Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Challenges for 2025:

1. Year-long slow reads of:
Anna Karenina with r/yearofannakarenina (started Jan 01, 2025)
Les Misérables with r/AYearofLesMisereables (started July 14, 2025)

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2. A year with Jane Austen. It's Jane's 250th birthday in 2025 and I have always meant to read some other of her works besides Mansfield Park, so let's do it.

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3. My Booker Prize Obsession challenge, July-December 2025

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Challenge 1: Year-Long Slow Reads

Anna Karenina

Translation: P&V (text with audiobook)

Reading with r/yearofannakarenina


Group is currently on Chapter 16 of Part VI, as of September 1.

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Les Misérables

Parallel reading in French and English (Rose translation)

Reading with r/AYearofLesMiserables

Group is currently on 1.5.11, as of September 1

Challenge 2: A Year with Jane: Celebrating Jane Austen's 250th Birthday


🌹Pride and Prejudice⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌹Sense and Sensibility⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌹Emma⭐⭐⭐
Northanger Abbey
Persausion
Mansfeild Park

Challenge 3: Reading Booker Prize Selections July-December 2025

I have had a little obsession with the Booker Prize ever since I read The Remains of the Day, a personal favorite, which won the Booker back in 1989, but I have never read as many books associated with it as I wish. So I'm making a challenge out of it.

Reading various books that have won or been long/shortlisted for the Booker and International Booker prizes. Selections are based largely on my tastes and mood and what is available to me through Libby and my local library.

✔️The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka. 2022 winner ★★★
✔️On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle. 2025 International shortlist ★★★★★
✔️The White Book by Han Kang, 2018 International shortlist ★★★★★
✔️Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, 2019 winner ★★★★
✔️Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle, 1993 winner ★★★
✔️Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, 2023 International winner ★★★
✔️Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro, 2022 International shortlist ★★★★
✔️The Details by Ia Genberg, 2024 International shortlist ★★★
✔️Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, 2021 International longlist ★★★★
✔️Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein, 2023 shortlist ★★
✔️Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda, 2025 International longlist ★★★★
✔️Audition by Katie Kitamura, 2025 longlist ★★★1/2
✔️Universality by Natasha Brown, 2025 longlist ★
✔️The Years by Annie Ernaux, 2019 International shortlist ★★★
✔️Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, 2017 International shortlist ★★★★
The Promise by Damon Galgut, 2021 winner
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, 1997 winner
Atonement by Ian McEwan, 2001 shortlist
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, 2018 International winner
Washington Black by Esi Edungyan, 2024 shortlist
Endling by Maria Reva, 2025 longlist
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden, 2024 shortlist
The Trees by Percival Everett, 2022 shortlist
Cursed Bunny by Chung Bora, 2022 International shortlist

I will not be rereading books I've already read, but want to say that I highly recommend the following:

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, 1989 winner
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, 2023 winner
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes, 2023 longlist
James by Percival Everett, 2024 shortlist
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, 2019 International shortlist
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, 2018 International shortlist

A little late in the year to be adding a new challenge, but I scraped my Shakespeare challenge from the start of the year and now want to focus on the Booker/International Booker prize.

Also, I finished up my CUOC Bingo challenge last month.