Literary Retrospective Run-Off • October 2015

[sun surfer]

Help us choose the October 2015 selection to read for the MR Literary Club!


Select from the following works:


Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

Spoiler:

From Kobo:

In the 1840s, a ship’s boy cast ashore in northern Australia is taken in by Aborigines. Sixteen years later he steps out of the bush and inadvertently confronts the new white settlers with their unspoken terrors. A picture of Australia at the time of its foundation, focused on the hostility between early British settlers and native Aboriginals. It is essentially the story of a boy caught between both worlds – the civilised and the primitive.

Justine (The Alexandria Quartet #1) by Lawrence Durrell

Spoiler:

The time is the eve of the World War II. The place is Alexandria, an Egyptian city that once housed the world's greatest library and whose inhabitants are dedicated to knowledge. But for the obsessed characters in this mesmerizing novel, their pursuits lead only to bedrooms in which each seeks to know—and possess—the other. Since its publication in 1957, Justine has inspired an almost religious devotion among readers and critics alike.

Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx

Spoiler:

Also known as "Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories"


From Goodreads:

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes comes one of the most celebrated short-story collections of our time.

Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in these breathtaking tales of loneliness, quick violence, and the wrong kinds of love. Each of the stunning portraits in Close Range reveals characters fiercely wrought with precision and grace.

These are stories of desperation and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both stark and magnificent -- by an author writing at the peak of her craft.


Some ebook availability-
Australia- Bookworld
Canada- Amazon
U.K.- Amazon
U.S.- Amazon

*


The run-off poll will be open for one day and is single-choice. A discussion thread will begin shortly after a winner is chosen.

Bonus votes:

Spoiler:

When the poll ends, bonus votes will be manually added before determining final results. Basically, anyone who has commented in two out of the last six discussion threads is eligible for bonus votes, and everyone eligible will have any votes cast doubled.

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to vote if interested in participating in the literary club whether eligible for bonus votes or not, and anyone interested in bonus votes is encouraged to become eligible as it doesn’t take much.

Currently eligible-
BelleZora, bfisher, Bookpossum, Bookworm_Girl, caleb72, ccowie, fantasyfan, Hamlet53, HomeInMyShoes, Lynx-lynx, paola, poohbear_nc, sun surfer

This includes posts in the April to September discussion threads.
*There are a few caveats to eligibility as outlined in this post.
**If anyone feels there is any mistake in eligibility, please let me know before the poll is over. Once the poll ends and the tally with bonus votes added is announced, the results will be final.

In the event of a tie, the tie will be resolved in favour of the first listed. This is ordered by earliest nomination, except that my own is considered last since I proposed going as a trial before others had a chance to offer.

[Bookpossum]

Tough call as I had voted for all three, but in the end I went with Proulx as I haven't read that.

[Bookpossum]

So I think the rules mean that it's Remembering Babylon?

I shall be happy to reread it - I read it a bit after it missed out last time around. I do hope you all enjoy it. I thought it was wonderful, and from memory gave it five stars on Goodreads.

[sun surfer]

The result is the same with or without bonus votes and we have another tie, so per the tie-breaker the winner is Remembering Babylon! I'll have the discussion thread up within a day.