Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Challenge 1: New and Old TBR
Completed 12/12

Old School:
1. David Copperfield-Charles Dickens 02/04/23 (3.5*)
2. Middlemarch-George Eliot 03/08/23 (3.5*)
3. The Brothers Karamazov-Fyodor Dostoevsky 04/27/23 ***

New School:
4. Alias Grace-Margaret Atwood 04/10/23 ****
5. Lolita-Vladimir Nabokov 06/20/23 **
6. The Trial-Franz Kafka 05/22/23 ***

My Wild Card Six:
7. My Name Is Asher Lev-Chaim Potok 07/22/23 *****
8. This Side of Paradise-F. Scott Fitzgerald 06/07/23 (2.5*)
9. The Good Soldier-Ford Madox Ford 07/19/23 ****
10. Mansfield Park-Jane Austen 05/31/23 ****
11. The Return of the Native-Thomas Hardy 07/09/23 ***
12. Sister Carrie-Theodore Dreiser 06/12/23 ***

Alternates:
A-1. Silas Marner-George Eliot
A-2. Notes from the Underground-Fyodor Dostoevsky 07/09/23 ***
A-3. Northanger Abbey-Jane Austen

Challenge 1: Old and New TBR
Completed 12/12

Old School:
1. Antigone-Sophocles 11/21/23 ***
2. Medea-Euripides 02/09/23 ****
3. Much Ado About Nothing-William Shakespeare 03/02/23 ***

New School:
4. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof-Tennessee Williams 10/16/23 *****
5. Master Harold and the Boys-Athol Fugard 02/10/23 *****
6. The Cherry Orchard-Anton Chekhov 02/26/23 ****

My Wild Card Six:
7. Othello-William Shakespeare 07/15/23 (3.5*)
8. Tartuffe-Molière 10/13/23 ****
9. Volpone-Ben Jonson 10/15/23 ***
10. As You Like It-William Shakespeare 09/02/23 ***
11. M. Butterfly-David Henry Hwang 10/14/23 ****
12. My Last Duchess and Other Poems-Robert Browning 11/22/23 ***

Challenge 2: Second Place or Worse
Completed 4/4

Old:
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman-Laurence Sterne (Poll: August 2020) 12/26/23 **

New:
Main Street-Sinclair Lewis (Poll: July 2017) 08/15/22 ***

Short Story:/Novella:
The Rocking-Horse Winner-D.H. Lawrence (Poll: May 2020) 07/11/23 *****

Quarterly Long Read:
A Fine Balance-Rohinton Mistry (2nd Quarter 2020) 03/20/23 ***

Challenge 5: Short Story
Completed 24/24

1. A Child's Christmas in Wales-Dylan Thomas 01/01/23 ***
2. One Christmas-Truman Capote 01/01/23 ****
3. What Christmas Is As We Grow Older-Charles Dickens 01/02/23 ***
4. The Holly-Tree Inn-Charles Dickens 01/04/23 ***
5. On Picket Duty-Louisa May Alcott 01/10/23 ***
6. Gimple The Fool-Isaac Bashevis Singer 01/24/23 ***
7. Why I Live at the P.O-Eudora Welty 01/25/23 ***
8. A Party Down at the Square-Ralph Ellison 02/17/23 ****
9. The Guest-Albert Camus 02/18/23 ***
10. The Overcoat-Nikolai Gogol 02/23/23 ***
11. A Woman on a Roof-Doris Lessing 03/25/23 ***
12. A Company of Laughing Faces-Nadine Gordimer 03/26/23 ***
13. Sonny's Blues-James Baldwin 03/27/23 ****
14. Patriotism-Yukio Mishima 03/28/23 **
15. Revelation-Flannery O'Connor 03/29/23 ****
16. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings-Gabriel García Márquez 03/30/23 ****
17. The Secret Sharer-Joseph Conrad 06/07/23 *****
18. The Storm-Kate Chopin 06/14/23 ***
19. Greasy Lake-T. Coraghessan Boyle 06/28/23 ****
20. My Life with the Wave-Octavio Paz 06/29/23 ****
21. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas-Ursula K. Le Guin 07/01/23 ****
22. "Jungle Video" (Men Under Water-Ralph Lombreglia) 07/08/23 ***
23. "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" (What We Talk About When We Talk About Love-Raymond Carver). 07/09/23. ***
24. Sorrow Acre-Isak Dinesen 07/10/23 ****

Re-reads:
1. Young Goodman Brown-Nathaniel Hawthorne 01/22/23 ***
2. The Jilting of Granny Weatherall-Katherine Anne Porter 06/13/23 ****

Challenge 6: Group Reads and/or Buddy Reads
Completed 12/12

1. The 39 Steps-John Buchan 02/06/23 ***
2. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man-Fyodor Dostoevsky. 02/16/23 **
3. Brokeback Mountain-Annie Proulx 03/25/23 ****
4. The Moon Is Down-John Steinbeck 04/23/23 **
5. Children of the Corn-Stephen King 06/06/23 ***
6. How Much Land Does a Man Need?-Leo Tolstoy 06/26/23 ***
7. The Bear-William Faulkner 06/28/23 ***
8. Kiss of the Spiderwoman-Manuel Puig 09/06/23 **
9. Stoner-John Williams 10/10/23 ***
10. The Loved One-Evelyn Waugh 10/12/23 ***
11. The Sound of Waves-Yukio Mishima 10/12/23 ***
12. The Night Before Christmas-Nikolai Gogol 10/30/23 ***
13. A Very Easy Death-Simone de Beauvoir 10/31/23 ***
14. The Symposium-Plato 11/01/23 ***

Challenge 9: Fiction/Non-Fiction
Completed 5/5

✓American Civil War
F: The Civil War Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce-Ambrose Bierce 01/21/23 ***
NF: Slavery in Massachusetts-Henry David Thoreau 07/28/23 ****
NF: Memoranda during the War-Walt Whitman 10/29/23 ***

✓American Southwest
F: Death Comes for the Archbishop--Willa Cather 02/15/23 *****
NF: Desert Solitaire-Edward Abbey 12/06/23 ***

✓Women in Chicago
F: Sister Carrie-Theodore Dreiser 06/12/23 ***
NF: A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil-Jane Addams 12/16/23 ***

✓Jewish Art and History
F: My Name Is Asher Lev-Chaim Potok 07/22/23 *****
NF: Painted in Words: A Memoir-Samuel Bak 12/22/23 ****

✓Social Justice: Poverty
F: Oliver Twist-Charles Dickens 07/27/23 ****
NF: Twenty Years at Hull-House: With Autobiographical Notes-Jane Addams 12/07/23 ***

Challenge 13: A-Z Title
Completed 24/24

A: Arrowsmith-Sinclair Lewis 11/08/23 ***
B: A Bend in the River-V.S. Naipaul 11/18/23 ***
C: Oedipus at Colonus-Sophocles 11/20/23 ***
D: Little Dorrit-Charles Dickens 08/27/23 ****
E: Electra-Sophocles 02/16/23 ***
F: The Mill on the Floss-George Eliot 08/02/23 ****
G: Great Expectations-Charles Dickens 11/14/23 ****
H: Heart of a Dog-Mikhail Bulgakov 03/24/23 ***
I: The Island of Dr. Moreau-H.G. Wells 07/22/23 ***
J: Lord Jim-Joseph Conrad 08/21/23 ***
K: Kindred-Octavia E. Butler 08/06/23 **
L: Lady Windermere's Fan-Oscar Wilde 09/03/23 ***
M: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes-Arthur Conan Doyle 04/11/23 ****
N: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket-Edgar Allan Poe 05/07/23 **
O: One Hundred Years of Solitude-Gabriel García Márquez 08/30/23 **
P: In Praise of Folly-Erasmus 02/12/23 ***
Q: The Man Without Qualities: Volume I-Robert Musil 02/24/23 ***
R: The Cider House Rules-John Irving. 01/10/23 ***
S: Sons and Lovers-D.H. Lawrence 3/24/23 (2.5*)
T: Twelve Angry Men-Reginald Rose. 01/11/23 ***
U: Ulysses-James Joyce 04/12/23 **
V: Victory -Joseph Conrad 11/04/23 ***
W: Washington Square-Henry James 07/16/23 ****
X/Y/Z: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz-L. Frank Baum 02/10/23 ***

Of the Dickens I’ve read so far Copperfield is the best. Alias Grace and Silas Marner are also excellent. Great list, enjoy.