New Leaf Nominations for March 2018 • The Book Came First

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I would also like to urge nominators to post at least minimal links to online sites, preferably with prices. I expect that doing so would increase their chances of having their books actually selected.

What would you consider minimal links? I consider Amazon & Kobo at US, CA, UK, and AU plus Overdrive (if possible) to be minimal links.

[Dazrin]

I will third Of Mice and Men.

[CRussel]

@Jon: While those links are what I'm willing to do in the interests of seeing my books nominated and selected, I consider that list beyond minimal. A lot of us in Canada actually use the US store for historical reasons, and very few, if any, non-Australians have AU accounts. OTOH, if you're annoyed by the current pricing of back-list books and WhisperSync deals in the US, it's just plain smart to have a UK account.

To answer your question directly -- minimal links, to my mind, are an Amazon and a Kobo in your native country. I don't think overdrive links are terribly useful, since, in most cases, you can't actually see what's available outside your own country, and it is, in any case, entirely library dependent. But I provide a base link for Overdrive if it shows in my account. I also provide a page count taken from either Amazon or Goodreads. These appear to vary widely across editions but at least give you a ballpark length.

An alternative, for those struggling to provide meaningful links, is to PM one of the other regulars to ask for a link. I've indicated my willingness to search out links for AU, CA, UK and US accounts on at least Amazon. And US/CA for Kobo, though I rarely, if ever, buy from them any more now that the days of good coupons are history. I'm willing to help with links because I know just how difficult it can be to do this on a handheld device.

I don't think it's fair to expect our fearless leader, issybird, to go hunting up links and prices. She already does more than enough just keeping everything posted and running. So I would suggest that those who care about their nomination, but have difficulty providing links and/or prices, should ask one of the other regulars if they would oblige.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

@Jon: While those links are what I'm willing to do in the interests of seeing my books nominated and selected, I consider that list beyond minimal. A lot of us in Canada actually use the US store for historical reasons, and very few, if any, non-Australians have AU accounts. OTOH, if you're annoyed by the current pricing of back-list books and WhisperSync deals in the US, it's just plain smart to have a UK account.

To answer your question directly -- minimal links, to my mind, are an Amazon and a Kobo in your native country. I don't think overdrive links are terribly useful, since, in most cases, you can't actually see what's available outside your own country, and it is, in any case, entirely library dependent. But I provide a base link for Overdrive if it shows in my account. I also provide a page count taken from either Amazon or Goodreads. These appear to vary widely across editions but at least give you a ballpark length.

An alternative, for those struggling to provide meaningful links, is to PM one of the other regulars to ask for a link. I've indicated my willingness to search out links for AU, CA, UK and US accounts on at least Amazon. And US/CA for Kobo, though I rarely, if ever, buy from them any more now that the days of good coupons are history. I'm willing to help with links because I know just how difficult it can be to do this on a handheld device.

I don't think it's fair to expect our fearless leader, issybird, to go hunting up links and prices. She already does more than enough just keeping everything posted and running. So I would suggest that those who care about their nomination, but have difficulty providing links and/or prices, should ask one of the other regulars if they would oblige.

If you create an account at Overdrive, you can list the libraries you belong to and then when looking at a book/audiobook, you can see which libraries have this. What I do is a search using the title and the author. Then I post the result as long as the book is in the resulting search. It's up to anyone who has Overdrive access to find the correct link from there to see if the book is maybe available.

As for Amazon and Kobo, you do not need accounts at all the different countries. Amazon you just go to amazon.com, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au and amazon.co.uk. For Kobo, you just go to kobo.com and end up at your country. At the top line to the left, click the flag and change the country. That's all you need do to search at Amazon & Kobo. Simple really.

[JSWolf]

Given that Mice and Men was given a second because it had only 1-star, Why weren't M*A*S*H and The Best of Everything given nods for the same reason?

[CRussel]

Well, Jon, for the simple reason that I only had one ticket to use. But beyond that, we all make value judgments about which books we want to read or think will provide good fodder for discussion.

(As for Overdrive and/or store accounts -- I gave you my reasons. You don't have to have the same rationale. And for Overdrive, since they changed their software this last time, you actually need to have an account in the library to add it to your account. I only have a BC Public Library account, so can only see books in that library. I could work around it with an incognito search, but I mostly don't bother, given that folks would have to go look at their library regardless.)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Well, Jon, for the simple reason that I only had one ticket to use. But beyond that, we all make value judgments about which books we want to read or think will provide good fodder for discussion.

In any case, I do think we are probably done with the nominations. There are (I think) 14 books to vote on.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Catlady

A second nomination: The Best of Everything, by Rona Jaffe.



The book was made into a wonderfully trashy, glossy soap-opera-ish movie, with a star-studded cast: Joan Crawford, Hope Lange, Diane Baker, Suzy Parker, Stephen Boyd, Louis Jourdan, Martha Hyer.

In the U.S., it's available for $12.99, but it's also in the Overdrive catalog.
Amazon
Kobo
Google

Inn the UK, the price is £4.99.
Amazon UK
Kobo UK

Given that the description posted reads more like a review (to me), here is a better description from the publisher website.

Rona Jaffe's frank, scandalous and thrilling 1958 novel, The Best of Everything follows a group of young women as they negotiate office romances, workplace politics, broken engagements, tiny apartments, lecherous bosses, heartbreak and lasting friendship, published in Penguin Modern Classics.

New York, 1952: Four young women have come to the city: to find love, to build their careers and to savour the indefinable optimism of the times. Caroline is the college graduate, determined to escape the typing pool and become an editor. April is the beautiful country girl with a penchant for disastrous romances. Aspiring actress Gregg is tangled in a dangerous love affair with a playwright; and divorcée Barbara writes about lipsticks by day and cares alone for her daughter by night. The Best of Everything portrays the lives and passions of these ambitious young women with intelligence, affection, and prose as sharp as a paper cut.

[Alohamora]

Originally Posted by gmw

I would like to nominate a short story by Ted Chiang called: Story of Your Life, this has recently been made into a movie called Arrival starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker.

This short story is available in the collection: Stories of Your Life and Others, a collection of 8 short stories by Ted Chiang.

Description of Story of Your Life (from me):


Description for the book Stories of Your Life and Others (from Kobo):


I think Ted Chiang is one of the best science fiction writers of recent years. (This collection is not all science fiction, or not really.) He writes things from a human perspective rather than hard science, and this makes them very approachable even if you are not normally a science fiction enthusiast. My only complaint is that he doesn't write enough. I would be happy to discuss any and all of the stories in this collection, but the Story of Your Life at 55 pages (approx 18k words) is probably complex and deep enough to keep us busy. If we end up twiddling our thumbs then stories: Understand, Hell is the Absence of God and Liking What You See: A Documentary are all excellent.

Amazon US, Amazon US, film tie-in edition, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon AU

Kobo US, Kobo UK, Kobo CA, Kobo AU

I wasn't able to find this available for purchase at the US Amazon or Kobo.

I did check out the Audio book version from Hoopla. Way too early, I know. But I needed something for my commute when I found it available. I'll listen to the title story again later if choosen.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Alohamora

I wasn't able to find this available for purchase at the US Amazon or Kobo.

https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-.../dp/B0048EKOP0

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/sto...e-and-others-2

[Alohamora]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-.../dp/B0048EKOP0

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/sto...e-and-others-2

Thanks! The links in the header and nomination post took me to the wrong version, and I didn't search further.

[gmw]

Sorry about that, Alohamora. The links showed valid US$ editions from here ... I need to keep reminding myself that Amazon.com (and apparently Kobo.com/us/en) lie. I will try to remember to turn on my VPN service and set the country when grabbing the links in future.

[issybird]

Poll's up.