Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Here we go! My first thoughts...

✅ B1: Book From Our Group’s Shelf Prior to 2021 The Awakening
✅ B2: Book That Has Been Made Into Film Sons and Lovers
✅ B3: Booker Prize Winner Hotel du Lac
✅ B4: Classic Romance The Unbearable Lightness of Being
✅ B5: Classic of Europe Journey by Moonlight

✅ I1: Classic Adventure Journey to the Center of the Earth
✅ I2: Book Published or Written 1700 or earlier Life of Dante
✅ I3: Classic Short Story Collection The Piazza Tales
✅ I4: Book Published in the 19th Century The Doctor's Wife
✅ I5: New To Me Classic Author Evelina: Or, The History of A Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Frances Burney

✅ N1: Nobel Laureate A House For Mr Biswas
✅ N2: History or Historical Fiction Mary Queen of Scotland and The Isles
✅ N3: Reader’s Choice Their Eyes Were Watching God
✅ N4: Classic Satire or Comedy Decline and Fall
✅ N5: Newberry Medal Winner The Girl Who Drank the Moon

✅ G1: Classic Female Author The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
✅ G2: Book Published in the 18th Century The Sorrows of Young Werther
✅ G3: Nonfiction The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796
✅ G4: Book Published in the 20th Century The Nice and the Good
✅ G5: Book From Another Book Club or Library List The Second Sleep (Richard and Judy Book Club)

✅ O1: Classic of Africa Nervous Conditions
✅ O2: Classic Mystery, Suspense, or Thriller The Big Sleep
✅ O3: Pulitzer Prize Winner Olive Kitteridge
✅ O4: 100 Must-Read Classics in Translation Indiana
✅ O5: Book From Our Group’s 2021 Bookshelf The Captain's Daughter
 

Looking forward to some Bingo planning fun very soon! Pick some good ones -- I'm might need to add some of yours to my list ;)

Terris wrote: "Looking forward to some Bingo planning fun very soon! Pick some good ones -- I'm might need to add some of yours to my list ;)"

I’m just going through my shelves now to see what I’d like to use...

Me too!

Welcome to the challenge, Pamela. The board is posted.

Enjoy your planning Pamela. Best of luck on bingo-ing.

Cynda wrote: "Enjoy your planning Pamela. Best of luck on bingo-ing."

Thanks Cynda. Planning is such good fun!

Pamela, I really like your list. The Woman in White, Tristram Shandy and Tenant of Wildfell Hall almost made it to my list. Good luck with your list.

And you are set! Great planning, Pamela. I have The Grass is Singing on my list for this year too, and plan to read Bringing up the Bodies so I too can get to the Mirror & the Light. Enjoy!

That planning didn't take long, Pamela. I agree that the planning can be so fun.

Can't go wrong with 'Persuasion'. 'Indiana' also went surprisingly well for me, so I hope it does the same for you.

You have got a great plan already. I loved The Mirror and the Light.

Great list! I hope you have a fun Bingo year.

Nice list, Pamela! The Grass Is Singing is a possible choice for me in the O1 category. If you get to it before I do, let me know what you think! Also, I think we're both reading Indiana for O4! Great minds think alike ;)
Enjoy your challenge!

Enjoy your Bingo, Pamela!

I'm in another book group which is reading Persuasion in December.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Would you like to join us?
If you start mid-December and stretch the "finished" date into January, you could use it for the Bingo ;-)
In spring we'll also be reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
2020 we have read all the Austen novels and 2021 we're expanding into the Brontes.

Philina wrote: "Enjoy your Bingo, Pamela!

I'm in another book group which is reading Persuasion in December.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Would you ..."

Oh that’s a kind thought, thank you Philina. I don’t think I’ll be ready to read Persuasion till later in 2021, but I’d definitely be interested in joining for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Great list! I hope you enjoy them, and have fun reading!

Andersonville has been on my TBR list for a very long time. I will be interested to hear what you think about it. Good luck with your Bingo challenge!

Thanks Renee and Terry! Really looking forward to this challenge.

First one marked off
O5 Book from group’s 2021 bookshelf The Captain's Daughter

Congratulations to your first corner, Pamela!

Yes, congrats on that first book. I am also looking forward to Bingo.

Congrats Pamela! I am trying to work that book in this month sometime. I keep putting it off for some reason.... I guess other books have enticed me.

Thanks all, yes it feels good to get that first one crossed off!

Just finished G4 Book published in the 20th Century The Nice and the Good, 4*
and
G5 Book from another Book Club The Second Sleep also 4* but it was a little disappointing, I love Robert Harris but found this book a bit tame, it was intriguing at first but never ‘took off’ as I’d expected

G2 Book published in the 18th century
The Sorrows of Young Werther

Just read this and realised it was a fit for this square so swopped it in. 3* for the book, it’s obviously of massive importance for its influence on European literature, but the overwrought emotion left me a bit cold.

I’ve changed so many from my original list, I never end up reading what I planned!

I5 New to me Classic author Evelina: Or, The History of A Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Frances Burney

3* as parts were very slow, but I’ve added Cecilia as I’d quite like to read another by this author

Pamela wrote: "I’ve changed so many from my original list, I never end up reading what I planned!

I5 New to me Classic author Evelina: Or, The History of A Young Lady's Entrance into the World by..."

Well, if 'Evelina' went well enough with you for you to add something that's 2-3 times longer, something must have gone right! I had the same reaction (helped that a copy of 'Cecilia' so swiftly and cheaply presented itself), so perhaps a buddy read sometime after this year is in order for getting us both through a 1000+ page tome.

A buddy read sometime sounds good, Aubrey! I really liked the comic elements in Evelina, only the social events dragged a bit.

B3 Booker Prize Winner Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

4*, very enjoyable with a lot going on below the surface.

O4 100 Must-Read Classics in Translation Indiana by George Sand

3* - I liked it but it was a bit wild and messy. Politics and the status of women alongside a really melodramatic romance, both interesting in a way but not always fitting together

Pamela wrote: "it’s obviously of massive importance for its influence on European literature, but the overwrought emotion left me a bit cold."

Being German I had to read this at school as a teenager. My reaction was
"Grow some balls and stop whining you weakling!" (my teenage self was less empathetic)
My other reaction was
"This book can be summarized in a couple of sentences: Nature is wonderful. He loves Lotte. Lotte likes another. He kills himself because of it. Why then, spend so many pages on whining when I have already understood the point of the story, so many redundancies."

Goethe wrote so many better things.

I wonder how I would feel about it re-reading it today. Maybe I should try this.
I guess I would still think he should proactively change his life in another better direction for him. Suicide due to heartache still seems so unnecessary.

Philina wrote: "Being German I had to read this at school as a teenager..."

Haha, thanks for sharing this Philina! Our teenage selves just got straight to the point didn’t they? I’m not sure you’d feel different after a reread, like you say his way of dealing with things seems too extreme for the situation.

B5 Classic of Europe Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb

4* Slow start but really enjoyed this in the end.

Pamela wrote: "O4 100 Must-Read Classics in Translation Indiana by George Sand

3* - I liked it but it was a bit wild and messy. Politics and the status of women alongside a really me..."

I liked that work by Sand/Dupin enough to try another of her fiction works that I came across, but after that one, I'll probably stick to her nonfiction. She's just too interesting to not pay attention to!

O3 Pulitzer Prize winner Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

What a miserable bunch of stories! Beautiful writing though. 3.5* for me.

Pamela wrote: "B5 Classic of Europe Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb

4* Slow start but really enjoyed this in the end."

This looks interesting. I'm going to have to add it to the TBR I think.

Pamela wrote: "O3 Pulitzer Prize winner Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

What a miserable bunch of stories! Beautiful writing though. 3.5* for me."

Ah! Good to know, I shall keep that one for when I can deal with it. Kudos for reading it.

G3 Non fiction The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796

3.5*, I’ve had this on the TBR for ages so glad to finally get to it. It’s quite high level as covers 200+ years, but an interesting overview.

Pamela, great progress on you scorecard! Too bad you didn’t like Olive Kitteridge — I loved it, but I can understand your point of view. As far as 200 years of Italian history, to loosely quote an old movie line, “You are a better man than I, Gunga Din!” 😊

Terry wrote: "Pamela, great progress on you scorecard! Too bad you didn’t like Olive Kitteridge — I loved it, but I can understand your point of view. As far as 200 years of Italian history, to loosely quote an ..."

Haha, thanks Terry, it did take me 3 months to plough through.

I can’t say I disliked OK, I found it quite compelling, just wasn’t in the mood for so much sadness

N5 Newberry Medal Winner The Girl Who Drank the Moon

4*, not something I would have chosen normally but I found it rather charming.

And that’s my first BINGO for the bottom row!

Nice work, Pamela :)

Great job on your Bingo, Pamela!

Congratulations! My daughter read The Girl who drank the Moon last year and enjoyed it very much. It's one of my options for that square as well.

Congrats on Bingo, Pamela. What an excellent assortment you've read so far!

Thanks all!

Now completed O2 Classic Mystery, Suspense or Thriller The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

3*, I can see why it’s a classic, there is some sharp writing but not really my cup of tea.

I felt much the same, Pamela. I also think the early books in this genre suffer because they have been copied and mimicked so much that, while they were fresh when written, they now seem trite.

Pamela wrote: "Thanks all!

Now completed O2 Classic Mystery, Suspense or Thriller The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

3*, I can see why it’s a classic, there is some sharp writing bu..."

I finished this same book last night! Honestly, the endless similes were a bit tiresome, but I still gave it 4 stars in the end. I thought the ending was satisfactory.


You're well over the half-way point on your Bingo card!! Way to go.

Sara wrote: "I felt much the same, Pamela. I also think the early books in this genre suffer because they have been copied and mimicked so much that, while they were fresh when written, they now seem trite."

Yes, that’s a really good point Sara.

Lynn wrote: “I still gave it 4 stars in the end”

I was torn between 3 and 4 stars, but I’d read so many better books for this challenge that I rounded down.