Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

I finally completed my 100 Years Before Me challenge, and in a moment of abject craziness, I have decided to continue the journey one book at a time to the present day. So, I was born in 1951. My last book for the 100 Years was Lie Down in Darkness, which was written that year. I will pick up with 1952 and we will see if I can complete this one in less than the eight years it took to do the first.

1952 - Mere Christianity - or - All Our Yesterdays
1953 - The Sleeping Beauty - or - Go Tell It on the Mountain
1954 - Charlotte Fairlie -or- The Dawning of the Day
1955 - Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life -or- A World of Love
1956 - Palace Walk -or- My Dog Tulip
1957 - Justine -or- Franny and Zooey
1958 - Anna and Her Daughters, A Glass of Blessings -or- The Travels of Jamie McPheeters
1959 - Advise and Consent -or- Mrs. Bridge

Life was mostly about home, Mama, Daddy, my sisters and brother, Grandma, Grandpa, uncles, aunts, cousins; but also about school and discovering you have two identities in many ways, the one your family dictates and the one you build on your own.

1960 - The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë
1961 - The Edge of Sadness -or- Stephen Morris
1962 - Something Wicked This Way Comes -or- Wolf Willow
1963 - Way Station -or- The Shoes of the Fisherman
1964 - The Loser -or- A Moveable Feast
1965 - The Boarding-House -or- The Magus
1966 - Letters to an American Lady -or- The Last Picture Show
1967 - I Heard the Owl Call My Name -or- The Road
1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner -or- The Johnstown Flood
1969 - The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford -or- Travels with My Aunt

And, I'm not a girl anymore. I graduated high school in 1969.

1970 - Lightning Bug -or- Bless the Beasts and Children
1971 - Ancestors: A Family History -or- Tramp for the Lord
1972 - Only a Novel: The Double Life of Jane Austen -or- The Devastating Boys
1973 - Flags in the Dust -or- Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment
1974 - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek -or- Return the Innocent Earth
1975 - The Cadillac Cowboys -or- The Peacock Spring
1976 - Galveston -or- A River Runs Through It
1977 - Myself When Young, Parson's House -or- Elbow Room
1978 - Conversations With Amber -or- Missing Person
1979 - Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy, Recapitulation -or- One Corpse Too Many

These were the golden years. I was young, excited about life, in college, disco was king and I could dance. Had my first major heartbreak, which is necessary so that you can find out what love really is and isn't.

1980 - Black Mountain Breakdown -or- The Executioner's Song
1981 - The Book of Lights -or- Mornings on Horseback
1982 - An Unsuitable Attachment -or- The Barefoot Brigade
1983 - The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake -or- Ironweed
1984 - Last One Home -or- Hotel du Lac
1985 - Crampton Hodnet
1986 - A Maine Hamlet -or- Roman Hasford
1987 - Moon Tiger
1988 - Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation -or-Loving And Giving
1989 - A Virtuous Woman -or- Peachtree Road

I left home for another state in 1979 and married in 1980, so this is the most transitional decade for me. Life was about discovery and building your dreams. We worked hard and loved hard. I found Matt and Home. Wouldn't change a thing.

1990 - The Gift of Asher Lev
1991 - Coromandel Sea Change -or- Joe
1992 - A Place of Greater Safety -or- The Holy Thief
1993 - Nobody's Fool -or- The Same River Twice: A Memoir
1994 - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle -or- A Poetry Handbook
1995 - Summer in February -or- Enigma
1996 - Spanning Time: A Diary Keeper Becomes a Writer -or- A World Lost
1997 - The Sound of One Hand Clapping
1998 - The Next Step in the Dance -or- The Sleeping Partner
1999 - The Caxley Chronicles -or- Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

✔2000 - The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood - September 2025
2001 - A Trust Betrayed, A Conspiracy of Paper -or- In the Fall
2002 - Family Matters, Wish You Were Here -or- One Foot in Eden
2003 - The Great Fire
2004 - About Grace -or- Old Filth
2005 - William Maxwell: A Literary Life -or- The Collected Short Stories of Harriette Simpson Arnow
2006 - Firefly Cloak -or- Abide with Me
2007 - Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery -or- Fieldwork
2008 - The Cellist of Sarajevo -or- The Spare Room
2009 - The Children's Book -or- Bird in Hand

2010 - Foster -or- The Name of the Nearest River
2011 - My Brilliant Friend, Doc -or- Emily, Alone
2012 - The Story of a New Name -or- When I Was a Child I Read Books
2013 - Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Yonder -or- The Bookman’s Tale
2014 - Medicine Walk -or- Above the Waterfall
2015 - The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, Epitaph -or- The Sympathizer
2016 - At the Edge of the Orchard -or- Everybody's Fool
2017 - In the Distance, The Man Who Could Be King -or- The River of Kings
2018 - Gods of Howl Mountain -or- The Sentence is Death
2019 - Tidelands, This Is Happiness -or- This Tender Land

2020 - The Exiles -or- Jack
2021 - Project Hail Mary -or- The Vanished Days
2022 - How Strange a Season -or- French Braid
2023 - The Trackers -or- The Caretaker
2024 - Tell Me Everything -or- Death at the Sign of the Rook
✔2025 - The Correspondent by Virginia Evans - August 2025 - 5✶

This sounds like fun, Sara! I'll be watching to see how you are getting along -- throughout the next eight years!!! haha! I'm sure you can do it, and I'm also sure that you will be adding to my TBR list along the way! Read some good ones! :)

Thanks, Terris. This might fall under "glutton for punishment" but I am hoping it will fill in somewhat with other books I am reading. I probably need it, because I tend to read older and not newer books. None of my up-coming Trollope's will fit here. 😬

Sara wrote: "Thanks, Terris. This might fall under "glutton for punishment" but I am hoping it will fill in somewhat with other books I am reading. I probably need it, because I tend to read older and not newer..."

Lol! ;)

This is awesome Sara!! I still would love to do the original challenge and of course this one just makes sense!! You’ll totally rock it!! It will be fun watching you fill these in and adding to my tbr as Terris says!!

I don't think this one will take as long as the first. You ought to set up the first one, Lori and see how many slots you have already filled this year. I'm betting you would be surprised. It would be great fun to watch you do it!

I would try to feel sorry for you and Terris, but you guys have swelled my TBR beyond control, so I'm thinking tit-for-tat.

Good luck, Sara! I am getting close to finishing my Personal 20th Century Challenge. I found that I can fill in multiple books for some years, but there are still a half dozen or so stubborn years. Next year, I plan to be more intentional about completing my challenge. The end is in sight. 2026 is my goal. Feel free to peruse my list by year for inspiration, but you may find that you have already read many of the books I chose.

Ok, Sara, I thought about setting it up and plugging in what I’ve read this year. I’m good at listening to friends’ advice so I think I should and will. At least at the beginning it will be easy to fill in spots with the way I’ve been reading this year!

Terry wrote: "Good luck, Sara! I am getting close to finishing my Personal 20th Century Challenge. I found that I can fill in multiple books for some years, but there are still a half dozen or so stubborn years...."

I will definitely take a look at your list, Terry. Congratulations on the progress, BTW. I also find that some years there are dozens of good books to choose from, and some years you have to beat the bushes to find one. Maybe that is because I have already read many of the books for those years...who knows?

Bob gave us a wonderful resource that I use a lot now:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/popula...

Just plug in your year. Between this and Wikipedia's yearly lists, I can usually find something worthwhile.

Lori wrote: "Ok, Sara, I thought about setting it up and plugging in what I’ve read this year. I’m good at listening to friends’ advice so I think I should and will. At least at the beginning it will be easy to..."

Do it!

I'm going to enjoy following this, Sara! I like that you've added personal milestones--it's so interesting to think about where we were in our lives when these books came out. And with a five-star already added, you're off and running.

I didn't think it would be a cheat to add one book I read this month but before I posted the challenge. It was such a great read and the book I could have entered from yesterday was such a lousy one. I just wanted to step off on the right foot.

Good luck with your new challenge Sara!

I haven’t heard of The Correspondent. I’ll have to look for it.

Oh, do, Janelle. It is a wonderful book.

Fabulous choice, Sara! Highly recommend it Janelle!

Wishing you the best of luck in your new challenge, Sara. I have The Correspondent waiting to be read next week. I've heard so many good things about it.

I'll be watching for your review, Connie. Cannot imagine anyone seriously disliking it, and I predict you will love it.