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Hi All. It's time to start nominating books for the next group read!
This time the theme will be: "ISOLATION"



You can nominate books that reference ISOLATION in any way. It can be set in an isolated place, or be about personal isolation, physical, mental or emotional, it can be referenced in the title.. Basically, anything vaguely connected to the theme is fair game. The intention is to generate a great and varied list of books to select our next group read from.

Everyone gets up to TWO book nominations each.
Simples!

I'd like to nominate Satantango for my first pick. According to the synopsis, the book "focuses on the dozen remaining inhabitants of an unnamed isolated hamlet."

I'll keep my second pick for later on..

I would like to nominate We Have Always Lived in the Castle (in which 3 family members who survived a poisoning incident live alone in a very large house) for my first pick and for my second The Raw Shark Texts in which the hero begins the book having just completely lost his memory (again) and is further isolated by being hunted down by a very large.......

In an effort to keep with the theme, the two most isolationified books on my TBR!
Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre and Room by Emma Donoghue

These themed reads are so cool! The one that immediately popped into my head when I saw this one was The Woman in the Dunes. Super claustrophobic, and it doesn't get a whole lot more isolated than this.

Must contemplate second choice for awhile, so many possibilities: mental illness, wilderness, space stations, high school...

Hmmm.... I'll nominate Octavia Butler's Fledgling (also about an amnesiac, who wakes up to discover she's a 53 yr. old vampire and has to deal with her "otherness" and how to protect those she loves) and Chris Ware's Building Stories which is more a collection of graphic novel pieces (literally cards, brochures, etc.) about the inhabitants of a single apartment building and their own various forms of isolation (the search for a mate, the inability to live with a mate, dealing with old age, etc.).

Ruby wrote: "I'd like to nominate Satantango for my first pick. According to the synopsis, the book "focuses on the dozen remaining inhabitants of an unnamed isolated hamlet"..."

Ruby you have inspired me. I picked up a mason jar of Rye Pale Ale from my local beer shop, and am now taking the plunge into the film version of 'Satantango', which has been on my TBV (to be viewed) list for far too long. Wish me luck!

There are already so many nominations of books I've been meaning to read forever! Let's see what I can come up with to add to the pool...

Whitney wrote: "Ruby you have inspired me. I picked up a mason jar of Rye Pale Ale from my local beer shop, and am now taking the plunge into the film version of 'Satantango', which has been on my TBV (to be viewed) list for far too long. Wish me luck! .."

Pictures or it didn't happen! Good luck with the movie - I'm looking forward to that one too.

Hah! Well done guys - every single nomination so far is already on my TBR! Nice picks :)

Ruby wrote: "Hah! Well done guys - every single nomination so far is already on my TBR! Nice picks :)"

I noticed that, also! Either already read, already on the TBR, or just added to the TBR after getting nominated.

I'll nominate The Plague, set in Oran, a city in Algeria that experiences a breakout of the Bubonic plague and is placed under quarantine. The story chronicles the changes within the community as they are cut off from the outside world.

Okay! I will nominate Invitation to a Beheading and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.

But I will also be perfectly happy if
The Raw Shark Texts, Room, or Fledgling wins, since they've all been on my TBR forever. Or pretty much anything else, since this group always picks awesome books!

Riona wrote: "Okay! I will nominate Invitation to a Beheading and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said"

Both look like great submissions! I'm excited for this yin :D

Great nominations all around!

I'll nominate NW by Zadie Smith and The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni.

Riona wrote: "Okay! I will nominate Invitation to a Beheading and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said..."

Invitation has been at the top of my Nabokov TBR list for some time. I read Flow My Tears a long time ago, I loved it but remember very little.

Not a nomination on here I wouldn't read or reread. Except one. Which shall remain unnamed until voting has passed. It annoyed the snot out of me.

Whitney wrote: "Riona wrote: "Okay! I will nominate Invitation to a Beheading and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said..."

Invitation has been at the top of my Nabokov TBR list for some time. I read Flow My Tears a ..."

I have a feeling I know which one..

Okay, for my second nomination I choose: The Alienist by Machado de Assis. Because my understanding is that the book explores the idea of isolating the "insane" from the rest of society.

I'll second We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Allen wrote: "I'll second We Have Always Lived in the Castle"

You'll have a chance to vote when I post the group poll in a couple of days' time. Anything to nominate?

Whitney wrote: "Invitation has been at the top of my Nabokov TBR list for some time. I read Flow My Tears a ..."

Definitely at the top of my Nabokov list. And the bottom...

Clearly I'm not a fan of books about isolation. The only ones I can find on my own shelf that I'd care to offer up are The Life of Pi and I Am Legend, and I've already done the latter as a GR group read.

I'll be closing this thread and opening up the vote in about a day or so, so last chance to nominate....

This is going to be another really tough one to vote on!

Oh crap! I just thought of another really good nomination for this topic: The Yellow Wallpaper. If anyone has a nomination left, I'd like to implore you to use it on this one! :)

Ruby wrote: "Oh crap! I just thought of another really good nomination for this topic: The Yellow Wallpaper. If anyone has a nomination left, I'd like to implore you to use it on this one! :)"

I loved this story, but there's a couple other nominees I'd really like to read! Any chance Yellow Wallpaper could qualify as a 'short read'? Then we could have the best of both worlds.

Whitney wrote: "Ruby wrote: "Oh crap! I just thought of another really good nomination for this topic: The Yellow Wallpaper. If anyone has a nomination left, I'd like to implore you to use it on this one! :)"

I l..."

We can do that. I may not get to it unless there's timeframe though.. :(

I'm happy to nominate The Yellow Wallpaper. I haven't nominated yet, and I've been meaning to re-read it. :)

Sartre's Nausea, Camus' The Stranger; Kerouac's Big Sur or Desolation Angels.

I will nominateThe Room.

Eric wrote: "Sartre's Nausea, Camus' The Stranger; Kerouac's Big Sur or Desolation Angels."

Hi Eric - Have a read of the first post in the thread. You get two nominations. Also, please use book title links in your posts. Thanks.

I'm just about to close nominations and put the poll up, in about a day's time. So last chance to nominate..

Whitney wrote: "Ruby you have inspired me. I picked up a mason jar of Rye Pale Ale from my local beer shop, and am now taking the plunge into the film version of 'Satantango', which has been on my TBV (to be viewed) list for far too long. Wish me luck! ..."

How was it, by the way?

Ruby wrote: "How was it, by the way?..."

It is amazingly great. How Tarr can make ten minute scenes of people walking along a muddy road enthralling I don't know, but he does it.

Edited to add that I did not make it through in one sitting. I do not have that much fortitude.

Whitney wrote: "Ruby wrote: "How was it, by the way?..."

It is amazingly great. How Tarr can make ten minute scenes of people walking along a muddy road enthralling I don't know, but he does it.

Edited to add th..."

Awesome. Can't wait to grab the DVD. Although I might wait until after I've read the book.

Ruby wrote: "Eric wrote: "Sartre's Nausea, Camus' The Stranger; Kerouac's Big Sur or Desolation Angels."

Hi Eric - Have a read of the first post in the thread. You get two nominations. Also, please use book ti..."

I'm sorry, I am new to this social media stuff and your group. Point noted, will the two nominations now of
Nausea <--- Did i do this correctly?

Excited to be a part of your reading group faces!

Also want to nominate the tremendous The Strange Hours Travelers Keep: Poems by amazing poet August Kleinzahler

Sure. Since I hadn't closed off this thread yet, I'll see if I can add them to the poll.

Please note - The poll is now open. This thread is now closed.
Thanks everyone!