Chaos Reading discussion

Hi All. It's time to start nominating books for the next group read! This time the theme will be:
"BLACK AND WHITE"
You can nominate books with black or white things in the title, black or white subject matter, authors with black or white names....... basically any linkage to the theme is fair game.
Here's the catch: You get TWO book nominations and must use them both - nominating one black and one white book.



How it works: I post a theme, we each nominate books that in some way reflect the theme. The nominated books go up on a group shelf, and are posted as a Group Poll. The group votes on ONE book for the next Group Read. We read & discuss the winning book! Easy.

Nominations: Just post a reply to this thread that includes the book title link and why you're nominating it. Please don't post any spoilers though!

Timeframe: I won't set a definite time frame for the group read until the book's chosen, and we know how long it is etc. but this nominations thread will run for about 10 days.

Selecting A Book: When you're thinking about books to nominate, try to keep in mind things like: the length of the book, availability in different countries, price, whether it's something that would make for a good discussion etc etc.

I'm thinking I'll nominate:

White: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. 'Cos snow is white. Duh.
Double duh. I'm actually reading this right now:
A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty

I have a few I'm still deciding between for my black nomination. Will edit this post later tonight......

[edit]
Ooh! Ooh!
Black: A Village After Dark by Kazuo Ishiguro
This is a (free) streaming podcast on the New Yorker website, and comes with intro, narration and discussion by Ben Marcus. It's 40 minutes altogether, and bound to be a bit controversial.
The link to "black" is a bit tenuous- "After dark" is close enough to "black"though!

Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov cos it's black an you can't see an that, and White Noise by Don DeLillo because white :-)

Ooooh.... nice picks. Been looking for an excuse to read DeLillo :)

This is a cool idea.

Black: Noir: A Novel by Olivier Pauvert
White: Cocaine Nights by J.G. Ballard

Noir was written in French and translated to English. I'm not sure of its availability outside France/UK/US. If It looks difficult to obtain, I'll pick something else.

EDIT:
This book seems to be a tough get -- submitted a new entry below.

BLACK : Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie - midnight=black.

WHITE : The Pale King by David Foster Wallace - pale=white, plus I have been wanting a reason to re-read/discuss this.

Black - Black Light because it is one book by Elizabeth Hand I have not read and I like her works.

White - White Lotus A alternate history from the 60's by John Hersey.

Some fantastic picks!

A. I'm glad it's "the other Black Light". I started Black Light by Patrick Melton last year and ended up putting it aside. I wanted to love it because of the connection to the Saw movies and the awesome cover, but it just wasn't well written.

Nicholas wrote: "This is a cool idea.

Black: Noir: A Novel by Olivier Pauvert
White: Cocaine Nights by J.G. Ballard

Noir was written in French and translated to English. I'm not sure of its availability outside ..."

I just really want to read something by someone called "Pauvert". Because I love saying.... "Pauvert".

I'm posting from my iPad, so excuse the lack of links...

Does 30 Days of Night count for both? You know....day...and night? Get it?

Here's a link to the book

I meant this one for 30 Days of Night . Sorry.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/83...

Jessica wrote: "I'm posting from my iPad, so excuse the lack of links...

Does 30 Days of Night count for both? You know....day...and night? Get it?

.."

I guess so. But you're short changing yourself a book nomination :)

Ruby wrote: "I just really want to read something by someone called "Pauvert". Because I love saying.... "Pauvert". "

"Pauvert" IS fun to say. Unfortunately, it appears that there is no e-version of this book, which I assume is a dealbreaker for a group read. If anyone does want to read it, there are a few used copies on Amazon US for less than $1 -- but I imagine shipping internationally sucks.

Instead, for my BLACK nomination, I'll go with God Is Dead by Ron Currie Jr.. He has a new book coming out this year, and I plan to drop everything the day it's released.

A. wrote: "I don't want to nominate this book but it would fit both the black and the white category perfectly.Blindness by José Saramago..."

Blindness is one of those books that I'm glad I read, but have no desire to ever pick up again. It's like Borat in that sense (though in no other senses). That said, I think I'm going to check out Seeing at some point.

Gonna be annoying and nominate White Cat for BLACK because it's written by Holly Black. I really like this author but I've never managed to get round to any of her adult books. She is worth a read regardless so it's her name that I'm going with rather than the title.

And then I'm going to jump in and nominate The Woman in White before anyone else does! I read The Moonstone last year and to be fair I did really enjoy it, some great characters, but the afterword by T.S. Eliot in the back said something like: "yeah unfortunately the Woman in White is the only one by Wilkie Collins that is actually really good". Thanks Eliot for putting that in the AFTERword of something else. Anyway, I'm itching to give it a go. Also the new Penguin Classics are just lovely - their spines are stripey and when they line up on a shelf they look all retro and cool.

Good theme idea.

I'm going to nominate The Red and the Black by Stendhal about hypocrisy of post-Napoleon France.

And Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus. It's a procedural but it looks interesting.

White: White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Black: Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

How about Black No More: A Novel because it's said to be a hilarious parody and because it has a great lurid cover and I have NEVER read a Zombie novel!

Andrea wrote: "How about Black No More: A Novel because it's said to be a hilarious parody..."

I read Black no More during a section on Schuyler for an American Lit course in college. I loved it, and it was fascinating to read the academic reviews published after his personal/political ideology took a hard right later in his career. Also, Ishmael Reed wrote the intro to the newest edition of the book, which is awesome.

Andrea - What's your pick for a "white" book? (You need to pick one of each - see above).

Dostojevky's White Nights was the first title that came to my mind for the "white" theme.

What about Orhan Pamuk's The Black Book? I've been meant to read something by Pamuk for ages. Looks like there is a good chance now. This one definitely sounds interesting to me.

I'll be closing this thread soon and putting up the poll. Last chance!

My "white" book is the one with the trash cover: My Life as a White Trash Zombie (looks more pink than white, I know, but 'White' is there!)

Nicolas wrote:I read Black no More during a section on Schuyler ...
Well I'll definitely have to check it out now, won't I? I'm sure I'll love it Nicolas; added to my TR list regardless of the group choice!

Theo wrote: "White: White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Black: Black Swan Green by David Mitchell"

Black Swan Green is a great choice! I loved his book The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Even now, it's still one of my top books ever. I started reading Black Swan Green years ago but had to give it back before I finished it but it's definitely worth seeking out another copy.

Thanks everyone! Nominations are now closed. Be sure to vote when the poll is up.....

Poll is now open. Go vote!

http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/78...

Yikes! We're currently in a three-way!
By that, of course, I mean there are three books tied for first place on our poll! Once again, it's a very tight race. I'm going to have to think up a way to finalise these things, as I'm not up for another Extravaganza, so soon after the last one...

YAY! We have a clear winner. The next Group Read will be The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. Details will be posted in a new thread.

Thanks to everyone for participating :)