ignite the books discussion

These do not have to be books that you've read (although they can be!) But basically anything you're interested in reading or chatting about or sharing with other people can be suggested here, and I'll make a poll so people can vote on the next month's books.

ETA: I think it would be best if everyone (who wants to) suggests one book a month, just so everyone's in with an equal shot of their book getting chosen. You can suggest the same book again the next month, or choose something else, whichever!

ETA2: Please don't suggest books that you have written yourself. Feel free to talk about your own books in other relevant threads, I am all for supporting writers and new writing! But this book club is not an avenue for self promotion.

Belzhar , by Meg Wolitzer. The link has the full description, but it is 'a breathtaking and surprising story about first love, deep sorrow, and the power of acceptance', which is right up my alley tbh. I have heard some good chatter about this from places like Book Riot.

I just joined the group but Belzhar sounds like its right up my alley

Definitely sounds interesting.

Now To see if I can think of some suggestions of my own...

yesss all suggestions are welcome! it will probably be a bit of a rush job picking a book for April, seeing as April is. not that many days away, and this is what happens when you decide to set up a book club over the course of a day. but if we can get some suggestions in the next say, 24 hours? I'll make a poll and we can vote for April's book until the end of March

if that makes sense.

Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marillier.

Ooh, Belzhar looks really neat; I'd be down for that.

Would anyone be interested in Beguilement, I Capture the Castle, or maybe A Wizard of Earthsea?

They're all books I've read before, enjoyed, and wouldn't mind reading again (and getting other people's opinion on).

Kael wrote: "Would anyone be interested in Beguilement, I Capture the Castle, or maybe A Wizard of Earthsea?

They're all books I've read before, enjoyed, and wouldn't min..."

pick your fave and i'll put it in the poll for people to vote for tomorrow! something that has an ebook version would be great so i can do a giveaway for it (i am SUPER WELL ORGANISED look at me go)

You're asking me to choose a favorite?! *le gasp*

...well if I really had to choose for this moth, I'd probably go w/ beguilement (which should have an e-book version since it's new-ish).

I know, i am the worst. but i'll put it in the poll!

The Lost Sun by Tessa Gratton. Norse mythology, badass women, POC MC, beserkers. Can't go wrong.

I love that book! The whole series really, just an awesome mix of mythology and alternate world.

I've already read this one, but wouldn't mind re-reading it with a group since the first book in the sequel series came out this month!

Soulless by Gail Carriger. Excellent mix of paranormal romance, steampunk, humor, and just generally a fantastic time.

Kael wrote: "I love that book! The whole series really, just an awesome mix of mythology and alternate world."

RIGHT it's one of my favorite series

Ashe wrote: "The Lost Sun by Tessa Gratton. Norse mythology, badass women, POC MC, beserkers. Can't go wrong."

This sounds right up my alley! Along similar lines, maybe By the Mountain Bound by Elizabeth Bear or The King's Peace by Jo Walton.

Okay, that seems like a good number to vote on so far! If you've suggested more than one book, I'll RNG one of them to put in the poll.

Ooooh I've just looked through the suggestions and I'm looking forward to the poll!

April is my last full month of the semester. Hopefully, I'll find a copy of any of the books. And time.

Rachel wrote: "April is my last full month of the semester. Hopefully, I'll find a copy of any of the books. And time."

It's okay if you can't! You are more than welcome to read it later and join in on the discussion then (I'm always happy to come back and talk about old books), or join in at a later book. I know one of my friends is super busy for the next two months, so she won't be doing the reading thing until after then.

There are too many good choices in the poll, and I have no idea what to vote for. . .

Kael wrote: "There are too many good choices in the poll, and I have no idea what to vote for. . ."

WELL you can always read ones that we don't pick on your own! so maybe vote for the one you're most interested in discussing? unless you are interested in discussing them all equally, in which case i suggested random.org

I went with random. So we'll see how that goes.

ahh I kind of love them all

However, I really like the idea of Daughter of the Forest. There's also just something about stories that include a good, caring sister and brother relationship (especially since there are authors out there that don't tend to write them like that).

ooh i actually already have the lost son bought in preparation to read awhile ago so i'd totally be for that AND I LOVE SOULLESS A LOT I'd totally vote for that too if only to have an excuse to re-read it

Feel free to start making suggestions for next month's book! I'll take the first five to make things simple, and then put up a poll to vote around the 24th of April.

my vote's for A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray. It's been on my to-read list forever.

Summary:

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.

...I'm a sucker for parallel universes

I'm interested in reading The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley (she of the Bel Dame Apocrypha)!

Diviners by Libba Bray

Evie's been up to no good in her small Ohio town. After the last straw when exposing one too many secrets, she's shipped off to live with her strange uncle in Manhattan. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there's been a string of occult-like murders in the area, and her uncle has been asked to consult. Soon Evie finds out she's not the only one that has strange abilities that have been growing stronger. The Diviners must stand together, or some very bad things will happen soon...

Urban fantasy/historical fiction/murder mystery. Yes, there's the pesky start of a love triangle, but the rest is very good and spooky.

I would be so up for reading The Diviners! I've been meaning to reread it in advance of Lair of Dreams (assuming Lair of Dreams actually happens). It's a fun read.

Pretty sure that comes out at the end of this month :-D

I'm gonna put forth The Invisible Ring as my suggestion.

There's space for one more suggestion if you guys wanna! Else I'll find something to foist on you all.

Maybe The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter? It's a book of short stories--dark retellings of fairy tales. Might not be for everyone but check it out?

How about An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir? I've had an ARC of it for ages, but haven't gotten around to reading it.

Summary: Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

*headdesk* sorry, clarification on Invisible ring: the mc is a pleasure slave but there's no sex, or at least not nonconsent sex (it's been a while since I read it so can't remember if there's sex at all in it), there is talk about what life is like for him before this book starts though; and another character is a rape survivor. I really wanted to do a book from the world, but the first book in the main trilogy has some brutal, but not explicit, child abuse, so this seemed like a less truamatizing intro.

Thanks for clarifying! I'll edit the note i've got on the poll c:

Definitely maybe voted for a book that wasn't the one I suggested. :B So many good options!

Taking suggestions for June's Book of the Month! I'll take the first 5 (or six if we end up with just one more), and put the poll up around May 25

Not Quite a Lady, definitely more light hearted than our first two books, though there are two or three mentions of child abuse (but more in a 'that kid's lucky to have escaped it' way).

Hood because who doesn't like medieval retellings of Robin Hood. It's been several years since I read it, but I remember really enjoying it.

The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima. Teenage boy now has people wanting to use him in a gladiator-like game once he forgets to take his heart medication. Wizardry and gorgeous prose ensured.

Tinder by Sally Gardner. It's a retelling of the Tinderbox by Hans Christian Anderson and it's quite dark but the illustrations and prose is gorgeous! (Warning: there's a lot of mentions of violence and gore and there's also quite a bit gore in the illustrations as well)

Uprooted by Naomi Novik! I haven't read it so I don't know if there are any trigger warnings but apparently people has been comparing it with Cruel Beauty and A Court of Thorn and Roses so I assume it draws some inspiration from Beauty and the Beast like those two other series.

The Wrath and the Dawn:
story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

--

I haven't read it, so don't know if there are any trigger warnings!

okay, i think that's a good number! thanks for the suggestions guys c:

Leah wrote: "The Wrath and the Dawn:
story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, ta..."

Just to help give more info on Nym's suggestion, the only trigger warnings I can remember from Wrath and the Dawn from the top of my head is that it has some sexual content (not graphic tho, just what you'd expect in the older spectrum of YA) and there's some gore/violence (someone's throat getting slit, someone being strangled/suffocated) but that's about it.

Miyanomori wrote: "Leah wrote: "The Wrath and the Dawn:
story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of..."

thank you mitsu!

If it's not too late, Neil Gaiman's American God's, it's absolutely fantastic

The poll's already up, sorry! I'll save this suggestion for next month though c: