CP LITERATURE DRAFT - (Rapid Fire Free For All Round)

[octothorp]

So where are we at then... both Jammies and Jerzeegirl are asskicked and Ro is up?

[jammies]

2 picks? Hmm, guess I wasn't watching closely enough, it did seem to take a long time to get back to me. My apologies.

For my Fiction-Wildcard pick I would like to choose The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy.



I don't think I can say it any better than this: "The Crossing generates an immense and sorrowful power. . . . [It is] a soul-shaking novel." --Washington Post

This is a novel which is both bleak and uplifting at the same time; a discourse upon the nature of the soul set against the backdrop of lawlessness and moral grotesqueries that was post-revolutionary Mexico. There are philosophers a-plenty in this chaotic time, and the hero, Billy Parham, heeds none of them, to his enduring loss.

The theme of the novel is summed up in the lines translated for Billy from one of these wise ones: "He said that the wolf is a being of great order and that it knows what men do not: that there is no order in the world save that which death has put there."


For my 2nd pick, under the category of Non-Fiction: Scientific, I would like to choose The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley.



Ridley attempts to explain human nature by what he feels is its prime driver - sex. He largely succeeds, and in the process, illuminates many of the societal mores and attitudes around sex. As he is a writer by profession, it is easier to read than many science books (although not simplistic) and does a very good job of arguing its hypothesis.

[Ronald Pagan]

Can I make a pick?

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Ronald Pagan

Can I make a pick?

Sure.

Your last pick was in the 5th round, so you've missed 3 picks; and don't wander away because your 9th rd turn comes up soon.

Welcome back.

[Ronald Pagan]

Ok sorry, really busy at work. I know, I know, what does that say about the time when I was making all those other picks?

[Jagger]

Pls pass me by for now. My wife's just had major surgery so I'm at the hospital a lot. Will pick when I can. Thks.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Jagger

Pls pass me by for now. My wife's just had major surgery so I'm at the hospital a lot. Will pick when I can. Thks.

No worries, man. Family has to come first--hope your wife recovers quickly. Best wishes.

[Circa89]

Troutman,
I understand that the Anne Rice pick was a gawd awful selection, but I was very limited in the fantasy category. Anyway was it so bad that you are not admitting it to the category because I have yet to see it on the spreadsheet and subsequent picks have been added.

I feel shame for that pick but there's no going back now.


EDIT sorry to hear about the wife Jagger. I hope she makes a full and speedy recovery.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Circa89

Troutman,
I understand that the Anne Rice pick was a gawd awful selection, but I was very limited in the fantasy category. Anyway was it so bad that you are not admitting it to the category because I have yet to see it on the spreadsheet and subsequent picks have been added.

I feel shame for that pick but there's no going back now.


EDIT sorry to hear about the wife Jagger. I hope she makes a full and speedy recovery.

Nothing wrong with that pick. I have it on my bookshelf, too.
Book >> Movie

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Circa89

Troutman,
I understand that the Anne Rice pick was a gawd awful selection, but I was very limited in the fantasy category. Anyway was it so bad that you are not admitting it to the category because I have yet to see it on the spreadsheet and subsequent picks have been added.

I feel shame for that pick but there's no going back now.


EDIT sorry to hear about the wife Jagger. I hope she makes a full and speedy recovery.

??? I don't know what you are talking about

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by troutman

??? I don't know what you are talking about

I missed putting the pick on the spreadsheet, and Circa89 didn't know that you weren't the one updating it.

[Ronald Pagan]

Ronald Pagan of the Cart-drawn Mountebanks is proud to select with his 5th? pick in the American Literature category:

Infinite Jest

by

David Foster Wallace



Wallace is regarded as one of great American writers and Inifinite Jest is his seminal work. On the surface, the book tells the story of a tennis virtuoso coping with an insane family, addiction to marijuana, and the tribulations of being alone. The grand narrative is an obtrusive exposition of life's tragedies told through a sympathetic, cynical and comedic narrator. Wallace provides that voice and is the undistisbuted star of the novel.

What really distinguishes this novel is the character of the prose. The sometimes blinding speed of characters' paranoia and melded with the crafty, impressive structure of the sentences and words. Wallace does this without pretension or removing its accessibility. As a result this book is a true stamp on the style of our times of which it was written and will be studied hundreds of years from now on its style, composition and depth.

Amazing story, even more amazing style. Don't be dissuaded by the book's length, it is WELL worth the read.

[Aeneas]

I will get my pick up here later today. Sorry for the delay, feel free to move on.

[Bobblehead]

That was actually Pick # 6 Ronald (#5 was Dao de Jing - Lao Tze)

And I believe Jagger mentioned that he had some family things that were going to tie him up for a while, so he has temporarily AKed himself which would bring us back to....Ronald Pagan!

So Aeneas, pick when you can, Ronald, we need #7, #8, #9 from you.

[Aeneas]

Sorry for the delay.

I would like to pick in Canadian Literature, The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies.
I suppose the precedent has been set in that I also take the rest of the Cornish trilogy with this pick, however The Rebel Angels could stand alone.

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/per...es-angels.html



While I would have liked to pick The Deptford books for this category, it was long gone. Oryx and Crake I would have been happy with, and I did look long and hard at Atwood, Laurence, Ricci, and others. But I came back to Davies in the end. I think I enjoyed this series of books almost as much as Deptford.

"A wry drama of academic pride, passion, and intrigue"

"Fascinating and witty"

"Davies is one of the most learned, amusing, and otherwise accomplished novelists of our time and...of our century."

[Circa89]

Nice, I too would have selected this trilogy if the Deptford Trilogy was gone. I have read every novel pubished by Mr. Davies. A fine Canadian Author.

[Aeneas]

Originally Posted by Circa89

Nice, I too would have selected this trilogy if the Deptford Trilogy was gone. I have read every novel pubished by Mr. Davies. A fine Canadian Author.

Every one? How about, "A Gathering Of Ghost Stories"?
Not a novel, but can your Davies collection be complete without it?

[Jagger]

The Mighty Pen are pleased to select in the Non fiction Historical category,

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher:
Or the Murder at Road Hill House

Excellent book. I usually don't read too many non fiction true crime type books but I made an exception for this one. Well worth a read.

http://www.amazon.com/Suspicions-Mr-...ref=pd_sim_b_3

Kate Summerscale (The Queen of Whale Cay) delivers a mesmerizing portrait of one of England's first detectives and the gruesome murder investigation that nearly destroyed him. In 1860, three-year-old Saville Kent was found murdered in the outdoor privy of his family's country estate. Local police scrambled for clues, but to no avail. Scotland Yard Det.-Insp. Jonathan Jack Whicher was called in and immediately suspected the unthinkable: someone in the Kent family killed Saville. Theories abounded as everyone from the nursemaid to Saville's father became a suspect. Whicher tirelessly pursued every lead and became convinced that Constance Kent, Saville's teenage half-sister, was the murderer, but with little evidence and no confession, the case went cold and Whicher returned to London, a broken man. Five years later, the killer came forward with a shocking account of the crime, leading to a sensational trial. Whicher is a fascinating hero, and readers will delight in following every lurid twist and turn in his investigation.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Jagger

The Mighty Pen are pleased to select in the Non fiction Historical category,

Conflict!

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpos...2&postcount=27

Although if you want to give me my Mass/Pulp fiction back, I'll give you your Historical back.

[Circa89]

Originally Posted by Aeneas

Every one? How about, "A Gathering Of Ghost Stories"?
Not a novel, but can your Davies collection be complete without it?

Are you trying to steal my Anthology selection good sir?!
I call dibbs.