I’m afraid I’m terribly resistant to the old-timey adventure group: Captain Blood, Tarzan of the Apes, Beau Geste, and Prisoner of Zenda. It seems like we should be able to do better than that.
I would have no objection to Fates and Furies, if people are sufficiently interested in discussing it here, partly because it is supposedly has sophisticated sex in it. A good antidote to Bookman’s Tale! In addition, I have recently been deeply immersed in Proust (just finishing volume #3 of 7). While Proust is both sublime and sensuous, he is certainly not explicit…or modern!
I’m impressed you are reading Proust. I read the first one the summer after I lived in France. So I read it in French, but I could only manage about 30 pages a day. It was a long summer! I agree with you about the old-time adventures - I thought they were fun suggestions for February - and I am tempted to go reread the Prisoner of Zenda which I remember being terrific fun - but not I don’t think likely to create a lot of discussion.
I’m so impressed that you have read any of Proust in French, mathmom. If I tried to do that, I couldn’t make it through more than a page or two or three a day and would soon give up. I do have the French full text up on my computer, and I try to follow along a bit and look to see how Marcel expresses certain things, but that’s about the extent of it.
Back when my French was stronger, I had the idea that I would try read some of the French classics in French, so I never read them in translation. Of course I never got around to reading them in French, either, and so I am now starting to read them in English.
I took a gap year in France and for a long time my French was pretty fluent. I considered taking a Proust course in college (my roommate did) because the prof came to our French table regularly, but the pace was impossible. I don’t think I could have done it in English much less French. I took a different course in 19th century French novels - they were still mostly long (Zola, Hugo) but we were NOT expected to read a new one every single week.
My other book club (the Roundtable, part of Goodreads) is doing a 2016 Proust read where they take two months for one book. This inspired me to start, and then I got swept away and am far ahead of schedule. The group isn’t starting Book #2 (love the French title À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs) until March 1.
I’ll take ignatius’ comments as vetoes on Strout and Stegner, but I’ll throw in Elena Ferrante, in case that changes anything for anyone. In the interest of shortening the list a little, I am going to remove the Kindness of Enemies. It sounds good, but is described as follows: "A richly imagined novel about a half-Russian, half-Sudanese professor whose studies of a 19th-century Muslim leader become a portal into his world. The story alternates between two narratives: his in the Caucasus Mountains of the 1830s and hers in the present day.” Since we just bounced back and forth in time with The Bookman’s Tale, I don’t know if we want to do that again right away.
Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides
Duet: The Meursault Investigation By Kamel Daoud and The Stranger by Albert Camus
I might have mentioned this before, but I have read samples of Elena Ferrante’s writing and for some reason it rubs me the wrong way…like fingernails on a blackboard.
Sorry to see The Kindness of Enemies go, though I doubt it would have been chosen. It would be nice if we read a book with at least one Muslim character someday.
We are all so different. The Lightkeepers sounds horrific to me!
So far I’d choose:
1.Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
2.The Meursault Investigation By Kamel Daoud and The Stranger by Albert Camus
3.My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
^ @mathmom I just quickly looked at amazon, and goodreads reviews of The lightkeepers, which sounds like a page turner, mystery, and may have an ending which would provoke discussion, but I hate to list it, because it sounds “horrific” to you. ;(
It’s great that we’re all so different – and kind of amazing that we (eventually) manage to settle on something that we will all read!
I think this is extremely important – especially in the current political and social climate. It’s definitely a gap in our book club repertoire. Do any of these appeal to anyone? http://www.buzzfeed.com/ahmedaliakbar/for-you-a-thousand-times-over#.xklmgLXma. The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam sounds interesting. White Teeth by Zadie Smith is also on the list, and I’ve never read that.
Thanks for the list, Mary. I’ve looked at White Teeth and I’m afraid it didn’t appeal. I’ll take a closer look at the list later today. I do see that The Good Muslim is the second book of a trilogy, and at least one reviewer liked the first book better.
Of them these caught my eye:
Wolf Dreams by Yasmina Khadra - about a young actor who becomes a disillusioned terrorist
Prairies of Fever by Ibrahim Nasrallah - the author grew up in a refugee camp in Jordan.
The Yacoubian Building by Alaa al Aswany - it takes place in Egypt and also was made into a popular film. “With its parade of big-city characters, both ludicrous and tender, its warm heart and political indignation, it belongs to a literary tradition that goes back to the 1840s, to Eugène Sue and Charles Dickens.” (Guardian review)
Palace Walk By Naguib Mahfouz. - The first book of the Cairo trilogy by Nobel Prize winner. Set just after WW1.
And finally memoir not novel, but I could read Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.
I Am Pilgrim may be iffy because of the terrorism against the West aspect but maybe not as it addresses the how and why of the terrorist. And from Kirkus Review:
I think if we want to understand the Muslim world better we should read books by someone from that world. *I am Pilgrim *sounds to me like a fun thriller - and apparently first in a series, but not the more serious book I think we are looking for this time around.
A good antidote to Bookman’s Tale! In addition, I have recently been deeply immersed in Proust (just finishing volume #3 of 7). While Proust is both sublime and sensuous, he is certainly not explicit…or modern!