Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

What do you have in mind for May?

I'm 20-25 books away from finishing all 13 challenges in the challenge buffet. (I finished Bingo in April.) There are a lot of short books and short stories among what remains. I'm going to see if I can read 10 of them in May, together with some other classics. Here's the plan:

Buffet
✔️1. Bulgakov: Heart of a Dog (1925)
✔️2. Garnett: Lady into Fox (1922)
✔️3. Aristophanes: Lysistrata (423BCE), from Lysistrata and Other Plays
✔️4. Adler: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading (1940)
5. Bombeck: If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries What Am I Doing in the Pits? (1971) <- Roll forward to June
✔️6. Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (1719)
✔️7. Coward: Hay Fever - A light comedy (1925)
✔️8. Leblanc: Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief (1907)
✔️9. Wilde: The Decay Of Lying (1889)
10. Besson: Lie With Me (2017) <- TBR Challenge <- Roll forward to June

Extracurricular
✔️11. Dickens: Dombey and Son (1848)
12. Wodehouse: A Prefect's Uncle (1903)<- Roll forward to June
✔️13. Pratchett: Small Gods (1992)
14. Plato: The Last Days of Socrates (400-386 BCE)
15. Aristophanes: Lysistrata and Other Plays (425-411 BCE)
16. Aristotle: Book I of The Nicomachean Ethics (350 BCE)
17. Aristotle: Book I of The Politics (351 BCE)

I'm also starting
*Dickens: Oliver Twist (1838),
but I'm only reading a chapter a day, so I won't finish in May.

Added later:
✔️Walpole: The Castle of Otranto (1764)

JP how nice to be within reach of finishing your challenges. I plan to read them then see something shiny and get sidetracked LOL>

Here's a list. Let's see how many of them I actually read.

Short Stories
Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin (1965)
The Red Inn by Honoré de Balzac (1831)


Books
Summer by Edith Wharton (1917)
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn (1939)

Books in progress
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (1882)
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro (1995)

My plans for May:

finish up from last month:
in progress 1. The Library at Mount Char (Scott Hawkins)

very likely:
1. Exhalation (Ted Chiang)
2. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (Edgar Allan Poe)
3. Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens)
4. The Nickel Boys (Colson Whitehead)

probably:
1. Ruth (Elizabeth Gaskell)
2. I Who Have Never Known Men (Jacqueline Harpman)
3. The Moon Is Down (John Steinbeck)

possibly:
1. Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
2. Queen of Sorcery (David Eddings)
3. Daisy Jones & The Six (Taylor Jenkins Reid)
4. The Bitch (Pilar Quintana)
5. The Weird of the White Wolf (Michael Moorcock)
6. Wives and Daughters (Elizabeth Gaskell)

unplanned:

Finish:
Wives and Daughters Elizabeth Gaskell ★★★1\2
The Marriage Portrait Maggie O'Farrell ★★★ 1/2

Begin and finish:
The Moon Is Down John Steinbeck ★★★
Summer Edith Wharton ★★★1\2
Go Down, Moses William Faulkner ★★★★★
Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth Bryan Burrough ★★★★
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Mary Beard ★★★1\2
The Three Impostors Arthur Machen ★★1\2
Letters of Abelard and Heloise Pierre Abélard trans John Hughes ★★★
Cursed Bread Sophie Mackintosh ★★
Fire Rush Jacqueline Crooks ★★★★
Pod Laline Paull ★★★★
Whale Cheon Myeong-Kwan trans Chi Young Kim ★★★1\2
Such Small Hands Andrés Barba trans Lisa Dillman ★★★
Demian Hermann Hesse
trans Damian Searles ★★★★

Begin:
Oliver Twist Charles Dickens
The Dictionary of Lost Words Pip Williams
A Spell of Good Things Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ ★★★1\2
A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare ★★★★★
A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 James Shapiro ★★★★

I've decided to read few books as from now on.

My May reads:-

- Truman
-Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

That is it. Will be pretty busy with these books.


Last Movie: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado, 2022) 3/10

Matt wrote: "Luffy wrote: "I've decided to read few books as from now on.

My May reads:-

- Truman
-Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

That is it. Will be pr..."

Thank you, Matt! :)


Last Movie: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado, 2022) 3/10

So many good books floating around here, as usual! Lynn, I loved both Sonny's Blues and Summer, so I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of those.

Here's my overly-ambitious list--mostly group reads. I'm very excited about May!

The Moon Is Down, John Steinbeck
The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
A Wreath of Roses, Elizabeth Taylor
Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

And I'm really hoping to start The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart.

I'll also read some short stories, and am hoping to fit in some surprises!

I will finish my reread of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. COMPLETED May 3, 2023

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen for The Literary Society group

The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve for my in-person book club

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell for Catching Up On Classics long-read April-June

Marmee by Sarah Miller for The Enchanted Book Club

Venetia by Georgette Heyer

The Call of the Wild by Jack London for Everyone Has Read This But Me-Classics

Well, my months never quite go to plan, but here goes.

Books my book clubs are reading this month and/or book club buddy reads:
Summer
The Moon Is Down

Make Progress in my Challenges:
The Moon and Sixpence
Kokoro
The Lathe of Heaven
Cold Comfort Farm

Other:
The Secret Agent
Piranesi

my Core 8 for May:

Crime And Punishment Dostoevsky, Fyodor 1866 - second half
Rickshaw Boy She, Lao 1937
Les Miserables Hugo, Victor 1862 - middle third
Debacle, La Zola, Emile 1892 - first half
Justine (Alexandria Quartet#1) Durrell, Lawrence 1957
Wieland Brown, Charles Brockden 1798
Slouching Towards Kalamazoo De Vries, Peter 1983
Blue Flower, The Fitzgerald, Penelope 1995

RJs MAY 2023 READS

Will Finish
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The 10:30 From Marseille by Sébastien Japrisot
Jazz by Toni Morrison
The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck
Vanish in an Instant by Margaret Millar
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Summer by Edith Wharton
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

Will Read But Won't Finish
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Damnation Game by Clive Barker
Dead Man's Blues by Ray Celestin
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Kull: Exile of Atlantis by Robert E. Howard
Martin Eden by Jack London
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 edited by Robert Silverberg
The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe
Asimov's Chronology of the World: The History of the World From the Big Bang to Modern Times by Isaac Asimov

Luffy wrote: "I've decided to read few books as from now on.

My May reads:-
- Truman..."

I'm hoping to Finish Truman this month.

Katy wrote: "Luffy wrote: "I've decided to read few books as from now on.

My May reads:-
- Truman..."

I'm hoping to Finish Truman this month."

Excellent, Katy! I have reached 21% today. See you and Happy Reading!


Last Movie: Christmas with the Kranks (Joe Roth, 2004) 4/10

In the end, these are the books I got around to in May. A couple 2.5 ratings, which is quite low for me, but I did love Exhalation, which I'd been hearing about for a long time. Glad that one wasn't a disappointment!

finish up from last month:
✔ 1. The Library at Mount Char (Scott Hawkins) ★★★★ (4.0)

very likely:
✔ 1. Exhalation (Ted Chiang) ★★★★★ (4.5)
✔ 2. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (Edgar Allan Poe) ★★★ (2.5)
in progress 25% 3. Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens)
✔ 4. The Nickel Boys (Colson Whitehead) ★★★ (3.5)

probably:
in progress 13% 1. Ruth (Elizabeth Gaskell)
✔ 2. I Who Have Never Known Men (Jacqueline Harpman) ★★★ (3.5)
✔ 3. The Moon Is Down (John Steinbeck) ★★★★ (3.5)

possibly:
✔ 1. The Bitch (Pilar Quintana) ★★★★ (4.0)
✔ 2. The Last Astronaut (David Wellington) ★★★ (2.5)

unplanned:
✔ 1. Push (Sapphire) ★★★ (3.5)
✔ 2. Separating (John Updike) ★★★ (3.5)
✔ 3. How I Met My Husband (Alice Munro) ★★★★ (4.0)
✔ 4. Cathedral (Raymond Carver) ★★★★ (4.0)

Perhaps I will add one more to this list, but here is what I read in May:

Short Stories
The Doom of the Griffiths by Elizabeth Gaskell (1858) 5/12/2023 5*
Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin (1965) 5/23/2023 4*
Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1835) 5/23/2023 4* - This was a reread for me.

Books
Summer by Edith Wharton (1917)
5/13/2023 4*
Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë 5/29/2023 5*


Books in progress still - I am afraid these two may be laid aside for perhaps another year.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (1882)
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro (1995)

I also read two small children's books, not worth mentioning.

Things I read in May:

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1973) ★★★
Epitaph for a Spy: A Spy Thriller by Eric Ambler ★★★★
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga ★★★★★
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto ★★★★

Speculation by Nisi Shawl ★★★★
The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages ★★★★★ (re-read)
Out of Left Field by Ellen Klages ★★★★

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes ★
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty ★★★★★

No One Would Listen by Harry Markopolos ★★★★
Algebra the Beautiful: An Ode to Math's Least-Loved Subject by G. Arnell Williams ★★★

My plans for June include:
- Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds
- David Copperfield by Dickens Charles (I am almost done with this, but won't finish it today)
- Oliver Twist by Dickens Charles (in progress)
- The Tunnel by Ernesto Sábato (in progress)
- Victory City by Salman Rushdie
- Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau

so my "Core 8" went like this:

Crime And Punishment Dostoevsky, Fyodor - 4 Stars
Rickshaw Boy She, Lao - 4
Les Miserables Hugo, Victor - little behind, got to nearly half way...
Debacle, La Zola, Emile - little behind, only just started...
Justine (Alexandria Quartet#1) Durrell, Lawrence - DNF
Wieland Brown, Charles Brockden - 2
Slouching Towards Kalamazoo De Vries, Peter - 2
Blue Flower, The Fitzgerald, Penelope - 3

Darren wrote: "...Justine (Alexandria Quartet#1) Durrell, Lawrence - DNF"

Oh wow, what happened there? I have all four of those books lined up on my shelf waiting for the right moment to be read...

re Justine - yeah that was my fastest ever DNF of my 42 such (120 pages - faster even than Breathing Lessons, Pale Fire and Third Policeman which were all around 160)
in fact I was ready to DNF at 75 pages (!) but persevered for a bit longer
it was well written and I could see what style Durrell was going for, and it obviously appeals to a lot of other people, just not me!