All About Books discussion

Our theme for August and September will be Essay

The nomination round will run for a maximum of 7 days or until 7 poll-contestants are chosen. In order to move into poll a book needs to receive a second vote. So second if you are not nominating!

Please stick to one nomination OR one second vote per person.

Should you have a question, feel free to ask in this thread!

I will get us started by nominating Against Interpretation and Other Essays by Susan Sontag.

In her essays Sontag writes about arts, contemporary culture, literature and religion.

I'll second Susan Sontag. It's a while since I've read anything by her.

Farther Away by Jonathan Franzen; a collection of essays written by Franzen over the past five years. Includes one on his dear friend David Foster Wallace.

Paul, your suggestion sounds great, is it essays though (or one big essay)? I can't really tell by the book description.

Bette, I was deciding in between Susan Sontag, Joan Didion or the one you've nominated, so I am glad it's on the list despite me going for Sontag in the end. (unfortunately someone else will have to second it)

I nominiate Invisible by James Patterson

I will second Farther Away.

Lindy wrote: "I nominiate Invisible by James Patterson"

i second this nomination for invisible by james patterson.

If this is suppose to be non-fioction how about Hugette Clark?

Welcome to the group Lindy!

This nomination round is for non-fiction, and the theme is Essay, so unfortunately 'Invisible' won't be able to count despite it being seconded, as it is fiction.
If you have a book of essays that you would like to nominate, please let me know which one, and I will add it.

Jenny wrote: "Paul, your suggestion sounds great, is it essays though (or one big essay)? I can't really tell by the book description...."

I had missed the theme of essays, so I am not sure it is. I can withdraw it if that is ok?

Paul why not save this one for another free round then. Is there a collection of essays you'd like to nominate instead?

here are a couple from my libraries collection
I have never read an essay, not sure i would

The annotated Anne of Green Gables / by L.M. Montgomery ; edited by Wendy E. Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, Mary E. Doody Jones

Dress your family in corduroy and denim /David Sedaris


Everything I needed to know about being a girl I learned from Judy Blume

I will nominate Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson, although I don't know if this particular volume is the best choice. Emerson wrote many famous essays (at least still famous here in the northeast US). If someone knows a better selection/collection, then I would be happy to switch.

Leslie wrote: "I will nominate Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson, although I don't know if this particular volume is the best choice. Emerson wrote many famous essays (at least still famous here in th..."

Oh yay, Leslie, this is on my tbr and was a very close second choice for this topic.

Leslie wrote: "I will nominate Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson, although I don't know if this particular volume is the best choice. Emerson wrote many famous essays (at least still famous here in th..."

I second it.

I will nominate instead Through the Window: Seventeen Essays and a Short Story by Julian Barnes.

Have deleted my other post

Bette BookAddict wrote: "Leslie wrote: "I will nominate Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson, although I don't know if this particular volume is the best choice. Emerson wrote many famous essays (at least still fa..."

Bette, didn't you recently ask about Emerson? In any case, someone did and that is what put it in my mind.

This is available from Project Gutenberg (and I am sure elsewhere as well). Here is a list of the essays:
Contents:
Introduction -- The American scholar -- Compensation -- Self-reliance -- Friendship -- Heroism -- Manners -- Gifts -- Nature -- Shakespeare; or, The poet -- Prudence -- Circles -- Notes.

@Leslie. Yes, that was me. I probably should have nominated Emerson's book here but didn't. It was a close toss-up between Franzen and Emerson.

Thanks for the Gutenberg link but I'm a 'physical' book reader. I have requested Emerson thru inter-library service.

Paul wrote: "I will nominate instead Through the Window: Seventeen Essays and a Short Story by Julian Barnes.

Have deleted my other post"

Seconded

OH that's a great one! I really like Julian Barnes! This one will be such a hard poll to decide I can already tell, good thing I kind of want to read them all!

OK so now we have:

Against Interpretation and Other Essays by Susan Sontag (seconded)
Farther Away by Jonathan Franzen (seconded)
Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson (seconded)
Through the Window: Seventeen Essays and a Short Story by Julian Barnes (seconded)

@Lindy, your second and third suggestion (the one by Sedaris and 'Everything I needed to know...') meet the criteria I think, which one would you like me to add as a nomination?

I've never read essays but these all seem great. I won't add my own nomination as can't guarantee I'll join but I'll certainly try get to whatever is selected

I second Arguably: Selected Essays.

I adore essays! (Back when I was teaching high school English I taught a course on expository writing, which included reading as well as writing numerous essays.) There are so many I would love to nominate: Charles Lamb's Essays of Elia, any of the books of essays by E.B. White who is a fantastic essayist, Montaigne, Bacon, E.V. Lucas, Hazlitt, and many others.

But the one I'll settle on nominating here is George Orwell: Essays

Orwell was not only a novelist (1984, Animal Farm) and an historical autobiographer (Homage to Catalonia, Down and Out in London and Paris, The Road to Wigan Pier, etc.), but a prolific essayist who wrote superb essays on a variety of topics. I hope most readers here are aware of his seminal essay "Politics and the English Language"* which is incredibly prescient, foretelling such disgusting euphemisms as "body count," "collateral damage," and the like.

This collection also includes his incredibly powerful essay "Shooting an Elephant," "Reflections on Gandhi" (with its wonderful first line "Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent, but the tests that have to be applied to them are not, of course, the same in all cases"), "Such, such were the Joys" about his experience as a schoolboy in a minor English public (for Americans, private) school, and many others. While these were mostly written fifty years or so ago, they are as relevant to the world today as they were to the world he wrote in.

I think those who are not familiar with his essays will find these powerful and well worth reading.

* link to Politics and the English Language
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel...

I would love to read Virginia Woolf's " A Room Of One's Own" this month. That's my nomination!

Great nominations everyone, I think we'll have to have another round of it soon!

@Ian, so sorry for having missed your nomination, and Terri, thanks for reminding me by seconding!

An update:

Against Interpretation and Other Essays by Susan Sontag (seconded)
Farther Away by Jonathan Franzen (seconded)
Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson (seconded)
Through the Window: Seventeen Essays and a Short Story by Julian Barnes (seconded)
Arguably: Selected Essays by Christopher Hitchens (seconded)
George Orwell: Essays
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

@Lindy, your second and third suggestion (the one by Sedaris and 'Everything I needed to know...') meet the criteria I think, which one would you like me to add as a nomination?

I know I said earlier I wasn't going to but Everyman has inspired me to read essays. So I will second George Orwell and aim to join in whatever wins

I second A Room of One's Own

oooh these all look great - looking forward to seeing which one gets chosen!

I would also second George Orwell essays.

I would second George Orwell essays! (I'm about to start reading his historical autobiography "Homage to Catalonia").

Well that's our seven seconded nominations in the bag then! Will set up the poll in a bit.

The poll is up and can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/1...

Aww, I just came across I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place.

...which is on my TBR as well Cathie! It seems to me we'll have to do a repeat round of the essay theme in the near future!
If you can't wait: maybe start a readalong for it?

That sounds like a plan!

A Room of One's Own is a triumph!

Hi all,

I've never read an Essay, I don't even know if I would recognize one.
I'll read whatever is selected, count me in!

thanks