33. Participate in an MHB group read

[Martha]

For this task, read one of our group read books in the time it's being discussed. I'll update this post as we go through more cycles.

May-June:
All the Bright Places
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

July-August
MiXED NUTS or What I've Learned Practicing Psychotherapy
House of Leaves

September-October
The Silver Linings Playbook
The Well of Loneliness

Discussion prompts
- What did you / will you read for this task? What did you think?
- Is this a book you nominated or voted for? Or just one you picked? If you nominated/voted for it, tell us why.
- Do you enjoy group reads? Are there any things you'd change?

[Marina]

For this task I read House of Leaves, our group read book for July/August.

I really liked it, although (or because) it was very bizarre. See my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I nominated and voted for this book. I nominated it because I'd wanted to read it for some months now, and I was very intrigued by it. Due to its eccentricity, I'm not sure how many people will actually read it along, but I hope someone will!

I like group reads, although I'm a member of so many groups I can't obviously take part in all of them in all of my groups. I usually only take part in the ones that intrigue me or if I already own the book being read.

I'm not sure that I would change anything about MHB's group reads. I like them as they are. Although I would probably limit the possibility to self-promote one's book when nominating. Some books written by our members-authors are very good, but I would probably prefer the group reads to be more centered on different books. Also, I would prefer for people not to nominate books that are difficult to find.

[Martha]

I'm glad you liked House of Leaves Marina!

I agree with you that being part of so many groups does make it impossible to read a long with all of them. I am often someone who participates less in groups because I like to browse and see what other people are saying, but sometimes I'm too anxious to put myself out there. I'd say moderating this group has been good for me as it's my responsibility to lead and participate and read some books with the group in mind.

I've obviously participated in all of them except House of Leaves as horror doesn't sit well with my mental health, but for this prompt I've chosen MiXED NUTS or What I've Learned Practicing Psychotherapy. It's not a book I nominated or voted for and I had mixed feelings about it, but there were some things I quite liked.

Now that I've put the guidelines in place, I hope we'll be able to avoid authors self-nominating, or people nominating books that are hard to find. I hope we can get more people to participate, I'm always open to suggestions! :)