September Nominations

[Kell]

The nominations thread will remain open till the evening of Sunday 10 August, 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.

~~*~~
- 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).
~~*~~

NOMINATIONS:
1. The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury (nominated by Kell / seconded by RadJack)
2. The Last Legion by Valerio Massimo Manfredi (nominated by Kell / seconded by Icecream)
3. Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller (nominated by Princessponti / seconded by TBain, Sammy)
4. Body Surfing by Anita Shreve (nominated by Inver/ seconded by Checkoe)
5. Entertaining Angels by Joanna Bell (nominated by Icecream / seconded by FishAndChips, Ruth)
6. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (nominated by Checkoe / seconded by Lovesreading, Sammy)
7. Wicked by Jilly Cooper (nominated by Lovesreading)
8. All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman (nominated by Lukeozade / seconded by Kell)
9. The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (nominated by Jo-Bridge / seconded by Lovesreading)
10. A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb (nominated by Gyre)

[Kell]

I'd like to nominate the following two books to get things rolling:

The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury:
1291 AD, Acre. As the city burns under the onslaught of the Sultan's men, the Falcon Temple sets sail, carrying a small band of knights and a mysterious chest entrusted to them by the Order's Grand Master. But the ship vanishes without a trace...Present day New York. At the Metropolitan Museum, four horsemen dressed as Knights Templar storm the gala opening of an exhibition of Vatican treasures and, in a brutal and bloody attack, steal an arcane medieval decoder. For FBI agent Sean Reilly and archaeologist Tess Chaykin this is just the start of a deadly game of cat and mouse as they race across three continents in search of the ruthless killers - and a centuries-old mystery...

The Last Legion by Valerio Massimo Manfredi:
The story opens on the day that the Western Roman Empire collapses finally in 470AD, with the city itself over-run. In the preceeding months a small group of British Roman soldiers, led by a true hero, have journeyed to the city and have arrived just before the final climax. The task they have set themselves is to save the spirit of the empire by rescuing the young son of the last Emperor, Romulus Augustus. Having found him and taken him away they decide to journey across northern Europe as there are strong rumours that an entire Legion of the Roman Army has remained loyal to Rome and has become an independent unit. They hope by finding the Legion and establishing the boy as the legitmate Emperor a stand can be taken and the Empire revived. However, their search is fruitless and eventually the leader and the child return to the Britain of the Dark Ages, where they re-emerge in legend as Merlin and Arthur Pendragon.

[princessponti]

I'd like to nominate 'Notes on a Scandel' by Zoe Heller - if that's ok, since I've just returned to the fold... ....this book has been on my shelf for such a long time and I think it will raise some interesting discussions...

From Amazon:
Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new art teacher at St. George's, befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an illicit affair with an underage male student. When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense--and ends up revealing not only Sheba's secrets, but also her own.

[kb.marsh]

I would like to nominate Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones.
Amazon synopsis:
'You cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wallpaper is in flames.' Bougainville. 1991. A small village on a lush tropical island in the South Pacific. Eighty-six days have passed since Matilda's last day of school as, quietly, war is encroaching from the other end of the island. When the villagers' safe, predictable lives come to a halt, Bougainville's children are surprised to find the island's only white man, a recluse, re-opening the school. Pop Eye, aka Mr Watts, explains he will introduce the children to Mr Dickens. Matilda and the others think a foreigner is coming to the island and prepare a list of much needed items. They are shocked to discover their acquaintance with Mr Dickens will be through Mr Watts' inspiring reading of Great Expectations. But on an island at war, the power of fiction has dangerous consequences. Imagination and beliefs are challenged by guns.Mister Pip is an unforgettable tale of survival by story; a dazzling piece of writing that lives long in the mind after the last page is finished.

[Inver]

I would like to nominate Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones.
.
Has it not already been done!!

http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5040

[kb.marsh]

Hehe oops! Never mind then!

[Inver]

I would like to nominate 'Body Surfing' by Anita Shreve

Another of these unread books that is gathering dust on my shelf.

Blurb:

'At the age of twenty-nine, Sydney has already been once divorced and once widowed. Trying to find her footing again, she has answered an advertisement to tutor the teenage daughter of a well-to-do couple as they spend a sultry summer in their oceanfront New Hampshire cottage. But when the Edwards' two grown sons, Ben and Jeff, arrive at the beach house, Sydney finds herself caught up in a destructive web of old tensions and bitter divisions. As the brothers vie for her affections, the fragile existence Sydney has rebuilt is threatened. With the subtle wit, lyrical language, and brilliant insight into real emotion that has led her to be called 'a supremely elegant anatomist of the human heart' (The Times), Shreve weaves a story about risk, family, and the supreme courage that it takes to love.'

[Kell]

Has it not already been done!!

http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5040
yes, it has - I was being sneaky and doing forum stuff whilst at work, but didn't have time to check till now - LOL!

[Icecream]

The Last Legion sounds great Kell. I would like to second it.

I am also going to make a nomination. Scary, I have never done that before! I have just read Entertaining Angels by Joanna Bell, but would like to discuss it. It raises some interesting issues. It is an easy read too, but full of questions.

Synopsis: Joshua Gilfoyle has decided there are two things he wants from life before he dies: to find his lost son and to commission an artist to produce his lasting legacy - a new angel for Foxbarton church. His family can't understand why he's already bidding his life farewell, but Joshua is not a man used to opposition. However Julia, the artist he's employed, doesn't believe in angels - unlike her daughter Hebe. Although she's desperate for the commission, she's frightened her artistic inspiration has run dry and is beginning to wonder whether making the angel is beyond her ability. But as Hebe's extraordinary gift begins to affect everyone around her, including even irascible old Joshua himself, there seems to be more than a touch of magic in the air as the mysteries of the past finally begin to reveal themselves

[radjack]

I second The last templar

[tbain]

I second notes on a scandal.

[checkoe]

Would also like to nominate Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

New to the forum so apologies if this book has already been read.

"In 1960`s Nigeria, a country blighted by civil war, three lives intersect. Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university lecutrer. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. The third is Richard, a shy Englishman in thrall to Olanna`s enigmatic twin sister. When the shocking horror of the war engulfs them, their loyalties are severely tested as they are pulled apart and thrown together in ways that none of them imagined... ":readingtwo:

[FishAndChips]

I'd like to second Entertaining Angels by Joanna Bell

[lovesreading06]

I would like to second Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I would like to nominate 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.

[sammy981]

are we allowed to second more than one book?

my first choice to second would be half of a yellow sun

and my second choice to second (if we are allowed to!) is notes on a scandal.

[FishAndChips]

Yes you can second as many as you like (but can nominate a max of 2)

[Kell]

Only a few more days to get in your nominations or second one of those already nominated! The poll will be posted with the three most popular (or a random three if it's very close!) right after that...

[Lukeozade100]

'Tis probably a bit late for this to have a chance now but thought I might as well nominate it anyway, it deserves being read by more people!

All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

All Tom's friends really are superheroes. Tom even married a superhero, the Perfectionist. But at their wedding the Perfectionist is hypnotized by her ex, Hypno, to believe that Tom is invisible.
Nothing he does can make her see him.

Six months later the Perfectionist is sure that Tom has abandoned her, so shes moving to Vancouver. She'll use her superpowers to leave all the heartbreak behind. With no idea that Tom's beside her, she boards the plane. Tom has untill touch down to convince her he's there, or he loses her forever...

A wonderful, heartbrakingly funny tribute to love, sweet love.

(It is really good!)

[Kell]

Actually, that sounds like a really appealing read to me, so I'll second it, Lukeozade!

[Inver]

Wonders which book she can put forward for the next months read....lol:D Not gonna be on the shortlist this time...lol.

[Kell]

You never know, Inver - there's still time for them all to be seconded more. And if it's all very close, (i,e, more than 3 with the same amount of seconds) they'll be picked randomly from the most popular ones. If there are two with lots of seconds and a whole bunch with the same amount of seconds less than those, the third one will be a random pick from the others - it's happened before that a book with fewer seconds has been the final choice!

Two days to go, guys - get your nominations/seconds in soon!

[Ruth]

I would like to second Entertaining Angels.

[Jo-Bridge]

I'd like to nominate The tenderness of wolves by Stef Penney


It is 1867, Canada: as winter tightens its grip on the isolated settlement of Dove River, a man is brutally murdered and a 17-year old boy disappears. Tracks leaving the dead man's cabin head north towards the forest and the tundra beyond. In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the township - journalists, Hudson's Bay Company men, trappers, traders - but do they want to solve the crime or exploit it? One-by-one the assembled searchers set out from Dove River, pursuing the tracks across a desolate landscape home only to wild animals, madmen and fugitives, variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for 17 years, a Native American culture, and a fortune in stolen furs before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good.

Its just fantastic- best thing I've read so far this year!

[lovesreading06]

I would like to Second "The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

[scottishbookworm]

could I nominate "Exit music" by ian Rankin?

The 'Blurb' (From Amazon)
It's late autumn in Edinburgh and late autumn in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes. A dissident Russian poet has been found dead in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. By apparent coincidence, a high-level delegation of Russian businessmen is in town - and everyone is determined that the case should be closed quickly and clinically. But the further they dig, the more Rebus and DS Siobhan Clarke become convinced that they are dealing with something more than a random attack - especially after a particularly nasty second killing. Meanwhile, a brutal and premeditated assault on a local gangster sees Rebus in the frame. Has the Inspector taken a step too far in tying up those loose ends? Only a few days shy of the end to his long, inglorious career, will Rebus even make it that far?

As that book's not on the list

:readingtwo:

[Jo-Bridge]

I would like to second Exit music

[Michelle]

Is Exit Music a book that works well as a stand alone, or is it best to have read the earlier books first? If the latter, it's not really appropriate.

Also, as a general comment, when suggesting books for the reading circles, can you please consider whether there's enough content in the book that would warrent discussion. Some books are fairly straightforward, and there's not a lot to discuss as a group. Thanks :)

[Gyre]

I would like to nominate 'A Certain Slant of Light' by Laura Whitcomb :)

In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helenterrified, but intriguedis drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.

http://bestsmileys.com/reading/4.gif

[scottishbookworm]

Is Exit Music a book that works well as a stand alone, or is it best to have read the earlier books first? If the latter, it's not really appropriate.

Also, as a general comment, when suggesting books for the reading circles, can you please consider whether there's enough content in the book that would warrent discussion. Some books are fairly straightforward, and there's not a lot to discuss as a group. Thanks :)michelle I'm going to discussion at the royal concert hall next month it's held by ian rankin and he'll be talking about his books including "Exit music in great detail It's at on the 26th september.

I heard about it on his forum

[Kell]

I'm afraid Exit Music will have to be discounted as it's actually the last one in the series, so there's bound to be character development and relationships that won't mean so much if you haven't read the previous books.

[scottishbookworm]

I did read some Jane austin books when they were there but because of next month's event I'm researching Ian rankin books

Because it's a conversation piece with the great man and I'd love to ask him his influences in his writing

[Kell]

There can still be a discussion thread set up in general books/authors section for those who have read it/ are planning ot read it, but with the reading circle choices, we've had prpblems in thepast where a book has been chosen from the middle of a series as characters and relationships develop throughout and it can be very confusing if you haven't read the previous books - hence the guideline about having either stand-alone books or ones from the very beginning of a series.

On a seperate note, this thread is now closed and the poll thread will be up very shortly once I've got it all set up. :)