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Booooook! CHOOSE!
This poll is closed.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice 8 25.00%
Mary Renault, The Last of the Wine 10 31.25%
Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless 2 6.25%
Doris Lessing, The Fifth Child 3 9.38%
Donna Tartt, The Secret History 9 28.13%
Total: 32 votes
[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

 
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Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound
Ok, here are the poll options for next month's book of the month. Someone pointed out that we barely ever select female authors, so that's this month. Vote early, vote often! As always, though, please only vote if you plan on actually reading that book and posting something about it afterwards in the thread.. Doesn't have to be a witty or brilliant comment or anything, "this book was too loving long" or whatever is fine, just please if you vote for a book think of it as making some minimal commitment to actually participate in next month's thread if that book is selected. Thanks!




Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Why the hell not? Despite all the acclaim, this is probably the most challenging book on this list, but it'll be worth it if we can hack at it.

A lot of people have a big problem reading Austen She seems boring, etc. Thing is, she was probably the greatest prose stylist before the 20th century and her stuff is brilliant, But there's a huge but to her work: she was writing exclusively for 18th & 19th-century upper class British aristocrats and spends absolutely zero time explaining setting or context. As a result, if you don't have a detailed knowledge of everything an 18th century British aristocrat would know, if you don't have (for example) a detailed knowledge of exactly what the differences are between a gig, a phaeton, a curricle, a barouche, and a landau, you'll miss three-quarters of her jokes.

Think of it like reading Tolkien if Tolkien never explained what an elf or an orc or a wizard or a hobbit was because all his readers already knew -- you'd have to go read some horrible nerd website to figure all that stuff out before you could enjoy the story. You gotta do the research to get the context of what's going on.


If you put in the work, though, she really does reward you; her prose is sharper and more layered with more separate blades than Gillette's most modern razor, and her plots and characters have become the framework for whole genres. Plus, it's available online for free (such as in this annoted edition).


Mary Renault, The Last of the Wine

Mary Renault is probably the best writer of historical fiction set in the classical era (yes, I'm saying she's better than Robert Graves) and this is one of her best books. It's the story of two young Athenian men who fall in love during the time of the Pelopponesian Wars. It's perfect. Revolutionary and controversial when it first came out in 1975 for its frank and unashamed presentation of homosexual love -- the characters are Athenians and in their society such things are perfectly normal -- it's also just a drat good book, backed with strong classical scholarship and poingnant prose.

Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless

quote:

Twentieth-century Russian history provides a background for Valente's lush reimagining of folkloric villain Koschei the Deathless and his dalliance with Marya Morevna, a clever but troubled young woman. After Koschei sweeps Marya away from her family's home in St. Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad, Baba Yaga assigns her three tasks that will make her worthy of marrying Koschei. As she spends more time in Koschei's Country of Life, Marya starts to become too much like her unearthly lover, until naïve Ivan Nikolayevich helps her regain her humanity (as well as the sympathy of the reader). Valente's lush language and imagery add to the magic and fundamentally Russian nature of the story, drawing pointed parallels between the Soviet Union's turmoil and the endless war between Koschei and his brother, Viy. Readers used to the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault will find this tale peculiar but enchanting. (Apr.)
(from Publishers Weekly, quoted on Amazon)


Doris Lessing, The Fifth Child

quote:


I hated writing it,'' said Doris Lessing. ''It was sweating blood. I was very glad when it was done. It was an upsetting thing to write - obviously, it goes very deep into me somewhere.''

Mrs. Lessing was talking about her latest novel - her 35th book - ''The Fifth Child,'' a work that critics are already referring to as ''a minor classic.'' The novel is set in the English suburbs from the 1960's to the 80's, where a happily married couple are bringing up their four children. There is an unexpected fifth pregnancy, a very difficult and painful one, and when the fifth child, Ben, is born, he turns out to be a monster in almost-human form. What is the family to do with him?

''It's a horror story,'' Mrs. Lessing said, sitting in the offices of her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. ''It seems to me it's a classic horror story.''

http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/01/10/specials/lessing-child.html


Donna Tartt, The Secret History

quote:

Set in New England, The Secret History tells the story of a closely knit group of six classics students at a small, elite Vermont college, Hampden College, similar in many respects to Bennington College (in Bennington, Vermont) where Tartt was a student from 1982 to 1986.

The story is an inverted detective story, not a Whodunit but a Whydunit.

One of the six students is the story's narrator, Richard Papen, who reflects, years later, on the situation that led to a murder within the group, the murder being confessed at the outset of the novel but the events otherwise revealed sequentially. In the opening chapter, as the reader is introduced to Papen, we are told of the death of student Edmund "Bunny" Corcoran, although few details are given initially. The novel explores the circumstances and lasting effects of Bunny's death on the academically and socially isolated group of Classics students of which he was a part.

The impact on the students is ultimately destructive, and the potential promise of many young lives is lost to circumstance. The story parallels, in many ways, a Greek tragedy with fate dictating the very circumstances that lead to an escalation of already fermenting issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_History

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blue squares
Sep 28, 2007

Are you watching me? First you do 100 years of solitude right after I finish it, now The Secret History is an option and I just started it this week. Spooky.

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound

blue squares posted:

Are you watching me? First you do 100 years of solitude right after I finish it, now The Secret History is an option and I just started it this week. Spooky.

Yes. :ninja:





More seriously, when I'm putting this together I do try to scan the various recommendation threads and see what people are suggesting, so that's probably the reason for the coincidence.

blue squares
Sep 28, 2007

Well if Secret History gets picked I'll do my damnedest to actually contribute to this month's thread.

Poutling
Dec 26, 2005

spacebunny to the rescue

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Yes. :ninja:





More seriously, when I'm putting this together I do try to scan the various recommendation threads and see what people are suggesting, so that's probably the reason for the coincidence.

It's a great selection this month - I was really debating between the Renault and the Doris Lessing which is also on my to-read list.

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound
Whoops, re-opened the poll. Sorry about that!

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound
And it's neck and neck heading into the home stretch!!!!

blue squares
Sep 28, 2007

Runoff voting? I'm on page 140 of Secret History and there's some hints of it getting really good. I love the philosophical stuff, and as a college student myself I can identify with a lot of things Richard talks about.

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Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound
My fear with a runoff is that a lot of folks would just wander off -- it's hard enough getting people to vote *once*. Clearly what we need is an IRV mod for the forum polls.

It's Last of the Wine this month. Thanks to everyone who voted, and please consider giving Wine a go even if it wasn't your first choice, it's a really great book. I'll definitely put Secret History in the running next month as well. We could probably do a second month of just female writers, considering how neglected they've been here till now.

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