Reading Buddies: July Pick and an Announcement

Just a reminder that there’s still plenty of time to jump on board for our June read, which is Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. I started it last night, and I’m definitely interested already. It’s my first of Brooks’ books.

July’s book won with a landslide! We’ll be reading Possession by A.S. Byatt. I’ve meat to read this one for a really long time, so I’m glad you guys picked it. Here’s a taste, from the Goodreads description:

“‘Literary critics make natural detectives,’ says Maud Bailey, heroine of a mystery where the clues lurk in university libraries, old letters, and dusty journals. Together with Roland Michell, a fellow academic and accidental sleuth, Maud discovers a love affair between the two Victorian writers the pair has dedicated their lives to studying: Randolph Ash, a literary great long assumed to be a devoted and faithful husband, and Christabel La Motte, a lesser-known ‘fairy poetess’ and chaste spinster. At first, Roland and Maud’s discovery threatens only to alter the direction of their research, but as they unearth the truth about the long-forgotten romance, their involvement becomes increasingly urgent and personal. Desperately concealing their purpose from competing researchers, they embark on a journey that pulls each of them from solitude and loneliness, challenges the most basic assumptions they hold about themselves, and uncovers their unique entitlement to the secret of Ash and La Motte’s passion.

“Winner of the 1990 Booker Prize–the U.K.’s highest literary award–Possession is a gripping and compulsively readable novel. A.S. Byatt exquisitely renders a setting rich in detail and texture. Her lush imagery weaves together the dual worlds that appear throughout the novel–the worlds of the mind and the senses, of male and female, of darkness and light, of truth and imagination–into an enchanted and unforgettable tale of love and intrigue.”

Because it’s longer, and because there’s that holiday weekend in there, I’ll be posting about Possession on July 20 and August 3. That gives us an extra week, which I know I’ll probably need!

The Aforementioned Announcement

So. As I wrote about recently, I’ve kind of been exploring new directions. I launched a new, differently focused site and stopped writing “book thoughts” altogether. It’s been just Reading Buddies posts, and it will continue to be that way. (For the full story, check out the post I originally wrote explaining this shift in focus.)

After much thought and agonizing, I’ve decided that July will be the last Reading Buddies read, at least for the time being. Erin Reads will stay up, though I’m giving myself permission to step back for as long as I need to and won’t be posting much, if anything. I need the space, or I fear I’ll burn out and never, ever want to come back.

The June and July reads will happen as planned. If you’d like to be notified if/when Reading Buddies is up and running again, leave me a note in the comments and I’ll add you to a list that will ONLY be used for that purpose.

I love the book blogging community and have enjoyed being part of it so very much. I’ll still be around…just not actively posting for the moment. Thanks to all of you who have made Erin Reads the fun, thriving little community I never imagined it could become.

Happy reading, all!