[2021] Close Calls Poll Voting

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

It's now time to get ready to vote for this set of prompts! The thread will be open for at least 24 hours before the poll gets posted. This is a good opportunity to ask any question you may have regarding the prompts, do some research or ask for recommendations.

Voting will open in the morning of Monday, October 5 and results will be posted in the morning of Friday, October 9 (CST time).

How it works:
- When the voting opens, follow the link to the mini-poll that will be added at the end of this post
- You have a total of 8 votes this poll to spread across your favourite and least favourite prompts (you can also use less than 8 votes) - You can find examples of acceptable voting practices on the Introduction thread.
- The prompts with the more favorable votes (comparing top votes to bottom votes, and looking at the overall number of votes it received) will be added to the final list (between 2 and 5 depending on how the votes are spread)

We are asking people to include their Goodreads profile address when they vote. To find this, just go to your own profile and then copy the URL/web address. If for some reason you can't link to your Goodreads profile, please post your full Goodreads name with enough identifiable information that we'll be able to access your profile. We’ve introduced this for two reasons:

1. On a few occasions in each poll, people have used more than the allotted number of votes, either because they aren’t familiar with the rules or just by mistake. When this happens our only option is to disregard the vote as we can’t identify the voter to ask them to resubmit. By asking for your profile address we’ll be able to message you and ask you to vote again if you’ve accidentally used more than the allotted number of votes.

2. Unfortunately a very small number of people have voted more than once per poll and so we are asking for this information to prevent duplicate votes.

As a reminder: You have a total of 8 votes to use among your top and bottom votes. The mods have access to each individual vote, so we can see if you use more than 8 votes. If you use more than 8 votes in the poll, your vote will have to be deleted, so please make sure to follow the directions so your voice can be heard.

Possible Prompts:
Poll 2: A book that deals with second chances
Poll 2: A book with a focus on the natural world
Poll 2: A book with an animal on the cover
Poll 2: A book related to one of the United Nations 2021 "International Year" themes (Peace & Trust, Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, Fruits & Vegetables, and Elimination of Child Labor)
Poll 3: A book nominated for a lesser known literary prize
Poll 6: A book written by or about a person with a physical disability
Poll 6: A book with a title that contains an alliteration
Poll 6: A book with a color in the title
Poll 8/12: A character or author with an under-represented queer identity (TQIA+, not LGB)
Poll 9/13: A book with an ensemble cast
Poll 13: A book with six or more words in the title
Poll 14: A non-fiction book on a topic inspired by a fiction book you've read
Poll 15: A book where characters are trapped together
Poll 16: A book from the first 20 books on your GR to-read shelf when sorted by “date added” in ascending order
Poll 16: A book about books

Feel free to discuss the prompts below, but please remember to be respectful to the other group members.

VOTE HERE: https://www.surveymoz.com/s/S3G5GS/
This poll will run concurrently with Poll 17.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

For reference:

These prompts were chosen based on the prompts that earned the designation of Close Call during their poll. We removed any prompts we felt were too similar to prompts already on the list, and we supplemented the list with other prompts that had similar numbers in votes (up votes, down votes, and net votes) to the close calls already in this poll.

We have also updated the wording for the LGBTQIA+ prompt based on the discussion threads in the previous rounds of voting, but if any members of this community have better wording suggestions that still encompass the spirit of the prompt, please discuss it below.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

NOTES AND IDEAS FROM THE SUGGESTIONS THREADS

1. A book that deals with second chances
Could be a plot that involves a second chance (divorce, relocation, going home again, etc.), a book you failed to finish that you are giving a second chance, or one you are reading a second time, or an author you are reading for the second time.

2. A book with a focus on the natural world
This would include animals and plants, the oceans or atmosphere, the earth itself, the cosmos, the microbial world... Could include fiction like Where the Crawdads Sing, The Signature of All Things, or The Overstory among others.

3. A book with an animal on the cover
The book doesn't need to be about the animal, any animal on the cover will work. This could be a fiction or non-fiction read. In the last year or so I've read Dewey The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron and A Dog's Purpose (A Dog's Purpose, #1) by W. Bruce Cameron. Goodreads has a bunch of lists with different animals
Non-Fiction - Favorite Animal - https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Mostly Fiction, some Non-Fiction -Butterflies - https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

4. A book related to one of the United Nations 2021 "International Year" themes (Peace & Trust, Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, Fruits & Vegetables, and Elimination of Child Labor)
https://www.un.org/en/sections/observ...

5. A book nominated for a lesser known literary prize
I’m meaning this to be a counter to this year's “a book nominated for one of the 10 most coveted literary prizes in the world" prompt. So no Booker, Women’s Prize, Hugo, Nobel, Pulitzer or National Book Award etc. But other than that there are heaps of options from the mainstream to the niche.

Some examples (I've got more if anyone wants them)
1. A book prize from a country other than your own eg New Zealand, Canada, or Australia - Many countries have more than one.
2. Aspen Words Literary Prize - for an influential work that illuminates a vital contemporary issue
3. The McIlvanney Prize - for best Scottish crime writing.
4. Lord Ruthven Award - for vampire literature
5. The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award - for comic literature
6. Reading the West Awards - for books set in or with authors from the US’s western states (Lots of different categories)
7. The Orwell Prize - for political writing has fiction and non-fiction categories

There are awards for authors of varying ethnicities (Britain’s Jhalka Prize or the International Latino Book Awards), books published by an independent press (Firecracker Awards), good storytelling in contemporary fiction (Glass Bell Award), bad writing (Bad Sex in Fiction Award) odd titles (The Diagram Prize) and all sorts of genres (The Agatha Awards for cosy mysteries and the RITAs for romance writing).

7. A book with a title that contains an alliteration
An alliteration is “the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely-connected words.” So, essentially, the title needs to contain at least two words that start with the same letter or sound.

9. A character or author with an under-represented queer identity (TQIA+, not LGB)
Here are some lists:
Trans/NB authors: https://medium.com/@strandbookstore/c...
Fantasy Novels by Trans/NB Authors: https://electricliterature.com/8-fant...
YA Own Voices featuring Trans/NB Characters: https://www.epicreads.com/blog/ya-boo...
Wikipedia Article of Fictional Trans Characters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
Books featuring Asexual or Aromantic Characters: https://twincitiesgeek.com/2017/10/21...
Books featuring Intersex Characters: https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/lis...

10. A book with an ensemble cast
The plot and its narrative don't revolve around a single, most important main character. Instead, it shares a cast of characters with (almost) equal pagetime and importance to the plot.
https://www.epicreads.com/blog/books-...
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

12. A non-fiction book on a topic inspired by a fiction book you've read
I'm currently reading The Water Dancer and its making me want to read more about the Underground Railroad. Or maybe Jane Austen inspires you to read some relationship self-help. Or I read another book recently that had Nehru in it and I'm intrigued to learn more about him. It can be any sort of non-fiction, not just history books. Or anything else that you read that makes you think "I want to read more about this but not fiction."

13. A book where characters are trapped together
Murder on the Orient Express, The Woman in Cabin 10, No Exit are some examples for mystery/thriller.

Here is a romance listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

14. A book from the first 20 books on your GR to-read shelf when sorted by “date added” in ascending order
Basically one of the 20 books that’s been on your GR TBR shelf the longest. I can’t be the only one with books there from 2009!

[Thomas]

Sorry what do I A stand for?

[Ali]

Thomas wrote: "Sorry what do I A stand for?"

Some people have other slight variations but often they mean Intersex and Asexual. Some people use A for Allied.

[Alicia]

Here are some listopias for the under-represented queer identity (TQIA+)

Popsugar Book By Trans/Non-Binary Authors: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Enby/Trans Spec Authors: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Fiction and Memoirs: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

YA Fiction : https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...

[Beth]

I was excited to see the close call poll but now that I'm looking through the suggestions, none of them really jump out at me. I'm thinking characters trapped together and the UN one will be upvotes but not sure what else. A book about books will be a downvote.

[dalex]

Overall, these were not prompts I was expecting to be in the close call poll. A few I have on my rejects plan list so those will definitely be upvotes. Some of them I really dislike, though. The results for this are definitely going to be interesting!

[Kristina]

My definite upvotes are:

- A book written by or about a person with a physical disability
- A character or author with an under-represented queer identity (TQIA+, not LGB)
- A book with a focus on the natural world
- A book related to one of the United Nations 2021 "International Year" themes

I like one or two others, but since I feel most strongly for the above 4, I'll vote 4/4. I'm just not sure yet what I'll decide for the other 4 votes.

[Thomas]

UP
Poll 2: A book that deals with second chances
Poll 6: A book written by or about a person with a physical disability
Poll 6: A book with a title that contains an alliteration
Poll 14: A non-fiction book on a topic inspired by a fiction book you've read
Poll 15: A book where characters are trapped together
Down
Poll 6: A book with a color in the title
Poll 8/12: A character or author with an under-represented queer identity (TQIA+, not LGB)
Poll 16: A book about a books

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

Of course the one from Poll 16 should say "A book about books"

[Kathy]

What about the Poll 1 Close Call: A book with the letter Z on the cover?

[Jill]

Kathy wrote: "What about the Poll 1 Close Call: A book with the letter Z on the cover?"

I was wondering what happened to that.

[Nancy]

Can a mod please make sure it's "A book about books" and remove the extra "a?" I'm mortified I made that mistake and it's being perpetuated!

[Avery]

I fear the wording of the second chance prompt will deter voters. I think I'd still vote for it, but I know that some people would have rather it been open to books or authors you are giving a second chance. Hopefully it will get through either way!

And Beth, I agree these prompts don't scream close call to me. I think second chances and LGBTQA+ ones do because of how much discussion there was about these, but the others don't feel as close-call to me.

I know I'm definitely upvoting ensemble cast, and definitely downvoting lesser known prize, but other than that, I don't know what I want to do with my votes yet.

[Joanne]

Beth wrote: "I was excited to see the close call poll but now that I'm looking through the suggestions, none of them really jump out at me. "

I agree, I was really excited to hear about a close calls poll, but somehow looking at the options, I now feel a bit meh. I'm going to have to dig in more to see which ones I want to vote for.

[Angie]

I'm definitely voting for "trapped together" and probably "ensemble cast." Beyond that, I'm not sure... Underwhelmed by some of the options. I will definitely have downvotes.

[Serendipity]

Quite a few that I like and voted for in the earlier polls. Think I’ll check with the 2021 list so far and see if any categories look lacking to me which might help me narrow things down.

[Hannah]

Avery wrote: "I fear the wording of the second chance prompt will deter voters. I think I'd still vote for it, but I know that some people would have rather it been open to books or authors you are giving a seco..."

I agree about the second chance prompt - it was discussed a lot in the Discussion thread and I know that when Sara suggested it she intended it to include books that you are giving a second chance, but her original wording got changed in the suggestion thread. Could we change it to "related to second chances" (perhaps if Sara agrees?) I can't imagine that would deter anyone who likes the prompt as written here, and I think it would open it up to those of us who liked the idea of giving a book or an author a second chance.

[Thomas]

Hannah wrote: "Avery wrote: "I fear the wording of the second chance prompt will deter voters. I think I'd still vote for it, but I know that some people would have rather it been open to books or authors you are..."

Yes, it only got my vote when i realized it could be a book or author second chance

[Pamela, Arciform Mod]

Wow, I thought we had more close calls!

So in the last poll results post, she said that the suggestion topic would open tomorrow- does that mean we're doing two polls concurrently.

[Steve]

Pamela wrote: "Wow, I thought we had more close calls!

So in the last poll results post, she said that the suggestion topic would open tomorrow- does that mean we're doing two polls concurrently."

Correct... The close calls is meant to be concurrent with the normal 17th poll.

[Pamela, Arciform Mod]

Avery wrote: "I fear the wording of the second chance prompt will deter voters. I think I'd still vote for it, but I know that some people would have rather it been open to books or authors you are giving a seco..."

We're free to interpret the prompts however we want, so you can do it that way

[Conny]

I will definitely up vote the TQIA+, ensemble cast, and trapped together prompts and possibly the UN International Year and non-fiction prompts. The prize one will be a downvote. Not sure about the rest.

[Jill]

If the notifications is still blocked, it will only be a few suggestions and votes. Hope GRs get their act together quickly.

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

Jill wrote: "If the notifications is still blocked, it will only be a few suggestions and votes. Hope GRs get their act together quickly."

I noticed we got an email recently (from Emily?) specifically because the notifications aren't working. I knew the Mods don't want to send emails all the time to the whole membership because some people don't care, but that would be one way to make sure the notifications get out if the problems not fixed.

[dalex]

I don’t have notifications turned on for any posts. I just check the group periodically. It’s very doable. Really.

[Alicia]

I think the wording of this second chances prompt was Sara’s original. And the description in the second post talks about rereading authors or books.

I know we have word masters, but not sure how “deals with” excludes books and authors we are giving second chances to.

[Jill]

Robin P wrote: "Jill wrote: "If the notifications is still blocked, it will only be a few suggestions and votes. Hope GRs get their act together quickly."

I noticed we got an email recently (from Emily?) specific..."

I would normally get an email but it did not get one for the results or the opening of this thread. It was only by checking on here that I knew.

[Rachel]

I personally didn't see much need for a close calls poll in general, but I'm glad that some of my favourite prompts are available again. On first glance, I'd vote for second chance, trapped together, ensemble cast and TQIA (although I didn't even recognize the prompt at first with the new wording).

I'm not interested at all in the lesser known literary prize. I downvoted it when it first came up, and will likely do so again. I don't follow literary prizes so I have no idea what counts as well-known or lesser known. I'm also going to downvote (again) for the book from the first 20 on my TBR. The first 20 on my TBR are lengthy classics. Or, I'd have to cheat and skip those pages until when I started "properly" using Goodreads and pick a book from there, but I'd prefer not to have to cheat to fulfill a prompt.

I also don't really care for the non-fiction or the natural world prompts. Neither fit very well with what I'm interested in reading. I could live with them, I guess, if they got through but they interest me by far the least, so they will be likely downvotes as well.

Like Kathy, I'm also wondering what happened to the book with a Z on the cover. That was a close call in the first poll.

[Kristina]

I assume the Z prompt was removed because it’s too similar to the U prompt we already have.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

In regards to the "second chance prompt", the confusion over the wording happened in Poll 9, not in Poll 2. The second chance prompt was a Close Call in Poll 2 as worded, then was reworded and resubmitted in a later poll, where it did not classify as anything in the final results.

Kristina, you're correct. We decided to remove the Z one since it was very close to the U prompt we already have included, and we wanted to give room for more unique prompts to be in this poll. (I personally really liked the Z prompt and upvoted it back in poll 1, so please don't think we are discriminating against the prompts lol)

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

And I did send a message out to the whole group earlier this morning, but I know many members don't allow messages from people they are not friends with on Goodreads, so if you didn't receive that broadcast message, that's probably why.

[Jill]

Strange, because all your other emails have got through to me

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I don't know if the message would have gone through to your email (since it seems all notifications, including emails, are down), but you should see the message notification on the app or website when you log in to Goodreads.

[°~Amy~°]

For what little it is worth, I would disagree that it is similar to the U prompt in any way.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

The mods discussed it as most people would use the Z in the author or title name, which we felt actually overlapped quite a bit with the U prompt.

It was also one of the lowest voted Close Calls, so that made it an easier decision for us. The prompt we let in had better numbers all around.

[Bryony]

°~Amy~° wrote: "For what little it is worth, I would disagree that it is similar to the U prompt in any way."

Just to add to Emily’s explanation: Amy, if you feel strongly that the Z prompt isn’t too similar to the U prompt and you’d like it to have another chance then there’s no reason you couldn’t suggest it to be included in this week’s regular poll (unless you already had a suggestion planned of course). :-)

[Roxana]

Can I ask about the inclusion of Q in the TQIA+ acronym split? Doesn't that refer to "queer" (or "questioning", I think, though I've mostly seen the former) and would therefore be a much broader term than this prompt is intended to imply? I like & plan to vote for this prompt, I'm just still a little unsure about what would technically count under this wording. :)

So glad I remembered this should be coming up and checked the group, since I'm still not getting any notifications, sigh.

[[deleted user]]

Ali wrote: "Thomas wrote: "Sorry what do I A stand for?"

it stands for asexual, aromantic & agender. definitely doesn't stand for 'ally'! although a lot of allocishets do try and claim it

here's my shelves for

asexual representation: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
aromantic representation: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
queer authors: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

For the nonfiction book based on a fiction book, it doesn't have to be one you just now read and it doesn't have to be specific. If you generally read books about WWII, or the American West or, in my case the Regency, there are plenty of nonfiction books on related topics.

[Rachel]

A bit late to the discussion here because of Goodreads' problem with notifications today, but I also wouldn't have thought of the Z prompt as too similar to the letter U prompt. The U one required it to be in both the author name and the title, whereas the Z was more broad and allowed it anywhere on the cover, if I remember correctly. Which means it also could have been a design element, and not part of the author's name or title.

Seems a bit odd to me to exclude it, given that it was an actual close call in a poll instead of others that were added in afterwards, especially given that it's based on a guess about how people would likely interpret it. To me, it would have made more sense to allow it into the poll and let the group decide whether it was too similar. But that's just my impression, since there have been a few times this year where I personally thought two prompts in a poll were similar, and many other people didn't.

In any case, it's a pretty good batch to choose from overall. There are only really 2 that I very strongly don't want, several I love and would happily vote for again, and I can live with everything else.

[Ellie]

Jill wrote: "If the notifications is still blocked, it will only be a few suggestions and votes. Hope GRs get their act together quickly."

I think suggestions will be slow this morning because of the time it is posted... I have nearly all notifications turned off and just look at the group in moments of workday boredom, and I've caught most the suggestion threads.

The schedule has been so useful this year, thanks mods!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I'm glad it is working for you, Ellie! We hoped that releasing the schedule ahead of time would make it easier on everyone (glitches or no glitches lol).

Roxana, the Q does mean queer (or questioning?) but I don't think the Q takes away from the overall meaning of the prompt. The point is to move away from just reading gay/lesbian/bisexual characters and move to more underrepresented forms of sexuality and gender. I know "queer" is often used as an umbrella term to encompass the whole rainbow, but I think in this case, it would mean people outside of the LGB categories.

[Nadine in NY]

Does voting start this morning on this one? I like staggered polls so we get TWO days of results!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Here is the link for voting!

https://www.surveymoz.com/s/S3G5GS/

I like having the staggered polls because I get to track the numbers for two polls instead of one lol

[Angie]

Voted! I wound up going 4/4.

[Thomas]

Angie wrote: "Voted! I wound up going 4/4."

5/3

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

My first thought was that I was just going to upvote the prompts that I had originally voted for in their own polls, but when I went through my votes, I had upvoted 6 of the prompts that made it to this poll, and I didn't want to vote for half of them again lol.

So I went with the TQIA+ prompt, physical disability, nonfiction inspired by fiction, alliteration (I told myself no more title prompts but this one tickles me), and trapped together. I had only voted for three of those the first time around, but, in this poll, I liked these 5 more.

[dalex]

I upvoted 6 and downvoted 2. My downvotes were disability (because I have zero options on my TBR List that I know of and haven't had much success researching options) and the sorting your goodreads shelf (because I don't track my unread books on gr). I can't say that I super love the ones I upvoted but they are all prompts that I know are doable.