Sunday 18 October 2015

#LoveOzYAbookclub: Title Suggestions Masterlist and How This All Works


Hi all, this is the introductory post for the #LoveOzYAbookclub – welcome!  If you enjoy reading YA books, and specifically Australian YA, then this is the club for you.  I'm not going to make stupid references to Fight Club, cos that is passe, and the only rule of #LoveOzYAbookclub is talk all you want about bookclub.  Oh, and invite whoever you want - young readers, older readers, readers of all shapes and sizes and persuasions.  The more the merrier. 

I’ll be updating with posts here on the blog, but running the discussion threads on the #LoveOzYAbookclub Facebook group page – feel free to run on over there and join to stay current.

This post is just to say hi, and thanks for coming along, and to show off the list of books from which we’ll likely select the books we’ll be reading.  We'll read a book a month - makes it nice and easy, huh?  I’ve made a big OzYA master list below, which will be added to from time to time, as new titles get suggested and old ones get crossed off.

If we’ve left out your fave, or you’d like to suggest a particular title to be read for #LoveOzYAbookclub, add a comment here or at the FB page, or you can always tweet me (just remember to tag me and #LoveOzYAbookclub).

This will be the process for #LoveOzYAbookclub (title selection and general procedure):
I’ll select the first book (because I'm bossy like that), which I’ll announce in early November.  Then I’ll ask the author of that book to choose the next title from the list (for December), and so on down the line (Janurary, February, etc...).  If the author of the current book doesn’t want to choose or is unavailable to do so, I’ll ask someone else to do it or do it myself.  I’ll ask someone who enjoyed the book to review it for the first discussion post, which I'll put up here/on FB in the last half of each month.  Then folks who'd like to comment about how they liked the book of the month can take it from there.  And so on, ad infinitum, until we run out of books, or the internet collapses, or the zombie apocalypse arrives, or whatever.

So, you got that?

*I'll pick the first book, then it will domino from there
*I'll make a Title post at the start of each month, letting you know which book we're reading
*I'll make a second Discussion post near the end of the month, after we've all had a chance to read
*Discussion and comments will be on the relevant thread over at the #LoveOzYAbookclub FB group page.
*If the author of the book is amenable, I’ll try to arrange an interview, or a Facebook author chat, during the relevant month.
*I’m also in the process of organising a way for those buying the book to get free shipping for online orders.

Masterlist of OzYA Books Suggested So Far (feel free to suggest more!):

InBetweenDays – Vikki Wakefield
TheFlywheel – Erin Gough
Risk – Fleur Ferris
Talk Under Water – Kathryn Lomer
Sidekicks – Will Kostakis 
Razorhurst– Justine Larbalestier
GoodOil – Laura Buzo
Zeroes– Margo Lanagan, Scott Westerfeld, Deborah Biancotti
The Book of Days – KA Barker
GreenValentine – Lili Wilkinson
A Little Wanting Song – Cath Crowley
The Intern – Gabrielle Tozer
Notes from the Teenage Underground – Simmone Howell
Burn Bright - Marianne dePierres
My Life as an Alphabet – Barry Jonsberg
Head of the River – Pip Harry
Atmospheric– Carole Wilkinson
Deucalion - Brian Caswell
Grace Beside Me – Sue McPherson
Steal My Sunshine – Emily Gale
How to be Happy – Dave Burton
Undine– Penni Russon
The Last Girl - Michael Adams
90 Packets of Instant Noodles – Deb Fitzpatrick
Finding Grace – Alyssa Brugman
Clara in Washington – Penni Tangey
Living Hell - Catherine Jinks
Killing Darcy – Melissa Lucashenko
Jasper Jones – Craig Silvey
Into the River – Ted Dawe
The Extinction Gambit - Michael Pryor
Girl Saves Boy – Steph Bowe
First Person Shooter - Cameron Raynes
ThingsYou Either Hate or Love – Brigid Lowry
Laurinda _ Alice Pung
Cooper Bartholomew is Dead – Rebecca James
Spark – Rachael Craw
Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club - Alison Goodman
Thrive– Mary Borsellino
The Dead I Know – Scot Gardner
The Protected – Claire Zorn
Hating Alison Ashley – Robin Klein
Between The Lives - Jessica Shirvington
One True Thing – Nicole Hayes
48 Shades of Brown – Nick Earls
Twinmaker: Jump – Sean Williams
Whisper– Christine Keighery
Illuminae– Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff 
Finnikin of the Rock – Melina Marchetta
How to Make A Bird – Martine Murray
Rise of the Fallen – Teagan Chilcott
A Small Madness _ Dianne Touchell
Eon - Alison Goodman
Facing Up – Carolyn Gilpin
Fire in the Sea – Myke Bartlett
Little Paradise – Gabrielle Wang
Intruder– Christine Bongers
Black Glass - Meg Mundell
Crashing Down – Kate McCaffrey
Zac & Mia – AJ Betts
Cloudwish – Fiona Wood
The Gathering – Isobelle Carmody
Frankie– Shivaun Plozza
Nona and Me – Clare Atkins
Deadly,Unna? – Phillip Gwynne
Pieces of Sky – Trinity Doyle
Does My Head Look Big in this? – Randa Abdel-Fattah
A Single Stone – Meg McKinley
So Much To Tell You – John Marsden
Summer Skin – Kirsty Eagar 
The Cracks in the Kingdom – Jaclyn Moriarty
Sabriel – Garth Nix
You’re the Kind of Girl I Write Songs About – Daniel Herborn
Stay With Me - Maureen McCarthy
Shadows– Paula Weston
The Vanishing Moment – Margaret Wild
Footy Dreaming – Michael Hyde
This is Shyness – Leanne Hall
I Am the Messenger – Markus Zusak
Frankie and Joely – Nova Weetman
Preloved - Shirley Marr
Cry Blue Murder – Kim Kane, Marion Roberts
Calypso Summer – Jared Thomas
Freedom Ride – Sue Lawson
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf – Ambelin Kwaymullina
The Pause - John Larkin
Five Parts Dead – Tim Pegler
Sky Legs - Irini Savvides
Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean – Kirsty Murray, ed.
Losing It – Julia Lawrinson
Fairytales for Wilde Girls – Allyse Near
The Big Dry - Tony Davis
The Tricksters – Margaret Mahy
Cracked – Clare Strahan
Oracle - Jackie French
Run – Tim Sinclair
Kill The Music - Nansi Kunze
The Minnow - Diane Sweeney
Snow White: This is No Fairy Tale - Keith Austin


*Many of the authors have multiple books, so I’ve only put up one book per author.  The decision on which book to include was either suggested, or made by me (because I wanted to read a certain book.  Soz.).  If you’d like to suggest a different book for the same author, that’s fine, but let’s make sure we spread the love around.

*Some books have collaborative authors – once their joint book is read and crossed out, I’m happy to include works they’ve penned as individuals.

*Yes, I’ve included some NZ authors (mainly because I want to read Into the River and Spark, and why not).

*No, I haven’t put my own books on the list, cos I didn’t want to feel like a der.  I’m getting plenty of love by facilitating this bookclub, which is good enough for me (and if you want to go read the Every series, thank you, and the link to Booktopia is on the sidebar at right! #officialplug).

* If you’re a blogger/reviewer and you’d like to have your reviews included in the bookclub, please get in touch.

And that’s it!  Hope you like the list and please feel welcome to join in the reading and discussion by joining the #LoveOzYA bookclub on Facebook.  Keep an eye out for the first book, coming up soon (first week of November) – I’ll post it here and cross-post to the group plus everywhere else.  I can’t wait to start reading!

xxEllie