Chicks On Lit discussion

There had been a question asked in the October group read thread regarding whether or not we were having November and December group reads.

Tera and I discussed this, and here is what we came up with:

I think we take Nov and Dec off for group reads. The holidays hit people harder than they think it will and they usually have a 100 good intentions but family and life tend to dominate over reading time. People can still do buddy reads if they want but I think it's too much hassle to try more than that during the holidays.
I'm thinking maybe after the new year we pick a book that we can talk an author into doing a Q&A session with. That might be a good way to kick off the new year and we have had good success with that in the past. If we start brainstorming and pick some books in Dec and try to make contact with the authors I am sure we can find one that will agree to a Q&A with us.

How does that sound to everyone?

That would be fine. Our Oct read seemed to be smaller than I had anticipated based on what I could recall from the initial nomination process. But, that might say more about my aging memory than the ratio of nomination/votes to participants.

I eventually get to the group reads.

Sheila I agree with your comment and think it is also good to be able to catch up on own choice reads. I love the QA idea.

That sounds like a good idea to me. Years ago, we had the author of The Gargoyle, Andrew Davidson take part in our book chat and that was a memorable experience; I really loved being able to talk with him.

Will this break apply to the classics and chunky reads as well?

I am going to leave the timing and selection of the next Chunky Read to Meg, since the chunkies are her babies. :o)

As to the classics, it would probably be good to wait until January to start a new discussion on one of those too. This just gives everyone a break and time to get caught up with the holidays happening. :o)

December seems to be a good time to read short stories - It's not my usual choice but at a busy time of year short stories can be read in snippets of time. I can think of 3 collections:

Olive Kitteridge by Elizbeth Strout is a series of related stories.
I think This is How You Lose Her, the new Junot Diaz, is also a collection of short stories.
And Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans - love that title!

Any other short story suggestions?

Nell, Truman Capote wrote a beautiful set of short stories that are Christmas themed. A Christmas Memory. I highly recommend it!

Will keep everyone posted on the chunkies. We are just finishing up with A Suitable Boy which was so long; the sixth longest book ever written. But, I really toned my arms with this novel.

In one of my other groups, authors Neil Gaiman and Jennifer Donnelly have both joined in for author chats.

Is there any interest in bringing back the monthly reads? I like those discussions best because the time frame consentrates them. The length of the chunky reads and some of our longer classics seems to result in my losing touch with my co-readers. Sometimes I feel like I am reading on my own. But, the monthly reads tend to keep the comment postings closer together in time.

I believe we will be bringing them back. Interest always drops off at the holiday times which is why we took a break. Hopefully everyone is ready to come back and get to reading again.