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choose book long enough, and book chooses back at you This poll is closed. |
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| What it is Like to go to War by Karl Marlantes |
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1 | 5.88% |
| The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Böll. |
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1 | 5.88% |
| The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel |
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2 | 11.76% |
| Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders |
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9 | 52.94% |
| Lady Susan by Jane Austen |
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4 | 23.53% |
| Total: | 17 votes | ||
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1) What it is Like to go to War by Karl Marlantes Suggested via PM quote:Beloved in GiP and readily available on kindle, this is a sweeping exploration of the author's experiences as a company commander in Vietnam, their aftermath, and his 40 year path to healing which leads through almost all of the world's major religious texts. We discover that coming to grips with the experience of combat is a battle as old as language, find real, comforting answers at the feet of Arjuna and Lord Vishnu, recieve prescriptions on helping our friends, family, and neighbors who struggle with the spiritual wound of PTSD, and are reminded that as engaged citizens choosing and influencing policymakers only we can prevent such carnage. 2) The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum Mel Mudkiper posted:bitch quote:The story deals with the sensationalism of tabloid news and the political climate of panic over Red Army Faction terrorism in the 1970s Federal Republic of Germany. The main character, Katharina Blum, is an innocent housekeeper whose life is ruined by an invasive tabloid reporter and a police investigation when the man with whom she has just fallen in love turns out to be wanted by the police because of a bank robbery. The book's fictional tabloid paper, Die Zeitung (The Newspaper), is modelled on the actual German Bild-Zeitung. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Honour_of_Katharina_Blum 3)Yann Martel's The High Mountains of Portugal mllaneza posted:I found it to be wonderfully surreal, brilliantly imaginative, and deeply insightful. https://www.npr.org/2016/02/05/463861486/confronting-loss-while-scaling-the-high-mountains-of-portugal 4) Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders anilEhilated posted:Have we done Lincoln in the Bardo yet? It is staring at me accusingly everytime I turn my Kindle on. 5) Lady Susan by Jane Austen quote:Lady Susan is a short epistolary novel by Jane Austen, possibly written in 1794 but not published until 1871 [that is, posthumously]. . . . Lady Susan is a selfish, attractive woman, who tries to trap the best possible husband while maintaining a relationship with a married man. She subverts all the standards of the romantic novel: she has an active role, she's not only beautiful but intelligent and witty, and her suitors are significantly younger than her. Although the ending includes a traditional reward for morality, Lady Susan herself is treated much more mildly than the adulteress in Mansfield Park. http://janeausten.wikia.com/wiki/Lady_Susan quote:Lady Susan promises much. The eponymous leading character is intelligent, accomplished and utterly amoral. . . . . Many novels of the late 18th century were, like Lady Susan, written entirely in letters. In her youth, Austen, along with many of her contemporaries, was a fan of Samuel Richardson, who turned epistolary novels into a high art. In his fiction, resourceful young women record their efforts to resist the advances of scheming libertines. The young Austen signals her audacity by turning the figure of the predatory male seducer into a highly unconventional (and middle-aged) seductress. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/20/jane-austen-love-and-friendship-wilt-stillman-film-novella-lady-susan Recently made into the film Love & Friendship, which changes Austen's ending significantly.
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Mar 1, 2018 17:29
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poll open for three days. feel free to comment in support of your picks
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Mar 1, 2018 17:32
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To defend Katarina Blum as a pick, it's much more contemporary and applicable to the US than the summary seems. It asks very important questions about the ethics of a free press and reflects on a lot of the dangers on modern alternative sources of news like Alex Jones
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Mar 1, 2018 18:34
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you never put my books on the poll hieronymous
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Mar 1, 2018 20:49
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chernobyl kinsman posted:you never put my books on the poll hieronymous my bad your post was on page 1 of the thread and I only looked at page 2 that said I think we've polled dictionary of the khazars before and it didn't get grabbed It *would* be a big help if people explain why their suggestions are good, it's not physically possible for me to have read all the things everyone else on the forum has read
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Mar 1, 2018 22:07
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For the record I really don't know much more about Lincoln in the Bardo, it's just got good references from people I generally trust with that and I apparently need a little push to read it as opposed to yet another book about wizards.
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Mar 1, 2018 23:12
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it's insanely good
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Mar 2, 2018 00:04
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I'll vote for Lincoln in the Bardo next month, when my hold on it from the library should come through 
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Mar 2, 2018 02:53
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Lincoln in the Barfo was easily the best boom I read last year. "I don't really like/know Lincoln." It doesn't matter. The book is more of a meditation on grief, death, the afterlife, hope, fear, optimism... If you know that Lincoln was a president during the Civil War, you know enough to enjoy the book. It also is very funny, exciting, heartwarming, slightly experimental, and trippy. It's my favorite ghost story I've read.
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Mar 3, 2018 23:35
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Franchescanado posted:Lincoln in the Barfo Sounds like a vomitous good time
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Mar 3, 2018 23:59
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I just found a paperback copy of Lincoln in the Bardo and would be willing to reread it - it was far and away one of the best books I read last year.
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Mar 4, 2018 00:42
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What the gently caress is a bardo anyway Guess we're all gonna find out
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Mar 5, 2018 03:39
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:What the gently caress is a bardo anyway It's a liminal state between death and rebirth as described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, OP
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Mar 6, 2018 22:51
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Not something I'd normally suggest, but consider going the audiobook route for LIncoln In The Bardo if it is picked. Stellar, stellar work was done by a full cast (two main performers are Nick Offerman and David Sedaris, but it's a cast of 150+). Heck, read it in print and then listen to it.
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Mar 15, 2018 02:04
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:What the gently caress is a bardo anyway For their to be a continuity between rebirths, there must be something between births. This something is called the bardo. There is a very old doctrine of the bardo, where the mindstream of the dead follows from the condition of thought at the death of the person, activating one of the infinite karmic traces they carry, which generates the form of the new incarnation The experience of the bardo is variously described in Tibetan tantras, but is generally described as dreamlike, beginning with the immediate and direct experience of clear light, that resolves into culturally determined forms and then less coherent ones as you progress on. It’s a terrifying place, not the least being that if you gently caress up once, you can wind up making a bad migration despite a lifetime of preparation. Quoted verbatim from a friend who knows about Tibetan Buddhism.
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Mar 15, 2018 02:33
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