UD Book Club

PeterPanfan · Post by **PeterPanfan** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 9:02 pm

I know that this wasn't exactly a success, but I was really hoping that we could try it again.

Same rules apply (They're on the first page), and if you're interested just post in this thread. Once I know that enough people want to do this, I'll ask for nominations again.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 9:27 am

I'm still willing! I still have yet to finish Twilight, but now I own the book and can read it whenever.

TheSequelOfDisney · Post by **TheSequelOfDisney** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 10:21 am

If we do this, there are a few books that I have to read (for AP English) and I think it would be a lot more fun to discuss them on here instead of just the fact that I have to read them and then just post some stuff on a website (which is our homework). So, I nominate:

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

&

How To Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster

&

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

or

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Of the "or" novels, I was thinking about "Frankenstein" because it is apparently more fun to read, but I've heard that "Wuthering Heights" is better to right about for the AP exam. So, I'll probably just end up reading both of them. So if anyone wants to read these, I guess we can think about it. Plus I've already read "Twilight" so that can be discussed if y'all wish.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 10:30 am

I own "Frankenstein" (even though it's all marked up from when I analyzed it for school), so I nominate that, at least for myself, so I don't have to search for it. But "Wuthering Heights" would be my vote for content, since I like the Bronte sisters.

UmbrellaFish · Post by **UmbrellaFish** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 10:59 am

I'd join in for Frankenstein, as well.

ajmrowland · Post by **ajmrowland** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 11:33 am

I'd like to nominate To Kill a Mockingbird.

Edit: Wait, what are the rules?

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 11:41 am

Well, read the 1st page for rules, but you can just nominate whatever. I second "To Kill a Mockingbird", by the way. I have the book, really like the book, and haven't read it in years.

Disney Lover · Post by **Disney Lover** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 11:56 am

I'm in. I second Wuthering Heights since I have to read it for a summer class.

PeterPanfan · Post by **PeterPanfan** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 1:48 pm

Okay, glad to see that a lot of people still want to join in!

I'll take in all of those nomiantions. I'll make the deadline for nominations Saturday at 12:00 (midnight) EST.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Jack Skellington · Post by **Jack Skellington** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 3:32 pm

That's an awesome idea Daniel !

I'll vote for Wuthering Heights (since I saw the book somewhere on my sisters room), but I don't mind if you guys picked Frankenstein or To Kill A Mockingbird, but I'm not sure if I could find a copy of the other two books.

But how does this work exactly, do we get to read a few chapters and discuss them at specific days until we finish reading the whole book ?

PeterPanfan · Post by **PeterPanfan** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:12 pm

Depending on the number of pages the book has, we read a selected amount of pages per week for one book. So, for example, if the book has 300 pages, we would read about 75 pages a week.

And we don't have to just pick out of the few that were recentley nominated. Suggest more if you wish.

I nominate:

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The plot is a blend of the history and folklore of Vlad Ţepeş and his fictional equivalent Count Dracula. Kostova's father told her stories about Dracula when she was a child and later in life she was inspired to turn this experience into a novel.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who betrayed his best friend Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant, and lives in regret. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love, always elusive, is scorned as illusion.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Dracula is perhaps almost as interesting regarded historically as the product of a specific time as it is engaging to continuing generations of readers in a 'timeless' fashion. In her introduction Byron first discusses the famous novel as an expression not of universal fears and desires but of specifically late nineteenth-century concerns. At the same time she is entirely attuned to the ways in which, however much Dracula is a Victorian text, Dracula is a very twentieth-century character, a representative of modernity and of the future.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate -- a life and a role that she has never challenged...until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister -- and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Kim Edwards's stunning family drama evokes the spirit of Sue Miller and Alice Sebold, articulating every mother's silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, he immediately recognizes that one of them has Down Syndrome and makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and to keep her birth a secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper's Daughter is an astonishing tale of redemptive love.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

At once brutal and tender, despairing and rashly hopeful, spare of language and profoundly moving, this work is a fierce and haunting meditation on the tenuous divide between civilization and savagery, and the essential, sometimes terrifying power of filial love.

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Fledgling writer Briony Tallis, as a 13-year-old, irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.

So, the nominations as of now are:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Dracula by Bram Stoker
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
La Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri
Romance of Tristan and Isuelt by Joseph Bedier

On Sunday we will take a poll and select the book we want to read the most out of the list of nominations.

Jack Skellington · Post by **Jack Skellington** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 1:50 am

How about Dante's Inferno ? I've got the book, but I still didn't start reading it.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 2:47 pm

Oooh, I know it's not time to vote yet, but yay for nominating "Memoirs of a Geisha"- I bought that last year but haven't read it yet.

Escapay · Post by **Escapay** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 3:45 pm

Jack Skellington wrote:How about Dante's Inferno ? I've got the book, but I still didn't start reading it.

How about all of The Divine Comedy instead? Got to give Heaven and Purgatory it's due too!

And while we're on the subject of Dante, I wanna nominate La Vita Nuova, along with The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and Romance of Tristan and Iseult translated/adapted by Joseph Bédier.

albert

PeterPanfan · Post by **PeterPanfan** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 9:02 pm

I LOVED The Time-Traveler's Wife! Those are all definitely going on the list!

Jack Skellington · Post by **Jack Skellington** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 2:20 am

Escapay wrote:
Jack Skellington wrote:How about Dante's Inferno ? I've got the book, but I still didn't start reading it.
How about all of The Divine Comedy instead? Got to give Heaven and Purgatory it's due too!

albert

Lol, well I made the mistake of buying the Inferno book only, The Divine Comedy wasn't at the book-store for some weird reason. (They've got this seemingly never-ending Japanese-Named bookstore (Kinokuniya) at the Dubai Mall, so I can bet that they should have at least 90% of the books you guys mentioned here.)

PeterPanfan · Post by **PeterPanfan** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 6:59 pm

You may now vote!

Voting ends tomorrow at 12:00 PM (Midnight) EST.

You may vote for ONE of the books listed in the nominations post a few posts above this one.

One vote for To Kill a Mockingbird.
One vote for The Divine Comedy.
One vote for Frankenstein.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 7:03 pm

So, so, so hard- I'm torn between two. I'll go with the classic, though, and say "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Jack Skellington · Post by **Jack Skellington** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 4:25 am

I'll vote for "The Divine Comedy".

TheSequelOfDisney · Post by **TheSequelOfDisney** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:58 am

Frankenstein

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