Group Read Guidelines

[[deleted user]]

Each month the group will choose one theme and one book associated with that theme to read.

Part I - Themes

At the beginning of each month we will open a theme nomination thread for the following month's group read. In the beginning of April, for example, we will open up the theme nomination thread for May.

You may only nominate one theme per month.

Theme selection is flexible. Themes can be anything from genre specific (alternate history, historical fantasy, etc.) to historical period/event specific (Victorian-era, American Civil War, etc.) to character specific (books featuring orphans, books about Marie Antoinette, etc.) It is, however, important to choose themes that are not too specific. The more specific a theme is the more difficult it will be to find a variety of books to choose from for the monthly read. For example, books featuring Leonardo DaVinci's famous painting the Mona Lisa are going to be much more difficult to find than books about artists or art.

It is always a good idea to be sure you can find a reasonable number of young adult historical fiction books associated with the theme you wish to nominate before you nominate it.

The theme nomination thread will be closed after a total of ten themes have been nominated or five days have passed. At that time the nominated themes will be put into a poll and group members will have five days to vote on the theme for the following month.

The theme that receives the most votes will win. If two or more themes are tied at the end of the five days they will be placed into a randomizer and the first theme chosen by the randomizer will win.

Once a winning theme is selected it cannot be nominated again for at least twelve months. There are so many great young adult historical fiction books out there that we want to ensure we're not reading the same type of book over and over. Variety is the spice of life.

Part II - Books

After a theme has been selected, we will open a book nomination thread for the following month's group read.

You may only nominate one book per month.

All books nominated must be young adult (unless otherwise specified) historical fiction and they must correspond with the chosen theme for the month they're being nominated for.

Authors cannot nominate their own books.

If the book you're nominating is part of a series it must be the first book in the series unless we have already read the previous book or books in that series as a group read.

The book nomination thread will be closed after a total of ten books have been nominated or five days have passed. At that time the nominated books will be put into a poll and group members will have five days to vote on the book selection for the following month.

The book that recieves the most votes will win. If two or more books are tied at the end of the five days they will be placed into a randomizer and the first book chosen by the randomizer will win.

Part III - Discussion

On the first day of each month we will create a discussion thread for the book that was selected for that month.

The discussion threads for group reads will almost certainly contain spoilers. Members are not required to mark their spoilers in those threads so please enter at your own risk.

It is our sincere hope that we, as a group, can foster lively and thoughtful group discussions so we encourage every member to read along and join in on the group reads and their discussions when they can. The more effort that we all put into the discussions the more we're all going to get out of them, so please don't be shy. Speak candidly about your feelings. If you liked the book, tell us what you liked. If you didn't like the book, tell us what you didn't like.

If you would like to volunteer to be the discussion leader for a group read, please let a moderator know. It is the discussion leader's job to try and keep conversation flowing by asking questions that inspire discussion so you can only volunteer if you have already read the book.

[Stacia (the 2010 club)]

Themes have been closed until further notice due to lack of traffic with nominations and polls. In the future when Elle comes back, if she would like to start Themes up again, then I'll happily let her go ahead and do so.