Bob’s Comments (group member since Jun 22, 2011)

Bob’s comments from the Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) group.

An amazing job!! Well done.

I’ve had 22 five star reads since 2001. I have always been stingy with the fifth star. About 8% of my reads are five star reads. I’m going to stretch the request for only twelve, but not by much.

Fiction
The Shadow of the Wind
The Kite Runner
In the Presence of Mine Enemies
Gilead
The Book Thief
World Without End
Fall of Giants
Only Time Will Tell
Moving On
A Gentleman in Moscow

Non-Fiction
My Grandfather's Son
First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong
Last Flag Down: The Epic Journey of the Last Confederate Warship
Ike: An American Hero

An obscure favorite
The Front Porch Prophet

Welcome Ela!

I nominate Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo, 1424 pages paperback, 1978

4.23 rating

I met two people last month who said this is one of the best books they ever read.

I nominate The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, Published in 1989, 546 pages.

"First with your head and then with your heart."

87000+ Rated it 4.34 Stars

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is our September 2023 Short Story/Novella Read.

This discussion will open on September 1

Beware Short Story Discussions will have Spoilers

Emu, Lina, Lorraine, and Kathleen, Welcome!! I am glad you have found us.

Lynn wrote: "I would like to add another story and author to our list:

The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce"

Added #421 a good story

These are the 14 titles randomly selected titles from our Master Short Story List. Please vote for the one that interests you the most. You can cast your vote by using the list number or the titles name. The top 7 will move forward to the poll on the 15th. Feel free to change your vote, as there maybe be ties. A maximum of 7 titles will move to the poll. If there is a tie for 7th place only 6 titles will go to the poll.

Example: I vote for #__ -or- I vote for Story Title

409. Quality by John Galsworthy
242. Boys and Girls by Alice Munro
371. A Warning to the Curious by M.R. James
151. Drifting by Joris-Karl Huysmans
367. Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain
361. Kitchen title story by Banana Yoshimoto
203. The Queen Who Flew : A Fairy Tale by Ford Madox Ford
138. Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy
127. 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
76. Le Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac
260. And of Clay Are We Created by Isabel Allende
217. After Twenty Years by O. Henry
174. Stirrings Still by Samuel Beckett
347. The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh

Congrats, only short stories left.

Congrats on finishing your Old & New challenge. I usually take till November or even December to finish this one. This year I feel good about it. The last few weeks have seen some of my brain candy reads get checked off, I’m hoping to finish all 15. Again, congratulations and thanks for the new TBR title, A Covenant With Death.

Kathleen wrote: "My second short story collection, and another new author discovery:
R.K. Narayan

His Malgudi Days brings this fictional southern Ind..."

I will be on the lookout for this author, thanks. I read t The Crystal Cave earlier this year, I agree it’s great!!

Wow! I’m awed.

Terrific, congrats!!

The poll winner - The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

Top seven going to the poll


7 Votes - 247. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
7 Votes - 158. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
4 Votes -160. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
4 Votes - 231. A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka
3 Votes -12. The Rocking-Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence
2 Votes -195. The Dialogue of the Dogs by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
2 Votes -69. So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ
--------------------
1 Votes -176. Watchers of the Sky by Alfred Noyes
1 Votes -280. The Tree by John Fowles
1 Votes -89. An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish: A Hilarious Catalogue of Organized and Individual Stupidity by Bertrand Russell
1 Votes -355. Fifty Grand by Ernest Hemingway
1 Votes -282. Noon Wine by Katherine Anne Porter
0 Votes -241. The Afternoon of a Writer by Peter Handke
0 Votes - And of Clay Are We Created by Isabel Allende

Welcome, to all of our new members. I have been absent traveling for the last three weeks, with still a week and a few days left.

I seconded The Chrysalids on message 12

Marilyn wrote: "I nominate The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. Published in 1955. 200 pages"

I second, I have read two others by Wyndham, both were excellent.

I have read four of these, three multiple times. I am curious to see how this turns out.