The Daily News

LFCA Latest Issue: Friday, September 25, 2009.

Latest Post on BlogHer: Parenting after Infertility.

My Status: Fed Josh's almonds to the squirrels. They needed them very badly.

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Marching with the Barren Bitches Book Brigade--Tour Eleven

Here is the master list for the eleventh 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: The Mistress's Daughter*
Author: AM Homes
Start Date: March 6
Question Due: April 9
Question List Sent Out: April 10
Post Dates: April 14--16
(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 The Mistress's Daughter: A.M. Homes' memoir about her reunion with the mother who placed her for adoption many years earlier and the father who is absent even when present is truly a look at nature vs. nurture--where do our bloodlines end and environment begin? At the heart of the story is the topic of adoption, but the book becomes so much more--what does it mean to be related, how do we become like our parents, what does it mean to be a family? I ended up reading the book in maybe two sittings. It's short, but packs a punch.

Barren Bitches Book Brigade List
(The blogs below are participating on this current book tour. On April 14, you'll be able to jump from post to post to read a plethora of opinions and thoughts on The Mistress's Daughter. I will keep adding to this list until 11 p.m. on April 9. The list is currently open)

Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters
The Annex
Journey to Baby - Uncertain Yet Hopeful
The Road Less Travelled
Twisted Ovaries
The Dunn Family
Weebles Wobblog
Candy's Land
Sell Crazy Someplace Else
Fertility Notes
I Won't Fear Love
Desperately Seeking Baby
Test Tube Babies
All Things Deb
Life After Infertility and Loss
Finally It Could Be
Baby, Borneo, or Bust

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 April 9.

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 The Mistress's Daughter by April 9 (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 April 9 (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, AM Homes, is open to answering any questions and reading along. Please send me any questions you have for her by April 9.

(5) on April 10th, 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 April 14, 15, or 16 (you can choose).

(6) on April 14, 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).

1 comment:

Hopeful said...

Hi Melissa. Can I join the book Club please, I have placed an order with my local library for the current book The Mistress's Daughter