We sometimes like to mix things up to keep the book club fresh & exciting. To that end, we’re going to be trying out our own version of a blind date with a book inspired by BlindDatewithaBook.com this month.
The idea is that people won’t be able to judge a book by its cover or by what everyone says about it. Instead, it’ll be a surprise using books carefully curated by the company above, a library, or whomever is running the blind date with a book…in this case, it’ll be all of us! The results are always interesting with a number of people discovering books they adore that they might not otherwise have picked up.
Here’s how this is going to work for us:
Everyone will send in their suggestion this month separately through a survey so no one knows what books have been suggested.
As always, we’ll compile a list of 6 books. (If we receive many suggestions, we’ll randomly choose which ones to include. We just won’t show that screencast of the random selection till later.)
Everyone will then vote on the list of 6 books using only key phrases describing each of those books.
So what country are we reading next month?
With Valentine’s Day just a couple of weeks ago & my dad’s birthday today up in heaven (happy birthday, Dad! that’s John J. McCrea to all of you), love has been on my mind along with my dad’s favorite spy series. So this month, we’re focusing on books from Russia (with love). 😉 (No, we’re not looking for romance books. We want all genres. I’m just referencing a famous book title from my dad’s beloved spy series below.)
We'll use 2 suggestions from book club members, 2 suggestions from Mia (the book club co-founder), & 2 of my suggestions to compile a list of 6 books on which book club members will provide their thoughts. The book judged as best from the list will then be read.
Please note - We're specific in our books, they must:
Largely occur in the location specified unless the world described is an alternate reality
Be written by an author born there who has spent a good portion of their life there
Exist in paperback & ebook available on both Amazon & Kindle at least in the US & hopefully elsewhere
Just let us know your Russian suggestions via the link above by Mon., Feb 25. 11PM ET. (That's NYC time. See this converted to your local time below.)