Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

It's June! In the US, that means it's Pride month! I'll still largely be focusing on challenge reads, but I have a few relevantly themed reads that I'll be able to slip in this month nonetheless.

Quest for Women
No Signposts in the Sea - Vita Sackville-West (completed 6/14/21)
Voltaire in Love - Nancy Mitford (Currently Reading)

People of Color Old & New (COMPLETE)
The Sea of Fertility - Yukio Mishima (completed 6/3/21)
The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings - Octavio Paz (completed 6/19/21)

Bingo
The Hero and the Crown - Robin McKinley (completed 6/9/21)
The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio (completed 6/30/21)
A Single Man - Christopher Isherwood (Currently Reading)
A Bell for Adano - John Hersey

Reading Women Challenges (exterior to group)
Elizabeth and Her German Garden - Elizabeth von Arnim (completed 6/21/21)
All This, and Heaven Too - Rachel Field

Post 2021 Challenge Reading
A Map of Home - Randa Jarrar (completed 6/11/21)
The Book of Salt - Monique Truong (completed 6/20/21)
Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays - Durga Chew-Bose (completed 6/29/21)
Flood of Fire - Amitav Ghosh (Currently Reading)
The Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal - Afua Cooper (Currently Reading)
Say You're One of Them - Uwem Akpan
Ladies Coupé: A Novel in Parts - Anita Nair

My plans for June include:

Old & New Classics/Bingo Challenges:

Image - Music - Text - Roland Barthes(currently reading)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Brontë (currently reading)

Group Reads:
Goblin Market - Christina Rossetti (time permitting I might do a re-read of this )

Other Challenges:
Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri 04/06/2021
Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler 11/06/21
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett 27/06/21

Dear Aubrey,

HI. First, thank you for the monthly reading plan thread that you oversee. I think it is a nice addition and a great place to touch base with our reading friends. I have a suggestion, and I did not run it past anyone else, but it has to do with thread labels. We are now at year two of the monthly threads. I often use the search engine. Would you mind putting the year in the title with the month? Especially when I am traveling and on my phone, I must use search to find threads. The year would narrow the possibilities. Again, this is just my personal opinion and not a moderator request.

Thank you for all you do.

June plans

Truth be told, my reading speed and retention abilities seem to have diminished since my illness in January. I am up and about, but actually must sit to rest between chores,,things like that. As much as I would like to read, I cannot keep up the same pace. I am fine with things that can be finished in one day, but somehow the memory required to carry a book over several days is very taxing. With that in mind, I doubt I can do a reread of Tess (Thomas Hardy) this month.

Possible books:

1. The Bingo Palace by Louise Erdrich. I have been trying to read this for like four months now. Maybe I will actually get past Chapter 2 this month.
2. Time Crime by H. Beam Piper, Science Fiction, Adventure by H. Beam Piper. This series is a group of related short stories, so perfect for my limited attention span. #5 in the series.
3. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe I am really interested in this book, but let's see if I have the stamina for it.
4. Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac I already own it. I love Balzac. It is short. This sounds like a likely prospect.
5. Maybe I will look through the short story section of the Group Bookshelf and pick out a few of those I have not read yet, like Babette’s Feast that I bought last month.

That's it.

I've added the year to the title. Great suggestion, Lynn.

Thanks Katy

My plans for June:
Long Day's Journey into Night
Chinatown Gangs: Extortion, Enterprise, and Ethnicity
Adonis: Selected Poems
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

WILL FINISH IN JUNE:

1.
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon

2.
You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

MIGHT FINISH IN JUNE:

3.
Prince of Chaos by Roger Zelazny

4.
Psycho by Robert Bloch

WILL BE READING IN JUNE BUT WON'T FINISH:

5.
Choke Hold by Christa Faust

6.
The Conquering Sword of Conan by Robert E. Howard

7.
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

8.
All Clear by Connie Willis

9.
Old Venus edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

10.
D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II by Stephen E. Ambrose

11.
The Shining by Stephen King

In June, I'll be continuing:
How Does a Poem Mean?
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
Devil in a Blue Dress

Group read:
Moll Flanders

Then I have some possibilities:
The Bookshop
Seven Gothic Tales
Bring Up the Bodies

And I might decide to read Tales of the City for Pride Month, especially if I feel the need for another fun book. (I desperately needed a fun book recently and Devil in a Blue Dress came to my rescue--I am loving it!)

Kathleen, I too read Babette's Feast and became fascinated. You will go the gothic stories route while I think I will for now continue down the winters tales route. I look forward to reading your review. (I will read winters tales in fall 2021 during a readathon.)

June Reading
Read
1 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
2 Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power by Sady Doyle
3 The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer
4 A Promised Land by Barack Obama
5 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

Reading
1 Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
2 Glory in Their Spirit: How Four Black Women Took On the Army During World War II by Sandra M. Bolzenius
3 The Women with Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II by Katherine Sharp Landdeck

Planning
1 Genghis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
2 The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II by Jan Jarboe Russell
3 Interior Castle by Teresa of Ávila
4 Gerrymandering Texas by Steve Bickerstaff

Cynda wrote: "Kathleen, I too read Babette's Feast and became fascinated. You will go the gothic stories route while I think I will for now continue down the winters tales route. I look forward to reading your r..."

Ah, the Winter Tales sound wonderful, Cynda. Do enjoy and I'll look forward to your thoughts!

Wauw! You all read a lot!

I hope to finish in June The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher (e-read) and Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, a book I have had for ages and have been reading it on and off for the last 3 months or so, but it regularly gets put on hold because of other reading obligations.

I plan on a re-read of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll for my English bookclub

Yesterday I started The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel, it's a book from the library and it needs to go back soon.

Once I finished the shell seekers I want to start on Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, which should tie up my kindle till mid July I think?

At the end of June I should start A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier, but hopefully before that I can squeeze in The Postmistress by Sarah Blake.

Oh, and as a non-believer I have this crazy idea of reading the bible, so I'm looking into ways to tackle that.

Halfway through the month, and I'm four books down. Finally got my first bingo with them, as well as some decent Pride Month reading, and continuing to get more reading done for both my challenges and Pride during the rest of the month sounds good to me.

Aubrey wrote: "Halfway through the month, and I'm four books down. Finally got my first bingo with them, as well as some decent Pride Month reading, and continuing to get more reading done for both my challenges ..."

Congratulations on your Bingo!

At the halfway point of June,I have read eight more Science Fiction short stories. I am currently reading Moll Flanders with the group.

The goal has been to work on my short story challenge/decade and century challenges. I am nearing the end of those and will turn to another challenge soon.

Angelique wrote: "Wauw! You all read a lot!

I hope to finish in June The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher (e-read) and Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, a book I have had for ag..."

I have a lot of the books you're reading on my very long TBR list. :) As for reading the Bible there are free online reading schedules of what to read each day as well as an app called Daily Audio Bible where there is a section in which the Bible is read in one year. You can read the sections or listen to the reading for each day. Hope that helps. :)

Nine works done this month, finishing off my People of Color Old & New challenge and the much procrastinated weightiness that is 'The Decameron'. My brain's already focused on Women in Translation Month in August and how I'm going to balance challenges with that, but I've got plenty of Anglo works I can get to in July. I don't see myself finishing off any of my remaining challenges during that Month, but more incremental progress in all of them is always good.

That’s great Aubrey! I read seven books this month, which is very good for me. At this rate, I am going to smash through my yearly numerical target of 60 books! The best one in June was Fair Land, Fair Land by A.B. Guthrie, Jr., but the contemporary book, When We Were Mermaids, was also very good.

So as I said earlier I read eight short stories. I have not completed Moll Flanders yet, but will within a few more days. I think I am at about the 79% mark. I have been in the middle of a cleaning reorganizing project. It will all be sorted out soon.

I reverted to my standard month after the excitement of actually finishing everything last month. I have to admit that I had several days where I couldn't summon the energy to read. I'll be carrying the Roland Barthes, Ann Bronte and Cristina Rossetti over to July.