• In total there are 9 users online :: 0 registered, 0 hidden and 9 guests (based on users active over the past 60 minutes)
    Most users ever online was 789 on Tue Mar 19, 2024 5:08 am

What fiction book should we read next?

Assist us in selecting our upcoming FICTION book for group discussion in this forum. A minimum of 5 posts is required to participate here!
User avatar
Chris OConnor

1A - OWNER
BookTalk.org Hall of Fame
Posts: 17019
Joined: Sun May 05, 2002 2:43 pm
21
Location: Florida
Has thanked: 3511 times
Been thanked: 1309 times
Gender:
Contact:
United States of America

What fiction book should we read next?

Unread post

We're about to the point where we should select a new fiction book. Do you have suggestions? Please only suggest books if you have 25 or more posts on the forums.
User avatar
Robert Tulip

2B - MOD & SILVER
BookTalk.org Hall of Fame
Posts: 6499
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:16 pm
18
Location: Canberra
Has thanked: 2719 times
Been thanked: 2662 times
Contact:
Australia

Re: What fiction book should we read next?

Unread post

Anthill by EO Wilson

From my Review
In an amazingly distinguished career, Edward O. Wilson has won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Ants, founded the philosophical movements of sociobiology and consilience, and led scientific debate about how humanity relates to nature. Anthill, set in his home state of Alabama in the deep south of the USA, is Wilson’s first novel, and represents a return to his social roots and an effort to distil the scientific and political messages learned over his long and productive life. What I loved about Anthill was the depth of insight in Wilson’s cultural, scientific and symbolic messages, and the combination of a radical ecological vision of nature conservation with a conservative respect for social institutions and incremental evolutionary change as the only way to get things done.

The theme of Anthill is man versus nature. Wilson wants to show how society can change towards a more sustainable attitude. His main character, Raff Cody, is something of a Huckleberry Finn, growing to know and love the wetlands and forests of his home district of Nokobee, much as Wilson did himself when he was a boy. Raff’s question is how he can preserve biodiversity against the onslaught of progress and development. The message of Anthill is that lasting results are achieved only by bringing the conservative ruling forces of money and power along, converting them to see the economic benefits of conservation. Where Wilson sought in his own life to protect nature through science, in his imagined career he puts Raff Cody into the law.

Wilson takes this problem of nature conservancy as the basis for a series of parables. Foremost is the need for cooperation, negotiation, compromise and understanding as the basis to achieve any lasting practical outcomes. The anthill of the title is not just the ants of Nokobee, but the whole of human society. The ruthless pressure of evolution has taught ants what they must do to function as a super-organism, providing a template for how humanity must cooperate to prosper over time.
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Anthill-Novel-Edw ... r-mr-title
User avatar
President Camacho

1F - BRONZE CONTRIBUTOR
I Should Be Bronzed
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:44 pm
15
Location: Hampton, Ga
Has thanked: 246 times
Been thanked: 314 times

Re: What fiction book should we read next?

Unread post

The Golden Ass

Product Description
Written towards the end of the second century AD, "The Golden Ass" tells the story of the many adventures of a young man whose fascination with witchcraft leads him to be transformed into a donkey. The bewitched Lucius passes from owner to owner - encountering a desperate gang of robbers and being forced to perform lewd 'human' tricks on stage - until the Goddess Isis finally breaks the spell and Lucius is initiated into her cult. Apuleius' enchanting story has inspired generations of writers such as Boccaccio, Shakespeare, Cervantes and Keats with its dazzling combination of allegory, satire, bawdiness and sheer exuberance, and remains the most continuously and accessibly amusing book to have survived from Classical antiquity.
About the Author
Lucius Apuleius (2nd Century AD) North African fubulist, who Latinized the Greek myths and legends. He travelled widely, visiting Italy, Asia &c and was there initiated into numerous religious mysteries. The knowledge which he thus acquired of the priestly fraternities he drew on for his Golden Ass. E.J. Kenney is Emeritus Kennedy Professor of Latin in the University of Cambridge. His publications include a critical edition of Ovid's amatory works. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... helfari-20
User avatar
President Camacho

1F - BRONZE CONTRIBUTOR
I Should Be Bronzed
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:44 pm
15
Location: Hampton, Ga
Has thanked: 246 times
Been thanked: 314 times

Re: What fiction book should we read next?

Unread post

Just trying to bring this topic front and center in recent posts to see if we can't get some more activity.
User avatar
Suzanne

1F - BRONZE CONTRIBUTOR
Book General
Posts: 2513
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:51 pm
14
Location: New Jersey
Has thanked: 518 times
Been thanked: 399 times

Re: What fiction book should we read next?

Unread post

THE GLASS BEAD GAME
Hermann Hesse
The Glass Bead Game takes place at an unspecified date, centuries into the future. Hesse suggested that he imagined the book's narrator writing around the start of the 25th century.[2] The setting is a fictional province of central Europe called Castalia, reserved by political decision for the life of the mind; technology and economic life are kept to a strict minimum. Castalia is home to an austere order of intellectuals with a twofold mission: to run boarding schools for boys, and to nurture and play the Glass Bead Game, whose exact nature remains elusive and whose devotees occupy a special school within Castalia known as Waldzell. The rules of the game are only alluded to, and are so sophisticated that they are not easy to imagine. Playing the game well requires years of hard study of music, mathematics, and cultural history. Essentially the game is an abstract synthesis of all arts and sciences. It proceeds by players making deep connections between seemingly unrelated topics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Bead_Game
The Glass Bead Game, for which Hesse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, is the author’s last and crowning achievement, the most imaginative and prophetic of all his novels. Setting the story in the distant postapocalyptic future, Hesse tells of an elite cult of intellectuals who play an elaborate game that uses all the cultural and scientific knowledge of the Ages. The Glass Bead Game is a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life as well as a classic of modern literature.
http://www.amazon.com/Glass-Bead-Game-M ... 55&s=books
Jozanny
Float like a butterfly, post like a bee!
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:22 pm
12
Location: Philadelphia
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 5 times
Contact:

Re: What fiction book should we read next?

Unread post

Overly saturated in literary memes as I am, I do not have much Hesse under my belt, though I read him long ago in upper track. The Glass Bead Game piques my interest (and yes, mildly in the sense of vexes), and perhaps is a keeper for my personal library if I get a sturdy used edition. If I can catch up to my checking account I can ship it tomorrow, but, still unsure of my footing, should I wait for voting? Is this a May or June selection?

Interesting pick Suzanne!
Il mondo sta bene cosi com'e.
--Giordano Bruno
User avatar
Chris OConnor

1A - OWNER
BookTalk.org Hall of Fame
Posts: 17019
Joined: Sun May 05, 2002 2:43 pm
21
Location: Florida
Has thanked: 3511 times
Been thanked: 1309 times
Gender:
Contact:
United States of America

Re: What fiction book should we read next?

Unread post

These are merely suggestions and not an actual poll. But sometimes we bypass the poll and just select the book with the most apparent support. We do require you to have 25+ posts to suggest books or vote in the book polls. This rule is to keep transients and people that probably won't participate in the actual discussion from contributing to the book selection process. It is pretty easy to get to 25 posts.
Jozanny
Float like a butterfly, post like a bee!
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:22 pm
12
Location: Philadelphia
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 5 times
Contact:

Re: What fiction book should we read next?

Unread post

Not a problem Chris. I'll take a wait and see approach.
Il mondo sta bene cosi com'e.
--Giordano Bruno
User avatar
giselle

1H - GOLD CONTRIBUTOR
Almost Awesome
Posts: 900
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 2:48 pm
15
Has thanked: 123 times
Been thanked: 203 times

Re: What fiction book should we read next?

Unread post

Rather than suggest a title or author, I'd like to share my thoughts on general tone and style - its spring going to summer, lets read something of quality but on the lighter side, a cut above beach reading but maybe lighter than Dostoevsky. I'm flexible and interested in a lot of different authors and styles but I just can't do a heavy tome at the moment.
lindad_amato
Intelligent
Posts: 557
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:13 pm
13
Location: Connecticut
Has thanked: 75 times
Been thanked: 87 times

Re: What fiction book should we read next?

Unread post

I agree with Giselle and am nominating a T.C. Boyle book. This book was mentioned by someone else several months ago. Boyle is an extraordinary contemporary author and this book won't be a waste of time for those who appreciate literature. The theme is current given the debate on illegal immigrants. Please see the review and link to Amazon below.


Most Helpful Customer Reviews

179 of 192 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Exaggerated but true, December 27, 1999
By
Doug Vaughn - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)
This review is from: The Tortilla Curtain (Paperback)
Boyle's The Tortillia Curtain differs from other books of his that I have read in that it tackles a serious set of social issues head on. Among the other reviews posted here for this book I see that some have claimed that the book is 'unrealistic' and makes use of every stereotype imaginable. Well, while one wouldn't want to pretend that all Southern Californians of means are shallow conspicuous consumers, nothing in the portrait Boyle creates here rings untrue. There must be thousands of people who fit this image. That being the case, it is important to make the point that he doesn't present either the Yuppie Californian family or the Mexican immagrant family as a symbol. They are real people. They don't stand for anything else. And while the extreme dichotomy posed between the wealth and well being of the one and the poverty and marginal health of the other do serve the purpose of highlighting the issue of the extreme inequities in the distribution of goods and services in this country, Boyle does not suggest a solution. Rather, he is interested in showing us what happens when these extremes come into contact in unexpected circumstances. What he has given us is a story of people in different circumstances responding as they likely would - as their training and experience have prepared them to. If we want to make an allegory of it, I don't think that is what he intended. I think that all he is saying is that extremes of expectation, in conflict, will generate extremes of behavior.

I enjoyed the book very much. Apart from Boyle's considerable skill with words, his characters were vivid and the plot - though heavy on coincidence (hey, it worked for Dickens) - is interesting and keeps the reader focused till the end.

http://www.amazon.com/Tortilla-Curtain- ... 232&sr=1-1
Locked

Return to “What fiction book should we read and discuss next?”