Literary Region Nominations & Vote • November 2016

[sun surfer]

Help us select what the MR Literary Club will read in November 2016!

The category for this month is:
Region
North & Central Europe


We will begin with a one-day vote to determine the region. As soon as the region is determined nominations will commence. Nominations can be set in any region, but they should be written by an author from that region.

The region vote will close exactly one day from this post; even if the final tally doesn't occur immediately after voting closes, no votes made after that time will count.

Region votes will be made by post. You will have a number of votes to cast equal to the number of regions minus one - i.e. SEVEN. You may give each region one or two (or no) votes. You may vote all at once in one post or vote in separate posts at different times, so long as you have more votes remaining to cast. You may use any number of your possible votes up to the maximum. Any extraneous votes per person (past their maximum or more than two for one nominee) won't count. Votes cannot be changed once they are cast.

Once voting is complete, the count will be tallied and a winner declared. If there is a tie, first listed wins by default (the regions are re-arranged each time in a specific set cyclical order).





Notes:

-Regions are named in the poll and colour-coded on the map. Region names are generalities and not exact. As eligible regions dwindle, be careful to compare them with ineligible regions and the map to be clear on a region's area.

-If a country or territory is too small to show regional colour on the map, it will be part of the region closest to it physically and culturally. If you are unsure, just ask.

-Previously chosen regions currently ineligible:
Latin America
Central Asia, East Europe & Russia
Canada & the U.S.A.
North Africa & The Middle East
Southeast Asia
Portugal, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain & France


Once the region is determined:


-Nominations will run for three days.-

You may offer up to two nominations. All nominees will move forward to the vote with no need for support from others.

Once nominations are complete, voting will begin and also occur in this thread.


-Voting will then run for four days.-

I will make a post to open voting. The vote will close exactly four days from that post; even if the final tally doesn't occur immediately after voting closes, no votes made after that time will count.

Votes will be made by post. You will have a number of votes to cast equal to the number of nominees minus one, which will be specified when the vote begins. You may give each nominee one or two (or no) votes. You may vote all at once in one post or vote in separate posts at different times, so long as you have more votes remaining to cast. You may use any number of your possible votes up to the maximum. Any extraneous votes per person (past their maximum or more than two for one nominee) won't count. Votes cannot be changed once they are cast. If you vote for the winner it is hoped that you will read the selection with the club and join in the discussion.

Once voting is complete, the count will be tallied and a winner declared. In the event of a tie, there will be a one-day run-off vote, also in this thread. If the run-off also ends in a tie, then the tie will be resolved in favour of the selection that was nominated first.


What is literature for the purposes of this club? A superior work of lasting merit that enriches the mind. Often it is important, challenging, critically acclaimed. It may be from ancient times to today; it may be from anywhere in the world; it may be obscure or famous, short or long; it may be a story, a novel, a play, a poem, an essay or another written form. If you are unsure if a work would be considered literature, just ask!


The floor is now open!

*

Region voting is closed. Final results:

• Sub Saharan Africa
  Votes- 0
• Southeast Europe
  Votes- 0
• North & Central Europe
  Votes- 7
• Ireland & The U.K.
  Votes- 6
• The South Pacific
  Votes- 0
• Japan
  Votes- 4
• The Korean Peninsula, Mongolia & China
  Votes- 3
• South Asia
  Votes- 0

Nominations are closed. Voting is closed. Final results:

• The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse, Germany
  Post / Goodreads / 547 Pages / Votes- 5
  
  
• The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel, Austria
  Post / Goodreads / 871 Pages / Votes- 3
  
  
• Anecdotes of Destiny by Isak Dinesen, Denmark
  Post / Goodreads / 250 Pages / Votes- 4
  
  
• Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski as translated by Bill Johnston, Poland
  Post / Goodreads / 537 Pages / Votes- 1
  
  
• The Door by Magda Szabó in the NYRB Classics edition and the introduction, Hungary
  Post / Goodreads / 288 Pages / Votes- 6
  
  
• Pan by Knut Hamsun, Norway
  Post / Goodreads / 160 Pages / Votes- 4

[sun surfer]

I'll give-

2 to The Korean Peninsula, Mongolia & China
2 to Japan

[Spinnenmonat]

2 votes for Ireland & The U.K.
2 votes for North & Central Europe

[Bookworm_Girl]

I'll start with:

2 votes for Japan
2 votes for North & Central Europe

[Bookpossum]

2 for North & Central Europe
2 for Ireland and the UK

I would like clarification please, as I'm not quite sure of the areas. Could you identify them also by colour, sun surfer? My query is whether the South Pacific is olive green, i.e. including Australia and New Zealand?

[Billi]

I will give:

1 to North & Central Europe
2 to Ireland & The U.K.
1 to The Korean Peninsula, Mongolia & China

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

I would like clarification please, as I'm not quite sure of the areas. Could you identify them also by colour, sun surfer? My query is whether the South Pacific is olive green, i.e. including Australia and New Zealand?

Yes, the South Pacific is the area that includes Australia and New Zealand. South Asia is the deep red that includes India. North & Central Europe is the green that includes Germany. Southeast Europe is the light yellow that includes Italy. The rest of the eligible regions seem clear enough, no?

[sun surfer]

Our region winner is North & Central Europe! This includes Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark (and Greenland), Germany, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and Hungary. Nominations are now open.

[Spinnenmonat]

I recommend:

1.The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse from Germany

From Goodread:The final novel of Hermann Hesse, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, 'The Glass Bead Game' is a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life as well as a classic of modern literature.

Set in the 23rd century, 'The Glass Bead Game' is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).

Amazon

2.The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel from Austria

From Goodreads:This stirring, poignant novel, based on real historical events that made of actual people true heroes, unfolds the tragedy that befell the Armenian people in the dark year of 1915. The Great War is raging through Europe, and in the ancient, mountainous lands southwest of the Caspian Sea the Turks have begun systematically to exterminate their Christian subjects. Unable to deny his birthright or his people, one man, Gabriel Bagradian—born an Armenian, educated in Paris, married to a Frenchwoman, and an officer doing his duty as a Turkish subject in the Ottoman army—will strive to resist death at the hands of his blood enemy by leading 5,000 Armenian villagers to the top of Musa Dagh, "the mountain of Moses." There, for forty days, in the face of almost certain death, they will suffer the siege of a Turkish army hell-bent on genocide. A passionate warning against the dangers of racism and scapegoating, and prefiguring the ethnic horrors of World War II, this important novel from the early 1930s remains the only significant treatment, in fiction or nonfiction, of the first genocide in the twentieth century's long series of inhumanities. It also continues to be today what the New York Times deemed it in 1933—"a true and thrilling novel ... a story which must rouse the emotions of all human beings." "Musa Dagh gives us a lasting sense of participation in a stirring episode of history.... Magnificent."—The New York Times Book Review "A novel full of the breath, the flesh and blood and bone and spirit of life."

Amazon

[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Yes, the South Pacific is the area that includes Australia and New Zealand. South Asia is the deep red that includes India. North & Central Europe is the green that includes Germany. Southeast Europe is the light yellow that includes Italy. The rest of the eligible regions seem clear enough, no?

Thanks sun surfer - I got back too late to put in another vote, but am happy with the winner.

[Bookpossum]

Oh yes, The Glass Bead Game has been on my list for a while, so I shall start by giving it two votes.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

Oh yes, The Glass Bead Game has been on my list for a while, so I shall start by giving it two votes.

Heh, you're getting ahead of things, Bookpossum! We have to finish out the nominations first.

[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Heh, you're getting ahead of things, Bookpossum! We have to finish out the nominations first.

Oops! Sorry - I got carried away with the excitement. Scrub that and I'll vote at the proper time.

[Bookpossum]

Okay, I have now pulled myself together again. I would like to nominate:

Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) (Denmark) - Anecdotes of Destiny. From Kobo:

These five rich, witty and magical stories from the author of Out of Africa include one of her most well known tales, 'Babette's Feast', which was made into the classic film. It tells the story of a French cook working in a puritanical Norwegian community, who treats her employers to the decadent feast of a lifetime. There is also a real-life Prospero and his Ariel in 'Tempests', a mysterious pearl-fisher in 'The Diver' and a brief, tragic encounter in 'The Ring'. All the stories have a mystic, fairy-tale quality, linked by themes of angels, the sea, dreams and fate. They were among the last to be written by Isak Dinesen, and show her as a master of short fiction.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

Oops! Sorry - I got carried away with the excitement. Scrub that and I'll vote at the proper time.

Your enthusiasm did make me go check this out and recommend it to my library, so it wasn't in vain.