What book of fiction should we read for the months of September/October.

“The Glass Bead Game”, Hermann Hesse is still being discussed, but for those who would like to have an alternate book discussion please post your suggestions here.

Each member with a minimum of 25 posts may make a suggestion. Each selection must include a link to a site that describes the book and gives details.

Member feedback on the novels suggested is important to the process of selecting a book for discussion. Please read through the suggested novels and make comments on those novels that are of interest to you. Also, please state if you intend on participating in the next discussion.

The novels with the most positive feedback will be placed in a poll. Voting in the poll will be available to all members with 25 or more posts on the boards of BookTalk.org. The novel with the most votes in the poll will become our next book of fiction for discussion during the months of August and September.

We are not exactly overrun by fiction suggestions so I'm going to suggest one as encouragement to others. I think this book would be quite light reading, just right for summer.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, Published by Harper, Available at Amazon Paperback $10, Hardcover $19. On Globe and Mail Bestseller list and has generally positive reviews. I've never read anything by Patchett but I'm up for trying something new.

Book summary:

The book reads like a Dan Brown novel, with a plot line that dashes from one continent to another, with secret scientists working deep in the Amazon rainforest and remote tribes guarding ancient secrets. The story follows Dr Marina Singh as she makes a journey from her hometown of Minnesota to the heart of the Amazon rainforest to investigate the untimely death of her friend and colleague Anders Eckman.

The company Marina and Anders work for has been carrying out research deep in the Amazon rainforest for a number of years investigating the women of a remote tribe who remain fertile well into their seventies and give birth to healthy children. The company wishes to discover their secret and harness it into a new fertility drug that would change the lives of women for ever and create huge financial rewards for the company.

The scientist leading the research, Dr Swenson, had failed to report back to the company for a number of years and keeps all her work shrouded in mystery. Anders had been sent out to the Amazon to check on progress of the drug, when he suddenly died, and so like her colleague before her, Marina is sent out to find out what is happening.

Marina makes an unlikely heroine, and is totally unprepared to make this journey alone. Her vulnerability is established from the very outset, as she leaves the safety of Minnesota and arrives in Brazil where she instantly loses all her luggage and everything familiar to her – including her mobile phone- her only means of contacting the outside world.

As she travels deeper into the Amazon rainforest, we also travel deeper into her past - her past relationships, her fears and insecurities. The book examines issues of morality and science. It asks when science should intervene with local traditions, and just how far we should go in the pursuit of medical research. The book doesn’t try to prescribe an answer to this, but leaves the reader with some uncomfortable questions to ponder.

While this may sound very heavy; it’s not. The story is ultimately a wonderful adventure and a tale of love, commitment and the sacrifices people make in the name of science.

By Barry Crow, Founder of GreenMetropolis.com

We are not exactly overrun by fiction suggestions

You're not kidding!

Due to the lack of suggestions for a fiction discussion starting in August, it may be best to look ahead for a discussion starting in September.

Thanks for your suggestion Giselle!

I would like to ask members who enjoy reading fiction, what type of novel would you like to read? Do you enjoy classic literature, or would you prefer something more current? It would be great to see an active and exciting fiction discussion. Does anyone have any ideas on how to achieve this?

Personally, I don't think I'm up for a classic book right now (well, I guess it depends on the book), mostly because I go back to school at the end of August, so I'll be waist deep in philosophy & theology... I was originally going to suggest "A Game of Thrones," but I read that recently & now I'm on the fifth book, so I'm not sure if I'm up for rereading it right now.

I saw a review for "State of Wonder" recently, and it sounds like it would be a good read. :3

Because I watched Pawn Stars today, and someone was trying to sell a screenplay for "The Godfather," that's what I'll suggest. It's been at the bottom of my to-read list, so maybe I'll have an excuse to get around to reading it.


The Godfather is by Mario Puzo. It was adapted into a much-loved movie. Here's a review from Amazon:

The story of Don Vito Corleone, the head of a New York Mafia family, inspired some of the most successful movies ever. It is in Mario Puzo's The Godfather that Corleone first appears. As Corleone's desperate struggle to control the Mafia underworld unfolds, so does the story of his family. The novel is full of exquisitely detailed characters who, despite leading unconventional lifestyles within a notorious crime family, experience the triumphs and failures of the human condition. Filled with the requisite valor, love, and rancor of a great epic, The Godfather is the definitive gangster novel.

Here's one by the Library Journal.

Though not out of print, this 1969 gangster potboiler here makes the leap to trade paperback. Thanks to Francis Coppola's brilliant film adaptation, this story has achieved cult status with millions of fans, who continue to read it. In addition to its larger size, this incarnation offers a new introduction and afterword. How could you refuse?
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The trilogy itself is on Sparknotes too, if you're like me & like to read those things. (And the whole format of this post looks awkward. Just imagine it's all in a pretty, clean block of text. )

Suzanne wrote: I would like to ask members who enjoy reading fiction, what type of novel would you like to read? Do you enjoy classic literature, or would you prefer something more current? It would be great to see an active and exciting fiction discussion. Does anyone have any ideas on how to achieve this?

These are good questions. Any thoughts? It is difficult to make fiction suggestions without some idea what others might be interested in. After all, 'fiction' is a rather big field!

BTW I like Wilde's suggestion, I saw The Godfather on the silver screen some years (decades!) ago, long before videos were invented, but I've never read the book.

I realize I don't get a vote because I have not yet made 25 posts, but I really like Giselle's suggestion.

I'll toss another one out there. I have just begun The Lost Valley (1921) by Australian writer J. M. Walsh (1897-1952). This is one of Walsh's earliest works and out of copyright. So, it is available for free a number of places. There are no reviews of the work I could find, but I like the writing style and find the first chapter so interesting that I must continue. The story reads like an early film noir type novel minus the femme fatale set in the western Australian province of Victoria. We see the story through the eyes of its antihero protagonist, Carstairs, and his new found friend Bryce, who while out in the middle of nowhere are shot at for no apparent reason. They band together to figure out why people want them dead.

Much of the appeal for me is that the book is set in an Australia in a time period I know next to nothing about.

One of my favorite authors, who I feel is greatly overlooked by the American public is Joyce Carol Oates. Her books have deftly record the American angst for over thirty years now. I would love to read and discuss anyone of them but will nominate. The Falls. Here is a description from Barnes and Noble.

"A man climbs over the railings and plunges into Niagara Falls. A newlywed, he has left behind his wife, Ariah Erskine, in the honeymoon suite the morning after their wedding. "The Widow Bride of The Falls," as Ariah comes to be known, begins a relentless, seven-day vigil in the mist, waiting for his body to be found. At her side throughout, confirmed bachelor and pillar of the community Dirk Burnaby is unexpectedly transfixed by the strange, otherworldly gaze of this plain, strange woman, falling in love with her though they barely exchange a word. What follows is their passionate love affair, marriage, and children - a seemingly perfect existence.

But the tragedy by which their life together began shadows them, damaging their idyll with distrust, greed, and even murder. What unfurls is a drama of parents and their children; of secrets and sins; of lawsuits, murder and eventually redemption.

Set against the mythic historic backdrop of Niagara Falls, Joyce Carol Oates explores the American family in crisis, but also America itself in the mid-twentieth century. The Falls is a love story gone wrong and righted and it alone places Joyce Carol Oates definitively in the company of the great American novelists. "

wilde wrote: Because I watched Pawn Stars today, and someone was trying to sell a screenplay for "The Godfather," that's what I'll suggest. It's been at the bottom of my to-read list, so maybe I'll have an excuse to get around to reading it.

I watched that episode. I read The Godfather years ago, I think it's one of those relatively rare cases where the movie is better than the book. But I don't remember it all that well, and don't let me discourage you!

Dexter wrote:

wilde wrote: Because I watched Pawn Stars today, and someone was trying to sell a screenplay for "The Godfather," that's what I'll suggest. It's been at the bottom of my to-read list, so maybe I'll have an excuse to get around to reading it.

I watched that episode. I read The Godfather years ago, I think it's one of those relatively rare cases where the movie is better than the book. But I don't remember it all that well, and don't let me discourage you!

Well, the author of the book did write the screenplays as well. But I've never seen the movies. (I know, I know! )

wilde wrote: Well, the author of the book did write the screenplays as well. But I've never seen the movies. (I know, I know! )

:boom05:
You must rent, immediately.

But I'm reminded of the scene from The Family Guy where Peter admits to not liking The Godfather.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S9WyYaO7mQ