The Classics Club - Classics Challenge

Five plus years ago, I jumped into The Classics Club Classics Challenge. The idea was to make a list of 50 classics to read in the next five years. I love the classics and had well more than 50 in my house that I could choose from and wanted to find time to read. Easy peasy, right? Not so much. I even gave myself a couple of extra months at one point. I didn't even reach 30 books. I finally gave up, because reading is supposed to be fun, even when we are challenging ourselves to read better.

But...

JoAnn, of Lakeside Musing, recently completed her challenge (she is a great reader of classics!) then she announced that she is restarting the challenge for another five years. Wait - what? You can do the challenge a second time? Well, then. I do hate to have been a failure at anything. And I do still have all of those classic books around the house. That being said, here is my new list of classic books* to read in the next five years:

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Moll Flanders by Daniel DeFoe
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Far From The Maddening Crowd by Thomas Hardy
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
The Children by Edith Wharton
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Candide by Voltaire
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Miss Bishop by Bess Streeter Aldrich
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens


Classics I'd Like To Do As A Readalong:
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Middlemarch by George Eliot
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Modern Classics:
Crossing To Safety by Wallace Stegner
The Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon Eberhart
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Remains of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Decline And Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier
The Sound And The Fury by William Faulkner
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
The Mysterious Affair At Styles by Agatha Christie
Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Huston
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Stoner by John Williams
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Native Son by Richard Wright
All The Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren
We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson


Children's Classics:
Where The Redfern Grows by Wilson Rawls
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawls
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevens

Short Stories and Plays:
Rocking Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence
The Fall of The House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
A Midsummer's Night Dream by William Shakespeare
Our Town by Thornton Wilder

*I realize that this list is, even after extensive research, largely made up of American and European literature. My goal is to continue to look for books from other cultures to add to the list. While this is my list as of today, I reserve the right to add and delete things as the mood strikes. Because, just as I may or may not be in the mood to read any particular book on a given day, the list reflects my mood as of today and books I left off today may be added on another day.

Life: It Goes On - October 29

While those of you in California have been experiencing summer temps, we had our first hard freeze the other night. Which means I spent good parts of my half day and yesterday (and will spend more time today) bringing my potted herbs and some flowers in, repotting some things into smaller pots (so everything will fit, which has been like putting together a puzzle), and pulling out plants which have died. It's the real wake up call that winter is coming. Not in the good, Game of Thrones, about to be some major battles going on kind of way; but in the way that means it will take five minutes longer to get out the door in the morning by the time you pull on your coat, hat, gloves, scarf, and maybe even snow boots. I hate it. It makes it hard for me to appreciate pumpkin spice latte, the crunch of leaves under my feet, and what's left of the beautiful fall colors.

This Week I'm:

Listening To: Mostly podcasts (loving Pod Save America!) but also NPR. It's time for me to get back to being better informed and jump back into the fray. Pod Save America is four guys that were aides to President Obama so that will give you an idea as to whether or not this is a podcast for you.

Watching: The usual fall fare - football, The Voice, and the World Series. We don't have a team in the series, but my dad has long been a Dodgers fan so we're cheering for them.

Reading: Grant, right up until my ecopy archived, days before it said it was going to do that. Which means I haven't finished it. Luckily, I hooked my dad up with a copy as well. Looks like he's writing a review for me (but don't say anything to him - he doesn't know yet!). I'm racing through Seven Days of Us and hope to finish it up today. Quite a switch from Grant! Next up, The Revolution of Marina M. Or Andy Weir's latest, Artemis. I haven't decided yet.

Making: Caramel chocolate brownies, fettuccine alfredo, chicken pizza, and a triple batch of chicken alfredo dip (food days at work - health food it is not!). We ate out more than usual this week so I've cooked less than usual this week.

Planning: On a quiet week. Hopefully a productive one.

Thinking About: Christmas. Just the gift part. I've got a good start on my shopping but need to get things organized and start on the homemade projects.

Enjoying: Miss H got me tickets to a local college volleyball game for my birthday yesterday. We have two great volleyball teams in Nebraska (both Division I top twenty teams). This was not one of them but it was great fun, nonetheless and we had fun having girl time.

Feeling: Well rested? I slept nine hours last night. I never sleep nine hours! Since I'm a night owl, nine hours of sleep means I slept away half of the morning today.

Looking forward to: Two years ago, one of our favorite restaurants burned down, leaving only the brick exterior of the building it was in. This week, it reopens in the same building, largely exactly as it was before the fire. We're excited to have a belated anniversary celebratory dinner there later this week.

Question of the week: Halloween - love it or eh? I do love decorating with my witches and pumpkins but I haven't gone to a party or dressed up in years and I'm getting to be kind of a grump when it comes to handing out candy.

Life: It Goes On - October 23

How did all of my readathon friends do this weekend? I was so sad to miss it - always look forward to it, even though I have not once figured out the best way to make it work after all of these years.

As much as I missed being able to do Dewey's, I did love my weekend at my brother's and sister-in-law's. We got to spend time with all of the kids and the much-adored Miss E, we went hiking to a park we have enjoyed for decades, got Shakespeare's pizza (a requirement with every visit), hit up a winery, and got in lots of talking and laughing (my sister-in-law and I stayed up until 3 a.m. Saturday morning without even realizing we'd been talking that long!). So wish we could get there more often.

This Week I'm:

Listening To: My new podcast of choice is Crime Town. This season is about Providence, Rhode Island and Buddy Cianci. I keep thinking of the restaurant my aunt and uncle took the Big Guy and me to when we visited them in Rhode Island and they were telling us about the mob hit that had taken place in that restaurant. In 1983, that was something shocking for this naive Midwest girl! I had no idea it was so common then!

Watching: Volleyball, football, baseball, The Voice, The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

Reading: Chugging along still on Grant. Good thing I get more days with this one than I was expecting!

Making: Pizzas, baked chicken legs and sweet potatoes, something else that was delicious, I'm sure, but apparently not memorable.

Planning: On putting the yard and gardens to bed for the winter this week, with much sadness.

Just a few of the books I've
bought recently

Thinking About: Putting a moratorium on my book buying for the rest of the year. Somehow I've managed to buy about 20 new books in the past few weeks. In my defense, except for a couple of gifts and one new book for myself, all of the others were used and cost no more than $3. Still, my shelves will, once again, need to be reorganized to fit everything on them.

Enjoying: See collage. Miss H and her uncle both got a lot of great shots at Rock Bridge park.

Feeling: Excited. I think. Just after we got home last night, a deputy came to our door to tell us that they had found Mini-him's car that was stolen a couple of weeks ago. He hadn't seen it yet and we can't pick it up yet so we have no idea what kind of condition it's in. It was found only a few blocks away from where it was taken so we are hoping it was just some kids out for a joy ride. We'll hopefully find out tomorrow. Unfortunately, just Friday Mini-him bought a new car. So now he has (if the stolen car is drivable) two cars.

Rock Bridge Park, Columbia Missouri 

Looking forward to: So, if the stolen car is still in good shape, Mini-me may buy it. Which means we'll have to get it to Milwaukee. Oh darn - I'll have to go to Milwaukee and see my kids again. Fingers crossed that will work out.

Question of the week: Did you participate in Dewey's Readathon? If so, how did you do?

The Bones of Paradise by Jonis Agee

The Bones of Paradise by Jonis Agee
Published August 2016 by HarperCollins Publishers
Source: my copy through the library for book club

Publisher's Summary:
Ten years after the Seventh Cavalry massacred more than two hundred Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, J.B. Bennett, a white rancher, and Star, a young Native American woman, are murdered in a remote meadow on J.B.’s land. The deaths bring together the scattered members of the Bennett family: J.B.’s cunning and hard father, Drum; his estranged wife, Dulcinea; and his teenage sons, Cullen and Hayward. As the mystery of these twin deaths unfolds, the history of the dysfunctional Bennetts and their damning secrets is revealed, exposing the conflicted heart of a nation caught between past and future.

At the center of The Bones of Paradise are two remarkable women. Dulcinea, returned after bitter years of self-exile, yearns for redemption and the courage to mend her broken family and reclaim the land that is rightfully hers. Rose, scarred by the terrible slaughters that have decimated and dislocated her people, struggles to accept the death of her sister, Star, and refuses to rest until she is avenged.

A kaleidoscopic portrait of misfits, schemers, chancers, and dreamers, Jonis Agee’s bold novel is a panorama of America at the dawn of a new century. A beautiful evocation of this magnificent, blood-soaked land—its sweeping prairies, seas of golden grass, and sandy hills, all at the mercy of two unpredictable and terrifying forces, weather and lawlessness—and the durable men and women who dared to tame it.

My Thoughts:
When The Bones of Paradise was picked to be this year's Omaha Reads selection, one of my book club friends quickly suggested our book club read it and even grabbed one of the library's book club bags with books for us. It included an audiobook copy which I took with us on a recent trip. We got through one disc (which was no reflection on the book; just new terrain that involved more concentration for driving and navigating); my husband was already saying the book was "brutal." I wouldn't have thought that would scare him off but it did; he never asked to read or listen to it again. It did not, however, scare of the ladies of my book club. Not sure if that says more about my husband or my book club friends!

My husband was right; this book is often brutal. But life in the Sandhills of Nebraska in 1900 was brutal, from the weather to the people who inhabited it, and Agee's writing reflects all of the ways that life could be tough in 1900 western Nebraska, from ice storms to tornadoes to the American government to the men (and women) who lived there.

THIS is what the Lakota were
doing that so alarmed the Indian
agent who called in the military

As unforgiving as that land is, in Drum, J. B. and Ry Graver (who discovers the bodies of J. B. and Star) we see the lengths a person will go to to try to own their own piece of it. It makes some people harder, it breaks others, and it drives men to do things they wouldn't think themselves capable of to try to hold on to it.

As the story moves back and forth in time, in part to tell the background stories of many of the characters. But Agee says the real reason she told the story from multiple points of view was to "respect the events and Native Americans at Wounded Knee by making them as alive and as vivid as possible...I dramatized key events with my characters involved so that the impact of the massacre could be registered as horrific as it was." There are several characters who "were there" at Wounded Knee. (Drum, J. B., Ry, and Star). It's this day that is at the center of the book, pulling the story of what happened to the Indians in that area into the story of the Bennett family and the people surrounding them.

And THIS is what was done to the Lakota at Wounded Knee

I was glad to have read this book with a group. I had some questions when I finished and it helped to have people to bounce them off of, many of them having to do with the reason Cullen was sent to live with Drum and why Dulcinea left the ranch. I didn't entirely buy into Agee's reasoning but others in my book club found those reasons believable. All of the characters (with the possible exception of Rose) are deeply flawed and many of them are so hard that they are hard to care for. But Agee lets readers see the humanity in most of her characters and readers can understand what makes them the people they are.

About those murders...there is a murder mystery element to this book, after all...some in my book club figured out early on who killed J. B. and Star. Others were holding on to their own theories until the end. Either way, the slow reveal of what happened in that meadow was satisfying. The ending of the book, though, left some (including my mom) not as satisfied. My mom said she felt like Agee had gotten to the end of the book and didn't know how to finish it so rushed into the ending that we have here. Agee, herself, says she didn't know who killed J. B. and Star when she began writing the book but that she did rewrite the ending many times. One of our book club members said, "how would you have finished the book?" I'm not sure, to be honest. I just don't think it would have ended the way Agee ended it.

Still, it's a fascinating, complex novel, filled with interesting characters and dynamics, one in which the setting plays a very important role. Which, for this girl who was born in the Sandhills of Nebraska, is a very good thing.

Lit: Uniquely Portable Magic

I spent much of a wet, chilly Saturday afternoon cleaning up my Facebook saves...again. I moved, literally, hundreds of recipes onto Pinterest, grew frustrated that so many recipes don't have links to other sites so that I could do that, found dozens of "saves" I have no idea where to store, and realized that I, once again, had a whole lot of bookish things to read and share. Maybe if I spent less time on Facebook, this would stop happening!

From Esquire magazine comes this list of the 40 Best Books of 2017 (So Far). This is where I both pat my back for the books I have already read AND wonder where the hell I've been when I find I haven't even heard of some of the books.

Signature also has a list of The Best Books of 2017. Again, I've read a couple of these, haven't heard of some; the biggest shocker on this list is Dan Brown's latest, Origin. Dan Brown on a list with Ron Chernow, Henning Mankell, and Amy Tan? Hmmmm.

Jane Austen

Also from Signature comes 10 Lessons Every 21st-Century Woman Can Learn From Jane Austen. It makes my heart happy to see that my beloved Jane Austen is still so relevant, all these years after her death!

Speaking of Austen, from The New York Times comes this article that posits that Austen's word choices explain why she endures. The article cites a number of studies and quotes Virginia Wolff as saying "Of all great writers, she is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness." And yet, her work stands the test of time.

Some other female authors we should be mindful of are highlighted in this list of 12 Revolutionary Novels By Women That Will Motivate You To Keep Resisting from Bustle. It's not too surprising to find Margaret Atwood and Octavia Butler on the list, but you might be surprised to also find J. K. Rowling. Of course, the Harry Potter books are largely about resistance.

And yet more women authors to pay attention to are found on PBS's list of 5 Books By Women Of Color You Need To Read Right Now. Haven't read a one of them but they are all, now at least, on my tbr list.

Bookbub Blog has put together a list of 10 Unforgettable Historical Books Based On True Stories. I love reading books that are based on true stories, especially historical ones. I've read a couple of these and will be looking for several others.

Speaking of books I haven't read, here's the list of the National Book Award finalists for 2017. I've got a couple of these lined up to read but had only even read one of the books on the long list. Have you read any of these? Your thoughts?

Finally, Penguin Random House has put together a list of The Best Books About Books. I've actually read more than half of these. Apparently I have a thing for books about books? Are there any other books about books that you would recommend?