Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Nominations for our Books of the Month for March 2021 are now open! Each group member can make 1 science fiction and/or 1 fantasy nomination. A couple of suggestions to keep in mind:

1. Telling us a little about the book and why you think it would be a good group read can help get other members interested in reading (and voting for) your nomination. If possible, please use a link to the book and author in your nomination post. Click on “add book/author" for an easy way to do that.

2. To see if your nomination has already been read by the group, you can check:

a. The Beyond Reality Google spreadsheet of Previous Books of the Month, available at this link: . To search for a specific title, use the "Find and Replace" option under the EDIT menu. Don't worry, you will be able to find a title but you will not be able to replace it since the spreadsheet is in "View Only" mode.

b. the group's bookshelf for Previous Books of the Month

c. these threads:
Master list of Previous Books of the Month 2018 - Present
Master list of Previous Books of the Month (Apr-Dec 2017)
Master list of Previous Books of the Month 2012 - 2017
Master list of Previous Books of the Month 2006 - 2011

Books the group has read in the past 2 years are not eligible for current consideration. Being chosen as a past BotM prior to that time is not an automatic disqualification, but be aware that it may hinder your nomination’s chances at the polls.

General guidelines:
� Feel free to re-nominate a book that didn’t win in the polls in previous months!
� For questions regarding specifics such as book formats, books in series, self-nomination and various rules for nominations, please see the group FAQ.
� Seconding is NOT necessary in this group.
� Friendly discussion & debate is strongly encouraged, but please keep things civil.

Poll schedule:
� Nominations will remain open through Friday, December 18.
� The first (preliminary) round of polls will open Saturday, December 19and will run through Friday, December 25.
� The final run-off polls go up Saturday, December 26 and will be open through Thursday, December 31.

Thanks!
Kathi, for the Mods

NOMINATIONS SO FAR:
FANTASY:
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson
The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham
After Alice by Gregory Maguire
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

SCIENCE FICTION:
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
Daemon by Daniel Suarez
A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker
Dauntless by Jack Campbell
Fool's War by Sarah Zettel
Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present by Cory Doctorow
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

For science fiction, I nominate The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August because I always like a good time travel story, and this has been on my TBR list for some time.

For fantasy, I nominate The House in the Cerulean Sea because I've seen it on a couple of "best" lists, and want to give it a try.

I nominate Daemon by Daniel Suarez. It’s like Ready Player One meets fight Club (came out before RPO) except it’s not a wish fulfillment fantasy. It’s a terrifying horror story about psychos turning the real world into a video game. For Fantasy I nominate First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. It has such a great unique premise, it’s a more extreme version of Groundhogs day

Oh, Chris, those both sounds great!

In honor of March being my spring cleaning month, I'm going to go with two noms on my TBR for a while, that sound really good but I'm also a bit intimidated by. Maybe reading them with a group will help me!

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi for fantasy. The world-building sounds incredible, but YA fantasy is very hit or miss for me so I kept putting it off. I'm hoping to finally tackle this one and hope it lives up to its promising concept!

A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker for sci-fi. It's gotten lots of hype and awards, sounds absolutely awesome, but the premise which seems very like our current predicament (through no fault of the author's, who published this right before the pandemic was a thing) made me keep putting it off this year. Maybe by March I'll be ready for it!

Christos wrote: "I nominate Daemon by Daniel Suarez. It’s like Ready Player One meets fight Club (came out before RPO) except it’s not a wish fulfillment fantasy. It’s a terrifying horror story about psychos turnin..."

I will accept Daemon as a science fiction nomination. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August was nominated by Chris (see post #2) for science fiction, which is where most Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ users have it shelved, so I will leave it there. Please feel free to nominate something else for Fantasy. Thanks!

Three Hearts and Three Lions for fantasy.

Dauntless by Jack Campbell for SF

I second Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North.

Leticia wrote: "I second Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North."

Great, thanks! However, seconding is not necessary is this group, although it does give the people who nominate some evidence of support for their nominations.

I came here to add some nominations, but both categories already have things I'd be happy to vote for so I shall refrain from muddying the water!

Trying one more time for these:
³§¹óâ€�Fool's War by Sarah Zettel. Made it to the final poll last month. She writes excellent, thought-provoking stand-alones.
¹ó²¹²Ô³Ù²¹²õ²ââ€�The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham. Also made it to the final poll last month. Book 1 of a series. The group has read at least one of his books and, of course, he is half the writing team responsible for The Expanse SF series.

I will nominate two that I believe were suggested previously by others without being selected - I added both to my TBR and haven't had time to get to them, so this is my reminder.

For Fantasy, I nominate After Alice by Gregory Maguire. There is no shortage of Alice in Wonderland-inspired works, but I'm interested in Mr. Maguire's take on something more Wizard of Oz vintage after reading several of his fairy tale related books.

For SF, I nominate Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present by Cory Doctorow. I enjoy the out of control technology genre more as short stories, so this seems right up my alley.

Last day for nominations!

Hi I wish to nominate some from my TBR :)

Fantasy - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

SF - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Nominations are closed.

Preliminary round of polling is open!

Science Fiction Preliminary Poll

Fantasy Preliminary Poll

Polls are open through December 25. Please vote!
Thanks!

Today, Dec. 25, is the last day for the preliminary polls for our March Books of the Month. Please get your votes in!

Final polls are open for our March 2021 Books of the Month. Polling remains open through the end of 2020! 😳

Final Poll for March 2021 FANTASY BotM

Final Poll for March 2021 SCIENCE FICTION BotM

Please vote!
Thanks!

The Science Fiction poll is very close—please vote before the end of the month! (Well, vote in both polls, but the SF one is super close!)

Please, please, please, somebody break the tie before midnight!

Lol, maybe we can just read both? 34 sounds like enough people to at least do a buddy read!

Eva wrote: "Lol, maybe we can just read both? 34 sounds like enough people to at least do a buddy read!"

We’ll see what happens.

Happy New Year and thank you to whoever broke the tie in the SF poll!