Books & Music TPF Book Club -- Book AND Format Suggestions

CobaltBlu

CobaltBlu

Butterfly Wrangler
Moderator
O.G.
Oct 20, 2006
41,597
18,951
#1
I know you are reading TGwtDT at the moment, we would love to get feedback on how the format is working for you for this selection is working out. It looks like the discussion died out...would you like to start new thread for the remainder of the book?

At the moment Tracy and I are moderators here, and would love more input on to get the Book Club in high gear.

Please use this thread to give feedback on the current system, suggestions for ways to make it better, and of course ideas for the November selection.

I would LOVE to join you for the November read!!! :heart:
 
#2
Copying jburghs suggestion here....

jburgh said:
Here is my 2 cents worth. Once a book is chosen, I would have a due date. Then I would have one general discussion thread, as well as 3 specific question threads. I recently read Water for Elephants and at the end there were questions for discussion. You can find book club discussion questions on the web. The mod could sticky then these threads for a period of time, then release them when it is time for the next book.

For example, if the chosen book is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, reading could commence November 1st, and would need to be finished by December 1st. Is this a reasonable timeframe?
On November 1st, the following 4 threads (1 general, 3 specific) would be stickied:

Book Club: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - General Discussion thread - Identify Spoilers Please!

Book Club: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Question #1 (Swedish-vs-English)
Opening post would ask the question: In Swedish, the title was Men who Hate Women, but it was changed to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo when it was translated to English. Which do you think is a more fitting title?

Book Club: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Question #2 (Blackmail)
Opening post would ask the question: Blackmail is used several times in the novel, for different ends. Who uses it most effectively, and why?

Book Club: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Question #3 (Parenting)
Opening post would ask the question: Discuss the role of parents in the novel. Who is a good parent, and why? How might Harriet's story have changed if her mother had behaved differently? What about Lisbeth's? Is Mikael a good father?
Click to expand...
 
#4
I like jburgh's idead too! My suggestion for November's book:


Firebird: A Memoir by Mark Doty

You can read the first few pages here: http://www.amazon.com/Firebird-Memo...1973/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1286993320&sr=8-6

Amazon.com Review:

"Childhood's work is to see what lies beneath," Mark Doty writes in his memoir, Firebird. And adulthood's work, he suggests, is to make sense of what the child-self once saw. Doty, a poet, does this remarkably well, capturing the peculiar talismans of youth--"little cars of fragrant plastic whose wheels turn on wire axles that can be popped loose and examined; hard candies; sweet, chalky wafers strung together into wristlets and necklaces"--as well as a child's experience of sin:
I am standing paralyzed by what I've done, there's a rush and roar from the direction of the living room, my father rising from the couch, he's coming down the hall, I'm afraid he's going to spank me, I remember the last time, the humiliation of it, him pulling my pants down on the porch and whaling me, his red face filled up with blood and rage, striking at me because what have I done? Now I've done something plain and sharply lit like the big shards of glass on the floor...
​
It's clear from the start that the author's home life was not happy. His father's job with the Army Corps of Engineers kept the family crisscrossing the country; his older sister got pregnant at 17--"these girls knew what they were doing, these girls married to get out"--and ended up, eventually, in prison; and his mother, a frustrated artist, sank eventually into depression and alcoholism. As if growing up in this family during the 1950s and '60s weren't difficult enough, Doty's homosexuality provided additional anguish. A confrontation over his long hair led to a humiliating scene at a barbershop where Doty's father had dragged him and ended up with his attempted suicide at the age of 14. There are plenty more heart-wrenching episodes like this, and at times you might wonder why you'd want to put yourself through the ordeal of reading about them. Doty himself seems aware of this. "Why tell a story like this, who wants to read it?" he demands near the end of the book, then responds, "Even sad stories are company. And perhaps that's why you might read such a chronicle, to look into a companionable darkness that isn't yours." That may be one reason for reading Firebird; the other, undoubtedly, is Mark Doty's precise and lyrical prose, his acute perception, and his compassionate heart. --Alix Wilber
 
#5
I think a book was already decided through a poll, here is some more information:

http://forum.purseblog.com/books-and-music/tpf-book-club-the-first-book-poll-617920.html

http://forum.purseblog.com/books-and-music/tpf-book-club-girl-w-dragon-tattoo-how-619981.html

However, there wasn't a huge amount of responders, probably because it was done before this new forum opened. But it is a good first choice, so y'all could run with it. There are plenty of future opportunities and time to get to other books.
 
#6
Yes, I meant for a book after the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The November book....

I also wonder if we need to tweak the Girl/Tattoo threads so that the discussion can continue??? :thinking:

jburgh said:
I think a book was already decided through a poll, here is some more information:

http://forum.purseblog.com/books-and-music/tpf-book-club-the-first-book-poll-617920.html

http://forum.purseblog.com/books-and-music/tpf-book-club-girl-w-dragon-tattoo-how-619981.html

However, there wasn't a huge amount of responders, probably because it was done before this new forum opened. Perhaps the poll should be taken again?
Click to expand...
 
#8
I have a suggestion for a Book Club read
THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett

http://www.kathrynstockett.com/index.htm

Synopsis

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.
 
#10
CobaltBlu said:
Yes, I meant for a book after the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The November book....

I also wonder if we need to tweak the Girl/Tattoo threads so that the discussion can continue??? :thinking:
Click to expand...

I actually edited my original post CB, when you were responding. I think the book chosen would be a fine one...hehe the "guinea pig" so to speak. I'm sure this will be a learning process, until a format is decided.
So far you have these two options suggested

One
General discussion thread
Multiple group chapter threads (i.e. 1-7, then 8-14, etc)

Two
General Discussion thread
3 separate study question threads.


Are there more ways you can think of setting this up?
 
#11
No, thats about the size of it. I really think the second option is more suited to the different reading/participation speeds, KWIM. I posted in the GWDT chapters 1-7 thread that we can add another thread or tweak the GWDT (girl with dragon tat) format to keep the discussion going...no comments since sept 17....

Would love to know how others feel about the formats.....I really lean toward Two.

Also, are you still thinking that we just use light type for spoilers???
 
#12
I still like option 2, jburgh. I think that would be a more organised way to have a discussion. I figure if you had specific questions or comments from chapters and such, you could have those in the general discussion?
 
#13
I am going to have to sign off for a while soon, but lets keep this conversation going, I would love to get the GWDT discussion underway more, and get a read set up for November, do you think November is too soon??
 
#14
I think if there was already a discussion started on the book then most people have read it? Then maybe Nov isn't too soon. Maybe have the discussion start mid-Nov.
 
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