The members of KKJM Reads have selected A Clockwork Orange, The Secret Scripture, Last Night in Montreal, and A Long Way Down as the four books we are going to be reading this semester.
Book #1: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Primary Reader: Jake Graham
Amazon Summary: ‘Great Music, it said, and Great Poetry would like quieten Modern Youth down and make Modern Youth more Civilized. Civilized my syphilised yarbles.’ A vicious fifteen-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic. In Anthony Burgess’s nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends’ social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. When the state undertakes to reform Alex to “redeem” him, the novel asks, “At what cost?”
Reasoning: A Clockwork Orange is a novel I decided to select for my research proposal, because of its theme that relates to our in-class text Demian: Story of a Youth. After reading through a brief summary of what the book entails within the text, it seems like an exciting opportunity to compare Burgess and Hesse’s work. As a group, I feel that since the book is a story of good and evil like Demian. It will be something that really helps exercise our reading muscles by identifying the elements of the story that were highlighted in our McKee reading. Areas such as counter idea, controlling idea, and values will be touched upon and discussed. The general summary on the books I skimmed over also display it is separated into three different sections. Which will allow our group to look at how stories are divided into acts.
The novella was also listed by Modern Library as one of their “100 best English-language novels of the 20th century”. Time magazine also included in on its list of the “100 best English language novels written since 1923”. As a reader, I personally just started not skimming through books about 6 months ago, so my experience is minimal. I feel that it is essential to read classic novels such as this to understand the concepts that we will touch upon in this class. Since no-one in my group has read the book prior, this would be a new experience for all of us equally. The novel is definitely a work that is unique and will definitely provoke a unique experience for each one of us after completing the reading.
Book #2: The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Primary Reader: Monica Segeren
Amazon Summary: Sebastian Barry’s novels have been hugely admired by readers and critics, and in 2005 his novel A Long Long Way was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In The Secret Scripture, Barry revisits County Sligo, Ireland, the setting for his previous three books, to tell the unforgettable story of Roseanne McNulty. Once one of the most beguiling women in Sligo, she is now a resident of Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital and nearing her hundredth year. Set against an Ireland besieged by conflict, The Secret Scripture is an engrossing tale of one woman’s life, and a poignant story of the cruelties of civil war and corrupted power.
Reasoning: A lot of the books I read for some reason take place in the United States. Being Irish, I was very interested in a book that took place in Ireland. Plus, I noticed that this specific author has written numerous books in Ireland which is also mentioned in the Amazon description. Also, I’ve really shied away from historical fiction and I wanted to give this book a chance. I wanted to expand my knowledge on historical fiction because I also want to expand my knowledge on how to write creative non-fiction. When discussing this with the group, I also thought it would be a good fit for them to read as well!
Book #3: Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
Primary Reader: Kassidy Tirelli
Amazon Summary: When Lilia Albert was a child, her father appeared on the doorstep of her mother’s house and took her away. Now, haunted by an inability to remember much about her early childhood, Lilia moves restlessly from city to city, abandoning lovers and eluding the private detective who has dedicated a career to following close behind.
Then comes Eli. When Lilia goes out for a paper and fails to return to their Brooklyn apartment, he follows her to Montreal, not knowing whether he wants to disappear, too, or help her find her way home. But what he discovers is a deeper mystery, one that will set past and present spinning toward collision.
Reasoning: I originally planned to choose Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng as my reading pick for the semester. However, when I was looking through prior semesters’ blogs while creating our WordPress site, the title Last Night in Montreal caught my eye. Immediately intrigued by it, I did a quick google search and decided that this book would be a good pick because I often shy away from thrillers when reading. Additionally, when doing further research on the book, I found that the the story switches its point of view throughout, which I thought would be interesting in terms of synthetic register. I believe that this book will definitely challenge our group to become better readers and writers because we all agreed that we generally gravitate toward books that focus more on mimetic and thematic registers.
Book #4: A Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Primary Reader: Katelyn Zuchowski
Audible Summary: An ode to “Put the Damn Guns Down”, this is National Book Award finalist and New York Times best seller Jason Reynolds’ fiercely stunning novel that takes place in 60 potent seconds – the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother.
“A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE.”
Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what 15-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun.
He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he?
Reasoning: This book was previously recommended for me to read over the summer. As I mentioned before to not only my group but also in my reflection, I have never been much of an independent reader. Picking up a new book to read for my own leisure is not common for me. (Once I’m not in school full-time and working full-time I fully intend to change this). So choosing a book of the hundreds of thousands was difficult for me. That was until I remembered this book. The book is poetic in nature, which is like nothing I have ever read in my life. This is my challenge, but also the reason I decided to pick it for this assignment. The narrative also interested me because the entire narrative is within sixty seconds. I can’t imagine the details that must be within the story to write a book telling an entire story about sixty seconds. After talking to my group and discussing other books in addition to this one, everyone was drawn to this book as well.
KKJM Reads 