Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

What are your reading plans for this month? This is the place to find inspiration and inspire others.

My goal is to read a short story and a book with the group

Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier (1941)
Lois the Witch by Elizabeth Gaskell (1861)

I usually read a few short stories TBD.

I want to complete
The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike (2008)
Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis (1958)

Will Finish:
Ice Anna Kavan ****
Carthage Joyce Carol Oates ****
Descartes: A Very Short Introduction Tom Sorell ****
Good Dirt Charmaine Wilkerson ***
The Power and the Glory Graham Greene ****
Gliff Ali Smith ***
Frenchman's Creek Daphne du Maurier ***
Lili Is Crying Hélène Bessette ****
Hunting in America Tehila Hakimi ***
Aerth Deborah Tomkins ****
Love Forms Claire Adam ****
The South Tash Aw***
The Flight of the Maidens Jane Gardam****
Robinson Crusoe (Norton Critical Editions) by Daniel Defoe (23-Feb-1994) Paperback Daniel Defoe ****
The Stories of John Cheever John Cheever *****
The Hurting Kind: Poems Ada Limon ***
In Chancery John Galsworthy ****
Mary Vladimir Nabokov ***
Flesh David Szalay ***
American History: A Very Short Introduction Paul S. Boyer ***
Confessions Catherine Airey ****
One Boat Jonathan Buckley****
Perspective Laurent Binet ****
Flashlight Susan Choi ***


Shorts:
Lois the Witch Elizabeth Gaskell ***
A Lost Opportunity Leo Tolstoy

Continuing:
The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 Rick Atkinson
Paris Stories Mavis Gallant
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter Simone de Beauvoir
The Complete Stories Franz Kafka
Berlin Childhood around 1900 Walter Benjamin
The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu

July was a really "productive" reading month, so I will try to take it a bit slower this month

Currently reading
The Illustrated Man (group reads, Zero Hour)
Fæ og frænde: Syv en halv nats fortællinger om vejene til Rom og Danmark (the golden laurels challenge)
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore (audio, goodreads challenge)

To read
Justa's børn (new crime novel, not on goodreads yet)
Frenchman's Creek (group read)
Frænde - Blodspor
After the Funeral (Hercule Poirot series challenge)
The Love of a Good Woman (reading my shelf)
Alene (Tænkepauser Book 119) (audio)
All Fours (audio)
All the Colours of the Dark (goodreads challenge)
The Phoenix Pencil Company (goodreads challenge)
Drømme af bronze
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (feminist book club)
When Women Were Dragons (feminist book club)
Det første offer
De lydige koner i Stepford (audio, group read)
Hr. Arnes penge (audio)
Et mord for meget
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America (audio, feminist book club)
Hermans hævn
Fodboldenglen (audio)
Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont - started
In a Free State (audio, booker prize winner)
Jeg anerkender ikke længere jeres autoritet
Undskyld vi er her: Et opråb indsamlet af Caspar Eric
Rock (Tænkepauser Book 120) (audio)

August Goals

I've finished up most of my reading challenges for the year. I just have a few books left for the "Fantasy Bingo" challenge on Reddit. Aside from that, I'll keep up with my book subscriptions and read some other books I've picked up. I'll be traveling for the last couple of weeks of the month, so the goal is to finish the heaviest/bulkiest books before I leave town. :)

Fantasy Bingo
Brooks: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006)
✔️Chiang: Exhalation (2019)
✔️The McElroy Family: The Adventure Zone, Vol. 5: The Eleventh Hour (2023)
North: The Last Song of Penelope (2024) <--probably in September


Non-challenge Books
✔️Euripides: "Hecuba" (-424) from The Complete Euripides, Volume I: Trojan Women and Other Plays
✔️Proust: Sodom and Gomorrah (1922)
✔️Stevens: "Harmonium" (1923) from The Collected Poems
✔️Bessette: Lili is Crying (1953)
✔️Foucault: Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1965)
✔️Bly: The Light Around the Body (1967)
Plunket: Love Junkie (1992)
Smith: Like: A novel (1997)
✔️Ernaux: The Possession (2002)
✔️Myers: The Gallows Pole (2017)
✔️Wells: Artificial Condition (2018)
✔️Hens: The City and the World (2021)
✔️Cabezón Cámara: We Are Green and Trembling (2023)
✔️Comitta: Patchwork (2025)
Mushtaq: Heart Lamp: Selected Stories (2025)

I'm not super-inspired by the Booker longlist this year, but I might read this one:
Kitamura: Audition (2025)

Maybe
✔️Wells: The First Men in the Moon (1901)
Proust: The Prisoner (1923) <--start
Chambers: Great Disasters (2025)

This is always such an interesting thread, full of enticing ideas! We'll see if August goes better for me than July, but I'm already way over-booked.

Continuing
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
Heaven's Command: An Imperial Progress by Jan Morris
The Once and Future King by T.H. White

Group Reads
In Chancery by John Galsworthy
The Flight of the Maidens by Jane Gardam
Call for the Dead by John Le Carré
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst

Women in Translation Month--Norway!
Jenny by Sigrid Undset
Ti Amo by Hanne Ørstavik

JP wrote: "August Goals

I've finished up most of my reading challenges for the year. I just have a few books left for the "Fantasy Bingo" challenge on Reddit. Aside from that, I'll keep up with my book subsc..."

Wow you've finished most of your challenges for the year! Sounds like a fun rest of the year.

I will read Martin Chuzzlewit by Dickens, Heidi by Johanna Spyri, and a nonfiction book about the Federal Reserve bank.

Luffy Sempai wrote: "I will read Martin Chuzzlewit by Dickens, Heidi by Johanna Spyri, and a nonfiction book about the Federal Reserve bank."

I have a copy of Martin Chuzzlewit. I'll have to read it one of these days. It's one of the few Dickens books I haven't read. I always like to read and then watch a miniseries alongside when I'm reading a Dickens book.

Franky wrote: "Luffy Sempai wrote: "I will read Martin Chuzzlewit by Dickens, Heidi by Johanna Spyri, and a nonfiction book about the Federal Reserve bank."

I have a copy of Martin Chuzzlewit. I'll have to read ..."

Sorry, my read is in fact a reread, plus a group read on another channel.

Ok, here is my list as of today
Completed: 8/12
✔1Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes ⭐⭐⭐
✔2Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
R 3Frenchmans Creek by Daphne du Maurier
4Venemous Lumpsucker by Ned ... *
✔5Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher
R 6Time of Death by JD Robb
7Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson
8Where They Last Saw Her by*
R 9King Solomons Mines by H. Rider Haggard
✔10Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren

Alternates or extras
R 11The Ghost Bride by *
12The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
(And, i am gonna stop there. I actually think The Moonstone will take half a month my itself! 😅 So, once again, too many, but 10 quicker books is the goal.)

* means i will add info later.

Kathleen wrote: "This is always such an interesting thread, full of enticing ideas! We'll see if August goes better for me than July, but I'm already way over-booked.

Continuing
[book:The Mayor of Casterbridge|567..."

I just finished Once and Future King. It is good, but it is also pretty long. Good luck! 👍

I am currently reading:
Flounder, The Grass, Günter 1977
One Hundred Years Of Solitude Márquez, Gabriel García 1967
Golden Compass, The (His Dark Materials, #1) Pullman, Philip 1995
City Of God Lins, Paulo 1997
and plan also to get to:
Case of Comrade Tulayev, The Serge, Victor 1947
Manon Lescaut Prévost, Antoine François 1731
Season of Migration to the North Salih, Tayeb 1966
Lush Life Price, Richard 2008
Anathem Stephenson, Neal 2008
Under Western Eyes Conrad, Joseph 1911
Third Bank Of The River, The ("Primeiras Estorias") Rosa, João Guimarães 1962

Darren wrote: "Manon Lescaut – Prévost"

I picked it up this morning at the library. My french edition follows the text of 1753; variants of the 1731 edition are in the critical commentary.

I'm looking at English translations of the 1753
gutenberg has the 1906 Moylan (which has the advantage that it's also free on Kindle!)
or the Penguin 1949 Tancock

Darren wrote: "Manon Lescaut – Prévost"

I just finished reading the biographical sketch (there is no shortage of twists and turns) and the introduction. Besides the several well-known theatrical and operatic adaptations, I found an interesting sequel to the novel, published anonymously in 1760: Suite de l'Histoire. The French edition of the sequel is public in Gallica; the Italian edition is here.

I completed Lois the Witch by Elizabeth Gaskell (1861) 4*


I am still reading The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike (2008) and Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis (1958).

I finished the majority of my August plan:
Flounder, The Grass, Günter - 4.5 Stars
One Hundred Years Of Solitude Márquez, Gabriel García - 4
Golden Compass, The (His Dark Materials, #1) Pullman, Philip - 2.5
City Of God Lins, Paulo - 3.5
Manon Lescaut Prévost, Antoine François - 2.5
Lush Life Price, Richard - 3.5
Under Western Eyes Conrad, Joseph - 3.5
Third Bank Of The River, The ("Primeiras Estorias") Rosa, João Guimarães - 3.5

with a couple still in progress:
Season of Migration to the North Salih, Tayeb 1966
Anathem Stephenson, Neal 2008

and one that I REALLY need to get to in September:
Case of Comrade Tulayev, The Serge, Victor 1947

Darren wrote: "Manon Lescaut - 2.5"

I was wondering if you have read The Vicar of Wakefield and, if so, how you rated it. Goldsmith's novel was published 35 years after Prévost's, but I had the impression that it was two hundred years older. I think I gave two stars to Goldsmith and four to Prévost.

This month I also read the sequel to Manon Lescaut, published anonymously in 1762. The only edition available is the Italian language edition I mentioned in a previous post. All other editions, including the French-language ones, are actually a pastiche by Arsène Houssaye originally published in 1847. This pastiche, although the result of cuts, additions and rewritings of the 1762 novel, has some merits and a marked originality: the crepuscular atmosphere that is completely foreign to Prévost's novel.

Darren wrote: "I finished the majority of my August plan:
Flounder, The Grass, Günter - 4.5 Stars
One Hundred Years Of Solitude Márquez, Gabriel García - 4
Golden Compass, The (His Dark Materials, #1) Pullman, P..."

That is really a large amount of reading. Nice quality books and you rated them well. It sounds like you had a good month.

Ascanio wrote: "Darren wrote: "Manon Lescaut - 2.5"

I was wondering if you have read The Vicar of Wakefield and, if so, how you rated it. Goldsmith's novel was published 35 years after Prévost's, but I had the im..."

I have read VofW and gave that 2.5 Stars also
I did 4-Star The History Of Little Goody Two-Shoes though, which is often credited to Goldsmith ;o)

I haven't read anything that impressed me properly as a "novel" prior to Tom Jones (1749)
(although The Princesse de Clèves made a good fist of it for 1678!)

April wrote: "Ok, here is my list as of today
Completed: 8/12
✔1Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes ⭐⭐⭐
✔2Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
R 3Frenchmans Creek by Daphne du Maurier
4Venem..."

I didn't do too bad for August. Technically, I finished Ghost Bride on Sept 1st, but close enough. And yes, I realize i'm a month behind catching up here. lol