⋆.ೃ࿔࿐ྂfaith & fantasy⋆.ೃ࿔࿐ྂ discussion

Welcome to September’s Book of the Month Nomination Thread!

Please follow the guidelines below when nominating.

1) You are allowed to nominate a maximum of 3 books for each month's BotM.

2) If someone has already nominated a book that you wanted to nominate, please second it! I will only be picking the top 3-6 books to vote on in the final poll, so the more total seconds a book has, the more likely it will be selected for the poll.

3) If you want to nominate books *and* second books, you need to make sure you do not exceed 6 in total AND that you nominate no more than 3. For example:

• If you nominate 3 books, you can only second 3 books.
• If you do not nominate any books, you can second 6 books.
• If you nominate 1 book, you can second 5 books.

4) Also, please do not nominate any books that we have already read in the past couple of years. You can view the books Faith & Fantasy has already read here.

5) The book(s) you nominate must be in the fantasy genre (here at Faith & Fantasy, both sci-fi and fairy tales may be included) and be clean or relatively clean.

6) Try to nominate books that have at least 1,000 ratings (NOT reviews) on GR. This will make it more likely that our libraries will have them. (This isn't a hard and fast rule--just preferred.)

7) Try to nominate books from *Christian authors* as much as possible. It doesn't have to have obvious spiritual themes, but please *don't ever nominate a book with themes that clash with biblical truth*. This is especially important due to the fact that F&F has members of all ages.

Some content guidelines:

• Limited or no profanity. If there is any profanity, it should be on the “mild” side.
• Romantic relationships should be healthy.
• Romantic relationships should not get physical “on the page” beyond what could be done in public. If there has been “off the page” sexual activity, it should be between a married man and woman.
• Think: “If Jesus were to be physically sitting in my living room with me, would I read this book, in its entirety, aloud to Him?"

I will create a poll for us to vote on based on this thread's nominations sometime between Wednesday evening and Friday evening. The poll will be linked in this thread and will be available from F&F's homepage under "Polls".

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask them below! Happy nominating!

I nominate:
This Present Darkness
The Night Circus
How to Solve Your Own Murder

I nominate The Green Ember by S.D. Smith

Jessica, we just read Tress of the Emerald Sea a couple months ago

Does anyone know if Caraval by Stephenie Garber is appropriate for this group?

@Bella
I believe it’s pretty clean. I think there’s some kissing and maybe a few suggestive comments, but no scenes. It’s also not Christian. I’d say it’s ok if you want to nominate it!

@Ellie Ok, thanks! In that case:

I nominate:

Caraval

Golden Daughter (I know this is part of a series, but I've heard it's perfectly fine to read this one without having read the previous ones)

Ah, okay. I couldn't find the post where y'all did, lol.

Tress was last June and one of my favorite reads of the year! Good recommendation Jessica! Also if you look for the Book of the Month category in our group you will see all the books we’ve read together! It’s super helpful 😄. The Book of the Month nominations are totally a separate category.

Yeah, I just discovered that, XDDDDD. Thank you!

Jessica wrote: "Ah, okay. I couldn't find the post where y'all did, lol."

You should be able to click the link in the first post..... Let me know if it isn't working.

EllieJellyBean :D wrote: "@Bella
I believe it’s pretty clean. I think there’s some kissing and maybe a few suggestive comments, but no scenes. It’s also not Christian. I’d say it’s ok if you want to nominate it!"

I haven't read it, but someone I know has and said it really isn't appropriate. It's hard to know when we haven't read the books, but I think maybe we should err on the side of caution. It could be a buddy read, for sure. What do you think, Ellie?

I nominate Wishtress and The Story Peddler

Mary Emma wrote: "I nominate The Book of Three (Lloyd Alexander)"

I am ok with The Book of Three, but I think folks should know that the magic is a bit "occultish."

Sharon wrote: "Jessica wrote: "Ah, okay. I couldn't find the post where y'all did, lol."

You should be able to click the link in the first post..... Let me know if it isn't working."

I found it! (:

Jessica wrote: "Sharon wrote: "Jessica wrote: "Ah, okay. I couldn't find the post where y'all did, lol."

You should be able to click the link in the first post..... Let me know if it isn't working."

I found it! (:"

:-)

Sharon wrote: "Mary Emma wrote: "I nominate The Book of Three (Lloyd Alexander)"

I am ok with The Book of Three, but I think folks should know that the magic is a bit "occultish.""

Oh, really? Hmm… I might find another book to nominate, then. I’d still like to read it and see what I think, but I don’t want to force that on the group.

I second the Wishtress

Sharon wrote: "EllieJellyBean :D wrote: "@Bella
I believe it’s pretty clean. I think there’s some kissing and maybe a few suggestive comments, but no scenes. It’s also not Christian. I’d say it’s ok if you want ..."

Ok, I can change my nomination if you want.

@Sharon
Oh really? I haven’t read it, but from what I’ve seen it didn’t seem that bad. And Taz has read it and didn’t think it was that inappropriate. Sorry, Bella! Maybe I should have done more research. 😅

I nominate Of Stormlarks and Silence (Constance Lopez)

I second This Present Darkness
I second Of Stormlarks and Silence

@Ellie and Bella, I will try to do a little more research. I know it is a popular series, so I don’t want to be rigid, but I also know we’ve run into trouble before with content, so I want to head that off. Keep it on for now.😍

I nominate

Cloak of the Light
Out of the Silent Planet

I second

This Present Darkness

I third This Present Darkness.

I second Cloak of the Light.

EllieJellyBean :D wrote: "@Sharon
Oh really? I haven’t read it, but from what I’ve seen it didn’t seem that bad. And Taz has read it and didn’t think it was that inappropriate. Sorry, Bella! Maybe I should have done more r..."

Hey guys--so I did some more research, including reading reviews and talking to a couple of people from F&F who have read the book. I don't think this is a good option for our group-wide BotM. Feel free to message me if you want to know more, but let's keep Caraval to buddy-reads, versus BotM.

If you guys could edit your posts, that would be amazing!🤩 It will make my tallying of books for the poll much easier.

Thanks so much!!

Mary Emma wrote: "Sharon wrote: "Mary Emma wrote: "I nominate The Book of Three (Lloyd Alexander)"

I am ok with The Book of Three, but I think folks should know that the magic is a bit "occultish.""

Oh, really? Hm..."

Do you still want to use this as your nomination? If not, can you edit or delete your post? (It's a great series--I enjoyed it. I just wanted people to know that the magic is different than our normal run of the mill YA magic.)

I nominate:

Our Divine Mischief (<1,000 ratings)
Swift
Mortal Queens

I second Mortal Queens and Our Divine Mischief!

I second Swift

I nominate Ignite by Kara Swanson

I second Claok if Light and Out of the Silent Planet

Sharon wrote: "Mary Emma wrote: "Sharon wrote: "Mary Emma wrote: "I nominate The Book of Three (Lloyd Alexander)"

I am ok with The Book of Three, but I think folks should know that the magic is a bit "occultish...."

I deleted it! 😊

I second How to Solve Your Own Murder

I third Out of the Silent Planet.

I third How to Solve Your Own Murder

I third Mortal Queens

I fifth? this present darkness

I will make the poll tomorrow, so make sure to get your nominations/seconds in!

I second:

Swift
The Night Cirus
The Story Peddler
How to Solve Your Own Murder

(That's allowed, since I only nominated two, right?)

@Sharon will the poll be posted in this thread? So excited to be able to participate this month!!

I second
Of Stormlarks and Silence
Out Of the Silent Planet

I'll third Of Stormlarks and Silence as well as Cloak of Light.

I fourth Cloak of Light!

I nominate:
Spindle by W. R. Gingell
To Bind Fire by D. E. Carson
By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson

I second:
Swift
Out of the Silent Planet
Cloak of the Light

I nominate
Dreamland
and
Reckless

I nominate Chosen Ones

Here's the poll! It opens at midnight, Eastern Time. Happy voting!

(Oh, by the way, I discovered that How to Solve Your Own Murder is not fantasy, so while it had enough votes, it doesn't meet the requirements, so it is not on the poll.)

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...