The air is getting cooler, the leaves are starting to fall, the prizelists are out, and it’s time to start thinking about what MARM goodies we’re going to read this year.
Margaret Atwood Reading Month is hosted by me and Naomi at Consumed by Ink, inspired by decades of our reading Margaret Atwood’s words.
From Sunday, November 1st to Monday, November 30th we’ll be reading Margaret Atwood, and we invite you to join in! (And, don’t forget, the 18th is Margaret Atwood’s 81st birthday. We’ll be celebrating with books, quotes, and cake!)
As always, there is so much to choose from: fiction, essays, poems, biographies, graphic novels, children’s books, film and TV. Any or all are up for grabs. As little or as much as you want.
Post about it wherever it is you like to talk about books, and leave a link to your post in a comment below – here or on Naomi’s site. Either on this page, or on one of the posts-yet-to-come.
Or, maybe your heart is set on a particular book, and you’ve been looking forward to it since last November? If you let us know your posting date ahead of the official launch on November 1st, we’ll be sure to include your link in our weekly November posts.
Either way, we will track participants’ posts and collect up all the links and share them at the end of the event.
Looking for more structure? This year we are preparing a Bingo grid to help guide you, if you choose. We’ll share it up with you mid-October so you can plan your next steps.
Looking for inspiration? Visit the author’s website, or check out past years’ wrap-up posts: 2018, 2019.
Browse our previous posts on Margaret Atwood: Alias Grace(M); Alias Grace (N); The Circle Game (M); The Door (M); Hag-Seed (M); The Handmaid’s Tale (M); The Heart Goes Last (M); The Heart Goes Last (N); Illustrated Children’s Tales (N); Maddaddam (M); Moral Disorder (N); Morning in the Burned House (N); Negotiating with the Dead (M); Oryx and Crake (M); The Penelopiad (M); Stone Mattress (M); Stone Mattress (N); The Testaments (M); The Year of the Flood (M)
Here’s your chance to try Margaret Atwood for the first time, or re-read your favourite Atwood books, or try out a genre you haven’t before.
Do you usually read fiction? Try some of her essays or poetry. Love graphic novels? Try one of Atwood’s. Are you a kidlit lover? Did you know Margaret Atwood has written several children’s books? Get reading. Fill your boots. (Please direct all comments on this phrase to Naomi! Hee hee)
See you in November!
If I found time to join in, I think I’d read Negotiating with the dead (though I haven’t read any of her recent novels). I’ve read quite a lot of Atwood but have really dropped off in the last decade. That’s terrible isn’t it?
I’ve noticed the same tendency with some of my other favourite writers; it’s as though I’m okay with being one or two “behind”, but then, as I fall even further “behind”, I seem to abandon the idea enitrely, because I’ve “missed” too many and I can’t completely catch up (or, not easily, anyway). Barbara Kingsolver is an example on my side; last year I simply picked up her newest and read/enjoyed it, then the idea of reading the others didn’t seem so impossible (but, I’ve not actually READ any others since either, so maybe this only works in theory LOL).
I love following your blogs at this time of year, I don’t have any MARM reading planned myself, but I like to see yours and Naomi’s insights on Atwood all the same. Will you be touching upon the recent scandals Atwood has been part of recently? It seems as though her stock is falling among young canadian authors, although I must admit I am still a fan 🙂
It’s a great time of year and even more so this year, with so many spring publications having been delayed until this season instead. My stacks are growing at an unbelievable rate! Are you referring to the UBC conflicts in the feminist community? I think the tension between generations is a constant, reaching back to the First/Second waves of feminism, and within those sectors too (with those who prioritized the rights of all women and those who were particularly seeking rights for particular women), let alone those individuals in and around those movements who prioritize egalitarianism, like Atwood (at least, I think that’s where she fits?)…
Yup, that’s exactly what I’m talking about! The controversy seems to have died down, but lots of younger writers seem upset that she continues to get so much coverage/attention. Perhaps I’m just too mired in twitter theses days…LOL
It’s been almost five years, but social media does sustain extremist views. Then again, when I was a young feminist, I don’t think I truly understood either, just how many different ways there are to be a feminist.
I made the mistake of looking up Atwood on the university library catalogue — they have everything you can imagine, and lots I’d never heard of! Plus loads of critical works on her, including a bio I didn’t know about. So I will (selectively) fill my boots before November. I commented on Naomi’s post that I have a copy of Wilderness Tips in hand already, but beyond that I’m not sure how many I’ll manage. I am usually reading right up to the deadline for month challenges, so my post will probably come right at the end of November. This’ll be fun 🙂
OOoooOOo: that does sound like fun, to have so many choices via that avenue. I’ve probably already said before that I really loved the stories in Wilderness Tips (I think it was my first of her collections). I’m leaning towards Dancing Girls, because I haven’t read all of those stories yet, but maybe I’ll dabble in other collections too.
I’m thinking about Cat’s Eye myself, which I own & haven’t read.
It could inspire some walking “tours” through the ravines, which would be lovely this time of year.
I’ve read a few Atwoods. Alias Grace, Handmaid, the follow up. I’ll see what the library can get in for me as an audiobook – maybe The Blind Assassin which I may have read in the distant past (and may even own).
That would be an interesting one on audio…I wonder how they would produce the book-within-a-book segments (being a bit vague in case you actually haven’t read it before)…it might actually be even more satisfying to hear those bits read than to read them oneself!
Oooh, I haven’t read Hagseed yet, maybe I will make it a point to get to it in November. And doesn’t she have a new book of poetry coming out soon? Why yes she does, in November! And I am now #9 in line for it at the library 🙂
It would be a perfect creepy read for later October, that’s for sure! And you’re not alone in wanting to check out the new poems–it’s been awhile since her last collection!
I will try to join in again. I do love Margaret Atwood, and I had meant to read MaddAddam or re-read Cat’s Eye, both of which are a bit chunky. As I am reading slowly just now I may have to buy one of her shorter story collections that I haven’t read yet, (any excuse, right?)
I’ve been thinking about rereading Cat’s Eye too; I remember racing through it on earlier reads, but it definitely occupies a chunk of space on the shelf.
Ooooh! Planning to read as much non-fiction in November as I can, so I shall have to try to find an unread Atwood! 😀
She has some great collections of essays that you’d probably enjoy dipping into (if you haven’t already done so)!
She also has a few that would fit into Novellas for November 😉
It’s always fun to feel as though one has more than one reason to read a particular book, I agree.