New Leaf Runoff vote for Feruary 2020 • It Takes Two to Tango: Colloborations

[issybird]

This is the runoff poll to select the book we'll read and discuss in February 2020.

We love new participants. We're happy for you to vote, but in the interest of a vibrant conversation, we'd like to request that you not vote unless you plan to join the discussion whatever the selection. So if you haven't posted in a book club thread yet, do please say a quick hello here or in the Welcome thread.

This is a poll. Vote for as many books as you'd like. Questions? FAQs | Guidelines Or just ask!

Choices:

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Public domain

Spoiler:

First, this brother / sister team are unlikely collaborators, and quite unprepared when they find themselves at mid-life suddenly raising a precocious child. Second, February can often use a lift, and it’s an optimistic and often quite funny book.

From Amazon.com:

“When Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert of Green Gables, Prince Edward Island, send for a boy orphan to help them out at the farm, they are in no way prepared for the error that will change their lives. The mistake takes the shape of Anne Shirley, a redheaded 11-year-old girl who can talk anyone under the table. Fortunately, her sunny nature and quirky imagination quickly win over her reluctant foster parents. Anne's feisty spirit soon draws many friends--and much trouble--her way. Not a day goes by without some melodramatic new episode in the tragicomedy of her life.”

320 pp.

Local Custom by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Amazon US $6.99; Amazon CA $8.51; Amazon UK £4.60; Amazon AU $8.94; BaenEbooks.com $6.99; Audible US $1.99 (WS)

Spoiler:

Originally Posted by Goodreads

Master trader Er Thom knows the local custom of Liaden is to be matched with a proper bride, and provide his prominent clan Korval with an heir. Yet his heart is immersed in another universe, influenced by another culture, and lost to a woman not of his world. And to take a Terran wife such as scholar Anne Davis is to risk his honor and reputation. But when he discovers that their brief encounter years before has resulted in the birth of a child, even more is at stake than anyone imagined. Now, an interstellar scandal has erupted, a bitter war between two families-galaxies apart-has begun, and the only hope for Er Thom and Anne is a sacrifice neither is prepared to make...

384 pp.

The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
US$11.99

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. And three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with history - and the future: Sybil Gerard - dishonored woman and daughter of a Luddite agitator; Edward "Leviathan" Mallory - explorer and paleontologist; Laurence Oliphant - diplomat and spy. Their adventure begins with the discovery of a box of punched Engine cards of unknown origin and purpose. Cards someone wants badly enough to kill for...

Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine is the first collaborative novel by two of the most brilliant and controversial science fiction authors of our time. Provocative, compelling, intensely imagined, it is a startling extension of Gibson's and Sterling's unique visions - in a new and totally unexpected direction!

429 pp.

[astrangerhere]

I'm going to go with Anne just to be able to listen to Rachel McAdams narrate the the ebook.

[issybird]

I forgot to note that I won't vote this round unless there's another tie, in which case I'll cast the tiebreaker vote.

[Dazrin]

I came across a deal for the audible audio version of Anne of Green Gables if anyone is interested.

The linked Kindle version is $0.49 at Amazon US right now with the Audible Audio version a $0.49 adder. I'm not sure on the narrator for this version though and I don't even see how to check. Maybe someone with more audible skills than I have will see how to check.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074M91NDF

I may actually read the paper version for this if it is selected though. One of the few I have still around.

Edit: I think it is this version of the audio book:
https://www.audible.com/pd/Anne-of-G...ook/B00E825RDQ
Narrated by Mary Sarah.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I'm going to go with Anne just to be able to listen to Rachel McAdams narrate the the ebook.

I listened to this version last year after you mentioned it previously. It was excellent.

[issybird]

This did make me laugh.

I don't really need to read Anne, as I essentially memorized it as a girl as I read and reread it. But I sideloaded a copy to my Kobo, thinking I'd skim it before the discussion. I took a quick peek tonight and was dissatisfied, as the typeface was bold, so I went looking at Amazon for a different (free) copy. Not free, but I found this:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B083Y2ZF...al-text&sr=1-6

I guess it explains Elizabeth I's red hair! She got it from both sides.

[gmw]

Well, it is a picture of an Anne. Now if they had mixed it with some appropriate pictures of architecture, it could have been like a game of charades.

I decided to grab the Delphi Classics collection, so it can replace poor copies I have of a few other L.M. Montgomery books.

[Bookpossum]

Oops! Any old Anne will do it seems.

I got a copy from girlebooks, which I think has good copies (and nice covers!) of all sorts of books by female authors in the PD.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I listened to this version last year after you mentioned it previously. It was excellent.

I am listening to it now and Rachel McAdams is wonderful!

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

I am listening to it now and Rachel McAdams is wonderful!

Sigh. There are several narrations available on OverDrive, but not the McAdams one, apparently. Do I really want to spend an Audible credit on it when there are several alternatives at the library?

Charlie.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Sigh. There are several narrations available on OverDrive, but not the McAdams one, apparently. Do I really want to spend an Audible credit on it when there are several alternatives at the library?

Charlie.

Did you check your Audible files? It was presumably a freebie at some point; I was surprised to find that I have it in my library.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Sigh. There are several narrations available on OverDrive, but not the McAdams one, apparently. Do I really want to spend an Audible credit on it when there are several alternatives at the library?

Charlie.

Yes you do. The others are rubbish.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Did you check your Audible files? It was presumably a freebie at some point; I was surprised to find that I have it in my library.

Apparently I missed it when it was a freebie. Happens, especially when there are other things happening in life.

The reviews for a couple of the others are actually pretty good, so I'll listen to them first before I make a decision.

Charlie.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Apparently I missed it when it was a freebie. Happens, especially when there are other things happening in life.

The reviews for a couple of the others are actually pretty good, so I'll listen to them first before I make a decision.

Charlie.

Karen Savage has one on LibriVox (and a later version on Audible). I listened to some of it and it seemed quite competent and expressive.
LibriVox also has a dramatic reading and there is a collection of the Anne books on Audible which gets mixed reviews.