April-June 2024 Nominations and Voting

And I am very late posting this -- my brain still refuses to acknowledge it is 2024, let alone that February is almost gone.

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

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 votes (unless someone has an anniversary or something - in which case will try to match them in 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.

Maggie O'Farrell already has a 1/2 point from the tie last time.

Deadline: March 15, 2024, whatever time I get around to counting :)

PS: Just to save everyone a click, the NOT eligible authors are:
M. M. Kaye
W. Somerset Maugham
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sebastian Barry
Luis Alberto Urrea
J. G. Farrell
Anthony Trollope
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Alan Brennert
Chaim Potok
Elizabeth von Arnim
Edna Ferber
Honoré de Balzac
Emily St. John Mandel
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Colson Whitehead
The Brontë Sisters
Willa Cather
Elizabeth Gaskell
George Bernard Shaw
Sir Walter Scott

>1 AnnieMod: I nominate Kevin Barry

I nominate Maggie OFarrel and Emma Donohue

After reading wifedom Im now curious enough to reread George Orwell and nominate him

I nominate George Gissing.

>1 AnnieMod: my brain still refuses to acknowledge it is 2024, let alone that February is almost gone.

Definitely with you there!

I second Maggie O'Farrell and nominate Margaret Atwood.

Another vote for:

Maggie O'Farrell
Margaret Atwood

and I nominate
Wilkie Collins--200th anniversary of his birth this year (January)

Mmm collins sounds familair;did we read him before? if not Ill second him

Definitely seconding Wilkie Collins

>8 cindydavid4: Not since February 2022 - so he just became eligible for this iteration. But he IS eligible. :)

oh then, Ill second him!

Also second Wilkie Collins

I also support Wilkie Collins, George Orwell, and Margaret Atwood.

Results:
Wilkie Collins - 5: kac522, SassyLassy, cindydavid4, Tess_W, john257hopper
Maggie O'Farrel - 3 1/2: 1/2, cindydavid4, Tess_W, kac522
Margaret Atwood - 3: Tess_W, kac522, john257hopper
George Orwell - 2: cindydavid4, john257hopper
Kevin Barry - 1: kjuliff
Emma Donohue - 1: cindydavid4
George Gissing - 1: SassyLassy

Which means:

April: Wilkie Collins
May: Maggie O'Farrel (what would you know, she is born in May and I don't even need to move her from where she landed based on votes)
June: Margaret Atwood

No leftovers for next time.

Topics will be up some time next week. Next voting window: some time in May (I will try for May 1 so it can run for a month but life can be a bit weird so.... some time in May) :)

>14 AnnieMod: thank you Annie, we all appreciate your efforts!

Looks good, thanks! btw have we read wallace stegner? I noticed a few of his books on my shelves angle of repose and crossing to safety both I remember liking. I noticed one I havent read the spectator bird its a book I dont think I would have cared for when I was younger; now Im about the age of the main character and realize I think just like him. Anyway, thinking I might nominate him next time around

>16 cindydavid4: All the authors we had ever read are listed in the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Monthly_Author_Reads#Authors_By_Date :) Looks like we did in September 2020: https://www.librarything.com/topic/321183

So he is eligible for next time if you want to nominate him. Or if you feel like reading him in the meantime, adding to an old topic is always ok :)

thanks; Ill probably finish what Im reading now and choose another book when the time comes

I can recommend Collins' The Woman in White, which I read in 2019 and rated it 5 stars---I only have 2-3 reads per year as a 5 star read. This time I want to tackle The Moonstone, which I have on my shelf.

ETA: No Name is free on Kindle.

My fav is always queen of hearts Ive read the other two, want to find the one he wrote with dickens no name.and Kindle had a copy for free, so Im ready to go!

>20 cindydavid4: No Name is very good, I thoroughly recommend it. I didn't think he co-wrote it with Dickens though it was serialised in the magazine the latter edited. I wonder if there is some confusion with No Thoroughfare, a play they co-wrote?

I have read his two most famous works, so will be looking for another to read. Not sure I want to read another doorstopper though, after Scott's Heart of Midlothian this month, which I'm now half way through. So I will probably opt for a shorter Collins work.

>21 john257hopper: You are correct, John. No Name was by Collins alone, but they did co-write a play and a few short stories.

I've read both The Moonstone and The Woman in White and both are so good. I've started reading a short story collection Mad Monkton and other Stories and so far I'm enjoying them. If time permits, I'm going to read The Dead Secret in April. I plan to continue reading Collins over the year, as I have No Name, The Law and the Lady and Man and Wife on my shelves.

>21 john257hopper: oh ok, my bad the article I was reading was a bit confusing. Ill look at No Thoroughfare too. Thanks for the clarification

>23 cindydavid4: You're welcome, Cindy, no problem. I read the play at Christmas 2022, I thought it was exciting and would like to see it restaged.

Wilkie Collins is definitely one of my favourite authors. So far I've read:

Armadale
Basil
Hide and Seek
Jezebel's Daughter
No Name
Poor Miss Finch
The Dead Alive
The Dead Secret
The Law and the Lady
The Moonstone
The Woman in White

some of them more than once. I'll be ordering some new ones for this read, once April starts.

>25 SassyLassy: Wow! Which are your favorites?

Jennifer Brooks was a wonderful booktuber who loved Wilkie Collins. Sadly, she passed away earlier this year, but her videos remain accessible. Here are a couple of her videos discussing Wilkie Collins:

All About Wilkie Collins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1A_vAw4WYM
Chatting Wilkie Collins--Ranking, Where to start and more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGzkK8kYqc0

>I will probably read The Haunted Hotel for my Wilkie Collins as it's a quite short, almost a novella. I would read Armadale but it's too long for my current mood in April.

wrong touchstore for Haunted Hotel

>I will probably read The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice for my Wilkie Collins as it's a quite short, almost a novella. I would read Armadale but it's too long for my current mood in April.

Thanks Cindy. Doesn't seem to be a touchstone to the correct one so have removed.

>29 john257hopper: Looks like this is it: The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice.

>30 kac522: thanks, fixed.

Q2 topics are up:

April 2024: Wilkie Collins: https://www.librarything.com/topic/359566
May 2024: Maggie O'Farrell: https://www.librarything.com/topic/359567
June 2024: Margaret Atwood: https://www.librarything.com/topic/359568

Wiki and the main page of the group will be updated shortly.

>26 kac522: Thanks so much for those links - they're great.

Almost impossible to come up with a favourite, but from the longer books, probably Armadale and from the shorter one Jezebel's Daughter on some days and Poor Miss Finch on others.

>27 john257hopper: I would read Armadale but it's too long for my current mood in April.
But it goes so quickly!

>34 SassyLassy: I'll bear that in mind, thanks.

I may read Poor Miss Finch. That would also suit for a theme for the Reading through Time group, whose April theme is characters with disabilities.

>26 kac522: I've just listened to these great videos and am so shocked at her sudden and so very young passing :(

>37 john257hopper: Yes, I've been following her for a couple of years, and it was a great shock. I thought she did some great analysis of Wilkie Collins. She also had a great one about Wuthering Heights--she loved it, and yet she was able to coherently explain why some people would not like it (I'm in that camp). By listening to her, I came to appreciate Wuthering Heights, even though I didn't like it much.

My goal is to read a few more Wilkie Collins novels throughout the year in her memory, and then go back and look at those Collins videos again. I think her mom is going to leave them up for a while.

I will look back at her videos too. I read and quite enjoyed Wuthering Heights around a decade ago, but when I tried it again on audiobook, I gave up on it.

>38 kac522:
>39 john257hopper:

Wuthering Heights, my favorite novel of all time! I also have 4 different versions of the movie. I much prefer the one starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. Heaaaathhhhhhhhhcccccccclllllllliiffffffffffff!

even in HS, I wanted to slap both of them silly. but ymmv :)

If you haven't voted, visit https://www.librarything.com/topic/360838# to vote for the Jul-Aug-Sep authors.