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| Which book do you want to discuss in September? |
| The House at Riverton by Kate Morton |
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35% |
[ 10 ] |
| The Abortionist's Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde |
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21% |
[ 6 ] |
| The Secret History by Donna Tartt |
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17% |
[ 5 ] |
| One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson |
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7% |
[ 2 ] |
| The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell |
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17% |
[ 5 ] |
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| Total Votes : 28 |
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Tigerlily
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 Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 5:55 pm Post subject: SEPTEMBER Book Choices - VOTE NOW! (Poll 1) |
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SEPTEMBER BOOK CHOICES - YOU DECIDE!
Which books would you like to read in September? All you have to do is vote for one of the books listed here. Read the blurbs below to see if there is anything of interest to you and place your vote. The book with the most votes by 30th August will be chosen for discussion from 1st September.
There is another poll running so please take at look at that one too. Two books will be chosen, but don't feel you have to read both if you don't want to!
The polls end midnight Thursday 30th August.
1. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton 352 pages
A rich and compelling story of love, loss and a long-buried family secret
Summer 1924: On the eve of a glittering Society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again.
Winter 1999: Grace Bradley, 98, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and memories, long-consigned to the dark reaches of Grace's mind, begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge; something history has forgotten but Grace never could.
A thrilling mystery and a compelling love story, The House at Riverton will appeal to readers of Ian McEwan's Atonement, L.P. Hartley's The Go-Between, and lovers of the film Gosford Park.
"Judy Finnegan says It's a corker ..." whilst Jo Whiley Says "I was really moved, and really gripped . . . I was crying in the car park".
2. The Abortionist's Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde 304 pages
'The problem was Megan had just taken the second half of her ecstasy when her father called with the news'. Nineteen-year-old university student Megan Thompson is beautiful, cool, clever and sexy - the kind of girl boys fall in love with. She's mostly steered clear of family life since the death of her younger brother. That is until the day she hears her mother, Diana, has been found floating face down in their swimming pool. Diana, as Director of the Center for Reproductive Choice, was a national figure who inspired passions and made enemies. Detective Huck Berlin is brought in to investigate the case when it becomes clear that Diana was murdered. Several people have quarrelled with Diana on that fateful day, not least Frank, her husband of twenty years, and her wayward child. Now, father and daughter are thrown together in an unexpected twist of family life. Set in a small town in Colorado, "The Abortionist's Daughter" is an utterly compelling novel of family secrets, dark passion and, ultimately, catharsis for those whose lives have become so strangely entwined. 'A remarkably lucid and authoritative novelist' - John Irving.'Like Anne Tyler, Hyde captures the quirky, heartbreaking core of a character and puts it on the page with shining prose' - "Publishers Weekly".
3. The Secret History by Donna Tartt 640 pages
A misfit at an exclusive New England college, Richard finds kindred spirits in the five eccentric students of his ancient Greek class. But his new friends have a horrific secret. When blackmail and violence threaten to blow their privileged lives apart, they drag Richard into the nightmare that engulfs them. And soon they enter a terrifying heart of darkness from which they may never return.
4. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson 544 pages
It is the Edinburgh Festival. People queuing for a lunchtime show witness a road-rage incident - an incident which changes the lives of everyone involved. Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police, ex-private detective, is also an innocent bystander - until he becomes a suspect. With "Case Histories", Kate Atkinson showed how brilliantly she could explore the crime genre and make it her own. In "One Good Turn", she takes her masterful plotting one step further. Like a set of Russian dolls each thread of the narrative reveals itself to be related to the last. Her Dickensian cast of characters are all looking for love or money and find it in surprising places. As ever with Atkinson what each one actually discovers is their true self. Unputdownable and triumphant, "One Good Turn" is a sharply intelligent read that is also percipient, funny, and totally satisfying.
5. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell 288 pages
A significant departure for Maggie O'Farrell in terms of maturity and style, the paperback publication of THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX will be an unmissable event. Set between the 1930s,and the present, Maggie O'Farrell's new novel is the story of Esme, a woman edited out of her family's history, and of the secrets that come to light when, sixty years later, she is released from care, and a young woman, Iris, discovers the great aunt she never knew she had. The mystery that unfolds is the heartbreaking tale of two sisters in colonial India and 1930s Edinburgh - of the loneliness that binds them together and the rivalries that drive them apart, and lead one of them to a shocking betrayal - but above all it is the story of Esme, a fiercely intelligent, unconventional young woman, and of the terrible price she is made to pay for her family's unhappiness. This is vintage Maggie O'Farrell: an impassioned, intense, haunting family drama - a stunning imagining of a life stolen, and reclaimed.
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blueflower
Babbling for Britain
Joined: 29 Jul 2006
Posts: 4137
Birthday: 12th December
Location: Cumbria
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Difficult to choose yet again. I have four of these books already so I don't mind which win. |
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heathera
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Joined: 21 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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There is such a good range of books to choose from on this poll! I've gone with The Abortionist's Daughter, again as it's been on my tbr pile for a long time. However I think all of the others look good so I don't mind which wins!
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braider31
Babblers First Words
Joined: 05 Aug 2007
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:02 pm Post subject: |
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I've gone with The Abortionist's Daughter too. I picked it up in Smiths recently and thought it sounded pretty good.
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Tigerlily
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:38 pm Post subject: |
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They're all such good choices - I often end up voting for one I didn't nominate.
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Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
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Tigerlily
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| Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 6:30 pm Post subject: |
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Bought One Good Turn and The House at Riverton today after finding out about them here. Haven't voted yet; still undecisive.
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Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
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mummymelly
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Joined: 25 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 7:09 pm Post subject: |
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Have voted for The Abortionists Daughter again but I really want to read The House at Riverton too!
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sirg1006
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Tigerlily
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| Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 5:31 pm Post subject: |
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I voted for Esme Lennox as need a kick up the bum to review it! But I'll be happy to read any of these choices. I love the sound of The House at Riverton, and I confess mainly because Judy Finnegan said it's a 'corker'!! 
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Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
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MissMuppet
Busy babbling when should be reading
Joined: 03 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:20 pm Post subject: |
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Both Elaine and Neats have recommended The House at Riverton, I bought it a couple of weeks ago and that's why I nominated and voted for it!  |
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mummymelly
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| Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 7:38 pm Post subject: |
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I recieved The House At Riverton today in a swap so am looking forward to reading it! (I don't think it'll get over taken in the Poll now?).  I'll just read The Abortionists daughter anyway this month as I've been wanting to read it for ages but have never got round to it!
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