Nominations for June 2020 Group Read

[Dan]

Which Modern Weird (1990 or later) work shall we read and discuss together for June 2020? Let's pick something that will make for a good summer read. Since we have a little more time than we normally might, this means choosing a longer or more challenging work. If you want to. As usual I place no restrictions on the work chosen so long as it was published for the first time in 1990 or later and it is Weird Fiction.

[Scott]

I'll suggest The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton.

[Dan]

Scott wrote: "I'll suggest The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton."

Thanks for the nomination Scott. I won't mind in the least if it wins. It looks like a fun read.

[Dan]

I nominate Velocities by Kathe Koja, her first book in ten years, published just a few weeks ago.

[Dan]

If anyone else wants to nominate a New Weird read for next month, you still have five days until I close off the nominations Sunday night and start the poll on the 18th.

[Ronald]

I nominate Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley.

I haven't read the novel. Its current goodreads rating is 3.87 and goodreads members with tastes similar to mine like the book.

[Dan]

Ronald, I appreciate your nomination of Starve Acre for next month's group read, but after carefully reading what the book is about I can not find any elements in it that make me think it is Weird Fiction in the slightest, only purely in the horror genre. I think you are right that there may be a large number of members here that are also in horror groups who would be interested in reading the book, but I want to reserve the group reads here for works that contain some significant element of Weird. Starve Acre has no votes for science fiction and only two for fantasy. One good indicator of the book's being purely horror is its lack for being mistaken for another genre. It's not on the edge of any other genres (other than horror and gothic) while pretty much all Weird Fiction is.

I know that last year I accepted a number of book nominations that arguably might not have been Weird if there was sufficient group interest, but I announced in this message (#1, para 3) that I was discontinuing that practice: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... This is the first nomination I have had to disqualify for being insufficiently Weird and I am sorry to have to do so. If I have made a mistake and the book has some Weird credentials I am unaware of, please tell me. I will be happy to reconsider its disqualification in light of further information. Otherwise, may I ask you to make a different choice for June's group read? Your selections are often the one voted in to be read by the group and I truly do value your input.

[Ronald]

I nominate Tragic Life Stories by Steve Duffy .

I gave this collection of short to medium length fiction a 4 star review. Its current goodreads rating is over 4 stars.

Two of the stories are naturalistic, one of them well worth reading on its own terms in my opinion.

The rest are speculative fiction. In one story, the fictional creation of a writer becomes real. In another story, the narrator is middle aged, and his story is about the first time he made love. It was when he was an adolescent. At the time, he hung out with others in the Manchester music scene in the 1970s. Besides romance in the story, there is the supernatural--arguably the story can be called occult fiction, for there is a stolen grimoire, and the narrator's lover does chaos magick. In the story there is off beat humor, and horrible loss.

[Dan]

The poll is now up for these three choices for next month's group read: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/9....