Candidates for Next Month's Read Showing 2,301-2,350 of 3,043

[Teal]

Jordan wrote: "Well, I'm back at work now, so I'm well interrupted. :-) "

Yep, that'll do it like nothing else. ;)

[Teal]

Mymymble, I just checked amazon US and it's free there too. Happy timing. Maybe we can recruit some more people to join us?

[Jordan]

Mymymble wrote: "C'mon guys. I wasn't gonna take part this month but Teal's enthusiasm and the price mean I'll be there."

Our motto here is "Always take part in BOM." Or other motto is "Whatever happens in BOM stays in BOM."

;-)

[Jordan]

Thanks for voting everyone! The Lawrence Browne Affair won the poll by one vote. Woot!

[Jordan]

Hi everyone!

Since people have been asking lately what the rules are for BOM, I wrote them up and made up a schedule so that I can have recurring events in my to-do list that ensure I don't forget to set up discussion threads and ask for nominations and whatnot.

When Josh has time, she'll update the first post in this thread with the rules so they're always easy to find. But, I also want to post them here.

Here they are:

JL BOM Rules and Regs as of September 2018:

The BOM Captain is Jordan Lombard.

1.) Whenever Josh has a book coming out in a given month, that’s our BOM choice! :-D

2.) We take nominations for one week, which is announced in the group threads, the second Thursday of every month.
a. One nomination per person, please.
b. Nominations that are seconded by someone else are placed in the poll.
c. Nominations that don’t get picked as BOM can be re-nominated at any time.

3.) The poll then goes up for one week, and the link is listed in the group threads, the third Thursday of every month.

4.) Poll winners are announced on the fourth Thursday of every month.

5.) On the first day of each month the currently reading section will get updated and a new thread will be created to discuss the new book.
a. Readers can start discussing the book at any time during the month, just be aware that there will be spoilers in the thread.

6.) We are choosing books one month early to give people a chance to get a copy through their library. As an example, in January we are selecting books for March.

If there are any questions or comments, don't hesitate to ask!

[Jordan]

And now, viewing that it's the second Thursday of the month, we are taking nominations for our November read until next Wednesday.

See the rules above for more info.

[Jordan]

My nomination for November is Enemies of the State, which I've been wanting to read for awhile now.

[SamSpayedPI]

Jordan wrote: "My nomination for November is Enemies of the State, which I've been wanting to read for awhile now."

I loved Enemies of the State but I read it too recently to reread it, and long enough ago that the details are foggy, so I'm going to renominate the always-a-bridesmaid-never-a-bride By The Currawong's Call.

[SamSpayedPI]

Jordan wrote: "Hi everyone!

Since people have been asking lately what the rules are for BOM, I wrote them up and made up a schedule so that I can have recurring events in my to-do list that ensure I don't forget..."

They're good, but they don't answer all of my questions:

1. What are the criteria for nominations? M/M romance? M/M mystery? or just gay main character? Or just nominate anything and let the voting sort it out?

2. What to do in the event that the voting is tied? I recommend that the BOM Captain casts the deciding vote (even if it means they vote twice) for ease of administration.

[Teal]

I second By The Currawong's Call.

[Jordan]

Sam, good questions! I’d forgotten about the genre question. Sorry about that! Here are some thoughts:

Sometimes we branch out from MM Romance, but it’s rare. I think only three books have ever not been in that genre: The Great Gatsby (because of Strangers on the Shore’s release date), Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, and Call Me By Your Name.

I think the best response would be MM Romance is what we read unless there is a good reason to read something else, like a book that heavily influenced Josh’s work, for example.

Do others agree with this? Feel free to disagree if you do.

Oh, and I think we read The Charioteers as a BOM book as well.

I generally try to keep an eye on the polls so when there is a tie I can remind people to vote the day before the poll closes. I don’t think we’ve had too many problems with ties. I seem to recall at one point years ago we might have just read the second book the following month. That can be an option as well.

What are thoughts on this?

And if there are other questions, mention them. Once we have all the answers I’ll rewrite the rules and regs so they are up to date.

Thanks for bringing these up again, Sam!

[Kirsten]

I'd rather it just specify a general m/m book and not limit it to romance, so we can get scifi, fantasy and mysteries into the mix too.

[Teal]

Kirsten wrote: "I'd rather it just specify a general m/m book and not limit it to romance, so we can get scifi, fantasy and mysteries into the mix too."

I see Call Me By Your Name, The Charioteer, and Simon as all falling under that broader umbrella. Is that how you meant it, Kirsten? I think I'm agreeing with you, but I don't mean to twist what you're saying. I'd prefer a loose description of m/m, not just m/m romance. And of course if others aren't on-board with that, it'll get voted down anyway.

[Jordan]

So to clarify, the main concern is that the book just has to have a gay main character, but does not have to have a romance plot or subplot?

When I say MM Romance, I include all sub genres like fantasy and mystery along with the romance.

But I’m open to whatever the majority of us want.

[Teal]

All the ones you mentioned as not fitting (Charioteer, Simon, Call Me) did have a gay romance plot. I would just hate to see eligiblity defined so that those books would have been excluded. Does that make sense?

[Jordan]

Well, Gatsby didn’t have a gay character that I recall.

But no, I wouldn’t kick them out. We all enjoyed them. I was thinking we could have a focus, but that on occasion we could certainly deviate from it. But, semantics I guess. We probably should just use wording based on the characters and not the genre then, which makes sense.

[Kirsten]

Jordan wrote: "So to clarify, the main concern is that the book just has to have a gay main character, but does not have to have a romance plot or subplot?

When I say MM Romance, I include all sub genres like fa..."

Okay, that makes more sense. When I think of romance, I think of contemporaries and historicals and that's about it. The classic romance genre. I want to make sure we can include other genres, like the Taking Shield book from this month-- I would classify it as scifi over romance. And things like YA books, that aren't specifically romance. And sometimes it's hard to know if there's a romance plot or subplot unless someone's already read it.

[Teal]

Jordan wrote: "Well, Gatsby didn’t have a gay character that I recall. "

Oh, right -- I had totally blanked that one out LOL.

But basically I agree with everything Kirsten is saying about genres.

[Jordan]

The Shield books are primarily listed here by readers as MM Romance. I’m not far enough in to see how true that is, but I do think readers in the genre take a very broad view of it. I think I do too. The Psycop series gets marked the same, even though it’s really not a romance. But it’s certainly romantic in amongst all the scary ectoplasmic gunk and ghost hunting. And I think that’s a deciding factor, probably, that romantic element, even if you know the couple won’t break up? Eh, what do I know? :-P

[SamSpayedPI]

Teal wrote: "All the ones you mentioned as not fitting (Charioteer, Simon, Call Me) did have a gay romance plot. I would just hate to see eligiblity defined so that those books would have been excluded. Does th..."

The ones that I asked about in the past were Odd Adventures with your Other Father and We Disappear. The first one might have some romance elements in it (still haven't read it), but the second one doesn't at all as far as I can tell, just a mystery and a gay MC (similarly, Joseph Hansen's Dave Brandstetter series).

[Teal]

SamSpayedPI wrote: "TThe ones that I asked about in the past were Odd Adventures with your Other Father and We Disappear. The first one might have some romance elements..."

And that makes me think of Less, which has a gay protagonist and just won the Pulitzer Prize. Personally, I'd be open to reading anything that's told from a gay character's POV.

[Jordan]

Right. All of our challenge reads have not been romance titles either.

[Antonella]

I'm in favour of reading gay fiction, m/m books, m/m romance.

BTW I'm sorry that I'm not participating a lot lately, and my project of rereading the whole Taking Shield series during the holidays was sabotaged by a client redoing their website.

In Bristol I did tell personally Anna Butler that I enjoyed the series though, and that I was looking forward to read the 5th book.

[Jordan]

OK, I'll make that addition to the rules and regs! We'll have a list of things as Antonella wrote out. I kind of like that list!

[Jordan]

For those who are interested, we are still taking nominations until Wednesday night. Get your nominations in before it's too late!

[Jordan]

So far these are our two nominations for November:

Enemies of the State

By The Currawong's Call

We're taking nominations and seconds until tonight.

[Jordan]

OK, here are our new and updated

JL BOM Rules and Regs as of September 2018:

The BOM Captain is Jordan Lombard.

1.) Whenever Josh has a book coming out in a given month, that’s our BOM choice! :-D

2.) The genres we read include M/M Romance (including all subgenres) and gay fiction (including all genres). In short, as long as there’s a gay main character, we’ll read it.

3.) We take nominations for one week, which is announced in the group threads, the second Thursday of every month.
a. One nomination per person, please.
b. Nominations that are seconded by someone else are placed in the poll.
c. Nominations that don’t get picked as BOM can be re-nominated at any time.

4.) The poll then goes up for one week, and the link is listed in the group threads, the third Thursday of every month.

5.) If it looks like there’s going to be a tie, Jordan will remind readers who haven’t voted to vote. If there is a tie, we will read the second book the following month.

6.) Poll winners are announced on the fourth Thursday of every month.

7.) On the first day of each month the currently reading section will get updated and a new thread will be created to discuss the new book.
a. Readers can start discussing the book at any time during the month, just be aware that there will be spoilers in the thread.

8.) We are choosing books one month early to give people a chance to get a copy through their library. As an example, in January we are selecting books for March.

If there are any questions or comments, don't hesitate to ask!

If this looks good, we'll have Josh post it to the beginning of this thread so it's easily findable.

[Steve]

Hi Jordan, I have a question on BOM: If the book is in audio are we allowed to listen instead of read?

[Jordan]

Steve wrote: "Hi Jordan, I have a question on BOM: If the book is in audio are we allowed to listen instead of read?"

However you want to devour the book is up to you! That can easily add to our discussion if people read it in different formats.

[Steve]

I will second 'Enemies of the State.'

[WMD]

Hey...is there a list of previous BOM books? Or should I just time travel to page 1.....

[Kirsten]

WMD wrote: "Hey...is there a list of previous BOM books? Or should I just time travel to page 1....."

There's a discussion page for them. If you want to browse that, you should be able to get most of the titles: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

[WMD]

Thanks!

[Jordan]

You can check our bookshelf for all the books we've read. You can find it at the bottom of our group's home page. Or, click this link:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

[Jordan]

Mymymble wrote: "Jordan wrote: "Mymymble wrote: "I'll read most m/m with zombies which to my mind is fantasy, but not often shelved as such. I think it was years of train commuting that makes me love zombies so......."

Oh good. :-)

[Jordan]

Steve wrote: "I will second 'Enemies of the State.'"

:-)

[Jordan]

Ok, here is our poll. https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

This will be up for one week.

[Loretta]

Jordan wrote: "However you want to devour the book is up to you! That can easily add to our d..."

I like that. "Devour" It is so appropriate :)

[Jordan]

Loretta wrote: "Jordan wrote: "However you want to devour the book is up to you! That can easily add to our d..."

I like that. "Devour" It is so appropriate :)"

Right?!

[Jordan]

Just a reminder, our poll ends tomorrow night. If you haven't voted, get your vote in!

[Jordan]

OK folks, several things:

1.) Enemies of the State is our November 2018 read!

2.) By The Currawong's Call has been nominated for the past several months and has had a lot of votes for it every time. I think we need to either agree to read it for December or January without it being nominating and put into another poll, or we need to pause in our nominating of it for a while. Thoughts?

3.) Josh usually recommends our December BOMs, so, what we read for December will be up to her, unless she doesn't have anything, in which case we can take nominations or we can just read Currawong. Thoughts on this, Josh?

[Teal]

Jordan wrote: "2.) By The Currawong's Call has been nominated for the past several months and has had a lot of votes for it every time..."

I'd already decided that if BtCC didn't win this time around, I was going to go ahead and read it anyway. :)

I've already read Enemies of the State (view spoiler)[and thought it was hilariously bad (hide spoiler)], so I'll just drop in on the discussion toward the end of the month and see how it's going for everyone.

[Jordan]

Oh boy, I hope it's not that bad! Oh well. If it is, it wouldn't be the first book I've nominated and then disliked. lol. But I'm hoping it will be good.

[Teal]

Jordan wrote: "Oh boy, I hope it's not that bad! Oh well. If it is, it wouldn't be the first book I've nominated and then disliked. lol. But I'm hoping it will be good."

It has a substantial fan base, Jordan, so it's probably just as likely that you'll love it. :)

[Jordan]

LOL.

Well, if we're talking substantial fan bases... let's not forget how I felt about Cut & Run (view spoiler)[I couldn't get past chapter 2 the first time, and stopped in chapter 1 the second try (hide spoiler)]

[Teal]

Jordan wrote: "LOL. Well, if we're talking substantial fan bases..."

It took me three tries, and I only persevered because I'd sampled a book farther down in the series, and it was quite competently written. But that first one -- (view spoiler)[it's simply awful, truly and genuinely awful. Unreadably bad, although I DID manage to read it, for the sake of getting to the rest of the series. I admire the authors for upping their game and taking their craft seriously -- the writing quality improved swiftly and dramatically after that first book. It's still a cheesy and somewhat ridiculous series, but in a fun way. Fun for me, at least. :) (hide spoiler)]

[Antonella]

I didn't vote because I couldn't guarantee I was going to participate to the discussion, but I've already read, and liked, By The Currawong's Call. For sure I would try to follow the discussion if it is chosen.

[Josh]

Hello everyone!

Popping in to let you know we've finalized the BOM rules and regs. I've replaced the initial discussion thread post, but just to make sure everyone sees it, I'm also posting it here:



The BOM Captain is Jordan Lombard.

1.) Whenever Josh has a book coming out in a given month, that’s our BOM choice! :-D

2.) The genres we read include M/M Romance (including all subgenres) and gay fiction (including all genres). In short, as long as there’s a gay main character, we’ll read it.

3.) We take nominations for one week, which is announced in the group threads, the second Thursday of every month.

a. One nomination per person, please.

b. Nominations that are seconded by someone else are placed in the poll.

c. Nominations that don’t get picked as BOM can be re-nominated at any time.

4.) The poll then goes up for one week, and the link is listed in the group threads, the third Thursday of every month.

5.) If it looks like there’s going to be a tie, the BOM Captain will remind readers who haven’t voted to vote. If there is a tie, we will read the second book the following month.

6.) Poll winners are announced on the fourth Thursday of every month.

7.) On the first day of each month the currently reading section will get updated and a new thread will be created to discuss the new book.

a. Readers can start discussing the book at any time during the month, just be aware that there will be spoilers in the thread.

8.) Readers can choose to read the book in any format they like whether it’s in print, ebook, or audiobook. Feel free to bring all of your reading/listening experiences to the discussion!

9.) We are choosing books one month early to give people a chance to get a copy through their library. As an example, in January we are selecting books for March.

10.) For December, Josh gets to choose what we read!

If there are any questions or comments, don't hesitate to ask!

[Jordan]

Josh wrote: "Hello everyone!

Popping in to let you know we've finalized the BOM rules and regs. I've replaced the initial discussion thread post, but just to make sure everyone sees it, I'm also posting it her..."

Thanks Josh! You're awesome, as usual. :-D

[Josh]

Jordan wrote: "Josh wrote: "Hello everyone!

Popping in to let you know we've finalized the BOM rules and regs. I've replaced the initial discussion thread post, but just to make sure everyone sees it, I'm also p..."

I love the fact that despite the decline of book discussion in general, we still have such lively discussions here!

I keep hoping I'll have time to take part!