo US.

[John F]

Originally Posted by crich70

The Iron King doesn't appear to be available at Kobo US.

The link provided above didn't work for me (say unavailable in the U.S.). How about this link:

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebo...d-kings-book-1

[caleb72]

Oooh - I second The Iron King.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by John F

The link provided above didn't work for me (say unavailable in the U.S.). How about this link:

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebo...d-kings-book-1

I've replaced the original link with yours.

[John F]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I've replaced the original link with yours.

You're avatar is freaking me out!

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I've replaced the original link with yours.

Then I guess it should state Kobo US. My link was for the Canadian store. That's the problem with links, they are so country specific. Would the ISBN number be a better reference?

Here is the Overdrive link if that is useful. I usually have better luck checking my library directly.

[ccowie]

This one has been on my TBR for a few years and I've never been able to get to it. I'd like to nominate How to Make Love To a Negro Without Getting Tired by Dany Laferriere.

From Goodreads:
Racial and sexual politics collide in this cult classic that launched Laferrière as one of North America’s finest literary provocateurs.

Brilliant and tense, Dany Laferrière’s first novel, How to Make Love to a Negro without Getting Tired, is as fresh and relevant today as when it was first published in 1985. With raunchy humor and a working-class intellectualism, Laferrière’s narrator wanders the slums of Montreal, has sex with white women, and writes a book to save his life.

With this novel, Laferrière began a series of internationally acclaimed social and political novels about the love of the world, and the world of sex, including Heading South and I Am a Japanese Writer.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ccowie

This one has been on my TBR for a few years and I've never been able to get to it. I'd like to nominate How to Make Love To a Negro Without Getting Tired by Dany Laferriere.

Please don't allow this as it sounds rather racist.

[John F]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Please don't allow this as it sounds rather racist.

How does this sound?

Originally Posted by ccowie

...

With this novel, Laferrière began a series of internationally acclaimed social and political novels about the love of the world, and the world of sex, including Heading South and I Am a Japanese Writer.

Hubba hubba.

[sun surfer]

I nominate:

Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier
Amazon US Search - Goodreads

Spoiler:

AKA The Lost Estate or The Lost Domain or Big Meaulnes (the title "Le Grand Meaulnes" literally translates to "Meaulnes the Great")

This is his only novel, he having died fighting in WWI in 1914 at age 27.


From Goodreads:

When Meaulnes first arrives in Sologne, everyone is captivated by his good looks, daring, and charisma. But when he attends a strange party at a mysterious house with a beautiful girl hidden inside, he is changed forever. This evocative novel has at its center both a Peter Pan in provincial France-a kid who refuses to grow up-and a Parsifal, pursuing his love to the ends of the earth. Poised between youthful admiration and adult resignation, Alain- Fournier's narrator compellingly carries the reader through this indelible portrait of desperate friendship and vanished adolescence.

As Red as Blood by Salla Simukka
Amazon US - Goodreads

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

In the midst of the freezing Arctic winter, seventeen-year-old Lumikki Andersson walks into her school’s dark room and finds a stash of wet, crimson-colored money. Thousands of Euros left to dry—splattered with someone’s blood.

Lumikki lives alone in a studio apartment far from her parents and the past she left behind. She transferred into a prestigious art school, and she’s singularly focused on studying and graduating. Lumikki ignores the cliques, the gossip, and the parties held by the school’s most popular and beautiful boys and girls.

But finding the blood-stained money changes everything. Suddenly, Lumikki is swept into a whirlpool of events as she finds herself helping to trace the origins of the money. Events turn even more deadly when evidence points to dirty cops and a notorious drug kingpin best known for the brutality with which he runs his business.

As Lumikki loses control of her carefully constructed world, she discovers that she’s been blind to the forces swirling around her—and she’s running out of time to set them right. When she sees the stark red of blood on snow, it may be too late to save her friends or herself.

And I third The Iron King.