The 1900 to 1950 Readathon discussion

The readathon begins today! Let us know what you're currently reading below.

I'm starting with Crooked House by Agatha Christie.

I’m beginning with Brighton Rock, my first Graham Greene.

I'm starting with DH Lawrence's The Rainbow. So excited for it!

I've stated with All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West

I've started with Gäst hos verkligheten (Guest of Reality) by Pär Lagerkvist.
And I'm currently reading The Mysterious Affair of Styles, too, because I always want to have a crime novel on my bedside table. ;-)

I've started with 'The House of Mirth' by Edith Wharton.

I've started with Animal Farm by George Orwell along with Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield on audiobook.

I have started with All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.

I finished Triplanetary by E.E. Smith (1948) — I had a bit of a head start the last couple days of April — and am now reading A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905).

I'm starting with The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie!

I've started with Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham

First up for me is The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki

I am starting with The Phantom of the Opera, 1909, by Gaston Leroux, French, so not my country. Since the wars vastly impacted life and thought, I decided to read my TBR like this: pre-WWI, WWI, post-WWI, post-WWII.

Starting with Testament of Youth. It’s a nice sleepy Saturday and I’m about 200 pages in. Loving it so far!

I'm starting with Father by Elizabeth von Arnim

I'm starting with Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink

Just starting The Old Man in the Corner, by Baroness Orczy.

I finished The Touchstone, a novella by Edith Wharton. Good, intense and very "Jamesian", (a la Henry James) if that's a word.
I've also started Letter From England by Mollie Panter-Downes. This is a series of essays/articles written for the New Yorker during WWII. I plan to read a few pages each day throughout the month.

My next book will be Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther by Elizabeth von Arnim; starting tonight.

I still have to finish my current reading, I'll be a little behind. But my first read for the readathon will be "The Tunnel" by Ernesto Sábato from my own country, Argentina

Since it's the month of May I thought I'd Start the readathon with Frost in May by Antonia White. First published in 1933.
I'm reading the Virago Modern Classic edition with the intro by Elizabeth Bowen.

I'm hoping I will still be able to join in as I am still working on Jane Eyre and then will be reading A Room With A View :)

I've started with The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Firtzgerald. :)

Reading The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby.

I finished Blood Wedding by Lorca and The Machine Stops by Forster, I really enjoyed both.

Now I've started The Pearl by Steinbeck :)

I started reading two books which will fit the prompt to read a book from a country different from your own. I’m in America...
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (British, April 1902) and...
The Big Four by Agatha Christie (British, Jan 1927). I really like Agatha Christie’s books, especially those with Hercule Poirot.

I started Peter Pan by James M Barrie and finished it ten minutes ago. I have some ideas about what to read next and I will continue with some of Arsen Lupin's short stories.

I have started with The Hound of the Baskervilles (Conan Doyle, 1902).

I just started listening to The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield via my library on the Overdrive app. I’m so thankful to Katie who recommended it as I am thoroughly enjoying it. Eventually I’d like to buy the actual book for my home library. There are so many editions though I don’t know which one to get.

I've finished Tom Tiddler's Ground by Ursula Orange which I absolutely loved, so I'm looking forward the reading more from her; fortunately, 'Furrowed Middlebrow' have republished 2 more of her books.

I've started Love at Second Sight by Ada Leverson. She was a great friend of Oscar Wilde and these books have a similarly witty writing style.

I just finished the Indian/Bengali classic Devdas, published in 1917. It had some really fascinating insights from its female characters about women's position in Indian/Bengali society in the early 20th century.
*I say Indian/Bengali because Bangladesh was still part of India at the time.

I finished Three Men in the Snow for the prompt A classic from your own country.

Hi everyone! I started with ‘Schoolydillen’ by Top Naeff written in 1900. This is also the book I chose for prompt #1 book set in your country.

In the Netherlands this is a classic. A group of young girls growing up, going to school and having fun.

I don’t think this has been translated or at least not lately.

I finished Love at Second Sight which was a very satisfactory conclusion to the series. I've started The Provincial Lady in Russia. This isn't really a part of the Provincial Lady series, the publishers changed the name to shoe-horn it in there after the success of those books.

I’ve started with 1984 by George Orwell. I’m enjoying so far. I find it very immersive.

Looking forward to hearing what people have thought on various books. I’m sure I’ll be finding new books to read in the future.

Just finished “Women in Love” and I have a lot of thoughts. I enjoyed the overall structure of “The Rainbow” better but this has the better ending, because it feels more like an ending. That makes sense if my feeling that it started as one book but got to big and was split in two is right. I don’t know for sure but that’s how it feels to me. Anyway I really liked the characterization in this and I feel like I should definitely read more D. H. Lawrence in the future.

I'm starting with Brave New World for the genre prompt and for the 30’s decade.

I am currently reading Arsen Lupin the gentleman thief 1907 and the Hobbit 1937 and find Both vers entertaing in their own Ways.

Finished selection #2 Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther by Elizabeth von Arnim (1907), which I absolutely loved. Told as letters from our unreliable narrator Rose-Marie to Roger Anstruther, it is full of passion and nature and poetry, and a strong-willed young woman.

Started selection #3 A Room with a View by E. M. Forster (1908), a re-read for me. I don't remember anything about it, so we shall see how it goes on this re-reading.

I recently read Illyrian Spring, which strongly reminded me of A Room with a View and made me want to re-read it, so I might fit that one in later in the month.

I finished the highly readable The Phantom of the Opera, 1909, by Gaston Leroux, French, from another country and 1900s prompts. The approach of the narrator is an historian presenting his solution to an historic mystery, thus blunting the impact of the darkly romantic and gothic elements. The book made me appreciate the musical adaptation even more if that's possible!

I also finished Metamorphosis, 1915, by Franz Kafka, Bohemian, from another country, not a novel (a novella), and 1910s prompts. It is thought-provoking. However, literature that is modernist, absurdist existentialist is not my favorite. Still a 4-star read.

I finished "Gäst hos verkligheten" by Pär Lagerkvist (not my country) and "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" by Agatha Christie (Genre classic) and are now reading "Professor Unrat" by Heinrich Mann (from my country).

I finished Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock (book from another country; book written in the 1930s), and am now going to read Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt (for a book from the country I’m from and a book written in the 1920s).

I’m reading Native Son by Richard Wright set in Chicago (where I’m not from) and written in 1940

I have also started Soldiers' Pay by William Faulkner
This is Faulkner's first published novel written in 1926 and concerns 3 soldiers dealing with the aftermath of WW1

I've finished:

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905)
Triplanetary by E.E. "Doc" Smith (1948)
First Lensman by E.E. "Doc" Smith (1950)

Currently reading:
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick (1945)
The Travel Tales of Mr Joseph Jorkens by Lord Dunsany (1931)

And soon to start:
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)

I have finished two books.
First I read Schoolidyllen (1900) by Top Naeff for prompt 1 book from country you are from. The Netherlands
And I’ve just finished Evil under the Sun( 1941) by Agatha Christie for prompt 3 a genre classic.
I’am also reading Kristin Lavransdatter, book 1 the Wreath(1920) by Sigrid Undsett for prompt nr 2 from a country not your own. Norway

I finished The Mystery of the Blue Train last night for the genre classic prompt. Not her best, but even bad Christie is better than most in my opinion.

I finished A Farewell to Arms this morning and have also managed to read The Waste Land and listen to the audiobook of Animal Farm this week. All good, although A Farewell to Arms ends very abruptly I thought! Now reading Anne of Green Gables.

I finished All Passion Spent which was excellent; I'd recommend it, though not for anyone who likes a plot driven narrative.

I've started Prophesying Peace: Diaries, 1944-1945, the diaries of James Lees-Milne. They were published a lot later, though obviously written during WW2.

I've just finished "The Man-Eaters of Tsavo" for the not a novel challenge. Very exciting look into colonial life (focusing on the white perspective). It's interesting to read knowing how things turned out. The author is clearly pro-colonialism but he's not completely condescending to the native population, which is better than some books I've read from this time period. Speaking of books that are not as good about their treatment of non-white characters, after finishing "Man-Eaters" I started up "Adventure" by Jack London and boy howdy is it racist. It definitely makes me appreciate "Man-Eaters" but besides that the story lives up to the title. Very adventurous, but super racist and kinda sexist (although some of it might be ironic) but it's short.