<p>The Round House is “the second in a planned trilogy” according to Kirkus Reviews. I am leery for that reason - and for the brutal rape.</p>
<p>London Train … NoveList describes the tone as melancholy, reflective, haunting. I don’t know that we want “self-centered angst” (Library Journal) for the holidays.</p>
<p>Still, I’m low on suggestions: my mind is fairly blank this time around. (I’ve books I plan to read but am not sure they fall in CC Book Club territory.)</p>
<p>Someone highly recommended on the Best Books thread Among Others - Jo Walton. It sounds good.</p>
<p>Among Others appears to be fantasy/science fiction, both of which are categories I generally don’t care for too much.</p>
<p>Someone on the Best Books thread also recommended Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer. It sounds like it is slightly science-fictionish (but apparently not too much so), and its reviews are quite decent; it sounds worthwhile.</p>
<p>I believe I’d be interested in giving The Blind Assassin or perhaps The Lifeboat a try. </p>
<p>I have read The Yellow Birds and highly recommend it. However, I don’t really think it would be a very good book club choice. It’s short, and sad, and not too full of incident. For me, its main attraction was the incredibly beautiful writing.</p>
<p>Not sure about The Shoemaker’s Wife and We, the Drowned. One sort of seems to fall into the category of a romance, and the other one is very long with perhaps some rather grim content.</p>
<p>Here is wiki about the blind assassin FYI:
The Blind Assassin is an award-winning, bestselling novel by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood. It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 2000. Set in Canada, it is narrated from the present day, referring back to events that span the twentieth century.</p>
<p>The work was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2000 and the Hammett Prize in 2001. It was also nominated for Governor General’s Award in 2000, Orange Prize for Fiction, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2002.[1]Time Magazine named it the best novel of 2000 and included it in its list of the 100 greatest English-language novels since 1923.[2]</p>
<p>Shine Shine Shine is pretty recent, Ignatius already owns it, and it sounds to me like a rather appealing book…I don’t know how others feel, but it looks like it’s moving up in the standings.</p>
<p>The Yellow Birds is absolutely brilliant, and has just been nominated for the National Book Award. Personally, I think it should win the Pulitzer. I agree that it might not be the best choice for CC, but I’m urging everyone I know to read it.</p>
<p>^Just for the record, The Round House has been nominated for the National Book Award as well; in addition, the same author’s Plague of Doves was a Pulitzer finalist.</p>
<p>I haven’t read everything that Louise Erdrich has written, but I’ll never forget how bowled over I was by her first novel, Love Medicine, back in 1984. </p>
<p>Whether or not the CC group ends up reading anything by her, I’d urge anybody who is not familiar with Erdrich’s work to remedy the omission!</p>
<p>^Yes you’re right, Ignatius…and, whereas it’s always nice to read all of the books in a trilogy, I’ve found that the best novels can stand alone even if they are part of a series. All of Erdrich’s tales are somewhat interconnected, but I’ve read enough of them to know that they are rewarding as individual novels. :)</p>
<p>For those who like to read recent books that everyone is talking about, it would be hard to do better than The Round House. It is going to be a huge best seller.</p>
<p>Thanks for that list of book club picks from Amazon, SJCM. These are titles from it that would interest me:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.</p></li>
<li><p>Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh.</p></li>
<li><p>Possession by A.S. Byatt.</p></li>
<li><p>The Glass Room by Simon Mawer.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Gold, from Ignatius’ Elaine Newton lecture series list, is by Chris Cleve. I’m afraid that I disliked his novel Little Bee so much that I wouldn’t want to read anything else by him.</p>
<p>However, No Time Like the Present by Nadine Gordimer is also on that list, and it would interest me.</p>
<p>I never thought of this (but I’m not musical at all). From Wikipedia on Musical composition: “In discussing the structure or organization of a musical work, the composition of that work is generally called its musical form. These techniques draw a parallel to art’s formal elements. Sometimes, the entire form of a piece is through-composed, meaning that each part is different, with no repetition of sections; other forms include strophic, rondo, verse-chorus, or other parts.”</p>
<p>Also: “Composers may decide to divide their music into sections. In classical music, one common form of songwriting is Sonata form. This form involves an Exposition, Development, and Recapitulation. The end speaks to the beginning, concluding things, while the development allows for deviations from the norm of the exposition. Many contemporary songs are organized into sections as well. These sections are usually alternating verse and chorus, often with a bridge before the last chorus. The differing verses will share chord progressions while the chorus is often exactly the same throughout.” (emphasis mine)</p>