Good idea , fine by me.

Sounds good to me. You pick it, I'll give it a shot.

Oh, I have the most wonderful novel to suggest! I know that this club is pretty "booked" at the moment...(pardon the pun!) but I really wouldn't mind how long it would take. It's called The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, and besides a somewhat cheesy title is absolutely thrilling. The moment it was released organizations began to award it with their highest accolades.

I'll have to look up the author. In the novel, Queen Elizabeth has just begun her reign when she is entrusted with her mother's diary. During her times alone, which are few, Elizabeth reads as much of the diary as she can. (I'd say about 3/4 of the book is in diary format.) The ending is exceptional! I love how the life of this poor Queen who ended in disgrace is revealed from her point of view.

I actually suggested a couple of the other Sherlock Holmes novels for August, so "The Sign of the Four" is fine with me.

Both of the new suggestions sound good to me...I'm game!

Welcome to the Book of the Month club, Angi and Misty.

Great! I know this club mostly focuses on the classics, which is wonderful, but it would be nice if we read some modern "classics" as well.

I've got a thick volume of Poe's stories that I bought awhile back at a garage sale for about ten cents... Haven't read The Balloon Hoax yet, but I know it's in there.

I certainly don't feel that a 'classic' can't be a contemporary book. I'm always game for a chance to expand my reading horizons. Thanks for the chance to include Sherlock. A huge fan of him myself Misty.

I've just checked out my usual sources around the UK and found that "The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn" by Robin Maxwell is listed on several library catalogues. It can also be ordered through WH Smith within a few days and is on the shelves at Waterstones.

Well, it is reasonably well known, so hopefully most major booksellers carry it...if not, there's always Amazon. I guess I should start checking around.

I'm so glad you guys are open to this one; it's such a fabulous book!

Misty, I just checked our local public library online catalog, and they have "The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn". PLease count me in. I have always enjoyed good biographical novels.

Also, Sebastaincat has chosen an excellent and varying selection of Poe's stories (which contains) something for everybody's tastes for September.

It looks as if most of our members in the US and the UK can get hold of a copy of "The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn" (by Robin Maxwell) without any trouble, and are happy to go along with it as a selection. I'd like to wait for a bit to see if Ren can get hold of a copy in Hong Kong: if so, I think we could make it our Book of the Month for February 2004, unless there are any really cogent objections.

How sweet of you TT. Go ahead with it, I can always get someone to send it from UK. Thanks XX

Thanks, Ren. So that gives us the following schedule:

October: Don Quixote, Part 1, by Miguel de Cervantes.
November: The Map that Changed the World, by Simon Winchester.
December: To be announced (MsBatt's choice).
January: The Sign of Four, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
February: The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, by Robin Maxwell.

It looks a very interesting and varied collection to me. Aren't we clever?

Wow! I love the diveristy of subjects and plan on shopping soon! I frequent a used bookstore website, as well as used books in my neighborhood so if anyone is having trouble locating a copy give me a holler (my southern US roots showing thru) and I'll gladly see about getting an extra. Wouldn't want anyone to miss out.

Wow! I'm finally going to read Don Quixote. I don't think it's in my library, but I'll give it a look...If only I'd taken that fifth year of Spanish in high school I'd have read it already. I feel that's an important one that's been left out of my education...so I am glad it has been suggested.

This has really nothing to do with this thread other than it's taken forever to load up. Anyone against starting a new thread on the same subject - we can carry over the last posts to a new thread with a reference back to this one.

John

We're coming up to 250 posts in the thread, so I agree that we might well lock it and open a "part 2" thread.

Hi All - for NO other reason than to speed up the viewing of latest posts we have closed this thread and re-opened it as Book of the Month Club (2)