15 Books of Summer!

I wrapped up last month's reading but forgot to add my link in time for the final round-up of Wyrd & Wonder. 

The 20 Books of Summer challenge is hosted by 746 Books. I am joining with a goal of 15 books! 

June: 5
3 books for the SFBC Group Bookshelf Challenge on GoodReads:
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller 
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner 
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (reread) 
others: 
The First Men in the Moon by HG Wells (Classic with Nature in the Title)
Wild Card 

July: 5 
The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell 
The Protestant Ethic & the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber (nonfiction)(reread) (I read this earlier this year but never reviewed it; I think I need to read it again to write about it properly)
The Lais of Marie de France
The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin (reread)
Wild Card

August: 5
Ajax by Sophocles
Electra by Sophocles 
The Gorgias by Plato - another nonfiction that I need to reread
Le Morte d Artur by Sir Thomas Malory - I think I can start in July and finish in August
The Stone Sky by NK Jemisin (reread)

Read It Again, Sam Challenge 2020 (updated)

So far this year I have joined the Deal Me In Challenge (which I need to update; I'm almost on track with that one, but I have been checking them off on paper, not online) and the Back to the Classics challenge (which I will catch up with soon, I think). Now I am joining one more challenge for 2020: 

Bev's Read It Again, Sam Challenge! 

Level 1: Déjà vu: Reread 4 books

1. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

2. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie 

3. Chocolat by Joanne Harris

4. The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin 

level 1 complete! level 2:

5. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien 

6. The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin 

7. The Stone Sky by NK Jemisin

8. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Patricia McKillip

 

CC Spin #23: My First Spin

This is a recurring event at The Classics Club. I joined in 2018 but have never done a Spin before. The instructions are at the blog here. I will be reading one of the 20 books from this list, and on Sunday I will find out what I'm reading!

1. The Golden Ass - Apuleius 
2. Troilus & Cressida - Shakespeare
3. The Lais of Marie de France
4. Idylls of the King - Tennyson
5. The Complete Cosmicomics - Italo Calvino
6. Midnight's Children  - Salman Rushdie (reread)
7. Tales Before Tolkien - anthology
8. The Nibelungenlied
9. The Best of C.L. Moore
10. The Complete John Silence Stories - Algernon Blackwood
11. The Road to Wigan Pier - George Orwell
12. The Conference of the Birds - Farid ud-Din Attar
13. Songs of Innocence & Experience - William Blake
14. Paradise Lost (paradiselost.org) - John Milton (reread) 
15. The Kalevala 
16. Ajax - Sophocles 
17. Electra - Sophocles (drama)
18. Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table - Malory
19. Lyrical Ballads - William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge
20. The Poetic Edda 

Back to the Classics Challenge 2020: My List

Last year I think I read a book for every category, but I didn't write reviews for all of them. Here is my tentative list for 2020. I haven't read as much as I thought I would in January so far, but I will catch up soon! 

1. 19th Century Classic. Any classic book originally published between 1800 and 1899.

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville 

2. 20th Century Classic. Any classic book originally published between 1900 and 1970. All books in this category must have been published at least 50 years ago. The only exceptions are books that were published posthumously but were written at least 50 years ago. 
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller

3. Classic by a Woman Author. The Lais of Marie de France

4. Classic in Translation. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber (German)

5. Classic by a Person of Color. The Souls of Black Folk by WEB Dubois 

6. A Genre Classic. Any classic novel that falls into a genre category -- fantasy, science fiction, Western, romance, crime, horror, etc. The Complete John Silence Stories by Algernon Blackwood (I meant to read it last year...) 

7. Classic with a Person's Name in the Title. First name, last name or both. 

Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table by Sir Thomas Malory 

8. Classic with a Place in the Title. Any classic with the proper name of a place (real or fictional) - a country, region, city, town, village, street, building, etc. Examples include Notre Dame de Paris; Mansfield Park; East of Eden; The Canterbury Tales; Death on the Nile; etc.

The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell  

9. Classic with Nature in the Title. A classic with any element of nature in the title (not including animals). Examples include The Magic Mountain; The Grapes of Wrath; The Jungle; A High Wind in Jamaica; Gone With the Wind; Under the Volcano; etc.

The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells

10. Classic About a Family. This classic should have multiple members of the same family as principal characters, either from the same generation or multiple different generations. 

? 

I will decide on this one later... 

11. Abandoned Classic. Choose a classic that you started and just never got around to finishing, whether you didn't like it at or just didn't get around to it. Now is the time to give it another try.

And this one... 

12. Classic Adaptation. Any classic that's been adapted as a movie or TV series. If you like, you can watch the adaptation and include your thoughts in your book review. It's not required but it's always fun to compare.

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Deal Me In Short Story Challenge 2020: My List

This challenge is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis For this challenge, you select 52 stories to read in 2019 and then assign each of them to a card in a deck of cards, drawing one card each week and then reading the story that matches the card. I read most of last year's list, but I didn't finish it. This time, like Jay, I have included a wild card in each suit, so I can pick whatever I want for that card when I draw it. 

This year, I think I will try to have a post every month about what I've read.
5/7/20: 12 read, I'm trying to catch up to 16 and then I will be back on track for 4 per month

◇Diamonds: 19th century-ish poems◇ (a few are 18th century)
A Arthur Hugh Clough: Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth  5/7/20 
1 Alfred Lord Tennyson: Ulysses (reread)
2 William Shakespeare: Venus & Adonis
3 Swinburne: Garden of Proserpina (reread)
4 John Keats: Ode on Melancholy (reread) 6/21/2020
5 Percy Shelley: Ode to the West Wind (reread)
6 John Keats: Ode to a Nightingale (reread)
7 John Keats: Ode on a Grecian Urn (reread)
8 Percy Shelley: Adonais
9 Robert Burns: To a Mouse (reread)
10 Percy Shelley: Mont Blanc
J Percy Shelley: Ozymandias (reread)
Q Percy Shelley: To a Skylark (reread) 1/25/2020

K Wild Card

♤Spades: Science Fiction & Fantasy♤ (from old issues of Asimov's)
A Nancy Kress: Night Win (September 1983)  4/26/2020
1 Octavia Butler: Speech Sounds (December 1983)
2 Connie Willis: And Who Would Pity a Swan? (January 1985)
3 Richard Purtill: Gorgonissa (January 1985)
4 Frederick Pohl: Fermi & Frost (January 1985)
5 Bruce Sterling: Dinner in Audoghast (May 1985)
6 Lisa Goldstein: Preliminary Notes on the Jang (May 1985) 1/30/2020
7 Pat Cadigan: After the Days of Dead-Eye Dee (May 1985)
8 Michael Swanwick: Anyone Here From Utah? (May 1985) April 26 2020
9 Kate Wilhelm: The Gorgon Field (August 1985)
10 James Blaylock: Lord Kelvin's Machine (December 1985) 
J Robert Silverberg: An Outpost of the Empire (November 1991) 4/25/2020
Q Kim Stanley Robinson: Vinland the Dream (November 1991)
K Wild Card: Charles de Lint: Uncle Dobbins Parrot Fair 4/24/20

♧Clubs: More Stories from Asimov's♧

A Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling: Storming the Cosmos (December 1985)  4/20/20

1 James Tiptree: All This & Heaven Too (December 1985)  

2 Susan Palwick: The Woman Who Saved the World (May 1985)

3 James Patrick Kelly: Solstice (June 1985) 

4 Ian McDonald: Empire Dreams (December 1985) 

5 Norman Spinrad: World War Last (August 1985) 6/20/20

6 Kim Stanley Robinson: A History of the 20th Century, With Illustrations (April 1991)  4/28/20

7 Greg Egan: In Numbers (April 1991) 1/31/2020

8 Lucius Shepard: Shades (December 1987) 

9 Karen Joy Fowler: The War of the Roses (December 1985)

10 Gene Wolfe: The Nebraskan and the Nereid (December 1985)  April 27 2020

J  Robert Charles Wilson: Boulevard Life (December 1985) April 25 2020

Q Keith Roberts: Mrs. Byres and the Dragon (August 1990) 6/22/2020

K Wild Card

♡Hearts: 20th Century Poems♡

A Pablo Neruda: Oda a la Critica (Ode to Criticism) (reread)

1 W.H. Auden: In Memory of W.B. Yeats (reread)

2 Pablo Neruda: Oda a la Sal (Ode to Salt) (reread)

3 Robert Hayden: Perseus (reread)

4 Pablo Neruda: Oda a la Alchofa (Ode to the Artichoke) (reread)

5 W.H. Auden: The Unknown Citizen (reread)

6 Robinson Jeffers: Hurt Hawks

7 T.S. Eliot:  Little Gidding

8 Marianne Moore: Poetry  5/31/2020

9 W.H. Auden: The Shield of Achilles (reread)

10 Neruda: Deber del Poeta (The Poet's Obligation) (reread) 6/18/2020

J Robert Frost: Birches 

Q Neruda: Migracion (Migration) (reread)

K Wild Card 

Back to the Classics 2019: Wrap-Up

Hosted by Karen @ Books and Chocolate.

I read and reviewed eight books for this challenge. My favorite, unsurprisingly, was The Odyssey, but  I really liked all the books. Honorable mention to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The Sound & the Fury, and Macbeth.

19th century: - 

20th Century Classic: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Classic in Translation: The Odyssey

Classic by a Woman: -
Classic Comic Novel: Three Men in a Boat
Classic Tragic Novel: The Sound and the Fury
Very Long Classic: - (I read Bleak House and didn't review it, so I assume I don't get to count it)
Classic Novella: The House on the Borderland
Classic From the Americas or Caribbean: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania: Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things
Classic From A Place You've Lived: -
Classic Play: Macbeth

I will have a wrap-up post later for the other books I read this year.

12 Books of Summer 2019!

I am joining this just in time! Saw it on Cleo's blog. This challenge is hosted by Cathy at 746Books.

For June, I am focusing on the first five.

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

I've had this on hold for a long time at the library, and it finally came in! A past group read in one of my Goodreads groups, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club; I am trying to read 12 past group reads this year (I have 5 left)!

As You Like It  William Shakespeare

I meant to read this last month. I hope I'll have a chance to go see it this summer.

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon own

Trying to finish this (abridged version, 700 pgs) which I started in March. I am 63% done.

Metamorphoses  Ovid - already started (January) own

I am 65% done. I am hoping I can finish books XI-XII this month and the rest next month.  

The Wild Girls a short story + essay by Ursula Le Guin (with Goodreads group) library 

Autobiography JS Mill Back to the Classics Challenge (19th century) own

I have read On Liberty a few years ago, but nothing else by him.

The Sound & the Fury William Faulkner Back to the Classics Challenge (tragic novel) library

Dancing at the Edge of the World Ursula Le Guin (with Goodreads group) essay collection library 

I Explain a Few Things: Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda -- already started (March) own

I'm enjoying this! Not sure if I will finish it during the challenge.  

Kwaidan - Lafcadio Hearne Back to the Classics Challenge (Asian classic) library

A collection of Japanese ghost stories. I wanted to include a short story collection, and this will fit in with my Back to the Classics challenge.   

The Communist Manifesto  for the Classics Club (reread) own

The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller (library)

Another past group read for the challenge. 

Read It Again, Sam Challenge 2019

Bev @ My Readers Block hosts this challenge.

I am late in joining this, but I have several rereads planned, so why not?

I am joining for the first level: De Ja Vu: 4 books.

1.  Guards, Guards 1/26/2019 not reviewed
2. War Music 1/30/2019
3. The Odyssey 3/4/2019
4. Good Omens 4/5/2019

first level complete! next level:

Feeling Nostalgic: Reread 8 books
5. The Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays 4/5/2019
6. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy 4/6/2019
7. War and the Iliad 3/19/2019
8. The Left Hand of Darkness  4/20/2019
9. Bleak House (not reviewed) 11/30/2019

Share-a-Tea challenge & Chunkster Challenge 2019

Both of these are hosted by Becky @ Becky's Book Reviews. In order to sign up, just leave a comment. I commented on both but I think my comments have not been published yet.



Share-a-Tea Reading Challenge

Includes any book that you primarily read while drinking tea (or coffee) in 2019



 Chunkster Challenge

See how many points you can earn reading chunksters (books 450+ pages in length) in 2019

Deal Me In Challenge list for 2019

This challenge is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis. For this challenge, you select 52 stories to read in 2019 and then assign each of them to a card in a deck of cards, drawing one card each week and then reading the story that matches the card.

The stories for the first 2 suits are from The Ascent of Wonder: the Evolution of Hard SF, edited by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. I selected these using the Wikipedia page, which makes it easy to see the year of publication for each story. The table of contents in the book itself is not in chronological order, for some strange reason. I'll probably read the whole book by the end of the year, but I will use this challenge to decide which stories to read first.

I am not sure if I can read all of these, but if I have to change something I will probably cut back on another challenge. After all, this one is probably one of the easier challenges to fit into the year, especially since I have designated one of my suits for stories on audio. 

I probably won't review all of these, but I will do a few round-up posts.

Clubs: Classic SF Short Stories

A - H.G. Wells: "The Land Ironclads" 1903
2 - Rudyard Kipling: "With the Night Mail" 1909
3 - Don A Stuart: "Atomic Power" 1934 4/15/2019

4 - Raymond Z. Gallun: "Davy Jones's Ambassador" 1935 1/15/2019
5 - Hal Clement:  "Proof” 1942 8/6/2019
6 - Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore: "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" 1943 2/19/2019
7 - Raymond F. Jones: "The Person from Porlock" 1947

8 - Philip Latham: "The Xi Effect" 1950 6/23/2019

9 - Arthur C. Clarke: "The Star" 1955 7/28/2019

10 - James Blish: "Surface Tension" 1952   1/28/2019
J - Katherine Maclean: "The Snowball Effect" 1952
Q - Philip K. Dick: "The Indefatigable Frog" 1953
K  - J.G. Ballard: "Cage of Sand" 1963 8/31/2019

Spades: Contemporary SF Short Stories 

(using a broad definition of "contemporary": 1968-present)

A - Kate Wilhelm "The Planners" 1968  2/23/2019
2 - Poul Anderson "Kyrie" 1969 8/7/2019
3 - Gregory Benford "Exposures" 1982 2/5/2019
4 - Theodore Sturgeon "Occam's Scalpel" 1971  4/15/2019

5 - J.G. Ballard "Prima Belladonna" 1971

6 - Ursula K. Le Guin "The Author of the Acacia Seeds" 1974 (reread)
7 - Ian Watson "The Very Slow Time Machine" 1978 8/15/2019
8 - Robert L. Forward "The Singing Diamond" 1979  3/14/2019
9 - William Gibson "Johnny Mnemonic" 1981
10 - Bruce Sterling "The Beautiful & the Sublime" 1986 4/1/2019
J  - Gene Wolfe "Procreation" 1984
Q  - John M. Ford "Heat of Fusion" 1984 3/9/2019
K - Gene Wolfe "All the Hues of Hell" 1987 4/29/2019

Diamonds: Poetry

A - John Keats: The Eve of St. Agnes     2/13/2019 
2 - Percy Shelley: Ode to the West Wind (reread) 
3 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (reread) 
4 - John Greenleaf Whittier: Snowbound 
5 - Tennyson: Ulysses (reread) 7/31/2019
6 - Tennyson: The Lotus-Eaters 5/19/2019
7 - Arthur Hugh Clough: Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth 
8 - W.B. Yeats: The Song of Wandering Aengus (reread)
9 - Yeats: Easter 1916 (reread) 

10 - Pablo Neruda: Explicar Algunas Cosas (I Explain a Few Things) (reread) 7/25/2019

J - Neruda: Canto a la madres de los milicianos muertos (Songs for the Mothers of Slain Militiamen)

Q - Neruda: Oda a la critica (Ode to Criticism) 

K - Neruda: Oda a la sal (Ode to Salt)

Hearts: Stories on audio 

A - Edgar Allen Poe: A Descent into the Maelstrom LibriVox
2 - Nathaniel Hawthorne: Rappaccinis Daughter LibriVox 8/2/2019
3 - Jules Verne: In the Year 2889 LibriVox
4 - HG Wells:  The Star LibriVox 6/28/2019
5 - HG Wells: The Crystal Egg LibriVox 3/23/2019
6 - Algernon Blackwood: A Victim of Higher Space LibriVox 
7 - Neil Gaiman: The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains - library audio (downloadable ebook) (reread) 6/1/2019
8 - Natalia Theodoridou: The Birding: A Fairy Tale: Strange Horizons podcast (World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction 2018) 2/28/2019
9 - Peter Beagle: Come Lady Death Podcastle podcast (reread)
10 - John Crowley: Snow 
Lightspeed podcast (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/snow/) 4/14/2019
J - Peter Beagle: We Never Talk About My Brother Podcastle podcast 2/17/2019
Q  - NK Jemisin: Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Under the Still Waters Podcastle podcast [found on this page: http://podcastle.org/new-to-podcastle]
K -  Ken Liu: The Paper Menagerie Podcastle podcast

Back to the Classics 2018 wrapup - links to reviews

19th century classic: Manfred
20th Century Classic: The Man in the High Castle
Classic by a Woman Author: Orlando
Classic in Translation: Njal's Saga
Children's Classic: The Owl Service
Classic Crime Story: The Moonstone
Classic Travel or Journey: The Aeneid
Classic With a Single-Word Title: Utopia
Classic With a Color in the Title: Sir Gawain & the Green Knight/Pearl/Sir Orfeo
Classic By a New-To-You Author: The House of the Wolfings
Classic That Scares You: Eichmann in Jerusalem
Re-Read a Favorite Classic: The Iliad

Back to the Classics 2019

Hosted by Karen @ Books and Chocolate. Here are the categories and my choices for 2019.

1. 19th Century Classic. Any classic book originally published between 1800 and 1899.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame  OR Bleak House  (reread)

2. 20th Century Classic. Any classic book originally published between 1900 and 1969. All books in this category must have been published at least 50 years ago. The only exceptions are books that were published posthumously but were written at least 50 years ago. 

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

3. Classic by a Female Author.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 

4. Classic in Translation. Any classic originally written in a language other than your native language. You may read the book in your native language, or its original language (or a third language for all you polyglots!) Modern translations are acceptable, as long as the book was originally published at least 50 years ago. Books in translation are acceptable in all other categories as well.

The Metamorphoses

5. Classic Comedy. Any comedy or humorous work. 

Three Men in a Boat

6. Classic Tragedy. Tragedies traditionally have a sad ending, but just like the comedies, this is up for the reader to interpret. 

?

7. Very Long Classic. Any classic single work 500 pages or longer, not including introductions or end notes. Omnibus editions of multiple works do not count. Since page counts can vary depending on the edition, average the page count of various editions to determine the length.

Stand on Zanzibar just makes the cutoff date; it was published in 1968. 

8. Classic Novella. Any work of narrative fiction shorter than 250 pages. 

The House on the Borderland 

9. Classic From the Americas (includes the Caribbean). Includes classic set in either continent or the Caribbean, or by an author originally from one of those countries. 

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Colombia) -- published 1967 

10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia). Any classic set in one of those continents or islands, or by an author from these countries. 

 The Conference of the Birds (Iran) ? Or...?

11. Classic From a Place You've Lived. Read locally! Any classic set in a city, county, state or country in which you've lived. 

The Maltese Falcon (California)

12. Classic Play. Any play written or performed at least 50 years ago. Plays are eligible for this category only. 

Macbeth (reread) OR As You Like It (I will read both, but use only one for this task)