Pam’s Comments (group member since Jul 12, 2018)

Pam’s comments from the Never too Late to Read Classics group.

I’m sorry to see your 1 star review Chrissie of the Hans Fallada book Every Man Dies Alone but I’m going to give it a try anyway. I have to be in a certain frame of mind to get back into WWII Lit, though. There is also a 2016 English film adaptation titled Alone in Berlin. Has anyone seen it?

Julietta - Do you have some names of poets from the book you mentioned? If yes, I will add them to the first post.

As members discuss different authors, I will update post #1. I’m really looking forward to hearing everyone’s discussions and finding new books and authors!

We got really lucky with this storm and it stayed north of Albuquerque. I have a daughter in Iowa who isn’t so lucky! -12 for a low today. I hope those of you in the storm’s path stay safe and warm! ⛄️ 💨⛄️

I’m planning on reading 10.
Completed: 6/10
*- Currently Reading

*1. Gabriel García Márquez- Finish One Hundred Years of Solitude
✅2. Jean Rhys - Wide Sargasso Sea
3. Aldous Huxley - Crome Yellow, Antic Hay, Those Barren Leaves, After the Fireworks
*4. Thomas Mann - Finish The Magic Mountain
*5. Alexandre Dumas - Finish The Count of Monte Cristo
✅6.H.G. Wells - The Time Machine
✅7. Roald Dahl - James and the Giant Peach
✅8. S.E. Hinton - The Outsiders
✅9. Kenneth Grahame - The Reluctant Dragon
✅10. Author of choice: Arthur C Clarke - Dolphin Island and Rendezvous with Rama

Some maybes:

*Charles Dickens - David Copperfield
Willa Cather - O Pioneers!
Ayn Rand - We the Living
Vladimir Nabokov
author:Franz Kafka|5223] - The Trial, The Castle

Since it sounds like none of us are very familiar with Huxley’s works, outside of Brave New World, so it could be that if one of us reads something and reports positively, others might be inclined to pick it up sooner than later.

Congrats everyone! That’s a lotta reading! 📚📚📚

Sandy - I probably can’t handle 4 Huxley books over 3 months either! I was being a bit optimistic. I will be reading a Latin American Author and a sci-fi every month plus books for challenges in other groups! I’m ok with not having a structured Buddy read but do others want to read the same book at the same time?

Chad wrote: "I picked up my copy of The Kingdom of This World from the library today for my January read. I hear so many great things about it."

Awesome! I hope you enjoy it! I have the Spanish ebook edition checked out but I may not get too far, maybe 1 chapter! I'm going to start with Carpenter's The Lost Steps and try to find the English edition of The Kingdom of This World.

Julietta wrote: "I will start by rereading a poetry book in French from my Bachelors Program many years back! I got my BA in French Studies in 1981. I don't see it listed in the search, but it's entitled Poesie du ..."

Julietta - That sounds interesting, especially if you can read it in French, but this thread is just for Latin American classics. Although, if a poet is from Haiti or another Latin American country, that works for this thread! We do have a thread under Authors from Around the World called 2022 December Charles Baudelaire/Poetry Month which would be an ideal place to discuss poetry from all parts of the world. Also, under Let's Chat a Moment, there is a thread to discuss any classics you are reading.

*Pam's Aldous Huxley Reads*:

Read:
Brave New World - Nov 2021- 3.5 stars

Currently Reading:
Island

Want to read:
Crome Yellow
Those Barren Leaves
Antic Hay
The Crows of Pearblossom - children's picture book

Maybe:
Eyeless in Gaza
Ape and Essence
The Burning Wheel and Leda - poetry

Karin wrote: "I'd like to reread Brave New World. I've read it twice, but it's been some years and I'd like to refresh myself. I liked it a lot better when I was growing up than I did as an adult but see I gave ..."

I just read Brave New World this year but I'm willing to reread it. I would like to read Island, his last novel and Crome Yellow, his first novel. I'm also fine with Those Barren Leaves. It might be interesting to compare how his writing changed over the years.

I suggest January 15 - April 15. How about reading them in the order they were published: Crome Yellow, Those Barren Leaves, Brave New World, and Island? Is 3 weeks between each book long enough, with other reads we have going on? After that, if people are still interested in his works, we can choose more books or just read and discuss as we go.

Yes, I agree with the spoiler coding! Sometimes I'm afraid to read these types of threads because of possible spoilers, same with forwards to books and book reviews.

Julietta wrote: "A friend from another Goodreads book had told me there was going to be a Latin American Classics group so here I am!"

Welcome Julietta to the group! I'm so glad you will be participating in the Latin American buddy read AND that you read in Spanish. That will allow you to possibly read some additional titles that our English readers don't have access to. Do you have a favorite Latin American author?

Thank you Sandy and Rosemarie for getting this Buddy Read set up so quick! It’s amazing to me how one comment can get the ball rolling. My interest in Huxley started about a month ago when I decided to set up a 52 book challenge, which I do every year, for my 6 year old grandson. One of the prompts is a book with a murder. Since that’s not an appropriate topic for his age, I decided to go with the phrase “a murder of crows” and started looking for a children’s book with crows. I found The Crows of Pearblossom and then went down the rabbit hole of researching what else Huxley wrote! I’m really interested to see what we will find. 🐇 📚

John - Glad to hear you plan to join us! I’m also planning to read Clarice Lispector. I have her “Complete Stories” checked out in print and audio but haven’t done much with it. I’m hoping to read a few of the stories and get a feel for her style. I first heard of her just recently while reading Louise Erdrich’s book The Sentence. “Complete Stories” is one of many books included on the Totally Biased List of Tookie's Favorite Books.

Sandy wrote: "Rosemarie, as you know from the discussion in the “What Classic are you Reading Now?” thread, Pam, Chrissie, Melanie and I are planning to buddy-read some of the works of Aldous Huxley. We haven’t ..."

I suggest we start it on Jan 1 and keep it open for the year. What do you think? He has plenty of books to choose from.

The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero by Timothy Egan 384 pp
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk: Selected Stories by Nikolai Leskov 421 pp

Total added: 805 pp
Group Total: 690,306 pp

I’m 80% done! Because I’m using the serial app, I won’t be able to finish it until until Dec 24th. I’m glad to have finally read the book. I know the ending but I’m assuming that something specific leads up to it. I have a few guesses!

Sandy- That sounds perfect!

Chrissie and Melanie- That would be awesome to have you both join us, plus anyone else who is interested!

Sandy- I’m flexible so whatever you decide is fine w me. Thank you for the archives link. I wasn’t familiar with that source. SimplyE is similar but there’s no time limit for the checkout. They are free open source books through the NY Public Library. They have some unusual ones and a lot of short reads. Lots of sci-fi stories which were published in the old sci-fi magazines. I like that they have broad categories/genres to choose from.

I feel like we are sprinting towards the finish line! So close. We can do it!