<p>NJTM: Only one hold on Life After Life - how can that be? My library system has 80 holds on the book with another 33 waiting for large print.</p>
<p>My top four books instead of my top seven? Yikes! So, in alphabetical order, NOT in order of preference:</p>
<p>Devil in a Blue Dress The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Intruder in the Dust A Lesson Before Dying The Stockholm Octavo</p>
<p>and yes, I can count but couldn’t cut it down any further. So five it is … deal with it.</p>
<p>Mary: My daughter will be thrilled that her input got considered (Their Eyes Are Watching God). She has about five books (required) that she absolutely despised. Her rants about them border on hysterically funny.</p>
<p>Ignatius, I think I’ve mentioned this before: I live in a blue collar town. The library is heavily used, but often there does not seem to be a high level of interest in the books I want to check out.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, what were the other books your daughter hated?</p>
<p>My choices, more or less this order:
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines</p>
<p>Books I hated that I had to read in school:
Catcher in the Rye (by far the most loathsome, my kids hated it as much as I did, who wants to spend time with a whiny privileged kid?)
My Antonia (snoozefest)
Vanity Fair (hated every character in the darn book, why couldn’t I have been with the half of the class reading Dickens?)</p>
<p>As the list narrows, I would say that I am somewhat surprised that more people have not read the Chinua Achebe, which is a popular high school choice around here that both S and D had to read. It really is one of those books that is on the “required reading” list. It is also short, so I would not mind reading it again. </p>
<p>I love detective stories, so Devil in a Blue Dress sounds interesting, as does The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Since ignatius could only cut a list to 5, I’ll balance by cutting mine to 3. :)</p>
<p>I hated Vanity Fair in school too, mathmom. I didn’t like Catcher in the Rye much either.</p>
<p>When my son was in high school, I re-read Catcher in the Rye. Suddenly, it was as though I was reading a different book! This time, I found it to be a touching, moving story of a kid who was going through a nervous collapse following the death of his brother. The whiny tone seemed like a transparently thin gloss over the genuine pain that lay beneath.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids were required to read Things Fall Apart in school. Since it doesn’t look like it is going to be chosen by the group, I’m going to do the late Chinua Achebe the honor of picking it up and reading it right away.</p>
<p>Okay, here are my picks, in order. But really, I’ll read anything too. I just happen to have my son’s copy of Achebe’s book right here, so it’s convenient.</p>
<p>Things Fall Apart
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Intruder in the Dust
The Farming of Bones</p>
<p>I did just read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter-it is a great book but I might prefer something new-although I will gladly join in the discussion</p>
<p>Probably my top two choices are:
Stolkholm Octavio
Things fall apart
Not familiar enough with the other choices-but whatever is decided on is fine by me!</p>
<p>Mary, I always say the same thing to you: I will read whatever the group decides. I have a list of books for personal reading, so I don’t mind going out of my comfort zone here. And if I end up not enjoying the book, I get to complain! </p>
<p>FWIW, Life After Life and The Stockholm Octavo both sound like books that would make it onto my personal list. I have heard of *A Lesson Before Dying * because I remember my son watched the movie and was moved by it. (That was when he used to discuss things with me…sigh.)</p>
<p>Well done, people. Voting has successfully eliminated 9 of our original 12 choices.</p>
<p>The following selections are out because they appear either once or not at all on the nine response lists (NJTheatreMOM, ignatius, BUandBC82, mathmom, sylvan8798, PlantMom, PATheaterMom, SouthJerseyChessMom, psychmom):</p>
<p>The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat</p>
<p>These choices merit an honorable mention, but are out because they appear on less than half the lists (either two, three or four times):</p>
<p>Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (3) The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann (4) Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (3) A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines (4)</p>
<p>These are our top three, which appear on more than half the lists:</p>
<p>Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner (5 times) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (6 times) The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (7 times)</p>
<p>Do you think you could each rank our three finalists in order of preference? </p>
<p>I suppose I could toss the last three in a hat, but what fun would that be? :)</p>
<p>I feel that any of the three would be equally desirable to read. But I guess I’ll put Things Fall Apart first because I would love to see us choose a book by an author from another country.</p>
<p>I’ll put Intruder in the Dust last only because I’ve already read it.</p>
<p>But please don’t give much weight to my rankings. I really do think these books are equal in desirability!</p>
<p>1.Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (6 times)
2.The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (7 times)
3.Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner (5 times)</p>
<p>I say to Mary- " you pick, you pick "…,
After all these YEARS, I say when it gets whittled down this far, you get to pull rank, and it’s your call.
By the way, did I miss your rankings ?</p>