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All: I have added a category for @Apocryphal 's December choice - The Orenda, by Joseph Boyden, with a single post repeating the description / back cover blurb. This has already been posted but it seemed good to keep it all together.
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Currently we have @clash_bowley soon to post discussion starters about the Binti trilogy. Then for reading in the rest of December plus January we have _The Orenda_ coordinated by @Apocryphal .
After that we can restart the current rotation (which would be easy) or do a random selection again. @BarnerCobblewood @NeilNjae @clash_bowley @Apocryphal hopefully you're in? @WildCard are you in a position to want to do a month? Or @BurnAfterRunning ? @dr_mitch ? @Ray_Otus ?
Please reply on this thread if you're in and if you have any monthly preference.
There's an informal read of Christopher Priest's _The Adjacent_ going on in December to round out our Dream Archipelago experience (
We have yet to decide on another slow read for 2022 though Dune (some subset of the books) and Gormenghast have both been mooted.
I am in!
I'm happy to join in the monthly rotation, no real preference for when.
Looks like January is quite busy for me. If we keep the rotation, perhaps just move me to the end?
Best, BC
Right, thanks all. How about the following provisional programme:
Very soon: Binti trilogy hosted by @clash_bowley
December / January The Orenda, hosted by @Apocryphal
February: @NeilNjae
March: Me
April: @clash_bowley
May: @BarnerCobblewood
If @WildCard or anyone else wants to leap in that's great.
Also in December there's the exciting Dream Archipelago BONUS CONTENT! - The Adjacent, by Christopher Priest hosted by @Apocryphal and/or me as we get through it.
And vague plans for another slow read next year, title TBD.
Any thoughts suggestions or problems: post about them here...
I've had stong recomendations for Five Decembers by James Kestrel, so let's do that in February. I think it was published in October 21. It's a hardboiled detective story set in 1941, featuring a detective from Hawaii who goes to Hong Kong just before the USA joins WW2.
I've not read it, but I've heard good things.
Thanks for asking, but, no, I just don’t have the capacity. I’m still slowly reading Vita Nostra. That’s how far behind I am.
Here in the UK it seems to be available in kindle and hardback only, not p/b or audio. A quick glance suggests the same on Amazon US and CA. Maybe that will change by February... I can't see any information about that online. As @NeilNjae said, the reception of the book has been glowing.
If we want to wait a bit for other formats to become available, that's fine by me.
Happy New Year everyone!
Just in case anyone has forgotten, this is where we got to:
January The Orenda, hosted by @Apocryphal (Neil has, I think, finished it, as have I now)
February: @NeilNjae wanted Five Decembers but there was a move to delay this until it is available in formats other than hardback and kindle. We need to decide whether to go with the limited format options or whether Neil wil choose another book for this month.
March: Me - currently thinking about possible choices
April: @clash_bowley
May: @BarnerCobblewood
I am thinking steampunk.
Ooo good, it's a while since I read any
I know, right? Me too! My RPG co-designer and his wife gifted me with The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis, and highly recommended it. Haven't read it yet, but I both love and loathe steampunk. Looking at reviews, this one seems to tick all the right boxes for me. Should be fun!
Indeed I have.
That will be for others to chime in.
Kindle is fine for me, but I don't think that it is for Apocryphal. He prefers audiobooks I think.
I can order Five Decembers as a hardback, so I'm OK if you want to proceed for February.
So is The Guns Above by Robin Bennis what we're doing for May?
I was throwing the book out there for reaction, actually. @Richard Abbot said April. Is there a change?
My thoughts:
Thematically, I like it. Kind of like Napoleonic naval fiction, but on airships - and I like both of those. Will it stand up to the high standards set by O’Brien, Woodman, Kent, and Forester in that genre? That’s a pretty high bar, so probably not, but maybe will make up for it in other ways, like clever worldbuilding, deep characters, or intricate plotting? I guess we’ll see.
I'm thinking Colin Wilson's The Mind Parasites for March - quite an old book (late 1960s) and dated in a number of ways, but still (I think) with enough to provoke discussion. Apparently he wrote it when challenged to write a novel in the lineage of HP Lovecraft, and some of the allusions are clear even to me (I would not consider myself knowledgeable about Lovecraft).
Sounds interesting. I went through a Lovecraft phase in my teens, but his hideous racist and sexist rants destroyed it for me - and I have a fair tolerance for such things. Someone more modern writing Lovecraft style might be far more palatable.
All, in a burst of energy I have added monthly categories for February (Five Decembers, @NeilNjae ), March (The Mind Parasites, me) and April (The Guns Above, @clash_bowley ), and also added in the Amazon back cover blurb. If anyone changes their mind about book choices please let me know and I will update accordingly.
If monthly choice "owners" would like to add anything else about their choice then feel free.
Meanwhile we are getting closer to @Apocryphal leading the discussion for The Orenda ...
Yes! Thanks! That is great!
I've finished it, so post questions whenever!
I am struggling, about half way through, so go ahead and I will comment as I can!