Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

I plan on doing Challenges 4, 6, 8 and maybe 7 and 9.

Challenge 4: Member's Choice Classic/Genre Challenge

18th century or older - The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris

19th century - Romola by George Eliot

20th century - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

Current or past group read - Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

An author not read before - Les Vaines Tendresses by Sully Prudhomme

Diversity, read a book from a different religion, culture, country or race - The Faroe Islanders' Saga by George Johnston

Science fiction - A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

Romance - The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

Historical fiction - The White Company by Arthur Conan Doyle

Non-fiction - The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

Mystery/crime - Swan Song by Edmund Crispin

Humour- Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

Challenge 6: Short Story Challenge
Read 24 Short Stories.

1. The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekhov January 3
2. 2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. January 8
3. The Star by Arthur C. Clarke January 14
4. The Red Room by H.G. Wells January 22
5. An Imaginative Woman by Thomas Hardy January 28
6. A Victim Of Higher Space by Algernon Blackwood January 29
7. The Wolves of Cernogratz by Saki February 3
8. The Goddess of Death by William Hope Hodgson February 5
9. Attention Saint Patrick by Murray Leinster March 17
10. Ein Landarzt by Franz Kafka April 3
11. Das Fähnlein der sieben Aufrechten by Gottfried Keller April 25
12. How Much Land Does a Man Need? by Leo Tolstoy April 28
13. The Haunted Jarvee by William Hope Hodgson May 5
14. The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne June 10
15. The Mystery of the Spanish Chest by Agatha Christie June 21
16. The Lady's Maid's Bell by Edith Wharton July 4
17. To Be Read at Dusk by Charles Dickens August 2
18. Canon Alberic's Scrapbook by M.R. James August 7
19. The Homecoming by Ray Bradbury August 16
20. The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico August 26
21. The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs September 17
22. The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe October 8
23. A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid October 1
24. Green Tea by J. Sheridan Le Fanu October 9

Challenge 8: A to Z Author Challenge

A: Douglas Adams - The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soult
B: J.M. Barrie - The Admirable Crichton
C: Anton Chekhov - The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories
D: Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound of the Baskervilles
E: Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
F: Ian Fleming - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
G: Michael Gilbert - Death in Captivity
H: Victor Hugo- Les Contemplations
I: Henrik Ibsen - Love's Comedy
J: Jerome K. Jerome - Paul Kelver a Novel
K: Franz Kafka - Die Verwandlung
L: Anita Loos -Gentlemen Prefer Blondes & But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes
M: Christopher Marlowe - The Tragedy of Dido Queene of Carthage
N: Larry Niven - Lucifer's Hammer
O: Kate O'Brien - Farewell Spain
P: J.B. Priestley - The Thirty-first of June
Q: Arthur Quiller-Couch - Poison Island
R: Joan G. Robinson - When Marnie Was There
S: Georges Simenon - Pietr the Latvian
T: Tacitus - The Annals of Imperial Rome
U: Miguel de Unamuno - NIEBLA
V: Jules Verne - Le Château des Carpathes
W - Ronald Wright - Modern Classics Cut Stones and Crossroads: A Journey in the Two Worlds of Peru
X - Xenophon - The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates
Y - Charlotte Mary Yonge - The Little Duke
Z - Israel Zangwill - The Big Bow Mystery

Challenge 7: 2020 Group Reads Challenge
Read 12 Group Read Books.

1. The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
2. The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson
3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
4. The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells
5. There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
6. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Challenge 9: A to Z Titles

A - The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie
B - The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton
C - Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
D - The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett
E - Erniedrigte und Beleidigte by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
F - Foreign Bodies by Martin Edwards
G - The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively
H - A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
I - In the Ravine by Anton Chekhov
J - John Halifax, Gentleman by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
K - Kilmeny of the Orchard by L.M. Montgomery
L - The Lost Stradivarius by John Meade Falkner
M - Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
N - The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
O - Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
P - The Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck
Q - The Quest of Iranon by H.P. Lovecraft
R - Reim und Zeit: Gedichte by Robert Gernhardt
S - Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck
T - Three John Silence Stories by Algernon Blackwood
U - Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
V - The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
W - Die Walküre by Richard Wagner (Die = The)
X - X-Men: Days of Future Past by Chris Claremont
Y - Yellow Boots by Vera Lysenko
Z - Züricher Novellen by Gottfried Keller

Challenge 5: Century Challenge
*means an author new to me

✔️1880's: She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard 1886 Completed on March 20

*1890's: The Sorrows of Satan by Marie Corelli 1895

✔️1900's: Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter 1904

*1910's: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell 1914

✔️1920's: Amerika by Franz Kafka 1927 - Completed on February 10

✔️1930's: Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather 1931

1940's: An Old Captivity by Nevil Shute 1940

✔️*1950's: The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat 1951

*1960's: The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau 1964

✔️1970's: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty 1972 Completed on July 11

Good luck on your challenges. I have always thought the A-Z challenges are the hardest. I'm surprised at how many letter repeat over and over, while others are so difficult. I do hope you enjoy An Old Captivity, Nevil Shute is perhaps my favorite author.

Thank you, Bob.
My first exposure to the works of Nevil Shute was The Pied Piper in Grade 9. It's a lovely little book. In Grade 10, we read On the Beach-very grim.
I have read many of his other works since then, the last one was A Town Like Alice, a very enjoyable read.

I am so glad that is now 2020. I am excited about these fun challenges.

Good luck, i am following your challenge to get inspired. I don´t read as many books as you, but i am having great fun picking others favorites. I am going to add Nevil Shute to my TBR since you and Bob like him so much.

Thank you, Aya. One of my favourite Nevil Shute books is Pied Piper.

I have completed Challenge 4: Member's Choice.

Congratulations on having one completed, Rosemarie. I also love Nevil Shute. A Town Like Alice has been my favorite, but I have not read Pied Piper, so something to look forward to.

Congratulations Rosemarie! It looks like you are getting real close on to completing a few more.

Thanks Sara and Sue.
The last book I read for the challenge was Oliver Twist, a former group read. It was so good.

Congratulations, except for Oliver Twist, all of your challenge 4 reads are new to me, now I need to explore. Good luck on the rest.

Thank you, Bob! I enjoyed doing the challenge.

I finished the A to Z Authors Challenge.

Rosemarie wrote: "I finished the A to Z Authors Challenge."

A hardy Congratulations!! To me there is no harder challenge to complete.

Wow! Congratulations!

Thank you, Bob and Annette!

Congrats, Rosemarie! Good work. I agree with Bob that this is one of the hardest challenges to complete.

Congratulations, Rosemarie! Those are a lot of books to read. Very impressive. I will look up all these books for my 2021 reading.

Thanks, Sara and Shaina!

Rosemarie, your challenges are going so well! I am so impressed when people finish the A-Z Challenges. Your others are also close to finishing! Great job!

I loved Up the Down Staircase when I read it as a teenager. It was a copy my parents owned. It made quite an impression upon me. You also read Shadows on the Rock which I thought was a really good book.

Thanks, Lynn. Those two books were some of my best reads for the year. I read Up the Down Staircase as a teenager. On my reread as a retired teacher. That book made me laugh and cry.

I finished the Short Story challenge today.

Congratulations, Rosemarie--and a great list of stories. What did you think of J. Sheridan Le Fanu? I read his stories earlier this year and can still conjure in my mind some of the images from Green Tea!

Congratulations! The short stories are a favorite.

Thanks, Kathleen and Bob.
I like LeFanu, especially the novel Uncle Silas-very gothic.

I finished the A to Z Titles today.

Which may be all the challenges I complete this year. I may read one more novel for my decades challenge, but it's highly unlikely that I will finish the group read challenge since the group is reading books I have already read not that long ago.

Congratulations, Rosemarie! Those are a lot of books.

Thank you, Shaina. I love reading!