Hi gang. It's time to start voting for our two books in November. Only pick two books. Plz remember I'll take the top 10 books voted for and put them in the poll. Wish I could include every book in the poll but that would be insane. Thanks to everyone who voted for our top 100 books and thanks to those who are putting the spreadsheets together. Hope you'll join us in discussing our October books.

Mary

Revolutionary Road
The White Tiger (since this year's Man Booker was just announced)

Brideshead Revisited
The Secret Scripture

Broken by Daniel Clay and

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Home Across the Road by Nancy Peacock.

Every family has secrets, but the Redds have more than most. Consider, for example, the fact that this North Carolina clan has two distinct branches, the white Redds and the black Redds, their former slaves. Through seven generations, their histories and their blood have mixed, culminating in the present-day occupants of Roseberry Plantation, solitary Coyle Redd and his black housekeeper (and distant cousin), China. When Coyle puts the dilapidated mansion up for auction, it would seem that the two families' shared past will finally come to an end; but in Nancy Peacock's remarkable saga, Home Across the Road, blood ties are not so easily severed. Skillfully jumping from present to past and back again, Peacock traces the Redd connection back to antebellum days when white plantation owner Jennis Redd fathered the child of his slave, Cally. When the boy, Cleavis, is 6 years old, Redd's jealous wife accuses him of stealing a pair of earrings that her own son really took, and has him sold away. In retaliation, Cally takes the earrings herself and buries them under the floor of her slave cabin. From this point on, the fortunes of the black Redds improve while those of the white Redds decline.
Peacock mixes a little magic into the parallel histories she tells, and conjures up an exquisite novel that is part ghost story, part meditation on the ineffable power of blood and history to bind people to a place, to each other, and to patterns of behavior that repeat themselves through the years. Home Across the Road is spare in its prose style but rich in the themes it mines. --Sheila Bright

OR

The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips.

In 1931 Carbon Hill, a small Alabama coal-mining town, nine-year-old Tess Moore watches a woman shove the cover off the family well and toss in a baby without a word. For the Moore family, focused on helping anyone in need during the Great Depression, the apparent murder forces them to face the darker side of their community and question the motivations of family and friends. Backbreaking work keeps most of the townspeople busy from dawn to dusk, and racial tensions abound. For parents, it's a time when a better life for the children means sacrificing health, time, and every penny that can be saved. For a miner, returning home after work is a possibility, not a certainty. However, next to daily thoughts of death, exhausting work, and race are the lingering pleasures of sweet tea, feather beds, and lightning bugs yet to be caught.

Brideshead Revisited would be interesting. I'm watching the old 9 hour BBC Jeremy Irons version (1981) through Netflix. I think I could probably read it in less time, it occurs to me.

Wow I've wasted so much time.

Hello!

My two nominations are:

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller, and
Run by Ann Patchett

Skeletons on the Zahara A True Story of Survival By Dean KING (2004)

and

My Antonia by Willa CATHER (1918)

Amalia wrote:
The White Tiger (since this year's Man Booker was just announced)"

The Indian setting in The White Tiger is principally in Delhi (Old and New) plus a country village. The story entertainingly describes the country's castes and politics and the behaviors necessary to 'succeed'.

Asmah wrote: "Amalia wrote:
The White Tiger (since this year's Man Booker was just announced)"

The Indian setting in The White Tiger is principally in Delhi (Old and New) plus a country village. The story ente..."

this one sounds good!
and Jane Erye

Run by Ann Patchett

My Antonia by Willa CATHER

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker and
Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcon

Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
My Antonia - Willa Cather

Mary wrote: "Hi gang. It's time to start voting for our two books in November. Only pick two books. Plz remember I'll take the top 10 books voted for and put them in the poll. Wish I could include every book i..."

I'm new here. I may have to forego the vote this time for I'm not familiar with these novels.

Steven Nedelton

Steven wrote: "I'm new here. I may have to forego the vote this time for I'm not familiar with these novels."

Perhaps, you have some titles to read or some titles read. Your input is welcome, Steven.

Well, this will be my first time nominating books for our monthly book read :)

I'll throw in:
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
and
Time and Again by Jack Finney

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

My vote goes to RUN...

I will second Brideshead Revisited,I have been wanting to read that,

and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Run

The White Tiger

(this would knock two off my TBR list!)

The Lovely Bones

and The Man in the Iron Mask

Lacy wrote: "The Lovely Bones

and The Man in the Iron Mask"

oh...the lovely bones is good too...before the movie would be nice

The White Tiger
and
The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Hunger Games or Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, although you need to read Hunger Games first since it is a series. Left to Tell.

Three Cups of Tea One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

and

Merle's Door Lessons from a Freethinking Dog and Ted Kerasote

New to the group so not sure what you have previously read - the ones that I had planned to read next are
Memoirs of a Geisha and Cry, the Beloved Country so I will put those two out there for consideration.

Three Cups of Tea One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... Once School at a Time

Merle's Door Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote

In A Perfect World by Laura Kasischke

Under the Dome by Stephen King (releases November 10th)

Run
The Hunger Games
That would knock two off of my TBR list :)

Skeletons on the Zahara

Stolen Lives

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

and

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver


:D

The Saffron Kitchen - Yasmin Crowther

Hide and Seek - Clare Sambrook

I nominate:

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet A Novel by Jamie Ford

Hannah's Dream A Novel by Diane Hammond

White Tiger – Aravind Adiga
Six Suspects – Vikas Swarup

Oh i've read something by Barbera Kingsolver before and loved it so i'll second the vote for

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

as I have always been meaning to read something else by her.

I've read The Lovely Bones before, but keep seeing such mixed reviews of it, I personally loved it. I think it would be interesting to see what everyone here says in a discussion about it. So The Lovely Bones will be my second vote.

1. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

2. Inferno by Dante Alighieri

The Beach by Alex Garland
Cell by Stephen King

The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips sounds really good to me, and Keeping the House: A Novel sounds really good too.

I would love to second a couple of books that I`ve really been looking forward too:-

THE SHADOW OF THE WIND
THE LOVELY BONES

Home across the Road
The Well and the Mind
*these two sounds good to me*

Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Twilight - Stephanie Meyer

When I browsed through the 'read' shelf, I discovered these books haven't been read. How about this month ?
These are absolutely great books (I feel).
My vote for this...

The Wednesday Letters by Jason. F. Wright

Jack and Laurel have been married for 39 years. They've lived a good life and appear to have had the perfect marriage. With his wife cradled in his arms, and before Jack takes his last breath, he scribbles his last "Wednesday Letter." When their adult children arrive to arrange the funeral, they discover boxes and boxes full of love letters that their father wrote to their mother each week on Wednesday. As they begin to open and read the letters, the children uncover the shocking truth about the past. In addition, each one must deal with the present-day challenges. Matthew has a troubled marriage, Samantha is a single mother, and Malcolm is the black sheep of the family who has returned home after a mysterious two-year absence. The Wednesday Letters has a powerful message about forgiveness and quietly beckons for readers to start writing their own "Wednesday Letters."

OR
The Elegance Of The Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

We are in the centre of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humour and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building’s tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence.

Then there’s Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter.

Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Palomas trust and to see through Renée’s timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.

Hi all. Here are my two picks.


1. The Elegance of The Hedgehog
2. White Tiger

Mary

white tiger and hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I am teaching a class on The Elegance of the Hedgehog (in French) and spoke about the book at 4 different venues since April (in English this time) including on NPR, The Diane Reem Show, in April.
Although I suggested two other books, I would love to discuss this one again. I am French too!

Sarah wrote: "I am teaching a class on The Elegance of the Hedgehog (in French) and spoke about the book at 4 different venues since April (in English this time) including on NPR, The Diane Reem Show, in April.
..."

Although I nominated 2 other books I do have this one on my TBR so it would be interestig....

If it doesn`t get chosen maybe we could all get together and do iton a side thread at some point?

Nicola wrote: "The Wednesday Letters by Jason. F. Wright

Jack and Laurel have been married for 39 years. They've lived a good life and appear to have had the perfect marriage. With his wife cradled in his arms..."

The Elegance of the Hedgehog was superb! I adored both Paloma and the Hedghog and their pretentiousness.

1. Elegance of the Hedgehog
2. Brideshead Revisited

OOOO, Elegance of a Hedgehog.....heard lots of good stuff about that one! I read the Wednesday Letters..total let down IMO (the idea was brilliant, the execution...not so much).
I'm happy with the current nominations.