2014 Reading Challenges and a new literary group, Lit Collective

 

I vowed to myself that I would sign up for less than 10 challenges this year and I did it! I ended up signing up for 9 and one of those is a long term challenge that I'm spreading over 4 years. Of course, I'm keeping track over at my challenge blog, but listed below are the challenge buttons for the ones I signed up for.

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I also want to take a moment to officially announce my new book discussion community which I started with Heather at Between the Covers and Laura at Book Snob over at Goodreads. It's called Lit Collective: An Online Reading Retreat. We'll be having our "online retreats" twice a year. In March, we focus on books grouped around a theme. This March our theme is World World I. The books we're reading are:

4 Fiction
Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
The Gendarme, Mark Mustian
The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman
The Sandcastle Girls, Chris Bohjalian

1 Non-Fiction
The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm, Juliet Nicolson

Each week, we will focus our discussion on one book, with discussion of the non-fiction title being more of a side discussion in addition to the others. Discussions will take place predominantly in the group, but we will have a Twitter hashtag for any Twitter chats or parties we decide to have and for announcements and it is #litcollective.

I will have the schedule of what books will be discussed when and some advance discussion questions posted in the group soon. In August, the retreat will revolve around 3 or 4 selected works of a certain author. We will vote on this in the group. 

To find out all the details and to join the group, visit Lit Collective here. We'd love to have you!

Reminder: Sign ups are open for A Winter's Respite over at Seasons of Reading. Click HERE, or the image below, to sign up.

#TuesBookTalk December Selection: Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher

TuesBookTalk Read-a-Longs on Twitter (@tuesbooktalk #tuesbooktalk) and on Goodreads will be reading, Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher, in December. Our first discussion will be this Tuesday, December 3. Our chats take place on Twitter at 9:30pm ET/8:30pm CT on Tuesday nights (see hashtag above). If you can't join us on Twitter, feel free to share your thoughts in the Goodreads group. The reading schedule is available in the Goodreads group here. Hope you will join us!

#TuesBookTalk July Selection: The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

TuesBookTalk Read-a-Longs on Twitter (@tuesbooktalk  #tuesbooktalk) and on Goodreads will be reading, The White Queen by Philippa Gregory, in July. Our first discussion will be on Tuesday, July 2.  Our chats take place on Twitter at 9:30pm ET/8:30pm CT on Tuesday nights (see hashtag above).  If you can't join us on Twitter, feel free to share your thoughts in the Goodreads group.  Get the full reading schedule HERE.  Hope you will join us!

TuesBookTalk Aug/Sept Selection: The Cider House Rules by John Irving

TuesBookTalk Read-a-longs on Twitter (@tuesbooktalk  #tuesbooktalk) and on Goodreads has decided to read a John Irving book for August/September.  Our discussion starts Tuesday, August 7 on Twitter at 9:30pm EST/8:30pm CST.  The last week, we will be watching the film based on the book, by the same name.  You do not have to join us on Twitter.  Feel free to share your thoughts in the Goodreads group if you can't make the chat on Twitter.  Get the full reading schedule HERE.  Hope you will join us!

TuesBookTalk June Selection: Middlemarch by George Eliot

TuesBookTalk Read-a-longs on Twitter (@tuesbooktalk  #tuesbooktalk) and on Goodreads chose Classics for June's genre.  Our discussion starts Tuesday, June 5 on Twitter at 9:30pm EST/8:30pm CST.  You do not have to join us on Twitter.  Feel free to share your thoughts in the Goodreads group if you can't make the chat on Twitter.  Get the full reading schedule HERE.  June's selection:

TuesBookTalk March Selection: House of Leaves

TuesBookTalk Read Alongs on Twitter (@tuesbooktalk  #tuesbooktalk) and on Goodreads chose fantasy (epic, steampunk, dystopian, fairy tales retold, etc.) for March's genre.  Our discussion starts Tuesday, March 6 on Twitter at 10:30pm ET/9:30pm CT.  You do not have to join us on Twitter.  Feel free to share your thoughts in the Goodreads group if you can't make the chat on Twitter.  Get the full reading schedule HERE.  This month we are reading:

TuesBookTalk January Selection: The Scarlet Letter

TuesBookTalk Read-a-Longs on Twitter (@tuesbooktalk  #tuesbooktalk) and on Goodreads is reading in the classics genre for January.  We voted on classics that had themes of new beginnings, starting over, diving into something different to coincide with the new year.  Our discussion starts Tuesday, January 3 on Twitter at 10:30pm ET/9:30pm CT.  You do not have to join us on Twitter.  Feel free to share your thoughts in the Goodreads group if you can't make the chat on Twitter.  Get the full reading schedule HERE.  January's read is:

TuesBookTalk September Book Selection: The Name of the Wind

TuesBookTalk Read-a-Longs on Twitter (@tuesbooktalk  #tuesbooktalk) and on Goodreads chose fantasy for September's genre.  Our discussion starts Tuesday, September 13 on Twitter at 10:30pm ET/9:30pm CT.  You do not have to join us on Twitter.  Feel free to share your thoughts in the Goodreads group if you can't make the chat on Twitter.  Get the full reading schedule HERE.  This month we are reading:

TuesBookTalk--Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Have you been wanting to read the Man Booker Prize winner of 2009, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel?  Has it been languishing in your TBR stack--looking at you with forlorn eyes?  Well, I have just the thing for you.  On Tuesday, June 1st we will begin discussing Wolf Hall on TuesBookTalk on Twitter.  We are starting with Part One.  The chat starts at 10:30 pm ET (9:30 pm CT) and lasts for an hour.  You can follow @TuesBookTalk and/or @TrueBookAddict for information and updates.  The hashtag we use for the chat is #TuesBookTalk (or #tuesbooktalk).  I hope you will join us! From what I've been hearing around the blogosphere, it's a great book!

Have you heard about TuesBookTalk on Twitter?

TuesBookTalk

Every Tues. on Twitter

@ 11pm ET/10pm CT

The Little Stranger discussion

starts March 23rd

I started a weekly book chat on Twitter back in the fall.  Initially, we chatted about general book topics like favorite books in a specific genre, favorite authors, etc.  At the first of the year, we decided to take it in a new direction and start discussing a particular book.  Our first book was Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie.  This Tuesday, March 23rd, we will be starting our discussion of The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.  We will be reading and discussing two chapters per week so Tuesday will be chapters 1 & 2.  The Little Stranger has received many accolades in the book world including:

Booker Prize Longlist (2009)
Booker Prize Shortlist (2009)
Publishers Weekly's Best Books: 2009 (Fiction)
New York Times Notable Book of the Year (Fiction & Poetry, 2009)
Salon Book Award (Fiction, 2009)(show all 7 items)
Black Quill Award Nominee (2009.06/Dark Genre Novel of the Year, 2009)
Orange Prize Longlist (2010)
 
Novel synopsis:
 
From the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith comes an astonishing novel about love, loss, and the sometimes unbearable weight of the past.
 
In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to see a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the once grand house is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its garden choked with weeds. All around, the world is changing, and the family is struggling to adjust to a society with new values and rules.
 
Roddie Ayres, who returned from World War II physically and emotionally wounded, is desperate to keep the house and what remains of the estate together for the sake of his mother and his sister, Caroline. Mrs. Ayres is doing her best to hold on to the gracious habits of a gentler era and Caroline seems cheerfully prepared to continue doing the work a team of servants once handled, even if it means having little chance for a life of her own beyond Hundreds.
 
But as Dr. Faraday becomes increasingly entwined in the Ayreses' lives, signs of a more disturbing nature start to emerge, both within the family and in Hundreds Hall itself. And Faraday begins to wonder if they are all threatened by something more sinister than a dying way of life, something that could subsume them completely.
 
Both a nuanced evocation of 1940s England and the most chill-inducing novel of psychological suspense in years, The Little Stranger confirms Sarah Waters as one of the finest and most exciting novelists writing today. (from Fantastic Fiction)
 
 
If you would like to join us in reading and discussing The Little Stranger, we meet on Twitter at 11pm ET (10pm CT) every Tuesday.  Hashtag to follow is #TuesBookTalk.  There is also a Twitter page to follow @TuesBookTalk.  My Twitter handle is @truebookaddict if you have any questions or comments.
 
I hope you will join us!