Book Club Stirrup Queens

Welcome to the first tour of the Barren Bitches Book Brigade–a book club from the comfort of your own living room. Grab a cup of coffee and start clicking away at the links below. Just to explain, the book was chosen a few weeks ago. Each participant on the tour read this book and posted their review today. The actual discussion begins with these posts. Even if you didn’t read the book (yet), read the reactions and leave questions and comments on their blog. Check back later in the week when we have an interview with the author, Elizabeth Swire Falker on this blog.

Book: The Ultimate Insider’s Guide to Adoption
Author: Elizabeth Swire Falker
Post Date: January 10th
End Date: January 15th

The Barren Bitches Book Brigade List
(click on any of the links below to take you to a stop on this book tour. Jump from post to post to read a plethora of opinions and thoughts on Falker’s new book)

Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters (Mel)–my post is below this post
Serenity Now! (Serenity)
Are We There Yet? (TeamWinks)
Waiting for a Miracle (GLouise)
Round is Funny (M)
My Reality (My Reality)
Still Passing Open Windows (Carlynn)
Sticky Feet (Jamie)

Read and enjoy. Hopefully you’ll have a greater sense of whether this adoption book is one that you’d like to read or perhaps learn more about the world of adoption.

Like the idea of being in a book club without leaving your living room? We’ll pick the next book on Thursday so weigh in with your ideas when I post about the Barren Bitches Book Tour #2…

I’m being optimistic and calling this tour one…

Book: The Ultimate Insider’s Guide to Adoption
Author: Elizabeth Swire Falker
Post Date: January 10th
End Date: January 15th

The Barren Bitches Book Brigade List
(click on any of the links below on January 10th to take you to a stop on this book tour. Jump from post to post to read a plethora of opinions and thoughts on Falker’s new book. I will keep adding to this list until 11 p.m. on January 9th. The list is currently open)

Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters (Mel)
Serenity Now! (Serenity)
Are We There Yet? (TeamWinks)
Waiting for a Miracle (GLouise)
Baggage That Goes With Mine (Baggage)
Sticky Feet (Jamie)
Round is Funny (M)
My Reality (My Reality)
Still Passing Open Windows (Carlynn)

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 January 9th.

How the book tour works:

(1) let me know you want to participate by emailing me at thetowncriers@gmail.com. I will add your blog to this list so other people know to head over there on January 10th.

(2) read Falker’s Ultimate Insider’s Guide to Adoption.

(3) write a review for the book–your reactions, your feelings, what you learned, etc.

(4) post it on your blog on January 10th (that gives you 6 weeks to read and write over the holidays). People can find your review via a link from this list.

(5) read everyone else’s post on their blog (oh–and this is why you can’t post before the 10th. I don’t want people influenced by what other people write. It should be your own reaction).

(6) Falker will read the reviews and answer comments and questions in an additional post that I’ll put up on my blog on January 15th. I’ll go all Barbara Walters and interview her, but without the crying. Since, you know, making people cry isn’t really my thing.

What? You’re reading this after January 15th and you missed the book tour? Weigh in with ideas for the next big book tour. If this one goes well, we’ll start another one soon.

So, I stole this idea from the great Ann Douglas. For her new sleep book, she invited people to read the book and then everyone posted a review on the same day. Get it–an online book tour! She could then post comments under the review to respond to points or questions and she posted about the book tour on her own blog. Serenity and I totally want to do this for Elizabeth Swire Falker’s new adoption book so I wrote her and proposed the idea and she said yes.

As you all know, I think her first book–the Infertility Survival Handbook–is just about the best all-inclusive, getting-you-started-with-infertility-information book out there. Great tone, great information, great writing. Falker has been through practically every test and procedure so her writing comes from her own experience. She also adopted her son, which leads us to her new book: The Ultimate Insider’s Guide to Adoption.

It’s subtitle is “everything you need to know about domestic and international adoption.” It begins with helping you decide which type of adoption you want to pursue and then walks you through every step of the process. And the best part? Not only is Falker an adoptive parent herself, but she’s an adoption lawyer. So she knows the whole system.

So who would benefit from reading this book right now and participating? Anyone who has considered adoption but wants more information, anyone who has adopted and can talk about their experience, and anyone who wants to be more informed about adoption to support their fellow stirrup queens and sperm palace jesters. Think about how nice it would be if you were doing treatments and an outsider took the time to read a book about infertility so they could read your blog with that background knowledge. And this is one last way you could get involved for National Adoption Awareness Month (November). Read a book, write a review, and comprehend adoption blogs on an entirely new level.

How the online book tour works: (1) let me know you want to participate by posting a comment on this post or emailing me at thetowncriers@gmail.com. I will create a list of everyone who is participating so people will know to go over to your blog on the review day and read your review. (2) read Falker’s Ultimate Insider’s Guide to Adoption. (3) write a review for the book–your reactions, your feelings, what you learned, etc. (4) post it on your blog on January 10th (that gives you 6 weeks to read and write over the holidays). People can find your review via a link from the big book tour list post on my blog. (5) read everyone else’s post on their blog (oh–and this is why you can’t post before the 10th. I don’t want people influenced by what other people write. It should be your own reaction). (6) Falker will read the reviews and answer comments and questions in an additional post that I’ll put up on January 15th. I’ll go all Barbara Walters and interview her, but without the crying. Since, you know, making people cry isn’t really my thing.

So it’s sort of like a big, bloggity book club from the comfort of your own living room. With the author dropping in to answer questions and respond. And if this works, we can even work backwards and choose books from the book list that people love and try to set up something more regular that we do every other month or so.

Let me know if you’re interested in joining and I’ll create a book tour list of blogs where the reviews will appear.

It seemed like a good idea to compile all the old book tour posts into a single post so that people could find the lists and questions and participants of all the old book tours in one place. I’ve also added upcoming tour information as well as online author chats. Interested in the current tour? Want to join along? There is always a link to the current book under The Bookshelf on the right sidebar).

Barren Bitches Book Brigade (*with author participation)

Tour 19: Navigating the Land of If by Melissa Ford*