BOOK OF THE MONTH AUGUST: ROUND TWO: FIGHT!!!!!!

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > BOOK OF THE MONTH AUGUST: ROUND TWO: FIGHT!!!!!!

CHOOSE This poll is closed.
Between the World and Me	28	36.84%
The Library at Mount Char	15	19.74%
The Moonstone	22	28.95%
The Dinosaur Lords	11	14.47%
Total:	60 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

First round was here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3732757

Ok, here''s the second-round poll options for next month's book of the month. Vote early, vote often! You can vote for more than one book if you want: this is first and foremost and interest check. You can vote for a book you've already read if you want. As always, though, please only vote if you plan on actually participating in the discussion if that book is selected.

If you do vote, vote for what *you* want to read and talk about.

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. I use these polls as an interest check, so don't click if you aren't interested. Thanks!

Only votes in the actual poll count; votes made by posting won't be counted..

1) Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

http://www.amazon.com/Between-World-Me-Ta-Nehisi-Coates/dp/0812993543

quote:

An Amazon Best Book of July 2015: Readers of his work in The Atlantic and elsewhere know Ta-Nehisi Coates for his thoughtful and influential writing on race in America. Written as a series of letters to his teenaged son, his new memoir, Between the World and Me, walks us through the course of his life, from the tough neighborhoods of Baltimore in his youth, to Howard University�which Coates dubs �The Mecca� for its revelatory community of black students and teachers�to the broader Meccas of New York and Paris. Coates describes his observations and the evolution of his thinking on race, from Malcolm X to his conclusion that race itself is a fabrication, elemental to the concept of American (white) exceptionalism. Ferguson, Trayvon Martin, and South Carolina are not bumps on the road of progress and harmony, but the results of a systemized, ubiquitous threat to �black bodies� in the form of slavery, police brutality, and mass incarceration. Coates is direct and, as usual, uncommonly insightful and original. There are no wasted words. This is a powerful and exceptional book.--Jon Foro

Coates is a brilliant writer and he's probably the most biting critic on American racial issues who still manages to speak to mainstream audiences. This is the one to pick if you want us to use the book to launch broad political discussions.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/the-toxic-world-view-of-ta-nehisi-coates-120512.html#.VbGmurNVhBc (by The National Review's Rich Lowry!)

Paper With Lines posted:

I'm about a third of the way through the Coates book. IMO, most people could read it in an afternoon. I'm a very slow reader and it took about an hour and a half to get a third of the way though it.

Mel Mudkiper posted:

Between the World and Me you group of absolute children

2) The Library at Mount Char

http://www.amazon.com/The-Library-at-Mount-Char/dp/0553418602

quote:

Not exactly literary, but how about The Library at Mount Char? It got a bit of a buzz in the fantasy and horror threads: basically it's modern fantasy that starts off weirdly nonsensical, becomes a page-turner thrillerthingamajig around the midway point and ends on a pretty crazy note while being very enjoyable all the way through. I'd think it's a good summer read.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3731408#post447974072

This comes highly recommended and looks like a great entry if we want to do more urban fantasy, but it's a little off the beaten track it seems, despite lots of great reviews. I knocked this out a day or two ago and while I'm not sure it rises to the level of "literary", it's well-written and engages the brain more than the average pulp fantasy novel does. With this one, we're staying in our comfort zone, but expanding it a little.

RndmCnflct posted:

Also the Library at Mount Char was the best thing I've read in a long time. Someone said earlier that it's American Gods done right, that's the vibe I got and and I completely agree.

3) The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

quote:

The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century British epistolary novel, generally considered the first detective novel in the English language. The story was originally serialised in Charles Dickens' magazine All the Year Round. The Moonstone and The Woman in White are considered Wilkie Collins' best novels. Besides creating many of the ground rules of the detective novel, The Moonstone also reflected Collins' enlightened social attitudes in his treatment of the servants in the novel. Collins adapted The Moonstone for the stage in 1877, but the production was performed for only two months. . . . .

Rachel Verinder, a young English woman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday. It is a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt British army officer who served in India. The diamond is of great religious significance as well as being extremely valuable, and three Hindu priests have dedicated their lives to recovering it. The story incorporates elements of the legendary origins of the Hope Diamond (or perhaps the Orloff Diamond). Rachel's eighteenth birthday is celebrated with a large party, whose guests include her cousin Franklin Blake. She wears the Moonstone on her dress that evening for all to see, including some Indian jugglers who have called at the house. Later that night, the diamond is stolen from Rachel's bedroom, and a period of turmoil, unhappiness, misunderstandings and ill-luck ensues. Told by a series of narratives from some of the main characters, the complex plot traces the subsequent efforts to explain the theft, identify the thief, trace the stone and recover it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moonstone

I'm including this one because I wanted to make sure we had an option for at least one free book. I've read an absurd amount of out-of-copyright fiction on my kindle and this is my personal pick for the best "forgotten favorite" of the lot. It's genre fiction which people are asking for, it's literary (at least in that it has a patina of age, if nothing else), it's classy, it's a great story, there's a lot of social subtext and implicit commentary on British colonialism and class issues, etc. With this pick, we're stepping outside our comfort zone a bit but with something that's still entertaining and fun and surprisingly modern stylistically given when it was written.

CountFosco posted:

I voted for The Moonstone because Wilkie Collins owns loving bones and if there were any justice in this world he'd be as well known as Dickens.

quote:

The Moonstone is often said to be the godfather of the classic English detective story, its founding text. TS Eliot, claiming that the genre was "invented by Collins and not by Poe", declared it to be "the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels". Dorothy L Sayers, a queen of crime in the 1930s and 40s, echoing Eliot, pronounced it "probably the finest detective story ever written". Its influence continues to animate the work of crime writers such as PD James.

. . .

However, although this is classic detective fiction, its greatness really lies in its qualities as a novel. Collins signalled his ambitions for the book in the preface to the first edition, in which he wrote: "In some of my former novels, the object proposed has been to trace the influence of circumstances upon character. In the present story I have reversed the process." So it's the enthralling interplay of character (Rachel Verinder, the hunchbacked servant girl Rosanna Spearman, Sergeant Cuff, the great detective, and compelling Franklin Blake, Rachel Verinder's cousin) that will hook the interest of most readers. Rosanna's tragic obsession with the adventurer Franklin Blake is among the most poignant renderings of thwarted love in Victorian literature. The fascinating and eccentric figure of Cuff (based on Scotland Yard's real life Inspector Whicher) introduces a figure central to the unravelling of the mystery on whom most readers come to dote.

corn in the bible posted:

I was in Italy once, in this little backwater town out in the middle of nowhere, and the bookstore had exactly one book in English, which was Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone.

4) Comedy Option:

The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milan

http://grrm.livejournal.com/388192.html

I can't think of anything I could say that would add to that cover. Comes out July 28th. You wanted more new releases, right? With this pick, we're just embracing the suck. This is the forum for thousand-page threads about Battletech novels and knights riding dinosaurs. loving embrace it.What the hell. You're reading this book. I'm reading this book. That loving cover.

Carteret posted:

I hope it's Dinosaur Lords. I work at a bookstore and this motherfucker is just sitting in the backroom screaming for me to check it out. One of the only perks to working here.

That loving cover.

Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 13:26 on Jul 28, 2015

# ? Jul 28, 2015 02:07

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# ? Dec 6, 2024 20:24

Carly Gay Dead Son: Aug 27, 2007; Bonus.

Moonstone gets my vote but honestly I'll read anything without dinosaurs.

# ? Jul 28, 2015 02:10

Strong Mouse: Jun 11, 2012; You disrespect us. You drag corpses around. You steal, and you hurt feelings!

RRRRRRRAAAAARGH!

Prepare to die!

I voted for The Library, but I'll probably read any of these books. I think The Dinosaur Lords is something I'd rather read on my own time though.

# ? Jul 28, 2015 06:17

thehomemaster: Jul 16, 2014; by Ralp

I've bought the book I voted for in anticipation.

EDIT: Just found this.

What's cooler, medieval battles with dinosaur riders, or 19th century battles with dinosaur riders?

thehomemaster fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Jul 28, 2015

# ? Jul 28, 2015 06:45

Carteret: Nov 10, 2012

Dino Jousting seems superior.

# ? Jul 28, 2015 11:21

Dragas: Apr 21, 2010; something something polish lithuania commonwealth will rise from the ashes

Please read some real literature, goons.

# ? Jul 28, 2015 12:31

Franchescanado: Feb 23, 2013; If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment; Grimey Drawer

I'd love to read any of the books without dinosaurs, please.

# ? Jul 28, 2015 13:52

thehomemaster: Jul 16, 2014; by Ralp

Thank God it's neck and neck with a free book and the book I bought already.

# ? Jul 28, 2015 23:55

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Carteret posted:

Dino Jousting seems superior.

Dinos vs muskets simply means that a truly trained and noble warrior and his mount might be brought low by.. Peasants. With boom-sticks! :baw:

# ? Jul 29, 2015 01:45

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

thehomemaster posted:

Thank God it's neck and neck with a free book and the book I bought already.

Yeah, I bought a bunch of the books suggested so far and my book budget is kinda blown for the month. Fortunately it'll be a new month in a few days!

I've started a new read of The Moonstone just because it's a fun book, but I'd forgotten that it's relatively long; the kindle kinda hides that. In some ways it might be even better than I remembered it, though.

That dinosaur book looks expensive, but I'm not going to pretend I ain't reading it. I'm not better than that.

# ? Jul 29, 2015 02:27

thehomemaster: Jul 16, 2014; by Ralp

'book budget'

# ? Jul 29, 2015 02:47

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

thehomemaster posted:

'book budget'

You know how I said I read The Moonstone because I was working my way through every free classic in Amazon's Kindle store? There was a reason for that!

# ? Jul 29, 2015 02:52

thehomemaster: Jul 16, 2014; by Ralp

If you were looking for my book budget in a bookstore it would be under 'Fantasy'.

Also, that is an impressive feat to undertake.

# ? Jul 29, 2015 04:01

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

My book budget is "all of them"

# ? Jul 29, 2015 12:05

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

thehomemaster posted:

If you were looking for my book budget in a bookstore it would be under 'Fantasy'.

Also, that is an impressive feat to undertake.

Oh, I gave up eventually, somewhere about 3/4ths of the way through the Diaries of Samuel Pepys (and 1/4th of the way into Tristram Shandy, which I really do need to get back to someday).

# ? Jul 29, 2015 12:25

CountFosco: Jan 9, 2012; Welcome back to the Liturgigoon thread, friend.

Can Tom Jones be found in the free classics section?

# ? Jul 29, 2015 15:46

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

My book budget is um, the library haha

Sorry if you guys don't have accessible libraries around you

# ? Jul 29, 2015 16:35

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

CountFosco posted:

Can Tom Jones be found in the free classics section?

Yeah it's there, though you'll have to sort by price to find the free version. Pretty much anything pre-1930 is available for free somewhere online.

# ? Jul 29, 2015 16:57

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Guy A. Person posted:

My book budget is um, the library haha

Sorry if you guys don't have accessible libraries around you

I have a really accessible library called my giant loving bookshelves :cool:

# ? Jul 29, 2015 17:11

Ornamented Death: Jan 25, 2006; Pew pew!

Mel Mudkiper posted:

I have a really accessible library called my giant loving bookshelves

A man after my own heart.

# ? Jul 29, 2015 18:17

less laughter: May 7, 2012; Accelerock & Roll

Guy A. Person posted:

My book budget is um, the library haha

Sorry if you guys don't have accessible libraries around you

Library books are gross and filled with germs

People read them on the toilet

# ? Jul 30, 2015 11:39

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

less laughter posted:

Library books are gross and filled with germs

People read them on the toilet

Ewwww ughhh

You just ruined my life

# ? Jul 30, 2015 13:18

corn in the bible: Jun 5, 2004; Oh no oh god it's all true!

I'm going to read the Moonstone regardless, so I hope it wins

# ? Jul 30, 2015 15:12

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

corn in the bible posted:

I'm going to read the Moonstone regardless, so I hope it wins

I hope 23 mother fuckers actually talk about Between the World and Me and don't bitch out

# ? Jul 30, 2015 15:20

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Mel Mudkiper posted:

I hope 23 mother fuckers actually talk about Between the World and Me and don't bitch out

It's quite short, and flows along very smoothly and lyrically. I'm about halfway through it already.

# ? Jul 30, 2015 18:04

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

LAST DAY

_{_{_{I may do winner August, 2nd-place September}}}

# ? Jul 31, 2015 05:56

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Sounds like you just really, really wanna read The Moonstone.

# ? Jul 31, 2015 16:33

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

coyo7e posted:

Sounds like you just really, really wanna read The Moonstone.

Want to Discuss the Moonstone!

Ok, this month is Ta-Nehisi. Next month is Moonstone. Thanks everyone for voting!

# ? Aug 2, 2015 02:56

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Ok, this month is Ta-Nehisi

I look forward to discussing this book with all of you for a few hours until I get incredibly frustrated and run away to DnD where people agree with me

# ? Aug 2, 2015 03:03

Idaholy Roller: May 19, 2009

Y'all weren't kidding when you said it was short. Really good so far though he has a beautiful writing style, just hard not to burn through it all in one sitting.

# ? Aug 2, 2015 14:53

The Berzerker: Feb 24, 2006; treat me like a dog

I have it on hold from the library - if I get it in time, I'll join in for my first ever participation in the book of the month discussion.

# ? Aug 2, 2015 17:16

Grimson: Dec 16, 2004

edit--will save discussion for the discussion thread.

Grimson fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Aug 3, 2015

# ? Aug 3, 2015 00:44

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Is this the discussion thread or are you gonna make one?

# ? Aug 3, 2015 01:06

Grimson: Dec 16, 2004

Oh whoops

# ? Aug 3, 2015 01:50

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# ? Dec 6, 2024 20:24

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

Mel Mudkiper posted:

Is this the discussion thread or are you gonna make one?

Thread will go up either tonight or tomorrow morning.

edit: it's up, go here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3734443

Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Aug 3, 2015

# ? Aug 3, 2015 05:06

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > BOOK OF THE MONTH AUGUST: ROUND TWO: FIGHT!!!!!!