New Leaf Nominations for April 2019 • The Way I Heard It: Retellings

[gmw]

My searches have been long and wide, and I have finally come up with something a little bit different that sounds like it could be interesting (and I think it fits the theme remarkably well)...

I nominate The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston.

A Chinese American woman tells of the Chinese myths, family stories and events of her California childhood that have shaped her identity. It is a sensitive account of growing up female and Chinese-American in a California laundry.

272 pages

There are multiple editions, so shop around. Here are some example links/prices: Amazon US - USD$9.49 | Amazon UK - £6.64 | Amazon CA - CDN$12.79 | Amazon AU - AUD$12.99 | Kobo US - USD$10.59 | Kobo UK - £7.19 | Kobo CA - CAD$12.79 | Kobo AU AUD$12.99 | Kobo NZ NZD$13.99

Also see Goodreads and Wikipedia.

Wikipedia says:

The book blends autobiography with what Kingston purports to be old Chinese folktales, although several scholars have questioned the accuracy and authenticity of these folktales.

but to me that just means that this is "the way I heard it", all the better to fit our theme.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

It is not The Sword in the Stone, although I was considering it until I saw that The Once and Future King is over 600 pages. I'm not sure if the Sword is available separately or not. I plan on reading it this year because I never have before (although I really like the Disney movie).

Anyway, I'm glad the title was raised. I've had it on my TBR for several years now since reading H Is For Hawk and The Goshawk. I'm hoping to get to it this summer.

[Catlady]

I'm nominating Compulsion (1956) by Meyer Levin, a novel based on the Leopold-Loeb "crime of the century" in the 1920s; the two young "thrill killers" were defended by the legendary Clarence Darrow.

Judd Steiner and Artie Straus have it all: wealth, intelligence, and the world at their feet as part of the elite, upper-crust Jewish community of 1920s Chicago. Artie is handsome, athletic, and popular, but he possesses a hidden, powerful sadistic streak and a desire to dominate. Judd is a weedy introvert, a genius who longs for a companion whom he can idolize and worship. Obsessed with Nietzsche's idea of the superhuman, both boys decide to prove that they are above the laws of man by arbitrarily picking and murdering a Jewish boy in their neighborhood.

This new edition of Meyer Levin's classic literary thriller Compulsion reintroduces the fictionalized case of Leopold and Loeb - once considered the "crime of the century" - to a new generation. This incisive psychological portrait of two young murderers seized the imagination of an era and is generally recognized as paving the way for the first non-fiction novel. Compulsion forces us to ask what drives some further into darkness, and some to seek redemption.

Heartbreaking as it is gripping, Compulsion is written with a tense and penetrating force that led the Los Angeles Times to call Levin, "the most significant Jewish writer of his times."

Amazon US, $9.00

Kobo US, $11.99
Kobo Canada, $15.19 CAD
Kobo Australia, $19.35 AUD
Kobo New Zealand, $19.08 NZD
Kobo UK, £8.63

Available from Overdrive, Scribd, and Hoopla. The audiobook is an Audible exclusive.

[Catlady]

A second nomination, because I couldn't decide on which direction to go--this one is related to fairy tales: The Wild Girl (2013), by Kate Forsyth.

One of six sisters, Dortchen Wild lives in the small German kingdom of Hesse-Cassel in the early 19th century. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to the boy next door, the handsome but very poor fairy-tale scholar Wilhelm Grimm.

It is a time of tyranny and terror. Napoleon Bonaparte wants to conquer all of Europe, and Hesse-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, Wilhelm and his brothers quietly rebel by preserving old, half-forgotten tales that had once been told by firesides of houses grand and small all over the land.

As Dortchen tells Wilhelm some of the most powerful and compelling stories in what will one day become his and Jacob's famous fairy-tale collection, their love blossoms. But Dortchen's father will not give his consent for them to marry, and war, death, and poverty also conspire to keep the lovers apart. Yet Dortchen is determined to find a way.

Evocative and richly detailed, Kate Forsyth's The Wild Girl masterfully captures one young woman's enduring faith in love and the power of storytelling.

Amazon US, $7.99

Kobo US, $7.99
Kobo Canada, $8.99 CAD
Kobo Australia, $10.99 AUD
Kobo New Zealand, $10.99 NZD
Kobo UK, £5.63

Available from Overdrive (e-book and audiobook) and Hoopla (audiobook).

[Victoria]

It’s been a challenge to settle on a nomination. It feels like a lot responsibility to find something everyone might enjoy, so I’ve read a gazillion reviews. And it’s frustrating when something isn’t in ebook form. One retelling I enjoyed was ‘Last Orders’ by Graham Swift - alas, no ebook.

Since I’ve been debating with myself about between two retellings, I’m just going to nominate both.

The first is a literal retelling: All The President’s Men - by Pulitzer Prize winning reporters, Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward. I’ve never read it, but have always intended to. It’s rated 4.19 on Goodreads, so I hope it isn’t just of interest to those who are familiar with American politics.

All the President's Men is a 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists who investigated the first Watergate break-in and ensuing scandal for The Washington Post. The book chronicles the investigative reporting of Woodward and Bernstein from Woodward's initial report on the Watergate break-in through the resignations of H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and the revelation of the Nixon tapes by Alexander Butterfield in 1973. It relates the events behind the major stories the duo wrote for the Post, naming some sources who had previously refused to be identified for their initial articles, notably Hugh Sloan. It also gives detailed accounts of Woodward's secret meetings with his source Deep Throat, whose identity was kept hidden for over 30 years.[1] Gene Roberts, the former executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and former managing editor of The New York Times, has called the work of Woodward and Bernstein "maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time."

I still need to learn how to do links, but here are a sample of prices:
Kobo: £6.99 UK, $12.99 Cdn; $4.99 Aud; $4.99 NZD
Kindle: $11.46 US; $4.99 Aud; £4.99 UK

[Victoria]

My second nomination is a controversial retelling: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, published in 1926. It’s actually the third Poirot mystery, but it’s considered the book that launched Agatha Christie’s career. It’s a lighter read. A warning that I haven’t read it in several decades, so I hope it doesn’t breach modern sensibilities.

Christie’s method of telling was considered controversial, but saying any more would be a spoiler. In 2013, the British Crime Writers' Association voted it the best crime novel ever, and it’s usually placed near the top in similar polls. However, in fairness, other reviewers have considered the praise quite overblown.

Poirot retires to a village near the home of a friend he met in London, Roger Ackroyd, who agrees to keep him anonymous, as he pursues his retirement project of perfecting vegetable marrows. He is not long at this pursuit when his friend is murdered. Ackroyd's niece calls Poirot in to ensure that the guilt does not fall on Ackroyd's stepson; Poirot promises to find the truth, which she accepts.

Examples of prices:
Kobo: $11.99 AUD; £5.49 UK; $7.99 US
Kindle: $6.87 US; £5.49UK; $10.99 AUD

[Victoria]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I was going to nominate The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart which, of the ones I have read, is my favorite of the Arthur (or specifically Merlin) retellings.
[/B].

Darn - that was my favourite Arthur too. Odd, I was pretty sure it had been released on Amazon a few years ago. Maybe it was withdrawn.

[issybird]

I'm going to blow my remaining nominations in one fell swoop with nods to Compulsion and The Woman Warrior. The first I'd like to read in any case and the second I read so long ago that I have little memory of it; it would also help our stats with an author of color. I'll note that while we're not tracking it, Cather was gay.

[Victoria]

For my final nomination, I wll third The Woman Warrior. It sounds facinating, and quite different from anything I’ve read.

[Catlady]

I second All the President's Men. I bought and read this book cover to cover the day it came out. I was living in DC then and had followed WaPo's Watergate coverage day by day, but seeing it all pulled together in the book was fascinating.

[CRussel]

I'll forgo nominating anything this month, and use my other two tickets to third Death Comes for the Archbishop, and second The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Both sound interesting, and I don't really have anything that I've come up with that I really want to nominate.

[CRussel]

So far, every single book with at least two nominations is either available at my library now, or with a 3 or 4 week wait (or is available to download here in the MR PCML.) This has to be a first.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

So far, every single book with at least two nominations is either available at my library now, or with a 3 or 4 week wait (or is available to download here in the MR PCML.) This has to be a first.

I'm not having a problem either. I've got suspended holds on a few books, so I don't get it/them too soon. I'll cancel the ones I don't want.

[drofgnal]

April is Easter Season and the last couple I've read something fitting for the occasion. Last year it was AD 30 and AD 33 by Ted Dekker and the year before Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz. So I'll nominate another classic retelling of Christ, The Robe by Lloyd C Douglas.

Spoiler:

Marcellus, a Roman soldier, ends up with the task of participating first hand in the crucifixion of Jesus. In order to numb himself from the reality of what he is doing, he gets drunk, gambles for and wins Christ's Robe. This is the story of where the Robe and his involvement in this event lead him. Through his eyes we experience the era and the full effect of Christ's crucifixion, bringing us to the heart of Christianity. The Robe is a timeless classic. It is a story filled with adventure, love, faith, spirituality and redemption. "This faith, is not like a deed to a house in which one may live with full rights of possession. It is more like a kit of tools with which a man may build himself a house. The tools will be worth just what he does with them. When he lays them down, they will have no value until he takes them up again." - Lloyd C. Douglas, The Robe

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0775SJYFQ/ref=docs-os-doi_0

I also considered nominating Ben Hur, which is free. I may still

[CRussel]

I've run out of tickets, but I thought I'd toss a book out there for consideration of those who might be interested. We've already got the Josephine Tey historical reconstruction, The Daughter of Time, but there's a more modern hospital bed mystery that I've quite enjoyed, The Wench is Dead, an excellent Inspector Morse novel written by Colin Dexter.

Originally Posted by Goodreads

The body of Joanna Franks was found at Duke's Cut on the Oxford Canal at about 5.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22nd June 1859.
At around 10.15 a.m. on a Saturday morning in 1989 the body of Chief Inspector Morse - though very much alive - was removed to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. Treatment for a perforated ulcer was later pronounced successful.
As Morse begins his recovery he comes across an account of the investigation and the trial that followed Joanna Franks' death . . . and becomes convinced that the two men hanged for her murder were innocent . . .