Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Almost the end of another month. What plans do you have for May?

I’ll be continuing with -
Bleak House 2 stars
The Collected Dorothy Parker 4 stars
The Rainbow 2 stars

Challenge books -
An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare: Compared with the Greek ... (Women’s century) 2 stars
Passing (Women’s decade) 4 stars
The Iliad (Old and New)

Library books -
Milkman
The Silence of the Girls 3 stars

As I'm down to the wire for most of my challenges, I may as well lay them all out here and see if I can get through everything in May (likely not, as I'll probably have to track something down for the 1810s, but here's hoping). Stay tuned.

Quest for Women

1790s - Charlotte Temple - Susanna Rowson (completed 5/10/19) (also for Bingo)
1810s - Original Letters from India - Eliza Fay (library)
1870s - The Woman in Battle: The Civil War Narrative of Loreta Janeta Velazquez, Cuban Woman and Confederate Soldier by Loreta Janeta Velázquez (library ebook) (Currently Reading)
1880s - Doctor Zay by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (completed 5/21/19)
1937 - The Collected Poems - Sara Teasdale (completed 5/25/19)
1939 - Fighting for Life - S. Josephine Baker (library)
1940 - The Man Who Loved Children - Christina Stead (also for SGRWC) (Currently Reading)
1943 - Told on the King's Highway - Eleanore M. Jewett (completed 5/3/19)
1944 - Strange Fruit - Lillian E. Smith (Currently Reading)

(view spoiler)[Bingo

N3: FREE SPACE - Black Rain - Masuji Ibuse (completed 5/14/19) (also for O&N)
O3: Classic Comedy or Satire - Belinda - Maria Edgeworth (completed 5/15/19) (also for SGRWC)

Old and New Challenge

Alternates
A-2. Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade - Assia Djebar* (1985) (completed 5/20/19) (also for SGRWC)


Separate Group Reading Women Challenge

10 - A Book About a Woman Athlete - Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina - Misty Copeland (completed 5/26/19)
15 - A South Asian Author - Trespassing by Uzma Aslam Khan (completed 5/6/19)
17 - From the 2018 Reading Women Award Shortlist - Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (completed 5/28/19)

(hide spoiler)]Completed: 10/15

I have a proper plan for this month, I'll try my best to stick to it:
Catch-22
The Canterbury Tales
Rama II
Paris
Pollyana
The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Hmmm, I averaged about 50% for my 'plans' for March and April ... and had a whole lot of 'unplans' snuck in.

Imma take a little time and think more about it, for this month :p


Edit - starting to plan ...


I'll have 8 of my 15 leftover from April (7 that I'd still like to read, 1 I'm letting go):
- one is a book I need to send on to the next reader (carried over from April)
- one is an in-progress multi-book read for my old/new challenge, old school book (library books) (carried over from April)
- one is a personal library read
- one was a 'something for my kindle' possibility (still would like to read)
- three are audibles (2 in progress)
- one was a possible group read (Hyperion), but I'm letting that one go

Including those I'm carrying over, plus new ones for May, there are 17 titles
(including all 3 audibles carried over from April - listening isn't a native skill for me, I'm still working on it :p)
(7 carryovers, 5 new possibles, 5 new definites):

Personal reads checked out from the library:
- Robert the Bruce, by Jack Whyte (carried over from April)
- Foundation's Edge?

Unread/new group/buddy reads:
- Lamb in His Bosom, by Caroline Miller (library book)
- The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, by Yukio Mishima (library book)
- Candide, by Voltaire (library book)
- The Professor? Kindred?


Challenge reads:
- One of my new/old tbr books - not sure which yet


Something on my kindle:
- The Virgin in the Ice, by Ellis Peters
- possibly Hydranos, by Constantina Maud (carried over from April)
- I, Robot? World Without End?


Audibles:
- still listening to The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, which is a re-read for me (carried over from April)
- started listening to Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, narrated by Martin Jarvis (carried over from April)
- husband says I need to listen to Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson, cuz he says I'll love it :). (carried over from April)


Movies from the library (book tie-ins):

- (movie): Fantastic beasts ; The crimes of Grindelwald (DVD, library)
- (movie): Fantastic beasts and where to find them (DVD, library)


I still want to watch a few of the adaptations of Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, Moll Flanders, and Beowulf, but they're still on the back burner ...

-----------

Unplanned reads (or movies) snuck in/completed:
- short story: The Queen of Spades, by Alexander Pushkin, for A-Z title challenge


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March 2019
April 2019
May 2019

1. I am continuing with Crime and Punishment on the group schedule, Book 3.

I am currently reading and want to finish:
2. The Ambassadors by Henry James. (20th Century Challenge - 1903)
3. Daisy and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. (Contemporary wildcard)

Group Read:
4. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. (Also counts for 20th Century challenge, 1959)
5. The Professor by Charlotte Bronte
6. Night by Elie Wiesel (assuming I buy it, which I will)
7. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (also need to get)

Subject Challenge:
8. Balthazar by Lawrence Durrell, book 2 of The Alexandria Quartet — Three (four in this case) books by the same author.
9. Days Without End by Sebastian Barry — A book about a topic that fascinates you, American history. (If I have time)

20th Century Challenge:
10. A Room with a View by EM Forster, 1908 (hold over from last month)
11. A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter, 1909 (if I have time)

So, I probably won’t accomplish all of this, so there may be some that will push to June. And I usually leave room for an occasional wildcard, contemporary novel. And then there is the problem of sticking to the list!

Pink - hope you like Milkman even half as much as I did :o)

Daz's "May Dozen":

carried over from April
1) Once Were Warriors Duff, Alan
2) Pale Fire Nabokov, Vladimir
middle third of
3) Infinite Jest Wallace, David Foster
Guardian 1000 Book Group
4) The Talented Mr Ripley Highsmith, Patricia
main challenge
5) For Two Thousand Years Sebastian, Mihail
6) Phantom Lady Woolrich, Cornell (aka "William Irish")
7) Swann's Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1) Proust, Marcel
8) Wise Blood O'Connor, Flannery
Old & New Challenge (My Shelf)
9) Fatherland Harris, Robert
non-challenge re-read
10) Use Of Weapons (Culture #3) Banks, Iain M.
carried over from 2018(!)
11) The Buddha of Suburbia Kureishi, Hanif
short one to slip in
12) The Unconquered Country Ryman, Geoff

@Darren. I hope you get to Use of Weapons this month; great book. I think the first two books are good but this is where the Culture books kick into a high gear. Hope you enjoy it.

I started The Haunting of Hill House last night for the group read. I also have Kindred waiting on my Kindle for the group read. I will probably take a break in between with something new(ish) that fulfills one of my other challenges. Maybe time for some non-fiction with Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup.

The first task for May is to finish reads started in April.


✅Crime and Punishment-second quarter long-read, Started 4/11/19

✅White Death-old & new brain candy choice Started 4/27/19

Reads for May
The Professor-Bingo Romance Square
Lord Jim-old & new alternate
✅Moving On

Start Reading either The Moonstone or Middlemarch-both old & new challenge

Robert Frost: Selected Poems-bingo poetry-Start Reading, no set time to finish.

Extra Time Possibilities/Substitutions:
Guilty Wives-old & new brain candy choice
The Third Option-old & new brain candy choice

Here we go again - did quite well for april, so I will stay ambitious

Currently reading
Murder on the Orient Express
Bread Givers (Womens Decade Challenge)
Historien om et nyt navn (audio)

Planned
Death in a White Tie (audio)
Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman (library)
The Edge of the Shadows (library)
The Vile Village (audio)
Kindred (May group challenge)
Oraklet
Akademiet (Den tavse røver)
The Underground Railroad (audio)
Kyoto (N5 bingo & nobel laureate)
I Owe You One
You (audio, Y in A-Z title challenge)
The Virgin Suicides (personal challenge)
Overture to Death (audio)
Blink and Caution (audio)
Uncanny Stories (Women's Decade Challenge)
Pedro Páramo (Bingo Challenge)
The Prince (June Group Challenge)

Life keeps getting in the way of my reading plans, which I find very annoying. I think I will focus on "spring cleaning" in May--finally finish a few I've had going for too long, and committing only to two shorter new ones.

To finish:
Dracula
We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals
Scenes of Clerical Life
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

Group reads:
The Professor
Caramelo

Fingers crossed I can at least start:
The Eye of the Story: Selected Essays and Reviews
Poetics
Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over

PinkieBrown - Use Of Weapons is a re-read for me - I always thought it was the best of the first four, so trust I will be suitably re-impressed

My reading plans for May:

Epic read - to finish the final 100 pages of ‘Bleak House’ by Dickens

Autobiography - to finish ‘A Positive Result’ by Joanne Pasquale

To finish - ‘Queen Victoria’s Youngest son: The untold story of Leopold’ by Charlotte Zeepvat

To begin the epic ‘David Copperfield’ by Dickens

Update: 26th May - I've had a rubbish month of reading - the worst in 12 months. I must reclaim my reading routine between now and the end of this month!

Finish: The Crowded Street - reading with another group and also fits my WA challenge

The Talented Mr. Ripley - Old & New challenge
Night - group read
This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm - loan from a friend

Hopefuls:
Watership Down - previous group read
Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter - WA challenge

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by too many books I want to read. I have purchased 8 books recently (library book sale - they cost a total of $1) and I want to read them all at once. I keep picking up one and reading the first chapter, then starting another. This group helps me focus on just one or two. To read the Group reads this month, I would have to find or purchase most of them, so here are books I already own.

So maybe:

1. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata Either Asian classic or Nobel Laureate Bingo square.

2. The Housekeeper and the Professor Yōko Ogawa 21st Century Potential Classic Bingo

3. Perhaps A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle One of the new books I just picked up is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Other Stories 1032 pages of small print!!

4. Perhaps Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw

5. Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art

✔️ 6. Memoirs of Two Young Brides by Honoré de Balzac / finished 5/5/2019 but after 6 Chapters I switched to a more modern translation that was a free Kindle download.

✔️ 7. Caesar by Allan Massie (Library sale.)

8. Also I still have not started Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

✔️ 9. "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde

As always, it is highly unlikely I will follow this 100%. I try to read two from the Group bookshelf each month, even if they are not being read in that month.

Lynn wrote: "Sometimes I get overwhelmed by too many books I want to read. ..."


Me too !!! :p

Lynn wrote: "Sometimes I get overwhelmed by too many books I want to read. ..."

Yes, I totally understand. Me too!

Halfway through the month, I've made a slight dent in the remains of my compiled reading challenges. On a more successful note, I've consolidated most of my reading plans to the point that I only have a single category still left up in the air, so it'll be mostly smooth sailing, assuming my libraries cooperate, from here on out.

Week-To-Go Report on Daz's "May Dozen"

1) Once Were Warriors - Finished - Amazing - 4.5 Stars
2) Pale Fire - DNF, so started:
13) Harry Potter #1 - Finished - Entertaining - 4 Stars
3) Infinite Jest - DNF, so will start:
14) Life: A User's Manual (Georges Perec) - In Progress...
4) The Talented Mr Ripley - Finished - Excellent - 4.5 Stars
5) For Two Thousand Years - Finished - Meaningful - 4 Stars
6) Phantom Lady
7) Swann's Way - DNF, so will read The Iliad later in year...
8) Wise Blood - Finished - Impressive - 4 Stars
9) Fatherland - Finished - Flawless - 5 Stars
10) Use Of Weapons - Finished - Superb - 5 Stars
11) The Buddha of Suburbia - In Progress...
12) The Unconquered Country

Week To Go people!
I've updated my status in above message
how's everybody else doing...?

I read two of the May group read books, The Haunting of Hill House and Kindred. I even got a head start on June and read The Prince. My goals are very modest compared to most here, but I feel good about it.

I also read two of the May group read books, Night and Kindred. I had already read The Haunting of Hill House recently enough that I didn't want to reread. I was hoping to get to The Professor, but it's not looking likely - at least not this month. I've been chunking out a pile of stuff including titles from the group bookshelf though, and planning out the next three months to continue that trend.

Excellent progress, Darren!

I haven't started the ones I wanted to start, but I finished most of the ones I wanted to finish. This weekend I'll try to finish Caramelo and maybe even read the last story in Scenes of Clerical Life.

That is, if I can keep my hands off the two I just got at the library for next month's group reads: The Ballad Of Reading Gaol and The Prince ...

I am currently in the middle of The Professor and Crime and Punishment. I feel pretty confident I can finish them before the end of the month.

I'm tempted to incorporate the GR summer reading challenge somehow during the next few months, but I know for sure that that'd be excessive. At least the summer reading task line up will give the mods here some ideas as to doing them with a classic twist.

Darren wrote: "Week To Go people!
I've updated my status in above message
how's everybody else doing...?"

You’re doing great 👍🏼

I’m behind for my May plans and yearly reading goal, but hoping to make headway this bank holiday weekend!

Thought I wouldn't have time for everything, but I'm actually on a good spot to finish all I had planned for this month. This weekend's read-a-thon is also gonna help a lot.

Catch-22
The Canterbury Tales
Rama II
Paris
Pollyana
The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Aubrey wrote: "I'm tempted to incorporate the GR summer reading challenge somehow during the next few months, but I know for sure that that'd be excessive. At least the summer reading task line up will give the m..."

Yes, I just noticed that challenge. It does look like a nice variety of tasks. It would make for interesting reading.

Goodreads Summer Reading Challenge (2019) link: https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1602

This is what I read in May

✔️1. Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac
✔️2. "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde
✔️3. The Pearl by John Steinbeck
4. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
5. "The Man Who Planted Trees" by Jean Giono
6. The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century by Susan Miller
7. Matilda by Roald Dahl
8. Caesar by Allan Massie
9 The Professor by Charlotte Bronte

Just two days ago I thought I would finish Crime and Punishment, but it is just too heavy and emotionally taxing right now, so I am going to put it aside for a while.

10. Eugénie Grandet by Honore de Balzac

FINISHED THIS MONTH:

✔ 1.
The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

✔ 2.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

✔ 3.
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

MIGHT FINISH THIS MONTH:

4.
Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court by John Wooden and Steve Jamison

5.
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

PROBABLY WON'T FINISH THIS MONTH:

6.
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eleven edited by Jonathan Strahan

7.
The Terror by Dan Simmons

8.
The Innocents Abroad: Or the New Pilgrim's Progress by Mark Twain

9.
The Hours by Michael Cunningham

10.
Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

11.
Nightfall by David Goodis

I read multiple books at the same time for the reasons you mentioned, Matt.
I usually read a variety of books so that I can keep them straight. Right now, I am reading The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, the complete Peter Wimsey short stories by Dorothy Sayers, the suspense novel, Decision at Delphi, by Helen MacInnes and The Neverending Story. My goal is to finish at least one of those by the end of the month.

I already have four library books waiting to be read in June, but maybe I won't wait that long.

I prefer reading multiple books at once as well. It's partially a remnant of my university days when four classes in one quarter meant a book being read in each, but I've found that it helps me avoid boredom and allows me to better control how quickly I go through a work. It's better to be able to take a break from a work and maintain daily reading, rather than stop reading all together. I also have various demographic quotas to keep up, so multiple books makes it easy to ensure I've at least one book in each category I want to work on.

Just thought I'd update for May, I managed to finish 6 out of 8 books and more importantly one of them was Bleak House, which took me a few months to get through! Oh and The Rainbow, which took as long, but was slightly more enjoyable for me, which says a lot about how I feel about Bleak House!

I'll carry The Iliad and Milkman over to June and having read the first few pages of each, I'm very excited about both of them!

Month-End Report on Daz's "May Dozen"

1) Once Were Warriors - Finished - Amazing - 4.5 Stars
2) Pale Fire - DNF, so started:
13) Harry Potter #1 - Finished - Entertaining - 4 Stars
3) Infinite Jest - DNF, so will start:
14) Life: A User's Manual (Georges Perec) - In Progress...
4) The Talented Mr Ripley - Finished - Excellent - 4.5 Stars
5) For Two Thousand Years - Finished - Meaningful - 4 Stars
6) Phantom Lady - In Progress...
7) Swann's Way - DNF, so will read The Iliad later in year...
8) Wise Blood - Finished - Impressive - 4 Stars
9) Fatherland - Finished - Flawless - 5 Stars
10) Use Of Weapons - Finished - Superb - 5 Stars
11) The Buddha of Suburbia - Finished - OK - 3 Stars
12) The Unconquered Country - Finished - weird/wonderful - 4 Stars

so only one carried over slightly into June
(plus also read 3 others!)
so have to say that May went well!

You had a great month! The books you finished all got pretty high ratings too. I hope June continues just as well for you.

pretty high ratings apart from the 3 DNFs!! it looks like maybe I'm just getting less tolerant of books that aren't wow-ing me - but since then I've 2-Starred 2 of my last 3, so don't think it's that ;o)

hope you like Milkman as much as I did
and I may start The Iliad soon myself...

Maybe just a good run of books then. I had that earlier in the year, followed by a spell of 2 star reads. I go back and forth with DNFing, though I’m happier to give up on modern fiction, than I am with classics.

I’m really enjoying The Iliad. I’ve read quite a few Mythology books and retellings recently, so it’s good to get back to the source story.

Darren wrote: "pretty high ratings apart from the 3 DNFs!! it looks like maybe I'm just getting less tolerant of books that aren't wow-ing me - but since then I've 2-Starred 2 of my last 3, so don't think it's th..."

I have wondered if my ratings are getting tougher as I read more really good books. A book I might have given 5 stars a decade ago can only get 3 or 4 due to fact that I have now read some truly amazing books and now the rest cannot compare. Now all the books must stand up to Rebecca, The Remains of the Day and All Quiet on the Western Front.

Lynn wrote: "Darren wrote: "pretty high ratings apart from the 3 DNFs!! it looks like maybe I'm just getting less tolerant of books that aren't wow-ing me - but since then I've 2-Starred 2 of my last 3, so don'..."

I loved The Remains of the Day last year. I can't wait to read Rebecca this year.