New Leaf Information and Book Selections

[Dazrin]

Unfortunately the New Leaf Book Club has wrapped up. You are welcome to explore what we read and enjoyed together (and a few books we didn't enjoy) and all of the original links are still working but hidden.

Take care! - Dazrin

12/6/2020: While there may still be a few comments that come in, I thought I'd post some of our final numbers to celebrate how much fun we had.

• 34: Number of books read.
• 3,031: Total number of comments (just in book discussions)
  • 3,323: Total comments in the MRBC which ran from November 2008 - January 2018
  • 3,223: Total comments in the Literary Club as of today, which started in June 2011
• 34: Unique authors
• 41%: Percent of women authors read
• 5: Unique countries:
  • United Kingdom: 16
  • United States: 11
  • Canada: 4
  • France:2
  • Japan: 1
• 1844: Publication year of the oldest book read (The Three Musketeers)
• 2017: Publication year of the newest book read (The Great Halifax Explosion)
• 309: Average length of selected books

As always, there are more that can be found here: New Leaf Book Club statistics. This sheet is no longer being updated but I will leave it available for anyone to see or use.

Spoiler:

Quick Links: Discussion Thread | Selections List | FAQ | Rules

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Welcome to the New Leaf Book Club information thread. This thread has the boring stuff that we need to make sure the club runs smoothly or that needs to be updated often. Here you can find all of the books we have discussed (and links to those discussions), check out the frequently asked questions, and review and discuss the club rules.

For other discussion, please join us in the welcome thread!

New Leaf Book Club Purpose

Originally Posted by issybird

The purpose of the New Leaf Book Club is to discover, read and discuss new books across a wide spectrum of genres to expand our reading palettes. Our objective is to engage in thoughtful conversation with people of diverse perspectives who share our love of reading within a friendly and inviting community.

[Dazrin]

Book Selections, Themes, & Links

Legend: Book titles link to the discussion thread. N is the nomination thread, V is the vote thread, R is the run-off vote when applicable.

Jump to: 2018 | 2019 | 2020

2018

• February - A Rainbow of Reading, books with color-full associations - Links: N, V
  Passing by Nella Larsen
• March - The Book Came First, books adapted to screen - Links: N, V
  The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• April - It's All Relative, time-ly books - Links: N, V
  Making History by Stephen Fry
• May - Doomed to Repeat It, History (fact and fiction) - Links: N, V
  The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
• June - I'll be There for You, Best friends - Links: N, V
  The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
• July - Some Like It Hot, Summer - Links: N, V
  Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
• August - What is It Good for? Absolutely Nothin', War - Links: N, V
  The Great Halifax Explosion by John U. Bacon
• September - The Shortest, Gladdest Years of Life, School - Links: N, V, R
  Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• October - Out of This World, Otherwhence - Links: N, V
  The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier
• November - Lies and Misdirections, Unreliable Narrators - Links: N, V, R
  Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
• December - Just for Fun, Guilty Pleasures - Links: N, V
  The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

2019

• January - Lost in Translation, Other Tongues - Links: N, V
  The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
• February - Let's Make a Deal, Trade Secrets - Links: N, V
  A Delicate Truth by John le Carré
• March - Murder They Wrote, Deadly Pursuits - Links: N, V
  Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
• April - The Way I Heard It, Retellings - Links: N, V
  The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
• May - You're Never Too Young, Children - Links: N, V, R
  The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• June - Into the Labyrinth, The Quest - Links: N, V
  The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code by Margalit Fox
• July - Naturally Gifted, Prodigies - Links: N, V, R
  The Natural by Bernard Malamud
• August - First Things First, Debuts - Links: N, V
  I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume
• September - Labour of Love, Working Class - Links: N, V
  The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District by James Rebanks
• October - Ya Gotta Believe, Life of the Spirit - Links: N, V
  Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
• November - Books like Onions, Layers - Links: N, V
  The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
• December - The End of the Road, Finales - Links: N, V
  The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

2020

• January - I'd Rather be Reading, Books about Books - Links: N, V
  The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
• February - It Takes Two to Tango, Collaborators - Links: N, V, R
  Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
• March - As You Wish, Anything Goes - Links: N, V
  The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
• April - Tales of Tails, Birds or Beasts - N, V
  Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• May - Guilty Pleasures, Between the Covers - N, V
  The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie
• June - Chasing Rainbows, The World of Colour - N, V
  Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
• July - Life's a Beach, Water, Water, Everywhere - N, V
  The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordon
• August - Tasty Morsels, Short and Sweet - N, V
  Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock
• September - Over the Hills and Far Away, Journeys - N, V, R
  Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
• October - The Times They Are a'Changin', Revolution - N, V, R
  The Secret Life of Bletchley Park: The WWII Codebreaking Centre and the Men and Women Who Worked There by Sinclair McKay
• November - If Books Could Kill, Thrilling Stories - N, V, R
  Still Life by Louise Penny

To see which previously selected books from any of the MR book clubs are not eligible for the New Leaf Book Club please see this searchable and sort-able compiled list.

For the other clubs' complete archives, click the club names here to see all of the previous selections for each club: MR Book Club, Literary Book Club.

Significant Archived Threads:

Spoiler:

November 2017:

The way-forward thread

December 2017:

Name the new club: nomination thread (1st 3 themes), voting thread

January 2018:

New theme brainstorming, see first three themes above

March 2018:

Original eligibility spreadsheet

June 2018:

Themes! Themes! Themes! - Help us select the themes for October and beyond!

April 2019:

New Leaf Themes Redux - Help us select the themes for August 2019 and beyond

February 2020:

New Leaf New Themes! Time to Sound Off! - Help us select themes for April through November 2020

October 2020:

2020-2021 Theme Suggestions[/COLOR]

[Dazrin]

Spoiler:

Frequently Asked Questions:
Most recent changes are indicated by a ⚫ and are in Dark Red.

When do we start discussing the next book?

Spoiler:

Each month a new discussion will start on the 15th, a new thread will be posted after the vote is finished and opened for discussion on the 15th.

How do discussions work?

Spoiler:

Discussion threads are generally free-for-all discussions. After the thread is posted anyone can jump in and start discussing the book. Because there is hopefully enough time for everyone to complete the book prior to the thread being posted we do not require spoiler tags unless you are discussing content from other books (for example, books before or after the selection in a series.)

If anyone would like to direct a discussion that is fine too (and would be fun to try!) If you want to do something ahead of time such as providing some discussion questions, please post them in the voting thread after the book has been selected. If any of the questions contain information that might be considered a spoiler please include spoiler tags in the voting thread. If they are posted in the discussion thread they do not need spoiler tags.

⚫How do nominations work?

Spoiler:

We nominate books by posting in the nomination thread or by seconding or thirding a nomination made by someone else. When a book has a nomination and a second, and a third, it is “fully nominated” and will be included in the poll.

Why are nominations so early?

Spoiler:

We have nominations the month prior to starting the discussion to give people more time to get the book and to read the book. This also gives us more flexibility to choose longer books or books that are more popular and have waiting lists at the library.

Why should books be at least 1 year old?

Spoiler:

In order to keep costs down for those who have limited budgets. This allows the price to come down from the new release point and hopefully will allow more people to get it from their library with a minimal wait time.

This also allows for publication delays in other regions, the North America publication date is often not the same as a European or Australian publication date.

What books result in the best discussions?

Spoiler:

The best books are books that are fun to read, have some good "hooks" for discussion, are readily available, easily accessible, and not too long. Some typical guidelines:

• Available: Wide availability in a variety of online stores and in multiple countries. Library availability (such as Overdrive, Hoopla, and other services) is a plus.
  • Some new releases are only available in some markets. We recommend nominating books that were published at least one year ago to give time for other markets to get and publish the book. This also helps in that the price generally goes down after the book is no longer considered a "new release".
• Accessible: The cost of the book is not too high, many people have budgets under US$10 or even US$5.
• Length: Since we all read a different rates books longer than 300 to 400 pages are less likely to be appealing to everyone.

How should I nominate a book?

Spoiler:

At a minimum, you only need to post the title and author of the book you want to suggest in the nomination thread.

It is generally better to post a little more than that though. The best nominations should have the book title and author, a brief description of the book (often taken from Amazon or GoodReads), and why you think it would be a good book to discuss (1-2 sentences is sufficient). If it is not obvious how the book meets the theme could be useful. Additional information such as links to GoodReads, booksellers, or audio versions of the book; an indication of how long the book is; and current pricing is also welcome.

How do Themes work?

Spoiler:

We have decided to base our categories on themes rather than genres to allow more creativity and flexibility in what gets nominated. For example, for a genre of “History” most applicable books would generally be non-fiction, history books. For a theme of “Books about History”, we would allow both the non-fiction history books but also historical fiction novels or alternative history books or even time travel books where the focus is on the past instead of the present or future. Basically anything with some relation to history would be applicable.

How does voting work?

Spoiler:

CRussel (or a designee) will post a poll with all the fully nominated books from the nomination thread, at that point anyone can vote for as many or as few nominations as you like. We ask that if you vote you will at least attempt the final selection regardless of whether you voted for it or not.

If you are new to the club, please post in the vote thread, nomination thread, or the welcome thread to say hello. We ask that you participate in this way (beyond just voting) to show us that you are interested in the club and not voting for the sake of voting with no intention to participate. This helps us ensure that club selections are decided by participating members. Thank you. Welcome to the New Leaf Book Club!

What happens if I vote but can’t read the selection?

Spoiler:

Mainly it just means we miss out on your contributions to the discussion. Everyone’s voice is important and we like to have as many people as possible contributing but we understand that sometimes life gets in the way. If it happens regularly we might ask you to refrain from voting until you have established a pattern of participation. That way we can help ensure that the selected book is one that is preferred by people who can make it to the discussion.

How can I keep current with the New Leaf Book Club?

Spoiler:

The list post above will be updated with links for each new phase but this thread will not be bumped each time.

Instead, we recommend that you monitor the Book Clubs forum for changes and new threads and/or subscribe to the welcome thread. There will be a new thread posted for each phase of the book club (nominations, voting, discussion), if you check the forum a couple times a week you should see those as they come up in addition to any ongoing discussion that is occurring. The welcome thread will be updated when each new nomination thread is posted so if you subscribe to that thread you should see when new nominations are opened.

Another way to keep up to date is to subscribe to the Book Clubs forum (select "Subscribe to This Forum" from the "Forum Tools" drop-down) and you can choose to get a daily or weekly email for all new posts in the Book Clubs forum. You can also set it to "no email notification" which will have an indication in your "User CP" page when something is posted.

How can I help promote the book club?

Spoiler:

We have several different images you can use in a signature or add to an avatar image (or you can use something of your own). The signature images have space for 2 lines of text, some of the examples below use one of them. The "Join us" banners link to the Book Club sub-forum if you use the code provided.

• Large Member banner
  
  
  Come join us for one of MobileRead's book clubs!
  Code:
  [img]https://www.mobileread.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1306&pictureid=7733[/img]
  Come join us for one of MobileRead's [URL="https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=245"][B]book clubs[/B][/URL]!
• Large Join Us banner
  
  
  Code:
  [URL="https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=245"][img]https://www.mobileread.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1306&pictureid=7734[/img][/URL]
• Small Member banner
  
  
  Come join us for one of MobileRead's book clubs!
  Code:
  [img]https://www.mobileread.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1306&pictureid=7736[/img]
  Come join us for one of MobileRead's [URL="https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=245"][B]book clubs[/B][/URL]!
• Small Join Us banner
  
  
  Code:
  [URL="https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=245"][img]https://www.mobileread.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1306&pictureid=7737[/img][/URL]
• Text only:
  
  Join us for one of MobileRead's book clubs!
  Code:
  Join us for one of MobileRead's [URL="https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=245"][B]book clubs[/B][/URL]!

For your avatar, you can add one of the overlays (horizontal or vertical) to the avatar image of your choice. The sample images below link to the overlays, you will need to download them and add them to your image using the photo editor of your choice.

or

[Dazrin]

Spoiler:

Rules & Guidelines:
Unfortunately we need to have some rules and guidelines we can point to in case issues do crop up. Here are the rules and expectations for the New Leaf Book Club.

General:

Spoiler:

• We want the book club to be a friendly and positive forum for everyone who would like to participate. With that in mind, all posts must meet the MR guidelines and should follow these additional guidelines for the book club:
  • No wrangling about nominations, unless a book is clearly ineligible (see eligibility requirements) all nominations are accepted. That does not mean all nominations will be seconded/thirded.
  • Electioneering is fine but please keep it civil and respectful. Please avoid disparaging a nomination and judgmental words in general. No negative campaigning.
• Anything directly related to the contents of the book should be held and posted in the Discussion Thread when it is available.
  • Please keep specific comments on the book out of the nomination and voting threads unless directly related to those activities.
• Discussion related to background information, such as author information or events that may have shaped the author's writing, may go in the voting thread after the book is selected but prior to the discussion thread.
  • Discussion of availability, different formats, additional locations to acquire the book, and temporary deals, etc. can go in the voting thread.

Discussion Thread:

Spoiler:

• Discussions for the current book will start on the 15th of the month and a new thread will be posted for that discussion.

⚫Nominations:

Spoiler:

• Nominations for a month begin on the 1st of the month prior to the discussion month, e.g., nominations for March's discussion start February 1st.
• The nomination period is 6 days.
• Anyone may nominate.
• Each person may nominate (or second/third) up to three books during each nomination period.
• When a book has been nominated and seconded/thirded it is fully nominated and will move to the vote.

Book Eligibility:

Spoiler:

• Books nominated are recommended to have been published, in English, at least 1 year prior to being nominated.
• Books are not eligible if they have been fully nominated in the last 6 months.
• Books are not eligible if they have been a selection of the MobileRead, Literary, or New Leaf book clubs in the last 5 calendar years. (I.e., books selected prior to January 2013 are eligible in 2018, prior to January 2014 will be eligible in 2019, etc.)
  • You can check the eligibility of past selections here.

Voting:

Spoiler:

• Voting will immediately follow the nomination period and lasts for 3 days.
• Voting is Select as many books as you like.
• Anyone may vote but please refrain from voting if you are not willing to participate regardless of what book wins.
• If required, a 3 day run-off vote will follow the voting period; CRussel will cast a tie-breaker vote if the run-off vote is also a tie.

[Dazrin]

Reserved

[Dazrin]

Ok, that’s all I need, give me a few minutes to add the content. I will update this post when done.

Ok, I think that is everything. Please let me know if you find any errors or typose.

Any questions?

[June]

There was a question about how the actual book discussion works in another thread, so maybe something about that in the FAQ?

I justst had to try both avatar overlay and signature picture - I think I got them set up....

[Dazrin]

I just saw that question and will see about getting something in there, it may not be till tomorrow.

Looks like they are working to me. I would add the avatar one too but I don't want my daughter's angry face to reflect on the book club if I put it there.

[CRussel]

Well done, Dazrin, and thank you for taking this on!

[Dazrin]

We're officially one month into the NLBC so I thought I would bump this thread. I won't do this every month but if there are significant changes to the information above (shouldn't be often) I will try to.

I generally get new thread links up within a day of posting (normally less than that) so if we are around one of the new thread dates (1st, 7th, 15th) and you don't see the thread in the forum you can check here, I should have it up shortly at the very least.

If you haven't checked recently, I have added a couple FAQ questions based on a some of the discussions going on. I have also put the rules/guidelines in spoiler tags to reduce how much scrolling is required in this thread.

As usual, please let me know if you see anything or have any suggestions for things that would be useful here.

[Bookpossum]

Good stuff Dazrin - thank you!

[Bookpossum]

Here's a suggestion for the FAQs: How should I head up a new topic thread? We need to get people used to the idea that the topic should always be preceded by New Leaf Book Club.

[Catlady]

Dazrin, I want to express my gratitude for all the hard work you did pulling the information together. Since I'm new to any sort of book club, I keep having questions; you've organized everything so well that I have no trouble finding whatever I'm looking for. Many thanks!

[JSWolf]

I think it would be a very good idea to let us know what the theme is after the vote is over. Then we can begin thinking of what to nominate and maybe get in line at Overdrive. Then we can have the nomination thread when it should be.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I think it would be a very good idea to let us know what the theme is after the vote is over. Then we can begin thinking of what to nominate and maybe get in line at Overdrive.

I can certainly add this to the poll thread. You can always check this post, also. April's theme is: It's All Relative, time-ly books, and the slate for the following five months should be up shortly.

Then we can have the nomination thread when it should be.

The nomination thread is when it should be, on the first of the month.