In this thread, we choose one work of Resources: Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org - A database of over 17000 books available online. If you can suggest books from here, that'd be the best. SparkNotes - http://www.sparknotes.com/ - A very helpful Cliffnotes-esque site, but much better, in my opinion. If you happen to come in late and need to catch-up, you can get great character/chapter/plot summaries here. For recommendations on future material, suggestions on how to improve the club, or just a general rant, feel free to PM the moderation team. Past Books of the Month [for BOTM before 2019, refer to archives] 2019: January: Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky February: BEAR by Marian Engel March: V. by Thomas Pynchon April: The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout May: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman June: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann July: The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach August: Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay September: Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay October: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado November: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett December: Moby Dick by Herman Melville 2020: January: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair February: WE by Yevgeny Zamyatin March: The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini by Benvenuto Cellini April: The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio May: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Dame Rebecca West June: The African Queen by C. S. Forester July: The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale August: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire, by Howard Pyle September: Strange Hotel, by Eimear McBride October:Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (怪談)("Ghost Stories"), by Lafcadio Hearn November: A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) , by Matthew Hongoltz Hetling December: Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Drury Clark 2021: January: The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley February: How to Read Donald Duck by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart March: Carrier Wave by Robert Brockway April: The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brian May: You Can't Win by Jack Black June:Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson July:Can Such Things Be by Ambrose Bierce August: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust September:A Dreamer's Tales by Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany Current: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Book available here: https://www.amazon.com/Always-Castle-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe/dp/0143039970 About the book quote:We Have Always Lived in the Castle is Shirley Jackson’s last book and widely considered as her life’s masterpiece. It revolves around two sisters, Merricat and Constance, who live with their sickly Uncle Julian in their family mansion. They are the only survivors of a murder in the Blackwood household, where an arsenic-laced sugar bowl and berries left four members of the family dead. Merricat was sent to bed without dinner and Constance doesn’t take sugar, so the two were unaffected by the poison. Uncle Julian consumed only a little but he never fully recovered and remains ailing. https://medium.com/@rachitkataria/rachit-reviews-we-have-always-lived-in-the-castle-32ff87fe7ec5 quote:The theme of persecution of people who exhibit "otherness" or become outsiders in small-town New England, by small-minded villagers, is at the forefront of We Have Always Lived in the Castle and is a repeated theme in Jackson's work. In her novels The Haunting of Hill House and, to a lesser extent, The Sundial, this theme is also central to the psychology of the story. In all these works, the main characters live in a house that stands alone on many acres, and is entirely separate physically, socially, as well as ideologically, from the main inhabitants of the town. In his 2006 introduction of the Penguin Classics edition, Jonathan Lethem stated that the recurring town is "pretty well recognizable as North Bennington, Vermont", where Jackson and her husband, Bennington professor Stanley Edgar Hyman, encountered strong "reflexive anti-Semitism and anti-intellectualism".[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Have_Always_Lived_in_the_Castle About the Author quote:Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American writer, known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Over the duration of her writing career, which spanned over two decades, she composed six novels, two memoirs, and more than 200 short stories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Jackson Pacing Read as thou wilt is the whole of the law. Please post after you read! Please bookmark the thread to encourage discussion. References and Further Materials There was a 2019 adaptation : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6CVyg_0iKc Suggestions for Future Months These threads aren't just for discussing the current BOTM; If you have a suggestion for next month's book, please feel free to post it in the thread below also. Generally what we're looking for in a BotM are works that have 1) accessibility -- either easy to read or easy to download a free copy of, ideally both 2) novelty -- something a significant fraction of the forum hasn't already read 3) discussability -- intellectual merit, controversiality, insight -- a book people will be able to talk about. Final Note: Thanks, and we hope everyone enjoys the book!
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# ? Oct 4, 2021 11:51 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 18:46 |
Off on our first vacation for a year and a half, have this book packed and ready for some reading at the lakeshore!
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# ? Oct 4, 2021 14:58 |
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I went into this book completely blind, didn’t even read any of the synopses. I’m about 2/3rds of the way through and it’s really interesting how Merricat has regressed to young childlike behavior during this whole thing. I have a weird inverted Anne Shirley vibe off of her. Even though I know it’s from Mary Katherine’s point of view and she is highly unreliable, I still loathe Charles. My overall thoughts so far are: poor Constance. Edit: Finished it. Poor Constance still stands. Also the absolute loving gall of those people. Charles 100% a shitbird. The big surprise revelation was kinda obvious. Good book. DreamingofRoses fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Oct 7, 2021 |
# ? Oct 7, 2021 18:43 |
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I haven't read the book but I listened to a great summary / discussion of it that makes me wish I had: https://anchor.fm/claytemple-media/episodes/Ep--4-We-Have-Always-Lived-in-the-Castle-by-Shirley-Jackson-e5mbtl Even in recap form it's a moving piece of media. Definitely on my grab-if-I-stumble-across-it list.
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# ? Oct 12, 2021 15:26 |
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I read it last year for the first time so won't be rereading yet but I really, really liked this book.
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# ? Oct 12, 2021 18:02 |
Just finished the scene setting first chapter. Very intriguing.
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# ? Oct 15, 2021 05:02 |
Chapter 2, the tea party. Hilarious
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# ? Oct 16, 2021 04:26 |
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Loved this book and related deeply to Merricat. The pacing and narration was that rare kind of disjointed that makes something interesting and oddly satisfying rather than jerky and unconnected. I can't believe I didn't know that Jackson also wrote Haunting of Hill House and will definitely be picking that up next.
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# ? Oct 18, 2021 01:07 |
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Wasn't sure on what to read next and decided to buy this based solely on this thread title featuring the words "Shirley Jackson." Read the first chapter and I'm in. Last BOTM I read was "Carrier Wave" so its good to be back.
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# ? Oct 18, 2021 18:15 |
wow wow wow is this ever a good book!
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# ? Oct 19, 2021 04:06 |
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Just the image at the end of Merricat and Connie just sitting on either side of the front door, looking out, just staring silently has been haunting me since I finished the book. It’s so creepy! And sad!
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# ? Oct 19, 2021 23:54 |
Just finished. Agreed DreamingofRoses I also as the book went on struggled with whether Merricat struck such fear into Constance that she had no option but go along with her as it seemed her "rules" were set by herself. But then I realized they were both trapped in the same mindset, and even Merricat's rules seemed to have some sort of external component to them that she simply discovered. A real good book! Thanks for taking up this suggestion HA!
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# ? Oct 20, 2021 04:07 |
Speaking of, need suggestions for November!
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# ? Oct 20, 2021 12:17 |
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I was really happy to reread this one this month. Shirley Jackson is a favorite of mine even though I haven't read as much of her work as I should have. “Oh Constance, we are so happy."
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# ? Oct 24, 2021 21:53 |
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Speaking of, need suggestions for November! Since it's come up in the SF thread, how about Doris Lessing's Shikasta?
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# ? Oct 28, 2021 00:18 |
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This was an extremely bizarre and unsettling book. Enjoyable read though.
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# ? Oct 29, 2021 02:06 |
I went back through the old BOTM polls looking for candidates and right now I'm leaning towards "Strong Poison" by Dorothy Sayers. It's a good month for a cozy mystery.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 02:25 |
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Is that the official choice? I'm gonna try to read along again!
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 14:16 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 18:46 |
Zurtilik posted:Is that the official choice? I'm gonna try to read along again! unless something changes my mind in the next 24 hours yeah. I should be able to get a thread up tonight. It got runner-up in a poll a few months back is why.
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# ? Nov 1, 2021 18:49 |