CanadianContent discussion

In an effort to make choices earlier to allow for library holds and sourcing books, here is a place to make your suggestions from your looming TBR polls. Once we have some duplicates, I will add another poll.

Well the two I have had on my list for YEARS are 1984 and 419 by Will Ferguson (both number titles! :))

As only the latter is Canadian, I'd like to suggest it.

The oldest Canadian book on my TBR list is Remembering the Bones by Frances Itani.
I'd like to suggest this one.

@Allison - I have been starring at 419 on my shelf for years and was hoping to get to it this year.

@petra - Id like to read some Frances Itani too.

Great suggestions

Mine are:

By Gaslight

The Lonely Hearts Hotel

And

Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means

Three that have been on my TBR for a long time are:

Crow Lake
In the Skin of a Lion
Not Wanted On The Voyage

I would also support By Gaslight

Ditto on 419!

I have countless books on my TBR mountain. The top and sides of my bedside table are starting to look like a scale model of Mount Everest. But I'd support "By Gaslight". I have started this book no less than four times and I always love it and I'm excited a read it - until something pulls me away. I remain determined to conquer.

The two Canadian books that have been on my Goodreads TBR the longest are:

The Blind Assassin
The Free World

I have so many but the ones that I'd really like to get to sooner rather than later are:

Who Killed Ty Conn?
The Girls
The Substitute
The Widow Tree
The Night Stages
The Birthday Lunch
The Only Café

The Canadian books on my TBR the longest are:

The Birth House by Ami McKay
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

I'd take on The Gargoyle. I was considering using it for BINGO "Choose a Book Based Solely on its Cover."

Oldest Canadian novels on my TBR:
The Tin Flute
No Great Mischief
Brown Girl in the Ring

Of the ones already mentioned, I know I also have Crow Lake on my list.

Crow Lake is so good. I had it sitting around forever and finally read it for bingo a few years ago. Then I felt dumb for not having read it earlier.

I have had:

The Blind Assassin
By Gaslight
The Lonely Hearts Hotel
The Cure for Death by Lightning
A Fine Balance
on my shelf for ages...

Susan wrote: "Crow Lake is so good. I had it sitting around forever and finally read it for bingo a few years ago. Then I felt dumb for not having read it earlier."

If it helps any, that was me with Alias Grace.

My Can Lit TBRs I've had a long time are:

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
The Gargoyle


But honestly, I have even more than that sitting around. If I haven't already the title you choose, then I'm on board. :o)

To name the books to be read in this round of TBR challenge will be unfair to the other books that I don't remember I have, so I am not going to attempt :)

or.. do we all pick our own book from our TBR pile and comment on it in one thread? Happy to set up a poll but looks like lots of different options. thoughts?

❀ Susan wrote: "or.. do we all pick our own book from our TBR pile and comment on it in one thread? Happy to set up a poll but looks like lots of different options. thoughts?"

I think everyone should just pick their own books and have a fun discussion about it.

I like that idea too. It’ll be fun to hear about everyone’s book picks.

Hatchet has been on my list for a while, after my son had read it and suggested I read it too! But of course this is a series, so once I read this one, there will be 4 more books to add to TBR, so I guess this doesn't exactly help my TBR Ha Ha 😂

Which books are you planning to read for the TBR month this May?

The Dry and The Illegal

I may try for 419 if I can squeeze it in. That’s the book I’m planning to read for this bingo square.

The mountain is giant!!! If I can only pick one, then it will be 419 (I'll join you Allison & Allison!).
Also, I never finished Room - got halfway and put it down years ago, My in person book club is doing this for May, so I'll count it too.

I'm going put my library visits on hold in May/June & aim to target a more from this list. Must dust them off my shelves after way too long!

Oryx and Crake
Away
The Englishman's Boy
Half Blood Blues
Runaway
The Game
In the Skin of a Lion
Consumption
(some of these also qualify for my BINGO plans so all good!)

Pick as many as you like and sign into the challenge so you can keep track!!

Is a poll for May's Group Monthly Read still coming?

Did see a question about whether everyone should just pick their own from their TBR pile. Did see 2 or 3 positive answers to the question, but am assuming only a few responses isn't the final decision.

We regularly have Monthly Challenges where people can choose their own titles but usually that doesn't mean the Group Monthly Read is cancelled.

I am assuming the poll for what book to read in May is still coming. If lack of duplicate or triplicate suggestions is an issue, I will second and/or third/fourth the following titles below that others have previously suggested:

The Lonely Hearts Hotel
Brown Girl in the Ring
The Birth House

Hi MJ - We had only a couple of comments from Feb 20 until March 30 so will be trying something new for May and having a thread to talk about all of our individual picks for TBR month. It might be interesting to see which books overlap.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel has been on my TBR for a while - since meeting O'Neill with May last year.

You are in for a treat with The Birth House!!

@ ❀ Susan - thanks for the prompt response and clarification.

Before your note, it really wasn't clear to me on whether the May Monthly Group Read beginning with a poll was going to happen. Fyi, the books listed in my query were for the Monthly Group Read poll.

This is a great idea, making us choose a book from our own list. Two TBR birds with one stone.

I love Mount TBR month. It motivates me to read at least one or two books I’ve had sitting around forever.

I may give Joan Barfoot's Gaining Ground a try. It's been sitting on my bedside table for almost 2 years. Has anyone read it?

I often visit the monthly thread but find myself catching up too late too join in.
I have a couple on my "To Be Finished" that I'm excited to get reacquainted with.
May sounds like a good time to dust them off and push through to the end:

Barkskins - Annie Proulx
By Gaslight - Steven Price

I had been enjoying both...just sidetracked into reading something more irresistible at the time. Do you ever have those books that feel like they're getting longer as you read, instead of making progress?

Speaking of Mount TBR....

This is a relief for those of us hoarding large quantities of unread books!!

http://fal.cn/4ajJ

I like the idea of a sort of "catch up" monthly read! I desperately want to get back to Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien. I have had this book since 2016, gave it a good start in Jan, but then it was set aside. If I can finish it this month I will feel I have accomplished my goal :)

I'm hoping to read 3 or 4 books I've had in my unread bookcase for years. My first pick is The Death Of Donna Whalen, which is proving to be quite interesting since Winter explains it as "documentary fiction" (akin to In Cold Blood). He has built a novel out of slightly modified court transcripts, police interviews, and wiretap recordings from a real-life criminal case.

Also, I'm using this for bingo square O3 (fictional story about an actual event) and for Newfoundland and Labrador in the cross-country challenge. :-)

The first book to come off my TBR list this month will be The Voyage Out, which has been on the list since 2013.
I just started and am intrigued.

The first two books coming off my TBR mountain are A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and By Gaslight by Steven Price. I've started both on numerous occasions, but I have never reached the end. I need to break that streak. This IS the month to do it!

I'll make more decisions after that if I make good progress with these two books. I can use Price's book for the Bingo square for volumes over 500 pages. So that's additional motivation.

@Petra - I have never read any of Virginia Woolf so will be interested in what you think.

@Natasha - By Gaslight has been on my mountain forever!! It is so big!

@Susan - I have read one other by her, The Waves, which I thought was fantastic. It's a bit tough to read (took me ages) because of the stream of consciousness style of writing but the story was marvelous.
The Voyage Out is written in very straight forward prose (so far).
I'll let you know what I think at the end.

I've just checked Woolf's A Room of One's Own out from the library. It's been on my TBR forever. So far, I've only read herMrs. Dalloway and OrlandoI did enjoy them.

BTW, if you have an e-reader, you can download The Voyage Out from Project Gutenberg for free. It's on my kobo and I'll get to it someday. I hope.

My first book from Mount TBR is Where The Air Is Sweet which I really enjoyed. I’m hoping to start By Gaslight hopefully next week.
The only book I’ve read by Woolf is Mrs. Dalloway and I loved it - really need to read more of her books.

I really enjoy Where the Air is Sweet @Sonia. We had a great dinner/book club with the author!

@Susan that must have been an amazing dinner/book club. I thought the book was well written and was about a time and place that I knew little about.

I'm going for Song of Batoche from my TBR list. Now that I've said so in the group, maybe I will actually get down to reading it!

Re Virginia Woolf, I read To The Lighthouse in a university class and I loved loved loved it. I read Mrs Dalloway years later and also loved it. Like you guys, I feel I need to get to more of her books.

Allison, Mrs. Dalloway is a character in The Voyage Out, too. I wonder if Virginia Woolf liked the character so much that she wrote another book about her....or how it came about that 2 unrelated books have the same character.

Interesting, Petra. That reminds me of Michael Redhill using his pseudonym as a character in Bellevue Square! The imaginations of these authors really must blur into other parts of their lives (and stories). Maybe that's how these sorts of overlaps occur!

It looks like a few of us are giving By Gaslight a go this month. I was able to pick-up where I'd left off as if no time had passed - halfway through and it's a book that has me looking for every opportunity to squeeze in a chapter throughout the day. Great atmosphere and characters and a book that makes you feel like you're running from one unexpected to another along with them. @Natasha I can see Dickens being a great companion to it this month.