New Leaf Nominations for July • Life's a Beach, Water, Water, Everywhere

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by gmw

Ah, I wondered whether I'd get any guessers ... but I will remove the mysteries. They are all well known books.

The 1974 thriller. JSWolf, you hit the nail with the thriller movie bit (wondering if you had this in mind when you said it). Jaws by Peter Benchley. I've never read it, but the reviews at Goodreads suggest it could be quite readable. Lots of beach, lots of water, it's a good match to the theme.

The 1957 apocalyptic story was On the Beach by Neville Shute. I rejected this partly on the grounds that comments about Shute on here, when A Town like Alice was read, were less than enthusiastic.

The 1993 literary novel was The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. I've never read it even though there is a paper copy sitting on the shelf. I figured "shipping" should have some water in it somewhere, so this theme would make a good excuse to get to it.

The 1870 classic was, of course, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas by Jules Verne. Hard to get more watery than that.

I didn't mention it earlier, but I also considered Jeanette Winterson's Lighthousekeeping (2004), which sounds interesting to me (see on Goodreads).

I also considered Jaws and On the Beach. I rejected Jaws because I listened to the audiobook just a few years ago, and though it was better than I remembered, it's still quite inferior to the film. I rejected On the Beach because I have conflated it with Alas, Babylon--I'm not sure which one I read and liked back in the day.

I was hoping to nominate Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm or Dead Wake, but the former wasn't available everywhere, and the latter was excessively expensive in Australia.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Second nomination: The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough (1968, 386 pp.).

This is a fantastic read, although that sounds callous given the nature of the tragedy. As popular historians go, McCullough is in the top rank.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by gmw

Ah, I wondered whether I'd get any guessers ... but I will remove the mysteries. They are all well known books.

The 1974 thriller. JSWolf, you hit the nail with the thriller movie bit (wondering if you had this in mind when you said it). Jaws by Peter Benchley. I've never read it, but the reviews at Goodreads suggest it could be quite readable. Lots of beach, lots of water, it's a good match to the theme.

I've read Jaws and it is a good book.

The 1957 apocalyptic story was On the Beach by Neville Shute. I rejected this partly on the grounds that comments about Shute on here, when A Town like Alice was read, were less than enthusiastic.

I've read On the Beach. Excellent book.

The 1993 literary novel was The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. I've never read it even though there is a paper copy sitting on the shelf. I figured "shipping" should have some water in it somewhere, so this theme would make a good excuse to get to it.

I've never read The Shipping News or even heard of it. So no comment there.

The 1870 classic was, of course, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas by Jules Verne. Hard to get more watery than that.

I've not read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I have seen the movie. I do have the Baen version that has restored text that was edited out. It's a long one at 417 ADE pages.

Featured in Ron Miller’s “The Conquest of Space Book Series.” This special edition of Jules Verne's classic novel corrects more than 3000 errors in the original 1872 English translation and replaces the 23% of text that had been expurgated by the original translator for political, ideological and other reasons.

I didn't mention it earlier, but I also considered Jeanette Winterson's Lighthousekeeping (2004), which sounds interesting to me (see on Goodreads).

I have hear of Lighthousekeeping, but that's all I know of it. This one has reminded me of an excellent book I'll be nominating.

[astrangerhere]

I will actually bite and nominate 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Its public domain and there are many good recordings available on Librivox, Youtube, etc. I would welcome a good escapist fantasy right now.

I've read the Shipping News and it is incredibly bleak. I don't think I could read Proulx right now. It has all the things I don't want to read about - suicide, sex trafficking, domestic abuse.

[JSWolf]

I have a really excellent book to nominate thanks to gmw's post that reminded me of it.

I am nominating The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Steadman.

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

Overdrive: https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=T...Between+Oceans
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...tween-oceans-2
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Light-Between.../dp/B0064CL1T2 (available on Kindle Unlimited)
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Light-Betwe.../dp/B006WAIV4Y
eBooks.com UK: https://www.ebooks.com/en-gb/book/793589 (cheaper then Amazon UK)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I will actually bite and nominate 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Its public domain and there are many good recordings available on Librivox, Youtube, etc. I would welcome a good escapist fantasy right now.

But the public domain version contains more then 300 errors. Are you sure you still want to nominate it? I know you can get the corrected version from Baen. It also has 23% more content as the what was edited out has been added back in. So it's a bit longer to read.

I really think that if this wins, that we should all be reading the same version and the only version I will read is the Baen version as I own it. I cannot say if this version has an audiobook edition.[/quote]

I've read the Shipping News and it is incredibly bleak. I don't think I could read Proulx right now. It has all the things I don't want to read about - suicide, sex trafficking, domestic abuse.

I too do not want to read about all suicide, sex trafficking, and domestic abuse. That would be a major downer.

[poohbear_nc]

Jon - have you examined HarryT's version in the MR Library? Is it comparable to the Baen version?

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have a really excellent book to nominate thanks to gmw's post that reminded me of it.

I am nominating The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Steadman.

I read this after you nominated it in the early days of the book club. It is excellent.

[issybird]

There was a discussion of the translations of Twenty Thousand Leagues when it was the selection in March, 2013, here and here and here.

[Victoria]

Hi everyone. I intended to rejoin last month, but just couldn’t settle into reading. So I hope late is better than never

I nominate We Keep a Light, by Evelyn M. Richardson.

Born Evelyn May Fox (1902–1976), she was a Canadian author who won the Governor General's Award in non-fiction for her 1945 memoir. The book is short - only 169 pages. But I’ve had it recommended to me many times, and have been told it’s well done.


From Kobo:

We Keep A Light is the inspiring story of how the author and her husband bought tiny Bon Portage Island and built a happy life for themselves and their three children on the isolated lighthouse station off the southern tip of Nova Scotia. But it is much more than the story of a unique personal experience. We Keep A Light is a freshly written and engrossing record of family life set against the ever-changing background of the sea, the vagaries of the weather, the enduring shores, and the great beacon light, all of which become important characters in this fascinating and isolated world. As Evelyn Richardson remarked in the original edition, she wrote the book "partly to answer the polite incredulity I face when I say 'No, we aren't lonely, we like the island.'" We Keep A Light transports readers back to a simpler era when lighthouses were very much a part of the Maritime way of life. As fresh today as when it first appeared, this classic preserves the past in both remembrance and written word.

It’s available from Overdrive.

Kobo: $9.57 CA; $14.07 AUD; $9.59 US; £7.43 Uk
Kindle: $7.36 US

[Victoria]

I second Twenty Thousand Leagues and The Lightening Thief.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

[...] I've read the Shipping News and it is incredibly bleak. I don't think I could read Proulx right now. It has all the things I don't want to read about - suicide, sex trafficking, domestic abuse.

This explains why it still sits on my shelf unread, I never seem to be in the mood to start it.

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Jon - have you examined HarryT's version in the MR Library? Is it comparable to the Baen version?

(I'm not Jon, but what they hell ...) HarryT's version is the version I've read most recently - hence, when I mentioned it earlier, I used the title: 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas. It was, as usual, an excellent production. As for comparison with the earlier versions, there was too much time between for my memory to be reliable, but it seemed to me that this newer version was longer and dryer - more recitals of creature classifications and so forth - than I had remembered. It was very much science fiction.

[gmw]

I second The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Steadman.

AND I second We Keep a Light by Evelyn M. Richardson.


Good to see you return, Victoria.

[Twitchly]

Victoria, where did you find a Kindle version of We Keep a Light? I checked Amazon(paperback only, $20) and I also checked Overdrive (our library system doesn’t carry it). I’d love to read this one.

[Victoria]

Originally Posted by Twitchly

Victoria, where did you find a Kindle version of We Keep a Light? I checked Amazon(paperback only, $20) and I also checked Overdrive (our library system doesn’t carry it). I’d love to read this one.

Hi Twitchy

I found kindle versions on both the US & Canada Amazon sites. I’m not sure how to add links, but the web address at the US site is https://www.amazon.com/We-Keep-Light...al-text&sr=1-1

I hope this works for you. Good luck!