The Classics Club

I'm joining The Classics Club. I know, I'm crazy, but I've been wanting to read more classic literature for a while now. To join The Classics Club, you have to make a list of 50 books you want to read over the next 5 years! It's harder than you think. There is a list on the site, so I just went down through the list and picked ones that sounded interesting or that I have heard of before. I can change my titles if I want over the next 5 years, I just have to read 50 classic books by then. I'm setting my start date as July 15, 2012, so I can include "The Uncommon Reader" by Alan Bennett and "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins. I read "Watership Down" by Richard Adams in January, but I didn't want to go back that far. That means I should have read at least 50 classics by July 15, 2017. So, here is my list:

The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett  read 7/26/12  review 
The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins  read 8/20/12  review 
The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury  read 9/13/12  review
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Edward Albee
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
A Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen  read 12/27/12  review
The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow
Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte
The Professor, Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
The Making of a Marchioness, Frances Hodgson Burnett
Evelina, Frances Burney
Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Burns
Erewhon, Samuel Butler
A Lost Lady, Willa Cather
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
Sapphire and the Slave Girl, Willa Cather
The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
Three Sisters, Anton Chekov
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
My Mother's House, Colette
Armadale, Wilkie Collins
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Stephen Crane
Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe
Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
The Winds of Heaven, Monica Dickens
The Lost World, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
Belinda, Maria Edgeworth
Daniel Deronda, George Eliot
Murder in the Cathedral, T.S. Eliot
Absalom! Absalom!, William Faulkner
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Cousin Phillis and Other Stories, Elizabeth Gaskell
Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
The House of Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Island, Aldous Huxley
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
Daisy Miller, Henry James
The Bostonians, Henry James
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

These are in alphabetical order by author - except the first ones, of course, but not in reading order.
There is more to this list, I only put 50 here. This should be interesting!

Time for the next 4-Month Challenge!!!

I love these challenges sponsored by the Book Drunkard. These are the categories:

5 points Challenges

Read a book whose author begins with S – first or last

Read a book set during WWII

Read a book with a fruit on the cover or in the title

Read an Indie

Read a book with a tree/trees on the cover or in the title

 

10 Point Challenges

Read a book whose author begins with O – first or last

Read a YA book whose author published their debut novel in 2012

Read a book set in Europe

Read a book with an embrace or kiss on the cover

Read a book with a light source on the cover (lamp, candle, torch, sun, etc.)

 

15 Point Challenges

Read a book whose author begins with N – first or last

Read something related to the circus (fiction or non-fiction)

Read a book set in the USA

Read a book by a ‘new to you’ author

Read a book with a one word title that’s a proper noun

 

20 Point Challenges

Read a book written in the 1990′s

Read a book whose author begins with D – first or last

Read a book set in Canada

Read a YA Historical 

Read a book published from September to December, 2012

 

So, here goes...

The Big Steal by Emyl Jenkins

The Big Steal by Emyl Jenkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The thing I liked most about this book was that it was set in southern central Virginia - not far from Charlottesville. I love that area. There were several mysteries in this book and solving them made it interesting. You never knew what was around the next bend - or on the next page. Sterling, the antiques appraiser, was very good at what she did, but she was also very clever and could figure things out well. She took the time to learn about the people involved and how they thought. The house, Wynderly, seemed fascinating with its secret rooms and passageways. This was a very good book and I may search out other titles by Emyl Jenkins to read.

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The Royal Sheikh by Kathryn Lane

The Royal Sheikh by Katheryn Lane
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book to review. It was a typical romance novel however, it was set in the Middle East in a country called Bahir. A young architect was splashed by a limo that was arriving as she standing outside a restaurant in London. The man in the limo, the Royal Sheikh, was mesmerized by her and bought she and her friend dinner to make up for the splash. And it went on from there. He happened to see a drawing that she did on the back of a book and he asked her to design a house for him in Bahir. They fell in love; he thought she was using him to advance her career; she found out he was engaged to an Arabian Princess; she goes back to London; he gets out of the engagement and goes to London to find her; she won't have anything to do with him; he gets his assistant to make an appointment with her; he goes; she falls again; he tells her he isn't married; they resume their relationship, get married and go off to live in Bahir in the new house she designed. It was a good story, typical, but good. Sometimes I like to read something light. This was a fun, quick read.

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The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this classic book! I wanted to read a classic and I wasn't sure which one to choose. After reading reviews of "The Woman in White" where it was described as a mystery comparable to contemporary mysteries, I decided to try it. Even at over 500 pages, it never dragged. There were twists and turns, mistaken identity and downright nastiness. Yes, it was written a long time ago and it takes place in Victorian England, but it plays with your head and makes you question each character's loyalty to the other characters. My favorite characters? Walter Hartright of course, and Laura. Laura was so innocent in all of this and Marian was so clever and strong. Wilkie Collins knew how to write a mystery!!!

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The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a short little book - a novella. It was quite entertaining to think of the Queen of England sneaking around to get an opportunity to read and how obsessed she was. Aren't all of us booklovers obsessed with reading? I carry a book everywhere with me in case I get a moment to read a chapter while I'm waiting for an appointment or something. The objections of her ministers to her reading irritated me especially when they got rid of Norman. Even though he benefitted by getting a college education, it bothered me that they removed her fellow booklover and her friend. She didn't seem to have many friends. I'm afraid I didn't really understand the ending - I guess it brought back the fact that it was a work of fiction. I could imagine the Queen actually doing some of the things that happened in the book and then the ending smacked me on the forehead reminding me that it was a work of fiction - none of it was true. How disappointing. Anyway, I did enjoy the book just didn't like the end.

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The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book because I loved the cover and Louise Brooks intrigued me. I first heard of Louise Brooks when I was doing costumes for our local high school's production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie". She was an interesting character in this book, but the bulk of the story is about Cora, her chaperone. Her story has several quirks and turns.. Various issues were dealt with and shown in the perspective of the times when they were happening. There is a lot of depth to the story - many layers - but I don't want to ruin it for you. Cora was a little girl in an orphanage in New York City who was sent on an orphan train to the Midwest. She was adopted by a kindly couple and, when they died in a freak accident, a young lawyer from Wichita helped her settle their affairs. Later Cora and the young lawyer married, but nobody ever knew about her childhood. Many years later - 20 or so - Cora accompanied Louise Brooks, then 15, to New York City so she could attend the Denishawn Dance Academy where her career began. Cora looked for records of her birth parents and along the way she had some experiences that followed her back to Wichita and affected the rest of her life.

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Irish Crystal by Andrew M. Greeley

Irish Crystal: A Nuala Anne McGrail Novel by Andrew M. Greeley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book for the April (crystal) selection in the Rainbow Reading Challenge. It was a cute book, but it dragged a bit. I liked Nuala. She is Irish and typically spunky and her brogue came through really well. She and her husband, Dermot, are amateur - well, according to Dermot Nuala is never wrong - detectives. I couldn't really follow their method of discovering information, but they did solve the crime in the end. There was a lot of sexual references - albeit they were between Nuala and Dermot who were married, but still it was a little excessive for me. I guess anyone would be lucky to have a spouse who was so enraptured with him/her. Anyway, the book was okay, but I'm not going to run out and find another book in this series. Oh well.

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Revealing Eden by Victoria Foyt

Revealing Eden by Victoria Foyt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was given this book to review by the author in January and I am just getting to it. I apologize to Ms. Foyt, but it was really worth the wait! Yes, this book is about a post-apocalyptic society, but it's very different from other post-apocalyptic society books I've read. Light-skinned people, Pearls, are at the bottom of the pecking order and dark-skinned people, Coals, are the ruling class. Eden, a Pearl, undergoes getting a coating periodically so that she will appear dark-skinned and not upset the Coals. Her father, a Pearl, is also a scientist and the man who owns the Combs where they live sets him up with a laboratory so he can conduct research experiments. He is looking for a way to adapt the human race using characteristics from various animals so that humans can survive the outside world. At the time, everyone lived in tunnels underground called The Combs. On the night of the big trial, things happen and Bramford, the owner, ends up volunteering to be the test subject for this experiment, then kidnaps Eden and her father and takes them to a jungle far away. This story is about Eden's experiences with survival and how she learns what is truly important. A really good read!

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Rae of Hope by W. J. May

Rae of Hope by W.J. May
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this book from the author to review. I loved it! It is a coming-of-age story, but it certainly is not typical. Rae spent her first years in England. One day, when Rae was 6, her mother told her to go play in her treehouse until she came to get her. Then there was a fire in the house that killed both her mother and father. Rae was taken in by her Uncle Argyle and his wife and led a typical life in New York until she was 15. Then her Uncle sent her back to England to a boarding school. She soon found out it was a "special" school for uniquely talented teenagers. This book just flew for me. I didn't want to put it down. It had the perfect balance of twists and Rae's developing emotions and friendships. I hightly recommend it and can't wait to see if there is a sequel.

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