Repug's book of the month club

[Repugnant Abomination]

That's right, I'm starting a book of the month club exclusively for nubblies! You're all so lucky.

The main reason I want to do this is to keep myself on pace to read a novel a month. I was pretty good about it over the summer, slacked off a bit in early fall, and now I'm back on track. I just read Gulliver's travels, Moll Flanders, and most recently No country for old men (supposedly the movie kicks ass).

The book of December is East of Eden, but John Steinbeck.


Often described as Steinbeck's most ambitious novel, East of Eden brings to life the intricate details of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and their interwoven stories. The story is primarily set in the Salinas Valley, California, between the beginning of the 20th century and the end of the Great War (World War I), though some chapters are in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and the story goes as far back as the American Civil War.

The book explores themes of depravity, beneficence, love, and the struggle for acceptance, greatness, and the capacity for self-destruction and especially of guilt and freedom. It ties these themes together with references to and many parallels with the biblical Book of Genesis (especially Genesis Chapter 4, the story of Cain and Abel). It is sometimes called a religious book without a God.

According to his last wife Elaine, he considered this to be a requiem for himself—his greatest novel ever. Steinbeck stated about East of Eden: "It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years." He further claimed: "I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this."

The book is 601 pages, so it's a pretty ambitious task to finish it in a month, but with winter break here I think it's doable. I've read to page 50, and so far the book is very good. Steinbeck writes beautifully. I'll post a review once I finish.

[Mr. Blonde]

who's john steinbeck?

[Repugnant Abomination]

The book of January is Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.

This is a classic, written during the Romantic era. A common misconception is Frankenstein is the creature, but really Frankenstein refers to the scientiest, Victor Frankenstein. It takes place across Europe, following the young scientist as he tries to come to terms with his creation, and the havoc that comes from trying to play God.

I wasn't expecting much when I first started this book, but after finishing it I highly recommend it. Not just because it's a classic and in the canon, but because it's a genuinely interesting and original tale. I would say it peaks when the creatures takes over the narrative and explains things from his point of view.

The book holds a level of sophistication that was pleasantly surprising. Shelley tackles complex issues and deals out realistic outcomes.

[Niger Angelus]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blonde

who's john steinbeck?

You're kidding right, you never read the Grapes of Wrath?

[Repugnant Abomination]

He was being facetious.

[Niger Angelus]

Thank goodness.

[Repugnant Abomination]

Just finished this book. It won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for 2008.

The novel is an epic love story narrated by Yunior de Las Casas, the protagonist of Díaz's first book "Drown" and chronicles not just the "brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao," an overweight Dominican boy growing up in Paterson, New Jersey and obsessed with science fiction and fantasy novels, with comic books and role-playing games and with falling in love, but also the curse of the "fukú" that has plagued Oscar's family for generations and the Caribbean (and perhaps the entire world) since colonization and slavery.

I highly, highly recommend it.

[Repugnant Abomination]

Probably my favorite Hemmingway novel, outside of The old man and the Sea (which is a novella anyway).


This novel is told primarily through the thoughts and experiences of Robert Jordan, a character inspired by Hemingway's own experiences in the Spanish Civil War. Robert Jordan is an American who travels to Spain to oppose the fascist forces of Generalísimo Francisco Franco.

I definitely recommend for history buffs and fans of the war novel.

[Repugnant Abomination]

The book that catapulted Fitzgerald to literary fame at the age of 23, it's his first and second most famous novel.

This Side of Paradise is the debut novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Published in 1920, and taking its title from a line of the Rupert Brooke poem Tiare Tahiti, the book examines the lives and morality of post-World War I youth. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive Princeton University student who dabbles in literature and has the book's theme of love warped by greed and status-seeking.

It's a flawed novel, but I appreciated it. I think a lot of us can relate to the idea in the book of knowing you're smart and destined for great things, but unsure of how to go about it.

[Landing Strip]

I have yet to read much Hemingway, but I greatly enjoyed The Sun also Rises.

The novel explores the lives and values of the so-called "Lost Generation," chronicling the experiences of Jake Barnes and several acquaintances on their pilgrimage to Pamplona for the annual fiesta and bull fights. Barnes' genitals had been mutilated as the result of an injury incurred during World War I; he is subsequently unable to consummate a sexual relationship with Brett Ashley, though his anatomy still compels him to be attracted to her. The story follows Jake and his various companions across France and Spain. Initially, Jake seeks peace away from Brett by taking a fishing trip to Burguete, deep within the Spanish hills, with companion Bill Gorton, another veteran of the war. The fiesta in Pamplona is the setting for the eventual meeting of all the characters, who play out their various desires and anxieties, alongside a great deal of drinking.

It is considered one of Hemingway's best novels along side A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

[Repugnant Abomination]

I read the Sun Also Rises about two years ago. I didn't like it at the time, but I'll probably re-read it to see if age has changed my perspective.

[Landing Strip]

I also read it about two years ago. It was for an english class, so we discussed everything about it. Hadn't I been able to discuss it, and get an analytical overview of it in an educational setting, perhaps I would not have liked it either.

[Ugly Bastard]

Speaking of books we were forced to read in high school...

Repug, I think you would like this book called "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin. It's about this women who becomes disenchanted with the whole "domesticated woman" lifestyle and seeks out liberation from that. I'm not being facetious in recommending this either, I think you'd really like it; I did, and I'm a fuckin' misogynist.

[Repugnant Abomination]

Oh nice, thanks for the suggestion UB, I'll have to check it out. It actually sounds a lot like a book I'm finishing up right now:


Five odd women—women without husbands—are the subject of this powerful novel, set in Victorian London, by a writer whose perceptions about people, particularly women, would be remarkable in any age and are extraordinary in the 1890s. The story concerns the choices that five different women have to make and what those choices imply about men's and women's status in society and relationship to each other.

It's as much a good read for the historical aspects of Victorian culture as it is for the relationship between men and women and the characters they embody.

[THEINCREDIBLEdork]

if youre in to reading the classics, Stendhal's Red and Black is a good one.

[TwoBlackEyes]

[hfam95]

A classic for black history month.

[Ugly Bastard]

Just finished the best novel I've ever read. It resonated with me in a way that is hard to put into words. I could see some of you liking it. I could see others of you not making it past the first five pages.

[Dent]

^ whats it about? I like the cover.
Is this it?
Siddhartha - Google Book Search

[Ugly Bastard]

Yes, that's it. It's basically the tale of one man's lifelong spiritual journey.

[Repugnant Abomination]

I've been reading a lot these past months:



Set in mountainous Sevier County, Tennessee, Child of God tells the story of Lester Ballard, a dispossessed, violent man whom the narrator describes as "a child of God much like yourself perhaps." Ballard's life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. Successively deprived of parents and homes and with few other ties, Ballard descends literally and figuratively to the level of a cave dweller as he falls deeper into crime and degradation.



The book concerns three generations of women affected by a Virginia Woolf novel.
The first is Woolf herself writing Mrs. Dalloway in 1923 and struggling with her own mental illness. The second is Mrs. Brown, wife of a World War II veteran, who is reading Mrs. Dalloway in 1949 as she plans her husband's birthday party. The third is Clarissa Vaughan, a lesbian, who plans a party in 1998 to celebrate a major literary award received by her good friend and former lover, the poet Richard, who is dying of AIDS.



Burmese Days is set in 1920s imperial Burma, in the fictional district of Kyauktada. As the story opens, U Po Kyin, a corrupt Burmese magistrate is planning to destroy the reputation of the Indian doctor - Dr. Veraswami. The Doctor's main protection is his friendship with John Flory who, as a pukka sahib (European white man), has higher prestige. U Po Kyin begins his campaign by sending anonymous letters with false stories about the doctor, and he even sends a subtly threatening letter to Flory.



The Pearl is a novel by American author John Steinbeck. It takes place in the 1900's. Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor pearl diver, gathering pearls from the Gulf beds that once brought great wealth to Spain. Pearl diving now provided Kino, Juana, and their infant son Coyotito, with meager subsistence. Unexpectedly, Coyotito gets stung by a scorpion. Kino can't pay for a doctor to heal Coyotito, so he searches for a pearl. Kino then emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a seagull's egg, as "perfect as the moon." With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of security at the cost of defying the system.



Of Mice and Men is a novella written by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression in California.

[THEINCREDIBLEdork]

of mice and men is the only movied i ever cried when the 'tard killed the puppy

[StabMaster Arson]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blonde

who's john steinbeck?

He played Uncle Jesse on full house, now he's a writer.

[Orgazmo]

He still plays with The Rippers on the weekends, too.

[DDTempest]

Occasionally plays with the Beach Boys on tour as well ...