February Nominations

[Kell]

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

Let the nominations begin!

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

- 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 readily 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).

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NOMINATIONS:
1. The Vine of Desire - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
2. Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) - Choderlos de Laclos
3. Watership Down - Richard Adams
4. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
5. Monsieur Pamplemousse - Michael Bond
6. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
7. Wicked - Jilly Cooper
8. The House on the Strand - Daphne du Maurier

[Kell]

Gotta kick-start by nominating the following two:

The Vine of Desire by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni:
THE VINE OF DESIRE is the story of Anju and Sudha, two young women far from Calcutta, the city of their childhood, and who after a year of living separate lives are rekindling their friendship in America. The deep-seated love they feel for each other provides the support each of them needs. It gives Anju the strength to pick up the pieces of her life after a miscarriage, and Sudha the confidence to make a life for herself and her baby daughter, Dayita - without her husband. The unlikely relationships they form with men and women in the world outside the immigrant Indian community as well as their families in India profoundly transform them, forcing them to question the central assumptions of their lives, especially when they must confront the deeply passionate feelings that Anju's husband has for Sudha. THE VINE OF DESIRE is a novel of extraordinary depth and sensitivity. Through the eyes of people caught in the clash of cultures, Divakaruni reveals the rewards and the perils of breaking free from the past and the complicated, often contradictory emotions that shape the passage to independence.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) by Choderlos De Laclos:
The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. The subject of major film and stage adaptations, the novel's prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game - a game which they must win.

[Kylie]

I'd like to nominate:

Watership Down by Richard Adams (originally nominated by Karen last year)
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 perilous journey.

[Gyre]

I am not sure if this has been nominated before, but I will go for it. :D

'Neverwhere' by Neil Gaiman

Under the streets of London there is a world of which most people could never dream. When Richard Mayhew accidentally stumbles on this hidden city of monsters, saints, murderers and angels, he is catapulted from a safe and predictable world into one that is eerily familiar yet utterly bizarre.

:D

[Pilgrim]

Monsieur Pamplemousse by Michael Bond (this author is just fun, in my opinion)

Bond's charming food inspector and part time detective has a tricky task in sampling the appalling cuisine of the Hotel du Paradis. Tricky due to the fact that it's run by his Director's formidable aunt, and intriguing given the tales of the effect of the hotel's food on it's guests.

[kitty_kitty]

I second both

Watership Down

and

Neverwhere

I have them both and want to read them both

[Janet]

Monsieur Pamplemousse by Michael Bond (this author is just fun, in my opinion)
Any chance of an ISBN for this one? There are loads listed on Amazon but as far as I can see (unless I can't see for looking - which is possible!) the one just entitled Monsieur Pamplemousse is out of print.

I loved his Paddington books as a child!!

[lovesreading06]

I would like to Second The Vine of Desire by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni:
and I would like to third Watership Down


I would like to nomiante

To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee Harper

A Pulitzer Prize winning novel set in the Deep South in the 1930s, in which a lawyer finds himself defending an innocent black man accused of raping a white girl. "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird". This is a lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of this story - a black man charged with raping a white girl in the Deep South of the 1930s.

and

Wicked by Jilly Copper

Two schools, both in leafy Larkminster, but worlds apart, are turned upside down when the ambitious and fatally attractive headmaster of fashionable Bagley Hall, Hengist Brett-Taylor, hatches a plan to share the highly superior facilities of his school with the students at Larkminster Comprehensive. His reasons for doing so are purely financial but he is also encouraged by the opportunities the scheme gives him for frequent meetings with Janna Curtis, the young, pretty and enthusiastic new principal of the comprehensive school. The determined Janna has been drafted in to save what is a fast-sinking school from closure, and she will do anything to rescue her run-down, demoralized and cash-strapped school.

The parents of Bagley Hall's rich and pampered children are none too keen on this radical move, but the students see it as a great opportunity to get up to even more mayhem than usual. And for the pupils at the comprehensive school, many of them struggling with appalling home backgrounds, violence and lack of any parental support (problems which are not unknown to some of the Bagley Hall pupils) mixing with the posh school up the road is often a mixed blessing.

[angerball]

I'll second Watership Down and To Kill A Mockingbird. :)

[Karen]

I second Watership Down as I'll be reading that this year anyway!

[Lilywhite]

oooh, plenty to choose from this month.

I saw the BBC adaptation of Neverwhere a couple of times and I love it. Never got around to reading the book though so I would like to second or third or whatever number we are up to :D

[Pilgrim]

Any chance of an ISBN for this one? There are loads listed on Amazon but as far as I can see (unless I can't see for looking - which is possible!) the one just entitled Monsieur Pamplemousse is out of print.

I loved his Paddington books as a child!!

First of all. Holy Hannah, you're a Philip Glenister fan! I'm just now getting to watch season 2. I love that show and especially him. I belonged to his site for the first season and I'm out of sync now because of the lag.

Second. I think I bought Pamplemousse as an omnibus and then individual books from private dealers (Amazon, the new and used) and I forgot about that when I posted the recommendation. If you can get any one of his books, do, but forget Paddington Bear for these adventures. Bond's a tad risque in this genre. But the dog is personified in that you can hear his thoughts. The discussion of food and the countryside is wonderful and Bond's simply a funny author IMO. It's bad to pump up an author too much because of the let-down but he just got to me.

And there's a good little mystery.

[princessponti]

Neverwhere is fantabulous so I will back this one up as I would love to read it again x

[megan]

Neverwhere sounds really interesting

[Echo]

I'd like to second (or third or fourth) Neverwhere. It sounds like just my kind of book!:mrgreen:

[JudyB]

Daphne du Maurier has been mentioned a few times on the forum. Does anyone fancy reading The House on the Strand?

Synopsis (taken from Amazon)
Dick Young is lent a house in Cornwall by his friend Professor Magnus Lane. During his stay he agrees to serve as a guinea pig for a new drug that Magnus has discovered in his biochemical researches. The effect of this drug is to transport Dick from the house at Kilmarth to the Cornwall of the 14th century. There, in the manor of Tywardreath, the domain of Sir Henry Champernoune, he witnesses intrigue, adultery and murder. As his time travelling increases, Dick resents more and more the days he must spend in the modern world, longing ever more fervently to get back into his world of centuries before ...

[lovesreading06]

I second The House on the Strand

[FishAndChips]

I second the house on the strand

[Angel]

I'd like to go for Wicked as Ihave that out from the library at the moment and is next on mount TBR

[jenmck]

I'd like to read "Neverwhere". I'd have to find it.

[Kell]

Nominations thread now closed.

Poll will be openin a few minutes!