Due to general feeling that our group reads should be once every 2/3 months, I propose that we start the first one in June if everyone is OK with that? (as we have just read Lady Audley's Secret ).

Here are the guidelines for the group reads:

1st of month:
I will start a post for nominations for the following month. These can be any author, the only criteria being that they are Victorian (obvioulsy).

5th of month:
I will send out group invites for the poll with this months chosen books. We will then have 5 days to vote in the poll before it closes.

10th of month:
Poll closes and we can buy / borrow our books in plenty of time (as requested) for next month

1st of following month:
Group read commences and threads will be set up (in portions of the book to avoid spoilers for people)

I am looking forward to this. Get your thinking heads on for our first one. Once we have done this one we can decided whether we think 2 or 3 months is more feasable in future (and we can always change this down the line anyway).

If in the meantime anyone can think of any other books to add to the shelves at the bottom of the page to help people with books to nominate, that would be great.

Thanks all.

Thank you, Boof, for coordinating all of this. I am eagerly looking forward to our next read.

I agree, Boof! Thanks ;)

Yes, thanks so much, Boof! The last group read was a lot of fun, so it will be great to do another one! Thanks for setting this all up!

One more thank you to Boof for arranging everything.

Yes, I meant to say earlier thank you for taking this on Boof. I also really enjoyed the group discussion for Lady Audley's Secret. I can't wait to see what we come up with next.

Ditto, nice to see this group getting so much action. I had joined another 19C lit group but its more than a bit quiet over there.

Are there going to be themes for the group reads? I.e. nominate one particular author, or a specific topic/location to get the selections down to a minimum?

I was wondering that myself Misfit. Personally, I am more than open to options as there are so many I want to read that it would take me years to get throught them all.

Ideas would be:

Authors
Themes: (i.e. I saw a shelf in a bookstore this week called "Temptresses" which had our very own Lady Audley on it and also things like Sylvia's Lovers by Gaskell etc).
Location: Yorkshire, Wessex etc

All just ideas at this stage. What do other people think? If you would prefer to just nominate randomly somthing you fancy reading, please say so.

I would be up for nominating something I fancy reading or perhaps a theme of women writers? There are quite a few I look forward to reading here like Gaskell, Oliphant and Eliot.

Or, I have another idea (sorry to bambuzle, people):

Why don't we have a nominate who you like (I know we all have differnt ideas about who we want to read next), but every few months/group reads, we chose a non-British victorian author. The criteria that Nathan set up for this group was British victorian but I know that I have chatted with a couple of people about including authors of this period who are American, French etc (Wharton, Dumas, Zola, Melville all come from this period).

What do you think to that?

I like that idea, Boof. I would also be open to a periodic non-fiction about the period; don't know if anyone else is, though. (I like non-fiction, particularly history.)

Yep, that sounds great. I think we should go with open nominations and then people can go with whatever they're feeling at the time.

That sounds good to me - open nominations. At least until it becomes apparent we might be "getting into a rut." (Happened on European Royalty - we were reading all Tudors all the time, so we started doing theme months in the name of a little variety.)

Sounds great, Boof - I agree that variety is good.

Boof, I agree that we should include other victorians besides the brits... I love Wharton and would love to have a discussion about her works here...The French would be intereting too...

Excellent. I have never read any Wharton yet Sherien (I have a couple on my shelf ready to go though) and I love Dumas and Zola; I am a huge Francophile so I'm glad that people have agreed to having the odd month where we can allow non-Brits to be in the running.

Boof wrote: "Excellent. I have never read any Wharton yet Sherien (I have a couple on my shelf ready to go though) and I love Dumas and Zola; I am a huge Francophile so I'm glad that people have agreed to havin..."

Super! Edith Wharton has a great book entitled "Summer," which would be perfect for a summer read.

Wharton will be great :) and I am interested to know more about French literature. By reading many kinds of books, we can compare them to Victorian novels by England authors.

Great idea, Wanda. I've been planning to read "Summer" soon anyway. But I'm happy with whatever the group ends up with.

Andrea wrote: "Great idea, Wanda. I've been planning to read "Summer" soon anyway. But I'm happy with whatever the group ends up with."

Me, too, Andrea. I will be happy with whatever we select as a group. I was just thinking how appropos to read Summer in the summer - sometimes my thinking runs that way!

I've just booked a last minute holiday to Egypt and go on Thursday so I won't be around for a week. I get back on 30th so just in time to start the nominations on 1st May. Get your thinking caps on in the meantime for ideas and see you all soon :o)

Boof wrote: "I've just booked a last minute holiday to Egypt and go on Thursday so I won't be around for a week. I get back on 30th so just in time to start the nominations on 1st May. Get your thinking caps on..."

I am as green with envy as my hair is green (don't really have green hair; just cannot control the little paint brush to color it dark brown). Have a wonderful time, Boof. I am completely jealous!

Hurry back Boof, I can barely wait to see what gets nominated! I'm very excited to read another book with this group.

Look how everything comes to a standstill when Boof disappears. We're a soggy lot ! Lets think of something vastly interesting to say so we can impress her when she gets back :)

I wouldn't mind reading Summer. I think I can sqeeze it in between my other books, unless it starts a whole big Wharton deluge, in which case I'll have a mental dilemma, but I'll risk it.

Hmmm, was that too many commas? That's Proust's fault for influencing me. You can't read Proust and not have run-on sentences.

*That's all I have for vastly interesting today. Sorry.

Well I think we stopped chatting because we're waiting for Boof to open the nominations thread.
I'd love to read Summer too, Wharton is one of my favourites.

Cher, many thanks for your "vastly interesting today." Unfortunately, I have nothing vastly nor remotely interesting. Life runs that way sometimes - husband's away, little boy at school, boring day at work - oh, wait, I did get my hair cut today! Woohoo! I am waiting for the nominations - for that I am very excited.

The highlight of my day so far has been searching garbage bags for a broken crown.

(Mother is currently at the dentist with it; I found it!)

Wait, I can think of something else! It doesn't beat the broken crown though, Susanna. Why don't we put up a list of at least five Victorian books that we're most interested to read next- basically the stack sitting on our nightstands. I think Summer would be a great place to start, but it would be interesting to see how many of our books correlate. Can we start a new thread for this? I'll try.

I'm game.

Susanna wrote: "The highlight of my day so far has been searching garbage bags for a broken crown.

(Mother is currently at the dentist with it; I found it!)"

Oh, Susanna - I thought you meant your tiara! How unfortunate for your Mother :(

so am I - here's two for starters

Affinity
Night Watch A Long-Lost Adventure in Which Sherlock Holmes Meets Father Brown (okay, I know this is set in 1902 so it makes it a year out, but what the heck, it's there on Mt TBR

OMG! Sherlock Holmes Meets Father Brown?! Now THAT would be interesting. I want to BE Fr. Brown and marry Sherlock Holmes. LOL.. either that or I want to be Father Jack from the Father Ted show (UK).

*Disclaimer: if anyone knew who I was talking about they'd vote me out of the Victorian club for yelling "SHITE!"

Well, it turned out quite fortunate for her, as I actually found the crown. It would have been 350 dollars to replace it she said; fixing the broken one took the dentist only 15 minutes.

So she's quite happy!

oooh, that's good news! I have a multi-million dollar mouth, so I can fully appreciate that.

Susanna wrote: "Well, it turned out quite fortunate for her, as I actually found the crown. It would have been 350 dollars to replace it she said; fixing the broken one took the dentist only 15 minutes.

So she's..."

WOW! No cavities or fillings here ever! Never had any as a child or an adult. I had absolutely no idea they were so expensive. Good for you, Susanna, and for your Mother, too. *Edited this to say "no idea"

Yes, we're very pleased we found it. Golly, that was a panic-stricken search.

Dental work always seems to be more expensive than you think it's going to be.

Cher wrote: "OMG! Sherlock Holmes Meets Father Brown?! Now THAT would be interesting. I want to BE Fr. Brown and marry Sherlock Holmes. LOL.. either that or I want to be Father Jack from the Father Ted show (..."

I love(d) Father Ted

Susanna wrote: "Well, it turned out quite fortunate for her, as I actually found the crown. It would have been 350 dollars to replace it she said; fixing the broken one took the dentist only 15 minutes.

So she's..."

Well done, Susanna!

You loved Fr.Ted? How funny! My kids roll around on the floor they laugh so hard at it. I suppose that's not exactly kosher though... letting your kids watch an old geiser swearing his head off, but it makes for good recovery when they've had a bad day at school.

Bettie (Goodreads Reader!) wrote: "Cher wrote: "OMG! Sherlock Holmes Meets Father Brown?! Now THAT would be interesting. I want to BE Fr. Brown and marry Sherlock Holmes. LOL.. either that or I want to be Father Jack from the Fath..."
Any friend of Dougal Macguire is a friend of mine. Cher, my kids talk about which relatives the various characters remind them of, definitely not a good show for encouraging respect for one's elders.

LOL!! :D OK, I vote to rename the group Craggy Island!

I just got my copy of Villette in the mail today I am so excited. How did Summer get past me. I didn't see it until today :) looks good too.

Yay, you got Villette!

Summer is just a cheeky little read that some of us are slipping in at the end of May. Hasn't been voted on but there are a few of us who want to read it so I will set up a disucssion post for anyone who wants to join in. Do you fancy it, Rebecca? :o)

I just ordered a copy of Summer and should have it by the end of the month. Haven't unpacked any of my unread books yet, so I went on an online shopping spree today. : )

I love online shopping sprees! (Well I love shopping sprees of any description, truth be told). What else did you get Gabriele?

The Long Week End: A Social History of Great Britain, 1918-1939 - by Robert Graves
Curious Case Of Benjamin Button And Other Jazz Age Stories - by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Diary Of A Provincial Lady - by E. M. Delafield
The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society - by Mary Anne Shaffer
The House at Riverton: A Novel - by Kate Morton

My book-buying sprees are small but happen often. : ) I can hardly wait to get my hands on these lovely, pristine, new "adventures"!

Did I mention that I have 10 tall bookcases to fill with books that I have yet to unpack? There's only one shelf of unread books among them. I gave away 4 boxes of good-but-won't read-again-books to a friend when I packed so that I'd have room for more new books.

Nice haul! My book-buying sprees happen often too. There's nothing better than oohing and ahhhing over your brand new treasures is there? Book buying is my favourite hobby in the whole world :o)

I really liked both The Long Weekend and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

I grew up in a town with no bookstore and a small library, long before the internet. I never dreamed one day I would have such wonderful libraries at my disposal and also be able to buy so many wonderful used books for such a small amount from the comfort of my own house. So, as much as I love reading Victorian novels, I count the literary blessings of today.