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Post by Claire on Mar 29, 2012 11:41:38 GMT 1
Hi all our next book is an adult horse story, Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon. This book has been highly acclaimed and won the National Book Award. It is set on the American racing circuit.
Discussion in approx 10-14 days. I have a copy I can lend anyone however its a thick heavy pb so it may not be much more to buy it than paying the postage sending it back to me! (Cheap copies on Amazon for about £3 incl postage tho they are sent from the US so if you are outside the states will take a few days to arrive, havent checked ebay yet.)
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Post by susanb on Mar 29, 2012 15:16:11 GMT 1
Claire, it actually won the National Book Award!
Also, if anyone has (dare I mention it) an ereader, it's available for that too.
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Post by Claire on Mar 29, 2012 21:28:02 GMT 1
Thanks for the info susan, have edited my post. Now where did I get the idea it was nominated for the prize but didnt win it! Just checked ebay and there are a couple of buy it now copies from the UK for around £4 plus one on auction. Funnily enough there is also a vampire novel with the same title, so make sure you don't get that one by mistake. ;D
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Post by darkhorse on Mar 30, 2012 10:16:42 GMT 1
I think I may actually have this book somewhere. I have a feeling I bought it a while back on someone's recommendation but never got round to reading it. I will check and report back
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Post by Claire on Mar 30, 2012 11:34:06 GMT 1
My copy had a lucky escape. My foul moggy is in season and decided to spray on one of my bookcases (dunno why she thought a tomcat would be lurking there!) and just missed the book. But she did get some of my others Its times like cleaning cat wee off your stuff which makes you wonder why you like animals
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Post by darkhorse on Mar 31, 2012 14:45:24 GMT 1
Lol Claire, lucky escape for anyone who wanted to borrow it too ;D
I do have the book after all so I can join in!
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Post by Claire on Apr 1, 2012 19:46:41 GMT 1
Thats good darkhorse. Anyone else interested in this one or is it just the 3 of us...?
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Post by trixiepony on Apr 2, 2012 0:59:23 GMT 1
I don't have it but will look out for a copy if I can.
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Post by kunuma on Apr 3, 2012 18:56:31 GMT 1
I'll lend Airs above the Ground to anyone who needs it, have just done that one, will look out for Lord of Misrule going cheap.
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Post by susanb on Apr 3, 2012 20:33:45 GMT 1
Started Lord of Misrule yesterday and ordered a copy of Airs Above Ground....even if we don't do it for a group read, it's been a long time since I read it!
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Post by Claire on Apr 3, 2012 22:13:47 GMT 1
I dont think I have a copy of Airs any more. Will see if library has it. If not I may have to do a swap with you kunuma.
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Post by sarah on Apr 13, 2012 19:43:50 GMT 1
Gosh - I have read this, but quite a while ago - so don't remember a lot of detail (and perhaps that, in itself, is telling)!!! :-)
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Post by Claire on Apr 15, 2012 11:46:02 GMT 1
Hi folks just a quick check to see how everyone is getting on with the book? I am stuck about half way thru, will have another go and hopefully finish it off. (As Sarah says that in itself is telling!)
Have added poll.
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Post by darkhorse on Apr 15, 2012 15:58:34 GMT 1
Sorry I am finding this hard going and I didn't even get half way. The writing style is a bit weird and I find the lack of speech marks make it hard to follow what people are saying. Maybe it is a bit too 'literary' for me There is some sex behind the stable door however! ;D
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Post by susanb on Apr 16, 2012 16:07:30 GMT 1
Have to admit I'm stuck too.....I have a horror of those books with no punctuation! Getting into the dialect is tough as well.....we probably hear more English accents here in New England than we do Southern ones (strange, but true).
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Post by Claire on Apr 16, 2012 20:32:33 GMT 1
Oh dear - it will be a first for us if none of us manage to finish the reading circle selection! I agree that its the style of writing that's letting it down for me, I'm not a stickler for keeping religiously to punctuation and rules of grammar - as you may have guessed - but I do have a horror of anything too stylised. I like simple writing the best. I am interested in what may happen next so I'll try and plug on!
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Post by susanb on Apr 16, 2012 21:30:55 GMT 1
The fact that it won an adult, main stream book award should have been a warning, but clearly I missed that blazing red flag!
I usually only trust children's national awards (Newbery, Carnagie, though even those can be a little iffy) and genre awards (Edgar, Agatha, McCavity for mystery, Hugo, Nebula, Mythopoeic for fantasy)
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Post by Claire on Apr 16, 2012 21:44:55 GMT 1
The fact that it won an adult, main stream book award should have been a warning, but clearly I missed that blazing red flag! Odd that prize winning adult books tend to be the kind you dont want to read! Especially those that win 'literary' book awards. I agree with darkhorse that I don't really like 'literary' books - despite (or maybe because of) having a degree in English lit! (nicked your quotation marks darkhorse ) Going back to the book in question it also had loads of really good reviews on Amazon!
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Post by Claire on Apr 25, 2012 12:34:11 GMT 1
Anyone made any further progress yet....?
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Post by darkhorse on Apr 26, 2012 20:11:13 GMT 1
Sorry Claire, I seem to have ground to a complete halt.
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Post by Claire on May 13, 2012 14:22:31 GMT 1
Well this has definitely been the worst reading circle we've done. I think sarah is the only one who has actually read the whole book. Well, I will give it one determined effort to finish it off as I suppose I have a duty as administrator to do so
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Post by susanb on May 14, 2012 15:56:01 GMT 1
Sarah should get a medal! Maybe something she could put in her profile? "completed the course with Lord of Misrule"?
Seriously...I haven't yet given up, but it's really a drag....it kills me that a horse book actually wins a National Award and yet it's a terrible read.
As I said though, I should have expected it....these days all the big, adult, literary awards go to books nobody wants to read.
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Post by Claire on May 14, 2012 20:06:45 GMT 1
We should have done the historical horse whisperer one after all teehee ;D It is annoying as this looked very good and I normally really like racing ones. I was really looking forward to reading it....then I started.....
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