Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Going to go for some different dishes in 2025

Challenges Taken
#1 Old and New Challenge 3/12
#2 Members Choice Challenge 9/9 COMPLETE
#3 New Authors 6/6 COMPLETE
#7 Series Books 5/7
#15 Award Winners 2/2 COMPLETE
#16 A-Z Title 6/23
#17 A-Z Author 21/23

Challenge #1 Old & New Challenge

Old School 1914 or earlier
1. He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
2. Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki
3. Money by Émile Zola

New School 1915-2005
1. The Wedding Group by Elizabeth Taylor
✅ 2. A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym
✅ 3. Symposium by Muriel Spark

Dusty Bookshelf Choices
1. Act of Oblivion
2. Arthur & George
✅ 3. Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire
4. The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou
5. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
6. Lessons in Chemistry

Alternatives
A1 - The Lost Pianos of Siberia
A2 - The Fortune Men
A3 - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Challenge #2 Members Choice Challenge

✅ 1. 19th Century or Older - At The Sign Of The Cat And Racket (1829)
✅ 2. 20th Century - Possession (1991)
✅ 3. 21st Century - North Woods (2023)
✅ 4. Nonfiction - The Last Mughal: The Fall of Delhi, 1857
✅ 5. An Author never read before - Snap by Belinda Bauer
✅ 6. Diversity, read a book from a religion, culture, country, or race different than yours - The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie
✅ 7. Members Choice Genre - Historical Fiction Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann
✅ 8. Members Choice Genre - Short Stories The Cubs and Other Stories by Mario Vargas Llosa
✅ 9. Members Choice Genre - Mystery - The Examiner by Janice Hallett

Challenge completed 13 July

Challenge #3 New Authors

✅ 1. Albert Angelo by B.S. Johnson
✅ 2. Death in Rome by Wolfgang Koeppen
✅ 3. The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning
✅ 4. Second Place by Rachel Cusk
✅ 5. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
✅ 6. The Book of Form & Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

Challenge completed 17 July

Challenge #7 Series Books

I will read the next 2 books in 3 series already started and start 1 new series (7 books for Challenge 7)

Possibles started…
Several series by Alexander McCall Smith
Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde
Inspector Montalbano by Andrea Camilleri
George Smiley by John Le Carré
Hawthorne & Horowitz by Anthony Horowitz

Possible new ..
Lawrence Jago series by Leonora Nattrass
—————————————————————————————————————
Challenge choices….
Malabar House series - Vaseem Khan
✅ The Lost Man of Bombay #3
✅ Death of a Lesser God #4

44 Scotland Street series - Alexander McCall Smith
✅ A Time of Love and Tartan #12
The Peppermint Tea Chronicles #13

Commissario Brunetti series - Donna Leon
✅ Drawing Conclusions #20
✅ Beastly Things #21

Vera series - Ann Cleeves
The Crow Trap #1

Challenge #15 Award Winners

Challenge requires 2 books
Some possibles from my TBR…
Nobel Prize Sanctuary or Light in August by William Faulkner or Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata
Booker Prize The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida or Last Orders
Pulitzer Prize - The Magnificent Ambersons or A Visit from the Goon Squad

And the 2 that made the challenge…..
Books chosen
✅ 1. American Pastoral by Philip Roth (Pulitzer Prize 1998)
✅ 2. Light in August by William Faulkner (Nobel Prize for Literature 1949)

Challenge completed 29 March

Challenge #16 A-Z Title

Going for the 23 book version and filling as many as possible with single word (or alliterative) titles!
✅ A - Albert Angelo by B.S. Johnson
B - Basti by Intizar Husain
C - Colditz by Ben Macintyre
D - Dirt by Sarah Sultoon
E - Evenfield by Rachel Ferguson
✅ F - Freakslaw by Jane Flett
G - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
✅ H - Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
I
J - J by Howard Jacobson
K - Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki
L - Loving by Henry Green
M - Meltdown by Ben Elton
N - Nemesis by Philip Roth
O - Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
✅ P - Possession by A.S. Byatt
*Q
✅ R - Rob Roy by Walter Scott
✅ S - Symposium by Muriel Spark
T - Thrown by Sara Cox
U - Undercurrent by Barney Norris
V - Venice by Jan Morris
W - Wilt by Tom Sharpe
*X
*Y
*Z

Challenge #17 A-Z Author

Going for the 23 book version
✅ A - Martin Amis - Dead Babies
✅ B - Charlotte Brontë - Shirley
✅ C - Italo Calvino - If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
✅ D - Nandini Das- Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire
✅ E - Jonn Elledge - A History of the World in 47 Borders: The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps
✅ F - William Faulkner - Light in August
✅ G - Graham Greene - England Made Me
✅ H - Robert Harris - Precipice
✅ I - Kazuo Ishiguro - Klara and the Sun
✅ J - B.S. Johnson - Albert Angelo
✅ K - Wolfgang Koeppen - Death in Rome
✅ L - Donna Leon - Drawing Conclusions
✅ M - Olivia Manning - The Balkan Trilogy
N
✅ O - Edna O'Brien - The Country Girls
✅ P - Barbara Pym - A Glass of Blessings
*Q
✅ R - Philip Roth - American Pastoral
✅ S - Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island
✅ T - Anthony Trollope - Cousin Henry
U - John Updike - Rabbit Redux
✅ V - Abraham Verghese - The Covenant of Water
✅ W- P.G. Wodehouse - Aunts Aren't Gentlemen
*X
✅ *Y - Hanya Yanagihara - A Little Life
*Z

Happy Reading for 2025, Pamela.

I like your planning ideas already, Pamela! I will also be reading Barbara Pym's A Glass of Blessings, and I hope you enjoy Elizabeth Taylor's The Wedding Group. Lots of good reading to look forward to! Enjoy ;)

You have an interesting assortment of books to read! I hope you enjoy them all.

Good luck on your challenges. "Aunts Aren't Gentlemen" is such a P. G. Wodehouse title for a book, ha ha!

Great plans, Pamela. I have a feeling your Old and New in particular is going to be a winner all the way through. Have fun!

January update - good start, especially on Member’s Choice and A-Z Authors.
Aiming to make a start on some other challenges this month….

You've made terrific progress! I really liked Treasure Island, and I hope you enjoyed it too. What did you think of A Covenant of Water and Glass of Blessings? Those are both on my list of potential future reads.

Wow, you have made some marvelous progress since I last checked in. I'm also interested in your reaction to Glass of Blessings...I think it is my next Pym.

Wobbley wrote: "You've made terrific progress! I really liked Treasure Island, and I hope you enjoyed it too. What did you think of A Covenant of Water and Glass of Blessings? Those are both on my list of potentia..."


I thought Treasure Island was great fun, and I really enjoyed both of the books you asked about. The Covenant of Water is beautifully written and has a great sense of place, I found it both moving and entertaining and although it was long it never dragged.

A Glass of Blessings was one of my favourites by Pym, who is already one of my favourite authors. I love how she finds joy and humour in everyday situations, and this put a smile on my face! Hope you both enjoy it, Wobbley and Sara.

Pamela wrote: "Wobbley wrote: "You've made terrific progress! I really liked Treasure Island, and I hope you enjoyed it too. What did you think of A Covenant of Water and Glass of Blessings? Those are both on my ..."

Thanks for the advice, Pamela! Those both sound really good.

Pamela, I also loved The Covenant of Water and Treasure Island surprised me with how good it was. Great picks!

Pamela wrote: "Wobbley wrote: "You've made terrific progress! I really liked Treasure Island, and I hope you enjoyed it too. What did you think of A Covenant of Water and Glass of Blessings? Those are both on my ..."

Pamela, I'm so glad you loved "A Glass of Blessings"! Pym is one of my favorite authors, and I'm trying to read as many of hers as I can find. I will be reading "A Glass of Blessings" within the next month -- now I'm really excited! :)

Completed my first challenge #15 Award Winners!

Congratulations, Pamela.

Great, Pamela! Maybe I'll copy you when I catch up. :-)

Yay, Pamela!

Also, since this is my first visit, awesome to see Jeeves/Wodehouse on here. I was introduced to him last year and loved Carry On, Jeeves!

And the Anthony Horowitz caught my attention too. I havent yet read it or him, but Magpie Murders is on my list for this year.

And i mustve missed it, but Treasure Island? That should be on my list, but not sure that it is, will fix that now. Haha

Edit: oh! And i guess i never thought about it, but O'brien under "O" tickles me. I might have put it under B, but no, thats silly, right? 😅🤷‍♀️

Well done completing your first challenge!

Challenge #2 Members Choice completed!

I could have used the same book to complete Challenge #3 New Authors but I want that one to be equal split male/female authors so will use another author.

Challenge #3 New Authors completed!

WooHoo!

Congrats, Pamela! I see you read A Ladder to the Sky. How did you like it? That book is waiting in the wings for me. It will be my fourth book by Boyne when I get to it, making him a favorite contemporary author.

I really enjoyed your review of The Balkan Trilogy. Sounds like something I must read. Well done, Pamela!

Terry wrote: "Congrats, Pamela! I see you read A Ladder to the Sky. How did you like it? That book is waiting in the wings for me. It will be my fourth book by Boyne when I get to it, making him a favorite conte..."

I really enjoyed A Ladder to the Sky, my first Boyne and I loved the way he created such a despicable but fascinating character. I would definitely read more by him.

Kathleen wrote: "I really enjoyed your review of The Balkan Trilogy. Sounds like something I must read. Well done, Pamela!"

Thanks Kathleen, I definitely grew to enjoy it more as the trilogy progressed and I think you would like it too.

Three completed challenges, congratulations!

Great job completing your New Authors challenge! Those authors are all new to me too.