Book Club: Suggestions for July

[abbey]

Before suggesting anything, please go over the format for suggestions (http://forums.explosm.net/showpost.php?p=373884&postcount=2).

You are free to suggest a book that was suggested last month, but if it didn't get in the poll last time, it probably won't this time.

Also, don't bother suggesting books that are longer than 350 pages. We want to make it easy for people to read these books in one month, so we have to have a limit on length.

If you find one of the suggested books interesting, post about it. The more people who show interest in a book here, the more likely it will be in the poll!

[abbey]

I want to throw in Salmoness's suggestion from last month: Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

Seriously now, this book changed my life.

Title: The Life of Pi
Author: Yann Martel
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 315
Synopsis/Review:

After a tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors of the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra, a female orang-utan... and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.

Winner of the Man Booker Prize
"It's sheer audaciousness, complex originality, breathtaking daring, virtuous command of language and imagery make it a tour de force... It will stand the test of time".

[tunacake]

I dunno if I can wait till July but here's Snuff.


Title: Snuff
Author: Chuck Palahniuk
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 208

Synopsis: (From Amazon)
Palahniuk's audacious ninth novel tells the story of Cassie Wright, an aging porn queen who intends to put an exclamation point on her career by having sex with 600 men in one day on film. The story begins with Mr. 600—the pornosaur who introduced Cassie to the business—as he describes the other 599 actors awaiting their moment on screen. The perspective then shifts to Mr. 72, an adopted Midwestern 20-something who is one of the many young men claiming to be Cassie's long-lost son. Mr. 137, a has-been television star hoping to revive his career, wants to ask Cassie's hand in marriage so that the two can star in a reality TV show. But for a novel centered around a gargantuan gangbang, there's surprisingly little action; the small amount of narrative movement takes place backstage, where the characters attempt to get a sense of one another while waiting for their number to be called. There are sharp moments when Palahniuk compassionately and candidly examines the flesh-on-film industry, but mostly this reads like a cross between the Spice Channel and Days of Our Lives.

[INTUNEevolution]

SNUFF

[Anouk]

I really, really want to get the newest Harry Potter in, but since it's like 600 pages I can't. I'm trying to remember the name of this other book. It's about two little boys that live in Europe. One day there parents tell them they can't see eachother any longer. They don't tell them why and life just carries on the usual way. At the end the boys find out there was this massive war going on all that time.
Does anyone know the name of this book?

[tunacake]

I really, really want to get the newest Harry Potter in, but since it's like 600 pages I can't. I'm trying to remember the name of this other book. It's about two little boys that live in Europe. One day there parents tell them they can't see eachother any longer. They don't tell them why and life just carries on the usual way. At the end the boys find out there was this massive war going on all that time.
Does anyone know the name of this book?

We can't just read the last book in a series when people haven't read the other 6.

And the one you're thinking of might be the Kite Runner. I haven't read that one, but I think it's something like that, but takes place in the Middle East. I dunno, Wiki it.

[History]

I need to put a little disclaimer up before I suggest this book. First of all, I did not realize it was another non-fiction memoir-type book until I was searching for book reviews. Second, I had no idea it was adapted into a made for tv movie. I still think it would be an interesting read.

Title: Tuesdays With Morrie
Author: Mitch Albom
Genre: Memoir/Philosophy
Pages: 224


Award-winning sportswriter Albom was a student at Brandeis University, some two decades ago, of sociologist Morrie Schwartz. Here Albom recounts how, recently, as the old man was dying, he renewed his warm relationship with his revered mentor. This is the vivid record of the teacher's battle with muscle- wasting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. The dying man, largely because of his life-affirming attitude toward his death-dealing illness, became a sort of thanatopic guru, and was the subject of three Ted Koppel interviews on Nightline. That was how the author first learned of Morrie's condition. Albom well fulfilled the age-old obligation to visit the sick. He calls his weekly visits to his teacher his last class, and the present book a term paper. The subject: The Meaning of Life. Unfortunately, but surely not surprisingly, those relying on this text will not actually learn The Meaning of Life here. Albom does not present a full transcript of the regular Tuesday talks. Rather, he expands a little on the professor's aphorisms, which are, to be sure, unassailable. ``Love is the only rational act,'' Morrie said. ``Love each other or perish,'' he warned, quoting Auden. Albom learned well the teaching that ``death ends a life, not a relationship.'' The love between the old man and the younger one is manifest. This book, small and easily digested, stopping just short of the maudlin and the mawkish, is on the whole sincere, sentimental, and skillful. (The substantial costs of Morrie's last illness, Albom tells us, were partly defrayed by the publisher's advance). Place it under the heading ``Inspirational.'' ``Death,'' said Morrie, ``is as natural as life. It's part of the deal we made.'' If that is so (and it's not a notion quickly gainsaid), this book could well have been called ``The Art of the Deal.'' -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


It got excellent reviews and was pretty popular when it came out, so I figure it's worth a suggestion. It also seems like we could get some heavy discussion out of it. I enjoyed The Five People you Meet in Heaven, so I'm hoping this one is as fast-paced and powerful.

[SomethingWitty]

Title: Earth and Ashes
Author: Atiq Rahimi
Genre: Short story/ fable
Pages: 52

Summary: Set during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, it is a fable about war, family, home and tradition. An old man and his grandson sit in a deserted landscape of dusty roads and looming mountains,waiting. In one short day they have witnessed all the horrors of war: a Russian bomb, a village in flames, the death of everybody they love. Now the old man must carry the news to the coal mine where the boy's father works.Yet his arrival there will spell further tragedy when he is led to believe that his son has betrayed codes of honour that lie deep in the Afghan soul.

It mightn't sound very good, but I promise it's fantastic.

[abbey]

SomethingWitty, we're looking for something that'll take longer to read than a couple hours.

[SomethingWitty]

That would really only take about half an hour, but when you're right, you're right.

Title: The Man in the High Castle.
Author: Philip K Dick
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages:249

Summary: "Philip K Dick's acclaimed cult novel gives us a horrifying glimpse of an alternative world- one where the Allies have lost the Second World War. In this nightmare dystopia the Naizis have taken over New York, the Japanese control California and the African continent is virtually wiped out. In a neutral buffer zone that divides the rival superpowersin America livesthe author of an underground bestseller. His book offers a new vision of reality, giving hope to the disenchanted. Can other, better worlds really exist?"

According to Eric Brown it is "one of the very best science fiction novels ever published."

[SomethingWitty]

Title: Trainspotting
Author: Irvine Welsh
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 344

Summary: Set in Edinburgh,the novel follows the lives of a few characters through their various personal problems inculding drug addiction, prison sentences and bereavement. I'm presuming that most people have seen the movie so they're aware of the general storyline. I would strongly recommend reading the book though as it is darker and deeper in places, the humour blacker, and the surroundings and lifesyles seem more realistically bleak.

[History]

The Man in the High Castle sounds really interesting. I hope it makes the poll. (hint hint)

[docmartens]

Do you guys think we could do poetry once? I don't want to sound really gay or anything, but I think poetry would be more fit for discussion in the book club, since everyone could have their own interpretation of a given passage.

I don't know. Just a possibility.

[abbey]

You think poetry would be more fit for discussion in the book club? It's not going to happen.

You're more than welcome to start your own thread for poetry discussion, though.

[docmartens]

I suppose you're right. There doesn't need to be a whole month devoted to poetry.

I'll start a thread when I find something worth talking about, because contemporary poetry is pretty lame.

[allizdog]

Title: All Quiet On The Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues)
Author: Erich Maria Remarque
Genre: War Novel
Pages: 304

Synopsis:
Story of a zealous and proud German soldier who enlists to join the infantry and fight for his country in WWI to earn his manhood, as he was told by his superiors. However, during the course of endless battles, the soldier discovers the horrors and traumatizing effects of war, and eventually ends up fighting for his life instead of the glory of his country.

Although this is a fiction book, most of the imagery is very much based from the author's personal encounters when he was a soldier in WWI, which is what makes the story rich in grim details.

(customer) Review: from www.amazon.com

Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970) served in World War I, where he received wounds five times in battle. The searing images of trench warfare left indelible scars on Remarque, who then attempted to exorcize his demons through the writing of literature. "All Quiet on the Western Front" is Remarque's most memorable book, although he wrote nine others dealing with the miseries of war.
"All Quiet on the Western Front" is the story of Paul Baumer, a young German soldier serving in the trenches in France. Baumer's story is not a pleasant one; he volunteered for the war when his instructor in school, Kantorek, urged the class to join up for the glory of Germany. After a rigorous period of military training (where Paul and his buddies meet the hated drill instructor Himmelstoss, a recurring character throughout the book), Baumer and his friends go to the front as infantrymen. Filled with glorious ideas about war by authority figures back home, Baumer quickly discovers that the blood-drenched trenches of the Western Front are a quagmire of misery and violent death. As soon as the first shells explode in the mud Paul and his friends realize everyone back home is a liar, that war is not the glorious transformation of boys into men but rather the systematic destruction of all that is decent and healthy. As Paul's friends slip away one by one through death, desertion, and injury, Paul begins to wonder about his own life and whether he will survive not only the war but also a world without war.

Remarque's book exposes all of the insanities of war. The incongruities of violent battle versus long periods of boredom repeatedly appear throughout the book. On one day, Paul and his friends sit around discussing mundane topics; the next day they are bashing French skulls during an offensive. It is these extremes that caused so many problems with the psychological disposition of the men. In one chapter of the book, Paul and several new recruits, hunkered down in a dugout, withstand hour upon hour of continuous shellfire until one of the green recruits snaps and tries to make a run for freedom. Where else but in a war could one walk through a sea of corpses while enjoying the sunshine and the gentle cadences of the birds in the trees? That such an unnatural activity as mass murder takes place surrounded by the natural beauty of the world is a theme found in many World War I authors and poets. Remarque's book is noteworthy because he does a better job of showing this strange duality than other writers.

Also of interest is that this book views the war from the German side. From what I read recently, the Germans had a tough time throughout the war with rations, troop rotations away from the front, and supplies. This is apparent in Remarque's treatment of the German war effort, especially toward the end of the book when Germany begins to retreat in the face of overwhelming American military power. Paul's remarks about the evil presence of tanks are an interesting insight into the effect those iron behemoths had on the ill-equipped and exhausted Germans.

The cover of this edition trumpets this as "the greatest war novel of all time." And so it is, but not in the way some people might think. This is the greatest war novel ever because Remarque's book is anti-war. Those that read "All Quiet on the Western Front" will see warfare stripped of its flag waving, parades, and John Wayne glory. War is death, with the glory going to the few who survive. Remarque makes a brilliant contribution to world literature with this riveting novel.

[Laurence]

Title: The Black Cloud
Author: Fred Hoyle
Genre: Science Fiction
Published: 1957
Pages: 218 (in my ancient paperback copy, anyway)

Synopsis: An astronomer makes a frightening discovery when he finds a dark spot in the night sky. It turns out to be an enormous, black cloud travelleing into the solar system. Scientists from everywhere are taken to Nortonstowe, England to try and figure out what the cloud is, and where it is headed. An exploration of the how we might deal with such an incident, and the role of politics in it.

Side note - the author Fred Hoyle is/was the Director of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge, and is responsible for the term 'Big Bang' - even though he doesn't believe it himself.

One of those classic science fiction novels in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey, it's not about aliens but the actual societal and global ramifications of an event such as this is possible - the basis of the book is grounded in real science. The physics used are even included in the book.

[UncleDuck2]

Title: The Hobbit
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 252 (in my copy)

Synopsis: Bilbo Baggins lived in his little house when suddenly Gandalf the Wizard and 13 Dwarves stand on his porch. This is the beginning of an adventure with Trolls, Goblins, Orcs, Gollum and a Dragon.

[docmartens]

I would have no problem re-reading the Hobbit. It'll take me back to my younger days :P

[4cE]

Title: Lord of the Flies
Author: William Golding
Genre: Allegorical novel
Pages: 248 (first edition paperback)

Synopsis:
After a plane crash, a group of boys finds themselves alone on a deserted island. Things go wrong when there is a power struggle, and the boys split into two separate camps. Will they ever be rescued? Contains violence, fighting, adventures, and cannibalism.

Review:
http://www.powells.com/review/2007_05_12.html
"This year I've pledged to catch up, starting with William Golding's classic Lord of the Flies. Of all the required reading books I wasn't assigned, this is the one that interested me the most."

[Matt]

Cannabalism? I've only ever seen the movie. They actually eat a kid in the book?

[4cE]

From what I remember. I read it in seventh grade.

[tunacake]

I read it last summer, I don't recall any cannibalism. I think that's a pretty common misconception.

[MisterCyotie]

Name: Crank
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 530(Ish)

Sypnosis: This book is about a teenager, Kristina, who's visit out to her father's home sends her on a spiral of terriible things, including drugs.


This book is unique in the sence that, even though it's 500+ pages, It's about a 5 hour read, if you actually sit down with it.

The book is written in poetry. Not like rhyming scheme's, or anything like that, but different types. Reading the book once just wont do it for you, seeing as covering certin parts of the page with your hand, you can uncover secret messages.

It truly is a great book.

[abbey]

Name: Crank
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 530(Ish)
Also, don't bother suggesting books that are longer than 350 pages. We want to make it easy for people to read these books in one month, so we have to have a limit on length.
No.

[izzydotnet]

I don't know if you have to sign up to some fancy list to participate in the book club, but I doubt it, so here's this;

Title: A Clockwork Orange.
Author: Anthony Burgess.
Genre: science fiction, dystopia.
Pages: 192

Synopsis: Alex, the main character, lives a life of crimes, drugs, and violence. When his friends leave him to be arrested by the police, Alex is sentenced to 14 years in prison, where the "treatment" he faces forces him, and the reader, to wonder about the true meaning of good and evil.

Review: "I do not know of any other writer who has done as much with language as Mr. Burgess has done here-the fact that this is also a very funny book may pass unnoticed." -William S. Burroughs.
"Although it is a fantasy set in an Orwellian future, this is anything but a bedtime story." -The New York Times.

[abbey]

Are you serious? We already read A Clockwork Orange this month. The thread about it is right below this one.

http://forums.explosm.net/showthread.php?t=30844

[schlachthof.funf]

There's definitely no cannibalism in "Lord of the Flies," but the stuff that happens is more screwed up than that.

[spaj]

Name: Therese Raquin
Author: Emile Zola
Genre: Fiction, Drama, Romance
Pages: 205

Synopsis (from Amazon): Set in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a dingy haberdasher's shop in the passage du Pont-Neuf in Paris, this powerful novel tells how the heroine and her lover, Laurent, kill her husband, Camille, but are subsequently haunted by visions of the dead man and prevented from enjoying the fruits of their crime. Published in 1867, this is Zola's most important work before the Rougon-Macquart series and introduces many of the themes that can be traced through the later novel cycle.

I read it for my IB Higher Level A1 English class but it's a beautifully written book with a particularly tragic plot. Despite a female protagonist and several underlying romance themes, it will appeal not only to women, but to men as well.

[tunacake]

I don't know if you have to sign up to some fancy list to participate in the book club, but I doubt it, so here's this;

Title: A Clockwork Orange.
Author: Anthony Burgess.
Genre: science fiction, dystopia.
Pages: 192

Synopsis: Alex, the main character, lives a life of crimes, drugs, and violence. When his friends leave him to be arrested by the police, Alex is sentenced to 14 years in prison, where the "treatment" he faces forces him, and the reader, to wonder about the true meaning of good and evil.

Review: "I do not know of any other writer who has done as much with language as Mr. Burgess has done here-the fact that this is also a very funny book may pass unnoticed." -William S. Burroughs.
"Although it is a fantasy set in an Orwellian future, this is anything but a bedtime story." -The New York Times.

Hahahahaha.

Spaj, that sounds interesting. If it doesn't get picked it's going on my list.

[Balkothdr]

Name: Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey
Author: Chuck Palahniuk
Genre: Fictional Biography
Pages: 336

Synopsis (Publishers Weekly): Buster Casey, destined to live fast, die young and murder as many people as he can, is the rotten seed at the core of Palahniuk's comically nasty eighth novel (after Haunted; Lullaby; Diary; etc.). Set in a future where urbanites are segregated by strict curfews into Daytimers and Nighttimers, the narrative unfolds as an oral history comprising contradictory accounts from people who knew Buster. These include childhood friends horrified by the boy's macabre behavior (getting snakes, scorpions and spiders to bite him and induce instant erections; repeatedly infecting himself with rabies), policemen and doctors who had dealings with the rabies "superspreader"; and Party Crashers, thrill-seeking Nighttimers who turn city streets into demolition derby arenas. After liberally infecting his hometown peers with rabies, Buster hits the big city and takes up with the Party Crashers. A series of deaths lead to a police investigation of Buster (long-since known as "Rant"—the sound children make while vomiting) that peaks just as Buster apparently commits suicide in a blaze of car-crash glory. This dark religious parable (there's even a resurrection) from the master of grotesque excess may not attract new readers, but it will delight old ones.

[Matt]

That's one of the Chuck books I've yet to read. Any of his fans have an opinion on it?

[Scrotemeal]

That's one of the Chuck books I've yet to read. Any of his fans have an opinion on it?

Rant is pretty cool, but because its written 'by his friends' after his death, I know lots of people who hate the style of it.

It's good, but its also a little more unrealistic in places, as you'll find if you read.

[Balkothdr]

Yeah, I read it when it came out, and I really liked it. My biggest problem was that it took me a little bit of time to understand it, because like Scrote said, its unrealistic, as well as weird.

[Cetir]

Title: God is Dead
Author: Ron Currie Jr.
Genre: Dystopia (ish)
Pages: 197

Synopsis:
God takes the form of a Sudanese woman and dies. Hilarity doesn't quite ensue as the lives of many different characters across the globe are portrayed.

Review:
From Publishers Weekly
A bleak dystopian future is tempered with moments of possibility in story writer Currie's debut novel, in which a sick and wounded Dinka woman arrives at a refugee camp in Darfur, searching for her lost brother. The woman is God, come to Earth in human form to make apologies to the Sudanese, over whose fate He is, "due to an implacable polytheistic bureaucracy, completely powerless." When God is gunned down, news of His death spreads quickly around the globe and provides the jumping-off point for the subsequent short story–like chapters that reveal what happens in a post-God world: suicide rates skyrocket (especially among clergy members), riots and mass looting erupt and the pack of feral dogs that feasted on God's corpse begin "speaking a mishmash of Greek and Hebrew" and inspiring worship among Africans. (Meanwhile, in America, the masses, seeking a deity to fill the void, begin worshipping children.) Looking at humanity through a warped lens allows the various narrators unusual insight; while sometimes overwrought, these observations are often striking, as when an enlightened dog describes the strange new experience of emotion. This novel-in-stories is unsettling and strange, but still easily accessible; despite the ways in which his world has changed, Currie's altered humanity has one foot in ours.

Personal Note:
Even though the title leads one to believe it's a story spun around religious beliefs, it's actually the opposite. It focuses more on the psychological and moral aspect of things, and leads to quite an interesting read. I think it would work out great as a book of the month and, not to hate on a great writer, it isn't a Chuck Palahniuk. :biggrin:

[tunacake]

No poll yet?

[abbey]

Poll coming!

[Chaplin]

Girl in Landscape
Author: Jonathan Lethem
Genre: Novel
Pages: 280

Really great book about a disaster on Earth and how it affects this girl Pella. Has some sci-fi in it, but not really a Science fiction book. Great read.

[Ummm_yeaa]

Screw harry potter, anything by R.A. Salvatore is pretty damn good