vote

Which Book Should We Read from Myanmar, Laos, & Cambodia?

As noted in a prior post, this month is a little different. Usually, we curate a list of 6 books from a particular country to choose from. This time, it will be 3 countries.

In the past 8 years since we began our club, we’ve found wonderful books from countries we’ve wanted to read without huge numbers of books available from these areas in English. In these cases as we will now be doing this month, we’ll combine 3 countries into a single list so we’ll still have a good choice of books from which to select. Any country not read will go back into rotation.

For November, our list will include 3 SE Asian countries each with their own cultures & languages across different literary landscapes:

  • The Republic of the Union of Myanmar (aka Myanmar formerly Burma)

  • The Lao People's Democratic Republic (aka Laos)

  • The Kingdom of Cambodia (aka Cambodia)

We also want to thank book club member, Karen Van Drie, who was the only person to successfully suggest a book from a native author from one of tthese countries. She does have a little advantage though since she currently lives in Myanmar.

THE VOTING

You can vote from now until Tues, Oct. 29 11:30PM on which book you’d like the club to read next. (That's NYC time. See this converted to your local time below.)

Time converter at worldtimebuddy.com

To participate:

1. Review the books.

2. Then, click here to vote.

We'll publish the anonymous results afterwards.

Which Book Should We Read from Iraq?

Before we get to the vote, I wanted to first apologize for the delay in posting. This month has been particularly difficult for me personally. Since we’re so late with the vote, we’ll be reading the book from Iraq for October. Moving forward, please know that the vote will be posted by the 15th of every month.

To start us off, I’ve included a powerful poem written by a native of Baghdad who lived there until the authorities considered her poetry to be not as innocent as it originally looked. She then fled to the US where she has since published two collections of poetry that also include works about the wars she had experienced: the Iraq–Iran war of 1980–88 and the first Gulf War of 1992 one of which is included below.

“What good luck!
She has found his bones.
The skull is also in the bag
the bag in her hand
like all other bags
in all other trembling hands.
His bones, like thousands of bones
in the mass graveyard,
His skull, not like any other skull.
Two eyes or holes
with which he saw too much,
two ears
with which he listened to music
that told his own story,
a nose
that never knew clean air,
a mouth, open like a chasm,
it was not like that when he kissed her
there, quietly,
not in this place
noisy with skulls and bones and dust
dug up with questions:
What does it mean to die all this death
in a place where the darkness plays all this silence?
What does it mean to meet your loved ones now
With all of these hollow places?
To give back to your mother
on the occasion of death
a handful of bones
she had given to you
on the occasion of birth?
To depart without death or birth certificates
because the dictator does not give receipts
when he takes your life.
The dictator has a skull too, a huge one
not like any other skull.
It solved by itself a math problem
that multiplied the one death by millions
to equal homeland.
The dictator is the director of a great tragedy.
he has an audience, too,
an audience that claps
until the bones begin to rattle ¬
the bones in the bags,
the full bag finally in her hand,
unlike her disappointed neighbor
who has not yet found her own.”
— Dunya Mikhail

THE VOTING

You can vote from now until Fri., Sept. 27 11:30PM on which book you’d like the club to read next. (That's NYC time. See this converted to your local time below.)

Time converter at worldtimebuddy.com

To participate:

1. Review the books.

2. Then, click here to vote.

We'll publish the anonymous results afterwards.

Which Book Should We Read from Cameroon?

Since we’re running a little late to start reading this month, we’ll be shortening the vote time down a little. Some of the books are also shorter reads as well which may influence which book you choose to vote for this month.

We’re happy to note we have some different genres included despite the fact that there aren’t a huge number of books available in English that are also available as both ebooks & paperbacks.

THE VOTING

You can vote from now until Mon., Nov. 6 11:30PM on which book you’d like the club to read next. (That's NYC time. See this converted to your local time below.)

Time converter at worldtimebuddy.com

To participate:

1. Review the books.

2. Then, click here to vote.

We'll publish the anonymous results afterwards so you can get the book in advance.

Which Book Should We Read from Belgium?

In order to start reading quickly, we’re going to do an abbreviated voting cycle so make sure to include your vote as early as possible.

We got 4 great book suggestions this month & randomly chose 2 (see the video of the random pick here).

Before we get to the vote, let me introduce you to some “contemporary” Belgian poetry. I have that in quotes because the name of the book I got the poetry from is titled Contemporary Belgian Poetry (view on Amazon), however, the collection is from 1911. I usually don’t like rhyming poetry, but I found this book available for $0 on Kindle (not Kindle Unlimited, but a purchase price of $0 so took a shot). It was interesting to read & there are a few poems I enjoyed like the following one. Plus, it’s astonishing to see someone not only translate poetry, but translate rhyming poetry!

“Midnight

The earth is black with trees of velvet under
A low sky laden with great clouds of thunder.
The gnomes of midnight haunt the dark, whose ears,
With luxury veiled, hear as a deaf man hears.
One is uneasy in one’s stifling sheets,
And so uneasily the poor heart beats
That, bathed in sweat, at last you leave your bed,
And as in dream about the chamber tread.
You throw the window open. Not a sound.
Surely the wind is swooning on the ground,
And listening to some holy, mystic birth
Preparing in the entrails of the earth.
You listen, earnest, to your heart’s loud shock
Beating with pained pulsations like a clock.
Then to the window-sill you pull a chair,
And watch the clouds weigh down the helpless air
Over the gardens whence, in sick perfumes,
Exudes the sweat of trees and wildered blooms.”
— Victor Kinon

THE VOTING

You can vote from now until Tues., May 3 at 11:30PM on which book you’d like the club to read next. (That's NYC time. See this converted to your local time below.)

Time converter at worldtimebuddy.com

To participate:

1. Review the books.

2. Then, click here to vote.

We'll publish the anonymous results afterwards.