All About Books discussion

Any group announcements will be posted here.

Sign-ups for posting in 'The Monday Poem' and 'My Reading Journey' are available. Share with us!

Two new sections to the Discussion Board were opened today - 'What Have You Read?', a section for book lists of all types, and 'Just for Fun', a section for book memes, games, etc. Feel free to start your own thread in either of these sections!

The nomination thread for October Monthly Fiction Read is now OPEN :-)

Cast your vote here:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Instructions on how it works can be found in post #1.

The Poll for our Non-Fiction group read October/November is up! Come and vote here!

As of today we have a dedicated folder for non-fiction! :) All non-fiction related threads have been moved there.

Our TWO winners of the non-fiction group read for October/November have been chosen. They are Girl, Interrupted and Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA!

For any kind of pre-banter go here ;)

The poll for the October 2013 Fiction Read is now up and will run until the 15th September! The results have been hidden until the poll ends to add a bit of mystery, haha ;-)

Click here to vote.

The winner of the October 2013 Fiction Read poll is The Night Circus by Erin uMorgenstern. It was a close run thing, beating The House on the Strand by just one vote!

As the poll for the October Fiction read was such a close-run thing, we have decided to try having two fiction books as October Group Reads.

The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier will therefore feature as an alternative October fiction group read. Please feel free to join in the discussions!

Spooky Booky Challenge - October 2013

There has now been a special Halloween challenge set up!

Go here for more info:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Our group play read starts today and runs through Dec. 21. We are reading The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

Join the discussion in Group Reads, at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

From today on we have a new discussion board. It is called "The Best 100 Novels" and will closely follow the Guardian's/Observer's project to compile a list of the best Anglo-American novels over the course of the next 100 weeks. Join the discussion!

The nominations for the November & December 2013 Classics Read are now OPEN! Nominations will run until Oct. 5th.

The nominations thread is in the Group Fiction folder, located here.

Nominations for November 2013 Fiction Read will open on Sunday 29th September.

The thread can be found here:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Nominations for the November Fiction Read are now OPEN! :-) check the post above ^ for the link to the thread.

The poll for the November Fiction Group Read is now available :)

Here's the link:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/9...

The winner of the November fiction read poll isThe Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

At the moment it is only 99p if you have a kindle!

I have set up a discussion thread:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The group read nomination thread for Non-Fiction in January/December is open for nominations now.

Go here to nominate: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I realize that it is probably ridiculously early, but I have set up the folder for 2014 Personal Challenges. Feel free to start your own threads about what you hope to accomplish, reading-wise, for the next year.

The Poll for our Non-Fiction group read in December/January is up now, so come and vote here

The Poll for our December Fiction Group Read is now open - please vote!!

You can find the poll at the bottom of the group page.

The winner of the December Group Fiction read poll is Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood.

I will set up a discussion thread shortly.

The Winter Holiday Challenge is now open!

https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/...

Here is the 2014 schedule of plays for group reads:
(subject to change if necessary)

Winter (21 Dec '13 - 20 March '14) - Tom Stoppard;
I will be reading Arcadia and possibly one or two others (such as Travesties or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)

Spring (20 March - 21 June) - Medea by Euripides;
I will be reading several other plays from ancient Greece including some comedies by Aristophanes (such as Clouds,Frogs, The Birds) and rereading Sophocles' trilogy on Oedipus if anyone prefers to not read Medea

Summer (21 June - 22 Sept) - Loot by Joe Orton

Fall (22 Sept - 21 Dec '14) - The Imaginary Invalid by Molière

Winter (21 Dec '14 - 20 March '15) -- Anna Christie by Eugene O'Neill

Nominations for our non-fiction group read in February/March are now open.

Our theme for this non-fiction round is philosophy.

Please go here to nominate: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

We are making some changes to the Theme challenges for 2014. Instead of having the 2-month themes, there are 12 themes for the entire year. Each of the 12 was inspired by a month's holiday or event and the list can be found in "About Theme Challenges" in the Theme Challenges folder located here.

You can participate in as many or as few as you like. You follow the calendar and do one Theme a month, or you can mix them up as the mood (or readalongs or group reads) takes you. Read one book for each Theme, or read many books in just one. Hopefully these Theme challenges will help you 'broaden your horizons' and try a few different genres!

The winners of the Non-Fiction Group Read for February/March are:

1st place The Republic by Plato
and
2nd place The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell.

In contrast to what we usually do, we might stagger and structure those reads to allow for more in depth discussion. A possible schedule is currently discussed here

Here's the schedule for our non-fiction philosphy group reads:

1st - 21st February: The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

22nd February - 31st March The Republic by Plato.

Both books are available from Project Gutenberg if you would like to join in.

This is the last day for nominations for the February Group Fiction Read - if you would like to second or nominate anything - please check out the link below:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

At the moment there are only two books going forward to the poll -

Changing Places
The New York Trilogy

The poll for the February Group read is now open, it will remain open until 16th January - so don't delay, vote for your choice now!

The poll can be found at the bottom of the group home page.

After discussion with Jenny, I have decided to add "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier into the mix, since some of us are reading this in February, and there were only two choices otherwise this month.

Just to let you know, that we've moved all the 2013 Personal Reads and Challenges to our respective archive folder: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group... in order to make some room for more... :)

The winner of our February group fiction read is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. One of my own personal favourites, I would recommend it!

Sign ups for the new Recommendation Swap are open until 28th January - please check out this new feature of All About Books:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The new Recommendation Swap partners are now listed in the thread below:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The March Group Fiction nominations are now open in the Group Read - Fiction folder:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Nominations will be open until Feb. 10th or until 6 books have been nominated and seconded.

Nominations for our non-fiction group read in April/May are now open.

Our theme for this non-fiction round is travel literature.

Please go here to nominate or second a nomination: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The poll for our non-fiction group read for April/May is now open for you to vote, and will run until the 8th of March.

Go here to vote.

Nominations are now open for our April group fiction read - please nominate on the thread below:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Nominations are now open for our April-May Group Classic book. Please nominate or second books on the thread below:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Our seasonal poet for Spring will be Robert Frost. The thread can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The poll for our group classic read for April/May will open 8th of March and run until the 25th.

The poll can be found here:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/9...

The winners of our April/May non-fiction group read are The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński and The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin.

Threads can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

and here:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The poll for our April Fiction Read is now OPEN.

Please cast your vote:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/1...

Don't forget to vote for our classic group read too!

The winner of our April group fiction read is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer.

The winner of our May group fiction read is Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I will add a discussion thread shortly.

The June/July nomination thread for non-fiction is up You can find it here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

We've also added a poll in order to decide whether or not to stick to the current format of the NF group read. You can find the poll here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

The poll for the NF group read is up now and can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Also by poll result: as of now: ONE book per poll will get chosen to be the bi-monthly non-fiction group read.

The winner for our non-fiction poll for June/July is: The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser.

Due to the fact that there was 2 books tied for the June Fiction Group Read on the poll, Shirley and I had to decide between them. Therefore, we have decided that our 'official' Fiction Group Read for June is The Round House by Louise Erdrich. I will set up a thread so that anyone who would like to read Under the Dome by Stephen King can do so as a readalong.

Thanks again to everyone who voted!