October-December 2025 Nominations and voting

Believe it or not, it is time to vote again. :)

Nomination gives a point to the author. Seconding, thirding and so on and all other kinds of support add a point as well. The 3 authors with the most points win in the order of the number of votes they got (unless one or more of the 3 has an anniversary or something - in which case I will try to match them to their month). Ties that produce more than 3 authors overall at the top will be broken with an admin half-vote and everyone who is in a tie but does not make it into this selection, gets half a point for next time.

Anyone is eligible to be nominated except for the authors we had read the last 24 months: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Monthly_Author_Reads#Recent_Picks . It is preferred that the author has at least some works in English (original or translated) -- most of the participants read in English (even if some may be able to also use other languages) :)

William Thackeray and George Sand start with 1/2 point each from last cycle.

Just to make everyone's life easier (so you do not need to click on the wiki if you do not want to), here is the list of ineligible authors this time around:

Colson Whitehead
The Brontë Sisters
Willa Cather
Elizabeth Gaskell
George Bernard Shaw
Sir Walter Scott
Wilkie Collins
Maggie O'Farrell
Margaret Atwood
Émile Zola
James Baldwin
Jane Gardam
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Robert Louis Stevenson
George Eliot
John Le Carré
James McBride
Pearl S. Buck
Henry James
Elizabeth Taylor (The author, not the actress).
E. M. Forster
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Kazuo Ishiguro
José Saramago

Deadline - September 1, 2025, whatever time I get around to counting :)

Thank you for setting up these threads.

I'll add a vote for George Sand.

I nominate Thomas Hardy and Ann Patchett.

I nominate Hilary Mantel and Tim Winton

I vote for Thackeray and George Sand (again). Seconding Thomas Hardy.

I'll third Thomas Hardy.

I nominate Alexandre Dumas and Neville Shute.

I'll second Alexandre Dumas, and add another vote for Thomas Hardy.

I’ll third Alexandre Dumas

I'll second Hillary Mantel. And vote for Percival Everett and Caryl Phillips.

>8 DAGray08: I’ll second Caryl Phillips

>5 john257hopper: Clarification--is the nomination for Alexandre Dumas, père or Alexandre Dumas, fils? Or both? ;) The link goes to the disambiguation page for both.

>10 kac522: Almost posted the same but figured that if he wins, I'll just do a 2-in-1 and call it a day. :)

I meant Dumas père...

>10 kac522: I meant pere, rather than fils. Pere wrote more than enough, and I only know of one work by fils....

>13 john257hopper: Thanks! I'll add a vote for Dumas père.

I second ann patchett and percival everette and dumas pere

I keep trying: dawn powell

I'm new to the group, and would like to nominate Jung Chang for her book Wild Swans, and also Amanda Roberts for her book Threads of Silk.

>16 lochiegirl64: I'll second Jung Chang.

fantastic book, ill third it.

>18 cindydavid4: I have read Wild Swans of course and also her biography of Empress Cixi. I have a couple of her other books to read.

I tried reading her mao bio but i found it hard to get through. I would like to try the bio of cixi What other books do you have from her

>20 cindydavid4: I have Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China. If she is selected as the monthly author, I will probably read that one. I also have the Mao biography.

>17 john257hopper: & >18 cindydavid4: Thank you. That's great!

>21 john257hopper: just ordered big sister little sister. and whats nice it will also help me with the RG Chinese theme this quarter

Voting is now closed - I will get the results in later today (sorry, forgot about the holiday and stuck at work today). Thanks everyone for participating!

And the results are in:

5: Alexandre Dumas (père): john257hopper, SassyLassy, MissWatson, kac522, cindydavid4
4: Thomas Hardy: kac522, MissWatson, john257hopper, SassyLassy
3: Jung Chang: lochiegirl64, john257hopper, cindydavid4
===
2 1/2: George Sand: 1/2, kac522, MissWatson
2: Ann Patchett: kac522, cindydavid4
2: Percival Everett: DAGray08, cindydavid4
2: Caryl Phillips: DAGray08, kjuliff
2: Hilary Mantel: kjuliff, DAGray08
1 1/2: William Thackeray: 1/2, MissWatson
1: Tim Winton: kjuliff
1: Neville Shute: john257hopper
1: Dawn Powell: cindydavid4
1: Amanda Roberts: lochiegirl64

Which means:
October: Alexandre Dumas, père
November: Thomas Hardy
December: Jung Chang

Threads will be up later this month. Next voting window will be in November. No leftover half points for the first vote for 2026 (seriously, when did we get so close to 2026?!?!?)

>25 AnnieMod: Thank you AnnieMod and to everyone for voting for Jung Chang for the month of December. I know its crazy isn't it, how 2026 is getting closer!

ive got the three sisters on my reading table and have found her style very pleasing. Lots of history I dont know so this should be fun. also reading this for Reading Global 3rd quarter theme China

I read The Three Musketeers back in 2014, so I guess The Count and I will get acquainted next month.

I listened to a podcast interview with Jung Chang today, her new book Fly, Wild Swans was published this week in the UK.

Oh my that comes out near my birthday so looks like that will be my gift to me. so loved wild swans and am currently enjoying little sister big sister red sister cant wait till jan!

I read an amazing book about Dumas pere the black count covers his life during the revolution thro Napoleon. His son used his fathers experience in writing the count of monte christo not sure if it counts here; Its non fiction, with much of it based on papers discovered in a hidden room. but what the author discovers gives us a window into the lives of both Dumas

I'm really looking forward to all these 3 author months.

>29 john257hopper:
A new book from Jung Chang! That's exciting to hear!
However, Wild Swans is still the only book I have yet to read by her so I'll have to read that one before I tackle this sequel.

>25 AnnieMod: Hope the October thread for Dumas will go up soon? :)

A further thought: I'm not suggesting we change the December nomination, but that month marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen. Maybe we have her for January, or swap Jung Chang and Jane Austen round? Just a thought.

>36 john257hopper: I'm always up for Austen....I'll second John's proposal.

>35 john257hopper: on Monday. :)

>36 john257hopper: No swaps and no forced choices (anniversary or not). Feel free to nominate her when the next nomination thread is up in November. :)

Plus everyone and their mother will be reading her because of the anniversary. I was actually happy not to see nominations for her this time around. :)

>49
I'm glad you put your foot down on this one. As I am a lurker but never get to participate I thought I didn't have a voice but also thought that every other group and book club on the planet would be reading Jane Austen to celebrate this that there was no need to do a change in the months. In fact, there seems to always be an anniversary of some sort with her that there is always an excuse to read her: 100th anniversary of her cat, 200th anniversary of how she'd be 200 years old now if she were alive, etc, etc...

>39 AnnieMod: okay thanks, Annie, fair enough. :)

>40 lilisin: It was just a suggestion. I sometimes don't care for the nominated monthly authors, in which case I just don't participate that month :).

October thread (Dumas) is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/374251

I will post the rest later today.

>42 john257hopper: There will be months like that. I often manage to miss a month either because I really do not care about the author or simply run out of time for them. It's like a book club - sometimes you need to go with whatever the group decides (or skip the meeting). On the other hand, I've found some of my favorite authors because the group chose an author I was not keen on so there is something to be said about that as well.

>40 lilisin: Everyone is welcome to post an opinion (and nominate/vote when the time comes!). Even if you almost never get around to actually participate. :)

Hardy (November): https://www.librarything.com/topic/374260
Jung Chang (December): https://www.librarything.com/topic/374261

As a reminder, next voting window is through the month of November (I'll post the topic as early as I can in November) :)

>42 john257hopper:
I certainly haven't participated in about 95% of the nominations. Usually because I will have just read them right before the month turns up. For example I just read Jung Chang so won't be participating in December even though I totally would have loved to. But this time I have Dumas properly lined up for October!

>45 lilisin: You are always welcome to post (and participate) even if you do not read her in December and instead read her a few weeks/months earlier. While most people do read in the assigned months, it does not always work out and I'd rather have people post about the authors and the books than sit it out because of the calendar. Just saying :)

>46 AnnieMod:
I'll keep that in mind!

Voting for Jan-Mar 2026 is open:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/375332#