Tomato Nation Read-Along #8: Poll
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on March 2, 2011 – 4:01 PM11 Comments
After losing out to Zinn by a mere two votes, the Shannen Doherty book is back for another crack at the TNRA, along with Grann’s nonfiction yarn; a fistful of Alcott; and a couple of baseball books. It’s the kind of something-for-everyone buffet that could well turn into “nothing for anyone” instead, but let’s see how it goes, shall we?
The poll’s open ’til early next week. Pick us out a good one.
Which book(s) would you read along with? (You can pick as many as 3.)
- Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) / classic fiction (34%, 225 Votes)
- The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (David Grann) / history (18%, 116 Votes)
- Badass: A Hard-Earned Guide to Living Life with Style and (the Right) Attitude (Shannen Doherty) / self-help (15%, 97 Votes)
- Little Men (Alcott) / "classic" fiction (8%, 53 Votes)
- Eight Cousins (Alcott) / "classic" fiction (7%, 49 Votes)
- Jo's Boys (Alcott) / "classic" fiction (6%, 41 Votes)
- The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer's Inside View (Doug Glanville) / sports (4%, 27 Votes)
- The Pastime in the Seventies: Oral Histories of 16 Major Leaguers (Bill Ballew) / sports (3%, 22 Votes)
- Jack & Jill (Alcott) / unbearable moralizi-- er, "classic" fiction (3%, 17 Votes)
- Under the Lilacs (Alcott) / "classic" fiction (2%, 11 Votes)
Total Voters: 366
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Tags: Howard Zinn Louisa May Alcott Shannen Doherty The TN Read-Along
Glanville’s stuff for the NYT is pretty good stuff, so I’d be willing to read a whole book of it, yeah. It’d go great with my yearly cover-to-cover tromp through Baseball Prospectus. I do SO need to know who’s fourth on the catching depth chart for every team!
Heh heh heh. Little Women, you are MINE!
Seriously, after the depressionfest that was Zinn, I really need this. Really, really need this.
Sars. Nation. Please. I am trying to have a Year of French and Russians. I was already struggling against an unhelpful impulse to re-read books I love (the entire Harry Potter series — check; Stephen King’s IT — check). After reading the list above, I’m now feeling compelled to re-read all my Alcotts. This is not does not bode well for my progress on Dostoevsky and Hugo…
Sarah, are you getting a kickback from the Alcott Family Foundation?
I’m putting in a plug for The Lost City of Z. I read it for Book Club and it was awesome :-)
I am selfishly voting for the three books on the list that I currently have in my home, as I have not been able to get it together enough to acquire any of the previous read-along picks in time.
Jenak, yes, I base my vote on that too.
I’m the weirdo who really could not get into Little Women (and I can’t even recall the plot of Little Men) worth a damn, but was really amused by Eight Cousins/Rose in Bloom. Because really, if you are young, blonde, hot, and rich, the only thing for you to do is marry one of your cousins because uh… there’s no other options for you?
At any rate, nerdy Mac is pretty sweet, Rose is not overly gooey for an Alcott heroine (I don’t know why I think LMA is a “hard boiled”-ish personality when her writing style usually makes me feel like I’ve been covered in syrup), I like Archie and Phebe, and Uncle Alec is a surprisingly sensible guy for the day and age.
Just casting a useless vote pimp for what’s not going to win this Alcompetition… :)
One thing about Eight Cousins that really stands out to me is that there’s feminism in there. That scene with Uncle Alec and some of the aunts choosing new clothes for Rose, and “wouldn’t it be better if girls could run around and actually breathe,” all went right over my head when I was little, but on a later reread, wow.
Now, Rose in Bloom is sweet for the Phebe subplot (and Mac has his merits), but the didacticism in that one is all temperance movement, heh. Much less interesting from my modern perspective.
Dangit, I just read the March novels for the first time, I swear, last week — and returned them to the library on Tuesday. My timing has never been better!
Unbearable moralization aside, I vote Little Women. It’s the most fun read, and the least sappy, of all Alcott’s books. Plus, I can remember the Friends episode where Joey has to put the book in the freezer because it’s getting too suspenseful. My favorite aunt gave me a set of hardcover Alcotts when I was a young teen, and loved them all, “Jack and Jill” especially (but why couldn’t my rich, kind neighbors take me under their wing?), but I have to rein in my gag reflex when I page through them now. Every other paragraph has a moral in it! I read even Alcott herself hated most of her characters.
I voted for Glanville – spring cannot get here soon enough – but the dress reform stuff in Alcott’s later stuff is pretty darn cool! Jo expresses it (and that girls should be educated, and that they deserve exercise) in her books too.