Book Club - Suggest a Book

[nebulist.livejournal.com]

First off, please suggest a book for the book club. Suggest any book you like that fits into this community. Comment with the title, author, and a few lines of what the book is about and/or why you think the book club should read it. Concise is good, but write as much as you need to say. (You can include other information you think might be relevant - price and availability, for instance.) It can be a book you've read before or not.

There is no obligation involved in the book club -- I assume everyone's involvement will depend on the book choice, and that free time constraints will affect your decision to start and your ability to finish the book.


Here is my plan.

In a few days -- I am thinking Sunday evening -- I will post a list of the suggestions and depending on the number of suggestions, I may grab a few ideas from the recs post, or add some of my own. I will post the title/author/summary of all the suggestions, and then a poll with all the options. We will all vote on the book.

In that same post, I will post a poll on when the Livejournal discussion post should go up and, if we decide to also do a chat, when the chat might be.

A few days later, I will announce the book choice based on the poll, and when the LJ post (and maybe also chat) will happen. Then, if all goes to plan, I will no longer bother the community until it's time for the LJ discussion post.

One more quick poll. Note there will for sure be an LJ discussion post.
[Poll #1364070]

If you would be interested in organizing a book club meeting -- however you see fit -- for May or June, please let me know.

Comment if you have more ideas, concerns, or questions. Feel free to link. Thanks!

Comments

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Apex Hides the Hurt sounds fun to me.

[mousagetes.livejournal.com]

I would love to read the Danticat, and I'd also like to suggest Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. I haven't read it since early college and would welcome the chance to read it with a group again. Here's wikipedia's overview of the novel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Man); beware plot details. It sells for just over ten bucks new on Amazon, but I'm sure you could find it at the library, in a used bookstore, or in digital or audio format.

[ladydreamer.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I read most of these, so any one of them could use a good reread.

Yoruba Girl Dancing, Simi Bedford
Story of the trials of a young girl from Yoruba whose family moves to England and sends her to boarding school.
Why: I found it very well written and engaging. I found the protagonist Remi a very easy protagonist to get a long with. It's fast paced and touches on themes I find in other authors of the region. I think since I was so young when I read it, though, I probably missed a good deal.

Kehinde, Buchi Emecheta
The story is about a woman finding her balance between Yoruba and England, where she now lives and works with her family.
Why: Emecheta is just such a darn good writer. Also the title of the book refers to the protagonist's twin, who died before she was born, and part of her self-discovery involves dealing with this and her peoples' conception of what her position as a twin means.

Kindred, Octavia Butler
A Californian woman finds herself being transported back in time to meet her slave owning ancestor.
Why: Butler is fabulous. Also, this book is so incredibly complex. I read it once in a theory class to talk about concepts of Hegel.

Bread Givers, Anzia Yezierska
Story of a Jewish girl in the 1920s. Addresses racism, poverty, and for the narrator, defining Jewish womanhood for herself.
Why: Yezierska writes a compelling narrative no matter what she set her pen to. When reading I was very much entangled with her narrator.

The Last Report on the Miracles of Little No Horse, Louise Erdrich
This comes from a series of books from Erdrich set on a reservation, some of which are better than others, but all of which are more or less enjoyable. I don't think reading those that come after it are required to understand this. What we are getting here is the backstory to the other books that were written first. It follows the story told by Father Damien Modeste, a woman who lived as a man and served the Ojibwe on the Little No Horse reservation (although probably not how he envisioned that he would).
Dark, passionate, fantastical and historical, lavishly written, I think this is her best, of what I've read.

I look forward to what others suggest. :)

[maevele.livejournal.com]

I just picked up Kindred last week, and was about to start it. i an hold off if we're gonna read it for book club.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Me too on wanting to read Kindred.

[sanguinity]

Mod here.

Unless there's some information I'm missing about Yezierska, on the basis of this discussion I advise against considering Anzia Yezierska for the book club.

[ladydreamer.livejournal.com]

I apologize. My original understanding of this issue comes with a talk I had with a Jewish friend of mine about how she considers her identity, and I think I mistakenly conflated some of the things she was talking about with identity as a PoC (the fault being entirely mine), but reading that linked discussion, I understand why Yezierska wouldn't be included. Thank you.

[nwhyte]

I think this is a great idea, and while I won't suggest any books myself, I look forward to participating.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

A couple that are on the top of my to-read pile:

Edward P. Jones - The Known World (http://www.amazon.com/Known-World-Edward-P-Jones/dp/0061159174)

Natsuo Kirino - Out (http://www.amazon.com/Out-Novel-Natsuo-Kirino/dp/1400078377)


And one I'm reading right now which is so far extremely awesome and I would love to discuss it with people!

Richard Van Camp - The Lesser Blessed (http://www.amazon.com/Lesser-Blessed-Richard-Van-Camp/dp/1550545256)

[melodyunity.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested in either the Danticat or the Erdrich. I also have both The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (http://www.amazon.com/Brief-Wondrous-Life-Oscar-Wao/dp/1594489580) by Junot Diaz and Interpreter of Maladies (http://www.amazon.com/Interpreter-Maladies-Jhumpa-Lahiri/dp/0618101365/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236898600&sr=1-1) by Jhumpa Lahiri on my TBR list, and they both seem like they might be good book club books.