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OFFICIAL POLL: Vote to select our next FICTION book for group discussion!

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

What FICTION book would you like to discuss next?

BOOK 1: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
2

14%
BOOK 2: The Ball and The Cross by G. K. Chesterton
1

7%
BOOK 3: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
2

14%
BOOK 4: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
3

21%
BOOK 5: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
2

14%
BOOK 6: Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett
1

7%
BOOK 7: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki
2

14%
BOOK 8: Twenty-Five Ghost Stories by W. Bob Holland
1

7%
 
Total votes: 14
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Chris OConnor

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OFFICIAL POLL: Vote to select our next FICTION book for group discussion!

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OFFICIAL POLL

Vote to select our next FICTION book for group discussion!


We have 8 excellent fiction choices on this poll, all suggested by BookTalk.org members. Please click on the links and read about each choice, and then cast as many votes as you like. You should vote for each book you would read and talk about with us. So don't just vote for your top choice. If you'd be interested and willing in reading and discussing any and all of the 8 books then vote for all 8 books. The book with the most votes will win and be our next fiction selection.

You can change your vote as long as the poll is open. We will close the poll when we have a clear winner. The fiction discussion will start soon after the poll closes. We don't have a specific start date yet because we don't know how much activity this poll will generate. We need a winning book selected that appears to have enough people ready, willing and interested in discussing before we'll close the poll and announce a winner.

You will help end the poll and start the book discussion by monitoring this poll thread and changing your vote as needed.

And here are our 8 choices...


BOOK 1: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Suggested by Geo

BOOK 2: The Ball and The Cross by G. K. Chesterton
Suggested by Stahrwe
Available free at Project Gutenberg

BOOK 3: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Suggested by Sal_McCoy

BOOK 4: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Suggested by Sal_McCoy

BOOK 5: The Underground Railroad: A Novel by Colson Whitehead
Suggested by LanDroid

BOOK 6: Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett
Suggested by LanDroid

BOOK 7: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki
Suggested by Murmur
Available free at Project Gutenberg

BOOK 8: Twenty-Five Ghost Stories by W. Bob Holland
Suggested by Murmur
Available free at Project Gutenberg
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Chris OConnor

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Re: OFFICIAL POLL: Vote to select our next FICTION book for group discussion!

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Last call on votes. ;-)
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Re: OFFICIAL POLL: Vote to select our next FICTION book for group discussion!

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I just sent a private message to everyone that voted to see if anyone wants to make a change to their vote.
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Harry Marks
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Re: OFFICIAL POLL: Vote to select our next FICTION book for group discussion!

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I see my vote is too late. No problem. For the next round, I would like to submit Kazuo Ishiguru's "When We Were Orphans". Fans of Ishiguru may recall "Never Let Me Go" and "Remains of the Day," both excellent though not exactly page turners.
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Re: OFFICIAL POLL: Vote to select our next FICTION book for group discussion!

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Harry, your book suggestions aren't too late. We have not yet selcted a book because there just isn't enough enthusiasm for a fiction book right now. If we can get 4+ members to agree to one of the books you suggested we could do one of your suggestions. All the books on this poll had some votes but not enough to make for a decent book discussion. And when I sent privates messages to all the people that voted only Robert Tulip responded. So that tells me these people voted but aren't really on board with an actual discussion. So I'm at a loss for how to handle this. Harry, if you can get some people interested in reading and discussing one of your books we'll make it an official discussion. ;-)
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Re: OFFICIAL POLL: Vote to select our next FICTION book for group discussion!

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I had been hanging back due to feeling bookclub overload, but I think I am up for another. I would love to read the Octavia Butler novel. If that tips it into 4+, then let's do it.

Bulgakov, less so but still willing. If that's the only way we can get a quorum, then I am game for it. Sounded interesting.

I will be reading Underground Railroad soon for my other bookclub, so I am in for that one if there are enough others.

Back in your court, Chris.
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Re: OFFICIAL POLL: Vote to select our next FICTION book for group discussion!

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Harry, that book only has one vote so far. As the owner of the community I have to vote for one book (for some weird reason) when creating the poll. So my vote should be ignored. Look at the attached image. It shows who voted for each book on the poll.

Look for a book that got more votes please. And if you really want to maximize the odds of us getting a new fiction discussion up and running try to make contact with the people that voted for that book too. They aren't responding to me. :-(

See if they intend to participate still.
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Robert Tulip

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Re: OFFICIAL POLL: Vote to select our next FICTION book for group discussion!

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I have looked forward to reading The Master and Margarita since my aunty Cherrill lent me her copy about five years ago. Now that I have read the Wikipedia page excerpted below I am even more keen, since it is an iconic anti-Stalinist work, a genre that is among the most important areas to understand world politics and history, including the emerging trends toward tyranny and how to identify and combat them.
The Master and Margarita (Russian: Ма́стер и Маргари́та) is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written between 1928 and 1940, but unpublished in book form until 1967. The story concerns a visit by the devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires.[1][2]
I note that there is a new translation. Looking through Amazon I found the following enticing review. I plan to read this translation.
My friend recommended this book to me, and what actually made me to buy it was because he considered it his favorite book of all time. I agree with him about that. It is an amazing book. Not only that, I developed an interest in the author's other works. Nevertheless, this is the best book written by Mikhail Bulgakov. It is an absolute masterpiece, a classic accepted in Russia and the rest of the world.

"Master and Margarita" is about purges Stalin ordered in the Soviet Union. The curious thing about this book is that the purges are depicted not to have been carried out Stalin's men, but rather by Satan himself, and in the manner of Baron Munchaussen, we get to know of a huge talking cat. Like animal farm, the greater meaning of the book is revealed through the intelligent though bizarre, compelling and humorous story. One is constantly left anticipating what the next page holds. There are so many layers and so many little details that one wonders how the author managed to put them together.

Bulgakov is the Soviet version of Imperial Russia's Dostoevsky, but unlike Dostoyevsky who had a mastery of the mind/soul Bulgakov mastery is in the literature of oppression. I have recommended this book to many friends and family and recommend it to any reader interested in the enigma that is Russia, especially Stalinist Russia. Other interesting stories set in Russia are The Union Moujik, Taras Bulba, Putin’s Russia, Life and Death of Lenin, War and Peace. Also note that you are sure to find the widest selection of odd and creepy characters in this book.
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Re: OFFICIAL POLL: Vote to select our next FICTION book for group discussion!

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Well, goodness. I don't want to get energetic about recruiting people. If the other two respond, we can read Master and Margarita together. If not, meh.
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Re: OFFICIAL POLL: Vote to select our next FICTION book for group discussion!

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Found my copy of Master and Margarita at the bottom of a milk crate full of books! Honestly, I looked through every shelf and box (I have quite a few) and it was at the bottom of the last box in my library. It is the Penguin Modern Classics Edition, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (link).
A masterful translation of one of the great novels of the 20th century

Nothing in the whole of literature compares with The Master and Margarita. Full of pungency and wit, this luminous work is Bulgakov's crowning achievement, skilfully blending magical and realistic elements, grotesque situations and major ethical concerns. Written during the darkest period of Stalin's repressive reign and a devastating satire of Soviet life, it combines two distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem, each brimming with incident and with historical, imaginary, frightful and wonderful characters. Although completed in 1940, The Master and Margarita was not published until 1966 when the first section appeared in the monthly magazine Moskva. Russians everywhere responded enthusiastically to the novel's artistic and spiritual freedom and it was an immediate and enduring success. This new translation has been made from the complete and unabridged Russian text.
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