Awful Book Poll: Pick the August Book of the Month!

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Awful Book Poll: Pick the August Book of the Month!

Booooook! CHOOSE! There can be only one! This poll is closed.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice	5	10.87%
Donna Tartt, The Secret History	9	19.57%
Barbara Tuchmann, The Guns of August	27	58.70%
Joyce Carol Oates, The Accursed	4	8.70%
Nadine Gordimer, July's People	1	2.17%
Total:	46 votes

[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

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. We're doing a second month of female authors because we hardly ever do female authors. 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).

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

Barbara Tuchmann, The Guns of August

quote:

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time

In this landmark, Pulitzer Prize�winning account, renowned historian Barbara W. Tuchman re-creates the first month of World War I: thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world. Beginning with the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman traces each step that led to the inevitable clash. And inevitable it was, with all sides plotting their war for a generation. Dizzyingly comprehensive and spectacularly portrayed with her famous talent for evoking the characters of the war�s key players, Tuchman�s magnum opus is a classic for the ages.

Picking this one because we're hitting the World War I centenary and it seemed like a good idea to have a nonfiction book on the list. I've had this recommended to me fifty times but I've never sat down and read it.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Guns-August-Outbreak-Nonfiction-ebook/dp/B002TXZS8A

Joyce Carol Oates, The Accursed

quote:

Soon after arriving at Princeton University, where she continues to teach, Oates completed Bellefleur (1980), launching a series of sly gothic novels. One manuscript, The Crosswicks Horror, was left unfinished, and Oates has now resurrected it as a lush, arch, and blistering fusion of historical fact, supernatural mystery, and devilish social commentary. High-strung and ambitious Woodrow Wilson is the president of Princeton. Anxious over festering conflicts and appalled by what he learns about his distant relative and prot�g� after the nearby lynching of an African American man and his pregnant sister, Wilson seeks advice from retired Reverend Winslow Slade, who would rather think about the upcoming wedding of his granddaughter, Annabel. But this fair maiden is in danger of falling under the spell of a handsome stranger with otherworldly eyes. As an elite WASP enclave finds itself caught in the grip of inexplicable terror, readers will be bewitched by a fantastically dramatic, supremely imaginative plot rife with ghosts, vampires, demons, and human folly. Oates brings her nightshade humor and extraordinary fluency in eroticism and violence, American history and literature (her magnetizing characters include Mark Twain, Jack London, and Upton Sinclair) to this piercing novel of the devastating toll of repression and prejudice, sexism and class warfare. A diabolically enthralling and subversive literary mash-up.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Accursed-Joyce-Carol-Oates/dp/0062234358

Nadine Gordimer, July's People

quote:

For years, it had been what is called a �deteriorating situation.� Now all over South Africa the cities are battlegrounds. The members of the Smales family�liberal whites�are rescued from the terror by their servant, July, who leads them to refuge in his village. What happens to the Smaleses and to July�the shifts in character and relationships�gives us an unforgettable look into the terrifying, tacit understandings and misunderstandings between blacks and whites.

Author just died, won the Nobel Prize, seems like she probably wrote good stuff? idk

http://www.amazon.com/Julys-People-Nadine-Gordimer/dp/0140061401

# ? Jul 27, 2014 22:00

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# ? Apr 20, 2024 01:55

cloudchamber: Aug 6, 2010; You know what the Ukraine is? It's a sitting duck. A road apple, Newman. The Ukraine is weak. It's feeble. I think it's time to put the hurt on the Ukraine

Tuchmann's narrative of the war's first month is fantastic but the analysis she gives of why the war broke out is absolutely dreadful. Read Jane Austen instead.

# ? Jul 29, 2014 17:34

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

cloudchamber posted:

Tuchmann's narrative of the war's first month is fantastic but the analysis she gives of why the war broke out is absolutely dreadful. Read Jane Austen instead.

I'm really surprised at how few votes Secret History is getting this time, I was expecting it to sail to a win.

# ? Jul 29, 2014 18:19

Crashbee: May 15, 2007; Stupid people are great at winning arguments, because they're too stupid to realize they've lost.

cloudchamber posted:

Tuchmann's narrative of the war's first month is fantastic but the analysis she gives of why the war broke out is absolutely dreadful. Read Jane Austen instead.

Yeah, it sounds good but I don't think many historians today would describe the war as inevitable.

# ? Jul 29, 2014 21:26

Poutling: Dec 26, 2005; spacebunny to the rescue

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

I'm really surprised at how few votes Secret History is getting this time, I was expecting it to sail to a win.

I felt obligated to pick The Accursed because I suggested it (although I didn't actually expect you to add it) - otherwise I'd probably have picked The Secret History because it's been about 15 years and I'm due for a reread.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 18:20

Chamberk: Jan 11, 2004; when there is nothing left to burn you have to set yourself on fire

I voted for The Accursed because I just picked it up a few weeks ago, but I can't argue with Guns of August. It's an excellent book.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 18:33

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# ? Apr 20, 2024 01:55

thehomemaster: Jul 16, 2014; by Ralp

Been looking for a hardcover of Guns in Australia but no luck.

$5 bucks for Kindle though...

# ? Aug 1, 2014 03:16

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Awful Book Poll: Pick the August Book of the Month!