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Welcome goonlings to the Awful Book of the Month! In this thread, we choose one work of Resources: Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org - A database of over 17000 books available online. If you can suggest books from here, that'd be the best. SparkNotes - http://www.sparknotes.com/ - A very helpful Cliffnotes-esque site, but much better, in my opinion. If you happen to come in late and need to catch-up, you can get great character/chapter/plot summaries here.  For recommendations on future material, suggestions on how to improve the club, or just a general rant, feel free to PM me. Past Books of the Month [for BOTM before 2014, refer to archives] 2014: January: Ursula K. LeGuin - The Left Hand of Darkness February: Mikhail Bulgalov - Master & Margarita March: Richard P. Feynman -- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! April: James Joyce -- Dubliners May: Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- 100 Years of Solitude June: Howard Zinn -- A People's History of the United States July: Mary Renault -- The Last of the Wine August: Barbara Tuchtman -- The Guns of August September: Jane Austen -- Pride and Prejudice October: Roger Zelazny -- A Night in the Lonesome October November: John Gardner -- Grendel December: Christopher Moore -- The Stupidest Angel 2015: January: Italo Calvino -- Invisible Cities February: Karl Ove Knausgaard -- My Struggle: Book 1. March: Knut Hamsun -- Hunger April: Liu Cixin -- 三体 ( The Three-Body Problem) May: John Steinbeck -- Cannery Row June: Truman Capote -- In Cold Blood (Hiatus) August: Ta-Nehisi Coates -- Between the World and Me September: Wilkie Collins -- The Moonstone October:Seth Dickinson -- The Traitor Baru Cormorant November:Svetlana Alexievich -- Voices from Chernobyl December: Michael Chabon -- Gentlemen of the Road 2016: January: Three Men in a Boat (To say nothing of the Dog!) by Jerome K. Jerome February:The March Up Country (The Anabasis) of Xenophon March: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco April: Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling May: Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima June:The Vegetarian by Han Kang July:Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees August: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov September:Siddhartha by Herman Hesse October:Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse November:Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain December: It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis 2017: January: Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut February: The Plague by Albert Camus March: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin April: The Conference of the Birds (مقامات الطیور) by Farid ud-Din Attar May: I, Claudius by Robert Graves June: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky July: Ficcionies by Jorge Luis Borges August: My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber September: The Peregrine by J.A. Baker Blackwater Vol. I: The Flood by Michael McDowell Current: Aquarium by David Vann Book available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OV9D9P4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 About the book: quote:David Vann’s new novel, “Aquarium,” about a lonely young girl who meets an old man at the Seattle Aquarium, begins on a deceptively light note. Its cinematic quality is due largely to a series of lovely, well-curated fish photographs that accompany 12-year-old Caitlin’s observation of the exotic fauna. But the momentary lightness of these early pages soon unspools into psychological darkness — and the intricate, colorful pictures diminish — as Caitlin moves away from the tranquillity and beauty of the aquarium and into the more dangerous spaces of a world populated by humans. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/books/review/david-vanns-aquarium.html Mel Mudkiper posted:Aquarium by David Vann Mel Mudkiper posted:also why havent you read Aquarium by David Vann yet fridge corn posted:you won't understand the lit thread until you finally read aquarium just to shut mel up About the Author quote:Vann is a talented, Alaska-born writer whose professional success overseas has been extraordinary but who is, so far, a bit less known on his native soil. He has always written fiction about brutal violence — and always against a backdrop of the land, where men of strong character (albeit tragically flawed) know how to build boats and gut deer and haul in halibut, whereas men of weaker character tend to be, say, students or dentists. His frankly autobiographical novels and short stories return persistently to the subject of marital breakups, depression, suicide, murder and torture — to guns and to killing, of game animals, of bears and of wives, husbands and mothers. Themes quote:Next to these R-rated tales, “Aquarium” is almost PG-13, although it, too, ultimately returns to story lines of paternal abandonment and vicious mistreatment of children. To say any more about its revelations and tense climax would be to offer spoilers. But “Aquarium” has a vastly different feel from Vann’s other books, a tone and texture quite removed from the relentlessness of his Alaskan (and rural Californian) tales. It leaves more air and space for the reader, it dwells less on physical mechanics, and it has a softer touch, as befits its gentle child protagonist. Pacing Read as thou wilt is the whole of the law. Please bookmark the thread to encourage discussion. References and Further Reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fish_Called_Wanda Final Note: Thanks, and I hope everyone enjoys the book!
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Nov 7, 2017 20:23
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Just bought it, now I can finally find out whether it's a dumb meme in the lit thread or an actually good book.
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Nov 8, 2017 12:59
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Finally there's a place on this forum to talk about Aquarium by beloved American author David Vann!
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Nov 8, 2017 13:58
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Hell, one of the best books I've read this year. Y'all best get to it.
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Nov 8, 2017 13:59
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cebrail posted:Just bought it, now I can finally find out whether it's a dumb meme in the lit thread or an actually good book. Actually good, glad I read it (especially since it's relatively short), but certainly not in my top 10 for the year. I kind of got into my feelings about it, though, since I have young kids and Vann writes that perspective well.
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Nov 8, 2017 14:27
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Ima gonna wait a few weeks before joining in because everything I want to say is spoilery as all hell
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Nov 8, 2017 15:30
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CestMoi posted:Finally there's a place on this forum to talk about Aquarium by beloved American author David Vann!
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Nov 9, 2017 00:58
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David Vann looks like a lizard man wearing a human skin.
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Nov 9, 2017 01:00
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A human heart posted:David Vann looks like a lizard man wearing a human skin. We would also have accepted "that preacher from the Poltergeist sequel"
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Nov 9, 2017 03:10
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Oh, glad this popped up finally. I actually already finished the book, but thought it was pretty drat good. The ending felt a bit rushed, but other then that it really was a hell of a ride. I don't want to go into anything too spoilery, but (dealing with the first half or so of the book. Don't read if you don't know who the old man is yet) I was totally expecting the old man to be a pedo. I'm sure Vann did that on purpose, but man the build up to the meeting between old man and mom was a slow build up of foreboding for me. The tone of the writing was really nice and easy to read, although I found the total lack of quotation marks to be a strange choice.
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Nov 9, 2017 05:53
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A human heart posted:David Vann looks like a lizard man wearing a human skin. This guy? 
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Nov 9, 2017 18:24
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3.7/5 on Goodreads LMAO Caribou Island is at 3.4/5 and yet I think it’s one of the best books I’ve read during the past few years. Can’t wait to sink my teeth into this
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Nov 9, 2017 22:08
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:3.7/5 on Goodreads LMAO I've been waiting to read it, but since he has so few books I didn't want to rush through all of them. Goat Mountain is also excellent, and Legend of a Suicide goes without saying.
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Nov 10, 2017 00:02
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Ah, so his other works are good, too? I'm guessing from the snippy comments at the start of this thread that he is a relatively well known author, but this was honestly my first exposure to him.
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Nov 10, 2017 01:32
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GoDdamn Mel gets two books in a row?? Who died and made him book barn president. Anyway I read this a ways back and it was really solid. I'll probably pick up one of his other books this month and just talk about that here instead.
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Nov 10, 2017 02:35
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USMC_Karl posted:Ah, so his other works are good, too? I'm guessing from the snippy comments at the start of this thread that he is a relatively well known author, but this was honestly my first exposure to him. He's interesting because he is an American author who is awarded and celebrated in Europe more the here
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Nov 10, 2017 04:24
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USMC_Karl posted:Ah, so his other works are good, too? I'm guessing from the snippy comments at the start of this thread that he is a relatively well known author, but this was honestly my first exposure to him. I've only heard of him on this forum. He seems to be a nearing meme status in the lit thread though.
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Nov 10, 2017 05:42
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USMC_Karl posted:Ah, so his other works are good, too? I'm guessing from the snippy comments at the start of this thread that he is a relatively well known author, but this was honestly my first exposure to him. He's 'relatively well known' in the sense that one or two of the clowns in the lit thread keep talking about him
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Nov 10, 2017 07:57
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CestMoi posted:Finally there's a place on this forum to talk about Aquarium by beloved American author David Vann!
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Nov 10, 2017 16:20
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Prepare for disappointment.
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Nov 10, 2017 16:33
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I'm afraid I can't contribute to discussion of the book Aquarium by David Vann despite having read it; I feel giving my honest opinion of the work may detract from my ability to use it as a meme in the lit thread
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Nov 10, 2017 17:27
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So since the comment about Aquarium being a meme keeps popping up, let me say this. This book is really, really good. Genuinely my favorite book of the decade. Yeah it became a bit of a joke to bring it up in the lit thread, but it 100% succeeds on its own merits. To be brief and non-spoilery, what fascinates me most about this book is how it deals with human responses and the impossibility of a clean resolution. The novel at every step is an aggression refutation of outcomes that fiction has taught you to expect. The characters react to an impossible series of ethical and emotional challenges messily. It is a story about human weakness, but it is a story that shows that people are rarely broken by tragedy. A lesser author would have the novel and the characters end at a point much cleaner and more satisfying to the narrator. He doesn't. This ultimately a story that shows people at their most human, in all the best and worst qualities it offers.
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Nov 10, 2017 18:14
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USMC_Karl posted:I was totally expecting the old man to be a pedo. I'm sure Vann did that on purpose, but man the build up to the meeting between old man and mom was a slow build up of foreboding for me. (first half of the book) Take the plunge! Okay! posted:3.7/5 on Goodreads LMAO Why would it have a good rating on Goodreads, it's not even part of a YA fantasy series Peggotty fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Nov 10, 2017 |
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Nov 10, 2017 18:57
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Mel Mudkiper posted:So since the comment about Aquarium being a meme keeps popping up, let me say this. I didn't like it as much as you did (although as I said I do think it was worthwhile), but I agree strongly with all of these points and I found it an unflinching exploration of real human life.
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Nov 12, 2017 23:56
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Yeah, one of the complaints in the Lit thread I heard was that it wraps up too cleanly, which I find insane since its the least clean ending I have ever read
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Nov 13, 2017 01:47
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this book is good as hell
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Nov 13, 2017 03:26
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A human heart posted:David Vann looks like a lizard man wearing a human skin. thats actually David Duke. Common misconception
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Nov 13, 2017 03:28
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Yeah, one of the complaints in the Lit thread I heard was that it wraps up too cleanly, which I find insane since its the least clean ending I have ever read Agreed, it's less of a good, clean ending and more of a, hey, there is a tiny glimmer of hope for this family, (just want to be safe, not really a spoiler in the sense that it tells you anything) kind of ending.
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Nov 13, 2017 05:04
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The book is good but I maintain it would have been better if it had focused on the cycle of domestic abuse and petty retribution and left out the lesbian romance angle.
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Nov 13, 2017 05:45
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Oxxidation posted:The book is good but I maintain it would have been better if it had focused on the cycle of domestic abuse and petty retribution and left out the lesbian romance angle. Yeah, that whole story seemed a little tacked on. I guess it serves as a way to set up yet one more thing that mom could flip out on, but it a)seemed to come out of nowhere and b)was wrapped up very quickly. Then again, it serves as a way for gramps to break through to mom, so I guess it does have some purpose in the story.
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Nov 13, 2017 05:57
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The romance story bothered me more because the love interest seemed kind of artificial. In a story of realistic, toned down people, the love interest seemed too much like a "character" I do not think it was unnecessary however, because it was essential to what I think is the best part of the entire novel. I would never love my mother like I had again That idea is essential to the core of the story. It is the shattering of the childish hero worship of someone's parents and the confrontation with them as flawed people
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Nov 13, 2017 06:17
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The lesbian romance is important, because it's the final moment where Caitlin realizes that while her love for her mother was unconditional, it is not reciprocated at all; Caitlin's sexuality is completely natural, it is never considered taboo or wrong or risque, and it provides her with an emotional connection she hasn't been able to receive from anyone. For her mother to deny this to her and say "No, I no longer accept you because of this", is what finally solidifies Caitlin's cycle of maturity, because her mother can't love her the way she loves her mother, and because it's a form of cruelty and abuse that her mother is creating for her outside of her own personal scars left by her father, which she has been sharing with/exposing Caitlin to. Caitlin is able to experience and overcome the former abuse because she's able to justify it as an act of love from her mother. However, her mom denying her because of her personal love shows Caitlin her mom's selfishness and myopic sense of right and wrong. I haven't read the book in a year, so I may have some details wrong when discussing it. It is one of the best reading experiences I've had in years and I have gladly contributed to the Vann meme, and it deserves more exposure.
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Nov 13, 2017 14:11
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For those still reading, pay attention to the many different forms of camouflage throughout the story, especially in the first and third act. Each fish that Caitlin talks about reflects different themes within the story, as well. edit: Also, there's a pretty good interview between Michael Silverblatt and David Vann on KCRW's Bookworm podcast/radio show that was held for Aquarium's release which has some fun insight into the story. For instance, when writing, Vann only knew that Caitlin would meet an old man at an aquarium, and found through writing it was her grandfather. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Nov 13, 2017 |
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Nov 13, 2017 14:14
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Franchescanado posted:Also, there's a pretty good interview between Michael Silverblatt and David Vann on KCRW's Bookworm podcast/radio show that was held for Aquarium's release which has some fun insight into the story. For instance, when writing, Vann only knew that Caitlin would meet an old man at an aquarium, and found through writing it was her grandfather. I heard that story too and I have to admit I kinda feel like it bullshit. It's such an essential element of the story that I have no idea how he could not have planned it beforehand
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Nov 14, 2017 03:20
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I heard that story too and I have to admit I kinda feel like it bullshit. It's such an essential element of the story that I have no idea how he could not have planned it beforehand Books go through lots of drafts and sometimes writers do the first one off the cuff
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Nov 14, 2017 03:39
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blue squares posted:Books go through lots of drafts and sometimes writers do the first one off the cuff Yeah, like, sometimes they start writing something that might not be intended to be a full novel or maybe not even a short story but just some vignette or other, and then they have an idea halfway through writing it and it turns into something completely different from what they set out to write.
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Nov 14, 2017 09:32
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I heard that story too and I have to admit I kinda feel like it bullshit. It's such an essential element of the story that I have no idea how he could not have planned it beforehand Yeah, he may just have had an image of a little girl in an aquarium meeting an old man and just wanted to see where the story went. I've had stories evolve from images, and many great stories and novels have weird origins like that. Another example is supposedly Chuck P. didn't know Fight Club's twist until he wrote it, and then he went back and rewrote the novel to fit it. Ideas just pop out of the ether when you're writing.
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Nov 14, 2017 13:12
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I heard that story too and I have to admit I kinda feel like it bullshit. It's such an essential element of the story that I have no idea how he could not have planned it beforehand Guy who's never written any fiction detected 
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Nov 14, 2017 14:40
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that mom was such a bitch idve told her to fuk off lol
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Nov 14, 2017 14:52
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fridge corn posted:that mom was such a bitch idve told her to fuk off lol lol hell yea this guy gets it
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Nov 14, 2017 19:43
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