Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

A tentative plan...because I cannot stand NOT to plan.

✔ B1: Book Published 1950 - 1999 The Greengage Summer
✔ B2: Classic written in your native language A Game of Hide and Seek
✔ B3: Classic of Europe Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
✔ B4: Classic involving art Portrait of Jennie
✔ B5: Classic from your bookshelf Jezebel's Daughter

✔ I1: Book from the Group’s Bookshelf Prior to 2023 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
✔ I2: Classic biography/autobiography or memoir What There Is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell
✔ I3: Classic horror or gothic The Bird's Nest
✔ I4: Classic comedy, satire, or humor Diary of a Provincial Lady
✔ I5: Book from the group’s Favorites of 2022 Trustee from the Toolroom

✔ N1: Classic of the Americas Early Autumn: A Story of a Lady
✔ N2: Classic Western The Ox-Bow Incident
✔ N3: Reader’s Choice The Distance Between Us
✔ N4: Classic mystery or thriller The Circular Staircase
✔ N5: Classic of Africa or Oceania Picnic at Hanging Rock

✔ G1: Classic from a group poll that did not win Can You Forgive Her?
✔ G2: Classic action or adventure The 39 Steps
✔ G3: Classic history or historical fiction The Count of Monte Cristo
✔ G4: Class fantasy or science fiction Mariana
✔ G5: Book from the Group’s 2023 Bookshelf Twelve Angry Men

✔ O1: Book Published before 1900 The Trumpet-Major
✔ O2: New-To-You Classic Author George Gissing The Paying Guest
✔ O3: Classic of Asia The Waiting Years
✔ O4: Classic in translation The Oppermanns
✔ O5: Book Published 1900 - 1949 They Were Sisters

B1: B2: B3: B4: B5:

I1: I2: I3: I4: I5:

N1: N2: N3: N4: N5:

G1: G2: G3: G4: G5:

O1: O2: O3: O4: O5:

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I'm going to enjoy another year of following your bingo game, Sara. Can't wait to see the wonderful books you'll read!

I too, can always count on finding new books to read from your Bingo list. Have a great reading year, Sara.

This is looking great, Sara! I always look forward to to the plan but enjoyed the organic nature it became last year. Here’s to another great year!

I'm going to have to steal some of your choices, Sara, especially the Pulitzer ones. I have a few Pulitzers in mine now but the more the better. I want to get through that list so bad!

Dangerous Liaisons and Wind up Bird Chronicles are among my favorites. I hope you like them too.

Good plan, Sara!

I'm glad you put down Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story for "Classic of the Americas." I think I'll read that one for that category too. I've been trying to get to it for awhile. Thanks for the suggestion!

Good luck with your bingo, Sara :)

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement. I enjoy the planning but I'm promising not to be married to it.

A marvelous selection.

Thanks, Klowey. Hope I can get to most of them.

Excellent list. Two I’ve read and several are on my TBR, can’t wait to hear what you have to say about them, especially The Reivers.

I think you’ll enjoy Bel Canto, Sara and it a quick read. Like Bob, I’ve read several (including the Faulkner) and several are on my TBR mountain. I look forward to reading The Ox-Bow Incident with you in January.

Bob wrote: "Excellent list. Two I’ve read and several are on my TBR, can’t wait to hear what you have to say about them, especially The Reivers."

I'm excited. All of them are either books I own or books I have had on the TBR for years and really do want to get to. I am hoping this is the year that I clear some books away. I actually read "The Reivers" decades ago, but I remember so little I decided it had to be a re-read for my Pulitzer challenge. It has been on my challenge list for the last three years--time to mark it off.

Terry wrote: "I think you’ll enjoy Bel Canto, Sara and it a quick read. Like Bob, I’ve read several (including the Faulkner) and several are on my TBR mountain. I look forward to reading The Ox-Bow Incident with..."

Bel Canto is another book I have skirted around for years. I like Patchett, so I'm expecting good things. Hope we all love The Ox-Bow Incident and it gets us off to a good year of reading together.

Sara, Love in a Cold Climate is good fun. I think I enjoyed it more because I had already watched the recent mini-series. My friend I watch PBS programming with said the novel was good so the movie should be too. Both are good. I think you will enjoy.

Good luck with bingo in 2023!

Thanks, Cynda. Looking forward to it.

Great selection!
I always enjoy your reviews too, which somehow always seem to correlate with my TBR growing exponentially...
Enjoy :O)

Thanks, Vero. I have given up on ever controlling the TBR. So many good books out there I will never live to get to!

I have my first bingo, all the B slots filled. The astounding book I read for B4 Classic involving art was Portrait of Jennie. It was a blast from the past for me, but such a welcomed sensation as I read it...a kind of assurance that we can never lose love, or lose anyone that we truly love; a reminder that the universe is infinite, only God has the key, and we can never know what miracles await us.

Sara wrote: "I have my first bingo, all the B slots filled. The astounding book I read for B4 Classic involving art was Portrait of Jennie."

I've never heard of this one. It's always nice to come across a new recommendation of something I would otherwise completely miss. Congrats on finishing your first Bingo!

Thank you, Wobbley. I wondered why I never sought out any other of his books--so, I intend to do that. Hope you enjoy this one, as I did.

Sara wrote: "I have my first bingo, all the B slots filled. The astounding book I read for B4 Classic involving art was Portrait of Jennie. It was a blast from the past for me, but such a welcome..."

Sara wrote: "I have my first bingo, all the B slots filled. The astounding book I read for B4 Classic involving art was Portrait of Jennie. It was a blast from the past for me, but such a welcome..."

Sara, I read this book in 1974 -- in high school!! And I absolutely loved it! Glad you enjoyed it. Maybe it's time for me to re-read :)

That is about how long it had been for me, Terris. I highly recommend reading it again.

Congrats on your fist Bingo, Sarah! You are burning through your card!

Hah! You are REALLY burning through your Bingo card!!!

Thanks, Terry. I have been just plugging them in where they fit and already ditched the plan. lol.

I have just been reading what I want to read, but not plugging them in yet to mine — so you are doubly ahead of me!

Soon as you take the time to plug them in, you will be ahead. :o)

Wow! You’ve made a lot of progress on your Bingo! Plan or no plan, you’ve filled in a lot very quickly.

Good luck so far, Annette. Hopefully it continues.

Congrats on your bingo! Off to checking that title

Congrats, Sara! And that is a lovely line of books for your first Bingo. You've got it down perfect: plan for fun then ditch the plan. :-)

Veronique wrote: "Congrats on your bingo! Off to checking that title"

Thanks, Vero. Hope you locate a copy!

Kathleen wrote: "Congrats, Sara! And that is a lovely line of books for your first Bingo. You've got it down perfect: plan for fun then ditch the plan. :-)"

So much better than feeling tied to what you put on paper. I had planned not to plan, but that part is also fun...so, best of both worlds.

12 books already! You're halfway there and it's February. You will have time to do two cards if you want to.

You're nearly halfway! Some of my favourite authors here - Rumer Godden and Elizabeth Taylor and Wilkie Collins. Hope the rest goes as well!

Lynn wrote: "12 books already! You're halfway there and it's February. You will have time to do two cards if you want to."

Two things I can almost count on, Lynn. One is that this will slow down significantly and I will have to start purposefully reading to fill slots; and Two that when I finish this I will still have to scramble to do my Buffet Challenges.

Carolien wrote: "You're nearly halfway! Some of my favourite authors here - Rumer Godden and Elizabeth Taylor and Wilkie Collins. Hope the rest goes as well!"

Three authors I will read again, Carolien. I have just been reading what I want to read this year and it is going well so far.

Congrats on your first Bingo, Sara. I've never read Portrait of Jennie but it sounds great.

Thanks, Anne. Portrait of Jennie is a favorite of mine. You should try it someday.

Sara, I know that you are a Thomas Hardy fan, and I wanted to tell you that I got a copy of The Woodlanders from Amazon today for Free!! And much to my surprise, I see that you just read it in November and gave it 5 stars!!! I'm so excited! I don't think I've ever heard of it before, and I just decided to get it because it was on offer for Free!!! Yay! Now, I want to get to it fairly soon. Maybe I can work it into my Bingo challenge ;)

Congrats on having a line bingo already! A good start. Enjoy!

Terris wrote: "Sara, I know that you are a Thomas Hardy fan, and I wanted to tell you that I got a copy of The Woodlanders from Amazon today for Free!! And much to my surprise, I see that you just r..."

He has long been an absolute favorite of mine. I am currently reading The Trumpet-Major and hope to finish with all his novels this year so that I can begin re-reading some of my favorites. I think this will be a freebie you will be happy to have picked up. Can't wait to see what you think of it!

Cynda wrote: "Congrats on having a line bingo already! A good start. Enjoy!"

Thank you, Cynda. Pretty good reading year so far!

G3: Fantasy - Mariana by Susanna Kearsley. I seem to enjoy fantasy that is fairly straight-forward. Once you accept the idea that the heroine can time-travel, everything else makes sense and seems reasonable. There will be no three-headed monsters, only monsters of the human kind.

It looks like you are doing great, Sara! I am just reading and ignoring my Bingo card for now. Cit will be interesting to see what actually ends up working!

I'm just reading what I want and plugging in whatever will fit on the card. I know I will get down to some categories that just cannot be filled that way, but so far, so good.

Thanks, Matt. A matter of luck so far. :o)