FABClub (Female Authors Book Club) discussion

And believe it or not, it's already time to start gathering some more nominations. We need books in two categories, 1) books for our Women of Africa project, anything written by a woman who was either born in or spent a significant amount of her life in Africa, and 2) anything else you would like to read that was written by a woman and doesn't fit into the first category.

That's simple enough, right?

The number of books we choose will depend on the poll results, depending on how many are way out in front. (Based on past performance, we're possibly talking somewhere between 2 and 6.)

I'd like to nominate The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna for the Women of Africa project.

For general reading, I'd like to nominate The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller which won the Orange (now Baileys) prize in 2012, as well as the Gaylactic Spectrum Award for 2013. On Goodreads, it has an average rating of 4.22 with 40,000+ ratings which is one of the highest ratings I've ever seen so it must be pretty good, right?

I'd also like to nominate another Baileys prize winner (2014) - A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride, which is a short read at 205 pages, so we all have a better chance of squeezing that one in!

Full disclosure: Audible UK have Baileys prize winners on sale at £4.99 each this month ;-)

And how about an African horror for the Women of Africa? I would nominate The Sleepless by Nuzo Onoh. Nuzo Onoh was born in Nigeria, though she lives in England now.

I'd like to nominate The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, The Door by Magda Szabó, and The Blue Line by Ingrid Betancourt

Wow, what fascinating choices!

I'm going to go figure out what I want to nominate - I've been way too busy this month! Any other nominations before the polls go up? Last call!

I've got some on my to read list that might be good for the group: Caucasia, Birdie, The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam, or Chelsea Girls

Or the Vegetarian?!

Taylor wrote: "Or the Vegetarian?!"

Ooh, good one. I'm very keen to read The Vegetarian!

And the first poll is up! Come vote: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Oh yikes! I forgot to say that the second poll is also up: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

The first poll closes today - so last chance to express your opinion (or perhaps change your opinion!).

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

And now it's your last chance for the second poll if you want to take another look!

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

I'm excited we are going to be reading the Vegetarian!!!

Me too! And also Homecoming. What months are these going to be for?

Seeking opinions on the polls.
1. Take the top one or two of each poll?
2. Do two more polls with left-overs for the runners up, or ask for more nominations?

Alexa wrote: "Seeking opinions on the polls.
1. Take the top one or two of each poll?
2. Do two more polls with left-overs for the runners up, or ask for more nominations?"

Much as I love voting in polls (!) I think it would make perfect sense to take the top two of each poll, as both runners up had a good number of votes.

If we wanted to plan three months at a time, we could then do another poll for the third place book?

One of the things I like about this group is that we always know well in advance which books we are going to read, which helps with planning & making sure we have a copy of the book ready.

I would be fine with taking the he top 2 and then doing a new poll with the leftovers for the third month or take the top two and then get new noms. I think the second one would be my preference as it doesn't really seem the leftovers got much support.

So here's a proposal, what if we mix it up a bit, and do Homegoing and The Song of Achilles in September, and then do The Vegetarian and What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours for October. Then, if needed, we can round out our next round of nominations with some of the also-rans.

Sounds good to me.