21st Century Literature discussion

Nominations are now open until January 23rd for the March 2020 Open Pick.

Nominating guidelines:
- Fiction (original & translation, if applicable) first published between January 1, 2000 and March 1, 2019. For translations the latter date must be an English edition.
- One nomination per person (please do not nominate or vote for a book unless you are certain you can read and discuss if it wins)
- A book this group has not yet read (see group bookshelf or the Index of all Group Reads)
- A book that is not better suited to the wild card (genre) category

If you are nominating, please begin your post by stating "I nominate [name with hyperlink to book]"

The discussion will start on March 1st

Please can somebody nominate something - after today we have only two days left!

I'll nominate Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. It won the Akutagawa Prize in 2016, but mostly, I think it looks like an interesting read.

Thanks Marc - I read it last year and it would be a good choice.

Would The Plains by Gerald Murnane work? I checked and I don't think it was on the group's bookshelf. If it works, I'll nominate it.

Subject/style-wise, The Plains fits, but it was unfortunately first published in '82, which disqualifies it. :-(

Ouch! Sorry, I should have checked.

Tamara wrote: "Would The Plains by Gerald Murnane work? I checked and I don't think it was on the group's bookshelf. If it works, I'll nominate it."
Looks interesting, but it appears to have been published in Australia back in 1982, so no...

Another try.

I nominate The Unpassing by Chia-Chia Lin.

Published in 2019. Not on the group's bookshelf. It's a debut novel and is supposed to be good. I haven't read it yet so can't say anything about it other than it looks interesting and I plan to read it.

Tamara, that pick doesn't quite meet the guidelines above (since it was published after March 2019), but the mods are fine with allowing it.

Keep in mind that it may limit participation (the year delay in publishing requirement was put in a couple years back because copies of books weren't available in libraries or either hadn't come out yet in paperback or at all across the pond--e.g., UK edition was out but not the U.S., or vice versa).

Thanks for letting me know, Marc.
I'll get the hang of this one day and actually nominate a book that meets all the guidelines.

How about Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh?

Tamara,
If you're like most of us, you don't pay close attention to publication dates. :D

Might be weird though, I don't know.

Eileen makes the cut. (And weird is welcome.)

I'd like to nominate Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, which won the Booker Prize this year and I've heard many good things about it.

Sorry Eva, that one is too recent.

@Hugh and Marc, The guidelines in the first message indicate that anything published prior to March 1, 2020 is within bounds. Based on past conversations and responses in this thread, I suspect you intended to write "2019." Just wanted to flag in case you copy and paste this message 1 into next month's nominations thread.

On-topic - I love 2 of the nominations so won't be nominating a competitor.

Carol wrote: "@Hugh and Marc, The guidelines in the first message indicate that anything published prior to March 1, 2020 is within bounds. Based on past conversations and responses in this thread, I suspect you..."
Thanks Carol - I have corrected it now. My mistake - I must have changed it without thinking

Hugh wrote: "Carol wrote: "@Hugh and Marc, The guidelines in the first message indicate that anything published prior to March 1, 2020 is within bounds. Based on past conversations and responses in this thread,..."

You’re very welcome.

I will nominate My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal. I read it a few years ago and would love to reread/discuss.

Thanks Suzy

Nominations are now closed. The poll will be up shortly

Link to the poll, which is open until 31st January:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

My Name is Leon won the poll.

Would you lead our discussion, Suzy?

Thanks Marc - I thought I had asked the same question a few days ago but (not for the first time) it doesn't seem to have posted properly...

I've been having a lot more issues with GR lately, Hugh (posts not posting; weird error message when I try to "Like" a review; etc.). Hopefully, it's a temporary thing...

Yes, I'd be glad to lead the discussion. I'm excited to revisit this book, one that really touched me when I first read it.
(I too have had weird things happening on the site - can't "add book/author", error messages, comments I know I've made disappearing, etc.)

Thanks, Suzy!

Hugh or I will set up a folder with a placeholder thread a day or two before the discussion starts.

Performance-wise, I guess we're "getting what we paid for" here on GR. :-(