Thursday, August 24, 2006

Nominations For Book Group

*** This post has been moved back to the front page for more comments***

Here's the list of our nominations. Click on the title, for link to the book on Amazon. E-mail me if you didn't get the attachment via email with synopsis, and book covers to this list.

  1. Blind Assasin – Margaret Atwood
  2. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
  3. Atrocity Exhibition – J. G. Ballard
  4. Complicity – Iain Banks
  5. The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
  6. Ficciones - Luis Jorges Borges
  7. If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino
  8. The Devil and Mrs. Prym - Paul Coello
  9. White Noise - Don Delilo
  10. Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides
  11. The Joke - Milan Kundera
  12. Atonement - Ian McEwan
  13. Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami
  14. Choke – Chuck Palaniuk
  15. Loitering with Intent - Muriel Sparks


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

My choices are:
1. Blind Assasin
2. Big Sleep
3. Complicity

On another note, I love Murakami, and just read Kafka a few months ago. It's interesting and different, as Murakami always is. The synopsis really doesn't do justice to the book though. Yes, it's a departure for Murakami (ex. no character named Noburo Watanabe); however, there is a considerable amount of graphic violence and cruelty against cats. If I knew how bad (painful to read) those parts would be, I probably would have spared myself the nightmares and the $30 for the book. But of course they don't put that in the synopsis. The reason for my comment? if you think graphic violence and cruelty against animals will offend you, it's not a good book for you.

CC said...

Hi Amy, thanks for your votes, and duly noted on comments about Kafka on the Shore.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles also had incredibly detailed descriptions of torture that have stayed with me until today. However in case of Wind-Up, I felt the violence was necessary in the exploration of the themes.

While the violence you describe in Kafka sounds gratuitous, I'm curious as to what purpose, if any, it serves in the narrative.

If Kafka does gets picked, anyone who feels uncomfortable reading it should feel free to opt out for that month.

Anonymous said...

I somehow don't remember any graphic violence in Wind-up Bird. Maybe I just blocked it out. And having read the reviews for Kafka on Amazon and B&N, I feel as though I didn't even read the same book! No one even mentioned cat gore. Maybe it was my translation (I read it in German) or maybe it's because I live with 80 cats (no joke). Who knows? In the interest of full disclosure though, I have to say, even AP's Animal Cops makes me cry, so I could be overly sensitive. I will say that Kafka kept me engrossed, but it was like, what did cats do to you? The worst I want to do to the evil cat with which I live is help it escape.

CC said...

Hey Animal Cop's makes me cry too! And kudos to you for the cats, I only have two and feel as if sometimes I will go insane. (but then again my two cats tend to try to kill each other so...)

And *spoiler for anyone who has not read Wind-up*, the violence I'm talking about is the Mongolians skinning one of the Japanese they capture..shudder.

CC said...

My choice btw are:

1. White Noise
2. The Devil and Mrs. Prym
3. Complicity

I have to say it was a difficult decision, since I want to read almost everything we picked. But here we are, thought I'd post them before I changed my mind once again, and thanks again Amy for getting us started^_^.

David U. said...

My choices:

1. Complicity
2. The Devil and Mrs. Prym
3. Ficciones

Anonymous said...

1. Loitering with Intent

Anonymous said...

2. Atonement
3. Blind Assasin

Sorry about the double entry. Seems I can't keep my fingers off of that tab button ...

Anonymous said...

I ended up picking books that sound intriguing but would never read on my own. i'm looking forward to this! =)

1. atrocity exhibition
2. kafka on the shore
3. white noise