I thought I'd start a new thread for discussion of theme reads for 2009.

Since depressaholic would be doing his own personal "Argentina" reading jag this year, I thought it might be nice to make it a group thing. How about March? Also, A_musing seems to be doing a serious India jag and we might want to hop on board for that?!

On our regular schedule, January would be a country/countries/area/region
February would be a theme. It seems some of the carryover ideas seem to be 1. Japan and 2. Squeakychu's continent theme: Continent theme:
Everyone can nominate three books of the chosen continent. Preferably they will be good ones that have already been read and are being recommended to others. After all the books are thrown into the ring, each person picks one nominated book to read. Then we compare cultures within the continent.

So, I propose:
January: Japan or India (state your preference, we'll do the 'loser' in May, ok?)
February: Continent theme (are you all game? state your continental preference #1 and #2)
March: Argentina (are you all ok with this one? it's a bit more of a challenge:-)

After these are decided we can leave the thread open for future 2009 group read ideas.

My preferences:

Japan or India - really, no preference here.
I'm ok with the continent theme. My choices would be #1 Africa #2 South America (we'll pick the 'winner' from everyone's 'votes').
March - I'm good for this one.

I'm game for Japan or India (no preference) and Argentina.

My preferred contintents would be Africa (first choice) and South America (second choice). The reason is that I know less about Africa than I do South America, and I've read several books about Africa this past year (Re Rwanda and Sudan). I've been both fascinated and troubled by what I've read.

I agree with Avaland.

Also, frankly, if we're doing Japan and India in January and May, we've already covered two countries in Asia, so maybe we should give the other continents more of look. I think Africa and South America are the best suggestions because we just did Australia and though Antarctica would be fascinating to me, but I would think the reading would be mostly (or all) non-fiction. That leaves North America, which I think we all read a great deal about, and Europe, ditto.

Another idea to throw into the ring for the future is a U.S. state or region. Although it might be a bit of a stretch for those living overseas who have never been to the United States, geographically and culturally specific regions and states within the U.S. distinctly vary. It might be fun to explore this a bit more.

I would be interested in Japan, Africa and Argentina from your list. I would also be happy to set up and introduce the thread for Argentina, if you need someone to do it.

January would be my first theme read, is it ok if I chime in? ^^

January: India, expressly because reading about warm weather will make me feel better about the winter chills!
February: Seconding (or thirding, or something) African and South America.
March: I'd have to check out others' lists to see how much Argentinian fiction is available in translation, but I'm up for it if there are enough choices.

I love whymaggiemay's idea about Antarctica, but agree it would be too difficult for February's continent theme. Maybe "Polar Regions" for April or June's theme read?

>5 I agree with squeak re: tackling at least the US by regions. The easiest to start with and perhaps the most underappreciated, imo, would be Southern US literature. I imagine everyone gets plenty of Northeast/NYC/California lit;-) I'm not advocating this to start the year with but something to keep in mind for later on. Europe would have to be tackled by individual country.

>6 Never look a gift horse in the mouth, eh? You're hired!

>7 welcome! There is a fair amount of Argentinian fiction available, although one may have to look for it (as opposed to, say, it already being in our TBR piles). When we did Haiti, I thought it a lot of fun to shop for a book specifically for that read. I wouldn't want to do that every month, but it's fun once in a while. Polar regions is a good idea for one of our 'country/region' themes - hold that thought! As soon as we cement the first couple of months, we can throw out ideas for later mulling over.

If we don't manage to get a clear consensus between Japan and India for next month, I'll toss a coin early next week.

I haven't really been active in any of the monthly threads, but 2009 is the year I will be active I have decided.

India and Japan is both fine with me

The same goes for South America or Africa.

I also think I would be able to find Argentinian litterature. Especially, if I have a couple of months to order and so forth.

Moneybeets suggestion about having polar regions as a theme I would be very interested in. A month or so ago (sorry about that) I promised to make a list of Greenlandic translated litterature. I have been so busy that I haven't really been able to make a proper list. After January 24th I will have more time, so if I get a deadline I should be able to have some suggestions for a polar region reading list. Also for some other polar regions than just northern Greenland

8--Glad to hear there's plenty to choose from, even if it's a bit harder to get ahold of. That's what Christmas money is for!

9--Greenland sounds interesting! I've never read anything from or about that country, so I look forward to the list.

Argentina has a vibrant literary scene and I suspect, given the global importance of several Argentine writers, that a lot of it is available in English. Off the top of my head, I know of a dozen Argentinians whose work definitely is translated: Aira, Arlt, Bioy Casares, Borges, Cortázar, Costantini, Fogwill, Piglia, Puig, Sábato, Saer, Valenzuela. Oh and I've missed the two most famous: Maradonna and El Che. There's a 140 page country-by-country list of translated works entitled "Latin American Fiction in Translation: A Bibliography", compiled by João C. Barretto in 2004, at http://www.ccsf.edu/Library/latambib.pdf (benwaugh found this, I think)

Further than that there's a group dedicated to this very subject: the South American Fiction-Argentine Writers group http://www.librarything.com/groups/southamericanfictio . There are plenty of lists there and it might be an idea to post March feedback to that group too.

lriley provided some very handy information on Argentina here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/10980

Lastly, Literatura Argentina provides a lot more detail on authors at http://www.literatura.org/escrfr.html - in Spanish only.

I'm getting enthused by the idea of an Argentina read, so maybe I'll join in too. As it happens my mother-in-law is Argentinian and has a comparative literature PhD - she worked with Sabato and is credited in my copy of The Tunnel at least. By rights I should really have read more, so I should not pass up this chance.

As for the poles, it might be an idea to kick-start the North and South Poles group: http://www.librarything.com/groups/northandsouthpoles . I would very much like to read more about this too...

Looks like a busy 2009 and it hasn't even begun!

>11 don't laugh now, but when I started this group, it was because I couldn't even pretend to keep up with all the individual country/culture groups I had joined:-)

I've already shopped around for female Argentinian authors. . .

As best I can tell, in keeping with the alternating routine we decided upon this year, the earliest we can schedule in 'the poles' or arctic regions is July. April and June would be themes (i.e. frontier lit, aboriginal/native peoples lit). Unless we want to call it "Ice Lit" !

1) Japan is one of my favorite regions to read about (I was a Japanese major as an undergrad and lived there) so I would love if we did Japan. I have so many books to recommend for Japan. And I would definitely join the group read for once since, although I've been following this group for a while I have yet to join in on a group read.

2) Africa or South America would be great. I have read more South American lit so I, once again could recommend much lit from that continent. But, it would be nice to read some African lit, maybe something from Senegal since that is where my mom lived 13 years of her childhood.

3) Argentina would be great. I lived there as well and would love to read more literature. Unfortunately I didn't shop the local lit section while I was there but I'm sure my friends could recommend a lot of books typical of the country (outside of the familiar Borges).

lilisin, perhaps you would be interested in starting the thread for Japan when we decide on which month it will be? (it will be January or May, at least).

Although I've read some terrific Japanese lit and probably still have some in the TBR pile, a group read is always a good excuse to shop. And so I was happily shopping on Kodansha International the other day and found a few of interest.

avaland -

I would indeed really enjoy doing that. I'm already coming up with categories and authors and titles.

Kodansha International is a great place to get new titles from authors famous in Japan but a bit unknown here in the States.

It all sounds wonderful! I have a slight preference for doing Japan first as I've lived in the region and that would be a nostalgic journey for me.

(On the other hand, I would have fun learning more about India and have loved all the Indian authors I have read so far)

I'm excited about either Japan or India. I might have to side with Japan because I have been dying to read In Ghostly Japan.
I agree South America or Africa, but maybe we should think about Africa because we're going to be doing Argentina in March...
But all the suggestions look great and are making me really excited!

I'd vote for Japan over India. As for whole continents, my preferred continent would be Africa because it's been sadly neglected in my reading.

Argentina sounds good--I have some books from that area that I need to get to. Also, I think Poland would be a good country theme read.

OK, here's the SCHEDULE:

January - JAPAN. lilisin has offered to put the thread together for this.

February - Continent thread, I'll have SqueakyChu make the call on the continent as it was her original idea? Squeak, would you set up the thread also? You can explain best exactly what you are thinking:-)

March - Argentina. Depressaholic will set up this thread.

April - non-country theme, TBD

May - India. Thread set-up to be decided.

I'll put them up on the group page.

It's a no-brainer. If March is Argentina, February is Africa.

I can set up the thread although I wasn't really thinking too deeply about it. :)

February should be a nice and quiet month for me so this should not be too challenging.

Oo, I guess if Japan is the January read and it's already the night of the 24th that I need to start working on that thread! :)

>22 I've just ordered a book for January:-)

>21 Africa, it is! I imagine you can put the thread together with your objective and instructions (especially about the 3 recommendations or we will indeed be overwhelmed).

Jumping ahead to October - I think novels featuring ghosts, ghouls, demons etc., would be good. Global literature is rich in these apparitions and terrors. Japan has some pretty creepy demon stories for that matter.

Message edited by its author, Dec 25, 2008, 11:20am.

>24

Oooh! Ooooh! Ooooh! *waves hand wildly in the air*

Yes, please, for October. I've been wanting for the longest time to read World War Z: an oral history of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. It would be perfick for this!

Suggestion for April - Slavery. Slavery comes in many forms and has been a product of the growth of most countries, and is found in fiction, non-fiction, YA, JYA, Children's, you name it.

Re: #26, Yes! Slavery in all of its scenarios is really a global issue, isn't it? It's a part of free-trade and the global economy, women's rights, the sexual trade, abuse of children, illegal immigration...

I think Portugal might be a nice country to visit. I know of few authors from Portugal and have yet to read anything (besides Saramago).

Message edited by its author, Dec 27, 2008, 6:39pm.

Avaland, this is in response to your comment on my 75 thread - how about Poland? There's a lot available in translation, from the classics through to some great contemporary writers. Might be interesting...

>30 seeing there's no taker yet for Portugal, i'd like to volunteer to set up the thread. i feel a bit guilty that bulk of my past reads are from much farther afield than my present country of residence when it has plenty to be explored! incidentally, my first book planned for 2009 is by a Portuguese author --- got to move it to Sept then.

the rest of the themes sound good to me...

you got it, deebee1.

I will handle the October Ghosts, Goblins, and Haints thread.

it's all yours!

I'm happy to agree tentatively to doing Poland; I'd love to agree fully but if all goes to plan I should actually be in Poland for 3 months or so towards the end of the year, and I need to see how that's going to work out - I don't want to agree to do it and then it turn out that I only have very limited internet access, for example. My plans should be in place within a couple of months so I'll be able to confirm then. Sorry not to be more helpful, but I'll do it if it's possible.

EDITED to explain that I'm talking about setting up the Poland read, not just taking part.

Message edited by its author, Jan 4, 2009, 1:18pm.

I'm still trying to 'read down' M2BR which is still growing at a startling rate. I appreciate the themes which are broadest such as Africa and having nonfiction also included in the themes. Both let me find suitable candidates on the good mountain rather than adding to it.

I can do the Greenland part of the polar region theme, but don't know that much about books from other polar regions, so maybe we could be more than one setting up the polar region theme

Could we maybe do Poland in June, if nobody minds getting the countries and themes a bit out of order? If we did it like that I'd be able to commit now to organising it, although I don't mind either way.

I'm willing to work with trisweather on the polar regions, if you'd like.

perhaps you both (trisweather and muddy21) can conspire with chrissharpe over the polar regions. I think Chris said he was going to be in Antarctica at the end of the year.

rachbxl, when are you going to Poland? We can move Poland to May or September. I don't think anyone would mind pushing India to later in the year. Pick your preference:-)

>36 it seems we usually pick a mix of themes; some which are easy and others we have to work a little harder to find books for. I actually like some of the more difficult themes but I wouldn't want them often.

I'll leave it with Chris, then. Just let me know if I can be helpful.

Hello avaland (& trisweather & muddy21)! I just read #30. I would be honoured to set this up, but it may not be practicable as I am scheduled as usual to be in the field during June - August and have intermittent access to email at best. It occurs to me that I may be able to set something up and post it before I leave (April / May), if that is any use. I could cover Alaska and (to a lesser extent and vicariously!) Antarctic non-fiction. Would this work with trisweather and muddy21?

I noticed that we haven't done an author theme read. As in, picking one author and everyone picking a book from the author throughout their literary career. It'd be interesting to compare their change in literary style throughout their career or change in themes, etc... Thoughts?

There are plenty of authors out there that have quite a collection of novels that would be interesting to read.

>40 not entirely sure yet when I'll be away, but it's likely to be from September till Christmas or so. May would suit me best from that point of view, if nobody objects. Thanks!

to chrisharpe and muddy21

It will work for me, Chrisharpe. You can just start the thread and I will add on for Greenland and other places if I find some.

muddy21, are there some polar region you would prefer to do?

>chrisharpe, muddy21, trisweather;

Would you prefer to move Polar Regions to November?

>rachbxl, so moved!

>43 lilisin, I'm not sure what I think about an author theme. It would be very restrictive re: book choices, and would we ever agree on an author? I would have to think about this more. I suspect it might be a little too focused, but I'd be interested in what others have to say about it.

46,
It might work better in a different group (say, doing an author study of de Balzac in the French lit group) but there are famous authors within other countries with at least 20 books that we could try it on. Like you said though, we'd have to see what others think.

#46 avaland - I just noticed that the March threads have gone up. I wasn't going to put up the April thread until mid-Feb. I don't want to overwhelm people with too much to do too soon. Agreed?

>agreed. Depressaholic wanted to get the Argentina theme up so readers would have some time to find books. BTW, our local NPR station did an hour old call-in program on slavery around the world yesterday, I think. When you post, I'll try to find the link and post it.

I think that together (trisweather, muddy21 & I), we can cover Polar regions. When to do it? If posting my part of the thread in April / May would work, then we can do it as tentatively scheduled. If not, November is usually fine for me.

I'm glad depressaholic posted his thread early, as it takes me months to root out books - so discussion well beforehand on topics I know little about would be helpful. As long as threads are kept separate and the real posts on reading do not kick off until the appointed month, everything should be easy to follow, shouldn't it?

>avaland, that sounds like a perfect program to highlight. I'll look forward to it.

I know I'm probably a bit late, but would like to suggest Cambodia as a great country for a themed read (maybe not this year, because all the months seem to have been filled).

Having visited and fallen in love with the country I'm a little bit biased but nevertheless it has a fascinating history and vibrant culture.

So far, the only book I've read that were set there (dealing inevitably with Pol Pot's evil regime), although harrowing, was also heart warming and inspirational: Survival in the Killing Fields by Haing S Ngor.

Am very keen to read more, especially First They Killed my Father by Loung Ung.

Message edited by its author, Jan 16, 2009, 5:30am.

jbeast, keep us posted. We're usually game for most anything but there does have to be a relatively good amount of books available in English and a decent selection of native fiction (everyone likes to have choices).

#43, 46, 47 doing a single author

I am having a hard time keeping up with my Mt.TBR, and various groups, and frequently I think I will join a particular discussion and then don't, usually because I am reading too many other books, so take my musings with a grain of salt, but it does seem to me that a single author could be lots of fun to discuss. I love the idea of Balzac, as already mentioned, and I think the French group is too small and less likely to take it on, whereas the charm of a large group is the diversity of views. Another real possibility, I think, with enough diversity to warrant a group discussion, is Salman Rushdie.

>43,46,47,54 the idea of an author theme read appeals to me. count me in if u do decide on pursuing it.

Some examples of authors with many works are:
Emile Zola - 33 novels
Honore de Balzac - 39+ novels including plays
Romain Gary/Emile Ajar - 36 novels, Nobel Prize winner as Romain Gary and as Emile Ajar
Yukio Mishima wrote 40 novels, 18 plays, 20 books of short stories, and at least 20 books of essays, one libretto
Truman Capote - 27 publications including many different genres
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - 12 novels, 21 novellas and short stories

Or, we could do a Nobel Prize Winner for Literature theme read?

Okay, feeling bad about hijacking the group, and feeling that the author theme read might not be exactly suitable for this group we (as in deebee1 and I) have made a new group. If you are interested you may go to

Author Theme Reads:
http://www.librarything.com/groups/authorthemereads#forums

I will of course still be an avid Reading Globally fan. :)

I think I'll opt out of author themes, as well, if you choose to do them here. One of my favorite parts of Reading Gloablly is the chance of discovering a new author (even one I've never heard of). I'll stick around, though, for your other geographical areas and tangential themes.

I thought another theme that might be interesting is the environment - since that's such a hot (no pun intended) issue these days.

How about circumnavigation or "Trips around the world" for a topic theme? I was reshelving books today and happened upon "Around the World in Eighty Days" which gave me the idea. I'm not sure how much literature there is to fit the theme, but perhaps others of you do?

#42 chrisharpe and #45 triswether - I don't have any particular field of interest, just thought I'd start digging to see what's out there. I suppose we can just make lists, then forward them to each other and combine what we have?

I'm fairly new to the group, so I'm not sure what the general routine is.

Suggestion for a possible theme: Vietnam War. There are tons of books, both fiction and non-fiction.

War, in general, might be good (although depressing) to use because themes are the same despite differences in their political agenda, location or time.

A country- specific war (i.e. Vietnam) might not appeal to our world-wide membership, and 'war' in general may be too broad (?).

I think the environment theme would be very relevant but it might need a tweak to accommodate our fiction proclivities.

Frontier literature? aborginal peoples? post-colonial lit? celebrations? (i.e. weddings, birthdays, religious holidays; as suggested by someone back in December), vacations/holidays? (probably lots of novels about people taking a trip somewhere), coming-of-age/bildungsroman? Closeness to the land? Just doing a little brainstorming. . .

I think the environment theme would be very relevant but it might need a tweak to accommodate our fiction proclivities

Okay, so how about Nasty Weather? There are great books about storms, hurricanes, fires, floods, etc. One of my all-time favorite books on this theme was The Hungry Tide by the Asian Indian author, Amitav Ghosh.

I'd like animals as a theme, but I usually only see Americans write fiction about them. That's not very global, is it?

What about healing practices? This topic could run the gamut from shamanism to midwifery. We've dealt so much with a broken world that it would be nice to see another side.

>64 yes, that's the one book I came up with! (and you and I have already read it:-) Nasty weather opens it up a little.

Interesting point about animal fiction. Were you thinking animal fiction a la Watership Down or something like The God of Animals or the Coal Black Horse? Either way, you are right, about there not being much global animal fiction (now why is that? hmmm.)

>65 seems we might have to broaden that also, Mary, perhaps to include medicine (?) I can name at least three books off the top of my head that feature midwifery, but the rest...seems we would need the theme to cover a bigger pool of reading choices, especially fiction.

Interesting point about animal fiction. Were you thinking animal fiction a la Watership Down or something like The God of Animals or the Coal Black Horse?

I read a quite cute book that was signed and given to me by an author from one of the LT author chat's this year. It was A Dog About Town by J.F. Englert. I got a copy of the second book by this author and could read it for an animal theme. :)
I could also explore what other animal fiction is out there. Jonathan Carroll has a wonderful book called The Land of Laughs which features bull terriers.

However, you know what? In thinking more deeply about this, I've come to realize that most of the animal books I've read this year were nonfiction - so doesn't that eliminate animals as a theme completely?

Message edited by its author, Jan 20, 2009, 10:20pm.

>67 as a matter of note, the bull terrier shows up somewhere in almost all of Carroll's novels:-) (although I haven't read his new one yet).

Actually, I really think animal books belong under the auspices of some other group. . .

>65, 66
How about broadening it to work or workplace novels? Would be interesting to see the portrayal of similar occupations in different countries, or see work that involves international travel or global colleagues.

>69 workplace novels is interesting, detailmuse.

There is a novel, written by a German, Leonie Swann who wrote Three Bags Full. A flock of sheep solve the murder of their shepherd.

how about covering the Balkans? (This includes, alphabetically, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey)

*most of them not countries famous for their literary tradition, and I have seen very very few people on this thread read much from that area. I thought it would be a good idea to expand our reads :D

Message edited by its author, Jan 22, 2009, 5:05pm.

>72 We did some of those countries as "Countries of the Former Yugoslavia" last year, I believe. You can find it in the older threads.

Not sure if this has been done before, but I was thinking that a themed read about dictors and dictorships might be an interesting one to do. It tends to produce some interesting, albeit usually disturbing reading.

Has Sweden already been done?

-- Gerry

>75 I don't think so but I think we may be at our country theme capacity for 2009.

Here are the current themes (updated as of today 3/5/09)

month * theme * (setup person/facilitator)

February - Africa (squeakychu)
March - Argentina (depressaholic)
April - Slavery of all kinds (whymaggiemay)
May - Poland (rachbxl)
June - The Arts
July - Polar Regions (to be defined a bit better as we get closer to July, but could include Antarctica, Greenland, plus parts of Canada, Alaska, Norway and Russia) (chrissharpe, trisweather & muddy21)
August - Aboriginal/first peoples literature (kleahey)
September - Portugal (deebee1)
October - Ghosts & Ghoulies (wandering_star)
November - India (a_musing)
December - Translation; translated literature (avaland).

1. We don't have to fill every month. We can take a break.
2. I don't want to add a non-country theme unless there seems to be some enthusiasm about it. These themes need to be broad enough to encompass a large number of books, but not so broad as to make discussion impossible.

In addition to sanddancers suggestion of dictators and dictatorships, how about some other simple themes:

A. Read a mystery set in a country not your own. Bonus points if it's a non-English-speaking country:-)

B. Aboriginal/Native Peoples literature. American Indians, Australian aboriginals, Canadian first Nation, Central American Native people and so on. . .

C. Nature and Living close to the land. I suspect most countries have literature with this theme.

Any enthusiasm for any of these?

*edited to add A_musing's name to the India theme!

Message edited by its author, Sep 17, 2009, 5:00pm.

"Dictors and dictorships" as sanddancer suggested certainly peaked my curiosity. I would definitely want to do this one as I was eyeing Mein Kampf at the bookstore the other day. (I didn't realize it was such a long book!)

Oooh, I love mysteries! I'd be really keen for that one. (Can I start recommending Boris Akunin yet? Brilliant fluff!) I think aboriginal/native people's literature could be interesting too. I find myself wondering whether the third one might be difficult to define, somehow? I'm not hugely keen for dictators and dictatorships for some reason, but am happy to go with the flow!

I'm quite interested in the native peoples literature idea. I'm already doing a crime from around the world category in my 999 challenge so would also enjoy that too.

On my dictators theme, it could perhaps be widened to be all leaders so include presidents and monarchs too if that would make it more interesting.

More ideas for theme reads (gleaned from my tags).

How about genocide (I know that's depressing), mental illness, physical handicaps (I'm now reading The Girls - about conjoined sisters - which is excellent!), ghost stories (or supernatural beings), gender identity, holidays, or parent-child relationships?

What happened to the October "Ghoulies & Ghosties" theme?

>81 urania1 is overbooked and bowed out. If someone else would like to take it on we can reinstate it.

>80 yeah, genocide is really depressing. Are you talking Holidays as in Presidents Day, Australia Day, Christmas, Chinese New Year OR holidays a.k.a. vacations? I'm assuming you probably mean the former, not the latter. I think that would work fine, we just need a volunteer to take it on.

Being from the US, I always try to think of what would be available in translated literature when working out themes for this particular group. Are there books which fit the theme and are available from a variety of cultures, beyond just English-speaking ones?

That said, we could do one month on simply "translated literature" - a book translated into your native language from an original language not native to you. The theme would be wide open as far as book choice and the discussion would be around translation. I think I'd be willing to take that on, later in the year.

I think the mystery theme would be another easy one also, not that all of these have to be easy, but it's nice to alternate. Mystery doesn't necessarily have to mean just genre mysteries.

--> 82

Are you talking Holidays as in Presidents Day, Australia Day, Christmas, Chinese New Year OR holidays a.k.a. vacations? I

The former. I just read Friendly Fire, the new book by the Israeli novelist, A. B. Yehoshua, which had one theme that was based on the Jewish holiday of Chanukah. I would be interested in holidays of other cultures. I don't necessarily think the holiday would have to be a main theme of the novel, but it should have enough of a sense of the holiday as to be interesting and/or educational reading. I don't know if there are enough books which do this in translated literature. I'll have to do some looking around.

Here's another idea:

Strange (off the beaten track) Professions!

Message edited by its author, Feb 13, 2009, 1:02pm.

Perhaps imprisonment is another idea. I would think that would span many years and virtually every country.

OK, I'm going to pull some of these ideas and put them into another thread to solicit interest. 800 members and it seems only a small fraction of us are brainstorming!

I will keep in mind that Cambodia and Sweden have been suggested as future countries (which probably means 2010 at this point).

I will volunteer to do a "translated literature' theme sometime later in the year, maybe August. I think it is an important topic for this group. And yes, I admit to doing a little steering here to keep the group focus from being too diluted.

How about visiting the two extremities of the world - look for books set in the Arctic and Antarctic

>87

That's already set as the July Theme read - Polar Regions. :)

>88
oh ok - cool (literally - LOL)

How about the Arts?........Books whose primary character is an artist and/or the plot revolves around the arts native to a particular country.

#90

This is a cool idea, does arts include music?

I agree, and of course, arts includes music and theatre and dance -- doesn't it?

I would certainly think so.

More ideas:

Parent-Child Relationships
Leaving home
Friendship
Physical Handicaps
Mental Illness
Homosexuality
Aging
Children's Literature

I really like the idea of the Arts. Last week I had started to post a message suggesting a focus on music, and listing some international authors with fiction books about music or musicians, but my laptop died before I finished. Making the focus on the Arts would give a much broader choice of reading.

and the arts would be a bit more upbeat than some themes we are considering. . .

I also like the idea of the arts.

Is this something we are going to vote on? If so, when? It seems to me we have plenty of options to choose from.

>98 There is another thread already going where votes are accumulating; however, I think it's good to have a more upbeat theme somewhere this year, what with the general gloom over the economic crisis. I'll note it over on the voting thread and see if anyone has an objection to injecting it into the lineup.

Updated.

month * theme * (setup person/facilitator)

April - Slavery of all kinds (whymaggiemay)
May - Poland (rachbxl)
June - The Arts (CD1am)
July - Polar Regions (to be defined a bit better as we get closer to July, but could include Antarctica, Greenland, plus parts of Canada, Alaska, Norway and Russia) (chrissharpe, trisweather & muddy21)
August - Aboriginal/first peoples literature (kleahey)
September - Portugal (deebee1)
October - Ghosts & Ghoulies (wandering_star)
November - India
December - Translation; translated literature (avaland).

Message edited by its author, Mar 21, 2009, 7:22pm.

Anyone up for setting up "The Arts" theme when we get a bit closer to June? Anyone feel qualified? (I'll do it if there's no other volunteers).

I'll be happy to set up "The Arts" for June. When would you suggest I initiate it?

>102 Thank you. Maybe the end of April or thereabouts?

How about for 2010 we use transportation as a theme? I see that avaland is now reading My Driver, and I've had Train on my TBR list for a very long time.

I like that idea, SqueakyChu.

Has there been a theme on Brazilian writers? Or Central American writers?

#104 Squeaky - is it Train by Pete Dexter? If so, I really enjoyed it when I read it years ago. I'm a fan of Dexter. Also, I like the idea of Transportation as a theme, especially because it's so all encompassing that it would allow those who are fans of SciFi to choose from those.

Indeed it is Train by Pete Dexter. I like his raw writing. I've read Paris Trout, The Paperboy, and Brotherly Love. All three of those books were great.

I found some other authors who write in a similar vein to Pete Dexter. They are Steve Yarbrough and G.D. Gearino.

By the way, I just listed a Gearino book on BookMooch. Here's the link.

Message edited by its author, Jul 7, 2009, 8:51pm.

Ha! I was wrong. I have both Train and Brotherly Love on TBR. I've read the other two and must have been thinking about The Paperboy. Paris Trout remains one of my favorite books and the characters remind me a lot of Sula by Toni Morrison.

Sorry, I have missed this thread over the last couple of months.

>105 I believe all the past themes are listed on the group's home page. Off the top of my head, I think Argentina has been been the only theme from Latin America.

Will check the other thread and this one and pull out any leftover ideas and pop them into a 2010 suggestion thread.