Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

It's July! Time to ask yourself, do the last six months of reading look anything like what you planned for at the beginning of 2022? Mine are faring well enough, but I've never been much for creative spontaneity in that regard.

Quest for Women
Castle Rackrent - Maria Edgeworth (completed 7/6/22)
The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton - Fawn M. Brodie (completed 7/18/22)
The Nice and the Good - Iris Murdoch (Currently Reading)

People of Color Old & New
Complete Prose Fiction - Alexander Pushkin (completed 7/21/22)
The Poetic Memoirs of Lady Daibu - Kenreimonin Ukyo no Daibu (Currently Reading)
Palinuro de México - Fernando del Paso (Currently Reading)

Bingo
The Innocents Abroad - Mark Twain (completed 7/2/22)
Praisesong for the Widow - Paule Marshall (completed 7/3/22)
War with the Newts - Karel Čapek (completed 7/12/22)
The Promised Land - Mary Antin (completed 7/17/22)
The Tin Drum - Günter Grass (Currently Reading)
Long Day's Journey into Night - Eugene O'Neill

2022 JULY

Brontës
5/5 Jane Eyre
4/5 Agnes Grey
4/5 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

V. Woolf
4/5 Jacob's Room
5/5 Mrs. Dalloway
5/5 To the Lighthouse
5/5 The Waves

Other female authors
3/5 Ten Days in a Mad-House
3/5 Ethan Frome
5/5 The Age of Innocence
4/5 L'Enfant Prodige
5/5 Deux
5/5 Middlemarch
5/5 The Secret Garden

Antiquity
3/5 Pirroniana

Other
5/5 The Magic Mountain
2/5 The Vicar of Wakefield

2022
06 | 07

I'm really hoping to read all my Jane Austen July prompts while visiting family back home. :)

Pride and Prejudice

Lady Susan (audio on LibriVox)

Emma 9(if I have time and it's the only one of the 6 main novels I haven't read)

Jane Austen and Her Country-House Comedy
by W.H. Helm (audio on LibriVox)

Longbourn by Jo Baker

Lover's Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald (audiobook on LibriVox)

And these books if I have time and my Mom has a library card to the local library, if not then I may see what she has to read or use LibriVox. :)

The Lark by E. Nesbit

Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am by Julia Cooke

Kindred by Octavia Butler

* This list may change as books may be added or omitted. :)

Happy Canada Day!!! and Happy Independence Day!!!

first half of 2022 has gone more or less to plan for me: I was aiming to read 10 books per month and I've so far completed 60!

I have included a goodly sprinkling of re-reads and group-reads (which I have in the past tended to neglect despite good intentions) so quite pleased with that aspect

anyhoo, July "Core 8" :
2666 Bolaño, Roberto 2004 (to finish)
Betrothed, The Manzoni, Alessandro 1840 (to finish)
Schindler's List Keneally, Thomas 1982 (to finish)
Miracle Game, The Skvorecky, Josef 1972
Blott on the Landscape Sharpe, Tom 1975
Clarissa (Vol 1 of 9) Richardson, Samuel 1748
Moviegoer, The Percy, Walker 1961
July's People Gordimer, Nadine 1981 (Group Read)

I cannot stick to a plan even made a week or two in advance. In June I only read one of the books that I planned and substituted 5 other things. So

I am reading Traced: Human DNA's Big Surprise by Nathaniel Jeanson (2022). He believes the earth is 6000 years old. The interesting thing is years ago I read Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project by Spencer Wells (2006) who believes the earth is billions of years old. The two authors use similar methods, but Traced uses more recent data. They follow the movement of peoples historically by tracing DNA patterns in the Y chromosome and have surprisingly similar conclusions. Personally, I have no idea how old the earth is; I wasn't there.

Lynn wrote: "I cannot stick to a plan even made a week or two in advance. In June I only read one of the books that I planned and substituted 5 other things. .."

That describes my June also.

My first half of the year - actual reading has stayed very close to plan, which was to work hard on my challenges so I don't need to scramble in December. I've also read a few non-challenge books, which is nice. Coming into the second half of the year, I only need to read 4 more books to complete my yearly challenges.

July reading plan -

The Age of Innocence (July group read)

This Side of Paradise (Old & New challenge)

To Kill a Mockingbird (Old & New challenge)

Evil Under the Sun (monthly challenge Back to the Classics)

Death on the Nile (monthly challenge Back to the Classics)

Death on the Riviera (monthly challenge Back to the Classics)

July plans: (the buffet plate looks overloaded)

Finish:
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

Buddy reads:
The Trees by Conrad Richter
The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson

Challenges:
July's People by Nadine Gordimer
The Chase by Alejo Carpentier
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
The Secrets of Grown-Ups: An Autobiography by Vera Caspary

Aubrey, the answer to your opening question is a resounding NO! I am reading some great books, but not really the ones I planned to read. And I am slightly behind in the number of them as well, due to reading a few lengthy novels. I am not really unhappy about this, though, because my reading has been quite satisfying for the most part. There was only one book that I wanted to throw across the room,as I recall, but that book was written well — I just hated the ending.

My year has been decidedly meh. I've abandoned about 4 books entirely, failed hopelessly to keep up with most of the Goodreads book club choices (I was hoping to read Grapes of Wrath last month, which didn't even remotely happen), failed to finish half the books I started, kept on starting too many, got so many books out of the library I frankly feel ill looking at them thinking of the amount of reading I would have to do, brought far too many books that I will never read, and threw away books that I probably brought for full price and thus wasted my money. honestly, I feel exhausted reading these days. it actually makes me feel quite stressed, I just over commit to impossible reading schedules. bleh. I never planned anything, because that's really stupid for me. I'm an alt history mood right now, so I've been getting loads of those, which I'll probably abandon by the end of this year. reading has been abit meh too. Some real greats, but so many duds.

anyhoo, I plan to finish Of Ants and Dinosaurs by Cixin Liu, as its due back to the library on the 9th and reading to a deadline will actually help we finish it. otherwise, I want to read the Unbearable Lightness of Being for one of the Goodreads clubs, and I need to finish Brechts Fear and Misery in the Third Reich. I also hope to finish two Doctor Who books i started, one being Killing Ground by Steve Lyons, which sucks, the other being The Man in the Velvet Mask by Daniel O'Mahony, which is amazing. I've also finally committed myself to just one book at a time. No ifs, no buts. Read one, either finish or abandon, then do another. No more of this dip in and out bullshit. Finish or don't. That's the only way I'll be able to concentrate on finishing anything.

It sounds like we're all over the map when it comes to sticking with or diverging from plans. It's always interesting to see what each of us goes through to get the most out of our reading!

I keep trying to fit in at least one impulse read per month. The months go so fast though! Here's hoping the coming "dog days of summer" stretch out the days and time passes at a more reasonable pace.

Impulse Read (does making this a heading defeat the purpose?)
Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

Group Reads
Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
Laidlaw by William McIlvanney
The Storm by Kate Chopin

To Finish
A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living by Joseph Campbell
Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston

Possibilities
A Bookshop in Berlin by Françoise Frenkel
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang

July, let’s see.

Buddy Read:
Trees by Conrad Richter (reading now)
On the Southern Literary Trail:
Cool Hand Luke by Don Pearce
Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles
Catloochee by Wayne Caldwell (Catching up with Group)
Requiem by Fire by Wayne Caldwell
Listening for Fun:
Killer Diller by Clyde Edgerton (listening now)
BookClub:
(Placeholder)
If I have time:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey.

This is all very fine, but my Bingo challenge will never get done at this pace. That is, unless i can figure put how to sub some books for others.

My July plans (I won’t get through all of this!)

Finish:
The Taste of Sorrow by Jude Morgan
The World Set Free by H.G. Wells

Books I want to read:
The Ladies' Paradise by Émile Zola
Mother of the Brontes by Sharon Wright
A Start in Life by Honoré de Balzac

Group reads I want to read at some stage:
The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley
Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali

Short stories:
The Storm by Kate Chopin
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad
Three Detective Anecdotes by Charles Dickens

July Reads-

Finishing from June - Sophie's Choice by William Styron

The Trees by Conrad Richter
Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce
Requiem by Fire by Wayne Caldwell
Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Hamlet by William Shakespeare

I think I’m in a good place with Bingo but my buffet needs tending to. I’m fine with any progress I make on the buffet because, like Terry said, I’m having a great reading year with the picks with buddy reads and other groups reads too.

I have cleared out my schedule. I am ready to rock July as a super reading month.

Read
1. 2018 Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb
2. 2021 The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence by Stephen Kurczy
3. 1961 The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
4. 1986 The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke
5. 2003 Come and See: A Photojournalist's Journey Into the World of Mother Teresa by Linda Schaefer
6. 1997 Crown Jewel of Texas: The Story of San Antonio's River by Lewis F. Fisher
7. 1938 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
8. 2018 Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women by Silvia Federici
9. 1961 Solaris by Stanisław Lem
10. 1979Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
11. 2000 Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
12. 1951 The Grass Harp by Truman Capote
13. 2017 Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
14. 2020 The Girl Who Was Convinced Beyond All Reason That She Could Fly by Sybil Lamb
15. 1999 Harlequin Valentine byNeil Gaiman
16. 2009Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
17. 1898 Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
18. 1954 I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
19. 1990 The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney
20. 2004 Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt

Reading
21. The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman
22. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Planning
23. Man's Search for Meaning
Waiting on ILL
24. Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard.

Possibilties:
24. My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl
25. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
26. Friday Nights at Honeybee's by Andrea Smith

This month I will be participating in the second of three 24-hour readathons that I participate in annually. Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon which also has a GR presence.To accommodate those around the world, we start at night in Western Hemisphere. 8pm July 22 through 8pm July 23 Eastern Time. Maybe see one or two from here there!

I have my considerable time and average level of attention locked in a challenge that is from another group. I am reading 25 books based in 25 countries, and this challenge has made me read a poor book, and 2 very good ones. I think this type of artificial booster has a mechanism that is still unfathomable to me. The book I'm currently reading is Two Nights in Lisbon. I think so far it is good enough. That's all for now.

After a long and careful self-evaluation that took every bit of 5 seconds, I have come to the conclusion that I am just going to read whatever comes to my mind or peaks my interest at the time.

However, while this is genuinely how I read my books, I will admit that this answer is quite the copout. So, I will give a list of the books that are currently sitting in my "to be read SOON" pile that is staring at me from across the room

The Mysterious Benedict Society
An Irish Country Doctor
The Violin Conspiracy
The King of Elfland's Daughter
The Trees *wink wink nudge nudge*
Lab Girl
Mama Day
The Children of Men

This list is not definite since some of these might end up being DNF'd with me not liking it. Though this list is the closest thing I have to a reading plan for July. Take this list and the info it provides and run with it.

RJ's JULY READS

Will Finish:
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice
Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
City by Clifford D. Simak
Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce

Will Be Reading But Won't Finish This Month:
They Call Me Coach by John Wooden as told to Jack Tobin
I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories by William Gay
Green Tea and Other Weird Stories by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Fair Land, Fair Land by A.B. Guthrie Jr.
Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

wahey! 3 Stigmata! my fave PKD - hope you enjoy it :o)

The Ice-Shirt by William T. Vollmann
Black Boy by Richard Wright
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
In the Heart of the Heart of the Country by William H. Gass
Prometheus Bound and Other Plays by Aeschylus

Fed wrote: "Theme: Catching up on female authors."

Cheers, Fed, and glad to see your theme! It's got me thinking about August's Women in Translation Month, and how while I won't have finished all my challenge reading by then, I'll have little enough left to afford slipping in some non-relevant reads here and there. Exciting to think about.

Aubrey wrote: "...August's Women in Translation Month..."

Thanks again, Aubrey – I'll join in!

Klowey's July 2022 Reading List
(numbered entries from my choices for the Challenge Buffet)

FINISHED
Monkey King: Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en:
        BINGO B5
        #7, Expand Your Horizon With New Authors
        Buddy Read

Memories of the Future by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky:
        BINGO G4
        #5, Short Story
        #7, Expand Your Horizon With New Authors

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie:
        #6, Group Reads August New School Classic

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov:
        #7, Expand Your Horizon With New Authors
        #9, Fiction/Non-Fiction "Modern Russian Culture"

Continue but not finish:
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann:
        #6, Group 3rd Quarter Long Read

The History Of World Literature by Grant L. Voth:
        #9, Fiction/Non-Fiction "Books"

Since I only planned one book that I had already started , I for the FIRST TIME I have achieved actually reading all the books I planned for the month...LOL.

Darren wrote: "wahey! 3 Stigmata! my fave PKD - hope you enjoy it :o)"

Glad to hear it! I haven't ever read a PKD book I didn't like so I'm optimistic about this one also.

ADDENDUM: Middlemarch.

July reading plan completed. Simply put, Virginia Woolf's The Waves is the best novel I've ever read. It attempts an answer to the question: How describe the world seen without a self?

Fed wrote: "ADDENDUM: Middlemarch.

July reading plan completed. Simply put, Virginia Woolf's The Waves is the best novel I've ever read. It attempts an answer to the question: How de..."

Glad to hear that, Fed. Waves was my introduction to Woolf way back in 2012, and thirteen books later, I'm still following her to wherever she may lead me.

Aubrey wrote: "...Waves was my introduction to Woolf way back in 2012, and thirteen books later, I'm still following her to wherever she may lead me..."

Right now and after four of her novels one after the other, I feel a bit like I shouldn't even breathe, such is the beauty of this house of cards, The Waves its climax... I'll allow some time and then follow you, Aubrey, along her bibliography.

July reading plan -

COMPLETED 07/12/22

The Age of Innocence (July group read) ✅ 07/12/22

This Side of Paradise (Old & New challenge) ✅ 07/06/22

To Kill a Mockingbird (Old & New challenge) ✅ 07/09/22

Evil Under the Sun (monthly challenge Back to the Classics) ✅ 07/04/22

Death on the Nile (monthly challenge Back to the Classics) ✅ 07/10/22

Death on the Riviera (monthly challenge Back to the Classics) ✅ 07/07/22

I now have 2 challenge books I need to complete before the end of the year. I've been working hard on my challenges since the first of the year. Taking a break now for some just plain fun reading before I finish the last 2 books, maybe in a month or so.

ADDENDA:
Agnes Grey
Pirroniana
The Vicar of Wakefield

I've just finished Middlemarch (5/5). The overcomplicated plot felt a bit old-fashioned for the 1870s; compare it, for instance, to the works of the Brontës (1840s) and to Alessandro Manzoni's The Bethrothed: (1827, 1840). I was pretty confident I could pull it off without tears, but at page 917, seven pages from the end...

Lynn, I have to say I have enjoyed your posts this month and feel your self-frustration with sticking to plans. I am actually doing pretty well this month with my list, although I added Uncle Vanya (and asking myself why, since it was not above a two star rating for me) and also Pedro Paramo.

Otherwise, I have pretty much gotten through my list and am currently reading Requiem by Fire which I expect to finish before the end of the month. I may not get to my Book Club pick, which is When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain, until towards the end of the month, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest may push to next month.

Still, there is the lure of some other shiny new book cover tempting me…

Terry, I’m glad your reading month is going so well. I have Cuckoo’s Nest to read for my IRL book club for August 3 so I’m trying to start that this weekend. I am looking forward to it.

Thanks Terry. I actually went a different direction this month. I only read one book...gasp lol. I signed up for a Summer Music Intensive course in memorization and ear training. I am a piano player trying to learn a string instrument so I am a rank beginner. It is using a totally new part of the brain I think.

Oh, Lori, maybe I need to push it forward!

Lynn, kudos to you for taking that on! I would just like to learn to play piano well enough to play a few chords while I sing — although I no longer have that Linda Rondstadt kind of voice I used to have. I was listening to Sam Cooke sing You Send Me and thinking just that earlier today.

Getting ready for Women in Translation Month with two essays on Colette.

Fed wrote: "Getting ready for Women in Translation Month with two essays on Colette."

Excellent! I also have Creatures Great and Small by Colette, and having not read her since 2013, this year 's WiTM would be a good time to do some revisiting.

That would be great, Aubrey! What's in Creatures Great and Small? The title is not in her bibliography, but I found several "bestiaries" among her works: "Sept dialogues de bêtes" (1905), "Prrou, Poucette et quelques autres" (1913) and "La Paix chez Les bêtes" (1916)—all early works.

Her biography is fascinating: learns to write at three, at six-seven reads Balzac, Mérimée and Shakespeare...

Fed wrote: "Getting ready for Women in Translation Month with two essays on Colette."

I read Colette's Claudine at School and didn't like it at all, but just saw that I have access to Places, which I believe is non-fiction, and I think I'll add that to my WIT month reads. Thanks for the inspiration!

Kathleen wrote: "I have access to "Places", which I believe is non-fiction, and I think I'll add that to my WIT month reads."

That's great, Kathleen! It would be nice to have a little Colette Group for August.

Kathleen wrote: "I read Colette's "Claudine at School" and didn't like it at all..."

The genesis of the claudines is really interesting. Also, later on in life she bought back the rights of these novels and re-edited them for a new publication, removing many editorial interventions previously imposed by her ex-husband.

I read that her best works might be the novels "Chéri" (1923) and "La Chatte" (1933), and the novellas "La Lune de pluie" (1940) and "L'Enfant malade" (1944).

Terry wrote: "Lynn, kudos to you for taking that on! I would just like to learn to play piano well enough to play a few chords while I sing — although I no longer have that Linda Rondstadt kind of voice I used t..."


You should try to learn!! There are so many online sources with music teaching videos, Patreon teachers, and even online Zoom lessons.

Fed wrote: "I read that her best works might be the novels "Chéri" (1923) and "La Chatte" (1933), and the novellas "La Lune de pluie" (1940) and "L'Enfant malade" (1944)."

Thanks for the recommendations!

To answer your question Aubrey. Group reads and buddy reads here and at another group have helped me to continue to fill my bingo card. I can complete my personal genre study of 60 books--if I focus really hard and refuse to read too-interesting books with reading buddies. . . . hmmm. . . .We'll see. . . .

What is helping me read my challenges here and at the nonfiction group I read with is the heat index. Yep. With heat index reaching up to 109°F/42.77°C, I am indoors as many hours as possible and those hours largely committed to reading. Another 3 or 4 weeks of this, and I will be confident of finishing most/all challenges by end of year.

Good for you Lynn! Let us know how it goes.

Fed wrote: "That would be great, Aubrey! What's in Creatures Great and Small? The title is not in her bibliography, but I found several "bestiaries" among her works: "Sept dialogues de bêtes" (19..."

According to this copyright page, the work includes a couple of those you mentioned with some others:



Looking at those publication dates though, I'm thinking I'm probably going to save it for my 2023 Century of Women challenge. Anything published that long ago's bound to come in handy.

Aubrey wrote: "I also have Creatures Great and Small by Colette..."

In Claudine at School, Colette's first work (written in 1896 c.ca), the title character hides a copy of «the animal stories so wonderfully narrated by Rudyard Kipling (here it is, someone who knows about beasts!)».

Aubrey wrote: "Looking at those publication dates though, I'm thinking I'm probably going to save it for my 2023 Century of Women challenge. Anything published that long ago's bound to come in handy."

that is well sneaky! I never thought of deliberately holding off reading something so that it would be useful for a future challenge - thanks for the idea! ;o)

looking back at my post, almost impressed by my reading task. I've actually accomplished most.

Personal Reads - COMPLETED
Fear and Misery in the Third Reich by Bertolt Brecht
Doctor Who: The Man in the Velvet Mask by Daniel O'Mahony
Of Ants and Dinosaurs by Liu Cixin

I even managed to do one I never planned, The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. Doctor Who: Killing Ground is about halfway done. I started Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change and Pandemics, which, cheeky as it was of me to start something new while still having two on the go, is short, very readable, and for me, very interesting, and i should be able to blitz through it in a couple of days just in time!

Group Reads:
Cityby Clifford D. Simak
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

City is very close to finishing, just need to put some whelly into it. At this stage Unbearable Lightness will probably not remotely get finished in time, so I've got to decide to roll it over to next month to make it a personal read or just put it back on the shelves for now.

Overall, quite pleased. The 'finish or abandon' approach to reading is working wonders for me, really seems to have helped concentrate my mind and commit to tasks easier, and I've pretty much read everything I set out to read then some. :)

Darren wrote: "that is well sneaky! I never thought of deliberately holding off reading something so that it would be useful for a future challenge - thanks for the idea! ;o)"

Ha, what can I say. A time to sow, and a time to read (especially with such limited quantities of women-authored books from any year pre-1950).