Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Current Challenges

Links to my Catching Up on Classics Current Challenges 2025

2025 Bingo Challenge

Challenge Buffet 2025

Link to Beginning of 2025 Personal Challenge Posts

Ongoing Challenges

Pulitzer Literature Winners

Birthday Year Best Sellers

Mythic Fiction Reading List

Histories/Biographies of USA Presidents

My Shakespeare Reading

Newberry Medal Winners

Series Challenge

Reserved

Past Challenges
(view spoiler)[
2019 Challenges
2019 Bingo Challenge
Old & New 12 + 2 Challenge
2019 Quest for Women Authors Challenge
2019 A-Z Author Challenge
2019 A-Z Title Challenge
2019 George Eliot 200 Challenge

2018 Challenges
2018 Bingo Challenge Bingo, but no blackout
12 + 2 Challenge
Quest for Women Authors Challenge
A-Z Author Challenge Completed
A-Z Title Challenge

2017
BINGO
Old & New: 12 + 2
Women's Century
A-Z Author
A-Z Title
Around the World

2016
BINGO Completed
Old & New: 12 + 2
Women's Century
A-Z AuthorCompleted
A-Z TitleCompleted
Personal Classics Challenge

2015
2015: 12 + 2
(hide spoiler)]

Personal Classics Challenge
The List that Keeps on Growing

A series I need to finish
A Division of the Spoils 2016
Staying On 2019

Classics that have caught my eye
Kristin Lavransdatter 2016
The Mysteries of Udolpho 2016
The Castle of Otranto

Classics I have bailed on & want to give another try
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale Read 2017
Don Quixote Read 2017

Those Russian Classics that intimidate me
Anna Karenina
War and Peace
Dead Souls
The Idiot

Pulitzer Prize Winners for Literature

1918 - His Family by Ernest Poole
1919 - The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
1921 - The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
1922 - Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
1923 - One of Ours by Willa Cather
1924 - The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson
1925 - So Big by Edna Ferber
1926 - Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis
1927 - Early Autumn: A Story of a Lady by Lewis Bromfield
1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
1929 - Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin
1930 - Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story by Oliver La Farge
1931 - Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 - The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1933 - The Store by Thomas S. Stribling
1934 - Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller
1935 - Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 - Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis
1937 - Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1938 - The Late George Apley by John P. Marquand
1939 - The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1942 - In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow
1943 - Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair
1944 - Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin
1945 - A Bell for Adano by John Hersey
1947 - All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
1948 -Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
1949 - Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens
1950 - The Way West by A.B. Guthrie, Jr.
1951 - The Town by Conrad Richter
1952 - The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
1955 - A Fable by William Faulkner
1956 - Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
1958 - A Death in the Family by James Agee
1959 - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 - Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1962 - The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor
1963 - The Reivers by William Faulkner
1965 - The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
1966 - The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter
1967 - The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
1969 - House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
1970 - The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford
1972 - Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
1973 - The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
1975 - The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
1976 - Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
1978 - Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
1979 - The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
1980 - The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
1982 - Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
1983 - The Color Purple by Alice Walker
1984 - Ironweed by William Kennedy
1985 - Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
1986 - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
1987 - A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
1988 - Beloved by Toni Morrison
1989 - Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
1990 - The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
1991 - Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
1992 - A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain: Stories by Robert Olen Butler
1994 - The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
1995 - The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
1996 - Independence Day by Richard Ford
1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
1998 - American Pastoral by Philip Roth
1999 - The Hours by Michael Cunningham
2000 - Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
2002 - Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2003 -Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
2004 - The Known World by Edward P. Jones
2005 - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
2006 - March by Geraldine Brooks
2007 - The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
2009 - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2010 - Tinkers by Paul Harding
2011 - A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
2013 - The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
2014 -- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
2015 - All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
2016 - The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
2017 - The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
2018 - Less by Andrew Sean Greer
2019 - The Overstory by Richard Powers
2020 - The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
2021 - The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
2022 - The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen
2023 - Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

I'm currently reading a few books, but not really in the mood for any of them. Have you every not been able to figure out what type of book you are in the mood for reading?

I am a mood reader -- and different books are my favorites on different days -- last night and today, just not sure what I want to read. So here I am on the computer instead, but I did get all the bills paid. :)

Thanks.

Kathy wrote: "I'm currently reading a few books, but not really in the mood for any of them. Have you every not been able to figure out what type of book you are in the mood for reading?

I am a mood reader -- ..."

Yes, absolutely! Then I also find myself on the computer.
Sometimes it´s due long books, where is slow part or just that I don´t feel like reading. Good comics are great then!

Going to keep track of Pulitzers in Literature that I've read too -- and eventually Nonfiction also.

That is a great list of Pulitzer winners Kathy. I copied it to my own personal challenges thread for future challenge reference. I gave you credit though, for copyright purposes ;).

I too often find my mood out of synch with a book. So the book lies fallow until a compatiple mood returns. Sometime good intentions are not enough and I hitch up with another book without so much as a goodbye text. I can be a fickle reader.

Dave wrote: "I too often find my mood out of synch with a book. So the book lies fallow until a compatiple mood returns. Sometime good intentions are not enough and I hitch up with another book without so much ..."

I have a few books in that category. I started The Brothers Karamazov a few years back and just could not get involved. I'm hoping that it was just the mood of the time and that the next go will prove more fruitful. I like Dostoevsky and can't think why else this one would have been so undoable for me.

I've got several books now that I am reading and back into the mood for them.

It may be the new thrill of finding challenge reads, but for now the bloom is on the reading rose for me. It has been quite a while since I was so enthralled with all the books I was reading that I couldn't wait to get back to each one in my daily reading cycle.

Wonderful

Time to read a Pulitzer Literary Winner I think.

Great idea!:)

I must say, your list looks excellent and appealing! (may even use it as a personal reference)

Bestselling novels in the USA as determined by Publishers Weekly for 1959
The year I was born

1) Exodus by Leon Uris
2) Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak Read January 2014
3) Hawaii by James A. Michener
4) Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
5) Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
6) The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick
7) Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell
8) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
9) Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico
10) Poor No More by Robert Ruark

You arrived with some very nice literature, Kathy. I did this for the year of my birth once and thought about doing a challenge around them. Nice to know what people were thinking when you came into the world.

Yes, I stole the idea from Bob's challenges. I looked up the list, found I had already read one of theme and had several others on my TBR list and still discovered some new books that had not been on my radar for reading.

Wow, some hot reads. The bestsellers are not bestselling for nothing!

I enjoy seeing your progress on all your challenges, its so awe inspiring.
And I really love your latest list in message 22, the "Best Selling Novels" for your birth year. I might well borrow that idea for next year (if i may). I had been thinking of novels released in my year of birth (e.g. The Manchurian Candidate, Absolute Beginners, Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories, Starship Troopers and Psycho ) . This was a great year for books published as well as people born, what was the year, oh 1959, a great year all round i think !!

Anytime Adrian. A great year indeed.
Barbie was "born" that year also. My claim to fame -- I am as old as Barbie.

And thanks for more books to choose from.

No problem with the books, I think you have provided me with far more to be honest in all your various challenge lists.
I like the fact you relate to Barbie, being English I always say I'm the same age as the "Mini" car.

LOL

Just finished One of Ours by Willa Cather, 1923 Pulitzer Winner. Very good read.

Link to our Listopia list! Thank you to those who put it together.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...

Great list I found for future challenges.

http://www.listchallenges.com/500-ess...

Really cool list Kathy. It looks like some fun reads.

Kathy...so glad you enjoyed One of Ours. It is on my reading list as well.

oooh... that's a good-looking list!
fun hours ahead adding to my TBRs...
Thanks Kathy!

Any time. I wouldn't want anyone to have a small TBR list :P

Kathy wrote: "Link to our Listopia list! Thank you to those who put it together.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9..."

This is good! Easy to check what I have still not read. Like 70 or something....

Kathy wrote: "Any time. I wouldn't want anyone to have a small TBR list :P"

No danger of that here. I keep trying to figure out a way to cull it besides reading everything. I don't think I will have enough hours in my lifetime if I keep adding the way I do.

Sara wrote: "...No danger of that here. I keep trying to figure out a way to cull it besides reading everything. I don't think I will ha..."

Too true!

Mythic Fiction Reading List

http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/jom...

Kathleen Alcala, Spirits of the Ordinary
Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits
Kim Antieau, Coyote Cowgirl
Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet
A.A. Attanasio, The Moon's Wife
Peter S. Beagle, A Fine and Private Place
Judith Berman, Bear Daughter
James P. Blaylock, Winter Tides
Richard Bowes, Minions of the Moon
Paul Brandon, Swim the Moon
Kevin Brockmeier, The Truth About Celia
Judy Budnitz, If I Told You Once
Jack Cady, The Off Season
Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus
Ana Castillo, So Far From God
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain
Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Rick Collignon, The Journal of Antonio Montoya
John Crowley, Little, Big
Achmat Dangor, Kafka's Curse
Catherine Temma Davidson, The Priest Fainted
Gail Anderson–Dargatz, The Cure for Death by Lightning
Kathryn Davis, The Thin Place
Marele Day, The Lambs of God
Seamus Deane, Reading in the Dark
Louis de Bernieres, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts
Charles de Lint, Someplace to Be Flying
Bradley Denton, Lunatics
Lilas Desquiron, Reflections of Loko Miwa
Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni, Mistress of Spices
Keith Donohue, The Stolen Child
Marcia Douglas, Madame Fate
Louise Erdrich, The Antelope Wife
Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate
Sia Fiegel, They Who Do Not Grieve DNF
Heinz Insu Fenkl, Memories of My Ghost Brother
Karen Joy Fowler, Sarah Canary
Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys
Alan Garner, Strandloper
Molly Gloss, Wild Life
Lisa Goldstein, Tourists
Hiromi Goto, The Kappa Child
Richard Grant, Tex and Molly in the Afterlife
Brian Hall, The Saskiad
Elizabeth Hand, Mortal Love
Joanne Harris, Chocolat
Peter Hoeg, The History of Danish Dreams
Alice Hoffman, The Ice Queen
Nina Kiriki Hoffman, A Fistful of Sky
Linda Hogan, Power
Robert Holdstock, Mythago Wood
Nalo Hopkinson, The Salt Roads
Janette Turner Hospital, Last Magician
Keri Hulme, The Bone People
Graham Joyce, The Facts of Life
Thomas King, Green Grass, Running Water
Elizabeth Knox, The Vintner's Luck
Larissa Lai, When Fox is a Thousand
Megan Lindholm, Cloven Hooves
Rob Levandoski, Fresh Eggs
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera
Regina McBride, The Nature of Water and Air
Patricia A. McKillip, Stepping From the Shadows
Nega Mezleki, The God Who Begat a Jackal
Ib Michael, Prince
Steven Millhauser, Martin Dressler
N. Scott Momaday, The Ancient Child
Christopher Moore, Coyote Blue
Pat Mora, House of Houses
Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
Tea Obreht, The Tiger's Wife
Ben Okri, The Famished Road
Louis Owens, Bone Game
Gisèle Pineau, The Drifting of Spirits
Susan Power, The Grass Dancer
Tim Powers, Last Call
Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach
Matt Ruff, Fool on the Hill
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Karen Russell, Swamplandia
Geoff Ryman, Was
Rafik Schami, Damascus Nights
Han Shaogong, Dictionary of Maqiao
Steven Sherrill, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead
Carol Ann Sima, The Mermaid Who Came Between Them
Johanna Sinisalo, Troll: A Love Story
Sean Stewart, Mockingbird
Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses
Amos Tutuola, The Palmwine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Jane Urqhart, Away
Luis Alberto Urrea, The Hummingbird's Daughter
Catherynne M. Valenta, Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams
Alfredo Vea Jr., La Maravilla
Helen Wecker, The Golem and the Jinni
Marly Youmans, Thaliad
Gao Xinghian, Soul Mountain
Mia Yun, House of the Winds

My Mythic Fiction Bookshelf

Excellent list, thanks Kathy. And a really interesting website.
And that means more books on the TBR list, oh well.

Adrian wrote: "Excellent list, thanks Kathy. And a really interesting website.
And that means more books on the TBR list, oh well."

Yes, GoodReads only adds to the list.

Kathy,

You always find cool lists.

I've never heard of mythic fiction until now!

Andrea, I'm glad to introduce you to something new.

Nice! Golem and Jinni has been on my TBR list a very long time.
There is one typo with name: it's Johanna Sinisalo not Sinsalo. And the book is good, at least I liked it many years ago when I read it.
Only other book I have read from this list is Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I liked it but I was little disappointet, since my expectation were so high.

Finished Kristin Lavransdatter today off of my "Just because I want to read it list for this year."

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Desertorum wrote: "Nice! Golem and Jinni has been on my TBR list a very long time... Only other book I have read from this list is Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell...."

I haven't read very many from this list yet, it may take several years to tackle it.

Thanks for sharing the mythic fiction list, Kathy! I don't think about this genre much, but I loved Like Water for Chocolate and The House of Spirits. I'll definitely be checking these out.

oooh... nice looking list!
I have about 8 or 9 of those on my radar already (and indeed just seconded The House of the Spirits for June's New School) but feel a few additions to my TBR pile coming on... ;o)

I'll have to go make a "second" too!

I've never heard of this genre either, but some on the list are on my TBR. The Bone People is on there and I plan on reading it this month. And I noticed there is an author starting with an X, so there is a possibility for the author A-Z challenge. Definitely some new books to check out.

Finished another Literary Pulitzer
1948 -Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener

An amazing book.