April Book of the Month Poll

  • Guest, it's time once again for the hotly contested and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!



    Go here and fill out your bracket!
    Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Once again, only you can decide!

Himeo

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Rules from the book club thread:

1. Make thread, 1 week notice ahead of time when the reading will officially start.
2. Poster creates poll, 5 book options. Highest vote is the book to be read. The 2nd and 3rd most popular voted books may be included in next RBCT poll perhaps.
3. Sony you have 14 days.... Posters establish reading length time. Spoilers obv need to be in just about every post. Format would be "Im on page XXX: Spoiler"
4. After the established time has passed, people can being posts without spoiler tags, and a new thread could be proposed.
5. The most requested books of last months book thread will be included in the next month's poll.
Archangel criteria:

1) Fantasy/Sci-fi (obvious choice for a gamer forum, we seem to all like this from these genres.) I group them together not just because it's become the traditional allocation, but because I don't want to overbalance the choices with what may or not be the Selector of the Month's preference,

2) Non-Fiction. Biography, documentary, memoir, etc,

3) General Fiction/Popular Fiction. Anything that cannot be pigeon-holed as a particular genre. Difficult to describe, but you know it when you see it.

4) Genre Fiction: crime, thriller, legal, supernatural, historical, comedy, mystery, detective, pulp, dime-store, you get the picture. I would like to include pure Romance here, too, even though most genre-specific fiction will have an element of Romance in it. (Willing to consider it a separate option, as well; these are just thoughts...)

5) Young Adult/Teen/Children's (both Fiction and Non): I would put Happry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, Ranger's Apprentice, Percy Jackson, City of Glass, etc into here, even though they have fantastical or sci fi, or adventure plots, they are written towards a younger audience.

6) Pot-Luck: Whether it's a book making news, an oddball author, or just something that the Selector of the Month really likes and really wants other people to read. Can be any kind of book.

---the book needs to be in print, and/or easily available through resources such asthebookdepositoryorabebooks, where you can get incredibly cheap and out-of-print/ out-of-circulation titles.

--Electronic copies of the selected book should be sourced (if possible) for anyone who can't afford the selected title. Which brings me to....

--Cost. We should consider setting some kind of limit. For example, a book that might cost $8.99 in the US can be as high as $33 in Australia. Working through the book depository eliminates that difference in many, many cases, but it's still worth thinking about.

--Restrictions. I would like to think we are all reasonable adults (filtered through the internet of course,) but I wonder if we should prohibit books that advocate violence, racial hatred, rape, torture, etc. obviously, these issues are usually found in most adult fiction books, but there's a difference between a plot device and an instructional manifesto.
Second runner-up wasbanned for a year. For the rest of the list I'm filling it out based on the criteria posted by Archangel. In the future, if you have any suggestions for books to include send me a private message and I'll fit it in next month.

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1) Fantasy/Sci-fi: Blood Song by Anthony Ryan

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An epic fantasy exploring themes of conflict, loyalty and religious faith. Vaelin Al Sorna, Brother of the Sixth Order, has been trained from childhood to fight and kill in service to the Faith. He has earned many names and almost as many scars, acquiring an ugly dog and a bad-tempered horse in the process. Ensnared in an unjust war by a king possessed of either madness or genius, Vaelin seeks to answer the question that will decide the fate of the Realm: ?who is the one who waits?

Raven's Shadow is the first volume in a new epic fantasy of war, intrigue and tested faith.

2) Non-Fiction: Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

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In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

3) General Fiction/Popular Fiction: Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was by Barry Hughart

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Bridge of Birds is a lyrical fantasy novel. Set in "an Ancient China that never was", it stands with The Princess Bride and The Last Unicorn as a fairy tale for all ages, by turns incredibly funny and deeply touching. It won the World Fantasy Award in 1985, and Hughart produced two sequels: The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. All present the adventures of Master Kao Li, a scholar with "a slight flaw in [his] character", and Lu Yu, usually called Number Ten Ox, his sidekick and the story's narrator. Number Ten Ox is strong, trusting, and pure of heart; Master Li once sold an emperor shares in a mustard mine, because "I was trying to win a bet concerning the intelligence of emperors."

Number Ten Ox comes from a village in which the children have been struck by a mysterious illness. He recruits Master Li to find the cure and comes along to provide muscle. They seek a mysterious Great Root of Power, which may be a form of ginseng. Of course, nothing turns out to be as simple as it seems; great wrongs must be avenged and lovers separated must be reunited, from the most humble to the highest. And even in the midst of cosmic glory, Pawnbroker Fang and Ma the Grub are picking the pockets of their own lynch mob, who are frozen in awe and wonder. --Nona Vero

4) Genre Fiction (Paranormal): City of Bones (Mortal Instruments, Book 1) by Cassandra Clare

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Don?t miss The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, soon to be a major motion picture in theaters August 2013.

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder?much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It?s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing?not even a smear of blood?to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary?s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It?s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace?s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare?s ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

5) Young Adult/Teen/Children's (both Fiction and Non): War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

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Acclaimed by critics and readers on its first publication in 1987, winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel, Emma Bull?s War for the Oaks is one of the novels that has defined modern urban fantasy.

Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But her boyfriend just dumped her, her band just broke up, and life could hardly be worse. Then, walking home through downtown Minneapolis on a dark night, she finds herself drafted into an invisible war between the faerie folk. Now, more than her own survival is at risk?and her own preferences, musical and personal, are very much beside the point.

6) Pot-Luck: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

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The New York Times bestseller and international classic loved by millions of readers.

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons?their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

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a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
29,948
29,762
Same with Outliers and I will never vote for a book with a shirtless dude on the cover in the "paranormal" category ...

Himeo do you take suggestions?

Relic - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Reamde - Neal Stephenson
Transfer of Power - Vince Flynn
The Eight - Katherine Neville
Black Sun Rising - C.S. Friedman
Sandstorm - James Rollins
Final Victim - Stephen J. Cannell

Any series I have chosen the first book so as to maybe open the eyes for readers that might like that author's style. I have gone up and down the genre list and chosen all over the place.

I will source electronic copies of any of these books, I am at work and have not checked the bookdepository yet to see if they have it already.
 

elidib

Vyemm Raider
2,016
3,348
a_skeleton_03's list is far and away better than Himeo's, jesus those are some bad choices. remake poll!
 

Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
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He's at least making the polls and keeping them going. No one was stepping up so he did. If you don't like the choices PM him with some ideas for next month; he's asked for suggestions all along.
 

Himeo

Vyemm Raider
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I do take suggestions when they're offered. I work mostly on the feedback given in the book of the month threads and polls.

a_skeleton_03's list is bad ass. I've read most of them. They are good reads. As of right now, the book of the month picks have been Old Man's War, American Gods, and Snow Crash which are also good books. But the feedback has been a combination of "I already read this. It's not as good as most people say it is. Too many Fantasy / SF books. When are we going to read something else?" Combine all of that together without suggestions and you get the list I posted. Each of the books I posted is solid as hell, by the way, and something you've probably never read. Which is what people have been asking for.

There is a lot of room for improvement here and I'll do my best to put up a great list each month. I don't have the option to modify the poll. Maybe a janitor can do that?
 

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
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I'd rather not modify the poll unless that is what everyone really wants. We can always work in more options next month and people have already expressed desire to read a couple of the books.
 

Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
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I probably would have never heard of Blood Song if you didn't put it up here. Even if it doesn't get picked I intend to read it eventually (somewhere in the dozens of other books I keep meaning to read).
 

a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
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Oh my list is intended for May, not April. Why PM when you can put it out in public to make sure everyone would like a list like that which is so varied when it comes to genre.
 

Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
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The only reason I suggested PM'ing it was because he's compiling a list which we will be voting on. If we're all voting on the stuff before he even puts it on a list, that's just another layer. If your intent is to simply have yours be the list in its entirety, then I guess that's fine, but I was still under the impression that multiple people might want to submit ideas and Himeo would pick from them. If that were the case, it seems like it would be easier to just PM him. But it doesn't really matter to me, I'll read whatever is selected (unless it is another Neal Stephenson book).
 

a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
29,948
29,762
The only reason I suggested PM'ing it was because he's compiling a list which we will be voting on. If we're all voting on the stuff before he even puts it on a list, that's just another layer. If your intent is to simply have yours be the list in its entirety, then I guess that's fine, but I was still under the impression that multiple people might want to submit ideas and Himeo would pick from them. If that were the case, it seems like it would be easier to just PM him. But it doesn't really matter to me, I'll read whatever is selected (unless it is another Neal Stephenson book).
I put a Neal Stephenson book on that list MUAHAHAHAHAHA
 

Lusiphur

Peasant
595
47
Happy to participate now that we are picking new books that everyone in the world hasn't read. The fantasy book actually looked interesting but it seems we will all probably be reading Outliers. Let's try and keep it to things that most might not have read. This list was fantastic for me as it actually gave me three possibles.
Just a note, I have a copy of Bridge of Birds on my bookshelf that was printed in 1985. It's a fantastic book and I suppose not all may have read it so I can highly recommend it even if it doesn't get the nod.
 

chaos

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Yeah Bridge of Birds sounded really good but I had never even heard of it before. Throw it on the pile I guess.
 

T-rex_sl

shitlord
28
0
The print version of Blood Song doesn't come out until July (at least according to Amazon) any way we could sideline it until then? I doubt I am the only one without an ereader.
 

Agraza

Registered Hutt
6,890
521
Yay, I get to play. There are a bunch of books I haven't read. I figured it would take a year to get to this point. I am not looking forward to the outliers though.
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chaos

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I've already started it, you should try it. It is really good so far, about 20% in.