Nominations for 2016 Group Reads

[Alexa]

It's time to start thinking about 2016! What would you like to read? Let's start gathering nominations for some group reads. Something you've read recently that you would love to discuss with the group? Something you've heard about that sounds intriguing? We're here to read anything by women, whether it's brand new or old and dusty. So let the nominations begin!!!

[Alexa]

Please remember that our group rules state that: "Authors promoting their own work are free to do so in the Self Promotion folder of the discussions, and not within other discussion threads please and thank you."

So, sorry, no nominations of your own work here.

[Alexa]

These are some books that I've been really wanting to read:

The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith
Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

[Story]

I nominate these two:

Dietlandby Sarai Walker

The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman

[Alexa]

Oh, those look interesting!

[Anastasiya]

Anything by Margaret Atwood--I've been looking at the Positron combo The Heart Goes Last

I've also been looking at
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

But I'll read anything :)

[Kay]

Are we going to read the entire bibliography of a woman as we did with Margaret Atwood?

[Alexa]

Actually, Anastasiya, we've got The Heart Goes Last scheduled for December, as the culmination of our Margaret Atwood project. So you're in luck!

I would love to also do another entire bibliography! (Although I'm still far enough behind that I would be tempted to wait a few months before starting up another project like that.) What does everyone else think? We could start up a second round of nominations for another year-long project and which authors would be of interest.

[Alexa]

I've been thinking I would like to read the complete Toni Morrison....

[Scarlett]

I have been lurking on this group for a while but would like be actively involved!

My suggestions are:

The Gilda Stories

Who Fears Death

The Stars Change

[Alexa]

So glad to hear from you Scarlett - those look like great choices!

[Linda]

If anyone suggests reading Toni Morrison....run!

[Alexa]

So sorry to hear you don't care for her, she's one of my favorite authors! But then, it's our differences that make for great conversations!

[Kay]

I would not mind reading the complete bibliography of Sara Waters, Alice Munro, Nadine Gordimer, Ann Patchett, or Emma Donoghue. I will read anything by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie (I read Purple Hibiscus earlier this year and loved her writing style and the story).

[Scarlett]

I second anything by Adichie

[Alexa]

So, I think the first question is, do we want to focus all of next year on another author, the way we did this year with Margaret Atwood? It sounds like so far both Kay and I are interested in doing so, anybody else?

[Taylor]

It would definitely be fun if we could find someone with a large enough catalogue. Not every writer is as prolific at Atwood hehe

[Story]

Another possibility might be to choose a geographical region like Women Authors of Africa or something like that. Then we could read Adichie, Doris Lessing, Helen Oyeyemi, Nadine Gordimer, NoViolet Bulawayo etc.

[Alexa]

Ooooh, that would be fun! And we could alternate one particular person with one particular region in different years! I love the idea of Women of Africa!

[Scarlett]

I'm down with reading African writers for sure.

[Story]

In that case I'd like to nominate Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

[Amanda]

Here's some I'd like to read next year:

What I Loved
Near to the Wild Heart
The Passion

[Alexa]

Oh, those look like such interesting choices!

[Amanda]

Have you guys read The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante? There are 4 the first one is My Brilliant Friend. Those might be fun to do.

[Taylor]

Amanda wrote: "Have you guys read The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante? There are 4 the first one is My Brilliant Friend. Those might be fun to do."

My Mom just read these in her book club and keeps saying I should try them ha. Might be fun!

[Taylor]

Storyheart wrote: "In that case I'd like to nominate Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta"

Seconded!

[Taylor]

Storyheart wrote: "Another possibility might be to choose a geographical region like Women Authors of Africa or something like that. Then we could read Adichie, Doris Lessing, Helen Oyeyemi, Nadine Gordimer, NoViolet..."

You read my mind!!! I love this idea. LOVE IT.

[Alexa]

I'm sensing a lot of excitement about having next year's project being Women Authors of Africa! So that means we'll need nominations for the project, and then nominations for non-project reads. I can go through the nominations and decide which category they go in. I think it would make the most sense to define an author of Africa as having been born there or having spent a significant chunk of life there, so that means Doris Lessing or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie would both qualify, while Zadie Smith or Toni Morrison wouldn't. Any objections?

Taking a quick look through the nominations I see a fair number of non-African nominations, although it does look like we could use some more nominations for books by Women Authors of Africa. So let's get some more nominations in and then we can put the polls up!

[Scarlett]

This is a collection of poems, but I have heard so many good things, and have read some of Warsan Shire's poems which are brilliant, and so would love to read this:

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

She is Kenyan-Somali from a refugee family who would definitely fit into our women of Africa project.

[Taylor]

This is rad. I'm going to set up a separate thread for nominations for the Women of Africa project.

[Alexa]

I was assuming that we would be doing our Women of Africa project alongside other monthly group reads the way we did this year. So I was thinking I would gather up all the nominations that didn't qualify for the Women of Africa project and put them into a poll for our concurrent group reads. Does that sound good? If so, last call for nominations!

[Amanda]

Here's a couple more I'd like to read

Infinite Home
Mislaid

[Amanda]

Last one I promise :)
Fates and Furies

[Sam]

I have planned to read the following books in 2016, maybe others are interested?
Chronicles of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Bonjour tristesse by Francoise Sagan
Edith's Diary by Patricia Highsmith
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

[Amanda]

Geek Love and The Secret History are two of my favorites!

[Amanda]

Orlando is also really good. I want to read The Price of Salt or Carol as I guess it has been renamed by Patricia Highsmith. And I swear that is the last one I will nominate :)

[Alexa]

So many wonderful nominations!!!

And the poll is up! So come vote! https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

(And that way we don't have to force Amanda or anyone else to keep such impossible promises!)

[Amanda]

So many good choices! Can we just read them all :)

[Alexa]

The poll will be open for just another 24 hours - be sure to vote if you haven't yet!

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

[Alexa]

Looking at the way the votes lined up, it seems that taking the top four books of each of the two polls would be the most reasonable course of action. That would give us books for Jan, Feb, Mar, and Apr, and then we could have another round of nominations to choose our next batch of books.

How does that sound?

[Sam]

Sounds good to me :)

[Story]

Me too.

[Amanda]

Me three :)

[Amanda]

So does that mean Orlando and Half a Yellow Sun for Jan?

[Alexa]

I was thinking it might be more fun to mix it up a bit (and also read the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie books in order). How's this for a schedule:

Jan, Under the Udala Trees and Carol
Feb, Purple Hibiscus and My Brilliant Friend
Mar, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth and Orlando
Apr, Half of a Yellow Sun and Fates and Furies

Would that work for everybody?

[Story]

Sounds good to me.

[Amanda]

Looks great. Thanks for posting :)

[Taylor]

Woo hoo! Thanks for organizing Alexa, these selections look great.

[Amanda]

Is the plan going to be to read all 4 of the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan novels or only if they get nominated again? I'm asking because I've read the first two and I really want to finish the series. I will reread the first 2 to discuss with the group if the plan is to read all 4.

[Alexa]

That's a great question Amanda! Is anyone up for committing to read all four of these? There's certainly been lots of conversation about this series - I even heard a long piece on NPR tracing the various neighborhood landmarks that get mentioned.