The Classics Club

For my 2023 Classics Club post, click here. 

I began the Classics Club a few years ago, but then took a break. I'm ready to restart it!

 Here are the basic rules of The Classics Club:

choose 50+ classics
I have chosen 50+ with the expectation that some will be terrible and I won't want to read them. I'm shooting for a goal of 50.  I have chosen some that I have always intended to read, or feel like I should read.  I've chosen others that I've read in the past and would like to read again to see if I have a better understanding, or just for the pure enjoyment of revisiting an old friend.

list them at your blog
Tada! (see below)  

choose a reading completion goal date up to five years in the future and note that date on your classics list of 50+ titles
My orginal goal was to have read my 50 by 6 July 2018. My new goal is June 2021 (Holy Cow!) The Classics Club stresses that this is a "living list/goal" and as such it the list can grow, the goal date can be extended. . . the point is to read and grow with the classics.  That being the case, I reserve the right to add to or subtract from my list.

write about each title on your list as you finish reading it, and link it to your main list
The point of this is not to write reviews, but to initiate discussion by writing about "your reading thoughts".


Here is my list; note that I completed some a few years ago and have reposted my discussion on this blog.

1. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (read my discussion here)
2. Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake
3. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (read my discussion here)
4.  The Professor by Charlotte Bronte (re-read)
5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (re-read) (read my discussion here)
6. The Thirty-Nine Steps by James Buchan (read my discussion here)
7. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote (re-read) (my discussion here)
8. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
9. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
10. The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot (re-read)
11.  A Passage to India by E.M. Forester
12. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
13.  Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
14. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (my discussion here)
15. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
16.  Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
17. Mayor of Castlebridge by Thomas Hardy
18. Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (re-read)
19. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (re-read)
20. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (my discussion here)
21. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (re-read) (my discussion here)
22. Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (my discussion here)
23. Lilith by George MacDonald (re-read) (read my discussion here)
24. Phantasties by George MacDonald (re-read) (my discussion here)
25. The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
26. The Garden Party and other stories by Katherine Mansfield
27. 1984 by George Orwell (read my discussion here)
28. Animal Farm by George Orwell
29. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (read my discussion here)
30.  Excellent Women by Barbara Pym (read my discussion here)
31.  Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
32. The Heir by Vita Sackville-West (read my discussion here)
33. Seducers in Ecuador by Vita Sackville-West (read my discussion here)
34. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger (re-read) (read my discussion here)
35. Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger (re-read)
36. Nine Stories by JD Salinger 
37. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction  by JD Salinger
38. Henry IV by Shakespeare (re-read)
39. Henry V by Shakespeare (re-read)
40.  King Lear by Shakespeare (re-read)
41. Measure for Measure by Shakespeare (re-read)  (my discussion here)
42. The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare (re-read)  (my discussion here)
43. The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare (re-read) (my discussion here)
44. Twelfth Night by Shakespeare (re-read) (my discussion here) 
45. Life and Death of Harriet Frean by May Sinclair (read my discussion here)
46. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (read my discussion here)
47. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey (read my discussion here)
48. Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale (re-read) (read my discussion here)
49. Love Poems by Sara Teasdale
50. The Warden by Anthony Trollope (my discussion is here)
51. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (re-read)
52. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (read my discussion here)
53.  The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (read my discussion here)
54.  The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
55. Night and Day by Virginia Woolf (read my discussion here)
56. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
57.  To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (re-read) (read my discussion here)
58. The Waves by Virginia Woolf (re-read)
59. The Years by Virginia Woolf (re-read)

Wink Poppy Midnight

Wink Poppy Midnight
April Genevieve Tucholke
Reading level: YA

3/5 stars

I was given this book by the Amazon Vine program in return for an honest review.

Wink Poppy Midnight centers around three teens by those names that are involved in an unhealthy triangle of a sort. Midnight, a mostly average teenager, has been crazy about Poppy for some time, until he begins living next to Wink and falls for her. Poppy (beautiful, but self-admittedly vain and cruel), and Wink (innocent-seeming, fairy tale-addicted, and enigmatic) both strive to manipulate Midnight. Poppy uses him for sex and to boost her ego, while Wink is trying to mold him into a Hero with a capital H.

The story is told in the voices of all three, alternating and picking up where the last one left off. Sadly, the voices of Midnight and Wink aren't as fully developed as Poppy and often seem more like "generic teen" than an individual. The blurb lets the reader know from the beginning that no one is exactly as they seem, and to expect unreliable narration, which adds a pleasant sense of unease as the plot progresses, despite it being a relatively standard retelling of "boy between two girls". The prose is often lyrical and lovely, but seems out of place in the mouths of average teenagers.

Overall, this quick read was enjoyable without being unduly surprising or moving. I did like it, I just didn't find it exceptional.

Note: This is my opinion; on Amazon, 47% of the reviews were 4 stars.

Currently Reading

From my Instagram account: the prompt for this photo was "currently reading".

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists
Gideon Defoe
5/5

The Pirate Captain, a dashing man very fond of ham, attacks The Beagle-thanks to a false tip from Black Bellamy, the pirate with a knife between his teeth-and, finding no treasure, becomes involved in an adventure with the not-yet-famous Darwin. Darwin's brother, Erasmus, has been kidnapped by the "blackhearted Bishop of Oxford" to keep Darwin from exhibiting Mister Bobo, who he (Darwin) has trained to communicate with word cards. The Pirate Captain and his crew return to London to assist Darwin in rescuing Erasmus, a feat which forces all the pirates to pretend to be scientists, and some of them to pretend to be scientists pretending to be women.

What do you mean it doesn't make any sense? It's not supposed to! That's the beauty of this little gem: with one outrageous chapter after another, The Pirates! is full of puns, jokes and allusions. It's purposefully written with no sense of historical accuracy, adding an extra layer of fun, and uses every piratical cliché and stereotype to the fullest humorous advantage. Scurvy, a hot air balloon, ham, a grisly murder machine, swashbuckling, an exciting chase scene in the Museum of Natural History, talking primates, breakfast cereal and pirates! What's not to love?

The Pirates! is Defoe's first novel and, for me, is the best comic novel debut I have ever had to fortune to read. Not only was it hard to put down, but it demanded to be read aloud, first by me to my husband, and then by him back to me as he read it! The book cover says that he "wrote the Pirates! to convince a woman to leave her boyfriend for him. She didn't". I just hope that her failure to follow through won't stop him from writing another Pirate Adventure.

(originally read and reviewed in 2005.)

Five Quarters of the Orange

Five Quarters of the Orange
Joann Harris
4/5 stars

Framboise returns to the village of her youth as an old woman, unrecognizable because of her age and using a different first name along with her married name. None of the villagers connect her, a 65 year old widow, respectable though peculiar, with the skinny kid that was run out of the village with her mother and two siblings some fifty years prior. She's Mirabelle Dartigen's daughter. . . if they only knew.

In her return "home" Boise must face the past and sort out what happened to her enigmatic mother. The album, with it's clippings and cryptic writing, leads her to discoveries about her mother that shock her and change her whole view of who her mother was.

At the same time, Boise relives her own life, especially that pivotal summer. This, side by side with her discoveries from the album, form a full picture of what did happen, answer some of her questions and give the reader a story told in patchwork that, when fit together, makes a lovely quilt of story.

The story is told in the first person, going back and forth from Boise's childhood to her current struggle with first the village and then her relatives. It transitions smoothly, the story is firm and real--and like the oranges that play such a crucial role, the scent of the story lingers for some time after the reading.

The main plot was a well-used one, and as such disappointed me a bit. Harris managed to make up for that, though, with her style which kept me intrigued even during the most obvious bits. Over all the novel was a good one and I look forward to reading for her other two novels.

(Originally read/reviewed in 2005.)

Sky Burial by Xinran

Sky Burial
Xinran
5/5 stars

Sky Burial is based on a true story as it was told to the author, Xinran, by the principal character, Shu Wen. Wen's young idealist husband is an Army doctor in 1950's China, sent to Tibet during the time of China's "liberation" of Tibet. They had only been married three weeks when he left, and around 100 days after his departure she received a letter stating he was dead. The lack of explanation of death gave her a hope that perhaps he really wasn't dead, just lost, and she joined the Army as well, in her husband's unit. Herself a dermatologist, they were only too glad to of her request to be sent to Tibet--doctors were much needed on the front. Shortly after reaching Tibet, however, Wen is separated from her unit and spends the next thirty years wandering with a family of nomadic Tibetans, never giving up hope that she will find the answer to her husband's disappearance.

The writing is sparse and without a lot of descriptions, and whether it is intentional or because Xinran is in fact a journalist and not a novelist, it works wonderfully for both the untamed Tibetan landscape and the slowly unfolding, sometimes bleak but always beautiful, story.

The reader follows Wen, amazed at her tenacity as the years go by, at her unwillingness to give up against such odds. As she becomes more and more comfortable in her Tibetan ways, the reader sees Wen falling in love, unknowingly, with Tibet--and does the same, openly embracing this wild country. Like Wen, the reader can not give up hope, knowing there will be an answer to Wen's search, because such determination and love does not go unrewarded.

Subtitled "an epic love story of Tibet", Sky Burial is just that--a love story of a woman for a country as well as her husband; a love story of the reader for Tibet, for Wen, and for Xinran for giving such a gift.

(originally read/reviewed in 2008)

The Dud Avacado

The Dud Avocado
Elaine Dundy
5/5 stars

The Dud Avocado tells the story of Sally Jay Groce, fresh out of college and ready to live life to it's fullest in Paris. Once in Paris, she goes "more native than the natives" trying to cram as much "living" as she can in two short years. Sally Jay's attempts to live it up lead her into many roles, from mistress to actress to homebody, and she embraces every role with gusto--usually with disastrous results.

Dundy's fifty-year-old classic is fresh and witty, and sometimes a bit racy, and her prose is as close to perfection as one can find. Add this to Sally Jay, a protagonist so alive and real, and it is easy to see why this book gained such a following upon publication.

Here is an excerpt from chapter 3, one of my favorite bits, to give an example of the delicious flavor of the book:

"At eleven o'clock that night, in one of my dangerous moods--midnight-black, excited and deeply dreading (as opposed to one of my beautiful midnight-blue ones, calm but deeply excited), my nerves strung taut to singing, I arrived at the Ritz, only to discover all over again what a difficult thing this was to do. I tended to loose my balance at the exact moment that the doorman opened the cab door and stood by in his respectful attitude of waiting." I have even been known to fall out of the cab by reaching and pushing against the handle at the same time that he did. But this time, however, I had disciplined myself to remain quite, quite still, sitting on my hands until the door was opened for me. Then, burrowing into my handbag, which suddenly looked like the Black Hole of Calcutta, to find the fare, I discovered that I needed a light. A light was switched on. I needed more than a light, I needed a match or a flashlight or special glasses, for I simply couldn't find my change purse, and when I did (lipstick rolling on the floor, compact open and everything spilled--passport, mirror, the works) I couldn't find the right change. We were now all three of us, driver, doorman and I, waiting to see what I was going to do next. I took out some bills, counted them three times in the dark until I was absolutely certain that I had double the amount necessary, and then pressed it on the driver, eagerly apologizing for overtipping. Overcome with shyness I nodded briefly in the direction of the doorman and raced him to the entrance. I just won. Panting and by now in an absolute ecstasy of panic I flung myself at the revolving doors and let them spin me through. Thus I gained access to the Ritz."

I guffawed out loud so often throughout the Dud Avocado; I read parts aloud to my husband; I laughed at and cried with Sally Jay. . . in short, I lived this book. It was pure joy to read, and one that I will certainly read a second time.

(originally read/reviewed in 2009)