What books do you want to see on our TO READ bookshelf?

[Beth]

Lucky Jim
The House of Mirth
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Shipping News
The Remains of the Day

[Janet]

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

[Beth]

I will add it! Just finished a collection of his shirt stories and enjoyed his writing.

[Daniel]

The Old Curiosity Shop Victorian
2001: A Space Odyssey Sci-Fi
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Sci-Fi
A Moveable Feast Memoir
Watership Down Young Adult
The Hiding Place Memoir
Catch-22 Satire (?)
The Dream of the Red Chamber Romance (?)

[Beth]

Thanks for contributing Daniel. I will add these books to the shelves.

[George P.]

How about Wuthering Heights Old School
The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939–45 Nonfiction
Murder Must Advertise Mystery
I also want to read The Remains of the Day and Catch-22.

[Beth]

Thanks for the suggestions George. I added them to the bookshelf. A couple were there already. Regarding Murder Must Advertise, I see it is #10 in a series. Can these be read independently or is it better to start with #1?

[Rick]

Red Harvest - Classic plot line that has been adapted into several films

The Woodlanders - Highly praised in it's time but not as well known as some of his other works

The World Of Ptavvs - A nod to my Sci-Fi roots. Larry Niven always spins a good yarn.

The Secret Agent - Conrad's story about espionage and terrorism in Victorian London. Might see some parallels with our post-911 world.

[Beth]

Thanks Rick for some really interesting looking additions from classic authors. I liked your reasons for choosing these selections. I will ad them to the book shelf.

[George P.]

Beth wrote: "Thanks for the suggestions George. I added them to the bookshelf. A couple were there already. Regarding Murder Must Advertise, I see it is #10 in a series. Can these be read independently or is it..."

Some of the people reviewing it on Goodreads said it was their 1st Sayers novel, and they didn't say that there was any problem due to that.

[George P.]

Rick wrote: "Red Harvest - Classic plot line that has been adapted into several films ..."

Red Harvest is in my to-read list [though far from the top], and Conrad's Nostromo. It has a higher average rating than Secret Agent. I do want to see the old film of Secret Agent though.

[Valerie]

Using your challenge list on the home page....

Adventure - Gulliver's Travels

Mystery - I have Red Harvest, and it would be fun to read it; but really anything by Dashiell Hammett would be good. Other classic mystery authors to include are: Josephine Tey and Georgette Heyer. Also: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

Science Fiction - any John Wyndham
I read We for my A-Z challenge this year, it's good - satire in sci fi form.

Drama (Plays) - A Raisin in the Sun

Spirituality - Siddharta is a worthwhile (and short!) classic

Satire - almost any Kurt Vonnegut

[Ruth]

Some I have been wanting to read are:

The Canterbury Tales -Chaucer

The Last of the Mohicans -James Cooper

The Once and Future King -T.H. White

Ivanhoe -Sir Walter Scott

Anna Karenina -Leo Tolstoy

Wuthering Heights -Emily Bronte

Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Wolf

[Beth]

I think some of these are on the list already but any of them that are not, I will add. Thank You!

[George P.]

Ruth wrote: "Some I have been wanting to read are:
.... The Once and Future King -T.H. White

Ivanhoe -Sir Walter Scott..."

I've read The Sword in the Stone, and I think Beth did also, which is the 1st book in the tetralogy (4 books) called The Once and Future King. I want to read the other books in the series.

[Sara]

Anything from The Martin Beck series
or Wallander series
Both are swedish books which have been translated into english and have become movies and show in both sweden and the UK. They are still relevant today. Both series are police mystery books but are very realistic and have a lot of culture relevance.

[George P.]

For Southern Gothic (I already posted this on that topic site):

There is a Goodread list for voting on best Southern Gothic books: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Some of the books included there are probably questionable for fitting in that genre.
A couple there that I'd like to read are Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Morrison's Beloved and maybe McCarthy's Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West.

[Natalie]

Some of the above titles appeal to me:
House of Mirth
Remains of the Day
The Old Curiosity Shoppe
Wuthering Heights
Morrison's Beloved
Secret Agent


I would also love a discussion of a Shakespeare play, a discussion of a poet and some of his or her works.

Other books I like:
Madame Bovary
books by: Hardy, Sinclair Lewis, Henry James, Iris Murdoch

[Beth]

I am new to Shakespeare. I read MacBeth and Othello and loved them (with help from Cliffnotes!) I think a group discussion of one of his plays would be great.

I also read Madam Bovary and enjoyed it. In fact, as I started reading about Kitty in The Painted Veil I remembered Madam Bovary being in a similar situation.

[Clara]

One book that I've wanted to read for a long time is Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.
There are also a lots of "classics" like Tess of the D'ubervilles by Hardy or The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck that I also really want to read.
Growing up in France, my "classics" are a little bit different so I feel like I have some catching up to do. However I did read Madame Bovary as it is one the most read book in literature class in France, and I have quite mixed feelings about it.

I have read a lot of Shakespeare and I loved it, so I would really enjoy reading one that I haven't yet and have a discussion about it.

[Valerie]

Beth, you might enjoy Shakespeare: The World as Stage. It definitely is not for academic readers of Classics (!), but I found it to be interesting and as deep a summary about Shakespeare as I am interested in.

I also would enjoy reading a Shakespeare play. I haven't done that in some (long) time. It would be nice to choose one that Clara can give insight to.

I haven't read any of Steinbeck's longer works, but would be open to that. I've read both Anna + Tess, and recommend both (although you may need a spreadsheet for all the names/characters in AK - I wish I had one at the time!).

[Beth]

Valerie wrote: "Beth, you might enjoy Shakespeare: The World as Stage. It definitely is not for academic readers of Classics (!), but I found it to be interesting and as deep a summary about Shakespe..."

Thanks for the suggestion! I think we should have a genre just for Shakespeare and another for other plays.

[Sam]

The count of monte cristo is one of my favourites but a long slog.

[Beth]

I will add it! Thank you!

[Valerie]

Could you add to the sci-fi shelf

Brave New World
Neuromancer