Group read: Connie Willis month

I didn't see a thread yet for the Connie Willis group read that was scheduled for December, so I thought I'd set one up! According to Fantastic Fiction, Connie Willis (b. 1945) is "an established author of many science fiction books, including THE DOOMSDAY BOOK, and winner of both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award for best sf novel." She has written several novels and short stories, including:

- Lincoln's Dreams
- Doomsday Book
- Bellwether
- To Say Nothing of the Dog
- Passage
- Blackout/All Clear

For a complete list, check out her Wikipedia page.

So, are you a fan of work, or will you be encountering her for the first time? Are you going to aim for a light comedy or one of her darker works? Which Willis book(s) are you planning to read this month?

I am planning to read Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, which should be a fun holiday read!

Thanks for setting up the thread, Christina.

I'm planning to read Blackout and All Clear, though I don't know if I'll be able to finish both by the end of December.

I've read To Say Nothing of the Dog and Doomsday Book. Loved them both!

I'm planning to read To Say Nothing of the Dog. It will be my first Connie Willis book. I love Three Men in a Boat and I've read it multiple times. I think I'll have fun with this one.

Carrie, if you love Three Men in a Boat, I guarantee you will have a hoot with this one!

Thanks for the reminder! I loved To Say Nothing of the Dog, so I'm looking forward to reading Doomsday Book this month.

>6 BookLizard: Fair warning, those two books are very different in tone! My first two Connie Willis books were To Say Nothing of the Dog and Bellwether, both of which are funny and lighthearted. Doomsday Book is…not. Still a great book though!

7> Thanks for the warning. Maybe I'll look into Bellwether for now instead. 600 pages vs. 250. Hmmmm . . .

7 & 8> Oh, look what's on my Kindle . . . ;-)

>9 BookLizard: Haha, how fortuitous! I definitely don't mean to discourage you (or anyone) from reading Doomsday Book...it's just a much more serious book than Bellwether. So it all depends on what you're in the mood for.

I'm not sure I'm taking part. The library can get All Clear or maybe Blackout for me. (They are both in another branch, but Blackout is checked out at present.)

But it hardly looks 'nice' to reserve both so that the first one can't be renewed, and the second checked out when that reader wants to keep going.

I have To Say Nothing of the Dog but not sure I'll be able to get to it.

I might try Fire Watch.

>11 MarthaJeanne: Ooh, that's tricky. Blackout and All Clear are two halves of the same story, so you definitely don't want to read one without the other!

I probably should wait for next year. I'd feel frustrated not asking for both, and nasty stealing the second book from the other reader.

Do they fit into the SFFF CAT somewhere?

You definitely can't read All Clear without reading Blackout first, and they are definitely science fiction.

Fire Watch is short stories. The title story is set in the same time traveling near future as Doomsday Book, To Say nothing of the Dog, and the two above. Of these, TSNOTD is the exception in being non-traumatic and an elegant homage to the Victorian novel combined with romantic comedy--a true delight. Bellwether is present time (at the time it was written) and is a wicked sendup of corporate policies and fads. Remake is a short one and is near-future science fiction best appreciated by those who are big fans of classic movies.

No one's mentioned Uncharted Territory, which I adore and is a fairly short read (more novella than novel length), definitely SF.

It looks like they belong in May and/or June. Maybe noone else will be reading them then.

That's good to know, Marissa. UT is sitting right below Lincoln's Dreams in my tbr pile and is likely to be read as well this month.

Inside Job is also a delight, and another fairly quick read. And yes, I'm a total Connie Willis fangirl, in case you were wondering. ;)

>15 MarthaJeanne: I'm reading Blackout right now and I'm hoping to finish All Clear in January. I think that these books might qualify for January's theme. They're not steampunk but they could be considered "alternate history" or "historical SFF".

>21 mathgirl40: I have a Steampunk book, and want to use them in May and June. written by a woman for May, and June is Time Travel, so if I time them right I can get both months out of the two books.

10> I was in the mood for Bellwether. I think the movie Office Space was a bit of a ripoff of Willis' book. Or maybe they both just touch on the truisms of Management.

My friend has a mandatory "retreat" for work next week. She'd like to retreat from it as fast as she can. As I was reading, I found myself highlighting so many things that were so true and so funny. Maybe I'll encourage my friend to read it this weekend.

I'll be re-reading Doomsday Book for the 9th time. I last read it in December 2012. It's a great book to read at Christmas time. There were a bunch of people in my previous on-line book group that re-read the book every December. I love this book -- despite it's very obvious narrative issues -- it is on my Top Ten Books list. Also, I cry during the last 40 pages every single time I read the book. It's so sad and yet so life affirming and full of humanity. I can't recommend the book highly enough to those that love SciFi or time travel books.
WARNING to those planning to read Fire Watch before Doomsday Book -- the ending of Doomsday Book is mentioned in one of the stories in Fire Watch.

>22 MarthaJeanne: Yes, May and June are good months for the Blackout/All Clear pairing. I was thinking of putting All Clear in the time-travel month, but having started Blackout, I don't think I'll be able to wait that long to finish the story. So it'll be January for me, unless I can manage both volumes this month!

>23 BookLizard: Yay, I'm glad you liked it! :)

I'm about half-way through Doomsday Book and loving it!

I finished Fire Watch. A quick read with mostly good stories but maybe not the best place to start for Connie Willis.

Hoping to read Doomsday Book this month

Finished Doomsday Book! A suspenseful, funny, heartbreaking, hopeful book. Absolutely recommended.

Just began To Say Nothing of the Dog.

I'm halfway through Blackout, the audio version which is superbly narrated by Katherine Kellgren. One of the characters is an elderly Shakespearean actor and I keep visualizing Christopher Plummer. I wonder if Willis had been inspired by anyone in particular.

31> Hope you like it. It's one of my favorite books.

>32 mathgirl40: That actor is one of my favorite characters of the book(s)!

>31 majkia:, >32 mathgirl40: Me too.

I've finished Uncharted Territory, a great sendup of cowboys, Big Brother, political correctness...in other words, typical Willis! Lots of fun!

I broke down and ordered a copy of Doomsday Book and it should be here before I leave for my Christmas break. That means it will go with me. I will also check out Blackout from the library in hopes that I can read two before the end of the year.

>34 ronincats: Hmm, I have Uncharted Territory on my shelves...maybe I'll read it if I have time at the end of the month!

>36 christina_reads: It's quite short, a quick read (Unlike the Blackout, All Clear duology!).

So I just started Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, and the introduction alone is worth the price of admission. I'm really excited to read the actual stories now!

I finished Lincoln's Dreams today. Quintessential Willis! She says what she does is write historical novels with a science fictional setting. This one is not overtly science fictional (the history all comes from the meshing of dreams and history research) but we are immersed in Robert E. Lee's experiences in the Civil War. Very serious, even tragic, but moving.

Christina, thanks to you I pulled Miracle and other Christmas Stories off my shelf for a re-read. I love the intro too--I want to quickly check out all those books and movies myself! Although I've watched two different versions of A Christmas Carol this week, I haven't managed Miracle on 34th Street yet.

>38 christina_reads: OK, I bit, too. even to the point of buying the e-book. It's much too late to order a real one of a Christmas book. I was able to download the introduction for free, and it made me willing to go the full length.

>39 ronincats: I really need to read Lincoln's Dreams! Next time I'm in the mood for Serious Willis. :) I just read her story "Adaptation" and now really want to re-read A Christmas Carol!

>40 MarthaJeanne: Yay, I hope you enjoy the book! I'm more than halfway through, and I haven't hit a dud yet!

I finished To Say Nothing of the Dog last night. It was my first book by Connie Willis and I loved it! :)

Christina, I want to thank you for inspiring me to reread Miracle and Other Christmas Stories. I'd forgotten how much I love most of the stories, and they really put me into the Christmas spirit!

So that was my third and final Willis for the month. I still have Impossible Things on the tbr shelf, but I have so many other books on my nightstand, I don't think I'll get to it this month. This group read, however, has moved it far up my tbr pile as I remember how easy it is to read one Willis short story a night.

Lincoln's Dreams must be somewhat akin to the writing of Guy Gavriel Kay. I loved his Under Heaven and in a 700 page book there was only about 2 scenes that were fantastical in nature. I love that kind of writing.

>41 christina_reads: Not done yet, but these are great!

BTW, Blackout has been renewed. I will make sure I ask for both it and All Clear about mid April.

>41 christina_reads: Thank you very much. That was a wonderful Christmas present.

>46 MarthaJeanne: I'm so glad you liked the book! :)

I got Doomsday Book from the LT Swap and can't wait to start reading it. However, I have Angelmaker and Boneshaker to finish first. Then it is on to a Willis book.

I just finished Blackout and I've started All Clear. I don't think I can judge Blackout properly until I've finished both books. So far, I'm enjoying it, but I'm finding it rather long and repetitive compared to Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. Still, I love all the characters and the details of the historical setting.

I'm sorry to say I haven't made much progress with To Say Nothing of the Dog. Definitely not the book's fault! But as we are in the RV, and I only brought an audio version and not my book of it, Mr Majkia has been around way too much to listen to audio. Normally when we go camping he is off outside a lot or fishing or visiting or something. But as it has been cold he's stayed closer to 'home'.

Oh well. We'll be home tomorrow, so after that I will have a bit more privacy to listen to the audio, or I can pick up the book itself.