December 2025

 

Don your favorite tiara -- or other flapper frippery -- for Gatsbyesque cocktails and hors d'oeuvres! This themed Christmas Party will happen at Barbara's home on Tuesday, December 9 at 2pm. This year's Christmas donation will be to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank.  The Menu (as it stands of last update) is below.  Judy and Carolyn will co-host. Trudy will review The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Note: we collected $500 in donations!

The Menu

Meats

     Salmon Mousse - the hosts

     Shrimp Cocktail - the hosts

     Ham & Cheese Pinwheels - Trudy

     Cranberry Smokies - hosts

Cheesy

     Cheese board - Kathy 

     Cheese tray - hosts

Veggie or Miscellaneous

     Roasted Brussel Sprouts - Pam

     Dip - Rita

     Stuffed Dates - Paula

     Caviar - Paula & Barbara

     Chocolate Covered Pretzels and Almonds - Cheri

Sweets

     Rum Cake - LeAynne

     Pecan Tarts - Crystal

     Cranberry Chocolate Bars - De Ann

     Meringue with Chocolate Drop Cookies - May

     Chocolate Macaroons - May

Cocktails

     Champagne cocktails - the hosts

     Tinto de Verano - Connie

Paper Products - the hosts

    

Our Newest Stack of Books!

 

Ladies of Literatae,

Thanks to everyone who nominated and voted in this round of book selection! Voting was tight and the leaders changed several times, but we now have the list.  Our list is

The Third Act of Theo Gruene by Talya Tate Boerner

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

My Friends by Fredrik Backman

Time of the Child by Niall Williams

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

There There by Tommy Orange

The slide show with all nominees has been added to the Long List.

November 2025

 

November 11 at 2pm at Leigh's home.  Note the time change -- Daylight Savings Time ends on November 2.  LeAynne will co-host.  Carolyn will review Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout.

Time to Vote

 Women of Literatae, it's time to vote for our slate of upcoming books.  I think we have a great list to choose from.  Thank you to everyone who sent in titles!  You make my job so easy!

Votes are due by online ballot by midnight on Friday, November 7.

The slide show of Spring 2026 Nominees is now available. See all the titles, book jackets, publisher summaries, comments from nominators, and Fayetteville Public Library, Washington County Library System, and online purchase availability.  In an attempt to present them objectively, I arranged them by author. 

Paula has indicated books as inspiration for the July party.  Please make sure to vote for at least one of those.  Also, we have two books presented as a pair.  If selected, we will read and discuss both of those in one month. 

You may need to click the slideshow button in the upper right corner to view the presentation. Then use the enter key or click your mouse to step through the slides. If you want to return to an earlier slide, use the left arrow key to go back. The escape key will get you out of the presentation at any time.

Scratch Paper Ballot: If you're like me, you need to decide on paper before voting on an electronic ballot. Print this ballot for a list of titles in the same order as the slideshow. To fill out the online ballot, you will need to rank your six choices 1-6, with 1 being your top pick and 6 your bottom pick.

Online Ballot: Once you have decided on your six choices and ranked them 1-6, use this online ballot to vote. Remember that you will not rank titles other than the six you have selected. I've included ranking of the titles so that in the event of a tie, we will not have to have a run-off.  (And this often happens!)


Happy voting!
Sarah

Here come the nominations...

 

Nominations are already arriving.  See the list.

It's That Time Again...

 

Women of Literatae, it's time to choose our next round of books. In order to have another list of titles in the pipeline by the time we meet in November, we need to get started. It may seem early, but December is simply too busy.

Step 1 - now through Tuesday, October 28:
Send your titles by email to sakroberson@gmail.com. I'll take texts, but email makes it much easier to pull everything together. Want to know if we’ve previously read a particular book? Click on the Literatae Reads by Author & Title at the top right of literatae.blogspot.com. (If you don't see the link, scroll to the bottom of your screen and click "View web version.)

Ongoing: Rough list of submitted titles available on blog, so you can see what other titles have been submitted as you work on your own submission(s).

Step 2 - by Saturday, November 1:
Slide show with all titles submitted, scratch ballot, and Google form for voting will be posted.

Step 3 - by Friday, November 7:
Ponder your options & vote using the Google form.

Step 4 - Results posted by Sunday, November 9. I'll tally the votes and send out the results.

My part of this is easy, as long as you send titles by Tuesday, October 28. Please do. Thanks! --Sarah

October 2025

 

October 14 at 4pm at Sarah's home.  De Ann will co-host.  Connie will review The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel.

September 2025

 

September 9 at 4pm at Barbara's home.  Rita will co-host.  Tonia will review The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry. 

August 2025

 

Tuesday, August 12 at 4pm at Connie's home. Tonia will co-host.  Leigh will review Blink by Malcom Galdwell.

July 2025

 

A summer beach party on Tuesday, July 8 at 4pm at Paula's home!  De Ann will review Sandwich by Catherine Newman.

June 2025

 

Tuesday, June 10 at 4pm at Barbara's home. Carolyn will co-host.  Crystal will review The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon.

We Have Five Winners!

 Thanks to all of you who nominated books and voted in this round of book selection.  And without further ado, here's our upcoming book list:

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel.

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout.

As always, the slide show with all nominated titles has been added to the Long List.

Time to vote!

 

Women of Literatae, it's time to vote for our slate of upcoming books.  I think we have a great list to choose from.  Thank you to everyone who sent in titles!  You make my job so easy!

Votes are due by online ballot by midnight on Thursday, May 29.

The slide show of Fall 2025 Nominees is now available. See all the titles, book jackets, publisher summaries, comments from nominators, and Fayetteville Public Library, Washington County Library System, and Amazon availability.  In an attempt to present them objectively, I arranged them by author.

You may need to click the slideshow button in the upper right corner to view the presentation. Then use the enter key or click your mouse to step through the slides. If you want to return to an earlier slide, use the left arrow key to go back. The escape key will get you out of the presentation at any time.

Scratch Paper Ballot: If you're like me, you need to decide on paper before voting on an electronic ballot. Print this ballot for a list of titles in the same order as the slideshow. To fill out the online ballot, you will need to rank your six choices 1-5, with 1 being your top pick and 5 your bottom pick.

Online Ballot: Once you have decided on your six choices and ranked them 1-5, use this online ballot to vote. Remember that you will not rank titles other than the five you have selected. I've included ranking of the titles so that in the event of a tie, we will not have to have a run-off.


Happy voting!
Sarah

 

Nominations are beginning to arrive.  See the list.

 

Women of Literatae, it's time to choose our next round of books. As I mentioned at our meeting yesterday, I'm starting the process early this time because I will be out of town in early June, when we usually choose books for second semester. The process is also time-compressed, so you won't have quite as much time to nominate and vote as usual.

Step 1 - now through Sunday, May 18 (that's THIS Sunday!)
Send your titles by email to sakroberson@gmail.com. (Please don't text them to me.  I've been accepting them by text, but it makes more work for me.) Titles and authors, reviews if you've got 'em, your own personal comments. But just title & author is fine. I can pull reviews. Want to know if we’ve previously read a particular book? Click on the Literatae Reads by Author & Title at the top right of literatae.blogspot.com.

Ongoing: Rough list of submitted titles available on blog, so you can see what other titles have been submitted as you work on your own submission(s).

Step 2 - by Friday, May 23:
Slide show with all titles submitted, scratch ballot, and Google form for voting will be posted.

Step 3 - by Thursday, May 29:
Ponder your options & vote using the Google form.

Step 4 - Results posted by Saturday, May 31. I'll tally the votes and send out the results.

My part of this is easy, as long as you send titles by Sunday.  Please do. Thanks! --Sarah

May 2025

 

Tuesday, May 13 at 4pm at Ann's home.  Lynnette will co-host.  Rita will review James by Percival Everett.  Ann has encouraged us to carpool, as parking at her home is limited.

Update: Literatae is abuzz since Percival Everett won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for James.  This is the second time in recent history we have read the Pulitzer Prize winning novel in May, previously with Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.

April 2025

 

Tuesday,  April 10 at 4pm at Connie's home.  Crystal will co-host.  Kathy will review Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande.

March 2025

Tuesday, March 11 at 2pm:  Judy does it all!  We'll be reading Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford.  Barbara will co-host.  They are conspiring to serve High Tea.
 

Time Change

Members present at our February meeting discussed possibilities regarding meeting a 2pm.  We settled on meeting at 2pm from November through March, and at 4pm from April through October.  We'll try this for a while and see how it goes.

February 2025

 

Tuesday, February 11 at 4pm 2 pm at Kathy's Barbara's home.  Rita will co-host.  Ann will review Big Panda and Tiny Dragon by James Norbury.  

January 2025

 

Tuesday, January 14, 2025, at 4pm 2pm at Rita's home.  Carolyn will co-host. 

Rita will review The Women by Kristin Hannah.