AllAlias.com's Book Club Book #3: VOTING!

What book should should beAllAlias.com's Book Club #3?

  • Join Me by Danny Wallace

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Marilyn: Her Life in her own Wordsby Marilyn Monroe, George Barris

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Boy: Tales of a Childhood Boy & Going Solo by Roald Dahl

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • A Child Called "It" : One Child's Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • After Baliby Jason McCartney

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0
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alias_fan

typically terrific
If you weren't around for Book #1 (The Princess Bride) or Book #2 (The Da Vinci Code) here's a quick run-down, of the way things work:
1. I first make this thread for you guys to leave options for different books (this month's theme is biographies) to choose.
2. Then I make a poll once we have enough choices, and you will vote on the book you think should be AllAlias.com's Book Club Book #3.
3. The winner will be announced, and you all can run frantically out to get this fabulous book (I'm sure) and read like crazy to come in here and discuss.

Okay, so we've got our choices in, please vote according to which book you'd like to see as AllAlias.com's Book Club Book #3. :smiley:

DESCRIPTIONS:

submitted by alias_fan:
Title: Join Me
Author: Danny Wallace
Description: Join Me is this really amazing book (that I haven't read, but I'm sure it'll be wonderful) that is about how Danny Wallace started a cult. It's more of a "collective" rather than a cult really, and how he got all these people to join, and then didn't know what to do. It's about how he decided to use his group to do good, and their Random Acts of Kindness and how he tried to keep the whole thing a secret from his girlfriend. The thing about this book that makes me want to read it so much, is that the guy isn't some world-changer. He's just an every day Londoner who just happened to lead a cult. He's the kind of guy who would hit his toaster with his shoe if it was acting up. So, he tells his experiences of starting it, and all these people he met along the way and now having thousands of people calling him their leader. So, if you want more on it you can go here, and that's pretty much it.

submitted by Galicdreamer:
Title: Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words
Author: Marilyn Monroe, George Barris
Description: In what may honestly be the closest thing to an autobio, George Barris spent the entire summer of '62, 3 months before she died, with her. Conversations, pictures, and stories are what brings this book together. In this book Marilyn talks about her survival and downfall in the tinsel town. Her openess allows George to capture her at her best. The books includes over 150 never before seen photo's. I haven't read the book yet and I am a huge Marilyn fan so to be able to read with others would be really exciting!!

submitted by Frogboy_Lives:
Book: Boy: Tales of Childhood and Going Solo (since one takes up exactly where the other finishes they count as one)
Author: Roald Dahl
Description: "Throughout my young days at school and just afterwards a number of things happened to me... Some are funny. Some are painful. Some are unpleasant...all are true" Many remarkable things did indeed happen to Roald Dahl when he was a boy, and maybe that's where some of the marvellous ideas for his world famous books came from. There's the motor car ride which nearly cost him his nose, the terrifying school matron who crept silently down the school corridor, glorious family summer holidays in Norway, and the delights of testing chocolates for Cadbury's.

submitted by Vaughnfan13:
Title: A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive
Author: Dave Pelzer
Description: David J. Pelzer's mother, Catherine Roerva, was, he writes in this ghastly, fascinating memoir, a devoted den mother to the Cub Scouts in her care, and somewhat nurturant to her children--but not to David, whom she referred to as "an It." This book is a brief, horrifying account of the bizarre tortures she inflicted on him, told from the point of view of the author as a young boy being starved, stabbed, smashed face-first into mirrors, forced to eat the contents of his sibling's diapers and a spoonful of ammonia, and burned over a gas stove by a maniacal, alcoholic mom. Sometimes she claimed he had violated some rule--no walking on the grass at school!--but mostly it was pure sadism. Inexplicably, his father didn't protect him; only an alert schoolteacher saved David. One wants to learn more about his ordeal and its aftermath, and now he's written a sequel, The Lost Boy, detailing his life in the foster-care system.
Though it's a grim story, A Child Called "It" is very much in the tradition of Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul and the many books in that upbeat series, whose author Pelzer thanks for helping get his book going. It's all about weathering adversity to find love, and Pelzer is an expert witness.
It's the first book in a three part series, so it doesn't tell his whole life, but only his childhood, while the other 2 books go on into his teen and adult years.

submitted by adrianalazeray:
Title: After Bali
Author: Jason McCartney
Description: After Bali is Jason McCartney's account of how his life - and those of many thousands touched by the Bali bombing of October 2002 - was changed forever. McCartney was thrust into the hearts and minds of Australians through his courageous fightback from burns to 50 percent of his body. His story is one of humanity overcoming adversity, and full of the spirit that saw him not only survive, but make a comeback to the AFL. (Aussie Football)
It is simply an amazing book, and an amazing story. Jason McCartney recently has a seminar that i attended, and his story is almost surreal. For those who don't know, there was a bombing near a nightclub in the island country of Bali, and Jason was hurt. He still, however, amnaged to save others, and help people to get out of the nightclub, scarring him even more. After this, after 50% of his body covered in third degree burns, he managed to keep fighting and play another game of Aussie Rules Footy, which is an astonishing feat.
Anyone who hasn't read this, you should. His story is one that all Austrlians know, and it is one that should get wider recognition.

Oh, and if you have any questions, please feel free to PM me, SecretAgentMan, or ehgripo and we'll get back to you ;)
 
Nice theme. :smiley:

It would be cool, if the books could be also available in different languages : like spanish, french, etc. So some people could read it in their mother tongue.

Example : The DaVinci Code will be available on Amazon France on August 26, 2004. -_-

So can you all think about a book that is released in different languages ?! ;)
 
oh chels. :lol: I love you. ^_^

but I DO have one gripe... I didn't really find Join Me to be an autobiography. And I know it isn't, because it's dewey decimal number is like 360 and biographies are always in the 900s. (completely dorky of me to admit, but I memorized the dewey decimal system when I was seven. I forgot most of it, but some stuck. occupational hazard. :lol:smiley:.

I find it difficult to suggest a book for a book club because I have such weird taste, and most of the things I read don't have a lot of wide appeal. :lol: But I find anything by Donald Spoto amazing... he's just an awesome biographer. He profiled Jackie Kennedy, and I've read that one book at least five times in the last three years. He also wrote what I consider to be *the* definitive bio on Marilyn Monroe. read that one three times. :mellow:

If I can come up with something perfect for you guys to read I'll let you know. pinky swear. :sigh:
 
:lol: , nance. Okay, guys, seriously you've got to have more people reply than this :lol:

Sophie, that's a great idea! (y) I know Join Me will be available in England, and probably is a lot easier to get in Europe than here.
 
I wish I knew some biographries so I could offer some suggestions. Unfortunately, I only read fiction.
 
Okay..since I read books all the time.. I always have one in my hand and I love Bio's and thought I would nominate a book..so......

Title: Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words

Author: Marilyn Monroe, George Barris

Description: In what may honestly be the closest thing to an autobio, George Barris spent the entire summer of '62, 3 months before she died, with her. Conversations, pictures, and stories are what brings this book together. In this book Marilyn talks about her survival and downfall in the tinsel town. Her openess allows George to capture her at her best. The books includes over 150 never before seen photo's. I haven't read the book yet and I am a huge Marilyn fan so to be able to read with others would be really exciting!!
 
alias_fan said:
Sophie, that's a great idea! (y)  I know Join Me will be available in England, and probably is a lot easier to get in Europe than here.
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Oh cool. ^_^
 
Book: Boy: Tales of Childhood and Going Solo (since one takes up exactly where the other finishes they count as one)

Author: Roald Dahl

Description:
"Throughout my young days at school and just afterwards a number of things happened to me... Some are funny. Some are painful. Some are unpleasant...all are true" Many remarkable things did indeed happen to Roald Dahl when he was a boy, and maybe that's where some of the marvellous ideas for his world famous books came from. There's the motor car ride which nearly cost him his nose, the terrifying school matron who crept silently down the school corridor, glorious family summer holidays in Norway, and the delights of testing chocolates for Cadbury's.

Going Solo, the second part of Roald Dahl's compelling and colourfull autobiography, creates a world as bizarre and unnerving as any you will find in his fiction. A marvellous evocation of his wartime exploits, it tells of African safaris and deadly snakes; of fighter planes and incredible air battles with the enemy during World War Two.
 
I'm not really sure if this counts, because it's not really in biography form, but it's the author's life, told in a story form instead.

Title: A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive

Author: Dave Pelzer

Description: David J. Pelzer's mother, Catherine Roerva, was, he writes in this ghastly, fascinating memoir, a devoted den mother to the Cub Scouts in her care, and somewhat nurturant to her children--but not to David, whom she referred to as "an It." This book is a brief, horrifying account of the bizarre tortures she inflicted on him, told from the point of view of the author as a young boy being starved, stabbed, smashed face-first into mirrors, forced to eat the contents of his sibling's diapers and a spoonful of ammonia, and burned over a gas stove by a maniacal, alcoholic mom. Sometimes she claimed he had violated some rule--no walking on the grass at school!--but mostly it was pure sadism. Inexplicably, his father didn't protect him; only an alert schoolteacher saved David. One wants to learn more about his ordeal and its aftermath, and now he's written a sequel, The Lost Boy, detailing his life in the foster-care system.
Though it's a grim story, A Child Called "It" is very much in the tradition of Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul and the many books in that upbeat series, whose author Pelzer thanks for helping get his book going. It's all about weathering adversity to find love, and Pelzer is an expert witness.

It's the first book in a three part series, so it doesn't tell his whole life, but only his childhood, while the other 2 books go on into his teen and adult years.
 
I wanted to get at least a one or two more reccommendations, but if you'd rather I can just set up the voting right now?
 
This will only be for Aussies, so don't feel bad if you yanks have no idea who he is

Title: After Bali
Author: Jason McCartney
Description: After Bali is Jason McCartney's account of how his life - and those of many thousands touched by the Bali bombing of October 2002 - was changed forever. McCartney was thrust into the hearts and minds of Australians through his courageous fightback from burns to 50 percent of his body. His story is one of humanity overcoming adversity, and full of the spirit that saw him not only survive, but make a comeback to the AFL. (Aussie Football)

It is simply an amazing book, and an amazing story. Jason McCartney recently has a seminar that i attended, and his story is almost surreal. For those who don't know, there was a bombing near a nightclub in the island country of Bali, and Jason was hurt. He still, however, amnaged to save others, and help people to get out of the nightclub, scarring him even more. After this, after 50% of his body covered in third degree burns, he managed to keep fighting and play another game of Aussie Rules Footy, which is an astonishing feat.

Anyone who hasn't read this, you should. His story is one that all Austrlians know, and it is one that should get wider recognition.
 
We have 5 choices now, so I created a poll. Please vote! :smiley: Ask me, ehgripo, or SecretAgentMan if you have any questions.
 
Boy, tales of childhood & Going Solo.

Because I remember loving them, and I need motivation to read them again that will probably only come from All A!

Jai
 
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