New Leaf Nominations for June 2019 • Into the Labyrinth: The Quest

[gmw]

With my last ticket I second The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

While I haven't seen explicit reference, it has to have been the inspiration behind the Disney animated movie Up. (Challenger -> Muntz; the plateau of the Lost World; capturing pterodactyl chick -> Kevin; come to think of it, Edward Malone isn't much more than a boy scout himself -> Russell the Wilderness Explorer) Adventure is out there!

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

For my last ticket I'm waiting to see what Dazrin nominates because his options sound exciting.

No pressure...

I'm still looking right now, I've been busy the last couple days and away from my computer, but I will try to have something by tomorrow evening. I'm considering a couple classics, a non-fiction telling of a journalist's quest to find out what happened to someone else on their own quest, a quest to save someone that captivates the entirety of the world, and a Brazilian fable about someone's quest and how he found himself.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I wasn't going to support The Snow Leopard, because of the price, but the Canadian Kindle price is only $10.99 CAD, which is about $8 USD. Within my budget. So I'll use my last ticket to third the nomination.

Charlie.

Thanks for the support and the heads up on the Canadian Kindle price. I assumed it was the same as the Kobo price. I've added a Kindle link to the listing.

[Victoria]

I third The Lost World. How exciting- I didn’t realize Arthur Conan Doyle had written this type of novel. Even more exciting- I just got it for free from Amazon, and the Audible book for $.50!

[CRussel]

Yes, my only complaint is that it's the wrong narration. There's one by Michael Prichard which I would much prefer, but that WhisperSync price is the [expletive deleted] agency $7.49 price.

[Dazrin]

Ok, I'm going to nominate two books.

The first tells of David Grann's quest to figure out what happened to Percy Fawcett in his quest to find the lost City of Z in the South American jungles. Non-fiction at its best.

The Lost City of Z by David Grann
Goodreads
352 Pages
Awards: Indies Choice Book Award for Adult Nonfiction (2010), Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction Nominee (2009), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Nonfiction (2009)

Spoiler:

A grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon.

After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve "the greatest exploration mystery of the 20th century": What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett & his quest for the Lost City of Z?

In 1925, Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the world's largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humans. But Fawcett, whose daring expeditions inspired Conan Doyle's The Lost World, had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions round the globe, Fawcett embarked with his 21-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilisation--which he dubbed Z--existed. Then his expedition vanished. Fawcett's fate, & the tantalizing clues he left behind about Z, became an obsession for hundreds who followed him into the uncharted wilderness.

For decades scientists & adventurers have searched for evidence of Fawcett's party & the lost City of Z. Countless have perished, been captured by tribes or gone mad. As Grann delved ever deeper into the mystery surrounding Fawcett's quest, & the greater mystery of what lies within the Amazon, he found himself, like the generations who preceded him, being irresistibly drawn into the jungle's green hell. His quest for the truth & discoveries about Fawcett's fate & Z form the heart of this complexly enthralling narrative.

The second showed up on many lists about "quests" and has been a literary club nominee (but not selection), it is also from a country that we have never selected for any of the book clubs, Brazil:

The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
Goodreads
197 Pages
Awards: NBDB National Book Award Nominee for Translation (2015), Grand Prix des lectrices de Elle for roman (1995), Premio Grinzane Cavour for Narrativa Straniera (1996), Corine Internationaler Buchpreis for Belletristik (2002)

Spoiler:

Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago's journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.

In case anyone was wondering about my other considerations:

Spoiler:

I'm considering a couple classics (The Hobbit, The Journey to the Center of the Earth), a non-fiction telling of a journalist's quest to find out what happened to someone else on their own quest (The Lost City of Z), a quest to save someone that captivates the entirety of the world (something about Apollo 13 or The Martian), and a Brazilian fable about someone's quest and how he found himself (The Alchemist).

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Ok, I'm going to nominate two books.

I’m fine to use my last ticket on either option. I may wait to see if anyone else indicates a preference. I own all of these including the ones you didn’t nominate!

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I’m fine to use my last ticket on either option. I may wait to see if anyone else indicates a preference. I own all of these including the ones you didn’t nominate!

I've got one ticket left and I'm torn between the Great Escape book and Lost City of Z. I'll await developments a while longer also; a factor is that I can get only Lost City from OverDrive.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Yes, my only complaint is that it's the wrong narration. There's one by Michael Prichard which I would much prefer, but that WhisperSync price is the [expletive deleted] agency $7.49 price.

My two biggest Audible regrets are that I didn't buy all the WhisperSync titles on my wishlist when they were two or three bucks and that I didn't take more advantage of the loophole that got WhisperSync prices for Kindle OverDrive borrows. Had I but known....

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by issybird

My two biggest Audible regrets are that I didn't buy all the WhisperSync titles on my wishlist when they were two or three bucks and that I didn't take more advantage of the loophole that got WhisperSync prices for Kindle OverDrive borrows. Had I but known....

Amen! One of the reasons I keep my Audible UK account active. The WhisperSync prices there are much better!

Charlie.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I will second The Lost City of Z. My husband really liked the book, and we both enjoyed the movie.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I will second The Lost City of Z. My husband really liked the book, and we both enjoyed the movie.

In that case, I'll second Human Game and put both within reach for those who still have nominations.


Oh, I should add that Silverlock also only needs one more vote. I've read that and A Walk in the Woods so I haven't been focusing on them.

[Dazrin]

The Human Game is not available at my library but it does sound interesting, I will third it and hope one of my libraries gets a copy from my recommendation in time for me to read it if it gets selected.

[Catlady]

I'll third Lost City of Z.

[drofgnal]

I've been following this thread a while. I think I preferred when we had categories like, crime, historical fiction, non fiction, etc. The change in categories pretty much allows anything. Oh well, I was tempted to nominate a classic like Watership Down, The Hobbit (like Catlady) or similar. Quest to me means something like that, although in most good novels the protagonist has some sort of 'quest' or adventure. I toyed around with Edgar Sawtell, but it's rather lengthy.

For now I'll second The Alchemist. And I'll nominate Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. (I share a birthday with Mr Stevenson) Kidnapped appears in our Patricia Clarke Memorial Library in a combined volume with it's sequel, David Balfour. I don't believe a book description is required. I'd recommend reading the sequel as well.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ouis+Stevenson

Got a description (Wikipedia)

Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, written as a boys' novel and first published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886. The novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry James, Jorge Luis Borges, and Hilary Mantel.[1] A sequel, Catriona, was published in 1893.

The narrative is written in English with some dialogue in Lowland Scots.

Kidnapped is set around real 18th-century Scottish events, notably the "Appin murder", which occurred in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Many of the characters are real people, including one of the principals, Alan Breck Stewart. The political situation of the time is portrayed from multiple viewpoints, and the Scottish Highlanders are treated sympathetically.

The Sequel, sometimes called Catriona (The girl David meets) Although I'm not nominating the sequel as well. When first exposed to this story it was a British miniseries starring David Mccallum (aka 'Ducky'or Illya Kuryakin) as Alan Breck Stewart. The mini series was a series of both novels so when I first read Kidnapped I was disappointed in how incomplete the story was.

Catriona (also known as David Balfour) is an 1893 novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson as a sequel to his earlier novel Kidnapped (1886). It was first published in the magazine Atalanta from December 1892 to September 1893[1]. The novel continues the story of the central character in Kidnapped, David Balfour.