Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

December is here! What are your plans for this month?

Hello. Happy Holidays for those who celebrate. My plans are a combination of finishing my Bingo Challenge and reading the monthly group reads.

I plan on reading

Bingo
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (1869)

Group Read
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol (1831)

I tend to read a short, long, and poetry/nonfiction read at once.
Currently reading:
Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos (Short read)
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon (Reread/long read)
The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks: (Poetry/Nonfiction)

If I get to them in December:

The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck
Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life Under Occupation by Cate Malek
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

my December "Core 6":
Lusiads, The Camões, Luís de 1572
Silas Marner Eliot, George 1861
French Lieutenant's Woman, The Fowles, John 1969
Fountain Overflows, The West, Rebecca 1956
Sunset Song Gibbon, Lewis Grassic 1932
Atomised Houellebecq, Michel 1998

It's been a great year of reading, and I'm hoping to squeeze in as much more as possible this year.

Group reads
The Night Before Christmas, Nikolai Gogol
Clock Without Hands, Carson McCullers

Challenges
Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories, Shirley Jackson (currently reading)
The White Album, Joan Didion (currently reading)
Paradise, Toni Morrison
This Year You Write Your Novel, Walter Mosley

Hoping to fit in
1971 - Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year, David Hepworth
Elizabeth and Her German Garden, Elizabeth von Arnim

And maybe some surprises!

RJs DECEMBER 2023 READS

Will Finish:
The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips
Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett

Will Read But Will Not Finish This Month:
This Immortal by Roger Zelazny
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two A edited by Ben Bova
The Cool Cottontail by John Dudley Ball
The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler
The Fall of Babel by Josiah Bancroft
Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov
Asimov's Chronology of the World: The History of the World From the Big Bang to Modern Times by Isaac Asimov

Will Finish:
✔ Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy ★★★★★
✔ Hard Times by Charles Dickens ★★★★
✔ Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami ★★★★
✔ The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill ★★★★

Probably
✔ The Test by Sylvain Neuvel ★★★★
✔ Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom ★★★
◯ The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch in progress

Maybe
◯ The 10:30 From Marseille in progress
Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes - DNF, try another time
Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer

Adding During the Month
✔ The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene ★★★★★
✔ The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon ★★
✔ The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang ★★★★
✔ Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher ★★★
✔ Snow by John Banville ★★★
✔ The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon ★★★★

So far my list is:

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (reread) and carried over from November DONE

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott for Miranda Mills's YouTube

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid for my in-person book club DONE started and finished in November

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite for Read Women group

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery for The Reading for Pleasure Book Club

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens for my in-person book club

Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth Von Arnim (reread) for the Women's Classic Literature Enthusiasts group

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller for the Everyone Has Read This But Me Catch-Up group

*I am not sure how many of these I will get read as I was in the library last night and came home with a Christmas book and a cozy mystery book which is what I am in the mood for in December. :)

Christmas at Pemberley: A Pride and Prejudice Holiday Sequel (Paperback) - Common by Regina Jeffers

Midwinter Murder: Fireside Tales from the Queen of Mystery by Agatha Christie

completed 5 of my December "Core 6":
Lusiads, The Camões, Luís de - 3 Stars
Silas Marner Eliot, George - 3.5
French Lieutenant's Woman, The Fowles, John - 4
Sunset Song Gibbon, Lewis Grassic - 4
Atomised Houellebecq, Michel - 3

with one carrying over into January...
Fountain Overflows, The West, Rebecca

Darren wrote: "completed 5 of my December "Core 6":
Lusiads, The Camões, Luís de - 3 Stars
Silas Marner Eliot, George - 3.5
French Lieutenant's Woman, The Fowles, John - 4
Sunset Song Gibbon, Lewis Grassic - 4
At..."

Very nice Darren.