Monthly Themes Main Thread

This is the place to suggest monthly themes and provide links for them once they're up.

Please include a link to this thread if you start up a monthly theme to facilitate navigation. Thanks!

Nonfiction November is one I am thinking of doing.

I'm up for that Stasia, since I don't read enough nonfiction and have a bunch of books on my TBR and wishlist.

Stasia - that would suit me too as I have a travel category in my 11in11 challenge that is sadly being overlooked at present.
I had thought of scifi in September but think that Delta Queen's suggestion of series and sequels for the same month would be a better fit, I have a few scifi series that could be tackled.
I love how everyone's monthly theme books fit into the various TIOLI challenges.

Nonfiction is such a broad category in and of itself that I think that everyone would be able to find something to their liking. For Ilana, books on art would certainly qualify and as you mention, Kerry, travel would work as well. For me, nonfiction generally means either biographies or histories.

books on art would certainly qualify. Absolutely!

Plus, I've really wanted to get to two books on my tbr, i.e. Polio: An American Story, which is a Pulitzer winner and has been sitting there for a couple of years (at least) now, and also The Worst Hard Time, which was so highly recommended by Mark (msf59).

I also want to borrow
Cleopatra: A Life
The Forger's Spell : A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century
The Life of Charlotte Brontë
Thinking in Pictures : And Other Reports from My Life with Autism
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Glamour of Grammar
and Everybody Was So Young : Gerald and Sara Murphy : A Lost Generation Love Story, which are just a handful among the more than 60 nonfiction works I've currently got wishlisted on my library account.

Then, if I dig back into my own shelves again for books that have been there way too long already:

The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden
Howards End Is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Einstein: His Life and Universe (that one's fairly recent, but had been on my wishlist for ages)
The Complete Maus
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary
The Global Forest

And I'm not even mentioning the dozens of visual arts books I've neglected for too many months and years!

So yes, as I said before, nonfiction November DEFINITELY works for me! :-)

I am going to be concentrating on Series and Sequels in September. I just totalled up the number of separate series and sequels I want to read eventually and I'm at 101. And these are all series that I am already involved with - not counting any new ones I may be starting soon (Maisie Dobbs, I'm looking at you!) I know I will only get a tiny fraction read, but I need to give it a go.

I love the non-fiction November idea, I really discovered non-fiction this year and have found some of my favorite reads in the genre.

I am in favor of keeping these monthly themes fairly broad as then they are easily worked into the more specific TIOLI challenges.

#7: I am with you on the Series and Sequels reads, Judy. I definitely want to get back to the Kenzie/Gennaro series and I bet I can come up with tons more.

Glad you like the idea of nonfiction November too. I also agree about keeping the monthly themes broad so that we can work the books into TIOLI.

I'm definitely up for non-fiction November, and I'm sure I can find plenty of series for September as well. I agree about keeping the categories broad.

Have there been any suggestions for October yet?

I have not seen anything thus far for October, Zoe.

Out-of-this-world October? (sci-fi, fantasy? but we've had quite a bit of that)
Old October? (classics and/or historical fiction/history...)
Old Favourites October? (re-reads)

Only October (books that are not part of a series to follow Series & Sequels September)

Occupational October (books about professionals - doctors, lawyers, sports figures)

Odious or OooooOOoooooh October (horror/thriller/paranormal)

We could do theme reading every other month - Juvenile July, Series and Sequel September, Non-Fiction November and then December can be for wrapping up all the books we wanted to get to this year and weren't able to fit in. That would leave August and October as open months to read whatever we want.

Oh, I liked Ilana's idea of Art for August. I'd wanted to do Art in April, but that became Autism Awareness month.

Isn't October blackdogbooks' horror/Halloween read month?

I like the idea of OooooOOOoooooh October. That would tie in well with the Halloween reads.

Horror books for October sounds fanastic actually. It might actually give me an excuse to read some horror books in my life. Some real ones.

Mythology in may

This is probably a bit premature... but I just saw a review for Water for Elephants over on jolierie's thread, and this being one of my all-time favourite books, it also reminded me of another similar-themed favourite book of mine, Mr. Vertigo, both of which I'd like to re-read, but maybe not too too soon, so I thought it might be nice to have a March Circus & Magic month... guess I'll have to suggest it again when the 2012 group is up and running! lol

eta: #18 March, April, May... Maybe my suggestion wasn't so premature after all! :-)

I have modern lit on the agenda for August with the link location: http://www.librarything.com/topic/120797

For September in cahoots with Prue Gallagher and others we are going for series thrillers - the link location I will post up here soon

For October the plan at the moment is to do Nobel prize winners - the link location I will post up soon.

Would welcome participants!

October has been designated as National Reading Group Month maybe we could figure out some way to read as a group but not necessarily the same book?

I'm great with sequels and series and non-fiction.

**sigh** another thread to follow

#7 Judy, are you willing to start up the Series & Sequels thread or would you prefer someone else do it?

#20 Paul, as you know, I can't wait for Nobel prize October.

May I suggest that you hold off on posting a thread for Series Thrillers? It's been suggested here previously that we make September a Series & Sequels month, which could of course encompass your idea, but is wider in scope. The only reason I suggest not posting a separate thread is so that we all converge on the same one and hopefully have plenty of activity on it.

#20: How would you define modern lit? Simply everything published after a certain date, or something a bit less inclusive?

It doesn't matter who sets it up, but there does seem to be a lot of interest in it. I guess we are all victims of too many series! Instead of just thrillers, I would like to open it up for all series and sequels - fantasy, historical fiction, thrillers etc. If it's ok with Paul and everyone, I will set it up about the third week of August giving us a place to plan and discuss what we are going to read. Perhaps there will be opportunities for some joint reads as well!

>20 PaulCranswick: Paul, I will definitely participate in the Nobel Prize winners challenge.

>21 cyderry:: Paul, I'd do the Nobel as well, having several authors kicking around here...er, I mean several authors' work kicking around here...

#22 Ok Ilana good idea to widen the scope to series and sequels generally - count me in.

#23 Agree that the definition is very very very arbitrary. In my own cataloguing anything published after World War II I'm calling modern. Realise that this is far from adequate and probably shows both my age as well the fact that I am ingloriously old-fashioned but, for me, its as good a way as any. Writers like Graham Greene and W Somerset Maugham who straddle the eras go from being classic to modern without any change in style but I'll put up with that knowing its possibly ridiculous!

#24 I'm fine with you setting it up Judy. This is especially as I'll be struggling manfully with the over ambitious 15 books I've set myself this month on "modern" lit.

#25 Will await your selections Darryl with somewhat bated breath. Would hazard that you will unearth a few forgotten masterpieces to surprise and entertain us with.

#26 Gail, I must admit that I also get the impression that some of the books that have waited overlong for attention on the shelves are disgruntled by their neglect. I normally move that to the next row back so that I can't see them so readily and don't feel quite so guilty. This comes from buying far too many books and having a TBR list that gets bigger and bigger constantly. Looking forward to seeing who you choose for October.

>27 PaulCranswick: I'll probably read The Vivisector by Patrick White, The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa, either The Great Weaver from Kashmir or Independent People by Halldór Laxness, The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer, Cain by José Saramago, and maybe The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk or The Changeling by Kenzaburō Ōe. I own at least 20-30 other books by Nobel laureates that are high on my wish list, so I have plenty to choose from.

ETA: I just found out that Naguib Mahfouz was born 100 years ago on December 11 of this year, so he may be a good choice for either October or December.

I have posted the September Series and Sequels Thread for those who want to plan and list their reads. Looking forward to September and seeing what everyone is planning on reading.