MobileRead March 2016 Book Club Nominations

[WT Sharpe]

Help us select the book that the MobileRead Book Club will read for March, 2016.

The nominations will run through midnight EST February 26 or until 10 books have made the list. The poll will then be posted and will remain open for five days.

Book selection category for March is: Patricia Clarke Memorial Library.

In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third).

How Does This Work?
The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the last week of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome.

How Does a Book Get Selected?
Each book that is nominated will be listed in a poll at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection.

How Many Nominations Can I Make?
Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person.

How Do I Nominate a Book?
Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest.

How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated?
Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP.

When is the Poll?
The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the initial poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed.

The floor is open to nominations. Please comment if you discover a nomination is not available as an ebook in your area.


Official choices with three nominations each:

(X) The Crock of Gold by James Stephens
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle |LRF

Spoiler:

From the MR upload description:

When their hidden gold is stolen, the leprechauns of Gort na Cloca seek revenge from local villagers. Captivating, unique fantasy, written by one of modern Ireland’s best-loved authors, abounds with bizarre adventures, curious characters, and weird sights. A wise and beautiful fairy tale for grown–ups, "full of sympathy and tenderness and sly satire, of merriment and of poetry."—The New York Times.

From Goodreads:

Truly unique, it is a mixture of philosophy, Irish folklore and the battle of the sexes all with charm, humour and good grace.

(1) Starfish by Peter Watts
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

From Jon's description on the upload page:

Welcome to Beebe Station.

You're three kilometers below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. You're perched on the shoulder of an active volcano. The local fauna is very large and very nasty. If it doesn't kill you, a mudslide or an erupting smoker probably will.

Your fellow employees are rapists, pedophiles, borderline psychotics, and victims of same.

You feel very lucky to be here.

This is a damn sight better than the life you left behind.

(2) Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

"If you have never robbed a man - or a woman - of honour! If you have never ruined boy or girl, Monsieur de Berault! If you have never pushed another into the pit and gone by it yourself! If - but, for murder?"... Thus the lovely Mademoiselle de Cocheforêt seeks to reach the heart of the ill-famed Gil de Berault, known throughout Paris as "The Black Death." And the hardened duellist sent to spy out and arrest her brother feels the first stirrings of shame. "Her gentleness, her pity, her humility softened me, while they convicted me. My God, how, after this, could I do that which I had come to do?"

This swashbuckling story of love and hate, intrigue and adventure, in the reign of Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII of France, has been a best-seller ever since its first appearance in 1894.

(3) The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle | LRF

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

First published in French as a serial in 1909, "The Phantom of the Opera" is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous 'ghost' of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster. Leroux's work, with characters ranging from the spoiled prima donna Carlotta to the mysterious Persian from Erik's past, has been immortalized by memorable adaptations. Despite this, it remains a remarkable piece of Gothic horror literature in and of itself, deeper and darker than any version that follows.

(4) The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

Thorne Smith's rapid-fire dialogue, brilliant sense of the absurd, and literary aplomb put him in the same category as the beloved P. G. Wodehouse. The Night Life of the Gods--the madcap story of a scientist who instigates a nocturnal spree with the Greek gods--is arguably his most sparkling comedic achievement.

Hunter Hawk has a knack for annoying his ultrarespectable relatives. He likes to experiment and he particularly likes to experiment with explosives. His garage-cum-laboratory is a veritable minefield, replete with evil-smelling clouds of vapor through which various bits of wreckage and mysteriously bubbling test tubes are occasionally visible.

With the help of Megaera, a fetching nine-hundred-year-old lady leprechaun he meets one night in the woods, he masters the art (if not the timing) of transforming statues into people. And when he practices his new witchery in the stately halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art - setting Bacchus, Mercury, Neptune, Diana, Hebe, Apollo, and Perseus loose on the unsuspecting citizenry of Prohibition-era New York - the stage is set for Thorne Smith at his most devilish and delightful.

Born in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1892, educated at Dartmouth, THORNE SMITH was an early cohort of Dorothy Parker's. He achieved literary success in 1926 with the publication of Topper and went on to publish nine novels in the next eight years. He earned a passionate following among both critics and readers before his death, at the age of forty-two, in 1934.

(5) A Drama in Muslin by George Moore
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

Set in Ireland in the 1880s against a backdrop of Land League troubles in Co. Mayo, and in Dublin, where the social life revolves around the Vice-Regal court in Dublin Castle, this depicts the efforts of a mother trying to catch socially suitable husbands for her daughters, and chronicles the results.

(6) Music of the Spheres by Wander Bonanno
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

From wikiw: The Home of Fandom:

Margaret Wander Bonanno (born 7 February 1950; age 66) is a science fiction author from New York, with over twenty novels to her credit, including several set in the Star Trek universe. These include Dwellers in the Crucible, Strangers from the Sky, and Catalyst of Sorrows.

She rose to the spotlight of Star Trek apocrypha when her novel Strangers from the Sky made the Time bestsellers list in 1985. But the story that gave her more fame in Trek circles was what would follow.

She is also credited with writing Probe, though in her words it is "not her novel." She was contracted by Paramount to write a novel she called Music of the Spheres, based on the Whale Probe of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. However, due to the undesired intervention of an editor at Paramount, the story was nearly completely re-written without her consent, and they refused to remove her name from the project.

After the unpleasant experience, she focused on projects other than Star Trek novels, such as the science fiction book Saturn's Child co-written with Nichelle Nichols.

She was interviewed for the Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Special Edition) DVD, hosting the special features section entitled "Vulcan Primer," in which she explains a brief history of the Vulcans and why they are so popular among fans.

From The m0vie blog:

Music of the Spheres is something of a legend in Star Trek circles. It’s not quite a ghost story, spoken of in hushed whispers. Indeed, author Margaret Wander Bonanno has made the manuscript available to interested fans via her website, and has used it to raise money for a variety of worth causes. She’s documented the difficult story of how her original novel warped in Probe in a wonderfully wry and insightful essay, offering a glimpse at the inner workings of Pocket Book and Paramount towards the end of the eighties.

The nominations are now closed.

[WT Sharpe]

Wondering if a particular book is available in your country? The following spoiler contains a list of bookstores outside the United States you can search. If you don't see a bookstore on this list for your country, find one that is, send me the link via PM, and I'll add it to the list. Also, if you find one on the list that is no longer in operation, let me know and I'll remove it from the list.

Spoiler:

Australian
Angus Robertson
Booktopia
Borders
Dymocks
Fishpond
Google

Canada
Amazon. Make sure you are logged out. Then go to the Kindle Store. Search for a book. After the search results come up, in the upper right corner of the screen, change the country to Canada and search away.
Google
Sony eBookstore (Upper right corner switch to/from US/CA)

UK
BooksOnBoard (In the upper right corner is a way to switch to the UK store)
Amazon
Foyle's
Google
Penguin
Random House
Waterstones
WH Smith

*** Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman [issybird, bfisher, fantasyfan]
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

"If you have never robbed a man - or a woman - of honour! If you have never ruined boy or girl, Monsieur de Berault! If you have never pushed another into the pit and gone by it yourself! If - but, for murder?"... Thus the lovely Mademoiselle de Cocheforêt seeks to reach the heart of the ill-famed Gil de Berault, known throughout Paris as "The Black Death." And the hardened duellist sent to spy out and arrest her brother feels the first stirrings of shame. "Her gentleness, her pity, her humility softened me, while they convicted me. My God, how, after this, could I do that which I had come to do?"

This swashbuckling story of love and hate, intrigue and adventure, in the reign of Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII of France, has been a best-seller ever since its first appearance in 1894.

*** The Crock of Gold by James Stephens [issybird, bfisher, treadlightly]
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: LRF

Spoiler:

From the MR upload description:

When their hidden gold is stolen, the leprechauns of Gort na Cloca seek revenge from local villagers. Captivating, unique fantasy, written by one of modern Ireland’s best-loved authors, abounds with bizarre adventures, curious characters, and weird sights. A wise and beautiful fairy tale for grown–ups, "full of sympathy and tenderness and sly satire, of merriment and of poetry."—The New York Times.

From Goodreads:

Truly unique, it is a mixture of philosophy, Irish folklore and the battle of the sexes all with charm, humour and good grace.

*** Starfish by Peter Watts [WT Sharpe, bfisher, Dazrin]
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: Kindle

Spoiler:

From Jon's description on the upload page:

Welcome to Beebe Station.

You're three kilometers below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. You're perched on the shoulder of an active volcano. The local fauna is very large and very nasty. If it doesn't kill you, a mudslide or an erupting smoker probably will.

Your fellow employees are rapists, pedophiles, borderline psychotics, and victims of same.

You feel very lucky to be here.

This is a damn sight better than the life you left behind.

*** The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux [WT Sharpe, GA Russell, Luffy]
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: LRF

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

First published in French as a serial in 1909, "The Phantom of the Opera" is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous 'ghost' of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster. Leroux's work, with characters ranging from the spoiled prima donna Carlotta to the mysterious Persian from Erik's past, has been immortalized by memorable adaptations. Despite this, it remains a remarkable piece of Gothic horror literature in and of itself, deeper and darker than any version that follows.

*** The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith [Dazrin, GA Russell, fantasyfan]
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

Thorne Smith's rapid-fire dialogue, brilliant sense of the absurd, and literary aplomb put him in the same category as the beloved P. G. Wodehouse. The Night Life of the Gods--the madcap story of a scientist who instigates a nocturnal spree with the Greek gods--is arguably his most sparkling comedic achievement.

Hunter Hawk has a knack for annoying his ultrarespectable relatives. He likes to experiment and he particularly likes to experiment with explosives. His garage-cum-laboratory is a veritable minefield, replete with evil-smelling clouds of vapor through which various bits of wreckage and mysteriously bubbling test tubes are occasionally visible.
With the help of Megaera, a fetching nine-hundred-year-old lady leprechaun he meets one night in the woods, he masters the art (if not the timing) of transforming statues into people. And when he practices his new witchery in the stately halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art - setting Bacchus, Mercury, Neptune, Diana, Hebe, Apollo, and Perseus loose on the unsuspecting citizenry of Prohibition-era New York - the stage is set for Thorne Smith at his most devilish and delightful.

Born in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1892, educated at Dartmouth, THORNE SMITH was an early cohort of Dorothy Parker's. He achieved literary success in 1926 with the publication of Topper and went on to publish nine novels in the next eight years. He earned a passionate following among both critics and readers before his death, at the age of forty-two, in 1934.

*** Music of the Spheres by Wander Bonanno [WT Sharpe, JSWolf, June]
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

From wikiw: The Home of Fandom:

Margaret Wander Bonanno (born 7 February 1950; age 66) is a science fiction author from New York, with over twenty novels to her credit, including several set in the Star Trek universe. These include Dwellers in the Crucible, Strangers from the Sky, and Catalyst of Sorrows.

She rose to the spotlight of Star Trek apocrypha when her novel Strangers from the Sky made the Time bestsellers list in 1985. But the story that gave her more fame in Trek circles was what would follow.

She is also credited with writing Probe, though in her words it is "not her novel." She was contracted by Paramount to write a novel she called Music of the Spheres, based on the Whale Probe of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. However, due to the undesired intervention of an editor at Paramount, the story was nearly completely re-written without her consent, and they refused to remove her name from the project.

After the unpleasant experience, she focused on projects other than Star Trek novels, such as the science fiction book Saturn's Child co-written with Nichelle Nichols.

She was interviewed for the Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Special Edition) DVD, hosting the special features section entitled "Vulcan Primer," in which she explains a brief history of the Vulcans and why they are so popular among fans.

From The m0vie blog:

Music of the Spheres is something of a legend in Star Trek circles. It’s not quite a ghost story, spoken of in hushed whispers. Indeed, author Margaret Wander Bonanno has made the manuscript available to interested fans via her website, and has used it to raise money for a variety of worth causes. She’s documented the difficult story of how her original novel warped in Probe in a wonderfully wry and insightful essay, offering a glimpse at the inner workings of Pocket Book and Paramount towards the end of the eighties.

*** A Drama in Muslin by George Moore [issybird, CRussel, fantasyfan]
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

Set in Ireland in the 1880s against a backdrop of Land League troubles in Co. Mayo, and in Dublin, where the social life revolves around the Vice-Regal court in Dublin Castle, this depicts the efforts of a mother trying to catch socially suitable husbands for her daughters, and chronicles the results.

The nominations are now closed.

[issybird]

I have two nominations:

The first is Under the Red Robe, by Stanley Weyman, which was recommended in this thread. From Goodreads:

"If you have never robbed a man - or a woman - of honour! If you have never ruined boy or girl, Monsieur de Berault! If you have never pushed another into the pit and gone by it yourself! If - but, for murder?"... Thus the lovely Mademoiselle de Cocheforêt seeks to reach the heart of the ill-famed Gil de Berault, known throughout Paris as "The Black Death." And the hardened duellist sent to spy out and arrest her brother feels the first stirrings of shame. "Her gentleness, her pity, her humility softened me, while they convicted me. My God, how, after this, could I do that which I had come to do?"

This swashbuckling story of love and hate, intrigue and adventure, in the reign of Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII of France, has been a best-seller ever since its first appearance in 1894.

epub mobi

[issybird]

My second nomination:

The Crock of Gold,by James Stephens. From the MR upload description:

When their hidden gold is stolen, the leprechauns of Gort na Cloca seek revenge from local villagers. Captivating, unique fantasy, written by one of modern Ireland’s best-loved authors, abounds with bizarre adventures, curious characters, and weird sights. A wise and beautiful fairy tale for grown–ups, "full of sympathy and tenderness and sly satire, of merriment and of poetry."—The New York Times.

From Goodreads:

Truly unique, it is a mixture of philosophy, Irish folklore and the battle of the sexes all with charm, humour and good grace.

The MR upload is in lrf format, which is readily converted.

[WT Sharpe]

I nominate Starfish by Peter Watts. This is book one of four in the scifi Rifters series and is made possible to our library by a Creative Commons license. DixieGal said in this post, "If you have not yet read Watts' Starfish trilogy, then be sure to get it. It is absolutely mind-blowing hard scifi and thriller. All are available for free here at MR in the Patricia Clark library."

It was uploaded to the Patricia Clarke Memorial Library by JSWolf with this blurb:

Welcome to Beebe Station.

You're three kilometers below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. You're perched on the shoulder of an active volcano. The local fauna is very large and very nasty. If it doesn't kill you, a mudslide or an erupting smoker probably will.

Your fellow employees are rapists, pedophiles, borderline psychotics, and victims of same.

You feel very lucky to be here.

This is a damn sight better than the life you left behind.

Available in Kindle format at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20951, but I'm sure if it wins, someone will do a conversion to ePub.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by issybird

I have two nominations:

The first is Under the Red Robe, by Stanley Weyman

A have-at-thee-varlet swashbuckler! I'll second that.

[bfisher]

Second :

The Crock of Gold,by James Stephens

[bfisher]

Second:
Starfish by Peter Watts

[GA Russell]

I nominate The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne.

Harry did this one, and here is what he says about it...

A loose sequel to "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas", "The Mysterious Island" tells the story of 5 men who crash-land on an uninhabited Pacific island after their balloon is caught in a hurricane. Starting with almost no resources, the book tells how they build "civilisation" from nothing. But the island has a mysterious secret...

This is one of my favourite Verne novels, and much less well-known than it deserves to be. The TV Series "Lost" was originally inspired by this book.

Kindle
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20977

ePub
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54241

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

I nominate The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne.

Harry did this one, and here is what he says about it...

A loose sequel to "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas", "The Mysterious Island" tells the story of 5 men who crash-land on an uninhabited Pacific island after their balloon is caught in a hurricane. Starting with almost no resources, the book tells how they build "civilisation" from nothing. But the island has a mysterious secret...

This is one of my favourite Verne novels, and much less well-known than it deserves to be. The TV Series "Lost" was originally inspired by this book.

Kindle
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20977

ePub
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54241

Sorry, we're already had a discussion on that one. I thought I remembered the discussion, but was surprised that it was way back in June 2010. Please try again!

[WT Sharpe]

Announcement: The MobileRead Library Recommendations thread has been made a sticky in the Reading Recommendations forum. This should help us with the nominations this month. Thanks Issybird! She's the one who brought the idea to the attention of the rest of the moderating team in our secret lair deep inside planet Earth.

[issybird]

I'd love for people to add their favorites to the MobileRead library thread. Not the classics, necessarily, the ones you'd expect to find there, but the more offbeat, the less well-known, anything that qualifies as a great read (that just happens to be free, too!).

I now return you to your regularly scheduled nominations. (Under the Red Robe and The Crock of Gold need thirds, hint, hint.)

[treadlightly]

I will third The Crock of Gold.

[WT Sharpe]

I nominate The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. We've seen the musical, and a few of us have be fortunate enough to have seen the silent classic starring the "man of a thousand faces" Lon Cheney in the title role, but how many of us have read the original? This is in LRF format, but I'll gladly convert it to ePub and Kindle formats if it wins.

From Goodreads:

First published in French as a serial in 1909, "The Phantom of the Opera" is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous 'ghost' of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster. Leroux's work, with characters ranging from the spoiled prima donna Carlotta to the mysterious Persian from Erik's past, has been immortalized by memorable adaptations. Despite this, it remains a remarkable piece of Gothic horror literature in and of itself, deeper and darker than any version that follows.

Patricia Clark Memorial Library: LRF

[GA Russell]

I second Phantom of the Opera.