Posted by Elizabeth on November 16, 2009

November Newsletter!

Ever since we started Goodreads, Otis and I have hoped that the website would become a way to not only provide good reading recommendations, but also promote literacy and give back to the community—particularly to people with limited access to books or who have not yet learned to read.

Hence, this month we launched the newsletter feature, Do Good with Goodreads, a way to highlight a charity that promotes reading in some way. Room to Read is a groundbreaking organization, founded by John Wood, the author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children. They establish libraries, create local-language children’s literature, construct schools and provide education to girls. Please check the organization out. Mindful of the fact that our site is a global community, we hope to promote a variety of charities over time.

Our second new feature, "Author Snapshot," is also designed as a way to give back—this time to our members. We have so many official Goodreads authors, nearly 10,000, and many independent publishers and booksellers on our site that we felt that they deserved a spotlight as well. Each month, we’ll present an indie or debut author that is generating heat on the site. Gail Carriger, author of Soulless, a "stake-and-crumpets Victorian steampunk series” (to borrow the words of Althea), is our choice for the premiere issue.

The remainder of the newsletter presents some stalwart books and authors. Icons Barbara Kingsolver and John Irving both agreed to speak with Goodreads about their writing process. The answers, as always, are inspiring and unusual. I was particularly excited about “In Bed” with Jonathan Lethem, because we asked him for his favorite books about a subject that clearly drives his work, New York City.

For "Lit for Lat," we traveled to Israel this month, and our Movers & Shakers cover a swath of material, from vegetarianism with Jonathan Safran Foer, to alcoholism, garage bands, Thomas Cromwell and feminism post 1960. Hopefully there is something for everyone.

Finally, the winning poem this month is probably one of my favorites since we started producing the newsletter. Grassland by Goodreads Author S. Jane Sloat, was selected in the iPoetry! Group.

We hope you enjoy the November Newsletter!

-Elizabeth