Find below the books' selections some of you have sent. Even though some of you sent more than one, we have included one suggestion per person per month to allow more people to take part. All of them, wonderful choices. Thanks!
Let's read the reviews, think about it, and vote on the blog! Last day for voting Tuesday, November 2nd (by midnight).
The suggestions are:
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, sent by our member Pam
Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. (from amazon.com)
The Heaven Tree by Edith Pargeter, sent by Dana.
Beloved author Ellis Peters (Pargeter), creator of Benedictine sleuth Brother Cadfael, penned this superb trilogy under her real name nearly 30 years ago. ( The third book, the Scarlet Seed, is being published in the US for the first time.) The story spans roughly the first third of the 13th century. Pargeter weaves her tale into the politics of medieval England and Wales, and her knowledge of the period is most impressive. The trilogy tells the story of Harry Talvace, nobly born, who has the soul and hands of an artist and mason. The subsequent two books follow the fortunes of another Harry Talvace, son of the first Harry. Pargeter's characters and her settings are vividly etched into the reader's mind. Writing feelingly about the creative genius of the artist and the complex bonds of loyalty that linked medieval men and women, Pargeter illumines a world distant in time and in outlook but makes that world immediate and unforgettable (from Library Journal).
The Help by Kathryn Stockett, sent by Mónica Rivera.
Set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams. Assured and layered, full of heart and history, this one has bestseller written all over it.
Wolf Hall is a historical novel by Hilary Mantel, sent by Rocío.
It won both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a fictionalized biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex in the court of Henry VIII of England.
Amazon Best of the Month, October 2009: No character in the canon has been writ larger than Henry VIII, but that didn't stop Hilary Mantel. She strides through centuries, past acres of novels, histories, biographies, and plays--even past Henry himself--confident in the knowledge that to recast history's most mercurial sovereign, it's not the King she needs to see, but one of the King's most mysterious agents. Enter Thomas Cromwell, a self-made man and remarkable polymath who ascends to the King's right hand. Rigorously pragmatic and forward-thinking, Cromwell has little interest in what motivates his Majesty, and although he makes way for Henry's marriage to the infamous Anne Boleyn, it's the future of a free England that he honors above all else and hopes to secure. Mantel plots with a sleight of hand, making full use of her masterful grasp on the facts without weighing down her prose.
"Mister Pip" by Lloyd Jones sent by Fenia.
The novel is set in a village on the Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville during a brutal civil war there in the 1990s. The only white man left there takes on teaching the children after all teachers have fled, and uses Dickens' Great Expectations. The book fascinates the children; while civil war reaches the village the story intertwines the story of Great Expectations with the actual horrors of civil war faced by the villagers.
Why I'm suggesting this book:
I am not quite sure it is a good book! I've read some moxed reviews. But it seems interesting, and one that provides quite a lot for discussion. Not to mention, I thought it would be nice to start the book club with a book that has the power of reading and literature as one of central themes!
Why I'm suggesting this book:
I am not quite sure it is a good book! I've read some moxed reviews. But it seems interesting, and one that provides quite a lot for discussion. Not to mention, I thought it would be nice to start the book club with a book that has the power of reading and literature as one of central themes!
Vote now!
