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[JSWolf]

I would say that being cheap is not a good reason to nominate it. Not being offensive would be a good reason.

[gmw]

I did say "one of" my reasons. Another of the books I was considered is selling for AUD$14.99 on Amazon.com.au despite being almost 20 years old. WTH?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by gmw

I did say "one of" my reasons. Another of the books I was considered is selling for AUD$14.99 on Amazon.com.au despite being almost 20 years old. WTH?

That is a stupid price for a book of that age.

Would it maybe be available via Overdrive?

[gmw]

I'm not sure what Overdrive is like in other areas of Australia, but the options where I live are dismal indeed (< 19000 ebooks).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by gmw

I'm not sure what Overdrive is like in other areas of Australia, but the options where I live are dismal indeed (< 19000 ebooks).

You could check in other parts of the world such as the US, UK, and CA to see if that book is available and if it's reasonably priced. Maybe there might then be enough people to vote for it to maybe win. Cannot hurt to have a look.

[gmw]

Actually, the book is quite reasonably priced elsewhere, so I could nominate it and the only people that would be unhappy with me (if it won) are fellow Australians.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I like this one! Though I'm OK with us leaving the title alone, but adding a paragraph into the first post. IAC, as folks can see, I'm going to keep talking about what I'm reading when I think it's of general interest, and I really encourage others to join in. Let's talk about books! And not just the ones we actually select for everyone to read. For me, this new theme approach has done such a good job of driving discovery I want to extend that here. In both directions. I hope my posts will lead to others discovering an interest in the books I'm finding, but I also hope to find even more from what you're reading. So join in!

Charlie, I like this idea of sharing our book interests. The theme approach has been driving new discovery for me too. It's adding freshness and excitement to my reading addiction. I hope this post matches your vision of community conversation.

I recently read Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor. It was announced in January as the 2017 Costa Book Novel Award winner. This book explores time in an interesting way. A teenage girl goes missing while on vacation in northern England's Peak District. The book is not a mystery thriller about the disappearance of the girl as you'd originally guess. Instead, it traces the affect of her disappearance on the daily lives of the villagers over a time period of 13 years. Each book chapter follows one year through the months and seasons and annual village events.

While searching for a nomination for this month's theme, I noticed that Jon McGregor wrote another book which has a unique approach to time. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things was nominated for the 2002 Booker Prize and was the winner of both the Betty Trask Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award in 2003. I didn't nominate it because it seemed that the prose poem style would not have mass appeal, but I'm sure some of the club members may find it to their tastes. I've added it to my TBR.

From Goodreads:

Risky in conception, hip and yet soulful, this is a prose poem of a novel -- intense, lyrical, and highly evocative -- with a mystery at its center, which keeps the reader in suspense until the final page. In a tour de force that could be described as Altmanesque, we are invited into the private lives of the residents of a quiet urban street in England over the course of a single day. In delicate, intricately observed closeup, we witness the hopes, fears, and unspoken despairs of a diverse community: the man with painfully scarred hands who tried in vain to save his wife from a burning house and who must now care for his young daughter alone; a group of young clubgoers just home from an all-night rave, sweetly high and mulling over vague dreams; the nervous young man at number 18 who collects weird urban junk and is haunted by the specter of unrequited love. The tranquillity of the street is shattered at day's end when a terrible accident occurs. This tragedy and an utterly surprising twist provide the momentum for the book. But it is the author's exquisite rendering of the ordinary, the everyday, that gives this novel its freshness, its sense of beauty, wonder, and hope. Rarely does a writer appear with so much music and poetry -- so much vision -- that he can make the world seem new.

[CRussel]

Interesting, I had never run across Jon McGregor. I'm not quite sure he's to my tastes, but I might well download a sample and give it a shot. His approach to what superficially appears to be a mystery sounds interesting.

My one problem with our current theme approach is that it's playing havoc with my TBR. I keep adding books, not removing them. Or rather, I keep removing them by reading them, but not as fast as I discover new ones!

[Bookworm_Girl]

I've given up on ever having any hope of reducing my TBR!

[Bookworm_Girl]

My discovery process for the color theme led me to some interesting books too.

I really, really loved A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin. The same month was young adult fiction in the literary club. It was too new and not available in some countries to nominate for either club, but I want to share this book with others. The mystery of the statue garden in the woods, which is at the center of the novel's plot, was inspired by the Gardens of Bomarzo in Italy. I want to travel here - very whimsical! That led me to further increase my TBR by searching for other books about these gardens.

A gorgeous fantasy in the spirit of Pan’s Labyrinth and John Connolly’s The Book of Lost Things. Set in a world similar to our own, during a war that parallels World War II, A Green and Ancient Light is the stunning story of a boy who is sent to stay with his grandmother for the summer in a serene fishing village. Their tranquility is shattered by the crash of a bullet-riddled enemy plane, the arrival of grandmother’s friend Mr. Girandole—a man who knows the true story of Cinderella’s slipper—and the discovery of a riddle in the sacred grove of ruins behind grandmother’s house. In a sumptuous idyllic setting and overshadowed by the threat of war, four unlikely allies learn the values of courage and sacrifice.

I also read The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien. It's not quite an historical fiction novel, even though one of the main characters is a Bosnian Serb war criminal (modelled on Radovan Karadžić) who has absconded to an obscure Irish village. It's a very wrenching, human story. Warning: it does contain some graphic and disturbing content due to its subject matter. I think it's important to explain the significance of the title.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarajevo_Red_Line

A fiercely beautiful novel about one woman's struggle to reclaim a life shattered by betrayal, from one of the greatest storytellers of our time. One night, in the dead of winter, a mysterious stranger arrives in the small Irish town of Cloonoila. Broodingly handsome, worldly, and charismatic, Dr. Vladimir Dragan is a poet, a self-proclaimed holistic healer, and a welcome disruption to the monotony of village life. Before long, the beautiful black-haired Fidelma McBride falls under his spell and, defying the shackles of wedlock and convention, turns to him to cure her of her deepest pains.

Then, one morning, the illusion is abruptly shattered. While en route to pay tribute at Yeats's grave, Dr. Vlad is arrested and revealed to be a notorious war criminal and mass murderer. The Cloonoila community is devastated by this revelation, and no one more than Fidelma, who is made to pay for her deviance and desire. In disgrace and utterly alone, she embarks on a journey that will bring both profound hardship and, ultimately, the prospect of redemption.

Moving from Ireland to London and then to The Hague, THE LITTLE RED CHAIRS is Edna O'Brien's first novel in ten years -- a vivid and unflinching exploration of humanity's capacity for evil and artifice as well as the bravest kind of love.

Lastly, I listened to the audiobook of Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, a popular young adult novelist. It was an authentic portrayal of anxiety and compulsive disorders which are very real and personal struggles for the author. The book was set in Indianapolis where John Green also lives.

It all begins with a fugitive billionaire and the promise of a cash reward. Turtles All the Way Down is about lifelong friendship, the intimacy of an unexpected reunion, Star Wars fan fiction, and tuatara. But at its heart is Aza Holmes, a young woman navigating daily existence within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. In his long-awaited return, John Green shares Aza's story with shattering, unflinching clarity.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I've given up on ever having any hope of reducing my TBR!

Actually, I have too. But I'd just like to keep it from climbing any faster than it already is.

The Rainbow theme was a busy one for me. The book we read, obviously, plus The Price of Salt (kudos for that one, astrangerhere) plus it caused me to rediscover Joseph Hansen's Dave Brandstetter series (that's 12 more books in my TBR ), plus a re-read of the old Mercedes Lackey Black/White/Silver Griffon series. And that's just for one month! For The Book Came First, I've got the Hemingway we selected, Braithwaite's To Sir With Love, The Forsyte Saga, some Trollope, and more R.F. Delderfield.

At this rate, I'll read 200 books this year and have my TBR grow by 400 books!

[Bookworm_Girl]

I've never read any of The Forsyte Saga. It sounds like something I'd enjoy. Thanks for that!

I discovered that Vintage Books created a series called Vintage Movie Classics to release backlist books which were the basis for iconic films.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...vie+classic%22

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I've never read any of The Forsyte Saga. It sounds like something I'd enjoy. Thanks for that!

There are superb narrations available, done by David Case. Highly recommended if you do audio books at all. And, of course, the books are available here.

[gmw]

On a curious note, I have found myself trying to make a reassessment of some books as their suitability for the club.

Aside from the previously noted Mission by Patrick Tilley, which gets a 5/5 in my ratings, I also seriously considered nominating The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter, which only gets a 2/5 in my ratings. But the drop to 2/5 comes almost entirely in the last quarter, the first three quarters of the book provide excellent classic science-fiction that not only relates to time (looking at scenes from the past), but is also timely in that it discusses the loss of personal privacy - something we're all facing thanks to our uptake of technology. So while the ending was not great, I think it might have made for interesting discussion. In the end I decided to play it safe with another book, but I did find it curious to think that I would consider re-reading this book for the sake of discussion, but would not bother without that incentive.

[Catlady]

I'm currently listening to one of the books that lost out to Hemingway for March: The Light Between Oceans. I'd never heard of this book before, and I appreciate JSWolf's nominating it. I'm less than halfway through, but I'm loving it.