Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Tsundoku: (Japanese slang term) acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them.

Century Challenge: Women Authors
Completed 10/10 plus 2/10

Since this is a buffet, I am giving myself more choices. I would like to read all twenty books, but I will start with completing ten.

1920
✔︎The Wife (#2) by Sigrid Undset (Nobel winner) - 3 stars
✔︎The Cross (#3) by Sigrid Undset (translated) - 3 stars

1930
✔︎Skyscraper by Faith Baldwin - 3 stars
Vein of Iron by Ellen Glasgow

1940
✔︎The Other Room by Worth Tuttle Hedden - 3.5 stars
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes

1950
✔︎ The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden - 4 stars
✔︎ The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West - 3 stars

1960
✔︎Iza's Ballad by Magda Szabó (translated) - 4 stars
The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence

1970
✔︎SPRING OF THE TIGER by Victoria Holt - 2.5 stars
Penmarric by Susan Howatch

1980
✔︎Basic Black with Pearls by Helen Weinzweig - 3 stars
The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II (translated nonfiction) by Svetlana Alexievich (Nobel winner)

1990
✔︎The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Pulitzer) - 4 stars
The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat


2000
✔︎When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka - 3 stars
The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher (nonfiction) by Debby Applegate

2010
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
✔︎The Song of Peterloo by Carolyn O'Brien - 2.5 stars

✔︎ as completed

Short Stories Challenge
Completed 24/24

Short Stories:

✔︎1. The Nose by Nikolai Gogol
✔︎2. Desiree's Baby by Kate Chopin
✔︎3. A New England Nun by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
✔︎4. The Revolt of "Mother" by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
✔︎5. Bernice Bobs Her Hair by F. Scott Fitzgerald
✔︎6. The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs
✔︎7. Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad by M.R. James
✔︎8. Number 13 by M.R. James
✔︎9. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
✔︎10. A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor
✔︎11. Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor
✔︎12. The Mark on the Wall by Virginia Woolf
✔︎13. A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf
✔︎14. A Society by Virginia Woolf
✔︎15. Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf
✔︎16. The String Quartet by Virginia Woolf
✔︎17. The Daughters of the Late Colonel by Katherine Mansfield
✔︎18. The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield
✔︎19. Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield
✔︎20. The Singing Lesson by Katherine Mansfield.
✔︎21. An Unwritten Novel by Virginia Woolf
✔︎22. Blue & Green by Virginia Woolf
✔︎23. Kew Gardens by Virginia Woolf
✔︎24. The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells

✔︎ as completed

Old & New Challenge
Completed 12/12

Old
✔︎1) Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1872) - 4 stars
2) Doctor Zay by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1882)
3) Gösta Berling's Saga by Selma Lagerlöf (1891)

New
Fortunes of War: The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning
✔︎#1 The Great Fortune (1960) - 3 stars
✔︎#2 The Spoilt City (1962) - 4 stars
✔︎#3 Friends and Heroes (1965) - 4 stars

Wild Cards
✔︎1) The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela (1916) - 3 stars
✔︎2) Beast In View by Margaret Millar - 4 stars
✔︎3) The Curlew's Cry by Mildred Walker (1955) - 4 stars
✔︎4) The Tall Woman by Wilma Dykeman (1962) - 3.5 stars
✔︎5) Stoner by John Williams (1965) - 2.5 stars
✔︎6) Nineteen Seventy-Four by David Peace (1999) - 1 star

Alternates
✔︎1) Time of Drums by John Ehle (1970) - 4 stars
✔︎2) The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (2013) - 3 stars

✔︎ as completed

Nonfiction

✔︎1. Killers of the Dream by Lillian E. Smith
✔︎2. Mary of Guise by Rosalind K. Marshall

Marilyn, I hope you enjoy your challenge. I’m a fan of short stories and some of your short story picks are true favorites.

Bob wrote: "Marilyn, I hope you enjoy your challenge. I’m a fan of short stories and some of your short story picks are true favorites."

I'm excited to start the short stories and thanks for making a place for the women author challenge. I look forward to it every year.

Hello there Marilyn. Best of luck this year with your short works reading :-)

I gained quite a few recommendations from your lists. All the best!

Thanks, Cynda and Ila!

Tsundoku - I love that there is a word for having books pile up in the house.

In the spirit of tsundoku, my challenges are mostly books I own: added to message #4 the Old & New Challenge (12 of 14) and changed the Women Authors Challenge (15 of 20).

I'm glad to see your Women's Century Challenge, Marilyn. You've a number of good ones picked out, so I hope they go well for you.

Tsundoku! Thanks for introducing me to that word, Marilyn. Tsundoku makes me happy, actually. :-)

I agree you have a great Women's Century challenge planned, and personally loved The Wife, In a Lonely Place and The Stone Angel. Enjoy!

Aubrey wrote: "I'm glad to see your Women's Century Challenge, Marilyn. You've a number of good ones picked out, so I hope they go well for you."

Thanks, Aubrey. I was very happy to see a place for this challenge again this year.

Kathleen wrote: "Tsundoku! Thanks for introducing me to that word, Marilyn. Tsundoku makes me happy, actually. :-)

I agree you have a great Women's Century challenge planned, and personally loved [book:The Wife|62..."

"This is my tsundoku" sounds so much better than "my piles of books."

I’m definitely guilty of tsundoku as well and also plan to focus my reading this year on books I already have! You’ve an ambitious collection and I’m happy to see you’ve included many women authors from around the world! :) I hope that you enjoy them — especially The Waiting Years!

Erin wrote: "I’m definitely guilty of tsundoku as well and also plan to focus my reading this year on books I already have! You’ve an ambitious collection and I’m happy to see you’ve included many women authors..."

Good luck with your tsundoku!

At the halfway point in the year, I am doing better than I thought considering this weird year.

Women Authors Century Challenge - 7/10
Favorites: Iza's Ballad and The Greengage Summer. These were new authors for me and I look forward to reading more.

Old & New Challenge - 6/12
Favorite: The Curlew's Cry is the leading candidate for favorite book of the year.

Short Story Challenge - 2/24
My plan was to take the city bus to the university library and spend hours picking books off the shelves and reading tons of short stories. Well...the library is closed and I won't get on a city bus right now. So, it's back to the internet.

Looks like you have your challenges on track. Lots of good short stories online, I read a good many of mine there.

Womens Challenge: 9/10

Thanks to a buddy read I finished the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy with The Wife and The Cross. I liked the books but thought I would like them more.

Old& New Challenge: 7/12

Nineteen Seventy Four was an unnecessarily graphic stream of junk. Initially I gave it 2 stars but I realized that I now hate it even more and changed it to 1 star. I only finished it because it was a fast read and I hoped the "explosive" ending would make it worth my time. Not. I'm mystified as to how this made the Guardian 1000 list.

Next up: I am starting the Balkan Trilogy with The Great Fortune.

Marilyn wrote: "Womens Challenge: 9/10

Thanks to a buddy read I finished the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy with The Wife and The Cross. I liked the books but thought I would like them more..."

It's a bit of a shame Undset didn't wow you as much as you hoped her to, but at least she went better than the other one :P

I finished Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf. I particularly liked "A Haunted House," "Monday or Tuesday" and "The Mark on the Wall."

Yours is the second post this week liking A Haunted House, I'm going to have to give it a try.

Bob wrote: "Yours is the second post this week liking A Haunted House, I'm going to have to give it a try."

When you read "A Haunted House," this pronoun guide is very helpful.

"A Haunted House" – principal characters

I ----- the narrator
you (singular) ----- as in ‘one’
they ----- the previous occupants of the house
she ----- previous occupant
he ----- previous occupant
it ----- the ‘ghostly treasure’
them ----- the current occupants of the house
you (plural) ----- the previous occupants
us ----- the current occupants

Short Story Challenge completed. Finished with "The Revolt of 'Mother,'" "The Monkey's Paw" and "Desiree's Baby." All excellent.

Finished The Song of Peterloo and the Century Challenge is done.

Marilyn wrote: "Finished The Song of Peterloo and the Century Challenge is done."

Congratulations, Marilyn! I hope you had fun.

Aubrey wrote: "Marilyn wrote: "Finished The Song of Peterloo and the Century Challenge is done."

Congratulations, Marilyn! I hope you had fun."

Thanks, Aubrey. I always enjoy finding new authors and books with the Women Authors Challenge.

Marilyn, sounds like you enjoyed the challenges. Congratulations on finishing them!

The pronoun guide looks helpful ( I'm reading "Haunted house" and "Mark on the wall" this month). I plan to use it. I too loved "Desiree's Baby" and "Monkey's Paw".

Last night I finished Friends and Heroes, the third book in The Balkan Trilogy. My three challenges are complete and the buffet is closed.

Congratulations!!

Bob wrote: "Congratulations!!"

Thanks, Bob. I'm looking forward to the opening of the 2021 buffet.