BABBLING BOOKS

sirg1006 · Last edited by sirg1006 on Sat Oct 28, 2006 5:43 pm; edited 1 time in total

VOTE NOW for next 2 Babbling Books Book Choices!

Thanks to all those who sent in their suggestions!

Take time to have a read through the suggestions/blurbs and see if there is anything that grabs you. The two books with the most votes will be chosen to be read and discussed from 22nd October to 22nd November.

I've added number of pages and Amazon UK price because these can be factors in deciding for some.

If you chose a book, please don't mention which one - fairer if it is kept a secret. These are all quite different so if there is one you'd like to read, please vote for it!

POLL CLOSES 16th OCTOBER

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1.

Empress Orchid by Anchee Min 352 Pages, £6.39
To rescue her family from poverty and avoid marrying her slope-shouldered cousin, seventeen-year-old Orchid competes to be one of the Emperor's wives. When she is chosen as a lower-ranking concubine she enters the erotically charged and ritualised Forbidden City. But beneath its immaculate facade lie whispers of murders and ghosts, and the thousands of concubines will stoop to any lengths to bear the Emperor's son. Orchid trains herself in the art of pleasuring a man, bribes her way into the royal bed, and seduces the monarch, drawing the attention of dangerous foes. Little does she know that China will collapse around her, and that she will be its last Empress.

2.

Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor 432 Pages, £6.99
Tragedy is a word too often used. Nevertheless, in Star of the Sea Joseph O'Connor manages to achieve a real sense of the tragic, as personal dramas of the most distressing kind play themselves out against the background of the Irish potato famine and the almost equal nightmare of the mass emigration that it caused. As passengers die of starvation and disease in steerage, a drama of adultery, inadvertent incest and inherited disease plays itself out in first class. O'Connor raises, and does not attempt definitively to answer, real questions about responsibility and choice.

3.

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters 480 Pages, £5.59
The heroine of Sarah Waters's audacious first novel knows her destiny, and seems content with it. Her place is in her father's seaside restaurant, shucking shellfish and stirring soup, singing all the while. "Although I didn't believe the story told to me by Mother--that they had found me as a baby in an oyster-shell, and a greedy customer had almost eaten me for lunch--for 18 years I never doubted my own oysterish sympathies, never looked beyond my father's kitchen for occupation, or for love." At night Nancy Astley often ventures to the nearby music hall, not that she has illusions of being more than an audience member. But the moment she spies a new male impersonator--still something of a curiosity in England circa 1888--her years of innocence come to an end and a life of transformations begins.

4.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters 560 Pages, £6.39
Fingersmith is the third slice of engrossing lesbian Victoriana from Sarah Waters. Although lighter and more melodramatic in tone than its predecessor Affinity, this hypnotic suspense novel is awash with all manner of gloomy Dickensian leitmotifs: pickpockets; orphans; grim prisons; lunatic asylums; "laughing villains" and, of course, "stolen fortunes and girls made out to be mad". Oliver Twist (which is mentioned on the opening page), The Woman in White and The Prince and the Pauper all exert an influence on it but none overawe. Like Peter Ackroyd, Waters has an uncanny gift for inventive reconstruction.

5.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith 464 pages, £6.39
Set in New England mainly and London partly, "On Beauty" concerns a pair of feuding families - the Belseys and the Kipps - and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys and the Kipps, the confusions - both personal and political - of our uncertain age are about to be brought close to home: right to the heart of family.

6.

Atonement by Ian McEwan 384 Pages, £4.79
We meet 13-year-old Briony Tallis in the summer of 1935, as she attempts to stage a production of her new drama The Trials of Arabella to welcome home her elder, idolised brother Leon. But she soon discovers that her cousins, the glamorous Lola and the twin boys Jackson and Pierrot, aren't up to the task, and directorial ambitions are abandoned as more interesting preoccupations come onto the scene. The charlady's son Robbie Turner appears to be forcing Briony's sister Cecilia to strip in the Fountain and sends her obscene letters; Leon has brought home a dim chocolate magnate keen for a war to promote his new "Army Amo" bar; and upstairs Briony's migraine-stricken mother Emily keeps tabs on the house from her bed. Soon, secrets emerge that change the lives of everyone present...

7.

Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho 208 Pages, £6.39
"On 11 November 1997, Veronika decided that the moment to kill herself had--at last!--arrived": so begins Paulo Coelho's extraordinary new novel, Veronika Decides to Die. Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa, Veronika Decides to Die is a compelling story of a woman's struggle with and against life, told with Coelho's wit, subtlety and economy. On the track of whatever it is that makes life worth living, Coelho plots Veronika's fate with infinite care, weaving the mystery of her decision to take her own life into the themes of national identity--Veronika is a citizen of Slovenia, "that strange country that no one seemed quite able to place"--and madness.

8.

Year Of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks £6.39, 320 pages
Spring 1666: when the Great Plague reaches the quiet Derbyshire village of Eyam, the villagers turn to sorcery, herb lore, and witch-hunting. Then, led by a young and charismatic preacher, they elect to isolate themselves in a fatal quarantine. So begins the Year of Wonders, seen through 18-year-old Anna Frith's eyes as she confronts the loss of her family, the disintegration of community, and the lure of an illicit love. Based on a true story, this novel explores love and learning, fear and fanatacism, and the struggles of the 17th-century science and religion to interpret the world at the cusp of the modern era.

9.

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor 288 Pages, £5.59
On a street in a town in the North of England, ordinary people are going through the motions of their everyday existence. A young man is in love with a neighbour who does not even know his name. An old couple make their way up to the nearby bus stop. But then a terrible event shatters the quiet of the early summer evening. That this remarkable and horrific event is only poignant to those who saw it, not even meriting a mention on the local news, means that those who witness it will be altered for ever.

10.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver 500 Pages, £6.39
Two years ago, Eva Khatchadourian's son, Kevin, murdered seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker, and a popular algebra teacher. Because he was only fifteen at the time of the killings, he received a lenient sentence and is now in a prison for young offenders in upstate New York. Telling the story of Kevin's upbringing, Eva addresses herself to her estranged husband through a series of letters. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son has become, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about both motherhood in general and Kevin in particular. How much is her fault?

_________________
I'm an auntie! Kelvin

lovely treez · Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 8:17 am Post subject:

I've read 6 of these but have opted for Atonement which I haven't read and Kevin which I have and would highly recommend for anyone who hasn't encountered it yet. It would make for fascinating discussion too!

Tigerlily · Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:06 am Post subject:

I'm still discussing Kevin with friends and family months after reading it!

Some great book choices here.

I'll go for both choices this time

_________________
Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Reading Challenge 2009: 8
2008: 4
2007: 10

MissMuppet · Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 10:27 am Post subject:

I've voted Empress Orchid as I've had this on my TBR pile for a while. Couldn't get on with Kevin or Year of Wonders though recently...

blueflower · Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:36 pm Post subject:

I've got 7 (read 4) of these books so I may get away without having to buy this months choices, which will please my long suffering OH. He can't move for books in his office/my library. Good choices this month, there are only a couple that I don't think I would enjoy reading but I would still give them ago.

Tigerlily · Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:43 pm Post subject:

I've read Star Of The Sea (cracking read) and Kevin (excellent reading group choice). Have Atonement waiting to be read on my tbr pile and am in the middle of reading Fingersmith at the moment and have to say it's an excellent read. Going off to read a bit more now

Can't wait to read 'one of the best twists in English Literature'. Now if that doesn't make you curious...

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Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Reading Challenge 2009: 8
2008: 4
2007: 10

blueflower · Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:56 pm Post subject:

sirg1006 · Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:24 pm Post subject:

I've not voted yet as I have 2 books from the list on TBR but like the sound of some of the others

Still not read The Winter Queen yet so better get a move on!!

D

_________________
I'm an auntie! Kelvin

miranda · Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:15 pm Post subject:

Glad I'm not the only one lagging behind on the reading Donna!

I have started The Winter Queen, but might move onto The Color Purple because I think it looks more readable! Not sure what to vote for they all look good!
_________________
Currently reading: The Human Stain by Philip Roth
'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.'

miranda · Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:21 pm Post subject:

I've only been able to choose one book

When I selected the second book the first one was de-selected! And now I don't have the option to vote again. I am a bit miffed cos I voted for my second choice first! Not to worry if I can't vote again I can maybe just PM admin and they can count my vote in. Just thought I would post this incase anyone else is having this problem!

_________________
Currently reading: The Human Stain by Philip Roth
'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.'

sirg1006 · Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:35 pm Post subject:

You can only vote once - there isn't the option of letting people vote for more than one choice unfortunately but if you PM me with both your choices I'll remember what you've chosen and know what's winning.

D

_________________
I'm an auntie! Kelvin

sirg1006 · Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 4:50 pm Post subject:

We need some deciding votes! If there are none by the time I wake up tomorrow (about midday), I'll set up another poll to decide on the 2 books - from the ones with the most votes!

D

_________________
I'm an auntie! Kelvin

miranda · Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:24 am Post subject:

I think the original choices have just been so good! I really wouldn't mind reading any of these.

_________________
Currently reading: The Human Stain by Philip Roth
'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.'

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