21st Century Literature discussion

It's time to nominate your choices for the July open pick! Nominations will be open for approximately one week before the poll goes up.

The usual rules apply: books must be works of fiction published from 2000-2015. Selections that are overly genre or fail to meet the group standards of literary quality will not be permitted in the final poll. One nomination per customer, please, and if you nominate a book and it wins, you are implicitly promising to participate in the discussion. A list of our previous books choices can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

And don't forget our current discussions of Seiobo There Below, Gilead and The Three-Body Problem; as well as our upcoming June discussions, Some Luck and The Line of Beauty. Whew, there's got to be something there for everyone!

I nominate All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu. This is Mengestu's third novel. He is one of the New Yorker's 2010 "20 under 40" authors that I enjoy. He was born in Ethiopia but grew up in Chicago. I have only read the first page, but was stuck by the first three sentences of the second paragraph -- "On the bus ride to the capital, I gave up all the names my parents had given me. I was almost twenty-five but, by any measure, much younger. I shed those names just as our bus crossed the border into Uganda."

Linda, that one's been on my to-read pile for a while now. I've heard excellent things about it.

I'd like to nominate Glow by Ned Beauman, who also wrote The Teleportation Accident, which we read about a year and a half ago.

I would like to nominate Mark Z. Danielewski's newest book, The Familiar, Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May. I would also second Peter's nomination of Glow.
Thanks!
Sophia

Caroline wrote: "Linda, that one's been on my to-read pile for a while now. I've heard excellent things about it."

Yes, it's an excellent book! I've read it earlier this year and I think it's a great choice.

A Reunion Of Ghosts by Judith Claire Mitchell

I understand Danielewski's book is the first of what will be a 27 volume series!

If you vote for the Danielewski, you are committing to reading all 27 volumes.

(Kidding).

But - nominations closing in the next day or two, get any additional nominations in now. (Truth).

Okay, nominations are closed and the poll is up, here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Only four nominations this time, but all good ones. Poll will stay open until the end of the month.

And the winner is…. A Reunion Of Ghosts.

Zulfiya, as the nominator would you like to moderate?

With pleasure, Whitney!

Most excellent!

The only thing is the vote ends tomorrow, right? And yes, if it wins, I will be happy to moderate the discussion.

Oh, um, oops. Your humble narrator forgot that there were 31 days in May. So, last minute chance for people to topple the lead that A Reunion of Ghosts has, or to help insure its ultimate victory!

Have I missed the moderator's choice for July?

A mailing was sent out to all the group members on May 27th. If you didn't get it check your message settings for GR and 21st Century in particular. The book is The World's Smallest Bible.

And the July open pick is now OFFICIALLY, A Reunion of Ghosts, with Zulfiya moderating.