Tag: book lists

A Century of Books: How Am I Doing? May Report

~ whatmeread ~ 4 Comments

In January, I foolishly decided to join Simon Thomas’s Century of Book Challenge, even though I knew that reading 100 books, one for each year in a century, from 1925-2024, would be tough because last year I only read 169. So, how am I doing?

Here are the holes in my project with the books listed for April below. If you want to see the details, see my Century of Books page.

  • 1925-1934: entries needed for 1926-29 and 1931
  • 1935-1944: entries needed for all years except 1935, 1936, 1937, 1941, and 1943
  • 1945-1954: entries needed for all years except 1946, 1947, 1952, 1953, and 1954
  • 1955-1964: entries needed for all years except 1956, 1958, 1959, and 1962
  • 1965-1974: entries needed for 1967, 1969, and 1973
  • 1975-1984: entries needed for all years except 1975, 1976, and 1978
  • 1985-1994: entries needed for all years
  • 1995–2004: entries needed for all years except 1999 and 2004
  • 2005-2014: entries needed for all years except 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2014
  • 2015-2024: complete!

Read since April 24th:

Unfortunately, too early to be counted, The Prophet’s Mantle by Fabian Bland (E. Nesbit) from 1885

Books that count:

  • The Shutter of Snow by Emily Holmes Coleman from 1930
  • Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz from 1937 (DNF)
  • Westwood by Stella Gibbons from 1946
  • The Dark Fantastic by Margaret Echard from 1947
  • Spam Tomorrow by Verily Anderson from 1956
  • Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker from 1962
  • Endless Night by Agatha Christie from 1968
  • Ibiza Surprise by Dorothy Dunnett from 1970
  • The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons from 1978
  • Killing Me Softly by Nicci French from 1999
  • La Rochelle by Michael Nath from 2010
  • The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli from 2010
  • Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown from 2020
  • After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz from 2021
  • Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley from 2022
  • The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer from 2023 (DNF)
  • The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright from 2023
  • Weyward by Emilia Hart from 2023
  • North Woods by Daniel Mason from 2023

If I Gave the Award

~ whatmeread ~ 6 Comments

Since I just reviewed the last book on the shortlist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, it’s time for me to evaluate whether I think the judges got it right. That year was an unusual one, because they awarded it to two of the three novels on the shortlist, Trust by Hernan Diaz and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I felt that there were flaws in all three novels.

I think I’ll start where I often do, with the book I liked the least. That is with The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara. It may be that I’ve just read too many dystopian novels this season, and they are not my favorite. But I also thought Vara tried to tackle too many subjects. This impressed some of the newspaper and magazine reviewers, but it made me feel the novel was too all over the place. It hits runaway technology, social networking dangers, climate change, the disintegration of national governments, not to mention dysfunctional families.

It’s harder for me to evaluate the other two. Although I am not a fan of novel rewrites, Demon Copperhead was a clever rewrite of David Copperfield, placing the old classic in a modern framework. However, Barbara Kingsolver is not really good at funny, which is one of Dickens’s hallmarks, and I missed the innocence of the original character. The story is gripping, however.

I think I’m going to go with Trust as the most ambitious of the three novels in terms of structure. Trust presents the story of a wealthy early 20th century tycoon and his wife three times. Although the first time, a novel about the couple, was commonplace, and the second retelling, an “autobiography,” by the tycoon, was so megalomaniacal that it was hard to read, the third section by the tycoon’s ghost writer is where the meat and the surprise of the novel lie. I likened this novel to Russian nesting dolls, and it’s the one that has stuck with me longest.

How Many Top Books Have I Read?

~ whatmeread ~ 9 Comments

Last week, the New York Times released a list of its top books since 2000. Glancing down at the titles of both the 10 Best Books from each year and the Notable Books, I realized that, at least for the first few years, I had read at least one book. So, I decided it might be fun to post the list of books I have read from each year. I only looked at the titles shown by their covers in the article, skipping the long lists of Notable Books.

2023

From the 10 Best Books:

None yet, but I have The Bee Sting and Northwoods in my pile.

From the 7 top Notable Books:

And I have The Covenant of Water in my pile.

2022

From the 10 Best Books:

From the 7 top Notable Books:

2021

From the 10 Best Books:

From the 7 top Notable Books:

2020

From the 10 Best Books:

From the 7 top Notable Books:

2019

From the 10 Best Books:

From the 7 top Notable Books:

2018

From the 10 Best Books:

From the 7 top Notable Books:

2017

From the 10 Best Books:

From the 7 top Notable Books

2016

From the 10 Best Books:

From the 7 top Notable Books

2015

From the 10 Best Books:

From the 7 Top Notable Books:

2014

From the 10 Best Books:

From the 7 top Notable Books

2013

From the 10 Best Books:

2012

From the 10 Best Books:

From the top 7 Notable Books:

2011

From the 10 Best Books:

From the top 7 Notable Books:

  • IQ84 by Haruki Murakami (Now, we’re to ones I read before I started blogging. So, no link.)
  • The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje

2010

From the 10 Best Books:

From the top 7 Notable Books:

2009

From the top 7 Notable Books:

2008

From the 10 Best Books:

2007

From the 10 Best Books:

  • Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson

From the 7 top Notable Books:

2006

From the 10 Best Books:

From the 7 top Notable Books:

2005

From the 10 Best Books:

From the 7 top Notable Books:

  • Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. R. Rowling

2004

From Editor’s Choice:

From the 7 top Notable Books:

2003

From the Editor’s Choice:

From the 7 top Notable Books:

  • Any Human Heart by William Boyd

2002

From Editor’s Choice:

  • Atonement by Ian McEwan
  • Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

2001

From Editor’s Choice:

  • The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
  • John Adams by David McCullough
  • True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

2000

From the 7 top Notable Books:

  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

And here’s an added bonus,

My Favorites of the Books in This List

In the order in which they occur:

  • Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
  • The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
  • Educated by Tara Westover
  • Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
  • All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
  • The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
  • The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
  • Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
  • Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
  • A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
  • Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
  • Any Human Heart by William Boyd
  • Atonement by Ian McEwan

My Least Favorite

Again, in the order in which they appear, and there were some that I really hated:

  • The Vegetarian by Jean Kang
  • All That Man Is by David Szalay
  • The Sellout by Paul Beatty (DNF)
  • Beatlebone by Kevin Barry
  • Beyond Black by HIlary Mantel (DNF, sorry Hilary, I usually love you)
  • A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by David Eggars

WWW Wednesday

~ whatmeread ~ 6 Comments

Well, I guess The Chocolate Lady has got me into something with her WWW Wednesday, which she does once a month. I had some encouragement when I tried it last month, so what the heck. Maybe I’ll make it a habit, although I don’t know if I’ll do it every month.

The idea is to talk about what you’re reading now, what you just read, and what you plan to read.

What Am I Reading Now?

By now, I mean I just literally picked this book up to start it, The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons. I may have read one book by this Southern writer before, but I am not sure. I got it because someone told me it was a good ghost story. I love a good ghost story. I’ll have to let you know about it, because I have literally not even read the first sentence yet.

I just checked the copyright date (1978), and this novel is going to help me fill a hole in my Century of Books project.

What Did I Just Finish Reading?

The last book I read, I enjoyed very much. It was Westwood by Stella Gibbons. It is partially about a naïve and suggestible young schoolteacher’s hero-worship of an older renowned playwright, a pompous and humorless man who thinks he’s god’s gift to literature and likes to philander with beautiful young women, one of which she is not. Some of the scenes with this character and the descriptions of the plots of his plays made me laugh out loud.

With a publication date of 1947, this book also helped me fill a hole in my Century of Books project.

What Will I Read Next?

I just realized today that I needed to get hopping on my next book for Literary Wives. The date to post our reviews is the first Monday in June, and since I write up my reviews ahead of time, I have almost got up to it! So, I have to get reading. It is waiting for me to pick up at the library. I know nothing about it, Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown.

Sadly, its 2019 publication date does not fill a hole in my project.

What about you? Have you read any of these books? What are you reading?

A Century of Books: How Am I Doing? April Report

~ whatmeread ~ 6 Comments

In January, I foolishly decided to join Simon Thomas’s Century of Book Challenge, even though I knew that reading 100 books, one for each year in a century, from 1925-2024, would be tough because last year I only read 169. So, how am I doing?

Here are the holes in my project with the books listed for April below. If you want to see the details, see my Century of Books page.

  • 1925-1934: entries needed for 1926-31
  • 1935-1944: entries needed for all years except 1935, 1936, 1937, 1941, and 1943
  • 1945-1954: entries needed for all years except 1947, 1952, 1953, and 1954
  • 1955-1964: entries needed for all years except 1958 and 1959
  • 1965-1974: entries needed for all years except 1965, 1966, 1972, and 1974
  • 1975-1984: entries needed for all years except 1975 and 1976
  • 1985-1994: entries needed for all years
  • 1995–2004: entries needed for all years except 2004
  • 2005-2014: entries needed for all years except 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2014
  • 2015-2024: complete!

Read since March 27th:

Unfortunately, not qualifying for the project, The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy from 1878

Qualifying:

  • Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge from 1935
  • An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer from 1937
  • Beginning with a Bash by Alice Tilton from 1937
  • Forest Silver by E. M. Ward from 1941
  • Family Ties by Celia Buckmaster from 1952
  • A Stranger Came Ashore by Mollie Hunter from 1975
  • Real Life by Brandon Taylor from 2020
  • The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara from 2022
  • The Other Side of Mrs. Wood by Lucy Barker from 2023
  • Prophet Song by Paul Lynch from 2023
  • The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd Robinson from 2023
  • The Guest Room by Tasha Sylva from 2023

Classics Club Spin Yet Again!

~ whatmeread ~ 8 Comments

Here it seems like we just had a Classics Club Spin and we’re having another one, #37! What is the spin, anyway? Well, if you are a member of the Classics Club you have posted a list of a number of classics you would like to read by a certain deadline, set by yourself. To participate, simply create a numbered list of 20 of the books on your list and post it by Sunday, April 21. On Monday, the club will post a number, and that number determines which book you will read for the spin. Post a review of that book by Sunday, June 2. It’s as simple as that. And don’t forget to add a link to that post in the Comments for the spin post on June 2nd.

With no further ado, here is my list. I no longer have 20 books left on it, so I have to repeat some:

  1. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
  2. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
  3. The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
  4. The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellanos
  5. The Methods of Lady Walderhurst by Frances Hodgson Burnett
  6. The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
  7. Merkland, A Story of Scottish Life by Margaret Oliphant
  8. The Prophet’s Mantle by E. Nesbit
  9. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
  10. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
  11. Cecilia, Memoirs of an Heiress by Frances Burney
  12. The Princess of Cleves by Madame de La Fayette
  13. Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare
  14. Hero and Leander by Christopher Marlowe
  15. The Tavern Knight by Rafael Sabatini
  16. The Book of Dede Korkut by Anonymous
  17. Merkland, A Story of Scottish Life by Margaret Oliphant
  18. Tis Pity She’s a Whore by John Ford
  19. The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
  20. The Prophet’s Mantle by E. Nesbit
  21. The Methods of Lady Walderhurst by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Getting a Head Start on the #1937Club: Previously Reviewed Books from 1937

~ whatmeread ~ 6 Comments

As usual, when preparing for the year club, hosted twice a year by Stuck in a Book and Kaggy’s Bookish Ramblings, I look to see what I have already reviewed for that year. For next week’s club, the 1937 Club, I had quite a few previous reviews. I listed them at the beginning of my first review for the club, and then I saw that She Reads Novels, in a similar situation, had done a separate post for hers. What a good idea! So, I’m copying her.

Alas, Poor Lady by Rachel Ferguson tells how an elderly spinster from a wealthy family ends up living on charity. It makes striking points about the education of women in the late 19th century.

Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers begins on Lord Peter Wimsey’s honeymoon with Harriet Vane, when they discover the body of their landlord in the basement.

Death of Mr. Dodsley by John Ferguson finds a bookstore owner, Mr. Dodsley, dead in his shop. Oddly, the death follows the plot of a recently published murder mystery.

Death on the Nile is one of Agatha Christie’s most well-known books. Hercule Poirot’s pleasure trip down the Nile is interrupted by arguments between former lovers and then the murder of one of the lovers’ new wife.

The Lady and the Unicorn is Rumer Godden’s story about an Anglo-Indian family in Calcutta. One of the daughters falls in love with a young English gentleman, but it’s a doomed romance that is echoed by a haunting in the family’s old house.

Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary by Ruby Ferguson is a bit similar to Rachel Ferguson’s Alas, Poor Lady, but it’s about the fall of the aristocracy, and its heroine, Lady Rose, is married, not a spinster.

Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon takes place after a train is snowbound during Christmas. Some of the passengers try to find their way to the nearest town but end up taking shelter in an abandoned house. They think something bad has happened there, and then they learn that someone was murdered on the train.

Summer Half is the fifth novel in Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire series. Before starting in the law, Colin Keith takes a summer job teaching at Southbridge School, where he is a witness to the romance of another teacher and the headmaster’s idiotically beautiful and selfish daughter. Later in the series, she improves.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about the struggles of Janey Crawford in her relationships with men. It is also about a town in Florida founded by black people, in which I learned later, Hurston grew up, making me wonder if the novel was based on the story of her mother.

They Found Him Dead is one of Georgette Heyer’s few mystery novels. First, a businessman is found dead at the bottom of a cliff and then his heir is shot. Will someone go after the next heir?

They Were Found Wanting by Miklós Bánffy is the second book of Bánffy’s Transylvania trilogy. Along with a love affair, it documents the failures of the Hungarian parliament as Europe heads towards World War I.

World Light by Halldór Laxness is about how the world treats a gentle soul. Although I enjoyed other books by Laxness, especially Independent People, I couldn’t finish this one once I knew where it was going.