Here is the master list for the twelfth tour of the Barren Bitches Book Brigade. What is the Barren Bitches Book Brigade? It's a book club from the comfort of your own living room. The book club is conducted entirely online and open to anyone (male or female) in the infertility/pregnancy loss/assisted conception/adoption/parenting-after-infertility world (as well as any other related category I inadvertently left off the list). It is called a book tour because everyone reads the same book and then poses a question to the group. Participants choose a few questions to answer and then post their response on their blog. Readers can jump from blog to blog, commenting along the way. We read both fiction and non-fiction.

Anyone can jump aboard--it's a book club where you can drop in and out as you wish and all in the community are welcome.

Book: Water for Elephants*
Author: Sara Gruen
Start Date: April 17
Question Due: May 21
Question List Sent Out: May 22
Post Dates: May 27 and 28
(need an explanation of how a book tour works? Click here to go to a list of posts on the past book tours as well as information about future tours.)
*with author participation!

Description of Water for Elephants (from wikipedia): Set during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Water for Elephants tells the story of a young man who leaves his life as a Cornell University veterinary student and jumps onto a train that happens to house the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth...The story is told as a series of memories. The main character, Jacob Jankowski, is in a nursing home and reminisces about his time with the circus.Jacob is employed as the show’s veterinarian and he faces a number of challenges in dealing with the head trainer, August, while also learning how to function in the hierarchy of the circus and falling in love with August's wife, Marlena.

Barren Bitches Book Brigade List (The blogs below are participating on this current book tour. On May 27, you'll be able to jump from post to post to read a plethora of opinions and thoughts on Water for Elephants. I will keep adding to this list until 11 p.m. on May 21. The list is currently open)

Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters
Life After Infertility and Loss
All Things Deb
Slaying, Blogging, Whatever...
The Road Less Travelled
Everyday Stranger
Falling or Flying
There's Hope
Carrying On
Weebles Wobblog
Crazy Yet?
Desperately Seeking Baby

Not on the list and want to join? Drop me an email at thetowncriers@gmail.com. You can add yourself up until 11 p.m. on May 21.

How the book tour works:

(1) leave a comment or send me an email (thetowncriers@gmail.com) saying that you're interested in participating. I need your blog name, blog url, and email address.

(2) read Water for Elephants by May 21 (or at least enough of it in order to ask a question to the group).

(3) create a single question that would kick off a discussion (in other words, any question that leads to more than a "yes" or "no" answer where someone can express their opinion) and mail it to me on May 21 (or any time beforehand). I will send you a reminder email close to the date. Click here to see sample questions from tour #4.

(4) the author, Sara Gruen, is open to answering any questions and reading along. Please send me any questions you have for her by May 21.

(5) on May 22, I will send you a list of possible questions. Everyone will choose 3 questions off the list and answer them in a blog entry. You will find out if you are posting on May 27 or 28 (you can choose).

(6) on May 27, people will begin to post their entry. Each day, I will post a linked list of all the people putting up their entry that day so people can go around and read the entries and comment (start a discussion back and forth in the comments section). Reading the entries and commenting on the posts is the best part of the tour--by the end of the week, you should have a comment from every participant (and maybe even a few new permanent blog readers).