March Nominations

[Kell]

The nominations thread will remain open till the evening of Friday 15 February, after which a selection will be chosen for the poll.

Let the nominations begin!

A Note on Nominating and Seconding
If a book has already been mentioned here, then it has already been nominated and you need only second it (books with the most seconds get put through to the poll). To second a book, all you have to do is say, "I second {Name of book}"

Nominating is slightly different. If the book you would like to see chosen has not already been mentioned, you can nominate it. Please give the title of the book, the name of the author and a brief synopsis (usually fromthe back of the book) in this case. It can then be seconded by other members.

Please note this is not a voting thread - a poll will be set up after this one closes.

Thank you.


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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. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
2. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
3. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
4. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
5. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
6. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides

[Kell]

I'd like to nominate the two following books:

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison:
Ellison's blistering and impassioned first novel, winner of the prestigious American National Book Award, tells the extraordinary story of a man who is invisible 'simply because people refuse to see me'. Yet his powerfully depicted adventures - from a terrifying Harlem race riot to his expulsion from a Southern college - go far beyond the story of one man. The lives of countless millions are evoked in this superb portrait of a generation of black Americans.

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller:
Miller's groundbreaking first novel. A penniless and as yet unpublished writer, Henry Miller arrived in Paris in 1930. Leaving behind a disintegrating marriage and an unhappy career in America, he threw himself into the low-life of bohemian Paris with unwavering gusto. A fictional account of Miller's adventures amongst the prostitutes and pimps, the penniless painters and writers of Montparnasse, Tropic of Cancer is an extravagant and rhapsodic hymn to a world of unrivalled eroticism and freedom. Tropic of Cancer's 1934 publication in France was hailed by Samuel Beckett as 'a momentous event in the history of modern writing'. The novel was subsequently banned in the UK and the USA and not released for publication for a further thirty years.

[lovesreading06]

I would like to Nominate these two books.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

With her award-winning debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was heralded by the Washington Post Book World as the “21st century daughter” of Chinua Achebe. Now, in her masterly, haunting new novel, she recreates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra's impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria during the 1960s.

With the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Adichie weaves together the lives of five characters caught up in the extraordinary tumult of the decade. Fifteen-year-old Ugwu is houseboy to Odenigbo, a university professor who sends him to school, and in whose living room Ugwu hears voices full of revolutionary zeal. Odenigbo's beautiful mistress, Olanna, a sociology teacher, is running away from her parents' world of wealth and excess; Kainene, her urbane twin, is taking over their father's business; and Kainene's English lover, Richard, forms a bridge between their two worlds. As we follow these intertwined lives through a military coup, the Biafran secession and the subsequent war, Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise, and intimately, the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place.

Epic, ambitious and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a more powerful, dramatic and intensely emotional picture of modern Africa than any we have had before.

[scottishbookworm]

I nominate:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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 blue-jays 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

[Kell]

It's already been nominated, SBW, so we'll count your nomination as a second instead. you can still nominate another two books if you wish.

[Inver]

Would have to go with To Kill A Mockingbird....although I have read it, I think it is one everyone should read at least once.

[scottishbookworm]

It's already been nominated, SBW, so we'll count your nomination as a second instead. you can still nominate another two books if you wish.thanks! I'll nominate this one


Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

With her award-winning debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was heralded by the Washington Post Book World as the “21st century daughter” of Chinua Achebe. Now, in her masterly, haunting new novel, she recreates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra's impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria during the 1960s.

With the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Adichie weaves together the lives of five characters caught up in the extraordinary tumult of the decade. Fifteen-year-old Ugwu is houseboy to Odenigbo, a university professor who sends him to school, and in whose living room Ugwu hears voices full of revolutionary zeal. Odenigbo's beautiful mistress, Olanna, a sociology teacher, is running away from her parents' world of wealth and excess; Kainene, her urbane twin, is taking over their father's business; and Kainene's English lover, Richard, forms a bridge between their two worlds. As we follow these intertwined lives through a military coup, the Biafran secession and the subsequent war, Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise, and intimately, the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place.

Epic, ambitious and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a more powerful, dramatic and intensely emotional picture of modern Africa than any we have had before.





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Kell the reason why I voted to kill a mockingbird originally was that harper lee was a childhood friend of truman capote and I'm a fan of truman capote's work.
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[angerball]

I'll have to second To Kill A Mockingbird. :D

[poppy]

I'll third it ;) Interesting fact about Harper Lee and Truman Capote being friends scottishbookworm.

[Gyre]

I would like to noninate 'Sputnik Sweetheart' by Haruki Murakami

Lost in space or a loser in love? Twenty-two year-old Sumire is in love for the first time - with a woman seventeen years her senior. But whereas Miu is a glamorous and successful older woman with a taste for classical music and fine wine, Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots like a character in a Jack Kerouac novel. Surprised that she might, after all, be a lesbian, Sumire spends hours on the phone talking to her best friend K. about the big questions in life: what is sexual desire and should she ever tell Miu how she feels about her?K., a primary school teacher, is used to answering questions, but what he most wants to say to Sumire is, "I love you." He consoles himself by having an affair with the mother of one of his pupils. But when a desperate Miu calls him out of the blue from a sunny Greek island and asks for his help, he soon discovers that all is not as it seems and something very strange has happened to Sumire.

[Kell]

SBW - we're not at voting point yet, so if a book is already nominated, you only need to second it. The books that get the most "seconds" get put through to the vote. You can still nominate two books that haven't already been nominated if you so wish, or you can second as many of those already nominated as you want.

[lovesreading06]

I would like to second 'Sputnik Sweetheart'

[madcow]

I'll third Sputnik Sweetheart - sounds like an interesting read.

[scottishbookworm]

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison:
Ellison's blistering and impassioned first novel, winner of the prestigious American National Book Award, tells the extraordinary story of a man who is invisible 'simply because people refuse to see me'. Yet his powerfully depicted adventures - from a terrifying Harlem race riot to his expulsion from a Southern college - go far beyond the story of one man. The lives of countless millions are evoked in this superb portrait of a generation of black Americans.

[Kylie]

I'll second Invisible Man and Tropic of Cancer.

[FishAndChips]

I'd like to nominate

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides
The five beautiful Lisbon sisters were entrancing, mystical creatures, worshipped from afar by boys who now tell their story. The only surprising thing about them was how normal they seemed on the one and only date they were ever allowed on. Until they started killing themselves.

see amazon reviews here (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0747560595/qid=1134398056/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_11_1/203-3948929-3101506)

[scottishbookworm]

I third

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides
The five beautiful Lisbon sisters were entrancing, mystical creatures, worshipped from afar by boys who now tell their story. The only surprising thing about them was how normal they seemed on the one and only date they were ever allowed on. Until they started killing themselves.

[kitty_kitty]

I third

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides
The five beautiful Lisbon sisters were entrancing, mystical creatures, worshipped from afar by boys who now tell their story. The only surprising thing about them was how normal they seemed on the one and only date they were ever allowed on. Until they started killing themselves.

I second this too

I nominate:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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 blue-jays 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

I have always wanted to read this so i secind it too

[Pierced Musie]

I second The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides.

I also second To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

[madcow]

How about a Tess Gerritsen book seeing as she will be our featured author for March? Suggestions anybody?????

[Renniemist]

I would like to second Half of a Yellow Sun and also The Virgin Suicides

[Purple Princess]

I second The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides.

[Spooncat]

I second to Kill a Mocking bird