General Q&A and Group Suggestions etc

[Laura]

Thanks Natalee, that's terrific. I think we've all learned alot since this group went live.

[Natalee]

I am in awe of how fast y'all got it up and going. It's only been a few days and yet we already have a challenge and some great discussions. It came together really nicely. Good job, girlies! :)

[Emma]

Awesome job with this group, Fi and Laura!

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner)]

this is a fantastic group that got moving so quickly! I'm loving it! :)

I have to say though...everytime I see the group name on my computer I start singing "Wild Thing...you make my heart sing..you make everything.. grooovy." in my head of course...i can't help it. lol.

[Becky]

We are wild! Imagine, adults who love adolescent literature? What's wilder than that? Except for maybe pissed off cats, Hell's Angels and rattlesnakes? ;)

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner)]

Becky wrote: "We are wild! Imagine, adults who love adolescent literature? What's wilder than that? Except for maybe pissed off cats, Hell's Angels and rattlesnakes? ;)
"

hahah true.

[Laura]

Me too Jamie, I keep wanting to sing that too! It was the first song I learned on guitar too...

YA moves me...
*twang twang*

[Tahleen]

Ugh, thanks Jamie... now that will happen to me. haha

I can't believe how this group has taken off. I won't look at an email alert for a day and by the time I get to it there's a whole page of comments!

[K.S.R.]

I love this group already! Howdy howdy, by the way. I have a question about the group image. By now is that the permanent one? Gotta love it!

[Misty]

I may be the only one who thinks this is a good idea, but I have noticed that there is a lot of "dystopian" fiction -- in YA and in general (the giver series, Hunger games series, city of ember series, feed, Uglies series, House of the Scorpion, Invitation to the Game, lord of the flies, etc -- and it does not always fall into sci-fi. So maybe it would be helpful to have a Dystopian folder. I can man it, if you'd like.

[Alexis]

A Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic topic would fit under Fantasy/Sci-Fi.

And Fiona, thanks for making the folder and moving the thread. I've been at school all day.

[Jennifer W, WT Moderator]

I think it would be interesting to have a discussion topic in each folder called "What makes a....?" So what makes a novel a classic? or what makes a novel a romance? etc.. There's a very interesting conversation already in the multicultural folder that I plan to contribute to once I can focus for more than 2 minutes (ooh... a car- I'm loopy today). Plus, this would give a space for people participating in the challenge a place to ask "does Book X count as a...?" Hope I'm not so out of it that all this makes sense, perhaps tomorrow I'll come back and rewrite! Thanks!

[Alexis]

That's a good idea, Fi, changing the folder intros to open discussion areas for the genres.

[Jennifer W, WT Moderator]

Yay! And had I not been so zombified yesterday, I might have thought of just starting those discussions myself. Thankfully, my head has re-attatched itself to my body and we're good to go!

[K.S.R.]

Fiona wrote: "Howdy Karey! Welcome to Wild Things. yes - the image is now permanent. Thank you! "

Yay, I really like it.

[Michelle]

Love the challenge! How about some games, does anyone else like games?

[Laura]

Feel free to post your own, Michelle. I'll add a Fun & Games folder.

[Alexis]

Fiona, I just wanted to say that I appreciate how well organized you keep this group. I know you're worried about having too many folders but it makes it very easy to find things without sifting through long lists of topics. I'm in another group where all of the topics are in ONE folder and I don't even bother. This is very user friendly.

[Allison]

obviously we all love recommendations :P

lol, so why not.

[Allison]

hmm...I was thinking perhaps not violent enough. I think it should involve the words "brutal torture" somehow...

[Allison]

I vote for that!!!

[Allison]

you old hag!!

[Allison]

you will not. You would miss me horribly.

[Alexis]

I kind of like the way it sounds, too. But newcomers might not get it. You could just start a topic in the General Young Adult Discussion folder with that name and make everyone happy.

[Alexis]

Oh, come on. You have to include the word "push" in there somewhere, since we have so many book pushers here.

[Allison]

Fiona wrote: "Hmm well... it's made. Go see."

thanks mod, love it! <3

[Alexis]

Awesome! Thanks, Fi. :)

[Luann]

Fiona, I went to post a comment in the Brutal Book Pushing Folder of Torture and Doom, but it was closed to comments.

[Kristen]

Hey I was thinking in the shower today about the monthly books we pick. Maybe each month we can pick two categories that we have here on Wild Things and have nominations for each category. That way we always end up with variety like we did this month.

[Jennifer W, WT Moderator]

How are books selected here? Is there a poll? Do we nominate books? When will this take place?

[Kristen]

We nominated and then voted on a poll and picked the two top books.

[Kristen]

It'll probably happen closer to the end of the month..

[Jennifer W, WT Moderator]

That's how I figured it would work. Thanks!

[Kristen]

Woot! :)

[Luann]

Fiona wrote: "Yup, that's closed as it's just a folder description.... if you to ask for rec's you can create your own topic.

Unless you want to say something particular in there?"

Oh, I see! I didn't even think about starting my own topic in that folder. :) Sorry about that.

[Luann]

And I didn't want a recommendation, I was just going to "push" a book several of us have been mentioning in another topic. So I'll wait until someone asks for a recommendation and THEN I'll push it. :)

[Becky]

Luann... I feel your pain. Fiona should change it to Book Pushes and Recommendations. ;D

[Becky]

We promise to be good... *bats eyelashes*

Actually, you're probably right. The book threads themselves are good enough for pushing... But that's so much more work. ;)

[Luann]

I've never been called a pusher before! But I guess when it comes to books, that's exactly what I am! :)

[Alexis]

There are many worse things to be a pusher of! :)

[Laura]

My husband called me a bookpusher tonight!

[Laura]

Let's see, what was I pushing? OOOh, it was his sister, I pushed Guernsey on her, and she said she prefers easy books. (She did try it.) What was hard about Guernsey?

Unless it was keeping track of who is writing the letter and who's receiving.

[Laura]

She loved How Starbucks Saved My Life (hubby's rec), had trouble with Samuel Pepys diary (guess who), I can mention No. 1. She won't like anything smutty tho, is that one smutty at all?

[Laura]

She prefers biographies, which is why I pointed her to Samuel Pepys.

[Laura]

Hmm, well she probably won't read anything I push on her now. Although she did like Eat Pray Love which was my first push.

[Laura]

Exactly! LOL

[Alexis]

I really liked The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan. It's technically a cancer memoir, but it manages to be really uplifting. It's mostly an amazing story about a women and her relationship with her wonderful father.

[Becky]

Along that same line is "Death Be Not Proud" by John Gunther, which is about his 17 year old son's terminal brain tumor. I found it to be very uplifting and touching, but I sobbed and sobbed, especially at the end when the mother adds a segment.

[K.S.R.]

Luann wrote: "And I didn't want a recommendation, I was just going to "push" a book several of us have been mentioning in another topic. So I'll wait until someone asks for a recommendation and THEN I'll push i..."

So under "Book Pushes and Recommendations" (if that were a folder) what is that recommendation of yours? Am I the only one left hanging, pray tell? Also, how fun to be in this group where Pepys and John Gunther come up. Nice variety. I love it.

[Luann]

LOL - sorry! Didn't mean to leave you hanging. And since you did ask, now I can give the recommendation! :) The book I've been pushing - in company with several others in this group - is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. You can read the discussion about it here. There is also a shorter (and now closed) discussion in the action/adventure folder, with possible spoilers.