Here is the list of suggested books.
Please make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comment box. I’ll collate the votes and put the most popular book choice on the Book Forum. My apologies if I had to miss out any you suggested. We had 27 choices this time and I had to whittle them down.
A Hatful of Sky by Terry Pratchet - Wacky magic and witchcraft. Fast moving and really good fun. You’ll either love it or hate it!
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving - A novel about an odd friendship. It opens with an account of how the narrator accidentally kills Owen Meany’s mum with a stray ball. (Jane, I added this one even though it is one of the few books I got so irritated with I couldn’t bear to finish it.)
Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk - I couldn’t find any details on this book, only real estate adverts, so I guess it must be a real place.
Brick Road by Monica Ali - The life of a Bangladeshi village girl who ends up in a London tower block after an arranged marriage. (Not as dispiriting as it sounds)
Dancing on Thorns by Rebecca Horsfall - Moving epic romance with sultry sex scenes. The man is the obsessive dancer. A long road from ‘Ballet Shoes’
Fortune’s Rock by Anita Shreve - A moving story about unwise love and choices that transform a life. ( A meditation on the erotic life of a woman and class prejudice)
Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris (Yes, she wrote ‘Chocolat‘) - A complicated good and a bad witch story. They are trying to fit into a society that has no place for magic.
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - A murdered 14 year old tells her own story
Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brien - 19th C seagoing adventure, just think of ‘you know who’ in those tight trousers. The only problem is, if you get hooked on Jack Aubrey, there’s another 20 or so books in the series.
Restoration by Rose Tremain - 17C romp. The hero is trapped between his longings for wealth and power and the realisation that the pursuit of these trappings can lead to a shallow, empty life.
Rose by Martin Cruz Smith - An American adventurer adrift in Victorian England, confronting his own Heart of Darkness
Thames by Peter Ackroyd - If we want to get right away from ‘family’ stories why not this exploration of the Thames, from the source to the sea - chock full of anecdote, spirit of place, narrative and characters from Caesar to William Morris
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - Time bending cloak and dagger romp. A silly book for smart people. A post modern, farce.
Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen - Star crossed lovers in the circus world of 1932.
(The painting is Summer No.2 by Auguste Hebron)
18 comments:
A hatful of sky and Lollipop shoes. Sorry I seem to have two 1st choices so I won't chose a 2nd choice. Am I allowed to do this? Do I need to sign up somewhere 1st?
Give me terry pratchett any day!!!
You're fine DJ - no need to sign in!
Hmm, have read a fair few of these and won't vote for Owen Meany if it made you cross LBW (his other books all made me REALLY cross but a friend promised this one wouldn't....but from what you've said I'm sceptical).
Eeek, can't do first/second choices but would be happy to read (in particular) Rose, Water for Elephants and Thames. Would have a stab at Pratchett even though I have always shied away from his books (not sure why).
Hi DJ No, you don't have to sign in anywhere. It's great to have you on board. Thanks for the votes. I give 1st choice 3 points, 2nd choice 2 points and if I can't work out what on earth the vote is meant to be, that gets 1 point. I then add 'em all up and the book with the most votes is the Autumn Book. Simple really.
Whoop Whoop Terry Pratchet for me too . . tra lalalalala and if we do read it and any one hates . . . .it's the naughty corner for them tra alalalal
1st choice Monica Ali's Brick Lane
2nd choice Anita Shreve
Thames
Water for Elephants
either would be fine
oh I have read so many of these already!
Jane, try a prayer for owen meany - I found it really moving though read it years ago.
lollipop shoes (although is it n paperback yet?)
thames
but really I don't mind but (sorry headmistress) I don't want to read Terry pratchet as he is my father in law's favourite author....
Sorry, can't bear Terry Pratchett so I guess it's the naughty corner for ever for me. Would probably go for Water for elephants and Thames.
1st - Thames
2nd - Restoration
(read Water for Elephants, but don't mind reading it again - was good in my humble opinion...)
Mootia x
1: Lollipop shoes
2: Thames
not tezzer please!
Elephants or Rose from me.
Not knowing if I would ever find time to read any more books (I have got stacks of them waiting on the runway) I will just vote for the two on your list that I have already read.
1. Brick Road
2. Arlington Park
Very real estate-centerer choices! Which ever book is the winner, I will put its name on that stack and try to get to it.
It is fun to see the variety of books before us. (Since Toady is promoting pirate day, could Treasure Island steal its way on to the list as today's special guest?)
Arlington Park
Lollipop Shoes
I have shied away fm Pratchett too and don't know why (naughty corner here I come).
I can't bear John Irving - no, no, no!!
#1 Arlington Park
#2Brick Road
1.Lollipop Shoes
2.Lollipop Shoes
so I am biased, I have the book already( bought it when it came out early this summer) and there is a small chance I might even get it read this time and join in!
I guess I'd better put mine on as well. So that it is fair
1. The Eyre Affair
2. Thames
Lollipop shoes
Arlington park
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