Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

📌 Indicates Completed Challenge

Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR
📌Challenge #2 - Second Place or Worse
📌Challenge #3 - Decade & Century
📌Challenge #3 - Century
📌Challenge #4 - Member's Choice
📌Challenge #5 - Short Story
📌Challenge #6 - Group Reads and/or Buddy Reads
📌Challenge #7 - Expand Your Horizon With New Authors
📌Challenge #8 - Most Popular Goodreads Books Listed by Year
📌Challenge #10 - The Half a Millennium Challenge with a Sour Lemon Twist of Difficult
📌Challenge #11 - Old and New Linked Categories
📌Challenge #12 - A-Z Author

Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR

Choose 12 books you want to read and list three alternates, to use as substitutes should one of your choices need to be replaced. You do not have to read all 15 books listed, 12 books read is a successful challenge. This 12 + 3 challenge will last all year and you can read at your own pace. Once you create your reading thread, you and other members can comment on your progress.

Only six of the 12 books selected are required to be Classics based on the Groups definitions, they do not have to come from the group's bookshelf. At least 3 books from the Old School category (published before 1900) and 3 books from the New School category (published between 1900 & 1999). The other six and your three alternates can be any genre or age you wish to read. Yes, even post-2000.

1899 and earlier/Old School
1. Vanity Fair - DNF
✅2. Dr. Thorne
✅3. Journey to the Centre of the Earth

1900-1999/New School
✅4. The Princess Bride
✅5. The Day of the Triffids
✅6. Smiley's People

My Wild Card Six
✅7. The Martian
8. Klara and the Sun
✅9. The Maltese Falcon
10. The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
✅11. Excellent Women
12. The Custom of the Country - DNF

Alternates
✅A-1. The Wind's Twelve Quarters
✅A-2. The Summer Book
✅A-3. The Fifth Season

📌Challenge #2 - Second Place or Worse

Go back through the groups past polls and select Four (4) total books that are of interest to you but lost the poll and to date has never made it to our group bookshelf. Pick one book from New School, one from Old School, one from Short Story/Novella, and one from the Quarterly Long Read.

New School
✅1. Excellent Women

Old School
✅1. The Odd Women

Short Story/Novella
✅1. In a Grove

Quarterly Long Read
✅1. Camilla

📌Challenge #3 - Decade/Century

The Century Challenge: Read 10 books from any 10 consecutive decades (1 book per decade). Authors can only be used once in the challenge. You can use authors previously read by you. Or you can add a level of difficulty to your challenge by selecting only authors you've never read before.

19th Century

✅1800 - 1809 The Watsons (pub. 1805)
✅1810 - 1819 The Wife (pub. 1819)
✅1820 - 1829 The Night Before Christmas (pub. 1823)
✅1830 - 1839 A Hero of Our Time (pub 1839) 🎧
✅1840 - 1849 The Three Musketeers (pub 1844)
✅1850 - 1859 Dr. Thorne (pub. 1858)
✅1860 - 1869 Journey to the Centre of the Earth (pub.1864)
✅1870 - 1879 Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes (pub. 1879)
✅1880 - 1889 The Adventures of Robin Hood (pub. 1883)
✅1890 - 1899 The Turn of the Screw (pub. 1898) 🎧

The Decade Challenge: Read 10 books from any 10 consecutive years (1 book per year). The authors can only be used once in the challenge. You can use authors previously read by you. Or you can add a level of difficulty to your challenge by selecting only authors you've never read before.

1970's

✅1970 The Tombs of Atuan
✅1971 Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
✅1972 Monday the Rabbi Took Off
✅1973 Rendezvous with Rama
✅1974 Tales of the Black Widowers
✅1975 Crocodile on the Sandbank
✅1976 Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less
✅1977 Children of the Corn
✅1978 The Westing Game
✅1979 Smiley's People

📌Challenge #4 - Member's Choice

Choose one book per category/genre for a total of 12 books.

✅1. 19th Century - The Adventures of Robin Hood
✅2. 20th Century - Vera
✅3. A book originally written in a language other than your own - The Grand Banks Café
✅4. Current or Past Group Read - To the Lighthouse
✅5. An Author not read before - Maud Cairnes
✅6. Diversity Classic, read a book from a religion, culture, country, or race different than yours - Martin Beck: The Man Who Went Up In Smoke
✅7. Science Fiction/Fantasy - The Hobbit
✅8. Action/Adventure - Journey to the Center of the Earth
✅9. Children's/Young Adult - The Westing Game
✅10. Nonfiction - Becoming
✅11. Mystery/Thriller - Green for Danger
✅12. Horror or Humor - The Stepford Wives

📌Challenge #5 - Short Story

Read 24 short stories.

From Selected Stories by Anton Chekhov
✅1. The Lottery Ticket
✅2. A Day in the Country
✅3. The Vendetta
✅4. Fat and Thin
✅5. An Enigmatic Nature
✅6. The Album
✅7. In the Graveyard
✅8. The Fish
✅9. The Witch
✅10. Love
✅11. Husband
✅12. On the Road
✅13. Difficult People
✅14. Excellent People

From Selected Stories by O. Henry
✅15. A Strange Story
✅16. The Purple Dress
✅17. The Princess and the Puma
✅18. The Furnished Room
✅19. The Green Door
✅20. An Unfinished Story
✅21. The Trimmed Lamp
✅22. Brickdust Row
✅23. The Lotus and the Bottle
✅24. A Newspaper Story
✅25. After Twenty Years
✅26. The Cactus - (reread) a favourite of mine!

✅27. The City Born Great by N.K. Jemisin
✅28. The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry
✅29. Widows by Margaret Atwood
✅30. They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson
✅31. The Magic Shop by H.G. Wells
✅32. Mimsy Were The Borogoves by Lewis Padgett
✅33. In a Grove by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
✅34. A Jury Of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell

From Continental Crimes
✅35. The New Catacomb by Arthur Conan Doyle
✅36. A Bracelet at Bruges by Arnold Bennett
✅37. The Secret Garden: The Large Print Father Brown Series by G.K. Chesterton
✅38. The Secret of the Magnifique by E. Phillips Oppenheim
✅39. Petit - Jean by Ian Hay
✅40. The Lover of St. Lys by F. Tennyson Jesse
✅41. Popeau Intervenes by Marie Belloc Lowndes
✅42. The Perfect Murder by Stacy Aumonier
✅43. The Room in the Tower by J. Jefferson Farjeon
✅44. The Ten-Franc Counter by Henry de Vere Stacpoole
✅45. Have You Got Everything You Want?: A Parker Pyne Short Story by Agatha Christie
✅46. The Long Dinner by H.C. Bailey
✅47. The Packet Boat Murder by Josephine Bell
✅48. Villa Almirante by Michael Gilbert

✅49. The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
✅50. An Electrical Slip by Robert Barr
✅51. The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov

From Selected Stories by Saki
✅52. The Mouse
✅53. The Storyteller
✅54. Tobermory
✅55. Down Pens
✅56. Ministers of Grace
✅57. A Bread and Butter Miss
✅58. The Toys of Peace
✅59. A Sacrifice to Necessity
✅60. A Shot in the Dark
✅61. The East Wing
✅62. Gabriel-Ernest
✅63. Esme
✅64. The Bull
✅65. The Interlopers
✅66. The Schartz-Metterklume Method
✅67. The Match-Maker
✅68. Hermann the Irascible
✅69. The Quest
✅70. Filboid Studge, The Story of a Mouse That Helped
✅71. The Open Window
✅72. The Unrest-Cure

From The Long Arm of the Law: Classic Police Stories
✅73. The Mystery of Chenholt by Alice and Claude Askew
✅74. The Silence of PC Hirley by Edgar Wallace
✅75. The Mystery of a Midsummer Night by George R. Sims
✅76. The Cleverest Clue by Laurence W. MEYNELL
✅77. The Undoing of Mr. Dawes by Gerald Verner
✅78. The Man who Married too Often by Roy Vickers
✅79. The Case of Jacob Heylyn by Leonard R. Gribble
✅80. Fingerprints by Freeman Wills Crofts
✅81. Remember to Ring Twice by E C R Lorac
✅82. Cotton Wool and Cutlets by Henry Wade
✅83. After the Event by Christianna Brand
✅84. Sometimes the Blind by Nicholas Blake
✅85. The Chief Witness by John Creasey
✅86. Old Mr. Martin: A Patrick Petrella story by Michael Francis Gilbert
✅87. The Moorlanders by Gil North

From Crimes of Cymru: Classic Mystery Tales of Wales
✅88. The Murder in Judd Lane by Frank Howel Evans
✅89. Water Running Out by Ethel Lina White
✅90. A Busman's Holiday by Francis Brett Young
✅91. Change by Arthur Machen
✅92. Error at Daybreak by Carter Dickson
✅93. Murder in Church by G.D.H. & Margaret Cole
✅94. Brother in the Barrow by Ianthe Jerrod
✅95. The Way Up to Heaven by Roald Dahl
✅96. Lucky Escape by Berkely Mather
✅97. The Strong Room by Cledwyn Hughes
✅98. Mamba by Jack Griffith
✅99. The Chosen One by Rhys Davies
✅100. No More A-Maying by Christianna Brand
✅101. Y Mynyddoed Sanctiaidd by Michael Gilbert

From Skin and Other Stories by Roald Dahl
✅102. Skin
✅103. Lamb to the Slaughter
✅104. The Sound Machine
✅105. An African Story
✅106. Galloping Foxley
✅107. The Wish
✅108. The Surgeon
✅109. Dip in the Pool
✅110. The Champion of the World
✅111. Beware of the Dog
✅112. My Lady Love, My Dove

From The Wind’s Twelve Quarters
✅113. Semley's Necklace: A Story (pub 1964)
✅114. April in Paris (pub 1962)
✅115. The Masters: A Story (pub 1963)
✅116. Darkness Box (pub 1963)
✅117. The World of Unbinding
✅118. The Rule of Names (pub 1964)
✅119. Winter's King (pub 1969)
✅120. The Good Trip: A Story (pub 1970)
✅121. Nine Lives (pub 1969)
✅122. Things: A Story (pub 1970)
✅123. A Trip to the Head: A Story (pub 1970)
✅124. Vaster Than Empires and More Slow (pub 1970)
✅125. The Stars Below (pub 1973)
✅126. The Field of Vision: A Story (pub 1973)
✅127. Direction of the Road (pub 1974)
✅128. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (pub 1973)
✅129. The Day Before the Revolution (pub 1974)

✅130. Children of the Corn by Stephen King
✅131. Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx

From Who Killed Father Christmas?: And Other Seasonal Mysteries
✅132. On the Irish Mail by Garnett Radcliffe (pub 1931)
✅133. The Christmas Thief by Frank Howel Evans (pub 1911)
✅134. The Christmas Spirit by Anthony Gilbert (pub 1952)
✅135. Among those present was Santa Claus by Vincent Cornier (pub 1952)
✅136. Gold, Frankincense, and Murder by Catherine Aird (pub 1995)
✅137. Secrets in the Snow by J. Jefferson Farjeon (pub 1942)
✅138. Who killed Father Christmas by Patricia Moyes (pub 1980)
✅139. Death at Christmas by Glyn Daniel (pub 1959)
✅140. Scotland Yard's Christmas by John Dockson Carr (pub 1957)
✅141. The Bird of Dawning by Michael Gilbert (pub 1956)
✅142. The Christmas Train by Will Scott (pub 1933)
✅143. The Grey Monk by Gerald Verner (pub 1934)
✅144. Who suspects the Postman? by Michael Innes (pub 1958)
✅145. Herlock Sholmes' Christmas Case by Peter Todd (pub 1916)
✅146. A Present for Ivo by Ellis Peters (pub 1958/59)

From Stories for Christmas and the Festive Season
✅147. The Turkey Season by Alice Munro
✅148. This Year It Will Be Different by Maeve Binchey
✅149. General Impressions of a Christmas by E. M. Delafield
✅150. The Christmas Pageant by Barbara Robinson
✅151. Ticket for a Christmas Concert by Audrey Burton
✅152. Snow by Olive Wadsley
✅153. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas by Kate Nivison
✅154. Christmas Fugue by Muriel Spark
✅155. The Little Christmas Tree by Stella Gibbons
✅156. The Christmas Present by Richmak Crompton
✅157. Christmas Bread by Kathleen Norris
✅158. Christmas in a Bavarian Village by Elizabeth von Armin
✅159. Freedom by Nancy Morrison
✅160. On Skating by Cornelia Otis Skinner
✅161. Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie by Beryl Bainbridge
✅162. The Pantomime by Stella Margetson
✅163. On Leavin' Notes by Alice Childress

✅164. The Rise: A Short Story by Ian Rankin
✅165. The Chef by Andy Weir
✅166. The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick

📌Challenge #6 - Group Reads and/or Buddy Reads

The challenge is to read 12 total books from this year's group poll winners or Buddy Reads, in any combination.

✅1. Twelve Angry Men
✅2. Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories
✅3. The 39 Steps
✅4. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
✅5. The Moon Is Down 🎧
✅6. The Hobbit
✅7. Medea
✅8. Washington Square
✅9. Lady Windermere's Fan
✅10. The Blue Castle
✅11. Children of the Corn
✅12. Brokeback Mountain

📌Challenge #7 - Expand Your Horizon With New Authors

Seek out at least six (6) authors that you have never previously read, from any genre or era you want.

✅1. Reginald Rose - Twelve Angry Men
✅2. Ellen Raskin - The Westing Game
✅3. William Fryer Harvey - The Mysterious Mr. Badman
✅4. John Buchan - The 39 Steps
✅5. George Gissing - The Odd Women
✅6. Ella Cheever Thayer - Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes
✅7. Bonnie Garmus - Lessons in Chemistry
✅8. Maud Cairnes - Strange Journey
✅9. J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit
✅10. Elizabeth Taylor - Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
✅11. Michael Connelly - The Black Echo
✅12. Barbara Pym - Excellent Women
✅13. J.C. Masterman - An Oxford Tragedy
✅14. John Ferguson - Death of Mr. Dodsley
✅15. Howard Pyle - The Adventures of Robin Hood
✅16. Theodora Benson - Which Way?
✅17. Michelle Obama - Becoming
✅18. Harry Kemelman - Friday the Rabbi Slept Late
✅19. Ryūnosuke Akutagawa - In a Grove
✅20. Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons
✅21. Lewis Padgett - Mimsy Were The Borogoves
✅22. Catherine Aird - The Religious Body
✅23. Susan Glaspell - A Jury Of Her Peers
✅24. Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe
✅25. Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife
✅26. James Hilton - Lost Horizon
✅27. Dorothy Whipple - High Wages
✅28. Tove Jansson - The Summer Book
✅29. Alfred Uhry - Driving Miss Daisy
✅30. Bryan Stevenson - Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
✅31. Kate Quinn - The Huntress
✅32. Fredrik Backman - A Man Called Ove
✅33. Euripides - Medea
✅34. Henry James - Washington Square
✅35. N.K. Jemisin - The Fifth Season
✅36. Jean Webster - Daddy-Long-Legs
✅37. Kenneth Grahame - The Wind in the Willows
✅38. Francis Vivian - The Death of Mr. Lomas
✅39. John Webster - The Duchess of Malfi
✅40. William Goldman - The Princess Bride
✅41. Stephen King - Children of the Corn
✅42. Annie Proulx - Brokeback Mountain
✅43. Noel Streatfeild - White Boots
✅44. Charlotte MacLeod - Rest You Merry
✅45. Margery Williams Bianco - The Velveteen Rabbit
✅46. Ellery Queen - The Roman Hat Mystery
✅47. James Clear - Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
✅48. Elizabeth Peters - Crocodile on the Sandbank

📌Challenge #8 - Most Popular Goodreads Books Listed by Year

Locate and list 10 books that most interest you from the year of your choice. The challenge is to read five 5 books from that list.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/popula...

10 Books of Interest for 1930

✅1. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
2. Very Good, Jeeves! by P.G. Wodehouse
✅3. Miss Mole by E.H. Young
4. The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West
5. Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham
✅6. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
✅7. High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
✅8. It Walks by Night by John Dickson Carr
9. Giant's Bread by Mary Westmacott
10. The Virgin and the Gypsy by D.H. Lawrence

📌Challenge #10 - The Half a Millennium Challenge with a Sour Lemon Twist of Difficult

Select five books from five different centuries, using the same decade for each century you select. They do not have to be consecutive centuries but must be the same decade.

✅21st Century - 2011 - The Martian
✅20th Century - 1911 - The Lost World
✅19th Century - 1814 - Journey to the Centre of the Earth
✅18th Century - 1719 - Robinson Crusoe
✅17th Century - 1614 - The Duchess of Malfi

📌Challenge #11 - Old and New Linked Categories

Select five categories of your choice. Once you make your category selections, link the categories by finding and reading an Old School (1899 or older) and a New School book (1900-1999) that contains some part or is all about your selected categories.

1. Surplus Women and their Treatment
✅Old School: The Odd Women
✅New School: Excellent Women

2. A couple falls in love through correspondence where only the man has seen the woman
✅Old School: Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes
✅New School: Daddy-Long-Legs

3. Takes place on an island
✅Old School: Robinson Crusoe
✅New School: Swallows and Amazons

4. Has a band of three young fighters
✅Old School: The Three Musketeers
✅New School: The Princess Bride

5. Unfaithful husband and Murderous Wife
✅Old School: Medea
✅New School: The Hollow

6. Bankrupt male heir marries heiress
✅Old School: Doctor Thorne
✅New School: A Civil Contract

📌Challenge #12 - A-Z Author

✅A Elizabeth von Arnim, Jeffrey Archer, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
✅B Christianna Brand, John Buchan, Theodora Benson
✅C Anton Chekhov, Agatha Christie, Truman Capote, John le Carré, John Dickson Carr, Maud Cairnes
✅D Daniel Defoe, Alexandre Dumas
✅E E.R. Punshon
✅F John Ferguson
✅G John Grisham, George Gissing, Ursula K. Le Guin
✅H O. Henry, William Fryer Harvey, Dashiell Hammett
✅I Michael Innes
✅J Tove Jansson
✅K Harry Kemelman
✅L D.H. Lawrence, Ira Levin
✅M J.C. Masterman
✅N Audrey Niffenegger
✅O Emmuska Orczy
✅P Barbara Pym, Howard Pyle,
✅Q Kate Quinn, Ellery Queen
✅R Reginald Rose, Ellen Raskin, Arthur Ransome
✅S Georges Simenon, Maj Sjowall, John Steinbeck
✅T Ella Cheever Thayer, J.R.R. Tolkien, Elizabeth Taylor
✅U Alfred Uhry
✅V Jules Verne
✅W Andy Weir, Per Wahlöö, Virginia Woolf, John Wyndham
Below Only One Letter Needed for Successful Challenge
X Diana Xarissa
✅Y E.H. Young
Z Carlos Ruiz Zafón

I have read a few of the books you have planned so far, and none I found to be duds. I really hope you enjoy The Day of the Triffids. It looks like we both are planning to read The Red and the Black and Shogun, they have been on my TBR for years. Good luck with you continued planning.

Looks like fun, Shaina! I see one so far that we should read together: Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes. A friend recommended it to me a few years ago and I never got to it. She really enjoyed it. I think we will too!

Bob wrote: "I have read a few of the books you have planned so far, and none I found to be duds. I really hope you enjoy The Day of the Triffids. It looks like we both are planning to read The Red and the Blac..."

Thank you, Bob! I'm really looking forward to Triffids and equally scared about reading The Red and the Black. I look forward to reading your thoughts on Shogun and the Stendhal.

Terris wrote: "Looks like fun, Shaina! I see one so far that we should read together: Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes. A friend recommended it to me a few years ago and I never got to it. ..."

Done! I think it is available on Serial Reader too. Let's fix a month and just go for it.

Shaina wrote: "Terris wrote: "Looks like fun, Shaina! I see one so far that we should read together: Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes. A friend recommended it to me a few years ago and I ne..."

How about February? That sounds like a good month to read a romance -- Valentine's Day! ;)

Yes! Yes! February it is.

Shaina wrote: "Yes! Yes! February it is."

I'll pencil it in :)

I loved Wired Love this year, hope you enjoy it!

Thanks, Carolien! I also plan to read Xingu. I see you really enjoyed it.

Shaina wrote: "Thanks, Carolien! I also plan to read Xingu. I see you really enjoyed it."

Yes, Xingu is great fun!

Great plans, Shaina. Shogun is a particular favorite of mine. Have fun.

Shaina wrote: "Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR

Choose 12 books you want to read and list three alternates, to use as substitutes should one of your choices need to be replaced. You do not have to read all 15 books ..."

You have a lot of nice Science fiction. I have never read The Day of the Triffids. I looks good and I have heard of it for years. Also I own a copy of The Wind's Twelve Quarters but I have not started it yet. Hmmm. I might look at my lists again. LOL

Lynn wrote: "Shaina wrote: "Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR

Choose 12 books you want to read and list three alternates, to use as substitutes should one of your choices need to be replaced. You do not have to rea..."

Thanks, Lynn! I love Sci-fi and try to read as many as I can. I'm also reading City in 2023 after seeing your recommendation. I include one John Wyndham and Ursula Le Guin/ Ray Bradbury usually as they rarely let me down. I hope you pick some more sci-fi from your lists..lol. I'm going to use The Wind's Twelve Quarters as short story reads too ;p

I have chosen 1977 as the year for Challenge #8, so I have listed in #8 and also in the #1 Old and New Challenge

A Heritage of Stars by Clifford D. Simak
Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper This is book #5 from The Dark is Rising Series
The Honorable Schoolboy by John le Carré
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven
and to fill out the five
Gateway by Frederik Pohl

Heavy on Sci Fi, LOL.

The Wind's Twelve Quarters may end up in Bingo.

You are off to a great start, Shiana! Congratulations! The Turn of the Screw is so good! I hope you get to that one.

I looks like we should have a good group for Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. I'm looking forward to it.

Looks like your year is off to a roaring start.

It is indeed, Bob!

Thanks, Sue! I can't wait to get to both of them.

Lynn, 1977 looks like a great year in sci-fi. I tried picking sci-fi for a decade but I couldn't make it work.

Completed Challenge #5 Short Stories. Reading more O. Henry has confirmed my love for his stories and cemented The Cactus (my third read of it) as an all-time favourite.

I'm going to continue reading more short stories by other authors and this format of multiple stories by a single author at a time seems to appeal to me.

Congrats on completing the short stories. Short stories are a favorite of mine. I have read several by O. Henry, and agree he is one of the best. I will have to read The Cactus soon.

Bob wrote: "Congrats on completing the short stories. Short stories are a favorite of mine. I have read several by O. Henry, and agree he is one of the best. I will have to read The Cactus soon."

Thanks, Bob! I would love to hear your thoughts on "The Cactus" once you read it.

I love O Henry too particularly his surprise endings. I haven’t read The Cactus but know he lived in Texas for a while before heading to New York. I will definitely look for this to read!

Shaina wrote: "Completed Challenge #5 Short Stories. Reading more O. Henry has confirmed my love for his stories and cemented The Cactus (my third read of it) as an all-time favourite.

I'm going to continue rea..."

Congrats on finishing the short story challenge!! I also enjoy O. Henry's humor. My favorite is The Ransom of Red Chief. I just laugh out loud at that one! :)

Lori wrote: "I love O Henry too particularly his surprise endings. I haven’t read The Cactus but know he lived in Texas for a while before heading to New York. I will definitely look for this to read!"

Lori, I agree with you about his endings. I also love how he builds up to the ending. I didn't see the surprise coming in The Last Leaf either. It's another of my favourites.

Terris wrote: "Shaina wrote: "Completed Challenge #5 Short Stories. Reading more O. Henry has confirmed my love for his stories and cemented The Cactus (my third read of it) as an all-time favourite.

I'm going ..."

Thanks, Terri! I will read that soon. I just checked and it's available online.

I think I'll add The Last Leaf to my short story TBR list too!

Wow you have already finished a Challenge!! Way to go.

Shaina, I read The Cactus. I decided to stop by and let you know I agree with you, it is excellent. Now I find two more I must read soon. Maybe this weekend I will get to The Ransom of Red Chief and The Last Leaf.

Bob wrote: "Shaina, I read The Cactus. I decided to stop by and let you know I agree with you, it is excellent. Now I find two more I must read soon. Maybe this weekend I will get to The Ransom of Red Chief an..."

I'm so glad you enjoyed "The Cactus". I think you will like these two as well.

Lynn wrote: "Wow you have already finished a Challenge!! Way to go."

Yes, Lynn! I hope I finish the other challenges at a similar pace. The Fiction-Non fiction will be the last one off my list.

Completed Challenge #7 - Expand Your Horizon With New Authors. I loved George Gissing, Maud Cairnes, and Reginald Rose. I think I will seek out more George Gissing books.

I too, have finished challenges #5 and #7, it feels good. I also read both The Ransom of Red Chief and The Last Leaf., O. Henry really had a talent.

Maud Cairnes is new to me, Shaina. I will check her out. I've been skirting Gissing for years now, so time to get to him! I so agree about O.Henry. He is just a marvelously skilled writer!

Sara wrote: "Maud Cairnes is new to me, Shaina. I will check her out. I've been skirting Gissing for years now, so time to get to him! I so agree about O.Henry. He is just a marvelously skilled writer!"

Sara, I think you will like Gissing. All the British Library Women Writers I have read so far have been great. I plan to read one each month.

There is no one like O. Henry!

Bob wrote: "I too, have finished challenges #5 and #7, it feels good. I also read both The Ransom of Red Chief and The Last Leaf., O. Henry really had a talent."

It does feel good indeed!

Completed Challenge #4 - Member's Choice. I'm not very keen on non-fiction however I quite enjoyed listening to Michelle Obama narrate Becoming - 5 stars

A very humourous and enjoyable book of poetry for cat lovers - I Could Pee on This: and Other Poems by Cats. I'm currently reading the dog version of it - I Could Chew on This: And Other Poems by Dogs.

I wish I had read Robin Hood earlier but better late than never. I enjoyed all the exploits but the end was quite upsetting.

Just look at all those green checkmarks! Also sounds like you are enjoying your choices, which is really the point. Bravo, Shaina.