The New Year - new moderators needed

[Kristen]

Should we start deciding what the next book should be since the moderators have not decided yet?

[Rebecca, the princess of prose]

I too was wondering what was going on with that...I want to make my book list for the year but can't until we have our nominations....

[Alison]

I don't think my vote counts as I just joined recently, but here are some suggestions anyway:

LOTR (Fellowship of the Ring) by Tolkien
Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
My Life in Orange: Growing up with the Guru by Tim Guest

[Justine]

I'm anxious to have a list too :-(

[flowairblue]

I'm new here.
I can't wait to embark on this reading journey with you, and it's new year.
Excited.

[Alissa]

My votes:

1. The Adventures of Huck Finn by Mark Twain
2. The hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4. Pride and Prejduice by Jane Austen
5. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

7. Brigodoon by Allen Jay Lerner
8. The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-Time by Mark Haddon
9. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
10. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
11. The Song Reader by Lisa Yucker
12. The Divine Secrest of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

[Nikoline]

Alissa wrote: "My votes:
1. The Adventures of Huck Finn by Mark Twain
2. The hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4. Pride and Prejduice by Jane Austen
5. Little Women by Louis..." Great votes.

[Nadja]

So many books, so little time... how are we going to decide? Jane Eyre and Little Women have been read before, but other than that, I like your list, Alissa!
What do you guys think about Eva Luna?

[Kristen]

has anyone tried to contact one of the moderators? these have been all good votes!

[Alissa]

Thanks Nadja - I should have gone back to see all the previous lists. I see The Hunchback has been read also. Eva Luna and Walden sound like good one's to add also - I remember having to read some of Walden but I feel like I would like it better if there was not assignment attached to and I could just enjoy it. I sent a message this morning to 3 of the moderators that seemed like they had been handling the nominations and the votes in the past. I included all the books that have been listed here (taking out those that have already been read). Maybe if people want to start seconding books or adding more of their own suggested lists that would be good.

[Nadja]

Perfect, thank you! I contacted the moderators too, so hopefully we'll have our next book soon!

[Marie-pier]

Me talk pretty one day - David Sedaris
Bitch: Praise of difficult women - Elizabeth Wurtzel
and some Sylvia Plath.

[Alissa]

Me Talk Pretty One Day has been read and I can't find another Sylvia Plath book on the list (The Bell Jar was read). Bitch: Praise of difficult women - Elizabeth Wurtzel sounds good though. I'm trying to keep a running list and tallies until we hear from the moderators.

[Rebecca, the princess of prose]

The nominations need to come from the actual Rory Book list, not from personal lists although for personal recommendations that is fine...just not for the actual monthly selections. This is what is left to choose from, you need to nominate 6 classic and 6 modern, then for the year we will read the top 6 modern and top 6 classic nominated.

Classics

• An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser+
• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank*
• Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
• Cousin Bette by Honore De Balzac++
• Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller+
• Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton+
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes++
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare*
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck*
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey+
• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
• Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia De Burgos by Julia De Burgos+
• Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov+
• Sybil by Flora Schreiber+++
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain*
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald*
• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair+
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov+
• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne*
• The Story of My Life by Helen Keller++
• Time and Again by Jack Finney++
• Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe*

Modern

• A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall+++
• Bee Season by Myla Goldberg+++
• Empire Falls by Richard Russo++
• Extravagance by Gary Krist+
• Fat Land by Greg Critser
• How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland
• How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
• Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
• My Life in Orange by Tim Guest++
• Nervous System by Jan Lars Jensen
• Old School by Tobias Wolff
• Property by Valerie Martin
• Quattrocento by James McKean
• Rescuing Patty Hearst by Virginia Holman+
• Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
• Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
• Small Island by Andrea Levy
• Songbook by Nick Hornby+
• The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duff+
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom*
• The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem+
• The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander+++
• The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer+
• The Red Tent by Anita Diamant*
• The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht+++
• The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker+++
• Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett
• Unless by Carol Shields+
• When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka ++

*= Books I have read += Books I personally want to read.

I still think that we should wait for the leaders of the group to make the final votes.

[Alison]

My votes: from classics:
The Great Gatsby
Ethan Frome
The Jungle
The Story of My Life
Complete Tales and Poems by Poe
An American Tragedy

From Moderns:
My Life In Orange
The Bielski Brothers
Nervous System
Fat Land
Bee Season
Truth and Beauty

Excited to see the final list! Happy voting! I agree that we should wait a few more days for the moderators....they may have been on a holiday vacation or something.

From those, I'd say the 2 I'm most excited to read (at some point even if they don't get nominated) would be Ethan Frome from classics and Nervous System from the modern list.

[Michelle, the leader of literature]

Going just off of the WB list (which is the list used in the past) these are my picks:

Classic

Uncle Tom’s Cabin
The Jungle
Sybil
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Flowers for Algernon
Complete Stories of Edgar Allen Poe


Modern

The Fortress of Solitude
Seabiscuit
How the Light Gets In
When the Emperor was Divine
Truth and Beauty
The Five People You Meet in Heaven

[Michelle, the leader of literature]

I also sent a message to one of the moderators about possibly adding new moderators that are more involved with the book club. She said she sent a message to the other moderators and is waiting to hear back from them.

[Rebecca, the princess of prose]

If we are nominating from here then here are my official nominations for 2013:

Classics

1. Sybil by Flora Schreiber
2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
3. Time and Again by Jack Finney
4. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
5. Cousin Bette by Honore De Balzac
6. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

Modern:

1. The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
2. The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
3. A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
4. The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
5. Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
6. Empire Falls by Richard Russo

The full list of the books we have left to read are in my last comment...fyi.

[Dini, the master of meaning]

Dear Rory group members,

Thank you for those who messaged me, and I'm sorry for the delay in selecting the books for 2013. Due to real life issues, the other moderators and I have regrettably not been able to be as active in this group as we had been in the past. Therefore, we would appreciate it if one or more of you would like to help with moderating. The moderators' responsibilities would be setting up the voting for our yearly book selections and counting the tally, updating our currently-reading and upcoming reads shelves, opening up the threads for discussion each month and generally monitoring the discussions.

Also, Rebecca's comment in message 17 above is correct: we choose our yearly selections from the original Rory book list from WB. This can be found in the original-wb-list thread in our bookshelves, minus the ones we've already read throughout the years. There are a number of other lists circulating out there and some of the books in them have been added to our shelves (mainly in the list-of-bests-for-rory and episode-sighting shelves), but we've previously agreed to stick with the original WB list because there were still enough of them to choose from. Of course this might change in the future according to what the group as a whole decides, or if we've run out of books from that list. For voting, each member chooses their top 6 classics and 6 modern books in order of importance, then for the year we will read the top 6 modern and top 6 classic books with the most votes.

Since we're already a bit late for voting, do you guys still want to vote for all 12 books for 2013? That would mean we have less time to find and read the selection for January. I'm thinking about giving it about a week for people to vote. But please remember that just because a month is past doesn't mean that we can no longer discuss the selection for that month. All threads are open for anyone to discuss at any time, and you can always resurrect an old thread as well.

Anyway, feel free to offer any feedback. And if you're interested in becoming a moderator, please message me or comment in this thread below.

[Dini, the master of meaning]

Also, I'm moving this thread to the Intros, Questions & Suggestions folder -- another thing that a hyper-organized moderator can do. :)

[Nadja]

Maybe we can decide on the January book and then vote for the other books?

[Sam]

Nadja wrote: "Maybe we can decide on the January book and then vote for the other books?"

I second this ;)

[Alison]

Iselin wrote: "Nadja wrote: "Maybe we can decide on the January book and then vote for the other books?"

I second this ;)"

Me too. Sounds like a good idea. So, it would be a modern book for January, right? You guys seem to fluctuate from modern to classic and back again (new to group, just saw what was read in 2012).

If that's the case, I vote for Nervous System, though voting for that book may be like voting for a 3rd party candidate lol.

[Shannon, the founder of fun (back from sabbatical)]

Hi all, thanks for the messages. I am back!! Yeah big sabbatical for me, 2 kids later I've returned. I'd like to be a more active moderator this year, but definitely could use some help with a new one. I can set up the nominations for modern and classic. How about I get the modern and classic nominations going, we'll have a late book decision for January, but plan on having a selection by the 10th! Sound good?

[Michelle, the leader of literature]

Sounds good to me. I sent a message to Dini offering to be a moderator, I think it would be fun. And welcome back!

[Rebecca, the princess of prose]

If we are doing a January book first my nominations are below.

1. Sybil by Flora Schreiber
2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Also hurry and nominate on the actual voting page so we can get our list of books together for the year!! I am excited to read!

[Dini, the master of meaning]

Michelle and Rebecca have kindly volunteered to help moderate, and I've made them new moderators for the group. And welcome back Shannon!

Don't forget that we are voting in order of preference, so everyone should make sure they put the books in the order which they want to read the most.

[Lauren]

Sorry, I'm new to the group and I'm a bit confused. How do we get to the voting page that was mentioned?

[Dini, the master of meaning]

Lauren wrote: "Sorry, I'm new to the group and I'm a bit confused. How do we get to the voting page that was mentioned?"

Go to the Nominations & Voting folder and look for the 2013 threads for classics & modern. :)