Thursday, January 03, 2008

Kick Off the New Year with the Book Club Blogs!!!

My friend, Shelly Bryant has graciously offered to host the next book club blog on her site. Some of you may have joined us for the book club discussion here on Patricia Wood’s Lottery in December. That was the kick off to, hopefully, starting up a regular book club on blogs around the internet. It’s open to anyone who likes to read and discuss literature with other readers and writers. You are more than welcome to jump into any discussion that interests you and host if you’d enjoy picking and discussing a book on your blog.

Shelly’s first post on the upcoming book club can be found here

She’s given four choices to her blog readers, and left the decision of what we will all be reading together up to a group consensus. The four choices are varied and look outstanding, so drop by her blog and put in your vote.

For those of you unfamiliar with Shelly’s discussions, I can say they are among the most intelligent and thought provoking literary discussions I have ever had the privilege to take part in, both online and in person. Shelly is a poet who is very well read and highly educated, and she teaches literature to third and fourth year university students in Singapore... as if all of that wasn’t enough, she’s also great fun and nice to boot.

I’ll be joining in and I hope to see all of you there!!!

13 comments:

ORION said...

This was such fun to do= Merry you did a great job. Hopefully I can read the next book and stop by the other discussion...

Merry Monteleone said...

Hi Patricia!!!

You made it outstanding! I can't thank you enough for participating in my little discussion here - you were more on top of the comments than I was, it was great!

I know you're working on your next novel, but I hope you do get time for Shelly's discussion - she really does have some fantastic literary insight and it's always a wonderful time to talk about literature with her - everything from Shakespeare to Calvin and Hobbes, she can make anything a thoughtprovoking topic.

Thanks for dropping in. I've put your blog on my 'Authors to Watch' list and I'll be checking in to see when there's news of your wip's publication date... you know, plus just to participate in your posts.

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

Ok I'll keep better track of the next one so I can participate this time!!

Merry Monteleone said...

Hey Ello,

Oh, I hope you can participate!!! I think you'll really enjoy it - plus late January / early February is a lot easier to fit extra things into the schedule than December... that was probably poorer planning than I originally thought.

Josephine Damian said...

Merry, I tried to but could not add a comment on Shelly's blog - it might be a Mac compatability problem.

I tried to suggest an alternative selection - "Headlong" by Michael Frayn instead of "Noises Off." I read it years ago and it was excellent (funny too).

Merry Monteleone said...

Hi Josephine,

I just left a comment at Shelly's with your suggestion for a different novel.

I wonder if you're having the same problem I was. I could write in the comment field and put in the code letters and then I couldn't find a submit button... it turned out that I just had to go to the bottom of the comment field and change the size to 75%.

Tena Russ said...

Hi Merry,

Thanks for visiting my blog (via Stephen Parrish).

I don't love all of Eric Zorn's columns either but sometimes he hits the nail on the head.

Hooray for Chicago!

Best,
Tena

tripleZmom said...

I tagged you (again). :)

Mary Witzl said...

I've been over to Shelly's site and put in my bid. I hope she picks the one I want, but I'll try and participate no matter which one she chooses!

Merry Monteleone said...

Hi inherwritemind,

It was a great list! I've actually seen some of your comments around the writing circles and kept meaning to stop in - I'm glad I did... always nice to meet another Chicago writer.

Hi Jersey,

I'll be over in a few to read your meme.

Hi Mary,

So glad you'll be joining in. It should be a lot of fun!

Tena Russ said...

Hi inherwritemind,

It was a great list! I've actually seen some of your comments around the writing circles and kept meaning to stop in - I'm glad I did... always nice to meet another Chicago writer.


I've seen you around too. Isn't the virtual community is fun?

I'll be baaack.

Tena

Anonymous said...

Hey Merry, thanks for the great write up here pointing to the book discussion. I think it will be great if we have a lot of interaction on this one. I'm fixing the comment issue over at my blog (I hope it is fixed already). I'll also put an "email me" button on there, in case anyone has problems posting a comment. I don't normally do that, but I think it will help for a discussion blog.

It's looking like The Man Who Walked Through Time is going to be the one we go with. If anyone has any feedback that might sway the decision, feel free to chip in, either at my blog or here. I'll check in at both places.

Thanks again, Merry! This is a very nice post.

Anonymous said...

New post up at my place, Merry, with suggestions for the date. As usual, I am open to suggestions and modifications with the date.