Suggestions for April's Book of the Month

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Mon February 16th, 2009, 8:45 am

So we had some very specific ideas for themes for April's book of the month in one of the other threads, but I have decided that it needs to be a bit broader so that more than one book gets nominated!

The theme for April is therefore 19th Century books. It could be a book set in the 19th century or written in the 19th century or connected to that century somehow!

One nomination per person, and please write the full name of the book and the author so that I can easily find the details of the book.

This thread will close on 21 February

Leyland · Post by **Leyland** » Mon February 16th, 2009, 12:29 pm

AlexWorthy suggested this novel in the last year or so, so I bought it, but haven't read it. It "delivers an exhilarating journey from Victorian England to the dusty whiskey trading posts of the nineteenth-century American and Canadian West."

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Crossing-Nov ... 276&sr=1-1

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Mon February 16th, 2009, 12:47 pm

Kept, A Victorian Mystery by D J Taylor

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Mon February 16th, 2009, 1:08 pm

Jamaica Inn by D du M

enelya · Post by **enelya** » Mon February 16th, 2009, 4:01 pm

Max Havelaar, or The Coffee Auctions of a Dutch Trading Company by Multatuli ( aka Eduard Douwes Dekker) Written in the 19th century it is a written accusation and condemnation of the Dutch colonial system. Here in Holland it is a big classic and it is one of my favorite books ever

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Mon February 16th, 2009, 6:04 pm

I would like to reread Jamaica Inn.

Here are a few other suggestions:

The Great Stink by Clare Clark (about the sewers of London)

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (about Mr. Rochester's first wife, set in the Caribbean), another novel I would like to reread

The Leopard by Guiseppe de Lampedusa (there's been a lot of buzz about this 1958 novel in recent years - it's set in Sicily in the 1860s amid the decline of the old nobility and the Garibaldi period)

Gone for Soldiers by Jeff Shaara (about the U.S.-Mexican War)

If I'm only allowed one nomination, I'll go with Gone for Soldiers, because there's very little Mexican War fiction, and I'm curious to read this.

annis · Post by **annis** » Mon February 16th, 2009, 7:41 pm

Blimey, are we onto April, already?

This is an iteresting one.
"I really enjoyed "Kept", which is a rather gothic Dickensian mystery, and "The Leopard" is a classic about the disintegration of an ancient way of life.

I think I'll go for something Antipodean, and suggest Kate Grenville's novel "The Secret River", set in early nineteenth century Australia.
"A powerful portrait of the conflict between convicts and Aborigines --
this is a narrative whose outlines we know already: convicts transported to Sydney, eventually pardoned, encouraged to settle what seemed to be an empty continent. They didn't understand, and wouldn't have cared, that the land they were occupying was sacred to the mysterious, dark-skinned people who appeared and disappeared from the forests and seemed to them no more than naked savages."

boswellbaxter · Post by **boswellbaxter** » Mon February 16th, 2009, 8:02 pm

Drood by Dan Simmons.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Mon February 16th, 2009, 9:52 pm

Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayard about the grown up Tiny Tim of A Christmas Carol. Someone nominated this book before or posted about. It intrigued me, so I bought it and it is in my TRB pile.

Leo62 · Post by **Leo62** » Tue February 17th, 2009, 1:40 pm

[quote=""boswellbaxter""]Drood by Dan Simmons.[/quote]

Seconded

Historical Fiction Online

Suggestions for April's Book of the Month

Suggestions for April's Book of the Month

The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe