Vintage Tales discussion

To fill in the time between now and next month, when I'll be taking part in a common read in another group, I've started reading a thick anthology I picked up this summer at the Barnes and Noble in Harrisonburg, Virginia: Great Ghost Stories: 101 Terrifying Tales. I expect to be dipping into it periodically, when I'm between other reads, for well into next year.

Just started tonight A Wedding in December -

Apropos of the season, I've just started on an Agatha Christie mystery, Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938). It's a common read (multi-person buddy read) this month in another group, and given its date, fits into our group's classic Christmas stories thread (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... ). as well. But despite the Christmas connection, this isn't the sort of read that's apt to be adapted as a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie anytime soon.... :-)

Recently started The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith .

My friend, Goodreads author Andrew Seddon, loves dogs in general but has a special soft spot for German Shepherds. His latest book, Bonds of Affection, is his homage to the breed, a collection of previously written short stories that feature fictional German Shepherds, interspersed with nonfiction memoirs about the real-life German Shepherds he's owned, or still owns. (All profits from sales of this book will go to support German Shepherd rescues.) He kindly gifted me with a copy earlier this year; but because of my various other reading commitments, I didn't have a long-enough bloc of free time to start on it until today.

All of the stories appear in earlier collections by the author (or, in one case, in a magazine issue which I reviewed like a book) that I've reviewed earlier, and I've commented on at least several of them in those reviews; I also beta read versions of all of them. But since some or all of them have undergone revisions for their appearance here (and since I don't always recall every detail of the earlier versions, just basic outlines), I'm reading the whole book. Sorry I can't show the cover image; the book entry in the Goodreads database still doesn't have it, and because Andrew is a Goodreads author, I'm not allowed to edit that entry :-(

Since I'll be starting a common read on Jan. 1, I need short reads to fill in the intervening time; so yesterday I started on The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. I'd previously read (and greatly liked) it back in my high school/junior college flurry of reading classics in order to become an "educated" person; but I've been wanting to read it again in order to do it justice in a review, and have been resolved to make this the year I do that.

I read the Wilder book a few years-it was an amazing read.

Rosemarie wrote: "I read the Wilder book a few years-it was an amazing read."

I was very impressed with it the first time I read it, Rosemarie; and so far I'm equally so this time.

Although I appreciate fiction written from a Christian viewpoint, I don't read much "Christian fiction" in the book trade sense, because most of it is formulaic light romance, which isn't my preferred genre. So when the library where I work got a donated copy of Oklahoma-born writer and teacher Cliff Schimmels' novel Rites of Autumn, and I immediately saw that it was an exception to that generalization, it piqued my interest. (I'm also interested in reading more modern general fiction, which I've also neglected.) So, since it's short and I expect to finish it before Jan. 1, I started on it this morning. (It'll also add a state to my Literary Road Trip Across the U.S.A. challenge in another group. :-) )

For January, several members of another group I'm in are going to read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's historical novel of the Hundred Years War, The White Company together, and I'm joining in. Since Jan. 1 is tomorrow (and it usually takes me longer than most people to finish a book), I've started it already. I count Doyle as a favorite author, so I'm excited about this one! For me, it will also finish up some "unfinished business" --I started reading it from the school library near the end of my last year of junior high school. But after I graduated, my plans to get another copy and continue the read fell through; as I recall, the public library didn't have it, and in those days I don't think I'd even ever heard of interlibrary loans (and would have been too timid to request one even if I had). So this will tie up a long-neglected "loose end." :-)

Last night, I started reading a self-published Kindle freebie, Gears of a Mad God: A Steampunk Lovecraft Adventure by Goodreads author Brent Nichols (which got a good review from one of my Goodreads friends). It kicks off a series of Cthulhu Mythos spin-of novellas (which is available, from Smashwords and Amazon, in a paper-format omnibus volume).

Yesterday, I started on two new (to me) books. I'm taking part this month in a common read of The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively in another group. Also, I started reading The Husband Tree, the second novel in Mary Connealy's Montana Marriages trilogy, to my wife. (Connealy's become a favorite author for both of us!)

This year, I'm hoping to read all of the remaining fiction by one of my favorite authors, H. P. Lovecraft, that I haven't read yet. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is his only book-length writing by that I haven't read so far, so I started on it today. I'm not actually reading this edition; since it's quite short (141 p.), it's not easy to find a printing of it by itself, so I'm reading the 1970 Ballantine printing, edited by Lin Carter, that bundles it with several other fantasy works by HPL.

Since I was looking for a fairly quick read between now and March 1-19, when I'll be mostly offline and not devoting time to reading, I recently started The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton. It's been on my radar ever since I saw and liked the movie adaptation years ago; and it will add another state to my Literary Road Trip Across the U.S.A. challenge in another group. More importantly, I'm woefully poorly read in books by black authors, and this will be a small step towards redressing that neglect.

Ever since late last year, I've had a review copy of my friend Andrew Seddon's new SF novel Farhope in hand (I beta read it in 2017 --and would have given it five stars then if it had a Goodreads record!-- but the published version is longer and incorporates some changes, so it needs a fresh read). I've been champing at the bit to get to it, but have just been waiting until I knew I'd have a long enough bloc of reading time to finish it before having to start another book. That time has arrived, so I started reading it yesterday! :-)

Although I've actually read most of the material it contains already, I'm reading all of the previously-unread selections in The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft. I discovered HPL relatively late, when I was nearly 40; but he quickly became a favorite writer of mine, so finally finishing reading his entire fictional corpus will be a significant milestone in my reading.

Today, I've started my third read of Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition by Wendell Berry. I've never reviewed the book, but I've wanted to for some time, because I'm very impressed with Berry as a serious thinker. But though I've already read it twice before, years ago, I felt that I need a fresh read to really do it justice. This seemed like a good time to do that, since I wanted a relatively short book that I can finish before starting a buddy read in another group.

Since C. S. Lewis is a favorite author of mine, and since I was wanting another short read to help fill in the time before a May common read in another group, I've started on The Abolition of Man. It's only 115 pages (and they have wide margins and relatively large type), so I might actually finish it today.

In one of my other groups, a common read of The Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson starts today, and I'm joining in that. (Some editions use the shortened title Carnacki, the Ghost Finder, but it's the same book.) Since I've long considered this one to be a must-read, I'm excited to have finally started it! (Although, as a long-ago appetizer for the main course, I read one of the stories, "The Whistling Room," in an anthology back when I was a kid.)

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, of course, is a landmark novel of 20th-century American literature. I've long regretted not having read it earlier (back in the 60s and 70s, I'd been put off by the title, mistakenly thinking the plot involved bird-killing!), and had made up my mind that 2020 would be the year in which I finally remedied that. So, I'm glad to say that I started reading it this afternoon!

In another group I belong to, a common read of one of Agatha Christie's Poirot mysteries, Death on the Nile, is to start on June 1. I'm a slow reader (or rather, I read quickly enough as such, but have limited time for it each day, so it takes me more time than most to finish a book) and may not get a chance to read on Monday, since we're expecting company. So, since I was ready to start a new book anyway, I went ahead and began my read of this today.

I finished Death on the Nile late this afternoon (review will hopefully follow this weekend!), so naturally needed another read to take its place. But sometime in the next few days, I'm expecting a review book in the mail, which I want to prioritize; so I don't want to get tied up in another novel or nonfiction monograph. These are the kinds of times when I often resort to a story collection, in which some items can be read but the rest put by for later on short notice. This time, my choice is the anthology Favorite Ghost Stories, edited by Aidan Chambers.

Liane Zane (that's a pen name) is a Goodreads friend of mine, and I'm currently reading a review copy of her brand new self-published novel, The Harlequin & The Drangùe. It's a paranormal romance (she's written other books under her real name, but not in that genre), and the opener for a projected series. PNR isn't normally my thing, but I'm expanding my horizons a bit for a friend. :-)

Although I haven't reviewed it yet, yesterday afternoon I read a newly-published short e-story by my Goodreads friend Paula Cappa, Beyond Castle Frankenstein, A Short Story. Like many of her writings, it's a ghost story; I'd beta read it some years ago and really liked it. I really liked it on this second go-around, as well!

Earlier this year, a lady in another group I belong to posted a favorable review of The Vampire Sword by T.L. Cerepaka, the first book in his Vampire Sorceress series. She piqued my interest on several counts; so when I learned that the e-book edition is free for Kindle, I took the opportunity to download it. I started on it last night (and read seven chapters --it flows pretty quickly! :-) ).

My Goodreads friend Steve Haywood and I had been planning on doing a buddy read of one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story collections, His Last Bow, so I've finally started on it today. I'm reading it in the print format Summit Classic Press edition, His Last Bow: 8 Stories, a faithful reproduction (edited by human beings, not a computer program!) of the 1917 American edition by Doran. It'll be a quick read on my part, since I've already read most of the stories.

This month, another group I'm in is doing a common read of Beowulf; I'm starting it late, but finally began on it this morning. The edition I'm reading is Beowulf: A New Verse Translation For Fireside And Class Room, a 1927 translation by Univ. of Wisconsin English professor William Ellery Leonard, which preserves the meter of the Anglo-Saxon, Old English original. There are newer translations, including the one by Seamus Heaney which is the most popular on Goodreads; but I thought this one might rest on solider scholarship.

Werner wrote: "This month, another group I'm in is doing a common read of Beowulf; I'm starting it late, but finally began on it this morning. The edition I'm reading is [book:Beowulf: A New Verse Translation For..."

Sounds really good! It's on my to-read list.

It's sat on my TBR forever, Meg; so I'm glad the group read has finally given me the occasion! :-)

Not wanting to start a new novel or nonfiction monograph in the short time before I join in a common read in another group starting on Aug. 1, I've begun dipping into Great Horror Stories: 101 Chilling Tales. It's a sort of companion volume to Great Ghost Stories: 101 Terrifying Tales, an anthology I finished earlier this year (both are published by Barnes and Noble's Fall River Press imprint, and Stefan Dziemianowicz edited both collections).

Mary Connealy is a writer who's become a favorite for both Barb and I in the past couple of years. We've been reading her Montana Marriages trilogy, set in the 1870s, together for some time; but in reverse order, due to the odd sequence in which the books were obtained (mostly through thrift store purchases). Having started with the third book, we've just finished the second; and now we've started immediately on the first one, Montana Rose. :-)

This month, I'm joining in a common read of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M. R. James, in another group. (I was fortunate enough to be able to get a paper copy by interlibrary loan.) So I started on it today. Although I've never actually read any whole collections of his stories before, I've read quite a number of them in other anthologies over the years (starting when I was a kid); of the eight stories here, I've already read four of them, so I expect this to be a pretty quick read.

Though I was born and raised in the Midwest, I've lived in Appalachia continuously for 28 years, and my wife is Appalachian-born and bred. So I have a built-in interest in Appalachian authors like Jesse Stuart (1907-1984). While I've read some of his short stories, up to now I haven't read any of his long fiction, though I've wanted to for a long time. I've finally seized on a window of opportunity to start on his novel Daughter of the Legend, published in 1965 but set in the mountains of eastern Tennessee around 1940.

Although I probably won't be able to work it in this year, I'm really hoping to finally read The Scarlet Pimpernel early next year. Though I'm a history major, and have a certain amount of knowledge of the French Revolution, and an opinion about its significance, based on general reading, I've never read a nonfiction book focused entirely on giving a complete account of the subject; and I think my understanding would benefit from that. So I've started on The French Revolution: A Concise History by Norman Hampson.

I'm reading The Portable Milton, and at present it's at Paradise Lost. I have read the first two cantos and the number of book or poem titles taken from Paradise Lost is amazing.

I'm taking part in our group read of Hope Leslie: or, Early Times in the Massachusetts. Hope many others in the group will join in!

On my Kindle app, I'm reading Payday: A Short Story, a free e-story by Joe Vasicek. Electronic reading doesn't always fit into my schedule well, so it's sort of a slow read in bits and pieces. :-(

In another group, I'm joining in a September common read of an Agatha Christie mystery story collection, The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories. I know, I'm coming very late to the party (long story!), but it's a short book and I'm expecting it to be quite a quick read. This is a reread for me; but my first read of it was back sometime in the 90s and I hardly recall anything about the stories, so it's essentially like a new read so far.

Some reading buddies in another group I'm in are doing an ongoing read of Agatha Christie's entire Poirot canon. I don't join in all of the reads, but I'm taking part in the one this month, of Sad Cypress. This is a reread for me; but my previous read was as a kid of perhaps 11 or 12, and I don't really recall anything about it except that it was set in England, had Poirot in it, and took its title from a Shakespeare quotation that considered cypress as wood for a coffin. So for me it's essentially like an entirely new read!

I've just started a historical fiction novella by one of my favorite authors, Heather Day Gilbert: The Distant Tide, set in Ireland in 1170. (This was originally published in 2017 as part of an omnibus volume of five novellas by as many authors, The Message in a Bottle Romance Collection, but has recently been re-published as a stand-alone.) Although Heather and I are Goodreads friends, this isn't a free review copy; I purchased it, because I've greatly liked several of her other books.

As a kid, I read and liked quite a few of American "Golden Age" mystery writer Erle Stanley Gardner's novels featuring his iconic criminal-defense lawyer, Perry Mason; but I've never listed any of them on my shelves because I don't remember the titles. To give a more accurate picture of my reading, it occurred to me that he ought to at least be represented there; and since I've been on a bit of a mystery kick this year anyway, I'm now reading The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1936). It's the 9th novel in the Mason series, but they don't have to read in series order.

Earlier this week, I finally got started on Oscar Wilde's novella The Canterville Ghost, which is a common read this month in another group. This is a re-read for me (it's included in the anthology Classic Ghost Stories), and I'm reading it this time in electronic format, though at the Project Gutenberg site rather than in the e-book edition that Goodreads treats as its primary link.

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy is a book I've long regarded as a must-read. When an unexpected window of opportunity to work in a read of it recently materialized (long story!), I took advantage of it to start reading the novel this morning. (I'm actually reading the Airmont Classics edition; but I'm not going to hunt through the 1,293 editions to link to the correct one! :-) )

Werner wrote: " The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy is a book I've long regarded as a must-read. When an unexpected window of opportunity to work ..."

Oooh that's a good one! I read it last winter and could hardly put it down! 😊

Glad you liked it, Meg! I've been looking forward to it for years.

A review copy of the newest novel by my Goodreads friend Lance Charnes, Zrada, arrived in the mail today, and the timing was perfect for me to start reading it immediately. This is the opener for a projected series, DeWitt Agency Adventures, which is a spin-off from the author's De Witt Agency Files series (and has as its protagonist Carson, the leading female character introduced in The Collection, the opener of the latter, though the protagonist there is male). I have high expectations for this one!

This morning, I got a start (barely!) on the newly-published second edition of my friend Andrew Seddon's science-fiction novel Iron Scepter. I read the original edition, published in 2000, back in 2006, before joining Goodreads, and reviewed it after I joined; so to avoid confusion (and since Goodreads combines reviews of all editions of a book into the same book entry in its database), that's the edition I'm listing as "currently reading" on my shelves. When I'm finished, I plan to update the review.

I'm currently reading Pickwick Papers by Dickens. I started reading intermittently about a month or two ago. I am only reading 1 page per day and am on page 3 or tomorrow page 4. It's 500 + pages long so I plan to pick up the pace soon.

In another group, I'm taking part in a common read of The Werewolf (1896), by Clemence Housman. (I'm actually reading it in an online version, here: https://www.owleyes.org/text/the-were... , rather than the e-book edition that Goodreads shows as its default entry.) This is a reread for me, but the first time I've read it free-standing. (It's included in A Lycanthropy Reader: Werewolves in Western Culture, which is where I read it back in the early 90s.)

Earlier today, I started reading Perfect Victim by Kelley Armstrong, the second of two novellas she wrote as a follow-up to her original Nadia Stafford trilogy (which I hope to read next year). I'd read the first one, Double Play, last year. Although I'm actually reading it in a paper omnibus edition of both novellas together, not the e-book, this is the only way I'm able to shelve it; there's no free-standing paper edition.