21st Century Literature discussion

It’s time for the Open Pick Nominations to begin for December. Everyone can nominate one book for this month’s poll, but remember that nominations must be works of fiction published from 2000-2012. As usual, selections that are overly genre or fail to meet the group standards of literary quality will not be permitted in the final poll.

Nominations will close on Wednesday, November 7, and the poll will run from November 7-14. Once the winner is announced, you will have the remainder of November to grab yourself a copy for the discussion.

I'd like to nominate The Shell Collector: Stories by Anthony Doerr



This one of the best collections of short stories I've read in a long time. They are extraordinary, "filled with the vastness of the natural world pressing against human insignificance."

I'd like to nominate the new novel out from Michael Chabon, Telegraph Avenue. I've read four books by this author, each of them very different from the last. I'm eager to see what he has come up with this time.

I'd like to nominate Louise Erdrich's new novel The Round House that came out in October. It was a Finalist for the National Book Award (2012), and the author has won many awards and was a Pulitzer finalist. I think this would be a great book for our discussions and I would also love to see more women authors in our selections!

Like to nominate Lullabies for Little Criminals. It was nominated for some stuff. More important it looks kinda interesting.

Vanishing Point

Vanishing Point looks interesting. I wonder how it would compare/contrast with House of Leaves, the Oct-Nov read.

With Vanishing Point, I think I would be interested to see if an effect similar to House of Leaves could be pulled off in 191 pages rather than 700-odd.

We've got some excellent books here, but I also want to remind everyone that nominations will be closing up in a few days. Make sure you get your suggestions posted before it's too late!

I'd like to nominate The Vagrants by Yiyun Li (2009).

Yiyun Li

The author previously received the Whiting Writers' Award.

This nomination thread is now closed. Polls will be up shortly for our December Open Pick.

In case you missed the results of the open pick poll, this was our winner:

Vanishing Point by David Markson.

Discussion threads will begin on December 1. Make sure you get your copy!

Interesting that the book must have had a limited printing and there is no e-book. The cheapest you can buy the paperback for is around $20! That's discouraging!

When we looked at this back when voting started, it was possible to get used copies more cheaply. I looked again tonight,and found that the bargains had all disappeared. You might try a library copy, or check any used book stores in your area.