Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

✔︎Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR
Challenge #2 - Second Place or Worse
Challenge #3A - Decade
✔︎Challenge #3B - Century
✔︎Challenge #5 - Short Story
✔︎Challenge #6 - Group Reads and/or Buddy Reads
✔︎Challenge #8 - Most Popular Goodreads Books Listed by Year 1922
Challenge #9 – Fiction/Non-Fiction

✔︎ as completed

Completed: #1 Old & New Challenge

Old School
✔︎Washington Square by Henry James (1880)
✔︎The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (1893)
✔︎Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)

New School - Stegner
✔︎All the Little Live Things (1967)
The Spectator Bird (1976)
Angle of Repose (1971)

Wild Cards - Vowels
✔︎Angel by Elizabeth Taylor (1957)
✔︎The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens (1969)
✔︎Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann (1932)
✔︎The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark (1940)
The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna (1954)
✔︎The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr (2000)

Alternates
✔︎Frost in May by Antonia White (1933)
✔︎The Blackbirder by Dorothy B. Hughes (1943)
✔︎The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson (2004)

#2 Second Place or Worse: 3/4

✔︎Short Story: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

✔︎Old School: The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green

✔︎New School: A Lost Lady by Willa Cather

Long Read:

#3A Decade: 9/10
Completed: #3B Century plus one

Decade
✔︎1947 The Fabulous Clip Joint by Fredric Brown (Edgar)
✔︎1948 Blood on the Dining-Room Floor: A Murder Mystery by Gertrude Stein
✔︎1949 A Wreath of Roses by Elizabeth Taylor
1950 The Town by Conrad Richter (Pulitzer)
✔︎1951 School for Love by Olivia Manning
✔︎1952 The Hidden Flower by Pearl S. Buck
✔︎1953 A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin (Edgar)
✔︎1954 The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
✔︎1955 The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
✔︎1956 A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong (Edgar)

Century
✔︎1908 The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton
✔︎1913 Reeds in the Wind by Grazia Deledda
✔︎1927 Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
✔︎1936 Death at the President's Lodging by Michael Innes
✔︎1945 A Fugue in Time by Rumer Godden
✔︎1953 Kingfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden
✔︎1968 True Grit by Charles Portis
✔︎1970 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
✔︎1982 The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
✔︎1997 Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
✔︎2006 The Judas Field: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr

Completed: #5 Short Story

✔︎1. Sanatorium by W. Somerset Maugham
✔︎2. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
✔︎3. House of Flowers by Truman Capote
✔︎4. A Diamond Guitar by Truman Capote
✔︎5. A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
✔︎6. Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose
✔︎7. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
✔︎8. María Concepción by Katherine Anne Porter
✔︎9. Virgin Violeta by Katherine Anne Porter
✔︎10. The Martyr by Katherine Anne Porter
✔︎11. Magic by Katherine Anne Porter
✔︎12. Rope by Katherine Anne Porter
✔︎13. Gimpel the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer
✔︎14. Yentl the Yeshiva Boy by Isaac Bashevis Singer
✔︎15. The Catbird Seat by James Thurber
✔︎16. On Being Ill by Virginia Woolf
✔︎17. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco
✔︎18. Children of the Corn by Stephen King
✔︎19. In a Grove by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
✔︎20. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
✔︎21. The Bear by William Faulkner
✔︎22. The Woman in the Room by Stephen King
✔︎23. The Lawnmower Man by Stephen King
✔︎24. Night Surf by Stephen King

Completed: #6 Group Reads and/or Buddy Reads

Group Read
✔︎1. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
✔︎2. Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose
✔︎3. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
✔︎4. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
✔︎5. Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
✔︎6. Children of the Corn by Stephen King
✔︎7. The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
✔︎8. The Bear by William Faulkner

Buddy Read
✔︎1. The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
✔︎2. The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr
✔︎3. The Judas Field: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr
✔︎4. Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger

Completed: #8 Most Popular Goodreads Books Listed in 1922

✔︎1. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco
✔︎2. Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
✔︎3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
✔︎4. The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
✔︎5. In a Grove by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

#9 Fiction/Non-Fiction: 4.5/5

Frontier Texas
✔︎Fiction: The Unforgiven by Alan LeMay
✔︎Nonfiction: Nine Years Among the Indians, 1870-1879: The Story of the Captivity and Life of a Texan Among the Indians by Herman Lehmann

WWI - MIT (Men in Translation)
✔︎Fiction: The Road Back by Erich Maria Remarque
✔︎Nonfiction: Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger

WWII - Homefront
✔︎Fiction: Table Two by Marjorie Wilenski
✔︎Nonfiction: The Farm in the Green Mountains by Alice Herdan-Zuckmayer

Science
✔︎Fiction: The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
Nonfiction: Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox

Banned Books
✔︎Fiction: Animal Farm by George Orwell
✔︎Nonfiction: Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Personal Challenge - Series

Civil War Novels by Howard Bahr - Completed
The Black Flower
✔︎The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War
✔︎The Judas Field: A Novel of the Civil War

Mountains Novels by John Ehle
The Land Breakers
The Journey of August King
The Road
Time of Drums
✔︎The Winter People
Lion on the Hearth
Last One Home

Great lists, Marilyn. I'm so jealous that you have 3 Wallace Stegner books on your old and new! I hope you love Angle of Repose as much as I did and I need to try and get to some more of his.

Marvelous choices, Marilyn. Looking forward to your thoughts on so many of them!

I have enjoyed several of your choices, especially Angle of Repose, True Grit, and Twelve Angry Men. Enjoy!

I'll be particularly interested to hear what you think of
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor (1957)
The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna (1954)
as they were both 5-Stars for me!

Thanks, everyone! I love January. Big plans and high hopes.

In January I read 3 cowboy books (The Cold Dish, True Grit and The Ox-Bow Incident) and 6 short stories. I'll call it a good start to the year.

Read The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. 5 stars. I hope it wins the poll someday so that I can hear other peoples' thoughts.

I didn't think I'd like cowboy books, but ever since Lonesome Dove, I crave them. Some day I need to try a Craig Johnson book.

Congratulations on your progress, Marilyn!

Sue wrote: "I didn't think I'd like cowboy books, but ever since Lonesome Dove, I crave them. Some day I need to try a Craig Johnson book.

Congratulations on your progress, Marilyn!"

I get what you're saying about cowboy books. I just bought The Unforgiven by Alan LeMay. If I like it I will also read his book The Searchers because I loved the movie (and I supposedly don't like Westerns).

Since you liked Lonesome Dove, you might want to try the sequels. Another I read recently was The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains, really good.

It is a kind of revelation when you find there are "westerns" and then there are marvelous books set in the West, with terrific depth and characterization. I have discovered these are some of my favorites. I have The Unforgiven downloaded and hope to get to it soon also. Happy reading!

I agree, Sara. Occasionally I remind myself that there are good and bad books in all genres. It comes down to good storytelling.

The Virginian makes me think of Lee J. Cobb, James Drury and Doug McClure. Memories from way back.

5 challenges complete and 3 coming up one book short. Overall, an excellent year.

Excellent, indeed.

Congratulations on a successful year, Marilyn. One book short on three is really complete in my eyes. Every challenge should have 1 free space : ) I used 2 short books at the last minute to complete 2 of mine.

That's fantastic! Well done with all your reading. I hope you really enjoyed it!