So I mentioned to the internet that I wanted to start a virtual book club to get me through all the books in my TBR (To Be Read) pile and apparently the internet approves!

Here is the general plan;

6 o’clock Friday the 20th of March will be the first session, once the time is a bit closer I will post a link to the thing that I will be using to look at all your lovely faces/listen to your lovely voices/adore your blank voids of anonymity. I am thinking either a google hang out or zoom? Not sure yet, I’ll figure it out.

Once we’re all online we can talk about everything that needs to be discussed for the club, what books people want to recommend, which ones they want to deny ever existing, that sort of thing. Also if the time is really bad for people then we can sort that out as well. But we can talk about what works and what doesn’t tomorrow (or today, or we will have done at some time in the past. Time travel, it happens every day).

Given the short notice the chances are this isn’t going to be a very busy event, but it would still be really nice to see people and to make sure that this is actually going to be a thing.

Now, much more exciting things to talk about, which books?

As I have said, I love fantasy and science fiction and this is an attempt to clear out some of my massive TBR pile, so we’re going to start with what I have handy and want to read.

First up is Brooke Bolander’s, The Only Harmless Great Thing, a book which uses different periods of alternate history to tell a story about memory. And elephants. I really like what I’ve heard and I want to read it, so it’s up to the bat first. It is also, very usefully, the shortest book I have on my list at only 96 pages. That means it shouldn’t be too difficult to get a pretty big chunk of it read. 

It is available as an eBook on Amazon Kindle, here, which is probably the easiest way to get a hold of it. I’ve checked on a few other sites but there seems to have been a rush on physical copies of this book at some point recently, so everywhere else has run out. It turns out panic buying is for books too! If you buy it from that link then I will get a teeny tiny slice of Amazon’s profits which would be lovely. Imagine, if several hundred of you buy a copy then I might be able to buy some new headphones.

It is also available as an audio book from Audible. If you don’t have an Audible account then I have links for that too, here.

So that is the book for Friday the 20th sorted. More or less. I also have a plan for what we will read next week. After a short Science Fiction book this week, I’ve decided to go for a longer Fantasy novel for the 27th of March. 

Next week’s book is Under the Pendulum Sun, by Jeannette Ng. It’s a Gothic novel set in the lands of the Fae and I really love the cover. Basically, if you love Jane Eyre but wish that magic was a bigger thing, this is the book for you!

Here is a link for it to Amazon, like most of the books I’ll be picking it should be available as eBook, as a paperback, or as an Audio Book. I’ll also hunt up some more links to other websites when I have the time since I know not everyone wants to buy from Amazon.

Anyway, I think that’s covered it all. Leave a comment and I’ll get back to you. I’m fully expecting to update this page a few times as I work out a better idea of what’s going on so check back again soon.

Happy reading, and remember, when people bring up all the incredible things certain people did in quarantine in the past, they tend to forget that those people had servants, independent wealth, and no kids to look after! Don’t feel pressure to excel, managing is good enough in times of crisis,

K

UPDATE

I have set up a meeting on Zoom for us this evening at 6 pm on the 20th of March!

This is the invite link, https://us04web.zoom.us/j/967255596 and I should be online from 6. Unfortunately, Zoom has time limits for the free version I am using so we can’t go longer than 40 minutes with more than 2 people in the call, but it’s better than nothing!

See you tonight!