Lush Library discussion

It has occurred to me that it would be easier to make a decision on which book to vote for if the information for each nominated book is contained in one thread. Please read about each book - you can change your poll vote (as long as the poll is still open)if you want to. I have changed my mind about mine already.

One of the things I love about this site is the ratings and reviews however they are both subjective so I think to help with comparisons if the book doesn't have a large number of ratings then I make sure to read a variety of the reviews it has.

Jamrach's Menagerie - Carol Birch

3.51 of 5 stars 3.51 · 895 ratings

295 pages

A thrilling and powerful novel about a young boy lured to sea by the promise of adventure and reward, with echoes of Great Expectations, Moby-Dick, and The Voyage of the Narwhal.

Jamrach’s Menagerie tells the story of a nineteenth-century street urchin named Jaffy Brown. Following an incident with an escaped tiger, Jaffy goes to work for Mr. Charles Jamrach, the famed importer of exotic animals, alongside Tim, a good but sometimes spitefully competitive boy. Thus begins a long, close friendship fraught with ambiguity and rivalry.

Mr. Jamrach recruits the two boys to capture a fabled dragon during the course of a three-year whaling expedi­tion. Onboard, Jaffy and Tim enjoy the rough brotherhood of sailors and the brutal art of whale hunting. They even succeed in catching the reptilian beast.

But when the ship’s whaling venture falls short of expecta­tions, the crew begins to regard the dragon—seething with feral power in its cage—as bad luck, a feeling that is cruelly reinforced when a violent storm sinks the ship.

Drifting across an increasingly hallucinatory ocean, the sur­vivors, including Jaffy and Tim, are forced to confront their own place in the animal kingdom. Masterfully told, wildly atmospheric, and thundering with tension, Jamrach’s Mena­gerie is a truly haunting novel about friendship, sacrifice, and survival.

Paperback, 348 pages
Published February 3rd 2011 by Canongate Books Ltd
ISBN
1847676561 (ISBN13: 9781847676566)

literary awards
Man Booker Prize Nominee (2011)

The Little Friend - Donna Tartt

3.29 of 5 stars 3.29 · 7,724 ratings

The hugely anticipated new novel by the author of The Secret History—a best-seller nationwide and around the world, and one of the most astonishing debuts in recent times—The Little Friend is even more transfixing and resonant.

In a small Mississippi town, Harriet Cleve Dusfresnes grows up in the shadow of her brother, who—when she was only a baby—was found hanging dead from a black-tupelo tree in their yard. His killer was never identified, nor has his family, in the years since, recovered from the tragedy.

For Harriet, who has grown up largely unsupervised, in a world of her own imagination, her brother is a link to a glorious past she has only heard stories about or glimpsed in photograph albums. Fiercely determined, precocious far beyond her twelve years, and steeped in the adventurous literature of Stevenson, Kipling, and Conan Doyle, she resolves, one summer, to solve the murder and exact her revenge. Harriet’s sole ally in this quest, her friend Hely, is devoted to her, but what they soon encounter has nothing to do with child’s play: it is dark, adult, and all too menacing.

A revelation of familial longing and sorrow, The Little Friend explores crime and punishment, as well as the hidden complications and consequences that hinder the pursuit of truth and justice. A novel of breathtaking ambition and power, it is rich in moral paradox, insights into human frailty, and storytelling brilliance.

Paperback, 576 pages
Published June 6th 2005 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (first published September 24th 2002)
ISBN
0747573646 (ISBN13: 9780747573647)


literary awards
Orange Prize Nominee for Fiction (2003)

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - Aimee Bender

3.13 of 5 stars 3.13 · 15,825 ratings

The wondrous Aimee Bender conjures the lush and moving story of a girl whose magical gift is really a devastating curse.

On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents’ attention, bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother—her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother—tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose.

The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep hidden—her mother’s life outside the home, her father’s detachment, her brother’s clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is a luminous tale about the enormous difficulty of loving someone fully when you know too much about them. It is heartbreaking and funny, wise and sad.

Paperback, 325 pages
Published August 4th 2011 by Windmill Books (first published May 4th 2010)
ISBN
0099538261 (ISBN13: 9780099538264)
edition language
English
original title
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
characters
George, Rose Edelstein, Joseph Edelstein
setting
Los Angeles, California (United States)

literary awards
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2010), ALA Alex Award (2011)

The Sealed Letter - Emma Donoghue

3.34 of 5 stars 3.34 · 608 ratings

Closely based on the details of a scandalous divorce case that gripped England in 1864, The Sealed Letter is a riveting historical drama, strangely relevant to contemporary controversies over women and marriage.

Miss Emily "Fido" Faithfull is a "woman of business" and a spinster pioneer of the British women's movement. Distracted from her beloved cause by the sudden return of her once-dear friend, the unhappily wed Helen Codrington, Fido is swept up in the intimate details of Helen's failing marriage to the stodgy Admiral Harry Codrington. What begins as an effort to help a friend explodes into a courtroom drama muckier than any Hollywood tabloid could invent; with stained dresses, accusations of adultery, counterlcaims of rape, and a mysterious letter that could destroy many lives.

Brought to life by Emma Donoghue's vivid characterization and matchless eye for detail, The Sealed Letter is a provocative, mesmerizing story about men, women, and the birth of modern times.

Paperback, 416 pages
Published October 13th 2011 by Picador (first published April 30th 2008)
ISBN13
9781447205975
original title
The Sealed Letter
literary awards

Lambda Literary Foundation Award for Lesbian General Fiction (2008)

The Waiting Room - F.G. Cottam

4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 · 46 ratings

A beautifully written, chilling ghost story full of suspense and mystery Martin Stride is a retired rock star, enjoying the quiet life with his young family on their beautiful estate. On the edge of his grounds lies a derelict Edwardian railway station waiting room once used to transport troops in The Great War. Silent for many years, it has become a playground for Martin's children, but now they won't go near it. Strange occurrences in the waiting room lead Martin to seek the help of TV's favorite ghost-hunter Julian Creed. But Creed's psychic ability is a fabrication to gain viewers—he doesn't believe in the paranormal at all. That is, until he spends a night in the waiting room.

Paperback, 294 pages
Expected publication: May 1st 2012 by Hodder Paperback (first published June 24th 2010)
ISBN 1444704230 (ISBN13: 9781444704235)
edition language
English

Under the Dome - Stephen King
3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · 26,365 ratings

Celebrated storyteller Stephen King returns to his roots in this tour de force featuring more than 100 characters -- some heroic, some diabolical -- and a supernatural element as baffling and chilling as any he's ever conjured. On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mills, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the Dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away. Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a selectwoman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out. With some of the most spectacularly sinister characters King has ever imagined and a driving plot, UNDER THE DOME is Stephen King at his epic best. This book will thrill every reader who's ever loved a novel by King

Hardcover, 880 pages (paperback 1074 pages)
Published November 10th 2009 by Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN
0340992565 (ISBN13: 9780340992562)
edition language
English
setting
Chester's Mill, Maine (United States)

literary awards
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery/Thriller (2009), British Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Novel (2010)

I have tried to paste the same amount of info for each book.

This is an open thread so please feel free to post anything related: quotes, reviews, what you've voted and why, etc.

Amina wrote: "I shall be reading the sadness of lemon cake one as it sucked me in, such an abstract concept. I have ordered it already so I am very excited about that one. My little friend has been very neglic..."

the particular sadness of lemon cake seems a bit Sarah Addison Allen.
Is it weird that I was a bit shocked at your SK statement? Lol

Amina wrote: "Not at all. It is sad but true, I need a good nudge, hehe."

:)

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is the one I'll be reading. It's not like anything I've read before, and I want to broaden my horizons!

I will read at some point and I keep changing between it and . I do think we've read quite a bit of bizarre stuff. I like to read books that are thought provoking and seems more like a quick fun read that I'm not sure how much we'll be able to discuss and it has under 50 ratings.