WHAT ARE WE GOING TO READ??
Added 2018-10-29 19:50:09 +0000 UTCHi! ok, the response to "Book Club" (working title) has been enthusiastic so we are gonna give it a shot! I have compiled some titles that sound interesting, when you have a sec please check them out and vote for one. I will leave it up till Thursday and then we can make our official selection. These are all well received fiction books that have come out recently but we will definitely mix it up and read all sorts of different things.
The Power
"In THE POWER, the world is a recognizable place: there's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power--they can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets." (disclaimer - I have already recommended this one on the podcast)
A Terrible Country
"What is everyday life like under Putin’s rule? Russian-born Gessen, founding editor of n+1 magazine, draws on his first-hand experiences to paint a vivid picture of Moscow circa 2008. His big-hearted second novel chronicles the adventures and mishaps of young Russian-American academic Andrei, who leaves his life in New York on the eve of the financial crisis to care for his Russian grandmother, who still lives in the apartment Stalin gave her. In Moscow, he falls for a young activist, gets entwined with a group of leftists, and is forced to confront what it is to be shaped by two radically different societies."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/18/terrible-country-keith-gessen-review
How Are You Going To Save Yourself
"Bound together by shared experience but pulled apart by their changing fortunes, four young friends coming of age in the postindustrial enclave of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, struggle to liberate themselves from the legacies left to them as black men in America. With potent immediacy and bracing candor, this provocative debut follows a decade in the lives of Dub, Rolls, Rye, and Gio as they each grapple with the complexity of their family histories, the newfound power of sex and drugs, and the ferocity of their desires."
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/23/639650000/how-are-you-going-to-save-yourself-asks-the-hard-questions
There There
"Tommy Orange’s “groundbreaking, extraordinary” (The New York Times) There There is the “brilliant, propulsive” (People Magazine) story of twelve unforgettable characters, Urban Indians living in Oakland, California, who converge and collide on one fateful day. It’s “the year’s most galvanizing debut novel” (Entertainment Weekly).
As we learn the reasons that each person is attending the Big Oakland Powwow—some generous, some fearful, some joyful, some violent—momentum builds toward a shocking yet inevitable conclusion that changes everything. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life back together after his uncle’s death and has come to work at the powwow to honor his uncle’s memory. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and will to perform in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion, and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and loss."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/15/there-there-tommy-orange-review
