VOTE! for Summer Group Read

After our discussion of The Handmaid's Tale which starts this weekend and goes on for as long as anyone continues to post on it; we thought we might do another Atwood group read for the summer.

In order to decide this we need to VOTE. Please note your top three choices to read/reread in order of preference, or note that you're interested but have no preference. Below please find a list of her novels and short fiction collections to assist you.

NOVELS:
The Edible Woman (1969)
Surfacing (1972)
Lady Oracle (1976)
Life Before Man (1979)
Bodily Harm (1981)
The Handmaid's Tale (1985) DONE!
Cat's Eye (1988)
The Robber Bride (1993)
Alias Grace (1996)
The Blind Assassin (2000)
Oryx and Crake (2003)
The Penelopiad (2005)

SHORT FICTION COLLECTIONS
Dancing Girls (1977)
Murder in the Dark (1983)
Bluebeard's Egg (1983)
Through the One-Way Mirror (1986)
Wilderness Tips (1991)
Good Bones (1992)
Good Bones and Simple Murders (1994)
The Tent (2006)
Moral Disorder (2006)

I'm open to anything; however, I prefer one of the older books or collections (pre-2000s).

Thanks for posting this avaland!

1st choice: Blind Assassin
2nd choice: Surfacing
3rd choice: Alias Grace

I'm planning to read Alias Grace in the next few months, so I'd be thrilled to read it with a group.

The only one I own besides The Handmaid's Tale is Dancing Girls, but I would be interested in reading any of them, as the upcoming discussion is my first taste of Atwood.

1. Penelopiad (only because I haven't read it yet)
2. Cat's Eye
3. The Robber Bride (these both because they are so different from Handmaid's Tale)

Like avaland, I'm pretty much open to anything.

(As an aside, I thought that "Through the One-Way Mirror" was an essay. I think it was regarding Canada-US relations and/or mutual perceptions?? But I could be mistaken.)

#7- You're right: "Through a one-way mirror" appears to be an essay on Can-US relations, although a Google search assigns it dates all the way from the early 1980s up to post 9-11. I've also seen her referred to as "British." And I thought everything on the Internet was true!

I would either like to read Oryx and Crake, The Edible Woman or The Robber Bride. But I can buy any others we pick!

I'm going to keep this vote open until the end of the month.

>5 DevourerOfBooks: well, I have an extra copy of Surfacing that I could send you (if you're in the US), should that make the cut:-) I picked it up this morning at a library sale.

>7 sqdancer:, 8 I got the list from wikipedia, and noticed the title -- "something I don't have, I thought, must look into that!" but, haven't had the chance. Thanks for the clarification.

This is selfish of me, but I have Oryx and Crake on my TBR list, so I would love to read that. I am just getting into Atwood, so if I have time, I would probably be up for anything, as its all new to me. I'm also trying to read more short fiction, so I think it might be fun to do one of those collections, but again, the only Atwood I've read so far is The Handmaid's Tale, so I am really game for anything.

I haven't been joining in on The Handmaid's Tale, but I'd be interested in the next one.

I loved Margaret Atwood when I was a teenager, but stopped reading her for a long time after university - I have a long gap between The Robber Bride and Oryx and Crake (although after Oryx I went back and read the intervening two). So I'd be most interested in the earlier stuff - especially The Edible Woman, Lady Oracle, or Surfacing, or else The Robber Bride (to see if I can see what put me off).

That said, I think Oryx & Crake is a really interesting comparison to The Handmaid's Tale - the different way that Atwood conceives of these two dystopias, 20 years apart.

Thus far, Oryx and Crake seems to be edging out in front of the others with Surfacing, Alias Grace and Robber Bride following. We'll see what happens in the next week or so (seems by that time most people who regularly or semi-regularly check on activity in this group would have been here by now . . .)

>12 wandering_star: I agree, that O&C would be an interesting to read following The Handmaid's Tale. If it doesn't fly here, some of us could still read it as part of the Dystopian group, eh?

I have Oryx and Crake now and will probably be reading it soon anyway!

After the discussions from Handmaid's tale, I'm just excited to take on any of her books. I thought I'd considered just about every angle of that book (it's my favorite and I've read it dozens of times), but the conversations there brought out so much more. I can only imagine what will happen with a book that's not so familiar!

I wouldn't mind reading Oryx and Crake.

Shall we do Oryx and Crake for summer/winter (depending on your hemisphere), then? Discussion to start, say, anytime after ...when?

We can do one of the other two - Robber Bride or Alias Grace for the Sept-Nov time period?

Sounds like a plan! Is early August a good time for everyone?

Early/mid August would work for me.

ok, Oryx and Crake for the summer. Discussion begins August sometime. I will be in Australia, so will one of you start the thread at the beginning of the month? I'll go spread the word.

I'd been dithering about joining the Oryx and Crake groupread, but my library had a copy on their sale shelf yesterday, so fate intervened and here I am. I'm looking forward to reading this with you.

My copy just came in the mail, so I'm taking it on vacation with me -- it's one of the few Atwoods I haven't read.