Ideas for 2020 Challenge

[Mary]

Shapeshifters
The Wizard's Shadow by Susan Dexter
Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson
The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long
Draw One in the Dark by Sarah A. Hoyt
The Dragon Hoard by Tanith Lee
Year of the Unicorn by Andre Norton

[Mary]

Ghosts
A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
The Court of the Stone Children by Eleanor Cameron
Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie

[Sean]

Witches I go right to Good Omens. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are/were just brilliant

And having just read Practical Demokeeping I have to give Djinn to Christopher Moore.

[Amanda]

Another one for #2 (Changelings) is Little Darlings by Melanie Golding.
My review.

[Amanda]

#1 Water Creatures Folk by Zoe Gilbert.

[Amanda]

Mary wrote: "Dragon
A Book Dragon by Donn Kushner
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
Farmer Giles of Ham by [author:J.R.R...."

[Amanda]

Mary! I've messed up your suggestions. So sorry.

I wanted to add:

His Majesty's Dragon
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The White Dragon

[Margaret]

Emily wrote: "On cats, Terri Windling is her usual informed self:

https://www.terriwindling.com/blog/20...

Mostly she mentions children's and traditional tales, but there's also Alice in Wonderland..."

Good ideas! I haven't read Alive in Wonderland or The Master and Margarita.

[Emmeline]

For witches, here's a new book of poetry:

Witch

[Cat]

I have a request/question for the 2020 challenge. Is it possible to have a different thread for each prompt? They do that for the Popsugar challenge group and it makes it a lot easier to find suggestions for books for different prompts.

[Margaret]

That’s a great idea!

[Jalilah]

I was also thinking that maybe we can also base our our group read themes on the different catagories of the challenge. There are 12 prompts and our group reads last 2 months, so if we organize them this way we would have 6 themes each.

Thoughts anyone?

[Leah]

Cat wrote: "I have a request/question for the 2020 challenge. Is it possible to have a different thread for each prompt? They do that for the Popsugar challenge group and it makes it a lot easier to find sugge..."

+1

I think they do that in the group for Book Riot's Read Harder challenge too.

Jalilah wrote: "I was also thinking that maybe we can also base our our group read themes on the different catagories of the challenge. There are 12 prompts and our group reads last 2 months, so if we organize them this way we would have 6 themes each."

Do you mean we'd vote on which theme from the challenge prompts each group read then nominate books for the winner? I like your idea just not sure I'm understanding what you mean/ how it'd work.

[Asaria]

Jalilah wrote: "I was also thinking that maybe we can also base our our group read themes on the different catagories of the challenge. There are 12 prompts and our group reads last 2 months, so if we organize the..."

Thumbs up from me 👍. Good idea.

[Margaret]

Leah wrote: "I think they do that in the group for Book Riot's Read Harder challenge too.."

They do. Even though I participate in BR's Read Harder challenge, the Goodreads group overwhelms me.

Jalilah wrote: "I was also thinking that maybe we can also base our our group read themes on the different catagories of the challenge. There are 12 prompts and our group reads last 2 months, so if we organize the..."

I like that idea because I participate in so many bookish things that it would help streamline my reading, but that's a purely selfish reason, so I would bow to popular opinion!

[Jalilah]

Leah wrote: "Do you mean we'd vote on which theme from the challenge prompts each group read then nominate books for the winner.."

Yes! This is what I mean!

Cat wrote: "I have a request/question for the 2020 challenge. Is it possible to have a different thread for each prompt? They do that for the Popsugar challenge group and it makes it a lot easier to find sugge..."

Hi Cat, my only concern would be this is not a super active group, so it might be a lot of unnecessary threads. However I'll go with what the majority want!

Margaret wrote: "I like that idea because I participate in so many bookish things that it would help streamline my reading, but that's a purely selfish reason, so I would bow to popular opinion! .."

I think we should do it!
If so, we can start nominating soon for January 15

[Leah]

Jalilah wrote: "Hi Cat, my only concern would be this is not a super active group, so it might be a lot of unnecessary threads. However I'll go with what the majority want!"

Initially I thought the same thing but then I thought, mods don't close threads, so you could keep the threads open for these themed recommendations beyond our 2020 challenge. Then it could potentially be an excellent resource for members looking for a specific theme in future years.

[Jalilah]

Leah wrote: "Initially I thought the same thing but then I thought, mods don't close threads, so you could keep the threads open for these themed recommendations beyond our 2020 challenge. Then it could potentially be an excellent resource for members looking for a specific theme in future years..."

True! There would be some redundance as there are folders for some of the magical creatures that we had group reads for, like the Fae, Water Creatures etc. I think if we put the new threads in a few folder that could help avoid any confusion.

[Margaret]

I actually think it may increase discussion to have separate threads? I'm often curious about what others have read in each category, but we tend not to discuss the books after we've read them. If we have separate categories, it may encourage people (including myself) to check in after they've read their pick for that category.

[Margaret]

Okay, so we're using Jalilah's idea about the reading challenge themes also being used as our group read themes! Here's the poll to vote on which magical creature should be our theme for the Jan 15- March 15 group read: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

[Jalilah]

Margaret wrote: "Okay, so we're using Jalilah's idea about the reading challenge themes also being used as our group read themes! Here's the poll to vote on which magical creature should be our theme for the Jan 15..."

Thanks for setting this up Margaret!

Margaret wrote: "I actually think it may increase discussion to have separate threads? I'm often curious about what others have read in each category, but we tend not to discuss the books after we've read them. If ..."

Good, maybe we should then!

[Margaret]

For some reason, none of my clients need me to work today, or even want me to work for them today, ha! So I took advantage of naptime without work to set up all the individual threads for the 2020 challenge. Here you go:

General 2020 Challenge Progress: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Water Creatures: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Fairies/Changelings: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Witches/Crones: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Nature Spirits/Green Man: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Dragons: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Djinn: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Tricksters: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Shapeshifters: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Ghosts: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Cats: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Reader's Choice: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Happy Holidays everyone!