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March 2011 Book of the Month: Poll

What Will Be Our March Book of the Month?

Poll ended at Sat February 12th, 2011, 5:36 am

India Black by Carol Karr
2
14%
The Raven's Bride by Lenore Hart
9
64%
Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor
3
21%
 
Total votes: 14

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boswellbaxter
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Post by boswellbaxter » Sat February 12th, 2011, 4:39 am

I put a poll up about the future of BOTM here:

http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... php?t=4345
Susan Higginbotham
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Madeleine
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Post by Madeleine » Sat February 12th, 2011, 6:27 pm

I'll usually go along with the poll if it's a book I have on a tbr pile; sometimes a book nominated by someone in the US might not yet be available in the UK or only be out in hardback, and vice versa, or might be out of print in one domain etc.

I've posted some more comments on the shall we keep BOTM thread.
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Ash
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Post by Ash » Sun February 13th, 2011, 1:02 am

[quote=""Margaret""]We had quite a good discussion on Wolf Hall, as I recall, as well as on some other BOM choices. The key, I think, is to pick a book a sufficient number of us really will read, and which offers an interesting enough reading experience that people can have varied reactions to it that are worth discussing.[/quote]

Exactly. Wolf Hall and Company of Liars are two that stand out recently. They were books that were easy to discuss because they were complex and layered. It also helps if one person, say the person who nominated the book, could be a cheerleader for the discussion, encouraging others to participate by nudging the book in other threads, or just in general being an eager participant of it.

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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Sun February 13th, 2011, 1:06 am

It also helps if one person, say the person who nominated the book, could be a cheerleader for the discussion, encouraging others to participate by nudging the book in other threads, or just in general being an eager participant of it.
Yes, good idea!
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annis
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Post by annis » Sun February 13th, 2011, 1:11 am

Yes, I agree with Ash. If one or two people are excited enough about a book to get a discussion going it usually has a follow-on effect. Sometimes I wonder what happened to all the members who nominated a winning BOTM :)

One problem for me is older books which I've read in the past. Even if I really enjoyed them at the time, I'd have to re-read them to discuss them properly. I've usually moved on, and have too many ones I haven't read yet that I want to get on with. If it's going to involve buying a book that I may not be super keen on I wouldn't usually bother either.

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Post by Divia » Sun February 13th, 2011, 1:13 am

I dont think I or Misfit could have been anymore of a cheerleader for My name is Mary..... than we already were.
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Vanessa
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Post by Vanessa » Sun February 13th, 2011, 11:01 am

I've mentioned on another thread that Mary Sutter wasn't published in the UK until January so it was difficult for those such as myself to participate in the discussion.

Some books have set discussion questions - I wonder if they would help with getting a discussion going? We don't have to answer any specifically but could help as memory joggers!
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Post by Ash » Sun February 13th, 2011, 3:15 pm

Oh gawd those are usually so awful. They are usually rather shallow and read like a HS lit class exam. There are a few that might be jumping off questions that lead to others, but I wouldn't want to base a discussion on them

That being said, how about this? The person who nominates the book comes up with a few questions that he thought might lead to some good discussion, then post them at the top of the month's page. That would get people thinking about the questions, thinking about how the book might approach them, and then actually read and discuss said book. (repost in poll thread)

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Vanessa
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Favourite HF book: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell!
Preferred HF: Any
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Post by Vanessa » Sun February 13th, 2011, 3:22 pm

Yes, I must admit some of the questions are like being back at school. I was just thinking that some of them could be prompts of what to discuss - not individually answered specifically. I think your idea of someone putting forward their own questions is a good one. It's not always easy to think them up, though.

Actually, the discussion can be better if the book is disliked - probably more to chat about. :rolleyes:
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boswellbaxter
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Post by boswellbaxter » Mon February 14th, 2011, 1:31 pm

We have a winner!

The Raven's Bride by Lenore Hart
Susan Higginbotham
Coming in October: The Woodvilles


http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/
http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/blog/

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