Literary The MobileRead Literary Book Club July 2011 Nominations

[sun surfer]

Help us select the work that the MobileRead Literary Book Club will read for July 2011.

The nominations will run through June 27 or until FIVE works have made the list.

Final voting (in a new poll thread) will begin by June 27, where the month's selection will be decided.


The category for this month is:

Highly Challenging (especially difficult or long works we may be hesitant to choose otherwise)


In order for a work to be included in the poll it needs FIVE NOMINATIONS (original nomination plus four others).

Each participant has three nominations. You can nominate a new work for consideration or you can nominate a work that has already been nominated by another person.

To nominate a work please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a work, please try to provide an abstract to the work so others may consider their level of interest.

Please keep in mind the differences in nominations between the general book club and this one - only five works will make the final list here, and a work needs five nominations to make the final list here.

If anyone feels uncomfortable posting an original nomination to a work, one may PM it to me and I will post it for you anonymously. However, it may take longer for me to post it.

I may not keep an updated list of the nominees and links and such as we're nominating. I trust we can do that as a group. If anyone else wants to make and update such a list as we're nominating, I will try to edit and post a link to that particular post in my initial post for easy reference.

What is literature for the purposes of this book club? A well-regarded work. Often (but not always) it is important, challenging, critically acclaimed, has a deeper meaning, makes one think. 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, post it and ask. This is an educational (and enjoyable) process for us all.


The floor is now open to nominations!

[beppe]

I'd like to nominate a book that does not have an ebook version

Therefore, if it is not considered eligible, I will have again my 3 nominations available. It that acceptable? The high challenge is discussing a pbook in a ebook BookClub

The book is "Invisible Cities" by Italo Calvino. Amazon carries it for $7.98 in paperback.

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other messenger or explorer of his." So begins Italo Calvino's compilation of fragmentary urban images. As Marco tells the khan about Armilla, which "has nothing that makes it seem a city, except the water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out horizontally where the floors should be," the spider-web city of Octavia, and other marvelous burgs, it may be that he is creating them all out of his imagination, or perhaps he is recreating details of his native Venice over and over again, or perhaps he is simply recounting some of the myriad possible forms a city might take.

Review
Imaginary conversations between Marco Polo and his host, the Chinese ruler Kublai Khan, conjure up cities of magical times. “Of all tasks, describing the contents of a book is the most difficult and in the case of a marvelous invention like Invisible Cities, perfectly irrelevant” (Gore Vidal). Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Language Notes
Text: English, Italian (translation)

About the Author
Italo Calvino (15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952-1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (1979). Lionised in Britain and America, he was, at the time of his death, the most-translated contemporary Italian writer.

[fantasyfan]

1. Paradise Lost by Milton
Yes, it's poetry, but it is also one of the greatest and most powerful works in Western Literature. It has the titanic figure of Satan infusing the epic with unexpected ethical and psychological dilemmas. It's not a work to approach lightly.

2. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The least read of the mature works of this great author. It is also one which uses a number of interesting devices such as a play within a novel, psychologically symbolic landscapes, a villain who shouldn't be one, and the only view of life in the lower classes we get in her works.

3, Ulysses by James Joyce.
Joyce claimed that this would keep critics busy for at least a century. It is {according to some} the greatest novel of the twentieth century. The original 1922 first edition is in the public domain and available for free download from Gutenberg. You'll get nothing more challenging than this novel.

[John F]

I want to read some Dickens.

I'll nominate Bleak House. From Amazon:

Bleak House is a satirical look at the Byzantine legal system in London as it consumes the minds and talents of the greedy and nearly destroys the lives of innocents--a contemporary tale indeed. Dickens's tale takes us from the foggy dank streets of London and the maze of the Inns of Court to the peaceful countryside of England.

And I'll nominate The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Form Amazon:

This lengthy burlesque novel centers around the life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, a young man who must support his mother and sister after his father dies. Similar in tone to other Dickensian coming-of-age works, NICHOLAS NICKLEBY highlights social injustices of mid-Nineteenth century England and features gritty industrial cities, dreary workhouses, and cruel adults.

*** If one of these wins, I will not be leading the discussion ***

[Vandy]

*** NOMINATION RESULTS FOR THE JULY BOOK CHOICE ***

Choices are shown in Vote order first then alphabetically.

NOTE: Nomination will continue until 27 JULY or when five books receives five votes each.

Nominations . . . . . Book Title / Author
(5) . . . . . . . . . . . Bleak House by Charles Dickens
(5) . . . . . . . . . . . The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes
(5) . . . . . . . . . . . Midnight's Chidren by Salman Rushdie
(5) . . . . . . . . . . . Paradise Lost by Milton
(5) . . . . . . . . . . . The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
(4) . . . . . . . . . . . The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (pb only...?)
(4) . . . . . . . . . . . Ulysses by James Joyce
(3) . . . . . . . . . . . Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
(2) . . . . . . . . . . . Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (pb only...?)
(2) . . . . . . . . . . . The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
(1) . . . . . . . . . . . The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer
(1) . . . . . . . . . . . Captain Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
(1) . . . . . . . . . . . The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
(1) . . . . . . . . . . . Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
(1) . . . . . . . . . . . Moby Dick by Herman Melville
(1) . . . . . . . . . . . Rabbit Boss by Thomas Sanchez
(1) . . . . . . . . . . . The Stand: Complete and Uncut by Stephen King
(1) . . . . . . . . . . . War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED. We have our five nominations. GWV 26 JUN 2011

Up-to-Date as of Post #69, Page 5.

I nominate The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu.

Spoiler:

Genji, the hero of the Tale, is the son of the emperor and his favourite concubine, Kiritsubo. A Korean sage predicts a brilliant future for Genji but his mother suffers the jealousy of rivals at court, becomes ill and dies. The distraught emperor becomes obsessed with the tragic story of Yang Kwei-fei, but eventually finds another concubine, Fujitsubo, who reminds him of his former love.

Since Genji lacks backing at court, the emperor makes him a commoner, assigning him membership of the non-royal Genji clan. The eldest son of the emperor and Lady Kokiden is made crown prince.

Genji becomes an uncommonly handsome and gifted young man, admired by all but feared by Lady Kokiden and her family. The first part of the Tale follows his amorous exploits with a variety of ladies in and around Heian-kyo, his friendship with To no Chujo and arranged marriage to To no Chujo's sister Aoi, the birth of his son and his budding relationship with the young Murasaki.

I will second Paradise Lost. I've always meant to read that, but the in poetry part put me off.

[arkietech]

I nominate Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling

[TGS]

On the criteria "especially difficult or long works we may be hesitant to choose otherwise" I'd like to nominate The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. It is pretty huge - 850-odd paper pages. A review at blogcritics is here.

I'll second Ulysses.

[issybird]

I'm seconding Magic Mountain because I wanted to nominate it but hesitated since there's no ebook version. That doesn't bother me, however.

When I see how broad this category really is I will use my final nomination for Rabbit Boss by Thomas Sanchez.

Spoiler:

Rabbit Boss is a landmark work of twentieth-century American literature. A novel of dreams dying, the loss of power, the rebirth of the spirit, it is the most brilliant fictional evocation of the American West ever written. Powerful and exalting, Rabbit Boss tells the story of four generations of Washo in the California and Nevada Sierra.

"The Indian experience of the last 120 years...Rabbit Boss is of a size and scope that is awesome. Sanchez is a man of tremendous vision." -- Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

[Vandy]

Hello, All.

First of all, I will be keeping a "running tally" of nomination votes for July's book choice. You'll always be able to find the latest results in the following post:

Post #5

that is... the most recent results since I last updated.

================
Given July's category, I've been hard pressed to come up with one recommendation let alone three (remember, I really not that (lofty) literary-minded...). Nonetheless, here are my nominations:

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

From Amazon: When Ishmael sets sail on the whaling ship Pequod one cold Christmas Day, he has no idea of the horrors awaiting him out on the vast and merciless ocean. The ship’s strange captain, Ahab, is in the grip of an obsession to hunt down the famous white whale, Moby Dick, and will stop at nothing on his quest to annihilate his nemesis.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

From Amazon: War and Peace broadly focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the most well-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves his family behind to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman who intrigues both men.

As Napoleon’s army invades, Tolstoy brilliantly follows characters from diverse backgrounds—peasants and nobility, civilians and soldiers—as they struggle with the problems unique to their era, their history, and their culture. And as the novel progresses, these characters transcend their specificity, becoming some of the most moving—and human—figures in world literature.

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

From Amazon: Leaves of Grass (1855) is a poetry collection by the American poet Walt Whitman. Among the poems in the collection are "Song of Myself," "I Sing the Body Electric," "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," and in later editions, Whitman's elegy to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." Whitman spent his entire life writing Leaves of Grass, revising it in several editions until his death.

Regards,

[toomanybooks]

I will third Magic Mountain and second Bleak House.

[fantasyfan]

I third Bleak House. It's one of the most powerful of his novels.

[ficbot]

I'll second Bleak House. I just got a big Dickens anthology and have been meaning to go it, and HarryT (who reads a lot of classics) says Bleak House is Dickens best.

I also nominate 'Midnight's Children' by Salmon Rushdie. It's massive, and it's historical fiction, which I don't often choose. But it looks really interesting. From Amazon:

Born at the stroke of midnight at the exact moment of India's independence, Saleem Sinai is a special child. However, this coincidence of birth has consequences he is not prepared for: telepathic powers connect him with 1,000 other midnight's children all of whom are endowed with unusual gifts. Inextricably linked to his nation, Saleem's story is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirrors the course of modern India at its most impossible and glorious.

[jgaiser]

I'll second Midnight's Children. I've always been wanting to read Salmon Rushdie