Poll - Book Club Book

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Forgive me if I did this wrong, I've never done a poll before.

Basically, I selected 4 common book club books. These are book club books because they actually seem to have themes to discuss, etc. I know some of these are very popular and bestsellers so I'm sorry if I've selected something that someone has read but hopefully there's one on there that works for most people. Plus, if you've already read it, you can still come discuss it with us!!

Next month, someone else can pick. I'm really excited about this so hopefully this works!! I'll leave the poll up for 3 days so we pick something by the weekend. Then we can "meet" the first week of April.

Also, I want this to be low stress. Since it's a discussion board, if you can't get through the whole book or you've already read it, you can join us anyway!! Ok, enough jabbering, have a great night!!

[BonBon]

Re: Poll - Book Club Book

I've never heard of any of them, how sad is that? I'm usually all about the non-fiction (current read: Twinkie, Deconstructed. It's about food science...where did the ing emoticon go?!)

I'm looking forward to reading fiction again!

Re: Poll - Book Club Book

I chose The Space Between Us. I have Tenderness of Wolves and Three Cups of Tea on my nightstand, waiting their turns. I'd be interested in those too.

[Ladybug]

Re: Poll - Book Club Book

My MIL gave me three cups of tea to read, so it's sitting on my shelf and ready to read.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Re: Poll - Book Club Book

Here are the Amazon descriptions, sorry I didn't post these last night, I was too lazy.

Three Cups of Tea:
From Publishers Weekly
Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse's unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers' hearts. (Mar.)

Tenderness of Wolves
The frigid isolation of European immigrants living on the 19th-century Canadian frontier is the setting for British author Penney's haunting debut. Seventeen-year-old Francis Ross disappears the same day his mother discovers the scalped body of his friend, fur trader Laurent Jammet, in a neighboring cabin. The murder brings newcomers to the small settlement, from inexperienced Hudson Bay Company representative Donald Moody to elderly eccentric Thomas Sturrock, who arrives searching for a mysterious archeological fragment once in Jammet's possession. Other than Francis, no real suspects emerge until half-Indian trapper William Parker is caught searching the dead man's house. Parker escapes and joins with Francis's mother to track Francis north, a journey that produces a deep if unlikely bond between them. Only when the pair reaches a distant Scandinavian settlement do both characters and reader begin to understand Francis, who arrived there days before them. Penney's absorbing, quietly convincing narrative illuminates the characters, each a kind of outcast, through whose complex viewpoints this dense, many-layered story is told. (July)

Alias Grace:
Intrigued by contemporary reports of a sensational murder trial in 1843 Canada, Atwood has drawn a compelling portrait of what might have been. Her protagonist, the real life Grace Marks, is an enigma. Convicted at age 16 of the murder of her employer, Thomas Kinnear, and his housekeeper and lover, Nancy Montgomery, Grace escaped the gallows when her sentence was commuted to life in prison, but she also spent some years in an insane asylum after an emotional breakdown. Because she gave three different accounts of the killings, and because she was accused of being the sole perpetrator by the man who was hanged for the crime, Grace's life and mind are fertile territory for Atwood. Adapting her style to the period she describes, she has written a typical Victorian novel, leisurely in exposition, copiously detailed and crowded with subtly drawn characters who speak the embroidered, pietistic language of the time. She has created a probing psychological portrait of a working-class woman victimized by society because of her poverty, and victimized again by the judicial and prison systems. The narrative gains texture and tension from the dynamic between Grace and an interlocutor, earnest young bachelor Dr. Simon Jordan, who is investigating the causes of lunacy with plans to establish his own, more enlightened institution. Jordan is hoping to awaken Grace's suppressed memories of the day of the murder, but Grace, though uneducated, is far wilier than Jordan, whom she tells only what she wishes to confess. He, on the other hand, is handicapped by his compassion, which makes him the victim of the wiles of other women, too?his passionate, desperate landlady, and the virginal but predatory daughter of the prison governor. These encounters give Atwood the chance to describe the war between the sexes with her usual wit. Although the narrative holds several big surprises, the central question?Was Grace dupe and victim or seductress and instigator of the bloody crime??is left tantalizingly ambiguous.

The Space Between Us:
Umrigar's schematic novel (after Bombay Time) illustrates the intimacy, and the irreconcilable class divide, between two women in contemporary Bombay. Bhima, a 65-year-old slum dweller, has worked for Sera Dubash, a younger upper-middle-class Parsi woman, for years: cooking, cleaning and tending Sera after the beatings she endures from her abusive husband, Feroz. Sera, in turn, nurses Bhima back to health from typhoid fever and sends her granddaughter Maya to college. Sera recognizes their affinity: "They were alike in many ways, Bhima and she. Despite the different trajectories of their lives—circumstances... dictated by the accidents of their births—they had both known the pain of watching the bloom fade from their marriages." But Sera's affection for her servant wars with ingrained prejudice against lower castes. The younger generation—Maya; Sera's daughter, Dinaz, and son-in-law, Viraf—are also caged by the same strictures despite efforts to throw them off. In a final plot twist, class allegiance combined with gender inequality challenges personal connection, and Bhima may pay a bitter price for her loyalty to her employers. At times, Umrigar's writing achieves clarity, but a narrative that unfolds in retrospect saps the book's momentum.

Hope that helps!!

[Sheherezade]

Re: Poll - Book Club Book

Damn, Elizabeth! You just made it harder for me! Now I want to read all of them! They sound great. I voted for Three Cups of Tea strictly because it has the most votes so far and I'd like to read it too. My favorite from the descriptions was Alias Grace....and I will be adding that one to my stack of unread books. My precariously tall stack of unread books.

[Ladybug]

Re: Poll - Book Club Book

Ack! She took the book back. Grumble, grumble. I still want to read it though. She raved about it.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Re: Poll - Book Club Book

Yeah they all sound amazing!

But whatever we choose, we can keep them on a list and then if the next host likes them, they could choose some of these also.

Re: Poll - Book Club Book

Three Cups of Tea IS amazing. I'm not participating b/c I haven't managed to read the book I bought back in September, but I just wanted to throw in my endorsement for Three Cups of Tea.

[civilspouse]

Re: Poll - Book Club Book

Follower that I am I went with Three Cups of Tea. They all sound great though and I'm looking forward to reading whichever one wins.