<div dir="ltr">Hi David,<div><br></div><div>Here are my top three picks, in no particular order:</div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro<br></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><b>The Employees by Olga Ravn</b></span><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></p></div><div>A note -- my library in CT does not have a copy of The Employees by Olga Ravn, so if that's an issue for others, I can replace it with my next pick, which would be <span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14.6667px"><b>The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson</b></span>. It looks like the Boston libraries have many copies, Groton has 6, Merrimack valley has 0, and I didn't check others. </div><div><br></div><div>I went through a few different lists of sci-fi books and my main criteria was - what would I pick up to read if I walked past it at the library this week? There are a lot of books I would happily enjoy re-reading from my childhood, and some I've wanted to read for a while, but I'm kind of excited about some of the newer books, especially ones that cross or bend genres or that come from significantly different perspectives than what I grew up checking out from my small-town libraries in the 90's. I've gotten more into short stories lately and I really enjoyed Klara and the Sun as an audiobook, so this is what I came up with. Hope this works.</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div>Ayesha</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Jul 9, 2023 at 8:48 PM A. Ali <<a href="mailto:strawberriesforlunch@gmail.com">strawberriesforlunch@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">I'll echo that -- thanks for sharing the list, David. The hang-out-at-the-library-every-weekend, Midwestern, junior-high kid in me is so floored that she'll get her name on this list, lol. Kind of puts the pressure on. I'll send you my three book picks on Friday. Most likely, some new stuff I haven't read yet. <div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div>Ayesha </div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Jul 8, 2023 at 9:56 AM Gloria Lucia Albasi <<a href="mailto:trebbiana61@gmail.com" target="_blank">trebbiana61@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto">This is a wonderful list! <div>Thank you for sharing it. </div><div>Gloria <br><br><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Jul 8, 2023, at 2:19 AM, David G. Grubbs <<a href="mailto:dggrubbs@gmail.com" target="_blank">dggrubbs@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">We do bias it toward books that everyone can find. That might take a bit of negotiation and research.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">The Merrimack Valley Consortium that my library in Groton belongs to shows three copies of the Elizabeth Moon book. The Groton Library has none.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">There is one copy of Matt Haig's <i>The Humans</i>, but there are 20 other copies in the MVLC.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">The Groton library has no books by Julie Czerneda and the MVLC has no copies of "Reap the Wild Wind". There are a half-dozen books named "Reap the Wind" by other authors.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">I started keeping the vote taliies only in May, covering the last four books Before that, I didn't record votes tallies. And I have not recorded *ratings* of books other than my own. Maybe Louis has kept a list of ratings or at least averages.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Jul 8, 2023 at 1:41 AM Tracy Marks <<a href="mailto:tracy@windweaver.com" target="_blank">tracy@windweaver.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Thank you David.<br>
<br>
I went over all the sci fi/fantasy books I've read in the past 5-6 years<br>
and made a list of about 15 or so I would consider recommending to<br>
the group. Only one of those you've read (Piranesi).<br>
<br>
But then I looked them up both at Amazon and the Minuteman library<br>
network. And I want to know - are any specific criteria for choosing<br>
books that members are likely to be able to get?<br>
<br>
My working hypothesis was:<br>
----At least 2 (preferably 3) in the Minuteman Library Network (I don't<br>
check the Boston Library Network)<br>
----And (this isn't important to me, but I thought it would be to<br>
those of you who don't read printed books) -- available on Kindle<br>
or in ebook format.<br>
<br>
Well, that knocked another 9 off my list of 15.<br>
In fact, the library doesn't have ANY of most of my favorite books!<br>
And there's only copy of Czerneda's Reap the Wild Wind, which I loved.<br>
<br>
Anyway, I now need to hone my remaining list of five down to three, but<br>
in the meantime it would be helpful to know about the criteria for<br>
selecting, if there are any.<br>
<br>
Two of my likely choices:<br>
HUMANS by Matt Haig (everyone in my International book club loved it! <br>
it's both incredibly<br>
perceptive about the human race, and very amusing)<br>
REMNANT POPULATION by Elizabeth Moon (with a marvelous feisty senior <br>
citizen heroine!)<br>
<br>
I'll finalize that in the next few days.<br>
<br>
Tracy Marks<br>
p.s.I'm curious - which of all the books you read do you think received <br>
the most positive response? Were there any that EVERYONE rated high? <br>
(Ha!)<br>
<br>
<br>
-------------------------------<br>
<br>
On 2023-07-07 23:09, David G. Grubbs wrote:<br>
> The list below is best looked at with a fixed-width font. I could<br>
> convert it to other formats if absolutely needed. (e.g. PDF,<br>
> spreadsheet, etc.)<br>
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