Voting for December 2025 botm CLOSED

[Kristel]

And can you believe it? We will be voting for the last botm of 2025. The authors for December are Hawthorne through Huxley.

Books over 600 pages are not included and books that have been past botm in 2023 are not included. Voting for the botm starts today and ends on the 24th when the winners will be announced.

Randomizer selection: Only books that have not been previous botm (*) in past 10 years (2015 +) will be added to the randomizer. Each book you choose that has not been previously botm in the past 10 years will be fed into the randomizer for an opportunity to be chosen by the randomizer.

Books excluded: The Blind Owl and Eyeless in Gaza, To Have and Have Not

HOW TO VOTE:
Please send your choices by private message to me Everyone gets one free vote. if you have participation points you can have up to 4 additional votes. You can use them all on one choice or you can make 5 different choices. Please see how to obtain participation points in the Annual Point Challenge explanation.

Nathaniel Hawthorne - US
*1. The Scarlet Letter , botm 2015
2. The Marble Faun
3. The Blithdale Romance
4. The House of the Seven Gables

Eliza Fowler Haywood - England
5. Love in Excess

Bessie Head - South Africa
6. A question of power

Anne Hébert - Canada
7. The First Garden

Robert A. Heinlein - US
8. Stranger in a Strange Land, botm 2013

Heliodorus; - Roman
*9. Aithiopika, 2019 botm

Joseph Heller - US
*10. Catch-22, botm 2015

Ernest Hemingway - US
11. The Old Man and the Sea
12. For Whom the Bell Tolls
13. A Farewell to Arms, botm 2011
14. The Sun Also Rises

Kristien Hemmerechts - Belgium, Margot and the Angels (not available in English).

Aleksandar Hemon - Bosnian American
15. Nowhere Man

Amy Hempel - US
16. Reasons to Live, botm 2011

José Hernández - Argentina
17. Martín Fierro

Michael Herr - US
18. Dispatches

Hermann Hesse - German
*19. The Glass Bead Game, botm 2021
20. Steppenwolf, 2011
21. Siddhartha
22. Rosshalde

Patricia Highsmith - US
23. The Talented Mr. Ripley, botm 2013

Chester Himes - US
24. Blind Man with a Pistol

Barry Hines - UK
25. Kestral for a Knave

William Hope Hodgson - England
*26. The House on the Borderland, botm 2015

Peter Høeg - Denmark
27. Smilla's Sense of Snow, botm 20ll

E.T.A. Hoffmann - Germany
28. The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr

Gert Hofmann - Germany
29. The Parable of the Blind

James Hogg - Scotland
30. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

Friedrich Hölderlin - Germany
*31. Hyperion, botm 2021

Alan Hollinghurst - UK
32. The Folding Star
*33. The Line of Beauty, botm 2019
34. The Swimming-Pool Library

Oles Honchar - Ukraine
*35. The Cathedral, botm 2017

Michel Houellebecq - France
36. Platform
37. Whatever
38. The Elementary Particles AKA Atomised

Bohumil Hrabal - Czech
39. Closely Watched Trains

Victor Hugo - France
40. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Dương Thu Hương - Vietnam
*41. Paradise of the Blind, botm 2015

Siri Hustvedt - USA
42. What I Loved, botm 2017

Aldous Huxley - UK
43. Brave New World
44. Antic Hay, botm 2013
45. Crome Yellow

Here's our list for December 2025. What would you like to read?

[Diane]

I have read 15 of this group. I would like to go old school with The Hunchback of Notre-Dame but I will see what you all suggest.

[Patrick]

22 down, about the same number to go. As I do every October, I always encourage voting for a short book in December to ensure that people are able to finish their quarterly/annual/both books before Xmas. Luckily, I only have one book on my TBR this month and it is short:

Reasons to Live (Hempel)

Pretty obvious where my votes will go.

[Valerie]

I can get behind a short book.... because I might be one of the people 'rushing' to finish Genji.

I can access Reasons to Live

[George P.]

I've read 18, slightly more than my average. That includes Reasons to Live about 4 years ago and Hunchback about 3 years ago.
I looked down my to-read list for authors w/ last name starting with H. I passed several in the next 100 which aren't list books- Patricia Highsmith's "Carol", Emile Habiby's "The Secret Life of Saeed" and Langston Hughes' "The Ways of White Folks" before I got to Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" which I read long ago but want to read again- so there's my vote probably. It's not short but Hemingway "reads fast" with short words and sentences.
I'll probably still be at 18 books the next time the "H" list comes around unless I read another book that's chosen.

[Gail]

I have read 19 and have not read either Reasons to Live nor Hunchback. I could go with either of those although I do like the idea of having a short one for December.

[Kristel]

I’ve read 29 of these including the ones not included. Of the ones left to read I am leaning towards The Sun Also Rises and perhaps a Hawthorne. I need to do a little more looking around and see if I can find copies of some of the others.

[Pamela]

I’ve only read 11 of these, I have no strong feelings about any of the others so I’ll wait to see what’s chosen…

[Jenna]

My auxiliary Melville reading recently (Dayswork in particular) has made me curious about Hawthorn’s The Blithedale Romance. And it’s short too :)

[Rosemary]

I've read the ones mentioned and I don't have anything on my TBR in this range except To Have and Have Not, which is excluded, so I'll try to find some short ones that I can access for the randomiser.

[Kristel]

Get your votes in, it's the last day to vote and there are some close ones.

[Kristel]

Voting is closed. Nine titles were submitted this month with a clear winner for the popular vote:
Reasons to Live - Amy Hempel
The Randomizer chose: The Blithdale Romance.

What will you be reading in December?

[Valerie]

Well, since I voted for it I had better read Reasons to Live!

[Diane]

I think I will try and read Reasons to Live, it is short and based in CA where I live.

[Kristel]

I read Reasons to Live years ago as part of this group. Not sure if that was when we were still on Shelfari or after our move to GR. I remember liking it which I don’t always like short stories. I own The Blithdale Romance so will read that one.

[Jane]

I'm going to try to read both since I didn't read either BOTMs for October. It will depend on how I am faring with V. :(