2017-2018 Group Reads Categories

[SRC Moderator, Moderator]

It's time to starting thinking about some fun and interesting categories for our Group Reads!

The ideas gathered from this thread will be used to build a list from which categories will be randomly chosen.

Each season's Group Reads will have 2 fiction categories and 1 non-fiction category. The year's categories will be posted in advance so Group Reads nominators will have time to research and select appropriate books. For more information about the nominating process, please see task 20.10 in the Rewards of the Challenge. As always, polls will be set up each season to choose between the nominated books for that season's Group Reads.

Choices from the past 2 years we would prefer not to repeat:

Alternate History
Leadership
YA LGBT Fiction
Microhistories
Best Lesser Known Novels
Cultural> Asia
19th Century True Crime
Sci Fi> Aliens
Old Fashioned Christmas
Ancient History
Pop Art
Travel Non-fiction
Transgender Fiction
Fiction written by a Nobel Prize for Literature winner
Nonfiction - Animals
Scandinanvian Crime Fiction
Feel Good Fiction
Nonfiction - Medicine
Opposites Attract
2016 Debut Author Fiction
Nonfiction - History of Science
Stand-alone Fantasy Novels
LGBT Mystery
Nonfiction - the Unexplained

Feel free to get creative and submit your ideas here! This thread will be open for ideas until March 31. We're looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

[Dee]

is there a list of previously suggested ones? for ideas to carry forward

[Bridgett]

Fiction
Books in translation
Immigrant centered narrative
Black teen voices
Epistolary books
The Trail of Tears
Women friendships
Short stories
Book set in New England, USA
Book set in an Arab country
Dysfunctional families
2017 Tournament of Books shortlist

Non-Fiction
Ethnography
Technology in today's world
Feminism
Science essays
A writer's memoir
Mass extinction

[Dlmrose, Moderator Emeritus]

Dee wrote: "is there a list of previously suggested ones? for ideas to carry forward"

I'll add the list of categories used in the past few years to post 1.

[Lauren]

Fiction
Steampunk
Historical Mystery
Dystopia
Post-Apocalypse
Gothic Literature

Non-Fiction
Holocaust
World War I

[Bianca]

- Fiction written by someone with an indigenous background ?
- A Play?
- Retellings? As in fairy tales/ myths retold

[Trish]

There are lots of different possibilities for historical fiction or historical adventure - maybe by century?

I'd second steampunk and "badass female characters"!

Other options might be

Victorian classics (Dickens et al)
"Gothic" fiction or ghost stories
Russian fiction
The ancient Roman/Greek authors
Children's books for adults too (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Insurgent trilogy, etc)
Golden age mysteries (Sayers, Christie, Tey, etc)
Hard boiled/noir crime (Chandler, Hammett, Ellroy James, Elmore Leonard, Phillip Kerr, etc)
Crime with a side order of humour (Longmire, Lawrence Block's Burglar series)

Modern true crime
More micro histories, but probably by category, like economics, politics, etc
Philosophy

[Cat]

Space opera
Soap opera (aka family saga)
Graphic non-fiction

[Heather(Gibby)]

Long listed for a major literary award, but did not make the shortlist

[Book Concierge]

FICTION:
Western U.S.
Southern Literature
On the Seven Seas (set aboard ship)
Good Guys


NONFICTION:
Sports
ON the Seven Seas
Natural Disasters
Natural Science

[Maya]

Underrated Authors

Works for both categories :)

[Meg]

Fiction:
African writers
Unreliable narrator
Book 1 of an epic series
Wizards and witches
From a child's point of view
Time travel
Romantic comedy
Genre bending fiction

Non-fiction:
Celebrity memoir
British history
Mental health and well-being
Race, class, and other social issues
Overcoming adversity

[Lois]

1st in a non-mystery series
children's classics or childhood favorites
immigrant experience
Australian authors
contemporary drama (plays)
autobiography
beach reads

[Dee]

there are tons of book awards that could be used

this one just caught my eye - winners announced for the National Book Critics Circle - they had 4 categories with both fiction and non-fiction

http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/n...

Military Biography
Political Biography
Economics
True Crime

[Terri FL]

Just adding some more thoughts. Some of these could be fiction or non-fiction so I'm not specifying.

Heros/Heroines
Great Depression
Ottoman Empire (600+ years and quite a few countries!)
Indian subcontinent
War-torn countries
Books about or by someone who has a disability
Books that make you laugh out loud
Books that make you cry
Books about language(s) (I guess mainly non-fiction, but, some very interesting ones)
Magical Realism
Mafia/Mob
Forbidden Love
Poetry or reads like poetry
Banned books
Stories about being kidnapped
Spy stories

[Pam]

Fiction:
Penguin modern classic
Short story collection
Immigrant experience
Food or drink connection

[Shanna_redwind]

Survival- Either in a fiction or a non fiction
Natural disaster- again either in fiction or non fiction

[Rachel]

Latin American mystery (origin of author or setting)
Audiobooks
Self-help
Natural history
At sea (setting)
City histories
Books written by reporters
Food writing
Historical fiction
Childhood re-reads
Essay collections
Biography
Art history
Comfort reads

[Marie-Anne]

Books around a theme, for example color:
- books with a blue cover, green cover, etc.
- books with flowers/trees/mountains, etc. on the cover
- books with rain, storm, etc., on the cover
- books set in the Mediterranean
- books set in ancient China, Greece, etc.
- books with a food theme

NF:
- I particularly like the suggestion on Mass Extinction posted earlier in this thread
- biography of female (or any) scientist, artist, leader, etc.
- I also liked anything on climate change and related history

[Meg]

Fiction:
Psychological thriller
Mothers and daughters
Sci-fi or fantasy short stories
Feminist science fiction
Literary fiction
Non-Western historical fiction (i.e not European or post-colonial America)

Non-fiction:
Anthropology
Psychology
Outer space
Explorers

[Laure]

I really love this fiction list by Lauren:

Fiction
Steampunk
Historical Mystery
Dystopia
Post-Apocalypse
Gothic Literature

I would add:
Music (biographies)
21st Century Classics
British Litterature
Indian Litterarture
Poetry
Espionage
Fairy tales
Magical realism
New Adult novels

I have less ideas for non-fiction:
Plants
Art
Mythologies
Acting/Theatre/Cinema
Ancient Greece
Famous Inventors

[Nikki]

Poetry collections

[Val]

Modern German Literature
British Literary Fiction
Fathers and Daughters
Scandinavian Humor
NYRB Classics
Europa Editions
Lesbian Fiction pre-1970
Bisexual Fiction
Adoption

[Justme]

5* recommendations, perhaps specifically books our members have rated 5* in the last year or so.

Natural Health

Ancient Spirituality with a Modern Twist

Favorite author from Childhood...or pre-1970s (my intent here is not children's books...from my childhood, I read authors such as Heinlein & Tolkien)

I also like Books that make you laugh out loud...

[Dlmrose, Moderator Emeritus]

Our Group Reads categories for the next year have been selected.

Summer 2017
Fiction- Dystopia
Fiction - Southern Literature
Non-Fiction- Modern True Crime

Fall 2017
Fiction set in a member state of the Arab League
Fiction - Poetry
Nonfiction - Climate and Weather

Winter 2017
Fiction - Space Opera
Fiction - Family Saga
Nonfiction - Space

Spring 2018
Russian novels
Fiction - Short stories
Non-Fiction - On the Seven Seas - Naval history, sailing memoirs, etc.

Thanks to all for the great ideas!