Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

September is here. Have you planned any books for this month?

My plans are:

Finish ✔️ Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers (1923)

Then read another murder mystery

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (1942).

reread
✔️ Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr..
✔️ A Hunger Artist and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
That's probably enough to think about. These could fill a month of reading.

My plans for the present month, by now, are the book I have been reading, The Interpreters by Wole Soyinka, and a book called - that I expect to read right away - O Regresso do soldado by Rebecca West.

My plans:

Spinster September
Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym
The Gentlewomen by Laura Talbot

Group Read
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood

Banned Book Week
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

I have just started The Stranger Times by C.K. McDonnell for a book club later this month.
I didn’t know what to expect but I’m enjoying it so far.

RJs SEPTEMBER READING PLANS

Will Finish
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Delirium's Mistress by Tanith Lee
Roughing It by Mark Twain
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
Deception Point by Dan Brown
The Digger's Game by George V. Higgins
A Dark-Adapted Eye by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine

Might Finish
Slaughterhouse-Five (re-read) by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Will Be Reading But Won't Finish in September
Dubliners by James Joyce
Coach Wooden One-on-One by John Wooden and Jay Carty
Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume III: The Nebula Winners edited by Arthur C. Clarke
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Weaveworld by Clive Barker
The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett
Asimov's Chronology of the World: The History of the World From the Big Bang to Modern Times by Isaac Asimov

September goals
What fun! I wrapped up my challenges for this group last month. This month, I'm working on the 2024 Read Harder challenge, which I have largely put off so far.

I doubt I'll make it to all of the following, but they've made their way to the top of the stacks...

(Read Harder) Challenge books to read/finish in September
✔️Tartt: The Secret History (1992)
The Lady Chablis: Hiding My Candy: The Autobiography of the Grand Empress of Savannah (1996)
✔️Gaiman: Coraline (2002)
Charles: The Magpie Lord (2013)
Takei: They Called Us Enemy (2019) ⬅ finish in October
✔️Thomas: Cemetery Boys (2020)
✔️Hutchinson: The School for Invisible Boys (2024)
Orange: Wandering Stars (2024) ⬅ finish in October
✔️RuPaul: The House of Hidden Meanings (2024)

Non-challenge books to read/finish in September
✔️Virgil: The Georgics of Virgil (-30)
✔️Augustine: Confessions: A New Translation (484)
✔️Shakespeare: As You Like It (1599)
✔️Wodehouse: Something Fishy (1957)
✔️Jordan: The Great Hunt (1990)
✔️Pratchett: Maskerade (1995)
McEwan: On Chesil Beach (2007) ⬅ postpone
Gospodinov: The Physics of Sorrow (2011) ⬅ postpone
Flynn: Gone Girl (2012)
✔️Smith: How to Be Both (2014)
✔️Orange: There There (2018)
✔️Novik: The Golden Enclaves (2022)
Myers: Cuddy (2023) ⬅ finish in October
Perry: Enlightenment (2024) ⬅ postpone

Long reads
Joyce: Ulysses (1922) ⬅ finish in October

JP wrote: "September goals
What fun! I wrapped up my challenges for this group last month. This month, I'm working on the 2024 Read Harder challenge, which I have largely put off so far.

I doubt I'll make i..."

Congratulations on finishing your challenges!!

I'm hoping for a BIG month of reading.

To Finish
Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood
Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange

Short Stories
A Hunger Artist, Franz Kafka
The Door in the Wall, H.G. Wells

Group and Buddy Reads
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Mr. Bridge, Evan S. Connell
Eva Luna, Isabel Allende
The King Must Die, Mary Renault

Challenge books
Crampton Hodnet, Barbara Pym
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and Other Stories, William Saroyan

Begin long-term read
Nicholas Nickelby, Charles Dickens

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (re-read)
I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki
A Murder Is Announced by Agatha Christie
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton
A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey

Marilyn wrote: "My plans:

Spinster September
Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym
The Gentlewomen by Laura Talbot

Group Read
Cat’s Eye by [auth..."

I am also planning to read "Crampton Hodnet" this month, Marilyn. I hope we both enjoy it! I am in the mood to read another Barbara Pym book :)

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "RJs SEPTEMBER READING PLANS

Will Finish
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Delirium's Mistress by Tanith Lee
Roughing It..."

RJ, I read Weaveworld in 1988, and I have never forgotten it! It was one of the most wonderful and innovative books I have ever read. I hope you love it!! I'll be watching to see what you think :)

Terris wrote: "RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "RJs SEPTEMBER READING PLANS

RJ, I read Weaveworld in 1988, and I have never forgotten it! It was one of the most wonderful and innovative books I have ever read. I hope you love it!! I'll be watching to see what you think :)


I thought Weaveworld was great too, one of my favorite Clive Barker books.

Rora wrote: "Terris wrote: "RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "RJs SEPTEMBER READING PLANS

RJ, I read Weaveworld in 1988, and I have never forgotten it! It was one of the most wonderful and innovative books I have ..."

Glad to meet another Weaveworld fan!

This month is busy with work, so will probably not be able to keep up my reading pace.

Currently reading:
The Future (audio)
We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence (feminist book club)
Swanns verden 2 (group read challenge)
Never by Ken Follett

To read:
Espeløvet
Happy Place (goodreads challenge)
The Awakening Land: The Trees, The Fields, & The Town (pulitzer challenge)
Under en anden himmel
The Sea, the Sea (bingo challenge) - started
Hell Bent (goodreads challenge)
En pige forlod værelset (Danish Broadcasting Novel Prize Nominee 2025) - started
Under the Whispering Door (audio)
The Last Devil to Die - started
Budbringeren
Ulighed (audio)
Loveless (audio, sync) - started

Terris wrote: "I am also planning to read "Crampton Hodnet" this month, Marilyn. I hope we both enjoy it! I am in the mood to read another Barbara Pym book :)..."

I have given 4 stars to 4 Pym books so fingers crossed for this one.

Marilyn wrote: "Terris wrote: "I am also planning to read "Crampton Hodnet" this month, Marilyn. I hope we both enjoy it! I am in the mood to read another Barbara Pym book :)..."

I have given 4 stars to 4 Pym boo..."

Yes! I ordered it from the library yesterday, and am looking forward to it getting here :)

So many good books listed here.

I will attempt


🫖 Graphic version of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s novel: Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Ryan North Sept 05th. 3 Stars
🫖 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. Reading Part 5 of 5. Sept 07th 4 or 5 Stars
🫖 A Floating City by Jules Verne Sept 08th 3 Stars
DNF * Backteria: & Other Improbable Tales by Richard Matheson
🫖 The Pale-Faced Lie by David Crow nonfiction group Sept 12th. 4Stars
🫖 Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Sept 13th 3Stars
🫖 The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown Sept 14th 3 Stars
🫖 The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi Sept 19th 3Stars
🫖 Text Version Slaughterhouse-five: The Children's Crusade, A Duty-dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Sept 20th. 4Stars.
🫖 Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood Sept 28 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🫖 Eva Lunaby Isabel Allende Sept 30 ⭐⭐⭐
* The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy by Michael Lewis nonfiction group
* Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore nonfiction group
* Round the Moon by Jules Verne

Cynda wrote: "I will attempt
* Graphic version of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s novel: Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by [author:Ryan North|45..."

Cynda you are doing so well on Les Miserables. I abandoned it. I also never read Don Quixote. I think I need to acknowledge that long books just aren't my thing. I can only manage one per year if that. Thank goodness we live in a world awash in short stories!!

The older I get the worse my impatience grows with meandering stories. Perhaps I spent too many years editing students' essays.

Yes editing students' essays crosses the eyes and makes brains search for sound and meaning. Next year my classics focus will be traditional stories, another form of short stories. Maybe we will have opportunity to wave to each other once or twice in that thread.

Really heavy month of reading for me.

Continuing and finishing
⯈ The London House
⯈ The Member of the Wedding
⯈ Pachinko

Continuing and not finishing
⯈ James (the only one in this post that’s not for a book group, other than the two graphic novels at the end)
⯈ Jerusalem: The Biography  DNF. Ugh.
⯈ David Copperfield
⯈ Of Human Bondage

Starting and finishing
⯈ A Murder Is Announced
⯈ The Keepers of the House (just barely finishing, maybe)
⯈ Notes from the Underground

Starting and not finishing
⯈ The Pale-Faced Lie
⯈ The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
⯈ The Picture of Dorian Gray

Possibly starting. Finishing?
⯈ Witch Hat Atelier, vol. 9
⯈ Paying the Land

_______________________________

Edit: Ended up finishing one that I hadn’t thought I would, and not finishing one that I’d expected to. But for sure it was a heavy-reading month, I was right about that.

having only just cleared my August reads (blush_smiley)
I hereby declare a "soft target",
"I should definitely finish these in September" 4:
The People Immortal - Grossman, Vasily (1942)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady - Loos, Anita (1925)
Greenmantle - Buchan, John (1916)
A Girl in Winter - Larkin, Philip (1947)

oh and nice to see Weaveworld getting a bit of love above - one of my faves too, plus I think even better is Imajica

particularly happy to see mention of CRYPTONOMICON. which is high on my list of all-time faves

I am genuinely impressed with how organised people are when choosing what to read.
I can only get as far as alternating between fiction and non-fiction and taking it from there!

I know it's early, but if I finish something else I can always add to this post. This has been a good month for reading. There were several things I really liked.

I read two novels and the rest were novellas or short stories:

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers (1923) September 13, 2024, 4*
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1960) September 14, 2024 5*


The Variable Man by Philip K. Dick (1953) September 2, 2024 4*
A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka (1922) September 4, 2024 3*
The Dead Lady of Clown Town by Cordwainer Smith (1964) September 4, 2024 5*
Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper (1957) September 9, 2024 4*
A Little Woman by Franz Kafka (1924) September 18, 2024 4*
"Absolutely Elsewhere" by Dorothy Sayers (1939) September 20, 2024 4*
With the Night Mail: A Story of 2000 A.D. by Rudyard Kipling (1909) September 25, 2024 3*
Behind a Mask; or, a Woman's Power: The 1866 Literary Novella Classic by Louisa May Alcott (1866) September 28, 2024. 4*

by under-promising I have cunningly over-delivered by finishing my declared 4 with 2 days to spare!

The People Immortal - Grossman, Vasily - 4 Stars
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Loos, Anita - 4 - so delightful/charming that I bought a 1926 hardback!
Greenmantle - Buchan, John - 3.5
A Girl in Winter - Larkin, Philip - 3.5

Darren wrote: "oh and nice to see Weaveworld getting a bit of love above - one of my faves too, plus I think even better is Imajica

particularly happy to see mention of CRYPTONOMICON...."

Thank you Terris, Rora and Darren. I'm enjoying Weaveworld so far, although I'm only about 100 pages in so far. I loved Barker's Books of Blood and decided to read everything he's written, which I'm working on in, roughly, publication order.

And yes, I'm also really enjoying Cryptonomicon. I've also enjoyed everything by Stephenson that I've read and this one sat on my shelf, intimidating me with its size, for far too long.