Fiction suggestions needed for our discussion in March & April

RULES
Please ONLY make fiction book suggestions in this thread if you have 25 or more posts on our forums. The purpose of this thread is to start the process of selecting our next fiction book for group discussion. It is not for general suggestions by authors and publishers just passing through the community. If you don't have 25+ posts your suggestions will be deleted. It doesn't take long to get the required 25 posts so show us you're serious about participating by making some quality posts in the various forums.

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"The Plague"
Albert Camus

The Plague (Fr. La Peste) is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story of medical workers finding solidarity in their labour as the Algerian city of Oran is swept by a plague epidemic. It asks a number of questions relating to the nature of destiny and the human condition. The characters in the book, ranging from doctors to vacationers to fugitives, all help to show the effects the plague has on a populace.

The Plague is considered an existentialist classic despite Camus' objection to the label.[2][3] The narrative tone is similar to Kafka's, especially in The Trial, where individual sentences potentially have multiple meanings, the material often pointedly resonating as stark allegory of phenomenal consciousness and the human condition.

Although Camus's approach in the book is severe, his narrator emphasizes the ideas that we ultimately have no control, irrationality of life is inevitable, and he further illustrates the human reaction towards the ‘absurd’. The Plague represents how the world deals with the philosophical notion of the Absurd, a theory which Camus himself helped to define.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plague

I would like to put in a bid for The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw:

Reviews (and Amazon):
From Publishers Weekly
The cold northern islands of St. Hauda's Land are home to strange creatures and intertwining human secrets in Shaw's earnest, magic-tinged debut. Ida Maclaird returns to the archipelago to find a cure for the condition her last visit brought her—she is slowly turning into glass. The landscape is at once beautiful and ominous, and its residents mistrustful, but she grows close to Midas Crook, a young man who, despite his intention to spend his life alone, falls in love with Ida and becomes desperate to save her. Their quest leads them to Henry Fuwa, a hermit biologist devoted to preserving the moth-winged bull, a species of insect-sized winged bovines; to Carl Mausen, a friend of Ida's family whose devotion to her mother makes him both ally and enemy; and finally to Emiliana Stallows, who claims to have once cured a girl with Ida's affliction. Each of these characters' histories intertwine, though their motivations surrounding Ida are muddled by their loyalties. Both love story and dirge, Shaw's novel flows gracefully and is wonderfully dreamlike, with the danger of the islands matched by the characters' dark pasts. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“Fantastically imagined. . . . The hybrid form of the book—fairy tale, myth, psychological realism and fantasy—impresses. But Shaw’s most delightful offerings are the vivid details he provides to make the magical real. . . . As Ida turns to glass, Midas must continue his own transformation, from hardened to human. The end of the book, saturated with color and emotion, is risky and brave like the message it imparts. Only a heart of glass would be unmoved.”—Robin Romm, New York Times Book Review



“The Girl with Glass Feet is a love story, not just about two people falling in love, but also about love itself: its power, its limits, and its consequences. . . . Although Shaw’s novel is set in the present, everything’s turned askew, resulting in a world that is at once banal—the car won’t start; the coffee’s getting cold—and fantastical—glass feet; glass hearts. Shaw makes the crucial decision to leave the human emotions and relationships in the realm of the believable, while embedding them in terrain that is ever so slightly surreal. Somehow it’s never implausible. Shaw is at his best when describing the fantastical world he’s created. His language manages to be poetic and economical. . . . The look, the sound, and the scent of St. Hauda’s Land stay with you after turning the last page of this beautiful novel.”—Buzzy Jackson, The Boston Globe



“Ali Shaw’s engrossing and moving debut novel . . . is a story of a strange land and its strange inhabitants, but at heart it’s a sincere but unsentimental love story. . . . The joy that Ida and Midas share, after Midas takes those first risky steps toward love, is so beautifully captured that their happiness beats back the drear and shadows. . . . The dreamy atmosphere curls around you until you see, hear and smell the moors and bogs. . . . The ending bridges the gap between fairy tales old and new.”—Lisa McLendon, Wichita Eagle



“The cold northern islands of St. Hauda’s Land are home to strange creatures and intertwining human secrets in Shaw’s earnest, magic-tinged debut. . . . Both love story and dirge, Shaw’s novel flows gracefully and is wonderfully dreamlike, with the danger of the islands matched by the characters’ dark pasts.”—Publishers Weekly



“This lovely fable is a chain of linked mysteries with accelerating suspense that propels the reader deep into Shaw’s world of marvels. That world is crafted with elegance and swept by passionate magic and the yearning for connection. A rare pleasure.”—Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love



“Written in the tradition of magical realists like Haruki Murakami and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Girl with Glass Feet is a singular, slippery narrative that defies easy categorization. Shaw writes finely honed prose and knows how to wring maximum suspense out of a tightly woven plot. His is an accomplished first novel—a hypnotic book with an atmosphere all its own.”—Julie Hale, Bookpage



“Emotional entanglements on a faraway frozen island are shaped by romance and tragedy in a melancholic yet whimsical British debut. . . . [A] strikingly visual novel. . . . captivatingly ethereal.”—Kirkus Reviews



“Shaw has worked the great tradition of European fairy tales and come up with an ingenious story. . . A magical fable of fate and resignation.”—The Guardian (UK)

This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read and a page-turner at the same time. The style is billiant and I agree with the nods to Marquez and Marakami. The setting is winter, the descriptions breathtaking. There is no reason offered for the girl turning into glass as there is none offered for moth-winged cattle or glass bodies turning up in the bog. There is none needed. The reader is swept away immediately into this world and does not doubt anything he is being served up. Shaw keeps true to the world he creates.


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Since Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was fantastic, I definitely want to read the author's second book.

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
http://www.amazon.com/Spot-Bother-Vinta ... 0307278867

From Publishers Weekly
Recent retiree George Hall, convinced that his eczema is cancer, goes into a tailspin in Haddon's (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) laugh-out-loud slice of British domestic life. George, 61, is clearly channeling a host of other worries into the discoloration on his hip (the "spot of bother"): daughter Katie, who has a toddler, Jacob, from her disastrous first-marriage to the horrid Graham, is about to marry the equally unlikable Ray; inattentive wife Jean is having an affair—with George's former co-worker, David Symmonds; and son Jamie doesn't think George is OK with Jamie's being queer. Haddon gets into their heads wonderfully, from Jean's waffling about her affair to Katie's being overwhelmed (by Jacob, and by her impending marriage) and Jamie's takes on men (and boyfriend Tony in particular, who wants to come to the wedding). Mild-mannered George, meanwhile, despairing over his health, slinks into a depression; his major coping strategies involve hiding behind furniture on all fours and lowing like a cow. It's an odd, slight plot—something like the movie Father of the Bride crossed with Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" (as skin rash)—but it zips along, and Haddon subtly pulls it all together with sparkling asides and a genuine sympathy for his poor Halls. No bother at all, this comic follow-up to Haddon's blockbuster (and nicely selling book of poems) is great fun.

From The New Yorker
Haddon's acclaimed debut novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," brilliantly imagined the inner world of an autistic teen-ager. Here the hero is similarly uncommunicative and detached, this time because of a stiff upper lip. George, recently retired, thinks talking is "overrated" and greets the death of a friend with relief "that they would not be playing squash again." Obsessed with his own mortality, he barely registers the dramas around him: his wife is having an affair, his daughter is marrying a man she's not sure she loves, and his son is afraid to bring his boyfriend to the wedding. Haddon has a deft comic touch, but he pushes his characters too hard toward epiphanies, and in the end this antic farce is merely affable, without surprises.

Stories of Anton Chekhov

http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Anton-Che ... pd_sim_b_1

If we're considering collections of Russian short stories, I would throw in my vote for Nikolai Gogol's The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories.

I've only read The Overcoat thus far, and I'd like to discuss what others think of it and Gogol's style in general.

The version I have is Signet Classics, translated by Priscilla Meyer and Andrew R. MacAndrew with a new afterword by Priscilla Meyer.

Otherwise, for a novel, I might suggest one of my own personal favorites, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

From Amazon:
Pratchett (of Discworld fame) and Gaiman (of Sandman fame) may seem an unlikely combination, but the topic (Armageddon) of this fast-paced novel is old hat to both. Pratchett's wackiness collaborates with Gaiman's morbid humor; the result is a humanist delight to be savored and reread again and again. You see, there was a bit of a mixup when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the machinations of Crowley, who did not so much fall as saunter downwards, and in part to the mysterious ways as manifested in the form of a part-time rare book dealer, an angel named Aziraphale. Like top agents everywhere, they've long had more in common with each other than the sides they represent, or the conflict they are nominally engaged in. The only person who knows how it will all end is Agnes Nutter, a witch whose prophecies all come true, if one can only manage to decipher them. The minor characters along the way (Famine makes an appearance as diet crazes, no-calorie food and anorexia epidemics) are as much fun as the story as a whole, which adds up to one of those rare books which is enormous fun to read the first time, and the second time, and the third time

"A direct descendant of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." (New York Times )

"A slapstick Apocalypse, a grinning grimoire, a comic Necronomicon, a hitchhiker's guide to the netherworld." (James Morrow, author of Only Begotten Daughter )

"An utter delight-fresh, exciting, uproariously funny." (Poul Anderson )

"Fiendishly funny." (New Orleans Times-Picayune )

"From beginning to end, GOOD OMENS is side-splittingly funny . . . a ripping good time." (Rave Reviews )

"Full-bore contemporary lunacy. A steamroller of silliness that made me giggle out loud." (San Diego Union-Tribune )

"Hilarious!" (Locus )

"Hilariously naughty." (Kirkus Reviews )

"Huge fun." (Sunday Express (London) )

"I whooped . . . I laughed . . . I was in near hysterics.: (New York Review of Science Fiction )

"If you've never read [GOOD OMENS], don't miss it now. Grade: A." (Rocky Mountain News )

"Irreverently funny and unexpectedly wise . . . Highly recommended." (Library Journal )

"It could be called The Hitchhiker's Guide to Armargeddon." (Palm Beach Post )

"One Hell of a funny book." (Gene Wolfe )

"Outrageous . . . read it for a riotous good laugh!" (Orlando Sentinel )

"Reads like the Book of Revelation, rewritten by Monty Python." (San Francisco Chronicle )

"Something like what would have happened if Thomas Pynchon, Tom Robbins and Don DeLillo had collaborated." (Washington Post )

"The Apocalypse has never been funnier." (Clive Barker )

"Wacky and irreverent." (Booklist )

"What's so funny about Armageddon? More than you'd think . . . GOOD OMENS has arrived just in time." (Detroit Free Press )

"[L]ittle asides, quirky observations, simple puns and parody eventually add up to snorts, chortles and outright laughs." (San Diego Union-Tribune )

I don't know if this has been suggested/read here before, but I figured I'd at least bring it up. I'd also take pretty much any Gaiman novel as a substitute, if it should come to that.

I'm up for either Chekhov or Gogol.

Good Omens is a great read. I'm a big fan of both Neil Gaiman's and Terry Pratchett's. Sad to say, Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimer's a couple of years ago. He made a statement last year wherein he announces the bad news with his usual good humour:

"My name is Terry Pratchett, author of a series of inexplicably successful fantasy books and I have had Alzheimer's now for the past two years plus, in which time I managed to write a couple of bestsellers.

I have a rare variant. I don't understand very much about it, but apparently if you are going to have Alzheimer's it's a good one to have.

So, a stroke of luck there then!"

The rest of the statement here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1986843/posts

Great suggestion!



Me too!

Here's the Amazon link to this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Diary-Madman-Othe ... 07&sr=1-20

There's also a Richard Pevear/ Larissa Volokhonsky translation.

http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Tales-E ... 775&sr=1-6

The Signet version is shorter and cheaper. Plus Bleachededen already has it!

I know it's too early to be talking about which edition we should read when it hasn't even been decided yet. Just tossing these links in in case anyone's interested.

I didn't mean to suggest I wanted us to read it only because I already have a copy! I just don't fully understand Gogol and would be really interested to hear other voices on it. I would be totally okay if, should Gogol be chosen, a different edition was also chosen. But it is good to know the one I have is cheaper.

Well, what do we all think? Should we go with bleachededen's suggestion since she already has the book?

Seriously, I think it sounds great. It also sounds great that since you have the book, you will be participating, that's the main thing.



I would too. These short story collection suggestions have gotten the most positve feedback. Should we pick Nikolai Gogol's The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories for our next discussion???

I'll give that a fairly obvious "aye."

I support the idea of reading the Gogol's short stories suggested above. It's just the right combination: Short Stories and Russian author. I haven't read anything from Gogol, and this would be a nice chance to start with him. Thanks.
Justareader

Aye.

This book is 240 pages and costs $5.95.

http://www.amazon.com/Diary-Madman-Othe ... 07&sr=1-20



Review
Short story by Nikolay Gogol, published in 1835 as "Zapiski sumasshedshego." Diary of a Madman, a first-person narrative presented in the form of a diary, is the tale of Poprishchin, a government clerk who gradually descends into insanity. At the outset, the narrator records his frustrations and humiliations straightforwardly, rationalizing various affronts to his dignity. Over time, however, reason gives way to delusion. His intermittent encounters with Sophie, the radiant daughter of his official superior, provoke an obsession that leads to his "overhearing" two dogs discussing his hopelessness. As such hallucinations become more frequent, he finds solace--and his ultimate rationale--in a new identity as the rightful king of Spain, whose enemies have engineered his exile. Throughout the story, interludes of sanity provide striking counterpoint to the deepening psychosis. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description
This 19th-century author created "some of the most colorful and haunting fiction of his century" (Kirkus Reviews). And with his special blend of comedy, social commentary, and fantasy, he paved the way for Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.

Hey, lookie, I have that book!

So, have we chosen our newest fiction selection? If we are all in agreement, I will notify Chris, and set up the story threads.

Last call for any additional suggestions!