Chapel Hill/Durham Book Club Message Board › Book Suggestions for December - Foreign Author

Book Suggestions for December - Foreign Author

Jess
Posted Aug 15, 2011 11:45 AM
user 5291954
Carrboro, NC
Post #: 118
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Please use this thread to suggest books for December. The only requirement is that the book is by a foreign (non-US) author. We will be voting at the September meeting. When you suggest a book, please include the title, author, why you think the book would be a good read and a link to more information, either wikipedia, amazon, or a book review.
Steffen Kaupp
Posted Sep 7, 2011 9:50 AM
user 23762771
Chapel Hill, NC
Post #: 1
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Hey there,
even though I am a newbie to the book club with the September meeting being my first one, I would like to suggest a book for December. I have always wanted to read and discuss Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul: Memories and the City. So, that would be my suggestion for December.




edited by Jess to add description and link

Amazon page for the book

Description from Publisher's Weekly:
Turkish novelist Pamuk (Snow) presents a breathtaking portrait of a city, an elegy for a dead civilization and a meditation on life's complicated intimacies. The author, born in 1952 into a rapidly fading bourgeois family in Istanbul, spins a masterful tale, moving from his fractured extended family, all living in a communal apartment building, out into the city and encompassing the entire Ottoman Empire. Pamuk sees the slow collapse of the once powerful empire hanging like a pall over the city and its citizens. Central to many Istanbul residents' character is the concept of hüzün (melancholy). Istanbul's hüzün, Pamuk writes, "is a way of looking at life that... is ultimately as life affirming as it is negating." His world apparently in permanent decline, Pamuk revels in the darkness and decay manifest around him. He minutely describes horrific accidents on the Bosphorus Strait and his own recurring fantasies of murder and mayhem. Throughout, Pamuk details the breakdown of his family: elders die, his parents fight and grow apart, and he must find his way in the world. This is a powerful, sometimes disturbing literary journey through the soul of a great city told by one of its great writers. 206 photos. (June 10)
A former member
Posted Sep 8, 2011 12:06 AM
Post #: 1
Hi! I'm also new but I wanted to throw out an idea: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes! What a classic! and arguably the best novel ever written. I'd love to read and discuss such a highly influential book. Also, his absurd humor would be a great break from reality and despite its length it's an easy read. Here is the wikipedia link if anyone needs it: http://en.wikipedia.o...

Bonus points for anyone who could read it in its original Spanish! tongue
Rose
Posted Sep 23, 2011 12:21 PM
Rose-and-Dean
Durham, NC
Post #: 15
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How about the original book Planet of the Apes by French author Pierre Boulle (who coincidentally also wrote the book The Bridge Over the River Kwai .... and a subsequent book My Own River Kwai which details his own true story as a secret agent). It is a short quick read (200-275 pages depending on the edition) written in a series of short chapters. I have heard it is similar to the movies but different too. The book was written in 1963. I haven’t found a literary type review but here is the amazon link: http://www.amazon.com...
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