[EN World Book Club] Suggestions & Selectors
- Thread starter Sam
- Start date
- Status
Cthulhu's Librarian
First Post
And a few more recent novels to add to the list of possible choices:
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
I read this just a few weeks ago, and while it may be marketed as a young adult title, it is so much more than that. Its definitly one of the best books I've read in several years.
Amazon.com has the following to say about this National Book Award winner:
Fields of white opium poppies stretch away over the hills, and uniformed workers bend over the rows, harvesting the juice. This is the empire of Matteo Alacran, a feudal drug lord in the country of Opium, which lies between the United States and Aztlan, formerly Mexico. Field work, or any menial tasks, are done by "eejits," humans in whose brains computer chips have been installed to insure docility. Alacran, or El Patron, has lived 140 years with the help of transplants from a series of clones, a common practice among rich men in this world. The intelligence of clones is usually destroyed at birth, but Matt, the latest of Alacran's doubles, has been spared because he belongs to El Patron. He grows up in the family's mansion, alternately caged and despised as an animal and pampered and educated as El Patron's favorite. Gradually he realizes the fate that is in store for him, and with the help of Tam Lin, his bluff and kind Scottish bodyguard, he escapes to Aztlan. There he and other "lost children" are trapped in a more subtle kind of slavery before Matt can return to Opium to take his rightful place and transform his country.
Nancy Farmer, a two-time Newbery honoree, surpasses even her marvelous novel, The Ear, The Eye and the Arm in the breathless action and fascinating characters of The House of the Scorpion. Readers will be reminded of Orson Scott Card's Ender in Matt's persistence and courage in the face of a world that intends to use him for its own purposes, and of Louis Sachar's Holes in the camaraderie of imprisoned boys and the layers of meaning embedded in this irresistibly compelling story. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell
The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce
A nominee for this years World Fantasy Award. Here is Publishers Weekly review:
Warm with nostalgia and flecked with the subtle fantasy that seasons nearly all his fiction, Joyce's latest novel (after Smoking Poppy) is an uneven mix of the charming and the self-consciously peculiar. The setting is Coventry, England, in the years after WWII, where the surviving Vine family-mother Martha, her seven grown daughters and their various offspring-are all trying to build lives out of the ruins left by Nazi bombs. The bittersweet events center on young Frank, the illegitimate son of psychologically unstable youngest daughter Cassie, who like his mum has inherited a fey streak that makes him receptive to precognition and restless spirits. As Frank and Cassie bounce from household to household, cared for by different family members, their peregrinations evoke in miniature the British postwar experience, mirrored in the lives of Cassie's siblings: one is married to a man who relives the war through his affair with a dead soldier's wife; another is a politically liberal participant in a comically self-destructing socialist commune. Virtually plotless, the book unfolds as a series of vignettes, interrelated loosely through shared, affectionately realized characters and seriocomic treatments of death and (especially) sexuality. Frank's supernatural experiences, which include frequent sessions with a mysterious figure he refers to cryptically as "The-Man-Behind-The-Glass," are hints that he shares hi relatives' powers. Indeed, the subtlety with which Joyce presents clairvoyant episodes makes them entirely credible in a novel that celebrates the strong bond of family and the deep well of sensitivity on which they all draw. In the end, this is a haunting story about flawed but good-hearted people who bear the hallmarks of eccentricity but also the beneficent aura of human connectedness.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Here is Publishers Weekly review of the 2002 Booker Prize winner:
A fabulous romp through an imagination by turns ecstatic, cunning, despairing and resilient, this novel is an impressive achievement "a story that will make you believe in God," as one character says. The peripatetic Pi (ne the much-taunted Piscine) Patel spends a beguiling boyhood in Pondicherry, India, as the son of a zookeeper. Growing up beside the wild beasts, Pi gathers an encyclopedic knowledge of the animal world. His curious mind also makes the leap from his native Hinduism to Christianity and Islam, all three of which he practices with joyous abandon. In his 16th year, Pi sets sail with his family and some of their menagerie to start a new life in Canada. Halfway to Midway Island, the ship sinks into the Pacific, leaving Pi stranded on a life raft with a hyena, an orangutan, an injured zebra and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. After the beast dispatches the others, Pi is left to survive for 227 days with his large feline companion on the 26-foot-long raft, using all his knowledge, wits and faith to keep himself alive. The scenes flow together effortlessly, and the sharp observations of the young narrator keep the tale brisk and engaging. Martel's potentially unbelievable plot line soon demolishes the reader's defenses, cleverly set up by events of young Pi's life that almost naturally lead to his biggest ordeal. This richly patterned work, Martel's second novel, won Canada's 2001 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. In it, Martel displays the clever voice and tremendous storytelling skills of an emerging master.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
I read this just a few weeks ago, and while it may be marketed as a young adult title, it is so much more than that. Its definitly one of the best books I've read in several years.
Amazon.com has the following to say about this National Book Award winner:
Fields of white opium poppies stretch away over the hills, and uniformed workers bend over the rows, harvesting the juice. This is the empire of Matteo Alacran, a feudal drug lord in the country of Opium, which lies between the United States and Aztlan, formerly Mexico. Field work, or any menial tasks, are done by "eejits," humans in whose brains computer chips have been installed to insure docility. Alacran, or El Patron, has lived 140 years with the help of transplants from a series of clones, a common practice among rich men in this world. The intelligence of clones is usually destroyed at birth, but Matt, the latest of Alacran's doubles, has been spared because he belongs to El Patron. He grows up in the family's mansion, alternately caged and despised as an animal and pampered and educated as El Patron's favorite. Gradually he realizes the fate that is in store for him, and with the help of Tam Lin, his bluff and kind Scottish bodyguard, he escapes to Aztlan. There he and other "lost children" are trapped in a more subtle kind of slavery before Matt can return to Opium to take his rightful place and transform his country.
Nancy Farmer, a two-time Newbery honoree, surpasses even her marvelous novel, The Ear, The Eye and the Arm in the breathless action and fascinating characters of The House of the Scorpion. Readers will be reminded of Orson Scott Card's Ender in Matt's persistence and courage in the face of a world that intends to use him for its own purposes, and of Louis Sachar's Holes in the camaraderie of imprisoned boys and the layers of meaning embedded in this irresistibly compelling story. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell
The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce
A nominee for this years World Fantasy Award. Here is Publishers Weekly review:
Warm with nostalgia and flecked with the subtle fantasy that seasons nearly all his fiction, Joyce's latest novel (after Smoking Poppy) is an uneven mix of the charming and the self-consciously peculiar. The setting is Coventry, England, in the years after WWII, where the surviving Vine family-mother Martha, her seven grown daughters and their various offspring-are all trying to build lives out of the ruins left by Nazi bombs. The bittersweet events center on young Frank, the illegitimate son of psychologically unstable youngest daughter Cassie, who like his mum has inherited a fey streak that makes him receptive to precognition and restless spirits. As Frank and Cassie bounce from household to household, cared for by different family members, their peregrinations evoke in miniature the British postwar experience, mirrored in the lives of Cassie's siblings: one is married to a man who relives the war through his affair with a dead soldier's wife; another is a politically liberal participant in a comically self-destructing socialist commune. Virtually plotless, the book unfolds as a series of vignettes, interrelated loosely through shared, affectionately realized characters and seriocomic treatments of death and (especially) sexuality. Frank's supernatural experiences, which include frequent sessions with a mysterious figure he refers to cryptically as "The-Man-Behind-The-Glass," are hints that he shares hi relatives' powers. Indeed, the subtlety with which Joyce presents clairvoyant episodes makes them entirely credible in a novel that celebrates the strong bond of family and the deep well of sensitivity on which they all draw. In the end, this is a haunting story about flawed but good-hearted people who bear the hallmarks of eccentricity but also the beneficent aura of human connectedness.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Here is Publishers Weekly review of the 2002 Booker Prize winner:
A fabulous romp through an imagination by turns ecstatic, cunning, despairing and resilient, this novel is an impressive achievement "a story that will make you believe in God," as one character says. The peripatetic Pi (ne the much-taunted Piscine) Patel spends a beguiling boyhood in Pondicherry, India, as the son of a zookeeper. Growing up beside the wild beasts, Pi gathers an encyclopedic knowledge of the animal world. His curious mind also makes the leap from his native Hinduism to Christianity and Islam, all three of which he practices with joyous abandon. In his 16th year, Pi sets sail with his family and some of their menagerie to start a new life in Canada. Halfway to Midway Island, the ship sinks into the Pacific, leaving Pi stranded on a life raft with a hyena, an orangutan, an injured zebra and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. After the beast dispatches the others, Pi is left to survive for 227 days with his large feline companion on the 26-foot-long raft, using all his knowledge, wits and faith to keep himself alive. The scenes flow together effortlessly, and the sharp observations of the young narrator keep the tale brisk and engaging. Martel's potentially unbelievable plot line soon demolishes the reader's defenses, cleverly set up by events of young Pi's life that almost naturally lead to his biggest ordeal. This richly patterned work, Martel's second novel, won Canada's 2001 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. In it, Martel displays the clever voice and tremendous storytelling skills of an emerging master.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Wombat
First Post
Sam said:
I've highlighted this shorter list for a major reason: TRANSLATION PROBLEMS.
The number of different translations of these works into English are many and highly varied in quality. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a grand example of this -- many English translations leave out whole chapters and large blocks of text due to A) socialist messages or B) technical aspects that the editors think will bore the readers.
IF you are going to be using one of these works THEN you must make sure everyone is reading the same translation; to do otherwise is to invite disaster...
So says a man who has faced this situation in the classroom
(added comment...)
Oh, and I'd be interested in at least testing the club out.
Last edited:
Wraithdrit
First Post
I'd like to recommend:
The Black Company, by Glen Cook
Its the first in a serious, but is easily stand alone (IE not a huge cliff hanger, and definately wraps nicely in one book). While I would encourage anyone who likes it to also read the rest, thats outside of the scope of the club.
The Black Company, by Glen Cook
Its the first in a serious, but is easily stand alone (IE not a huge cliff hanger, and definately wraps nicely in one book). While I would encourage anyone who likes it to also read the rest, thats outside of the scope of the club.
cgplaer2000
First Post
Sounds just like Count of Monte Cristo....KnowTheToe said:
How about the Elric Saga which are cheap from the Science Fiction and Fantasy bookclub?
Mucknuggle
First Post
Sounds great. I'd like to suggest The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. I read it for my English course last semester and I loved it.
Anyway, here's the link to amazon.ca -> The Reader
amazon.com -> The Reader
Anyway, here's the link to amazon.ca -> The Reader
amazon.com -> The Reader
Woo, sorry I'm late.
I'm in, and I'll try my hand at the "editorial board" when my turn is up.
As for suggestions, here's a few off my shelf:
To Reign In Hell: Steven Burst
Pattern Recognition: William Gibson
Dawn of Amber: John Betancourt (the first of the "new" Amber books)
Darwin's Radio: Greg Bear
-Reddist
I'm in, and I'll try my hand at the "editorial board" when my turn is up.
As for suggestions, here's a few off my shelf:
To Reign In Hell: Steven Burst
Pattern Recognition: William Gibson
Dawn of Amber: John Betancourt (the first of the "new" Amber books)
Darwin's Radio: Greg Bear
-Reddist
My favorite author is Stephen Baxster. He has written two great ones
1) Voyage - a alternate history where the US lands on Mars by 1984.
2) Evolution - a series of short chapters each detailing the life of an animal in a certain age (ie in the last Ice age, modern and beyond) Each animal is a decendant of the previous one (about 10,000 years apart)
another good hard sci author is Greg Egan. He is the only author I have ever heard of who wrote a science fiction book on Quantum Geometry. He knows what he is talking about as well. I found out about it through John Baez's website "This week in Mathematical Physics". The funniest part of the book is that he has the names of manyof the physicists who are working today in this field as names of planets, minor characters ect. The amazing thing is this is a tiny field and I cant believe most people (even other physics) get these if they don't keep up on the literature. My advisor (who I got to read it) pointed out some inside jokes which I did not get. Great Book but I could be biased about this one.
I think we should elect a board (or apoint one) to narrow down the topics and then vote each month.
1) Voyage - a alternate history where the US lands on Mars by 1984.
2) Evolution - a series of short chapters each detailing the life of an animal in a certain age (ie in the last Ice age, modern and beyond) Each animal is a decendant of the previous one (about 10,000 years apart)
another good hard sci author is Greg Egan. He is the only author I have ever heard of who wrote a science fiction book on Quantum Geometry. He knows what he is talking about as well. I found out about it through John Baez's website "This week in Mathematical Physics". The funniest part of the book is that he has the names of manyof the physicists who are working today in this field as names of planets, minor characters ect. The amazing thing is this is a tiny field and I cant believe most people (even other physics) get these if they don't keep up on the literature. My advisor (who I got to read it) pointed out some inside jokes which I did not get. Great Book but I could be biased about this one.
I think we should elect a board (or apoint one) to narrow down the topics and then vote each month.
I'd definitely like to be part of the book club. This is a great forum for it.
Gonna' pass on being a member of the editorial board, at least for now. New daughter and new job...I'm limiting the commitments I make for the next few months...
BUT, I'll second the suggestion of The Scar by China Mieville, and Pattern Recognition by Billy G. Both really good. As for "gaming-inspired", I'd toss out a recommendation for Dream Park, by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. It's a murder/ industrial espionage mystery that takes place in a holographic Disneyland for gamers, where the best DMs are celebrities, and gamers pay big bucks to actually live out the modules they play. Not exactly high art, but the concept is too much fun.
Gonna' pass on being a member of the editorial board, at least for now. New daughter and new job...I'm limiting the commitments I make for the next few months...
BUT, I'll second the suggestion of The Scar by China Mieville, and Pattern Recognition by Billy G. Both really good. As for "gaming-inspired", I'd toss out a recommendation for Dream Park, by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. It's a murder/ industrial espionage mystery that takes place in a holographic Disneyland for gamers, where the best DMs are celebrities, and gamers pay big bucks to actually live out the modules they play. Not exactly high art, but the concept is too much fun.
- Status
Similar Threads
- Locked
