September Nominations

[Kell]

It's that time again - time to start nominating books for the September Reading Circle!

- Please only make nominations and seconds here, rather than discussing the books nominated or going off-topic.

- Also, bear in mind that having hundreds of nominations makes it more difficult, so please limit yourself to a maximum of two nominations per person, although you can second as many as you like.

- Please also remember to post a synopsis of the books you nominate as it helps people to know what they're seconding!

- Please make sure the books you nominate are available in paperback (as we don't want to make it prohibitively expensive for members to take part in the reading circle).

- If the book you're nominating is part of a series, please make sure it is either the first one or a stand-alone (or the sequel to one already read by the reading circle).

The nominations thread will remain open till the evening of Saturday 18 August, after which a selection will be chosen for the poll.

Let the nominations begin!

[Kell]

I'd like to kick things off by offering up two books for nomination that couldn't be more different from one another:

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham:
One of the most celebrated works of classic literature for children, THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS follows Mole, Rat, Toad and Badger from one adventure to the next - in gipsy caravans, stolen sports cars, to prison and back to the Wild Wood. A story of animal cunning and human camaraderie, this remains a timeless tale nearly 100 years after its publication.

Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg:
The Roman Empire never fell. Driven by political ambition and internal dissent, thrown into turmoil by rebellion and civil war, it changed and adapted, but it never fell. The balance of power between Byzantium in the east and Rome in the west ebbed and flowed, but the Empire never fell. And it continued to expand, taking in the New World, while still dominating the old. This ambitious and accomplished novel explores fifteen hundred years of alternate Roman history through the very human stories of some of those who lived through it: the soldier encountering the exoticism of the New World for the first time; the minor official exiled to Arabia for some misdemeanour whose meeting with a religious fanatic may have changed the course of history; the military hero seizing his destiny; the innocent British aristocrat witnessing the destruction of the royal family; the children who find the last emperor in a decaying wood are all vividly and memorably portrayed. ROMA ETERNA takes it's place among the great alternate histories.

[Karen]

I've never done this before, so I hope this is okay. My nomination is a book that I've had in my to read pile for a while -

Watership Down by Richard Adams
Fiver could sense danger - something terrible was going to happen to the warren. His brother Hazel could sense it too. They had to leave the warren, and they had to persuade the other rabbits to join them. And so a band of rabbits begin a long and perrilous journey.

I'd also second The Wind the Willows - I love that book.

[Polka Dot Rock]

As discussed elsewhere recently on the forum, Maureen suggested that the following be nominated* (http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=128&page=3) and I heartily agree:

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Six interlocking lives - one amazing adventure. In a narrative that circles the globe and reaches from the 19th century to a post-apocalyptic future, David Mitchell erases the boundaries of time, genre and language to offer an enthralling vision of humanity's will to power, and where it will lead us. A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan's California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified 'dinery server' on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation - the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other's echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small. In his extraordinary third novel, David Mitchell erases the boundaries of language, genre and time to offer a meditation on humanity's dangerous will to power, and where it may lead us.

*Maureen - I hope you don't mind me posting the nomination :)

[Esiotrot]

I would like to second Cloud Atlas as I have been waiting to read it for ages and got it from the library this week

[Maureen]

As discussed elsewhere recently on the forum, Maureen suggested that the following be nominated* (http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=128&page=3) and I heartily agree:

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell


*Maureen - I hope you don't mind me posting the nomination :)

Not at all PDR! thanks. And I'll third Cloud Atlas:)

[pontalba]

Not at all PDR! thanks. And I'll third Cloud Atlas:)
And I'll be happy to "Fourth" it. :mrgreen:

[Kylie]

I'd like to read The Wind in the Willows one day, and I have Watership Down on my TBR pile, but I think I'll have to 'fifth' Cloud Atlas. My curiosity has been piqued by all the rave reviews!

Incidentally, when I bought Watership Down several weeks ago, I read that blurb (or one very similar) to my parents. I think they thought I was a little weird to be buying a book about journeying rabbits :lol: It sounds like a really interesting read.

[angerball]

I'll have to second both Watership Down and Cloud Atlas. I loved Watership Down - who would have though a story told through the eyes of a rabbit, about rabbits, could be so engaging. :D As for Cloud Atlas, I've heard so many positive things about it, that I just have to second it! :mrgreen:

[Polka Dot Rock]

(Hey, I might actually be on the 'winning' side this month! :lol:)

[NiceguyEddie]

I'll fifth Cloud Atlas. I'd like to read it again.

[Gyre]

Cloud Atlas for me too.

I really need to read that x

[princessponti]

I'll go with Cloud Atlas! I kept it out of storage to force me to read it (had it for over a year untouched!) - and it still hasn't been read! Yay for a group effort!!

[Freewheeling Andy]

I can't believe how many of you haven't succumbed to my continued nagging to read this book.

[Michelle]

I can't believe how many of you haven't succumbed to my continued nagging to read this book.

Well it looks like they have now! ;)

[wrathofkublakhan]

Well then, it looks like Cloud Atlas is a clear winner. Just to keep the voting interesting (I'm all about process), I think I'll make a nomination and plant a seed for the next month.

My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

Blurb on the back cover:
Asher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day, and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. Asher Lev is an artist who is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels, even when it leads him to blasphemy. In this stirring and often visionary novel, Chaim Potok traces Asher's passage between these two identities, the one consecrated to God, the other subject only to the imagination.

Online info:
Synopsis (http://potok.lasierra.edu/Asher.syn.html)
bookreporter.com review (http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/1400031044.asp)
Teen Ink Review (http://www.teenink.com/Past/1995/5713.html)

[Maureen]

I can't believe how many of you haven't succumbed to my continued nagging to read this book.

Well Andy, it looks as if you need to polish your nagging technique...:tong:

[Kell]

Three more days to go - any more nominations from anyone?

[Novel]

I've had this book sitting on my bookshelf for months, and just discovered that it recently won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction this year!

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

"Set in the smoking ashes of a post-apocalyptic America, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road tells the story of a father-son journey toward the sea and an uncertain salvation. The world they pass through is a ghastly vision of scorched countryside and blasted cities “held by cores of blackened looters who tunneled among the ruins and crawled from the rubble white of tooth and eye carrying charred and anonymous tins of food in nylon nets like shoppers in the commissaries of hell” [p. 181]. It is a starved world, all plant and animal life dead or dying, some of the few human survivors even eating each other alive.

The father and son move through the ruins searching for food and shelter, trying to keep safe from murderous, roving bands. They have only a pistol to defend themselves, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

Awesome in the totality of its vision, The Road is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation."

[wrathofkublakhan]

Well then, I'll second The Road.

Page 181 seems kinda wordy ... but wotthehell, let's give it a go!

[NiceguyEddie]

I think FatherAuthor it's too late. Cloud Atlas romped home. However, I've recently read and enjoyed All The Pretty Horses and would second The Road for October.

[Kell]

Not at all, Noce Guy Eddie - this is just the nominations thread - it could all change once we do the vote (it has done so on occasion in the past - there have been some surprising winners!). The high number of "seconds" just ensures it gets put in the mix for the final three poll.

[NiceguyEddie]

Not at all, Noce Guy Eddie - this is just the nominations thread - it could all change once we do the vote (it has done so on occasion in the past - there have been some surprising winners!). The high number of "seconds" just ensures it gets put in the mix for the final three poll.

Oh. When is the vote? I hadn't realised there was a vote.

[FishAndChips]

The nominations thread will remain open till the evening of Saturday 18 August, after which a selection will be chosen for the poll.


It's in the opening post. Once this thread is closed a new voting will open for about a week. Then the winner is chosen with about a week to go before the discussion begins (to give everyone a chance to get it)

[Kell]

Thanks FishandChips. :)

Cloud Atlas will certainly be in the poll though, as the most seconded book of the noms.

Tomorrow evening...

[Novel]

Oooh Cloud Atlas sounds fascinating. David Mitchell is a brilliant writer.


We should save The Road for October though.

!!

[Kell]

This thread is now closed - please cast your vote for the September Reading Circle choice HERE (http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3762).