#BuyShelterABook - Wish list

There's about a week left of this year's #BuyShelterABook campaign. 

(we're raising money to send books to Shelter, to help the people they support have a better time this year. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS). 

Yesterday, we crept past the £1500 mark. AMAZING!!!!

But now it is time to appeal to publishers directly to donate books, so that they can be distributed to the 12 Shelter hubs around the UK. 

HELLO PUBLISHERS. SEND ME SOME BOOKS PLEASE!

I've gone through the wish lists from all the hubs and this is an annotated version of all of them.

You'll notice it's pretty general, so hopefully all you lovely publishers out there will be able to spare something. 

If you are not a publisher and would like to send a book, this is also encouraged. 

(address to post them to follows) 

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A mix of books from babies to adults (this was a general feeling from the hubs).

YA and books for older children (requested by a number of different hubs)

Children’s books aged 2 – 11 (also requested by many of the hubs)

“Easy readers” 

Graphic novels would be EXCELLENT - they help with English language skills

Some self-help books, like going back to work or managing well being

“We have lots of single parent families often from diverse backgrounds”, so looking for “lovely inspirational books like the following” 

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison

Dream Big, Little Leader by Vashti Harrison

Little Leaders: Visionary Women Around the World by Vashti Harrison

(these were specific books requested, so similar books would also be really appreciated)

Books in the following languages (this list is compiled from feedback from all the hubs. Language in order of requests)

Polish

Somali

Arabic

French

Urdu

Turkish

Farsi

Cooking on a budget.

self-help books, like going back to work or managing well being

Books with arts and crafts ideas or resources.

We have our older veterans - please send military history / war fiction and local history books for the Liverpool / Merseyside area would be a bonus.

Our clients have extremely varied literacy levels so some books that those with more basic literacy skills could enjoy would be good.

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Here is the address to send books to. 

Big Green Bookshop

#BuyShelterABook

PO Box 403

Hastings 

TN34 9LE

Yes, I realise this is absolutely shameless, but hey, Shelter.

Thanks.

Twitter Book Group - next book

The votes are now in to decide the next book to read for Twitter Book Group

and the winner is....

THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS by URSULA LE GUIN!!

Here is the groovy cover. 

Here is the groovy blurb.

"Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new' Two people, until recently strangers, find themselves on a long, tortuous and dangerous journey across the ice. One is an outcast, forced to leave his beloved homeland; the other is fleeing from a different kind of persecution. What they have in common is curiosity, about others and themselves, and an almost unshakeable belief that the world can be a better place.

As they journey for over 800 miles, across the harshest, most inhospitable landscape, they discover the true meaning of friendship, and of love."

Twitter Book Group is open to everyone (on Twitter). 

This is our sixth book and this is how it works. 

1. Agree a book to read. 

2. Get a copy of the book

3. Read it. 

4. Chat about it.

5. Give it marks out of 10

Yeah, pretty much just like a normal book group!

So, we've chosen the book. 

The next stage is to get a copy. There are many wonderful ways of doing this. Might I suggest that if you have the means and the inclination, you buy it from ME.

If you'd like to do this, please paypal £8.99 to biggreenbookshop@hotmail.com, using family and friends and then send me a DM, letting me know your address and add the word "URSULA". 

I don't charge any P+P for book club books. 

It's been decided by the current group that we hold the next discussion after Christmas, as some people may not have a chance to reading the book otherwise (it's 338 pages). So, the next Book Group discussion will start at Midday on Tuesday January 7th 2020.

++ UPDATE ++ UPDATE ++ UPDATE ++

WE WILL NOW BE DISCUSSING THE BOOK ON TUESDAY JANUARY 14TH FROM MIDDAY

The discussion usually lasts throughout the day and sometimes into the next day, so if you're not free at midday, don't worry.

We "meet" on Twitter. 

I've set up a DM (direct message) group on Twitter dedicated to the book group, so other people don't have to put up with our book chat, so if you want to join in, please  let me know on Twitter @biggreenbooks and i'll add you to it.

There are about 80 people in the Book Group and generally between 20 and 30 people read the book and chat, so it's not too chaotic and everyone who wants to, has a chance to voice their opinions.

Hope this sounds OK and please ask me if you have any questions.

#BuyShelterABook - Day 6

A  very quick update on this year's #BuyShelterABook Christmas campaign.

We've almost reached £1,500!!

(HERE is a quick reminder of what #BuyShelterABook is).

Two things that have happened:

1. People have been amazing and have donated more dosh!

2. Jackie Morris has put two of her incredible paintings up for sale, with the money going to books for Shelter. 

Water on ink on Two Rivers paper.
Each around 25 x 20 cm

They're £500 each, and if you're interested please contact Jackie on Twitter @JackieMorrisArt to discuss details. 

I'll be doing a separate blogpost for people who'd like to donate books, rather than dosh. I've had replies from all the Shelter hubs around the UK now, so I'll list the kind of books they'd like. 

If I get a chance, I'll do it later today. 

Thank you all so much. YOU ROCK. 

Twitter Book Group - November - The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Twitter Book Group "met" this week. 

(I started a Twitter Book Group earlier this year and this is the 6th book we've talked about. 

More information about it all can be found HERE)

This month, the book chosen via a Twitter poll was Shirley Jackson's classic "The Haunting of Hill House"

This is a cracking cover!! Well done Penguin. 

20 people in the group read it and were part of the discussion. It was ace. 

The book's written from the point of view of Eleanor, one of the people who's invited to Hill House for the summer to partake in an experiment. As the story slowly unfolds, we are never quite sure what is real and what is imagined. 

No spoilers here btw. 

There was a bit of a split in opinion. Whilst most of the group really enjoyed and found the writing superb, there was the feeling with a  few that it didn't really grab them and the story missed  sense of drama. 

Here are a few of the comments. 

It had the ability to "charm and unnerve me simultaneously"

"It has one of the best opening paragraphs I have ever read"

"eerie and sad"

"I think the house hates them as much as we do"

There was a TV series recently of the same name, but apparently it bears little resemblance to the book. 

Everyone who wanted to gave the book a mark out of 10 and this resulted in it getting an average mark of a VERY respectable 7.3. 

The lowest mark was 5 and the highest was 9.5. 

Thanks to everyone who joined in. I'll be putting a poll up on twitter to help us decide what book to read next month in a minute, so please vote. 

If you want to get involved in future chats, tweet me @biggreenbooks with the hashtag #bgbookgroup. 

Bye! 

#BuyShelterABook - an update.

On Monday we launched our Christmas Campaign. 

#BuyShelterABook

The idea is to raise as much money as we can, so that we can send books to Shelter, to help the people they support have a better time this year. Info HERE.

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If you want to donate to #BuyShelterABook,

please PayPal whatever you like to biggreenbookshop@hotmail.com (using family & friends),

and add the word “SHELTER” in the notes.

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Last year we did something similar and you lot helped us raise £2,500 !!

This is what £2,500 worth of books looks like. 

These were posted off to the 12 hubs that Shelter has around the UK. We've been working closely with these hubs, so that we know the kind of books that they'd like. 

So, for example, the Merseyside hub supports a number older veterans and they'd like some  military history / war fiction and local history books for the Liverpool / Merseyside area.

And the hub in Bristol is looking for graphic novels and some books in Somali, Polish and Romanian. 

Most of the hubs are looking for kids books.

We want to make sure that we send appropriate titles to each of the hubs, so that they get the most out of them. 

Everyone likes a target, so i'm introducing The SHELTOMETER!

This will give you a running target of how much has been raised (including the £250 we're donating to the campaign). So far, after two days, you've helped raise around £800!

THIS IS AFTER DAY 2

I've set an ambitious target of £3,000, so we'll just have to see. 

I'll try and do an update every day or two. 

I'm also in the process of sorting out a PO Box at my local post office, if people want to donate books (I shall be bothering publishers shamelessly once this is sorted out). 

We only have a small flat, so getting books delivered here isn't the best idea!

Once I get the PO address, i'll let you know. 

PLEASE, can you share this with as many people as you can!

Twitter Book Group

Tomorrow, we'll be discussing the fifth book in the Twitter Book Group. 

It's The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (wooooo, spooky!). 

Here's a bit of info about Twitter Book Club

we choose a new book each month, so if you'd like to be involved in December's discussion (or, if you want to chat about this month's), then please tweet me. 

I think this is the shortest blogpost i've ever done.