It's Menage Time!

Back in the halcyon days of my blogging youth, when Citizen Reader was a young and naive Nonfiction Readers Anonymous, we periodically had group book discussions that we called the BOOK MENAGE--short for a trois--because we would read two books and then talk about them in the comments. (Two books + 1 reader = the best kind of disease-free menage ever!)

Well, I think it's high time we did that again.

Are you in? Come on. It'll be fun!

I've got a few ideas about book partnerships. The first set: Tom Bissell's The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam, and Doris Lessing's new novel/family history Alfred and Emily. (Both examine what war does to the families of veterans, even years after the war is over and done with.) Or, we could try John Bowe's Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the new Global Economy and a shorter memoir about work, Reg Theriault's How To Tell when You're Tired. Or, we could try True Crime and read something like Jeanine Cummins's A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and Its Aftermath paired with a novel like Michael Connelly's The Black Echo (first in the police procedural Harry Bosch series).

Here's what I see for a timeline: this week, vote* for your favorite set in the comments or email me with your choice at realstory@tds.net. Voting closes at the end of the day on Thursday, Nov. 6 (Then I could announce before this weekend.) Then, a few weeks to read the books, including the Thanksgiving weekend (in a perfect world, I'd have us all give up Friday-after-Thanksgiving shopping to read instead), and we'll start the discussion bright and early on Monday, Dec. 1. That way we have something to do during the blah month of November, and we can discuss before we have to turn our attention to the last-minute shopping we have to do because we didn't shop the day after Thanksgiving.

Same deal as last time: vote for your favorite, and invite friends to vote and discuss as well. Everyone who discusses gets their name entered in the drawing for the next Menage's books--once we pick these titles, the lucky reader from our last menage will get her set of books in the mail!

So here we go: 1. Bissell and Lessing; 2. Bowe and Theriault; 3. Cummins and Connelly. Let the menage begin!!

*And unlike the political election, in which both candidates are completely owned by corporate interests,** your vote here really matters!

**I know, I'm a total killjoy. You should still vote tomorrow, of course.

Comments

[Tripp]

All three look interesting, but at the moment, I am leaning to the first two (I've read a lot of crime already this year--but I always could use more!)

Since you probably want a single vote, I will go with 2.

[Katharine]

I would vote for number 3, Connelly and Cummins, true crimes sounds good to me.

[Jessica]

*GASP* Fun!!! I vote #2.

[laura]

I vote for #1, although I'd really be happy with any of them. This is, of course, supposing that I actually get time to read them on top of all the other books I have to read in the next two months. But it's getting cold and dark outside, and I need distraction, so I may well actually get to participate for real this time.

[Citizen Reader]

Ah, the votes are coming in--tres awesome! Laura, I hear you on not having enough time, but luckily November's a month with long nights and (hopefully) not as much snow shoveling as other months, so we'll hope for the best (and I tried not to pick super-long books). Thanks to everyone who's voted so far--I can't wait to see which set wins out.

[Melanie]

I'll vote for the Bissell/Lessing combo.

[Venta]

Wow! What great choices!! You are making it hard, CR, but I'm going with combination #1. Usually I'm the true crime type, but I think we'd have a good conversations with #1 or #2.

By the way, who doesn't spend the Friday after Thanksgiving reading??

[Citizen Reader]

Venta,
Glad to make the choices tough. Whichever groupings don't make it this time might be just right for a future menage!

[Sarah (A.K.A The Bunless Librarian)]

A Menage! Woot! What a fantastic excuse to supercede some of the books in the ol' to-read pile.

I will cast my vote for #2.

[Brandon]

Damn, I completely forgot about this. I vote for Choice #2, if I can.

[maggie]

Sounds like fun, but I'm under at work and am reading just the have-tos right now. Maybe, I'll be able to participate in another round.

I'll be doing a book discussion for "A Long Way Home" this month and am pretty psyched. I love pushing the nonfiction agenda. Wish me luck.

[Citizen Reader]

Maggie,
I completely understand. Come on back for the discussion anyway; that way you can decide if you ever want to read either of these books! And hopefully you'll have more time on your hands by the time the next menage rolls around.

And good luck with "A Long Way Home"--let me know how the discussion goes. Way to push that NF agenda!!