MobileRead March 2016 Book Club Vote

[WT Sharpe]

March 2016 MobileRead Book Club Vote

Help us choose a book as the March 2016 eBook for the MobileRead Book Club. The poll will be open for 5 days. There will be no runoff vote unless the voting results a tie, in which case there will be a 3 day run-off poll. This is a visible poll: others can see how you voted. It is You may cast a vote for each book that appeals to you.

We will start the discussion thread for this book on March 20th. Select from the following Official Choices with three nominations each:

• Starfish by Peter Watts
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

From Jon's description on the upload page:

Welcome to Beebe Station.

You're three kilometers below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. You're perched on the shoulder of an active volcano. The local fauna is very large and very nasty. If it doesn't kill you, a mudslide or an erupting smoker probably will.

Your fellow employees are rapists, pedophiles, borderline psychotics, and victims of same.

You feel very lucky to be here.

This is a damn sight better than the life you left behind.

• Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

"If you have never robbed a man - or a woman - of honour! If you have never ruined boy or girl, Monsieur de Berault! If you have never pushed another into the pit and gone by it yourself! If - but, for murder?"... Thus the lovely Mademoiselle de Cocheforêt seeks to reach the heart of the ill-famed Gil de Berault, known throughout Paris as "The Black Death." And the hardened duellist sent to spy out and arrest her brother feels the first stirrings of shame. "Her gentleness, her pity, her humility softened me, while they convicted me. My God, how, after this, could I do that which I had come to do?"

This swashbuckling story of love and hate, intrigue and adventure, in the reign of Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII of France, has been a best-seller ever since its first appearance in 1894.

• The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle | LRF

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

First published in French as a serial in 1909, "The Phantom of the Opera" is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous 'ghost' of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster. Leroux's work, with characters ranging from the spoiled prima donna Carlotta to the mysterious Persian from Erik's past, has been immortalized by memorable adaptations. Despite this, it remains a remarkable piece of Gothic horror literature in and of itself, deeper and darker than any version that follows.

• The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

Thorne Smith's rapid-fire dialogue, brilliant sense of the absurd, and literary aplomb put him in the same category as the beloved P. G. Wodehouse. The Night Life of the Gods--the madcap story of a scientist who instigates a nocturnal spree with the Greek gods--is arguably his most sparkling comedic achievement.

Hunter Hawk has a knack for annoying his ultrarespectable relatives. He likes to experiment and he particularly likes to experiment with explosives. His garage-cum-laboratory is a veritable minefield, replete with evil-smelling clouds of vapor through which various bits of wreckage and mysteriously bubbling test tubes are occasionally visible.

With the help of Megaera, a fetching nine-hundred-year-old lady leprechaun he meets one night in the woods, he masters the art (if not the timing) of transforming statues into people. And when he practices his new witchery in the stately halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art - setting Bacchus, Mercury, Neptune, Diana, Hebe, Apollo, and Perseus loose on the unsuspecting citizenry of Prohibition-era New York - the stage is set for Thorne Smith at his most devilish and delightful.

Born in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1892, educated at Dartmouth, THORNE SMITH was an early cohort of Dorothy Parker's. He achieved literary success in 1926 with the publication of Topper and went on to publish nine novels in the next eight years. He earned a passionate following among both critics and readers before his death, at the age of forty-two, in 1934.

• A Drama in Muslin by George Moore
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

Set in Ireland in the 1880s against a backdrop of Land League troubles in Co. Mayo, and in Dublin, where the social life revolves around the Vice-Regal court in Dublin Castle, this depicts the efforts of a mother trying to catch socially suitable husbands for her daughters, and chronicles the results.

• Music of the Spheres by Wander Bonanno
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | Kindle

Spoiler:

From wikiw: The Home of Fandom:

Margaret Wander Bonanno (born 7 February 1950; age 66) is a science fiction author from New York, with over twenty novels to her credit, including several set in the Star Trek universe. These include Dwellers in the Crucible, Strangers from the Sky, and Catalyst of Sorrows.

She rose to the spotlight of Star Trek apocrypha when her novel Strangers from the Sky made the Time bestsellers list in 1985. But the story that gave her more fame in Trek circles was what would follow.

She is also credited with writing Probe, though in her words it is "not her novel." She was contracted by Paramount to write a novel she called Music of the Spheres, based on the Whale Probe of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. However, due to the undesired intervention of an editor at Paramount, the story was nearly completely re-written without her consent, and they refused to remove her name from the project.

After the unpleasant experience, she focused on projects other than Star Trek novels, such as the science fiction book Saturn's Child co-written with Nichelle Nichols.

She was interviewed for the Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Special Edition) DVD, hosting the special features section entitled "Vulcan Primer," in which she explains a brief history of the Vulcans and why they are so popular among fans.

From The m0vie blog:

Music of the Spheres is something of a legend in Star Trek circles. It’s not quite a ghost story, spoken of in hushed whispers. Indeed, author Margaret Wander Bonanno has made the manuscript available to interested fans via her website, and has used it to raise money for a variety of worth causes. She’s documented the difficult story of how her original novel warped in Probe in a wonderfully wry and insightful essay, offering a glimpse at the inner workings of Pocket Book and Paramount towards the end of the eighties.

[GA Russell]

This is extraordinary. At this point, eight people have voted, and seven have voted for Thorne Smith.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

This is extraordinary. At this point, eight people have voted, and seven have voted for Thorne Smith.

It is a worthy selection. I've never seen the movie, but here's a short segment from the beginning of it that tracks nicely with how the actual book begins.

[CRussel]

It wasn't on my list, but I haven't voted yet. Still thinking about them. Nothing's really crying out to me, I admit.

[Dazrin]

One more day to vote!

Time to drum up some more support if you don't want to read Night Life of the Gods or pile on if it sounds good.

[issybird]

Hmm, it's too late now, but in fact, The Night Life of the Gods was not eligible this month, as it was last a nominee in October 2015, five months ago, and we have a six months rule.

I got curious, because I know it's been up for consideration more than once before and I checked. This is the fourth time it's made it to the vote and the most recent, as I said, made it ineligible for this month.

Oh well, perhaps it's a good thing that we'll finally be putting this baby to rest!

[GA Russell]

issy, please don't bother us with the facts!

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by issybird

Hmm, it's too late now, but in fact, The Night Life of the Gods was not eligible this month, as it was last a nominee in October 2015, five months ago, and we have a six months rule.

I got curious, because I know it's been up for consideration more than once before and I checked. This is the fourth time it's made it to the vote and the most recent, as I said, made it ineligible for this month.

Oh well, perhaps it's a good thing that we'll finally be putting this baby to rest!

Gosh, Issy. I wish you'd noticed that sooner. I wish I'D noticed that sooner. Being as we're hours away from the closing of the poll, and most people seem to want to read it, I see no reason no change things at this point, as a new vote would seriously cut into our schedule. On the plus side, I don't see how anyone could fail to enjoy it.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Gosh, Issy. I wish you'd noticed that sooner. I wish I'D noticed that sooner. Being as we're hours away from the closing of the poll, and most people seem to want to read it, I see no reason no change things at this point, as a new vote would seriously cut into our schedule. On the plus side, I don't see how anyone could fail to enjoy it.

I thought it was funny. I wasn't suggesting any action, just the opposite! Any book that's been nominated four times needs to read, if for no other reason than to open up the nominations to other books.

[JSWolf]

Of course, we could follow the rules, make The Night Life of Gods gone and go from there with the votes the other books have. That would make more sense given that this book is ineligible.

[din155]

I am with issybird, let's get this over with

[issybird]

I think the statute of limitations ran out on this, Jon.

[CRussel]

Agreed. If we'd realized before the voting was nearly done we could have disqualified it. But given where we're at, and given that so many have (finally) decided they want to read it, I think it needs to stay in.

[Dazrin]

Whooops!

I didn't remember this being nominated before when I nominated it and I was fairly sure I had seen it in the Mobileread Library Recommendations thread but I don't see it there now. Sorry for the error (but I am glad it is staying and winning!)

[JSWolf]

Well, there are two options and allowing it to remain should not be one of them since that would make three options and we only have two options.

Option 1: remove the book from the voting list and go with the list as it is with the votes for the rest

Option 2: start a new thread with a new poll with this book removed

It's unfair if it wins and becomes the book for March. If we are going to violate the rules, then let's violate all the rules. So really, let's not violate the rules knowingly since leaving this book will knowingly violate the rules.