It might be best to do the next one without me, at this point. I’ve been doing a lot of activism over the past year, which is most of what’s been keeping me busy, and I keep hoping things will take a positive turn and I won’t need to be doing as much activism, and could free up a bit more time for language study, but that has thus far not happened, so my free time has not returned, and probably won’t be returning for the near future…
I was holding out hope that maybe we’d have some better news coming out of August and I’d have more of my September to myself, but sadly it doesn’t look like that’ll be the case, so instead I’m trying to catch up on the stuff I’m already behind on as much as possible with the hopes of not having any book club obligations by the time NaNoWriMo rolls around in November (because there’s no way I could balance activism + continuing my language studies + translating wrestling + book club participation + writing an entire novel in one month).
So feel free to start another club without me! I’ll aim for joining in on the next one, hopefully. I should be finished with Bestias by then, and if it starts December or later, I shouldn’t have NaNoWriMo, either, and maybe (crossing my fingers ) the situation in the world will have improved enough that I don’t need to be out there doing activism every week, so I’m hoping I can join in with a book club then and maybe not fall immediately behind like I did on the last one .
It sounds like fallynleaf will be busy for a while, so I’ll go ahead and put up a poll, just to get one last check:
Want to go ahead and vote for a new book?
Yeah, let’s do it
Let’s wait for a while longer
0voters
I did want to check in on this; @HopeWaterfall was the initial nominee, and I wanted to check to see what you wanted to do. Looks like that book does trend higher than others (if only because it actually has gradings, granted); would you like to keep the nomination, or retract it?
Alrighty, I’ll go ahead and set up our next vote! This is a pretty small club, so I won’t set a closing deadline. My apologies for no fancy covers on this one! You get three votes. Let me know if I’ve forgotten anything~
Ha! That puts me in a tricky position! I’ve voted for both of those at some point in the polls. Let me try and look at the sample chapters again and I will exercise my casting vote!
I’m assuming from what they wrote above that @fallynleaf won’t have a problem if we select their nomination.
Yep, no problem at all! It might end up tempting me to join, actually . I don’t want to cheat on Bestias, but Mentirosa does look like an easier read that would take less energy…
(I will refrain from voting, though, since I can’t formally commit to joining, haha)
I’ve gone with Mentirosa. I think it’s seems easier than Copo although quite a bit longer! Quite the choice - a first person narrative in 21st century full of instagram and smartphone references, or a first person narrative in the 15th century full of Aztec references!
Great! I also chose Mentirosa because it seemed easier to read judging by the excerpt. As a bonus point, today I found out that it’s part of Kindle unlimited both in Germany and on the Japanese store. Which is great for me; I am (only) subscribed to the Japanese one.
I’ll be gone on holiday the next week (and again the first two weeks of October) but I can really start whenever since I can easily carry my kindle with me. I’ll be happy to go by whatever date works for you all.
Bizarrely it’s not available to buy a physical copy from Amazon.es but is available to buy a physical copy on Amazon.co.uk! I will be going digital though and thankfully don’t have to try and figure out kindle on the Spanish store as it is available on Amazon UK for kindle.
Oh, I just had a great idea for a nomination pop into my head. It’s not natively in Spanish, unfortunately, but it should be easy to read as a children’s book, and I love the English original, so I figured I’d go ahead and nominate.
Book: El juego de Westing (La Isla del Tiempo Plus) | L22?? Genre: murder mystery Length: 296 pages, single volume Is there an ebook available?: yes Is there an audiobook available?: no Variety of Spanish: unknown, but likely LA Spanish
Summary - Spanish
Nadie sabe por qué el excéntrico millonario Samuel Westing ha llamado a los dieciséis vecinos de las Torres de Poniente para la lectura de su última voluntad. Tampoco por qué lo hace si sabe que entre ellos está su asesino. Ni por qué enreda a estas personas en un inteligente juego de pistas. Lo que sí saben es que su heredero será la primera persona que descifre el misterioso testamento y comprenda el enigma que este esconde. Un testamento que revelará secretos de todos ellos…
Summary - English
(Wow, I’m really not a fan of this summary.)
A highly inventive mystery begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of the very strange will of the very rich Samuel W. Westing. They could become millionaires, depending on how they play a game. All they have to do is find the answer—but the answer to what? The Westing game is tricky and dangerous, but the heirs play on—through blizzards, burglaries, and bombings. Sam Westing may be dead … but that won’t stop him from playing one last game!
Content warnings if known
I don’t remember anything in particular standing out in terms of warnings.
Why are you nominating this book: See my note above the nomination, haha.
En estas impactantes memorias en formato de novela gráfica, el actor/autor/activista George Takei rememora sucesos imborrables de su infancia en los campos de concentración en América.En 1942, bajo órdenes del presidente Franklin D. Roosevelt, cada persona de ascendencia japonesa en la costa oeste fue capturada y enviada a uno de diez “centros de reubicación”, a cientos o miles de millas de sus hogares, donde permanecerían durante años bajo vigilancia armada. NOS LLAMARON ENEMIGO es la historia en primera persona de Takei sobre esos años detrás de una alambrada de púas. ¿Qué significa ser americano? ¿Quién puede determinarlo? Cuando el mundo está en tu contra, ¿qué puede hacer un solo individuo? Para contestar a estas preguntas, George Takei se une a los escritores Justin Eisinger y Steven Scott y a la artista Harmony Becker en el recorrido de toda una vida.
Summary - English
The New York Times bestselling graphic memoir from actor/author/activist George Takei. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon – and America itself – in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love. George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his magnetic performances, sharp wit, and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in STAR TREK, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father’s – and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future. In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten “relocation centers,” hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard. THEY CALLED US ENEMY is Takei’s firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the terrors and small joys of childhood in the shadow of legalized racism, his mother’s hard choices, his father’s tested faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future. What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide? George Takei joins cowriters Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker for the journey of a lifetime.
Content warnings if known
Unknown
Why are you nominating this book: I’ve always enjoyed reading comics and graphic novels when learning a language and was looking for Spanish recommendations. This one caught my attention partly because George Takei is quite famous, and partly because I find the history of the Japanese in America during world war 2 really interesting. Looks a relatively straightforward read, could be a good fit for what this club is looking for at present.
I‘m not sure how the “Featured” topics are selected on the recent forum topics section of the homepage - but I wonder if the current bookclub read should be the featured topic not the one we finished a few months ago…
) the situation in the world will have improved enough that I don’t need to be out there doing activism every week, so I’m hoping I can join in with a book club then and maybe not fall immediately behind like I did on the last one 
.
As a bonus point, today I found out that it’s part of Kindle unlimited both in Germany and on the Japanese store. Which is great for me; I am (only) subscribed to the Japanese one. 
Would you happen to know 