Nominations for November book of the month

[Scott]

The September book of the month is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Also, you can now vote for the October book of the month.

Please use this thread to nominate books to be book of the month in November. This thread will be open for the rest of September, then on October 1st I will open a new thread to vote on the nominations to decide which book is the November book of the month.

Only one nomination per user. Please try to write the entire book title and the author's name, and please put the title and author in bold. Only one book per author can be nominated. If the same user tries to nominate more than one book or if two or more books by the same author are nominated, only the first one will be included in the vote.

Please try to think of books that would be good for the whole group and conducive to an interesting group discussion, not just a book that is particularly interesting to you personally.

I nominate Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry. I love The Giver by Lois Lowry, and so I am excited to read this. And if it's like The Giver, I think it will make for great discussion.

Thanks!
Scott

[Dori]

I nominate The Double by Dostoevksy.

[atrixa]

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, since the film has recently been made.

[selfer]

How about 'The Wild Things' by Dave Eggers (an adaptation of 'Where the Wild Things Are'). The hardcover is made of fur!

Here's the Amazon blurb:
The Wild Things — based loosely on the storybook by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay cowritten with Spike Jonze — is about the confusions of a boy, Max, making his way in a world he can’t control. His father is gone, his mother is spending time with a younger boyfriend, his sister is becoming a teenager and no longer has interest in him. At the same time, Max finds himself capable of startling acts of wildness: he wears a wolf suit, bites his mom, and can’t always control his outbursts. During a fight at home, Max flees and runs away into the woods. He finds a boat there, jumps in, and ends up on the open sea, destination unknown. He lands on the island of the Wild Things, and soon he becomes their king. But things get complicated when Max realizes that the Wild Things want as much from him as he wants from them. Funny, dark, and alive, The Wild Things is a timeless and time-tested tale for all ages.

[selfer]

P.S. The book doesn't come out until Oct. 1.

[Bowlie]

How about 'The Wild Things' by Dave Eggers (an adaptation of 'Where the Wild Things Are'). The hardcover is made of fur!

Here's the Amazon blurb:
The Wild Things — based loosely on the storybook by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay cowritten with Spike Jonze — is about the confusions of a boy, Max, making his way in a world he can’t control. His father is gone, his mother is spending time with a younger boyfriend, his sister is becoming a teenager and no longer has interest in him. At the same time, Max finds himself capable of startling acts of wildness: he wears a wolf suit, bites his mom, and can’t always control his outbursts. During a fight at home, Max flees and runs away into the woods. He finds a boat there, jumps in, and ends up on the open sea, destination unknown. He lands on the island of the Wild Things, and soon he becomes their king. But things get complicated when Max realizes that the Wild Things want as much from him as he wants from them. Funny, dark, and alive, The Wild Things is a timeless and time-tested tale for all ages.

That sounds like a lot of fun! A book made of fur! That's great!

[hunter112198]

I nominate The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

[Abi]

THE SPIRITUAL BIBLE

A Spiritual Journey of Self-Discovery beyond Eastern Fundamentalism and Western Materialism

“Alas! The god in man remains a child waiting to mature. Shall man grow into a god, or is he doomed in his humanity?” This question, posed in the prologue of Abir Taha’s inspirational new philosophical novel, The Epic of Arya: In Search of the Sacred Light (published by AuthorHouse), is central to the sacred mission of its main character, Arya, who seeks to find the god within.

The Epic of Arya is a spiritual bible, an allegorical novel that follows its narrator on a mesmerizing journey of self-discovery that will heal, awaken and transform readers with its messages on love, truth and spirituality.

Arya has a secret longing and a silent pain: half-woman, half-goddess, she is torn between Love and Truth, between passion and duty. When she wakes up from her eternal sleep into a new world that is surrounded by darkness and confusion, she wonders, “Why has the gloomy veil of Maya, goddess of illusion, covered the radiant face of Gaia our Earth? Where and why has the sun disappeared? Why is God dead?” But what she will discover is that the world has descended into ignorance, wearing the mask of “faith” in the East, when it is truly obscurantist fundamentalism, and the mask of “reason” in the West, which disguises atheist materialism.

In exasperated despair, Arya resolves to roam the Earth in search of the lost sacred light that would end humanity’s eternal night. She travels from East to West in search of Hyperborea, otherwise known as Shambhala, the “land beyond the North wind,” where legend has it that the sun never sets and where gods first existed on the earth and lived among men by speaking through them.

On her journey, Arya meets various characters that serve as mediators to the discovery of her own identity and divinity, including a wise old man from the East, an old woman from the North, a knight with whom Arya falls in love, the King of the World, and a prophet who is Arya’s soul-mate and the invisible, constant presence which guides her.

As Taha explains, these characters are aspects of Arya’s own soul and the souls of all people. “Life is first and foremost an inner journey of self-discovery,” writes Taha. “All the people we meet on our path are archetypes, symbols, states of mind, milestones that lead us back to our own inner journey on the path of awakening.”

Full of practical wisdom, poetic prose and spirituality steeped in philosophy, The Epic of Arya conveys a universal message of unity, hope and salvation in a world torn apart by the clash of civilizations and religions, offering a spiritual alternative.






[/b]

[LauraH]

I vote for Wretched (this is my sorry) by Katherine Marple.

I've read Okay by her and it was fantastic. I haven't read Wretched yet, but the blurb looks great.

Here it is:
Shane loves her but is afraid of her sickness. They've been together for years, but have grown apart. Even though they constantly fight, he clings to her as much as he can, because he's afraid to let her go. Drew loves her because she seems to understand him. She's beautiful and open, exciting, and his best friend. But he knows her heart belongs to Shane, no matter what she tries to believe. She isn't ready for him. Or is she? She is confused and battling with every aspect of her life. Her relationship with her mother is volatile; her father is calmly holding her emotions together; her disease is taking over her body and her life; and her passionate relationships with men are simply stressing her out. Will she put her unpredictable emotions in check before she loses everything?

[Mrs.T]

Water for elephants! By Sara gruen. I've heard it's a woderful book.

[Gannon]

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, since the film has recently been made.

I have a beautful folio edition of "The picture of Dorian gray" on its way to me now so I will also vote for it.

[Professor]

I wish to suggest "Encountering Life's Endings" as the book choice for November. " If you wish to live well, practice dying" is the basic theme of this book. Death and dying are universal human experiences. All that lives is transitory and will depart this life including our loved ones as well as ourselves. “Encountering Life¹s Endings,” encompasses practical, psychological, philosophical, cultural and spiritual aspects of death and dying.
Other types of life's endings are also faced and dealt with in the book. For example, love’s passing; allowing parts of ourselves that serve to deaden our lives to “die” in order to live life more fully; birth as a form of dying to allow life to emerge; the casting off of normality to attain sanity; and living life as a stairway to heaven.
Written largely in the form of a memoir, the telling of life stories, hearts will open, emitting compassion for all sentient beings, and minds engaged, resulting in the deepening of how we think about, approach and experience the ebb and flow of our lives. And in the end, when all is said and done, the reader is left with a reaffirmation of life.

[hania5]

i nominate The time traveler's wife' by Audrey Niffenegger

[atrixa]

i nominate The time traveler's wife' by Audrey Niffenegger

I think we've already had that one.

[hania5]

Oh, ok. I'm not surprised, it is a great book.