January 2027

 We will meet at 2pm on Tuesday, January 12.  Details to be determined.

December 2026

 We will meet on Tuesday, December 8 for our Christmas celebration and book discussion.  Barbara will host, and Judy, Carolyn, and Rita will be her elves.  Other details to be determined.

November 2026

 The time changes on November 1, so we will meet at 2pm on Tuesday, November 10.  Details to be determined.

October 2026

 Tuesday, October 13 @ 4pm.  We don't have a book slotted in yet, but Sarah will host & DeAnn will co-host.

September 2026

 We will meet at LeAynne's home on Tuesday, September 8 at 4pm.  LeAynne will review Kin by Tayari Jones.  Rita will co-host.  

August 2026

August 11 at 4pm. Title leap-frogged from February.  Kathy will review Time of the Child by Niall Williams.  We will meet at Trudy's house and Rita will co-host. We will schedule our October through January meetings.

July 2026

A Summer Cookout on Tuesday, July 14 at 4pm at Talya's home.  John (Talya's husband) will be grilling burgers for us.  Paula will co-host,  and Talya will lead a discussion of her latest novel, The Third Act of Theo Gruene.  Dress code: wear green!
 

Our New Stack of Books

 

Women of Literatae, the polls have closed and the ballots have been counted.  Our next five books are

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

The Names by Florence Knapp

Kin by Tayari Jones

The Long List (all the titles) will be added to the List of Literatae Long Lists.  And be prepared to volunteer for our next round of meetings on Tuesday.

It's 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, June 5.

The slide show of Fall 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.

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 five choices 1-5, with 1 being your top pick and 5 your bottom pick.

Online Ballot: Once you have decided on your five 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. (And this often happens!)


Happy voting!
Sarah

June 2026

 

Tuesday, June 9 at 4pm at Crystal's home.  LeAynne will co-host.  Tonia will review My Friends by Fredrik Backman.

Rough List of Nominations

 

The nominations are beginning to trickle in.  See the list.

Accepting Nominations

Women of Literatae,

It's that time again! Even though we discussed adding a book for December, we will only be choosing five books this semester. We leapfrogged our February book to August, so we already have that month slotted in.

Step 1 - now through May 26:

Send your titles by email to sakroberson@gmail.com.  Email is much simplier for me to work with than text submissions, but I'll take texts if you simply can't email. 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, probably starting around May 21:  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 May 30:

Slide show with all titles submitted, scratch ballot, and Google form for voting will be posted.

 

Step 3 - by June 5:  

Ponder your options & vote using the Google form.

 

Step 4 - Results posted by June 10.   

 

My part of this is easy, as long as you send titles by May 26.  Please do.  Thanks!

May 2026

                                     

Tuesday, May 12 at 4pm at Kathy's home.  Rita will co-host and LeAynne will review Culpability by Bruce Holsinger.

April 2026

 

Tuesday, April 14 at 4pm at Paula's home.  Lynette will co-host.  Sarah will review There, There by Tommy Orange.

March 2026

 

Tuesday, March 10 at 4pm at Judy's home. Note the time change -- Daylight Savings Time begins on March 8.  Barbara and Carolyn will co-host.  Judy will review The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.

February 2026

 

Eight of us ditched book club and went to Bordino's for dinner and then attended The Book Club Play at Theater Squared.  Lots of laughs... and thoughts about what makes a good book.

January 2026

 

Thursday, January 13 at 2pm at Cheri's home.  Rita will co-host.  Lynette will review Orbital by Samantha Harvey.  

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.