Literary Exploration discussion

I'm not sure why but I'm not a fan of books, movies, etc. set during the Gulf War, Iraq War or War in Afghanistan.

Kim wrote: "I'm not sure why but I'm not a fan of books, movies, etc. set during the Gulf War, Iraq War or War in Afghanistan."

Kim, out of curiosity, what is your feeling on literature dealing with 9/11?

Jessa wrote: "Kim, out of curiosity, what is your feeling on literature dealing with 9/11? "

I've not read any actually.

Kim wrote: "Jessa wrote: "Kim, out of curiosity, what is your feeling on literature dealing with 9/11? "

I've not read any actually."

Sorry, I was being nosy. I was wondering if you're not fan of books about the wars translated to books about 9/11 since they are tangentially related.

Jessa wrote: "Sorry, I was being nosy. I was wondering if you're not fan of books about the wars translated to books about 9/11 since they are tangentially related. "

All good. To be honest I've never really been interested in reading any 9/11 related literature.
It was a pivotal point in history and society and I feel it also marked the end of a lot of innocence that had crept back in since the end of the Vietnam war, especially for people my age (like you) as it occurred at the end of childhood/beginning of adulthood and whilst our younger years were in the innocent world era as soon as we moved into adulthood we were in the new age of terror and restriction.

But as an Australian it's something I feel much differently about to Americans. It was a terrible tragedy and it impacted my life too but not in a personal way so I just don't have the level of personal interest to make me want to read it.

I hope that makes sense as I've been trying to write it while doing my job at the same time :P

Kim wrote: "Jessa wrote: "Sorry, I was being nosy. I was wondering if you're not fan of books about the wars translated to books about 9/11 since they are tangentially related. "

All good. To be honest I've n..."

No it makes perfect sense. I was especially curious because I just finished reading a book about 9/11 from a French writer and it was an interesting perspective and I've read some poetry on the topic from international writers so I was curious if your disinterest in the topic extended to 9/11.

You made complete sense and actually were extremely eloquent in your explanation.

Thank you. That's not to say that if it came up as a monthly theme I wouldn't read it though. It's just not a topic I would seek out.

Can i suggest a few themes.

1) Books dealing with neurological disorders
-Still Alice (Lisa Genova)
-Left Neglected (Lisa Genova)
-Before i go to sleep (SJ Watson)
-Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (Mark Haddon)

2) short stories (either formally or informally)
-Volt (Alan Heathcock)
-Cloud Altas (David Mitchell)
-Beggar's Garden (Michael Christie)
-One Amazing Thing (Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni)
-The Imperfectionists (Tom Rachman)

3) Books written with a Mystical Thread
-The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (Aimee Bender)
-The Girl with Glass Feet (Ali Shaw)
-The Gargoyle (Andrew Davidson)
-Weaveworld (Clive Barker)

Just to comment on above, you could make the first category (books dealing with neurological disorders) broader, and say The Brain and add a non-fiction book. "Moonwalking with Einstein" (Joshua Foer)
Or books change it to books that deal with memory (Moonwalking with Einstein; Still Alice; Before i go to sleep"

Brandie, you sent me exploring the topic of fiction concerning the Korean Police Action. Hard to believe, but it was never a declared war, despite the body count. So, here are a few random titles...

The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee , which seems to be highly and frequently reviewed.

The Marines of Autumn byJames Brady

Indignation by Philip Roth Which I have read, highly recommend, and have reviewed. Review available at: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/830...

Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker Yep. Good book.

The Bridges at Toko-ri by James A. Michener This is early Michener. Published in 1953, so it's not the veritable doorstop his later novels became.


Thanks Mike for the suggestions! I don't know about other people but I am sick and tired of hearing and reading about World War 2 in non fiction as well as fiction so the idea of reading a book theme on WW 1 or Vietnam, Korea, the Gulf Wars or Afghanistan is appealing to me. So thanks again for any help that any of you all can provide!

Tpal007 wrote: "Can i suggest a few themes.

1) Books dealing with neurological disorders
-Still Alice (Lisa Genova)
-Left Neglected (Lisa Genova)
-Before i go to sleep (SJ Watson)
-Curious Incident of the Dog in ..."


I like the idea of books regarding neurological disorders considering I work in Neuro. Some other titles that are related to the brain that I have on my to read shelf that might be good reads are by Oliver Sacks
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat & Other Clinical Tales and of course....Awakenings which isn't on my shelf but made for a good movie!

what about Japanese lit with Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono, anything by Banana Yoshimoto, The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, anything by Yoko Ogawa, anything by Natsume Sōseki (his "Ten Nights' Dreams" is really good), On Parole by Akira Yoshimura, or
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

Kim wrote: "An update of the list

Already Done

Book That Became a Film
Post-Apocalyptic
Utopia
Historical Fiction
Booker Prize winner - KL/Barbara - June 2011 Choice
Dystopian - Andi - September 2011 choice
..."

I agree about the 2 book suggestion, main book and alternate read.

Maybe we'll look at putting it to a vote

Just for something a little different what about Children's Literature? I am sure we all have our own childhood favourites that would make an interesting re-read from a more grown up perspective?

Kate wrote: "Just for something a little different what about Children's Literature? I am sure we all have our own childhood favourites that would make an interesting re-read from a more grown up perspective?"
I think that is a very good idea especially because I am not that accquainted with English Children´s Literature :)

The same goes for me. Great idea!

I love the idea of a children's lit theme but there is so much out there that shouldn't we separate that idea into several themes focusing on Children's Lit?

I have an interest in the dystopia genre I've read Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World I'm currently reading WE by Zamyatin. Is anyone interested?

Although I'm interested in reading We I believe it will be quite some time before we do a dystopian book again. We did 1984, The Handmaid's Tale and Never Let Me Go all within a couple months of each other.

How about "The Journey"

Heart of Darkness

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Lisa wrote: "Tpal007 wrote: "Can i suggest a few themes.

1) Books dealing with neurological disorders
-Still Alice (Lisa Genova)
-Left Neglected (Lisa Genova)
-Before i go to sleep (SJ Watson)
-Curious Inciden..."
Lisa,do you like reading Oliver Sacks? I do. Whenever I get a copy of his books I buy them.I have read all the ones you have mentioned. they are fascinating, arent they?I just watched him on TED giving a talk on the hallucinations of blind people.

I like Sandie's idea of Japanese lit, simply because we rarely read them. I have not even heard of the names mentioned my Sandie, nor have I seen them in the bookstores here.
Children's literature is a good idea too. but yes as suggested by Brandie, we should separate them according to themes.

I think one month's theme could be Man Booker Prize Winners.
http://www.themanbookerprize.com/priz...

I don't really follow awards... but Man Booker is the exception. They have an incredible list. And all the books have 'something' in common... they are always light-heart existential... in some way. I wish I could give it a better definition.
__________________

We've done Man Booker winners (and losers) already. Maybe in a couple years we'll revisit it. That doesn't mean winners are not eligible to be included in other monthly themes though.

Kim wrote: "We've done Man Booker winners (and losers) already. Maybe in a couple years we'll revisit it. That doesn't mean winners are not eligible to be included in other monthly themes though."

Doh, sorry, I had no idea. But at least I now know it wasn't a stupid suggestion ;-)

Already Done

Book That Became a Film
Post-Apocalyptic
Utopia
Historical Fiction
Booker Prize winner - KL/Barbara - June 2011
Dystopian - Andi - September 2011
Labyrinth - Booksy - November 2011
Booker Prize loser - Brad - December 2011
Bildungsroman - Victoria - January 2012
Best of 2011 - Philippa - February 2012
Goats - Me - March 2012
Memoir - Mary - April 2012
Classic Detectives - KL - May 2012
Victorian - Philippa - June 2012

Possible Upcoming Themes

Gender Identity - Lola
Middle East - Mary
Period Novel (time period to be chosen first) - Lori
Ocean/Desert - Lori
Holocaust - Kevin
Famous Philosophers - Barbara
Unusual Settings - Barbara
Blindness - Anda
Noir - Franky
Hard-boiled - KL
Hard-boiled & Noir Mix (Pulp) - KL
Alien - Jessica
Culture Clashing Horror - Jessica
Post-Colonial - Victoria
Any Culture Clash - Anne
Religion-associated fiction - Graham
Medieval/Inquisition - Luana
Set in Specific City - Lisa
Street Lit/Urban Fiction - Angela
GR Author - Me
Indie - Hugh
Banned Books - Jessa
Road Trip/Travel - Franky
9/11 - Jessa
Horror - Flash Beagle
Russian Lit - Everitt
Vietnam War - Everitt
Espionage - Flash Beagle
Mystery - Franky
Supernatural/Ghost - Franky
Southern Gothic - Marlene
Philosophical - Justin
Environmental - Jessa
World War 1 - Mike
Korean War - Brandie
Iraq War - Brandie
Dealing with Neurological Disorders - Tpal007
Short Stories - Tpal007
With a Mystical Thread - Tpal007
Japanese lit - Sandie
Childrens' lit - Kate

Idea of maybe moving to two books - Xeni

too many choices

Thread closed while we catch up on some of these themes

I think it's time to open this thread again to get some fresh ideas for new themes;

Here the current list of Possible Upcoming Themes

Used already
Environmental - Jessa
Post-Colonial - Victoria
Religion-associated fiction - Graham
Western - Toby
Non-Fiction - Mary
Dealing with Neurological Disorders - Tpal007
Blindness - Anda
GR Author - Kim
Ocean/Desert - Lori
Romance - Mary
Urban Fantasy - Jessica
War - Brandie
Philosophical - Justin
Short Stories - Tpal007

Future Polls
Graphic Novels - Kim
Gender Identity - Lola
Any Culture Clash - Anne
Espionage - Flash Beagle
Street Lit/Urban Fiction - Angela
Alien - Jessica
Middle East - Mary
Indie - Hugh
Noir - Franky
Set in Specific City - Lisa
Period Novel - Lori
Mystery - Franky
Hard-boiled & Noir Mix (Pulp) - KL
Holocaust - Kevin
Famous Philosophers - Barbara
Culture Clashing Horror - Jessica
9/11 - Jessa
Obscure Authors - Toby
Beat Generation - Michael
With a Mystical Thread - Tpal007
Childrens' lit - Kate


So go nuts with themes, genres we haven't tried, or something a little different

What about Dysfunctional families and Rural Settings?

Dysfunctional Families - I’m thinking of books similar to The Slap and Dirt

Rural Settings - The Thorn Birds, Plainsong and Eventide fit into this theme.

Native American genre -- some interesting authors that we have yet to tackle are Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie. I would even throw in some Carlos Castanedo for fun!

I think native american authors would be interesting as well. Popular science would be fun.

Great ideas!

For Popular Science there is a listopia, Best Science Books - Non-Fiction Only - those would be fun.

I was also thinking of Imprisonment/POW/Escape -

- The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir - great historical/historical fiction author
- The Green Mile by Stephen King - inmates on death row with of course supernatural elements
- King Rat by James Clavell - WWII POWs - autobiographical
- The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas, classic book, imprisonment, revenge

I love the idea for the Native American theme. A few other suggestions are steampunk, South American authors, southern (gothic and/or modern), and Harlem Renaissance.

Why do you want to focus on America? what about the rest of the world?

I agree Michael. We could have some Australian or Nigerian or Japanese or French. After all we are the Literary Exploration group.:-)

If we're going for French, how about an existentialist theme?

Existentialist theme does sound good

Exitentialist theme - I would love that.

How about "Indigenous People" as a theme, which could cover all cultures, including Native American.

And I agree with the Existentialist theme.

Maybe Poetry? Plays?

Just my two cents :-)

Why not? I like the suggestions of indigenous people or play/poetry.

No idea if this has been suggested yet because there are alot of pages but I'd love to give another vote for anything noir XD

I'm sure noir will show up in a poll again

Existentialist novels- e.g. those by Albert Camus, would be interesting, imo. I'd also like to read/discuss plays, and Gothic novels.
Not so keen on the other suggestions, however.

How about picking a country? Authors can be from that specific country or the story's setting could be?

That is an interesting and novel suggestion, I think, provided we move away from the usual USA, England, Australia, Canada quartet to other countries.

That is a little difficult to do; how do we decide which country to read? I think I might be easier to do Continents. But then again we have done Japanese and Russian literature (we have never done American, English, Australian, etc literature)

Michael wrote: "That is a little difficult to do; how do we decide which country to read? I think I might be easier to do Continents. But then again we have done Japanese and Russian literature (we have never done..."

Do you think so? I thought it was going to be quite easy.
There are so many books written with setting in some exotic locations (coundtries), or authors from there.

I've just started reading a book called 'last train to Istanul' and reading another book written by Orhan Pamuk same time, and you know which country I am speaking of... :)

So, if enough people want to try, I believe we can come up with a country or a continent or whatever to have as a theme, don't you think?

Some real Literary Fiction although I'm not sure how popular this theme will be with readers...