Suggestions Wanted: Feb. & Mar. 2009 Fiction Book

[Barbara]

Ophelia, it's so good to hear from someone on this site. I'm quite unfamiliar with BookTalk, but I'm eager to learn. Barbara

[geo]

I'm planning on reading Drood the second it comes out, which is supposed to be sometime in January. Does that make it too late for the Feb-March discussion period?

It's also 800 + pages.

[Barbara]

I don't mind long books - having read the very long and very excellent Edgar Sawtelle - but they take me a long time. What is Drood about?

[President Camacho]

If we're suggesting books beyond 300 pages, I'd like to suggest:

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

Product Description
Set against the background of the Black Death of 1348, the hundred linked tales in Boccaccio's masterpiece are peopled by nobles, knights, nuns, doctors, lawyers, students, artists, peasants, pilgrims, servants, spendthrifts, thieves, gamblers, police-and lovers, both faithful and faithless.

http://www.amazon.com/Decameron-Signet- ... 772&sr=8-1

[geo]

I don't mind long books - having read the very long and very excellent Edgar Sawtelle - but they take me a long time. What is Drood about?

Chris O'Connor posted a description of Drood earlier in this very thread, but I'll repeat it.

http://www.amazon.com/Drood-Novel-Dan-S ... 290&sr=1-1

Product Description
On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens--at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world--hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever.

Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying?

Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens's life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens's friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), DROOD explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author's last years and may provide the key to Dickens's final, unfinished work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, DROOD is Dan Simmons at his powerful best.

[peppermint_tea]

Does the fiction section discuss short story collections? Isabel Allende's The Stories of Eva Luna seem interesting. I have only read four of five of them. Since this site splits the discussion up by chapters it might be interesting to try. I saw someone else had suggested another work by Allende.

[geo]

Drood is slated for release Feb. 09, which I guess rules it out for Feb-March discussion.

[tuscia]

Hi, I'd like to suggest Katherine's Wish, dealing with the life of Katherine Mansfield and her spiritual retreat to Fontainebleau at the end of her life. The novel commemorates the 120th anniversary of Mansfield's birth.
Recent critics have called it "a dazzling piece of literary sorcery," and
"it succeeds where medicine failed in giving Mansfield ongoing life."
It's by Linda Lappin, author of the enigmatic novel The Etruscan, thouqh with quite a different focus.

[Sharon Kaye]

I'd like to suggest my novel, Black Market Truth, a philosophical thriller in the genre of the DaVinci Code. It is about a woman who discovers secrets about the origin of Western civilization in ancient scrolls sold on the black market.
I teach philosophy at John Carroll University and based the novel on a true story about the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. I think it would be a good choice because it is controversial and tends to provoke a lot of discussion. It is the first volume in a trilogy. The web site is: www.aristotlequest.com.

[Chris OConnor]

Thanks for all the great suggestions.