Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR
Challenge #2 - Members Choice
Challenge #3 - New Authors
Challenge #4 - Short Story
Challenge #5 - Decade/Century
Challenge #6 - Group Reads, Buddy Reads, Moderators Run Amok
Challenge #7 - Series Books – Start, Continue, Complete
Challenge #8 - Travel the World One Book at a Time
Challenge #9 – Rereading - Some do. Some don't.
Challenge #10 - Most Popular Goodreads Books Listed by Year
Challenge #11 - Future Classics
Challenge #12 - Fiction/Non-Fiction
Challenge #13 - Old and New Linked Categories
Challenge #14 - Genre Locked? Neglecting Your Favorite Author?
Challenge #15 - Award Winners
Challenge #16 - Terry's Book Chain
Challenge #17 - The Year You Were Born and 100 Years Earlier
Challenge #18 - A-Z Author
Challenge #19 - A-Z Title
Challenge #20 - No Challenge Here. A Place to List Your 2026 Impulse Reads

Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR

1. Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens
2. Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson
3. Mysteries by Knut Hamsun

4. A Cry of Angels by Jeff Fields
5. Nectar in the Sieve by Kamala Markandaya
6. Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver

7. No Name by Wilkie Collins
8. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
9. Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor
10. The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville
11. Border Songs by Jim Lynch
12. Catherine De' Medici by Honoré de Balzac

13. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
14. The Memoirs of Frederic Mistral by Frédéric Mistral
15. Lies the Mushroom Pickers Told by Tom Phelan

Challenge #2 - Members Choice Challenge

1. 18th Century or Older - The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope
2. 19th Century - Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens
3. 20th Century - The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
4. 21st Century - Time of White Horses by Ibrahim Nasrallah
5. A book of interest from another diner's buffet -The Lifted Veil by George Eliot (Kathleen) or The Long Valley by John Steinbeck (Kathleen)
6. Members Choice Genre - Espionage- Slow Horses by Mick Herron
7. Members Choice Genre - Historical Fiction- The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami
8. Members Choice Genre - Fantasy- The King Must Die by Mary Renault
9. Members Choice Genre - Religion- The World's Religions by Huston Smith

Challenge #3 - New Authors

1. Ibrahim Nasrallah
2. Grigoris Balakian
3. Robert Traver
4. Kent Haruf
5. Jim Lynch
6. Gabriel Chevallier
7. Vilhelm Moberg
8. Karl Marlantes
9. Kamala Markandaya
10. Eiji Yoshikawa
11. Tom Phelan
12. Laksmi Pamuntjak
13. Laila Ibrahim
14. Kate Grenville
15. Maral Boyadjian
16. Sarah Penner
17. Parinoush Saniee
18. Jessica Anya Blau
19. Rosy Hugener
20. Leonie Frieda
21. Téa Obreht
22. Valerie Martin
23. Laila Lalami
24. Tom Reiss

Challenge #4 - Short Story

The City of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

The Chekhov Collection of Short Stories
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.

The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories
17.
18.
19.
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21.
22.
23.

24.

Challenge #5 - Decade/Century

Decade-1930s
1930 Fear by Gabriel Chevallier
1931 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1932 Sons by Pearl S. Buck
...or Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
1933 Lost Horizon by James Hilton
1934 Goodbye Mr. Chips by James Hilton
1935 A House Divided by Pearl S. Buck
1936 The Road to Los Angeles by John Fante
...or Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
1937 Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
1938 Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante
1939 Ask the Dust by John Fante

Century of women authors, or of murders....hum, decisions decisions

1920s Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers
1930s Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
1940s I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane
1950s Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
1960s The Cannibal Who Overate by Hugh Pentecost
1970s The Hot Rock by Donald E. Westlake or
...The Masters of Bow Street by John Creasey
1980s Prizzi's Honor by Richard Condon
1990s The Firm by John Grisham
2000s An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas
2010s May Day Murder by Julie Wassmer

Challenge #6 - Group Reads, Buddy Reads, Moderators Run Amok

1. A Cry of Angels by Jeff Fields
2. No Name by Wilkie Collins
3. The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
4. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
5. The King Must Die by Mary Renault
6. In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
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8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

Challenge #7 - Series Books – Start, Continue, Complete

#7.1 Pearl S. Buck continue
The Good Earth Trilogy
...The Good Earth reread
...Sons
...A House Divided

#7.2 Louis-Ferdinand Céline complete
Ferdinand Bardamu
...Journey to the End of the Night reread
...Death on the Installment Plan

#7.3 Kent Haruf start
Plainsong
...Plainsong
...Eventide
...Benediction

#7.4 John Fantestart
Saga of Arturo Bandini
...Wait Until Spring, Bandini
...The Road to Los Angeles
...Ask the Dust
...Dreams from Bunker Hill

#7.5 Vilhelm Moberg start
The Emigrants
...The Emigrants
...The Last Letter Home
...Unto a Good Land

#7.6 Carlos Ruiz Zafón continue
Cemetery of Forgotten Books
...The Shadow of the Wind reread
...The Angel's Game
...The Prisoner of Heaven
...The Labyrinth of the Spirits
...The City of Mist Lib/E: Stories

Challenge #8 - Travel the World One Book at a Time

Book Title - Author/Country - Book Setting
1. In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar/Africa -Libya
2. As the Poppies Bloomed by Maral Boyadjian/Asia - Armenia
3. The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville/Oceania - Australia
4. The Small Backs of Children by Lidia Yuknavitch/ Europe - unidentified Eastern Europe/USA
5. Border Songs by Jim Lynch/ NA - USA
6. Blood-Drenched Beard by Daniel Galera/SA - Brazil

Challenge #9 – Rereading - Some do. Some don't.

1. The Good Earth
2. Journey to the End of the Night
3. The Shadow of the Wind
4. The Old Man and the Sea
5. The Count of Monte Cristo

Read Again in 2026
1.
2

Challenge #10 - Most Popular Goodreads Books Listed by Year 1938

1. Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
2. Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante
3. Our Town by Thornton Wilder
4. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
5. Uncle Tom's Children by Richard Wright
6. The Long Valley by John Steinbeck
7. The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton
8. Rebecca y Daphne du Maurier
9. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
10. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

Read in 2026
1.
2

Challenge #11 - Future Classics


***** and still resonates
1. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
3. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
5. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

Test of time:
1. 2021 - The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
2. 2005 The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
3. 2008 The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Book Chosen
1.

Challenge #12 - Fiction/Non-Fiction

Armenian Genocide:
F: As the Poppies Bloomed by Maral Boyadjian
NF: Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1918 by Grigoris Balakian

Women of Islam:
F: The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee
NF: Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks
Peter E. Meltzer

Rock 'n Roll:
F: Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
or Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
NF: So You Think You Know Rock and Roll?: An In-Depth Q&A Tour of the Revolutionary Decade 1965-1975 by Peter E. Meltzer

Birding:
F: Border Songs by Jim Lynch
NF: Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding by Scott Weidensaul

Count of Monte Cristo:
F: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
NF: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

Catherine de Medici:
F: Catherine De' Medici by Honoré de Balzac
NF: Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda

Word Nerd:
F: The Great Passage by Shion Miura
NF: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

Challenge #13 - Old and New Linked Categories

Rural Wind:
O: The Memoirs of Frederic Mistral by Frédéric Mistral
N: Plainsong by Kent Haruf

American Wars:
O: The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea by James Fenimore Cooper
N: Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

The 'hood:
O: Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens
N: Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros

Challenge #14 - Genre Locked? Neglecting Your Favorite Author?

Genre Selected - Book Chosen
1. Pulp Fiction - The Art of Disposal by John Prindle
2. History - The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea

Neglected Author - Book Chosen
1. Jo Nesbø - The Thirst
Other Neglected Authors - Book Chosen
2. Dennis Lehane - Darkness, Take My Hand
3. Louise Erdrich - LaRose

Challenge #15 - Award Winners

Stay current-
1. Neustadt 2026 (announced in 2025): Ibrahim Nasrallah Time of White Horses
2. Nobel Prize for Literature 2026:
3. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2026:
4. National Book Award for Fiction 2026:
5. Bailey/Orange/Women's Award 2026:
6.

Catchup and branch out-
7. Bailey/Orange/Women's Award catchup 2003: Property by Valerie Martin
8. National Book Award - Nonfiction:
9. Pulitzer Prize- Nonfiction:
10. CWA Nonfiction Dagger 2012 &Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime: Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French
11. Bailey/Orange/Women's Award catchup 200
12. Bailey/Orange/Women's Award catchup 200

Challenge #16 - Terry's Book Chain

1. Clockers by Richard Price
2. Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
3. Red Sparrow: 1 by Jason Matthews
4. Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch
5. The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner
6. Trail of Broken Wings Sejal Badani
7. The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson
8. Every Day Is for the Thief by Teju Cole
9. May Day Murder by Julie Wassmer
10. Murder at the Flood by Bruce Beckham
11. Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor
12. A Bitter Rain by James D. Shipman
13. Bitter Lemons of Cyprus by Lawrence Durrell
14. The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
15. Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
16. Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante

Challenge #17 - The Year You Were Born and 100 Years Earlier

1959
1. The Ugly American by William J. Lederer
2. The Hustler by Walter Tevis
3. Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell
4. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe
5. Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz
6. The Poorhouse Fair by John Updike
7. Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie reread
Chosen
1.
2.

1859
1. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
2. Home of the Gentry by Ivan Turgenev
3. Our Nig or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black by Harriet E. Wilson
4. The Lifted Veil by George Eliot
5. Family Happiness and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy
6. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collinsreread
7. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickensreread
Chosen
1.
2.

Challenge #18 - A-Z Author

A Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
B As the Poppies Bloomed by Maral Boyadjian
C Every Day Is for the Thief by Teju Cole
D Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
E The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
F Fire & Blood: A History of Mexico by T.R. Fehrenbach
G In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
H Goodbye, Mr. Chips / To You, Mr. Chips by James Hilton
I Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
J The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
K The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
L The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico by Miguel León-Portilla
M In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
N Time of White Horses by Ibrahim Nasrallah
O The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht or
..o Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
P Fools Die by Mario Puzo
*Q The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quammen
R The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
S Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
T Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
U The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea
V Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor
W Blind Your Ponies by Stanley Gordon West or
..w Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
*X The Persian Expedition by Xenophon
*Y The Small Backs of Children by Lidia Yuknavitch
*Z The City of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Challenge #19 - A-Z Title

A Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver or
..a Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1918 by Grigoris Balakian
B Border Songs by Jim Lynch or
..b Benediction by Kent Haruf or
..b Blind Your Ponies by Stanley Gordon West
C Citizen Vince by Jess Walter or
..c Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
D Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
E The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg or
..e Eventide by Kent Haruf
F Fear by Gabriel Chevallier
G The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
H The Hamlet by William Faulkner or
..h Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
I The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville or
..i In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
J Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino
K The Killer Collective by Barry Eisler or
..k Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez
L Lies the Mushroom Pickers Told by Tom Phelan or
l Lost Horizon by James Hilton
M Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes or
..m Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa or
..m The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami
N Nectar in the Sieve by Kamala Markandaya
O An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris
P Plainsong by Kent Haruf or
..p The Passion According to Carmela by Marcos Aguinis or
..p Papillon by Henri Charrière
*Q The Question of Red by Laksmi Pamuntjak
R The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies
SSketches by Boz by Charles Dickens
T Terra Nostra by Carlos Fuentes or
..t Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson or
..t The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
U An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine or
..u Unto a Good Land by Vilhelm Moberg
V Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
W Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante
*X The Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton or
..x Xtabentum: A Novel of Yucatan by Rosy Hugener
*Y Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
*Z Zama by Antonio di Benedetto

Challenge #20 - No Challenge Here. A Place to List Your 2026 Impulse Reads

Maybe a Monthly Goal

Winners of the Women's Prize(/Orange Prize) for Fiction
https://www.listchallenges.com/winner...

1. The Safekeep (Yael Van Der Wouden)
2. Brotherless Night (V.V. Ganeshananthan)
3. Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver)
4. The Book of Form and Emptiness (Ruth Ozeki)
5. Piranesi (Susanna Clarke)
6. Hamnet (Maggie O'farrell)
7. An American Marriage (Tayari Jones)
8. Home Fire (Kamila Shamsie)
9. The Power (Naomi Alderman)
10. The Glorious Heresies (Lisa McInerney)
11. How to Be Both (Ali Smith)
12. A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing (Eimear McBride)
13. May We Be Forgiven (A.M. Homes)
14. The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller)
15. The Tiger's Wife (Tea Obrent)
16. The Lacuna (Barbara Kingsolver)
17. Home (Marilynne Robinson)
18. The Road Home (Rose Remain)
19. Half of a Yellow Sun (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
20. On Beauty (Zadie Smith)
21. We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lionel Shriver)
22. Small Island (Andrea Levy)
23. Property (Valerie Martin)
24. Bel Canto (Ann Patchett)
25. The Idea of Perfection (Kate Grenville)
26. When I Lived in Modern Times (Linda Grant)
27. A Crime in the Neighborhood (Suzanne Berne)
28. Larry's Party (Carol Shields)
29. Fugitive Pieces (Anne Michaels)
30. A Spell of Winter (Helen Dunmore)

Repeat

You've gotten a good start on your planning already, and I love your approach to the Prize Winners challenge. And thank you for putting The City of Mist on my radar; I enjoyed Shadow of the Wind, and I'm quite interested in checking this one out!

Wobbley wrote: "You've gotten a good start on your planning already, and I love your approach to the Prize Winners challenge. And thank you for putting The City of Mist on my radar; I enjoyed Shadow of the Wind, a..."

I enjoyed Shadow of the Wind as well, Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Cemetery of Forgotten Books will be on my series read.

I have most of my challenge selections written down, but typing and tweaking always takes longer then I expect. lol

Enjoy your challenges.

Wonderful plans so far, Jeri. I'm happy to see we're both doing the 1930's decade, and no overlaps (a great era for books). I will come here and see what you're reading if mine don't pan out. :-) Have fun!

Kathleen wrote: "Wonderful plans so far, Jeri. I'm happy to see we're both doing the 1930's decade, and no overlaps (a great era for books). I will come here and see what you're reading if mine don't pan out. :-) H..."

The 1930's really did seem to be loaded with authors that have weathered time. I never thought about having a favorite decade, but this truly might be it.

I love how your other lists have 2 I had in my notes for the buffet, now I have an easy steal for Challenge 2 "another's buffet" choice.