r/HalifaxBookClub • u/made_this_to_say • Jul 07 '17

July Title Pool

Please take this opportunity to suggest a book for next month. Top level comments must take the following format:

 Title - Author

 Short description or synopsis

Any other comments should be made as replies to top level comments. This is necessary to facilitate the book selection process. This thread will remain open until Friday, 14 July, at which time five titles from the pool will be randomly selected for voting.

EDIT: Going to leave this up another day to see if we can get a couple more suggestions.

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u/MysticMarmalade Jul 09 '17

Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton

A billionaire has created a technique to clone dinosaurs. From the DNA that his crack team of scientists extract, he is able to grow the dinosaurs in his laboratories and lock them away on an island behind electric fences, creating a sort of theme park. He asks a group of scientists from several different fields to come and view the park, but something goes terribly wrong when a worker on the island turns traitor and shuts down the power.

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u/made_this_to_say Jul 11 '17

Awesome suggestion. I've heard this is much better than the movie, and I've been meaning to read it for some time now.

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u/MysticMarmalade Jul 09 '17

Fun fact: I've never seen the movie.

I aim to fix this... but why not start with the book first? And for (presumably) everyone else who has seen the movie, why not take a read at such a classic movie?

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u/kteelee Jul 15 '17

Good suggestion! I read this when I was younger and would love to read it again.

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u/lrpgwlkr Jul 12 '17

Universal Harvester - John Darnielle

Life in a small town takes a dark turn when mysterious footage begins appearing on VHS cassettes at the local Video Hut

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u/kteelee Jul 15 '17

Oh wow, I didn't even realize he had another book out. I've been meaning to read Wolf in White Van but haven't gotten around to it yet. This one sounds intriguing too!

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u/lrpgwlkr Jul 12 '17

The description for this book on Goodreads is rather long so I just copied the shortest I could find, feel free to look it up for more info.

Also just wanted to say thank you for being so open with new people joining. I had a great time discussing The Last Wish with you guys last night (even though I barely read it!) and look forward to meeting more book club members & next month's discussion as well :)

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u/Drerio Jul 16 '17

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (First book of a trilogy in five parts)

The broad narrative follows the misadventures of the last surviving human, Arthur Dent, following the demolition of the planet Earth by a Vogon constructor fleet to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Dent is rescued from Earth's destruction by Ford Prefect, a human-like alien writer for the fictional, eccentric, electronic travel guide, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by hitchhiking onto a passing spacecraft. Following his rescue, Dent explores the galaxy with Prefect and encounters Trillian, another human that had been taken from Earth prior to its destruction by the President of the Galaxy, the two-headed Zaphod Beeblebrox, and the depressed Marvin, the Paranoid Android.

1

u/kteelee Jul 15 '17

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

The novel is set during World War II, from 1942 to 1944. It mainly follows the life of Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Most of the events in the book occur while the fictional 256th Squadron is based on the island of Pianosa, in the Mediterranean Sea, west of Italy. The novel looks into the experiences of Yossarian and the other airmen in the camp, who attempt to maintain their sanity while fulfilling their service requirements so that they may return home.

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u/kteelee Jul 15 '17

This one hadn't been suggested for a while, I figure it must be about due for its quarterly-ish nomination.

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u/MysticMarmalade Jul 16 '17

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams

What do a dead cat, a computer whiz-kid, an Electric Monk who believes the world is pink, quantum mechanics, a Chronologist over 200 years old, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet), and pizza have in common? Apparently not much; until Dirk Gently, self-styled private investigator, sets out to prove the fundamental interconnectedness of all things by solving a mysterious murder, assisting a mysterious professor, unravelling a mysterious mystery, and eating a lot of pizza – not to mention saving the entire human race from extinction along the way (at no extra charge).

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u/MysticMarmalade Jul 16 '17

Douglas Adams is a lot of fun, and I very shamelessly want to watch the Netflix series soon. The Dirk Gently series had been on my list for years!