2015: The Year of Reading Women discussion

Welcome to this currently-evolving group... hopefully in a few days, the structure of the group will be finalized below.

Feel free to begin chats here, though, and perhaps start discussing books you want to read in 2015. The whole idea here will be to try to get as many group/team reads as we can going at the same time throughout 2015 on books written by women.

Thanks for the invite - so excited to participate and learn from you and my fellow members. 2015 is going to be another awesome year of reading.

Brian wrote: "Thanks for the invite - so excited to participate and learn from you and my fellow members. 2015 is going to be another awesome year of reading."

Very, very glad to have you on board with us, Brian!

Thanks for the invite and this great initiative, P. Looking forward to 2015, some excellent reads and the celebration of Women writers.

I wasn't actually invited, just saw Aubrey's updates and my friends flocking here, so I hope I am not unwelcome... :P

Very excited about this!

I got really happy when I saw on Tumblr that you made this group! Can't wait to start reading and discussing :)

Great - thanks for the invite! I am a bit hindered by the fact that 2015 is my year of Modernism so will be focusing on that period but, as my priority is reading lesser known works by women and minorities etc from that period, I hope some overlap can occur.

For me 2015 is also defined already... Many classics and books I already own. And more on music and history.

But I will follow the group and hope to cross paths with it.

Jonathan, I plan to focus on several periods - but Victorian and modernist women included. Bring it!

Well, more George Eliot is on my list, following my read of Romola (Proustitute's recommendation anyway)...

Proustitute wrote: "Jonathan, I plan to focus on several periods - but Victorian and modernist women included. Bring it!"

What is the easiest way for me to suggest some author/books?

J, will have authorial type threads up over the weekend. This just formed kind of spontaneously - bear with us, please!

Thanks to Aubrey for inviting me to this group. I also have some things in mind for 2015 reads and hope that some reads from this group will be added to my list. I know it will be interesting!

Of course! will do...

Thanks for the invite,Proustitute! I hope I am able to contribute to the group discussions :)

Traveller wrote: "I wasn't actually invited, just saw Aubrey's updates and my friends flocking here, so I hope I am not unwelcome... :P"

Who are we to turn away any reader interested in reading women? You are very welcome, Traveller.

Hello, all. As you probably well know, I'm all of a flutter about this. Here's to a fruitful, female-author-filled year!

Every year is a year of reading women, so I'll definitely be a part of this one!

Thank you so much for the invite Aubrey! This is very interesting... looking forward to everyone's different opinions!

I'm really excited about this. I hope this turns out to be a great year of reading and discovery for everybody.

And to think I recently added a bookshelf solely for my '2015-women authored reads'. I'll be exploring from this:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...

Thanks for the invite. I hope this is going to be a delightful experience.

Aubrey, how sweet of you to send the invite!:) I'm happy to be here!

Thank you for the invite, I do need to read more women!!

Hello all. After some co-modding consultation with Prou, I've made up directory folders of authors for each letter of the alphabet. If you go to the group's main page, you'll see a shiny new 'Virginia Woolf' thread in the 'W's' folder. The other letters are hiding, but if you wish to create your own author topic, you'll be able to scroll down to the corresponding letter and add it accordingly. Procedure-wise, we'll stick to having the author's name as the thread title and let the threads wander where they will.

I'll be crossposting this in the 'group reads and author discussions (tentative thread)'.

So, we get to make our own threads, Aubrey?

Traveller - based on author surnames, yes. If they don't exist already, that is.

All discussion and group read proposals and such will take place in those threads, all based around author names.

Thanks, Proustitute - so, is the only prerequisite that the author must be female? Do you have any genre rules?

Thanks for the invite Aubrey. I'm looking forward to participating as much as possible. I'm always overextended as far as GR groups and books are concerned but I will definitely plan to be a part of this adventure.

I may do a lot of lurking here, but I can't pass up the chance to be involved, if only peripherally.

I managed to add an author I can knowledgeably advocate for in every category except for I, Q, V, X, and Z. To anyone who has a candidate in mind for any of those, help!

Thanks for the invite Aubrey! Just as well as I was planning to start the year reading Radwa Ashour's
The Woman from Tantoura: A Palestinian Novel.

http://www.voanews.com/content/egypti...

Ashour is supposed to be a female counterpart to Elias Khoury’s monumental Gate of the Sun.

Aubrey wrote: "I managed to add an author I can knowledgeably advocate for in every category except for I, Q, V, X, and Z. To anyone who has a candidate in mind for any of those, help!"

These can be added in later as people start thinking about what they want to read, forming groups, and so on. No need to have every author under the sun listed here just yet! But thanks, A., for your work on the author threads - much appreciated!

Traveller wrote: "Thanks, Proustitute - so, is the only prerequisite that the author must be female? Do you have any genre rules?"

Yes, female authors (or editors, if that becomes a question for anyone) only.

ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Thanks for the invite Aubrey! Just as well as I was planning to start the year reading Radwa Ashour's
The Woman from Tantoura: A Palestinian Novel.

http://www.voanews.com/content/egypti......"

Reem, I have her book Granada. Perhaps I'll make that part of my goal for this group for next year. The book you mention sounds good too. I can see that next year is going to be action-packed as far as book decisions go!

Proustitute wrote: "Aubrey wrote: "I managed to add an author I can knowledgeably advocate for in every category except for I, Q, V, X, and Z. To anyone who has a candidate in mind for any of those, help!"

These can ..."

My pleasure, and I know. This was just a tiny pet project to see if I could do it. I will wait patiently for the others.

For Z - can I suggest Zitkala-Ša?
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

I am going to be reading her next year

Sandy wrote: "A suggestion for V - how about Elizabeth von Arnim?"

The "von" is a title; she goes under A. I'll add her now. Cheers.

Jonathan wrote: "For Z - can I suggest Zitkala-Ša?"

Done!

Sandy wrote: "For I - Frances Itani"

You know you can add authors yourself? :) That's kind of the point!

Although I think we have a good start for now; I don't want everyone to feel barraged by a huge list, and I also don't want to have a lot of folders that remain empty because no one discusses or does group reads for that specific author, etc. So best to perhaps formulate a group read for Itani, if you like, and begin doing that by creating a thread for her under I.

I've spotted the group, joined, started to add comments in the 'authors' thread and only later thought I might say 'hi' - sorry, it's five a.m. where I am, and my good manners are dormant, as opposed to my desire to schedule some new reads:)

When creating new threads, BE SURE TO LINK THE AUTHOR!

This ensures that the author page on GR will be linked to the discussion, even for those not group members. It's kind of crucial!

I'll add this to the rules now.

Okay, so new rules have been added and will be (irritatingly, I think) prompted for now, just until everyone is familiarized with them.

Here they are in full, just so as we organize the coming year we're all on the same page for now:

RULES
Members are free to create author threads by surname if they do not currently exist—but be sure to search the group first to see if a thread is already present before starting a new one! When creating new author threads, be sure to link the author (just under the subject field) so that it shows up on the main Goodreads page for that author, allowing others who are not members to still have access to this group's discussion threads.

We ask that members do not create other threads at this time; we will create them in the "meta" section as the need for them arises—e.g., there will be a threads for each month, to have a hand place where people can "advertise" their upcoming group reads in case others haven't seen them formed in the specific author threads.

And, of course: be courteous to everyone, please. Enjoy.

I suggest that these rules be put in a separate thread and displayed prominently up at the top of the folders, in addition to the comment floaty box. It could be frozen to keep the official quality neat and tidy.

Aubrey wrote: "I suggest that these rules be put in a separate thread and displayed prominently up at the top of the folders, in addition to the comment floaty box. It could be frozen to keep the official quality..."

Currently, they're both on the main group page and also display right next to the comment box when you type anything here in the group. Is that not sufficient enough?

If you think we need them in a third place, by all means do so. I'm down for whatever will help and keep this as organized as possible.

I don't see them on the main group page. Anyway, I was offering the suggestion as a setup that's typical of groups like this. If it works the way it's currently set up, that's all that matters.

Recently got a taste of Renata Adler reading Speedboat & I just bought Pitch Dark. I think she deserves a look-see.

I also read The Juggler by Rachilde. I believe both her & her works have slipped through the cracks. I rather enjoyed it. Just a suggestion.

Guys, this is exciting. I love the format of the group and the freedom for members to add authors and arrange buddy reads. It's a very vibrant format and has worked incredibly well for some groups here on Goodreads. :))

I know you're a bit nervous that it may result in chaos, mods, but I know you guys as pretty capable people, so, no worries about that.

Thrilled to be here, thanks for the invite Prou. I plan on reading many women writers next year and this is about the right place where to set a permanent base camp.

It's so nice to see so many good friends here. Especially since some of them, like dear Dolors above, have been pretty valuable buddy-readers to me in the past.