Central Market Book Club
Member of
a Non-Profit Educational Organization
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Central Market Book Club candidates - Ballot for October 13 2008
(Anyone attending will each have 6 votes to choose from this list.)
Suggested by Allan
- HOUSEKEEPING by Marilynne Robinson. (publ 1980) 219 pages
author has won Pulitzer Prize for another book. This one was nominated for the Pulitzer in 1980.
Book is described as a "Haunting, poetic story, drowned in water and light, about three generations of
women." by the Guardian Unlimited which also included it in its list of 100 greatest novels of all time. The
novel treats the subject of housekeeping, not only in the domestic sense of cleaning, but in the larger
sense of keeping a spiritual home for one's self and family in the face of loss.
- HYPERION by Dan Simmons (publ 1989) 512 pages
A Hugo Award-winning 1989 science fiction novel.
The tale of seven people who make a pilgrimmage to a terrifying creature called the Shrike in an attempt to
save mankind. Stunningly written and beautifully crafted, Simmons's Hyperion resonates with technical
achievement and the excitement and wonder found only in the best SF. (Do not confuse with THE FALL
OF HYPERION which is a sequel.)
Suggested by Connie
- UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry (publ 1947) 448 pages
Rated as number 11 on the list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century compiled by the Modern Library.
Semi-autobiographical -- tells the story of an alcoholic British consul in a small Mexican town on the Day
of the Dead in 1938 when his wife arrives and is determined to rescue their failing marriage. The events of
this one significant day unfold against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and
diabolical.
- A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forrster (publ 1924) 416 pages
Selected as one of the 100 great works of English literature by the Modern Library, included on Time
Magazines 100 best English-Language novels and won the 1924 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for
fiction.
Set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s, Forster
employs his first-hand knowledge of India.to write about an ambiguous incident between a young
Englishwoman of uncertain stability and an Indian doctor eager to know his conquerors better that leads to
a trial and its aftermath reflecting all the racial tensions and prejudices between indigenous Indians and the
British colonists who rule India..
Suggested by Jackie
- THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe (publ 1959) 184 pages
Seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and one of the first African novels written in
English to receive global critical acclaim.
This moving story realistically depicts Nigeria's Igbo tribe as its way of life is changed by the
encroachment of European colonizers. The internal struggles and eventual downfall of the main character,
Okonkwo, are accented by the inevitable loss of tribal culture.
- THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM by Nelson Algren (publ 1949) 343 pages
Novel won the first National Book Award in 1950. One of the seminal novels of post-World War II American
letters.
Recounts the life of "Frankie Machine", a card-dealer in an illicit poker game being run not far from the
tenement in which he lives. Machine is a morphine junkie just back to Chicago's Near Northwest Side after
detoxing in the federal prison for narcotics addicts being exposed again to all the pressures, anxieties and
temptations that put him there in the first place.
Suggested by Alice
- PALACE OF DREAMS by Ismail Kadare (publ 1999) 190 pages
Author winner of International Man Booker Prize in 2005
A novel, inspired by Enver Hoxha's Albania, and described by some as a masterful portrait of the
totalitarian state, where real life is replaced by hallucinations. The government's most important role is to
try to control even the dreams of its citizens. A dark nightmarish regime.
This highly political work is composed and reads like a thriller.
- THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark (publ 1961) 160 pages
The bizarre, unforgettable character of Miss Jean Brodie brought Spark international fame and boosted her
into the first rank of contemporary Scottish literature. Time Magazine included the novel in its list of Best
English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
In 1930s Edinburgh, six ten year old girls are assigned Miss Jean Brodie who as their teacher is
"genuinely intent on opening up her girls' lives, on heightening their awareness of themselves and their
world, and on breaking free of restrictive, conventional ways of thinking, feeling, and being."
Suggested by Mia
- THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING by Carson McCullers (pub 1946) 176 pages
The story of 12-year-old troubled adolescent tomboy, who feels disconnected from the world -- 'an unjoined person'. She dreams of going away with her brother and his bride-to-be on their honeymoon, following them to the Alaskan wilderness. Rather than as a sentimental work, some critics have said it should be seen as a ‘very funny, very dark novel’, and a ‘combination of hope, hopelessness and callousness.’
- WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen (pub 2006) 350 pages
Winner of 2007 Alex award, 2007 BookBrowse award, a 2006 Quill Awards nominee and a NYTimes Best Seller.
Set during the great depression of the 1930s, the story of a veterinarian who joins a traveling circus, falls in love with a performer and befriends an elephant named Rosie. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust and survival.
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