We should read a book. Like Together. And then talk about it. Like Together.
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Take a look, it's in a Talking Time Book Club 2.0
- Thread starter Falselogic
- Start date
I am interested in joining, though I think I failed to participate a lot of the time when we had this going before. Susanna Clarke's Piranesi was just published.
Let's do this starting in 2021!
2021 is the year! Let's do this TT! Please send me a list of twelve books you'd like to read this year. I will collate them and if we get doubles they'll go in. I'm going to try and include a broad swath of genres, fiction and non-fiction. #1 goal is to have fun the #2 would be to stretch our breadth as readers!
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I look forward to submitting 12 books no one else votes for.
The Whatcha Reading thread fascinates me because I appear to have so little overlap with everyone else.
The Whatcha Reading thread fascinates me because I appear to have so little overlap with everyone else.
Send me something!
I'm getting some good recommendations! If you have some and you haven't sent them along please do so!
Well, thank you to everyone who sent me a list of books! There wasn't a lot of crossover. BUT, there was crossover!
So for now here are two books that will be on our reading list for 2021!
The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
I will be posting a a few lists of 8 other books in the near future that people can vote on and then we can start at the beginning of next month! At least one book from every person's list will be in each list. I hope you are excited as I am!
So for now here are two books that will be on our reading list for 2021!
The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
I will be posting a a few lists of 8 other books in the near future that people can vote on and then we can start at the beginning of next month! At least one book from every person's list will be in each list. I hope you are excited as I am!
You can vote here!
Here are your options - Every list has a mix of fiction and non-fiction as well as genre and some non-genre! Whichever list wins will have the two books mentioned above added to it! Apologies for not linking all of these books. It's a very busy time. But you should be able to get a good sense of the ones you don't recognize with a quick google search.
List 1
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Vacationland by John Hodgeman
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
List 2
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Breakfast at Tiffanys by Truman Capote
The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow
Still Life by Louise Penny
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Sunny Days by David Kamp
White Noise by Don Delillo
Neuromancer by William Gibson
List 3
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
The Other Madisons by Bettye Kearse
An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson
A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Franchise by Marcia Chatelain
List 4
The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton
Beowulf trans. Maria Headley
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy
The Plains by Gerald Murnane
Artemis by Andy Weir
Here are your options - Every list has a mix of fiction and non-fiction as well as genre and some non-genre! Whichever list wins will have the two books mentioned above added to it! Apologies for not linking all of these books. It's a very busy time. But you should be able to get a good sense of the ones you don't recognize with a quick google search.
List 1
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Vacationland by John Hodgeman
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
List 2
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Breakfast at Tiffanys by Truman Capote
The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow
Still Life by Louise Penny
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Sunny Days by David Kamp
White Noise by Don Delillo
Neuromancer by William Gibson
List 3
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
The Other Madisons by Bettye Kearse
An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson
A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Franchise by Marcia Chatelain
List 4
The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton
Beowulf trans. Maria Headley
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy
The Plains by Gerald Murnane
Artemis by Andy Weir
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How about until the 22nd?
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Wait, isn't that only 10 books? Are two others going to be added? I'm fine if we read 10 or if we read 12 but confused.
And man, those are great mixes for each list. Thank you for doing that, it's hard to choose which is a very good thing.
I only did 10 books in 12 month because I know that with life and work things can get out of hand and I want this book club to be a relaxing enjoyable affair. Not something that causes additional stress.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Sweet, I thought that might be the case and definitely agree, especially since we probably won't get too far in January.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
So it doesn't get glossed over if people just see "Beowulf" on the list and move on because they remember it being boring in school, I wanted to note that Maria Dahvana Headley's translation is absolutely fascinating, which is why I submitted it. She takes the language of the poem and reintreprets it in ways I've never seen. This is the fourth or fifth translation I've read and Beowulf is one of my favourite reads so that's saying something.
Her introduction and notes on translation and the history of translation is a great read itself. These passages for example shows how she thinks about the difficulty of interpretation but from such a different tone from any other translator I've read:
Anyway, even if it doesn't make the list I highly recommend it. It's also <150 pages and poetry so a pretty quick read! The only knock I have against it is that the text doesn't include the original Olde English like a lot of translations do, but that's not going to matter to most people and it's not hard to find.
Her introduction and notes on translation and the history of translation is a great read itself. These passages for example shows how she thinks about the difficulty of interpretation but from such a different tone from any other translator I've read:
Anyway, even if it doesn't make the list I highly recommend it. It's also <150 pages and poetry so a pretty quick read! The only knock I have against it is that the text doesn't include the original Olde English like a lot of translations do, but that's not going to matter to most people and it's not hard to find.
Egarwaen
(He/Him)
Correct; I typo’d it in my list!
Four more days to vote!
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I checked the library and there are 15 holds on 3 copies for Ministry for the Future, and 10 on 2 for A Memory Called Empire, so I'm excited to see these are popular! I haven't bought a book for several months so time to support local business...
Edit: It looks like a paperback version of Ministry for the Future comes out June 22nd. Thoughts on making that one later in the year to make it a little cheaper?
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Only one more day to vote!
Egarwaen
(He/Him)
Missed opportunity to use "dawn of the final day".
The votes are in and the winner is List 3! 
(for the curious results are here)
This year we'll be reading:
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
The Other Madisons by Bettye Kearse
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson
Franchise by Marcia Chatelain
A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
I'm partial to leaving the list as this with us beginning the reading in February w/ The Only Good Indians and ending in November w/ A Deadly Education. That way the club will be done by the time the high holidays begin.
If you can think of a reason to move things around please speak up now! Otherwise I'll see you in the Book Club next month when we start Stephen Graham Jones book!
(for the curious results are here)This year we'll be reading:
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
The Other Madisons by Bettye Kearse
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson
Franchise by Marcia Chatelain
A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
I'm partial to leaving the list as this with us beginning the reading in February w/ The Only Good Indians and ending in November w/ A Deadly Education. That way the club will be done by the time the high holidays begin.
If you can think of a reason to move things around please speak up now! Otherwise I'll see you in the Book Club next month when we start Stephen Graham Jones book!
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
That order looks great, thank you again for running this.
I'm making the thread for the book club and wanted to see what you all thought about a few things -
Do you want each book to have its own thread or to keep discussion in the Book Club Thread?
Do we want to create dates, say half way through the month, where it is okay to discuss spoilers?
Do you want each book to have its own thread or to keep discussion in the Book Club Thread?
Do we want to create dates, say half way through the month, where it is okay to discuss spoilers?