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A little family fun with book friends, based on the card game "Crazy Eights!" but focused on encouraging equity on our bookshelves!

The rules:

Allison will "deal" each player 12 "cards" (or however many cards would equate to the months left in the year if you're joining later!) via messages or to your personal challenge thread (please say which you'd like).

The "cards" will be a combo of criteria about the "suit" of the card and the "value" of the card.

Suits are about the author as follows:

Spades: #ownvoices
Hearts: Author is a person of color (i.e. not white as moderator is American)
Clubs: Author is not American or British
Diamonds: Author is a woman or non-binary or genderqueer person

Values are as follows:

2- book with at least 2 women or NB protagonists
3- book with nonwhite characters
4- book with mental health as a focus
5- book translated into English
6- book with characters with mobility issues
7- book with African or Caribbean mythology
8- wild/mulligan
9- book with southeast Asian mythology
10- book with Indigenous characters
J- book with South American mythology
Q- book with Middle-Eastern/Indian mythology
K- book with characters who are neurodiverse
A- LGBTQIA+ protagonist

Each month, you must select a card that matches EITHER the suit or the value of the "card" that dealer reveals, and then find a book that would satisfy those criteria. You then state the "card" you're playing and your nomination.

A super helpful spreadsheet from Ines:



Example: (view spoiler)[ Dealer reveals 4 of Spades: #ownvoices book with mental health as a focus. You can play any card that is #ownvoices (Spades) or has mental health as a focus (a 4 card). Therefore I could play The Marrow Thieves which is book with Indigenous characters by an ownvoices author OR Among Others which is book with mental health as a focus by a woman or NB author.

The group then votes for which book we should buddy read (BR). Nominator of winning book becomes Dealer for next round and plays a card from their remaining hand. People who cannot nominate because they can't play a card draw a card. If they can play it, good! Do that! If you can't, you skip this time, but can still vote on what to buddy read.

If you have an 8, that card is "wild" meaning it can be played at any time for any book you'd like to nominate, OR it can be used to cash in your hand for a new one. Mulligans are taken in lieu of playing a card/nominating a book. You would exchange your hand for the same number of cards you have at that time.

At the end of the year, we'll see how many cards everyone has left and I'll tell you the scoring! Heads up, it follows the rules for "Crazy Eights" so "Face cards" and 10s are going to be worth a lot of points in a game that is about having as few points as possible.

Game play will thus look like this.

Player one: I'd like to play!
Allison: Here you go! (view spoiler)[ 12 cards TBD (hide spoiler)]
Allison: First card is 4 of Spades - book with a focus on mental health issues by an ownvoices author
Player 1: I play 10 of Spades - #ownvoices authored book with Indigenous characters The Marrow Thieves.
Player 2: I play 4 of Diamonds - book with a focus on mental health issues by a woman or NB author, Among Others
Player 3: I play 7 of Spades - book with African or Caribbean mythology by ownvoices author, Midnight Robber
Player 4: I have no ownvoices or books with mental health as a focus. I take a card, I still can't play

Allison: Okay, vote for a book!
Player 1: I vote Midnight Robber
Player 2: I vote Midnight Robber
Player 3: I vote The Marrow Thieves
Player 4: I vote Midnight Robber


Group reads Midnight Robber as a BR.
Players 1, 2 and 3 now have 11 cards.
Player 4 has 13 cards.
Player 3 is next Dealer and plays a card from their hand for the next round to start.

(hide spoiler)]
You can pledge the number of books you want to read here!

Calendar: 1 book a month, starting the 5th.
Next round: The 7th
Dealer: Emmett



Books so far:

When Fox is a Thousand: 9 of Spades - book with southeast Asian mythology by an ownvoices author (fantasy)
In the Vanishers�� Palace: 9 of Diamonds - book with southeast Asian mythology by a woman or NB author (fantasy)
The Salvage Crew: 3 of clubs - book with nonwhite characters by a non US/UK author (SF)
A Spark of White Fire
Elatsoe: 10 of Spades - indigenous character by ownvoices author (fantasy)
Eartheater: 10 of hearts (book translated to English by an author of color)

I'm in! Hit me with your dealer magic, in private please ;)

edit: Ooh, I have my hand. *starts arranging cards*

Ooh, this looks super fun! Please deal me in (message).

Oh, fun!
I may need to re-read the rules periodically, but I'm in! (Cards via message, please.)

This sounds super fun. I worry about my ability to commit to monthly genre reads, but I can't resist a fun challenge game focusing on diversity reading, so please message me and deal me in! :D

Oh boy! I can't remember what the rules of Crazy Eights are! Would you please post them somewhere?

Also, I'm in! Please deal me a hand in Messages!

Becky wrote: "This sounds super fun. I worry about my ability to commit to monthly genre reads, but I can't resist a fun challenge game focusing on diversity reading, so please message me and deal me in! :D"

Me too. I've already totally overextended myself with the Alphabet and the series challenges. But heck, they are all books I want to read, so if I don't read them all, it's no loss.

Diane wrote: "Oh boy! I can't remember what the rules of Crazy Eights are! Would you please post them somewhere?

Also, I'm in! Please deal me a hand in Messages!"

The first post has the rules for the game! I'll deal you a hand, you need to match the revealed card with either the value or the suit of the card with your nomination! In card terms, if I play 3 of Hearts, you could play a 3 card or a Hearts card. In book terms, if you play a 3 of Diamonds, you'd nominate a book that matches that, so a book with non-white protagonists written by a woman or non-binary person.

Note: if you have a card but can't think of a nom, ask!

In terms of the points, there's a strategy to try and play higher cards and face cards so you don't get stuck holding them at the end of the year, correct?

Meredith wrote: "In terms of the points, there's a strategy to try and play higher cards and face cards so you don't get stuck holding them at the end of the year, correct?"

Yes, if you're trying to win, higher cards and face cards are good to get rid of before the end. However you also want to make sure you can contribute to the round othewise you have to draw a card and who knows what that will be!

Deal me in! Message, please. And you'll message us again with another card if we have to draw a card?

Diane wrote: "I've already totally overextended myself"

One of the many great things about this challenge is that you don't have to plan anything in advance! You can, if you want to, but you don't have to! You can take it one month at a time, see what gets picked, and go from there :)

Kaa wrote: "Deal me in! Message, please. And you'll message us again with another card if we have to draw a card?"

Yep! Or you an pick it yourself...the initial hand I'm selecting for you for the dual purpose of being able to tell you exactly the cards' meanings with a handy spreadsheet, and also I have maybe been...making sure the randomness of the initial hand isn't gonna royally screw someone. That's a different card game ;-)

So I have wondered where you get this information on authors as I usually don't care what the author is - I just read what sounds good.

I'm in though I may be a terrible player - who knows! Please message cards.

Sandy wrote: "So I have wondered where you get this information on authors as I usually don't care what the author is - I just read what sounds good."

The author parts this time around should be largely fairly easy--we can make some pretty good guesses at least about most authors regarding gender and race/ethnicity just by lookin' at them (though a quick search to confirm is smart. Most list their pronouns these days, and how they like to label their experience with the white majority in the US/UK). Most authors at least say what country they live in and/or are from, so that's pretty easy too with a quick Google. Ownvoices takes a bit more thought, but most of them say it in their profile or about the book itself -- so, like Ada Hoffman says that she wanted to write a book with a neurodiverse MC because she is herself neurodiverse. That would signify #ownvoices. Ditto Moon of the Crusted Snow is ownvoices.

Rachel, you were one of my muses for this challenge! As such, you have already been a terrific player ^^

... I managed to overlook that I could actually, like, pick up a real card deck and just draw a card if I needed.

Are novellas permitted for this one?

This sounds like a great way to read new authors. Can you message me some cards?

Put me in. I may suck at this card game. Bwahaha~

Please leave on my Challenge Thread.

Whew! Took a bit of digging to find that. I'll have to do some winter thread cleaning. lol

Kaa wrote: "... I managed to overlook that I could actually, like, pick up a real card deck and just draw a card if I needed.

Are novellas permitted for this one?"

Yep! The only requirements for this challenge are that it be SFF. I vastly prefer novellas, graphic novels and regular novels on a personal level? But as mod, I hear you all clamoring for more short fic options, and will go with whatever wins, as long as it's in genre!

I'll play. Deal me my cards by message, please.

I think I have dealt everyone in who has so far expressed interest! If I've missed you, it wasn't an intentional slight, please pipe up so I can send you cards and sincere apologies!

My hand is crazy! Crazy I tell ya! lol

It will take work to shake some of them cards. =P

I have faith in your incredible book-finding skillz!

Laurie wrote: "I lose nothing but a bit of dignity if I play terribly, so deal me in! (message) Are there restrictions for the books like not-on-the-group-shelf etc?"

Nope! The only barrier to entry I'm placing on this is that it has to be a group genre (even if that is only tenuous--magical realism and dystopian fic are genre in my eyes!). Other than that this is an exercise in consciously seeking out literature we might not see as often in mainstream media, having a fun time together, and hopefully finding something new to appreciate!

Also, this is a silly game with as much luck to it as anything else! The game is to keep things interesting and add a little bit of personal challenge. When we did Inclusive Book Bingo, we found so many things together I hadn't otherwise heard of, and it was magical! I'm hoping to have something of that again this time. Which is to say, the "skill" with which one plays is not what we'll remember nearly as much as the experience of sharing new books and ideas!

Inclusive Book Bingo

;)

this looks ridiculous and I am *SO* here for it.

Deal me in.

You guys know that the A Team Mods have created a cool game to add more stuff to their TBR? We're secret research assistants. lol

SFFBC interns? lol Chancoholics? =)

I mean...you're not wrong XD

We do often mine the stuff people put forward in buddy reads and challenges and the What Else thread to see what in the world of books maybe we've missed in all our searching!

I love the game idea and I don't like most of the topics because it's not how I look for books to read. I'm more of the umbrella genre search gal. Between random searches, friend recs, oddball recs via books I've read and various new releases notices, I figure I have a broad range of books to pick from. It's hard when you're aiming for a peculiar type but I enjoy the challenge.

I'm in to hangout with ya'll (fun people) and tweak my reading habits for a year. It can't be worse than reading all of Malazan this year or learning to (intensely) dislike the narration for Wheel of Time. WoT is one of my fav, nostalgic series that I started as a kid. So, it irked me to dislike the story due to narration influence. Of the two, I enjoyed Malazan more. It was less irritating because I already knew it would be annoying. haha

Cheers to book treasure hunt! That's how I'm viewing my hand and what the heck am I gonna do to find stuff to fit the cards. =D

Where's me gold?!?!

Haha I think most of us don't actively look for books this way. We think "I'd like a space opera/fairy tale retelling that's really good" or whatever the genre is and then we go out and find what first piques our interest.

People who've enjoyed our inclusive challenges in the past do so because 1. it IS fun to have a dedicated group! 2. it's a good way to find new authors and 3. most of us at some point realize we have a bias in our shelves, and the beautiful world we live in is not represented by what we're consuming, so we'd like to get recognition for "other" voices, and see what's been hidden from us because of the way we consume/things are presented to us.

So, one book a month hopefully is more gold than work :)

there are some really tough ones in this hand. and yes, I'm pre-researching.

YA is going to have to be a thing for some of these...

LOL my method for choosing my next book is “is there a pressing group read? Yeah? Oh well, I like this one over here better.��

haha!

People are still welcome to join in! I'm planning for a vote to happen in the next week for our January read. Because this is the first, and you're all just starting plans, I'm going to give you time to contemplate!

The first card is Jack of Spades (book with South American mythology by an ownvoices author)

If you have a SPADES card OR a JACK, you can play it on this card. To play it, you'd nominate a book that fits the prompt on your card. Remember it can be any format of work as long as it is genre fiction of some flavor. If you want ideas, ask! The card is already played, so we can't really mess with your strategy at this point, such as it is haha!

So, start looking for a card and book/collection/story you want to play, we'll have the first round of play soon!

This looks wonderful and I would love to join in! (by message, please?)

I have a card and am going to play it, but I need to think about my nom for a bit. I'd ideally like to find books that fill both of my prompts (because I'm like that, sigh), but I don't have anything that immediately pops into my mind, so I'll have to do some research. I need to do something else today, so I'll hopefully be nominating later this week!

I enjoyed the Inclusive Book Bingo choices a lot, so I'm excited to have this kind of challenge again! Please deal me in (by message).

I play a Jack of Hearts - book with South American mythology by an author of color: Mexican Gothic.

(Please tell me if I did this wrongly and I'll correct it asap.)

You did it right but I might ask you to repost depending on the amount of chatter that happens before voting starts :)

Okay, I will break my "no challenges" rule for this one, because it sounds fun. Maybe my old mood reader self will have failed completely by the end of the year, but I will make a commitment to at least try!
I would love my cards via message, please!

And thank you, dear mods, for this really cool idea!

Ines wrote: "And thank you, dear mods, for this really cool idea!"

Yes, thank you Allison! ^_^

Allison wrote: "You did it right but I might ask you to repost depending on the amount of chatter that happens before voting starts :)"

Gotcha!

Thanks to Rachel and Nicol who inspired me to find a new way to focus our reading next year!

I owe cards to Stephanie, Megan and Ines. I see your requests, I'm just at work right now, so expect them later today!

Mareike wrote: "Allison wrote: "You did it right but I might ask you to repost depending on the amount of chatter that happens before voting starts :)"

Gotcha!"

Thanks for taking the lead on that one, Mareike! A great example of how play will work :)

I also have a Jack of Hearts, and I will nominate Days of the Deer by Liliana Bodoc.

Kaa wrote: "I also have a Jack of Hearts, and I will nominate The Days of the Deer by Liliana Bodoc."

Mareike wrote: "I play a Jack of Hearts - book with South American mythology by an author of color: Mexican Gothic.

(Please tell me if I did this wrongly and I'll correct it asap.)"

but um... Mexico is in North America?

Do we want to make a "house rule" that Central America counts for our purposes?