<p>^Excellent, thanks. I appreciate the trimming. It’s always hard to decide which books to eliminate from such a good list. We’ll keep The Name of the Wind on the back burner for later. We’ve done monster novels before—11/22/63, The Luminaries and Lonesome Dove are all over 800 pages—so Rothfuss’ book is certainly a viable choice for the future. The above edits bring us down to six choices: </p>
<p>A Room With a View by E.M. Forster The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel</p>
<p>We could probably vote with six, but if there are other titles that anyone would like to see removed first, that works, too.</p>
<p>This looks like a great list! I haven’t read any of them (though I saw the movie of Room with a View), and these all look good to me!</p>
<p>I DID actually read this month’s books, but then was out of town for a few days, so I had no time to contribute. And they weren’t really my cup of tea (not fond of mysteries), so I didn’t have much to add. But I’d never read any of Arthur Conan Doyle, and my sons loved the Alex Rider books, so I liked the picks anyway. </p>
<p>Like others have mentioned, I missed Doyle’s humor in House of Silk, but I did like Horowitz’s portrait of some of the darker sides of Victorian London. When he wrote, in talking about the street children of London, “Come, Watson, that’s enough of this. Get back to the story”, I wished he had just kept going! Maybe I should go read some Dickens. And thanks to ignatius for the Dartmoor link!</p>
<p>I vote we don’t read a 722 page long book! My darn kids read so fast they prefer their books to be mammoth! I’m actually fine with putting all the fantasies off for a while since we just did a genre book.</p>
<p>In light of that I’d say all these are fine by me, but if we want to nix the fantasies for this round no problem:</p>
<p>A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu
The Thief and its sequels (The Queen’s Thief series) by Megan Whalen Turner
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel</p>
<p>I’m feeling whiny - some of the fantasies sounded good.</p>
<p>That said, I’m mostly okay with the books listed. I’ll rank this time from the six books **Mary **listed but will happily do over once the list shortens (or lengthens) </p>
<ol>
<li><p>All the Light We Cannot See - I think that a good many people have either just read this book or want to read it. It could make for a lively discussion.</p></li>
<li><p>A Room With A View</p></li>
<li><p>Station Eleven - Something different and like All the Light We Cannot See on 2014 Best Books Lists</p></li>
<li><p>The Signature of All Things or Nora Webster - (moss or music - hmm - can’t decide - moss, maybe - yeah, let’s give moss the slightest edge here though Nora Webster appears on Best of 2014 lists)</p></li>
<li><p>All Our Names - Less certain about this one</p></li>
</ol>
<p>PlantMom: I just noticed that you’ve read both The Signature of All Things and *Nora Webster<a href=“and%20gave%20the%20nod%20to%20%5Bi%5DThe%20Signature%20of%20All%20Things%5B/i%5D”>/i</a> - and also All the Light We Cannot See. Which ones do you not want to reread or maybe discuss? I worry that our list limits you, as you may not be interested in the other three choices (and after you so graciously agreed last time to the Holmes/Watson duo.)</p>
<p>I’ll go along with whatever the rest of you decide, but thanks for your consideration, ignatius. Signature is pretty long, as is All the Light We Cannot See so I probably wouldn’t reread either, rather just come to discuss. On the list above, my preference would be either A Room With a View or Station Eleven. </p>
<p>I read Nora Webster this weekend, and think it is a stunning book ( my first colm Toibin) and was surprised it had so little " music" in it - it’s not Amadeus.
I, also, believe it would be a good " discussion" book, because Nora is a bit controversial which might provoke interesting discussion. This is an unforgettable book. </p>
<p>I’m reading ALL THE LIGHT I CANNOT SEE, now, and it’s a page turner. At this point in the book (30%) I’m not sure it would provoke as much discussion as other books, but perhaps others who have read this could address this.
It’s great, you, ask PLANTMOM for her opinion, it helps when someone has read the books. </p>
<p>People don’t seem very attracted to the idea of reading All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu. So now my top three, in accordance with current trends, would be:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The Signature of All Things OR Nora Webster </p></li>
<li><p>Station Eleven</p></li>
<li><p>A Room With a View</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Has anyone read Station Eleven? It might be fun to pick a new release that none of us has read yet. And although I confess I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic fiction, Station Eleven seems to be more than that. This article from The New Yorker about transcending genre has piqued my interest (aging English majors out there will appreciate the nod to Northrop Frye—he haunted my senior seminar back in the day): <a href=“A Better Way to Think About the Genre Debate | The New Yorker”>A Better Way to Think About the Genre Debate | The New Yorker;
<p>That New Yorker article really does make Station Eleven sound interesting. Rothman says the book is a mixture of genres! Fascinating article. The idea of reading Station Eleven is becoming increasingly appealing.</p>
<p>Since ignatius, buenavista, NJTheatreMOM, PlantMom and mathmom have given a thumbs up, let’s go with Station Eleven for our February selection. I’ll start a new thread. I hope others who have not yet chimed in are okay with the choice!</p>
<p>Hi buenavista! Glad you read and enjoyed the Holmes duet. Thanks for the link re Moriarty. I doubt that I’ll be reading the book, but if anyone else does, I’d be interested in hearing how it compares in quality and style to The House of Sillk.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes! So I’m glad to have the recommendations. Let me ask you and mathmom a question: My 16 year-old daughter likes fantasy–has read and re-read the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce and the Girl of Fire and Thorns series by Rae Carson. I don’t think she’s ever even heard of The Queen’s Thief books, but do you think she has aged out of those? Amazon puts the age range at 8-12 years.</p>
<p>I looked - library database - and found grades 6 - 10 as the recommendation. Much more accurate. I can’t see the series as a whole working for ages 8-12. Tamora Pierce was a big favorite - think along the same lines for this series. More tomorrow when I don’t have to use my phone to communicate.</p>
<p>My boys loved Tamora Pierce. DS liked the Magic Steps series by her even better, but I liked the Tortall books. I think Amazon is wrong about the ages for the Queen’s Thief books - they don’t use big words, but the ideas and relationships I’d say were for 10+ ideally. They are in the YA section of our library, not the kids room. </p>
<p>^^^^^^^^ Station Eleven- correction. Looks like a " genre bending" book with wide appeal, many Goodread reviews stress it is not the typical dystopian read ! Well reviewed. </p>
And thanks to ignatius for the Dartmoor link!</p>
would be:</p>