Jan/Feb/Mar 2021 Nominations

Let's start thinking ahead to 2021. TBH, I've been thinking about it a lot ... but let's think about our reading choices! :)

Add to this thread the names of any authors you'd be interested in reading and discussing for the first three months of 2021.

Reminder: Any author already discussed in the past 2 years is not eligible to be re-upped yet. (You can find the list here: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Monthly_Author_Reads)

However, you CAN re-nominate an author that was nominated in the last round but didn't make the final cut.

Don't forget to second (or third, or fourth) others people's nominations. The top 3 authors will be our January/February/March reads.

Kindly get all your nominations and votes in by December 1 so we have ample time to get a hold of books for each month.

Thank you!

Someone suggested Kazuo Ishiguro last time and since I love him, I'm nominating him again here.

Will have to think about other possibilities...

I would like to nominate Norman Mailer.

I would love to read some H G Wells. I have always wanted to and have never quite got around to it.

I'll second Kazuo Ishiguro

I nominate James McBride

I'd be interested in both Ishiguro and Wells.

I'll second Norman Mailer, H.G. Wells, and James McBride.

edited to fix touchstones issue

Seems to be very male-centric in the nominations so far, so I"ll throw Ursula K. LeGuin and Virginia Woolf out there as suggestions also! :)

also edited for touchstone issue ... they seem to be lagging significantly today

I also noticed how male-centric we were being. I'll second Ursula K. LeGuin

Thanks, I agree that we should include more women! And perhaps to include a woman of color alongside LeGuin, how about Octavia Butler?

I am listening to books by Elizabeth Peters now.

I second Octavia Butler

I also second Octavia Butler.

Seconding (thirding and more?) Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, James McBride.

Also seconding Octavia Butler

Might anyone be interested in George Eliot (pen name, of course, for a female writer). I've been thinking about rereading Daniel Deronda.

Me! I second George Eliot. I want to read one from the following: Romola, Felix Holt, the Radical or re-read Daniel Deronda in my quest to read all of her novels.

I agree that George Eliot would be a good choice, particularly given the recent bi-centenary of her birth. I must admit that I have not read the nominated books, having mostly read earlier titles such as The Mill on the Floss I have read Middlemarch
However I'm ashamed to say that the reputation of some of the novels as 'difficult' has put me off a bit- time to change that.

I have never read George Eliot so I would agree on her.

>21 mnleona: Silas Marner is a shorter novel, and a good place to start.

> Oh, I think I read that in high school which was in the mid 1950s. Thanks.

>23 mnleona: I've re-read a few classics that I absolutely hated in high school, but as an older reader meant so much more. I hated the The Scarlet Letter as a 15-year-old, but in my 60s it had all kinds of meaning and insights. Some books just aren't meant for teenagers. I think Silas Marner is one of those books.

>24 kac522: The Scarlet Letter is such a great example of that. I hated it in 10th grade, but found it to be extremely important as a proto feminist work when I reread it in my 20s. Similarly, I was turned off Edith Wharton because of how awful Ethan Frome was to read in high school, but when I read The Age of Innocence a couple years ago, I was blown away by how beautiful, compelling, insightful, and well written it was.

I'll second George Eliot as well. Was not a fan of The Mill on the Floss when I read it ages ago, but I'd like to try some of her other works.

Recently I read one of Paula Vogel's plays and it was extremely powerful, so I'd like to nominate her. Not sure if we had a playwright for our monthly author before or not....

Also noticed that there's a new film adaptation of Rebecca, which is one of those books I've always been meaning to read but haven't yet. So I'll throw Daphne Du Maurier out there as another possibility.

>28 sweetiegherkin: Oh I love duMaurier! I second her for sure. Rebecca is such a wonderful, stunning, engrossing novel.

>28 sweetiegherkin: >29 sparemethecensor:
I love Du Maurier too. Rebecca is a great novel and I would read it again. I read Jamaica Inn this year and that was fabulous too.

Don't forget you can keep nominating and seconding (or thirding, and so on) authors here through December 1. Thanks!

We have a bunch of great suggestions in here already but just a reminder to nominate or second/third/fourth/etc. any authors before December 1. At that point, I'll look at who got the most mentions to decide our next round of authors.

How about Charles Frazier

I loved the two I've read by him...

OK, so we have

January: Octavia Butler
February: H.G. Wells
March: George Eliot

I'll work on making new threads.

Here are the new threads:

Jan: Octavia Butler
Feb: H.G. Wells
Mar: George Eliot

Also, the next round of nominations can be made here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/327416

Thank you! Very excited about these authors.

>37 sparemethecensor: Yay! :)