Laurie's 2020 challenge buffet

[Laurie]

#4 Classic/Genre challenge COMPLETE

12/12 read

18th Century or older All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare ✔ 2/16/20 ***
19th Century Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell ✔ 2/27/20 ***½
20th Century The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty ✔ 4/30/20 ****½
Current or Past Group Read Summer by Edith Wharton ✔ 2/29/20 ****
An Author not read before My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin ✔ 1/16/20 *****
Diversity Classic, read a book from a religion, culture, country, or race different than yours Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz ✔ 5/18/20
Science Fiction The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin ✔ 8/5/20
Romance The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë ✔ 1/10/20 *****
Historical fiction Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel ✔ 3/29/20 ****
Nonfiction Flu: The Story Of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It by Gina Kolata ✔ 4/29/20 ****
Mystery/Crime Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie ✔ 3/8/20 ***
Horror or Humor Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano 8/9/20 ***

[Laurie]

#5 Women's Century challenge - COMPLETE

10/10 read

1901 My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin 1/16/20 *****
1917 Summer by Edith Wharton 2/29/20 ****
1928 The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall 6/27/20 ***
1932 Comedy: American Style by Jessie Redmon Fauset 7/19/20 ****
1943 Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang 7/14/20 ***
1957 The Waiting Years by Fumiko Enchi 7/23/20 ***½
1966 Efuru by Flora Nwapa 1/20/20 ****
1972 The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty 4/30/20 ****½
1987 The Door by Magda Szabó 5/24/20 ****½
1995 The Wedding by Dorothy West 7/10/20 ****



#6 Short Story challenge - COMPLETE

1. The Hiltons' Holiday by Sarah Orne Jewett 1/1/20 ****
2. A Shameful Affair by Kate Chopin 1/10/20 ****
3. Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor 1/20/20 *****
4. Dear Life by Alice Munro 2/6/20 ***
5. Summer by Edith Wharton 2/29/20 ***
6. No One Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel García Márquez 3/8/20 ***
7. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin 3/18/20 *****
8. The Dead by James Joyce 3/21/20 ****
9. The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick 3/30/20 ****
10. A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner 3/31/20 ***
11. "Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston 4/11/20 *****
12. Transcendental Wild Oats by Louisa May Alcott 4/26/20 ****
13. A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell 5/25/20 *****
14. The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells 5/30/20 *****
15. The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Ann Porter 6/22/20 ****
16. There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury 6/28/20 ****
17. The Alienist by Machado de Assis 7/5/20 ****
18. Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang 7/14/20 ***
19. My Mother, the Crazy African by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 7/19/20 ****
20. Treasure by Oyinkan Braithwaite 8/7/20 ***
21. Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin 8/15/20 *****
22. The Man Who Was Almost a Man by Richard Wright 8/23/20 ****
23. "Red-headed Baby" by Langston Hughes 8/23/20 ***
24. "What Terrible Thing It Was" by Esmé Weijun Wang 8/23/20 ***

Short Story Challenge #2 - COMPLETE
24/24

25. "Everyday Use" - Alice Walker 10/3/20 ****
26. The Phantom Coach by Amelia B. Edwards 10/3/20 ***
27. Girl by Jamaica Kincaid 10/4/20 ****
28. "Thief" by Katherine Anne Porter 10/4/20 **
29. King of the Bingo Game by Ralph Ellison 10/5/20 ***
30. The Other Woman by Sherwood Anderson 10/5/20 **
31. "The Elephant" by Mrozek, Slawomir 10/6/20 ****
32. "Civil Peace" by Chinua Achebe 10/6/20 ***
33. The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe 10/7/20 ****
34. Roselily by Alice Walker 10/7/20 ****
35. To Hell with Dying by Alice Walker 10/7/20 ***
36. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe 10/8/20 **
37. Anabasis by Amal El-Mohtar 10/9/20 ***** Link to story
38. The Magic Shop by H.G. Wells 10/9/20 *****
39. The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell 10/9/20 ****
40. The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara 10/10/20 *****
41. Fiesta, 1980 by Junot Díaz 10/11/20 ****
42. I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen 10/11/20 *****
43. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James 10/11/20 **
44. The Nose by Nikolai Gogol 10/12/20 ***
45. Recitatif by Toni Morrison 10/12/20 *****
46. The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu 10/12/20 ****
47. The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway 10/14/20 ***
48. Raymond's Run by Toni Cade Bambara 10/14/20 ***

[Luke]

Nice to see you continuing the Quest for Women as well, Laurie. I've personally found most of your reads to be of high quality, so I hope you like them.

[Brina]

I’ve read your 50s, 70s, and 80s choices and enjoyed all of them. Like you, as long as this challenge exists, I’ll do it.

[Kathleen]

I love your women's century choices, Laurie. I'm still planning to get to Three Lives this year, and The Well of Loneliness is on my 2020 challenges too. Have fun!

[Laurie]

Thanks ladies. I really look forward to my challenges.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

You have some really nice choices. Enjoy both challenges.

[Laurie]

I've decided to add the short story challenge. I plan to read 12 stories from our group bookshelf to help me catch up on some of those. I also plan to read 6 short story collections that I've been meaning to get to. And the last 6 I will leave as spontaneous choices.

[Laurie]

I've read the first short story for challenge #6. I've decided I will add the short stories to my 2020 shelf but not to my Goodreads challenge. I plan to read quite a few short stories this year but I don't want them to count as an entire book unless I read a collection of stories.

1. The Hiltons' Holiday by Sarah Orne Jewett 1/1/20 ****

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Laurie wrote: "I've read the first short story for challenge #6. I've decided I will add the short stories to my 2020 shelf but not to my Goodreads challenge. I plan to read quite a few short stories this year bu..."

I've read two by Jewett. Looks like I can add another one.

[Laurie]

I've added one more to the short storychallenge, A Shameful Affair by Kate Chopin which was only about 6 pages long which feels like cheating. And I added my Romance book to the classic/genre challenge with The Tenant of Wildfell Hall which I gave 5 stars.

[Marilyn]

It's not cheating. It's a short story. :D

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Some of the best short stories I've ever read are only a few pages.

[Laurie]

I've added a book on my Women's Century Challenge which also counted toward the genre challenge for An Author Not Read Before. I read My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin and it was a 5 star read for me.
My Review

[Laurie]

I read Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor for the short story challenge. I read it in an anthology of American short stories, but it was excellent so I need to get a copy of the short story collection of the same name.

[Laurie]

I've read the 2nd book of my women's century challenge: Efuru by Flora Nwapa. Stylistically this book is very different from European or American books but the story of post-colonial Nigeria is important.
My review

[Brina]

I was able to find a copy of Efuru to read next month. I’m interested in it.

[Laurie]

Brina wrote: "I was able to find a copy of Efuru to read next month. I’m interested in it."

I'm glad you found a copy. The writing style won't be to everyone's taste but it is so worthwhile to read.

[Laurie]

I've added my fourth short story but in this case it was a SS collection. Dear Life by Alice Munro was a 3 star read for me. Most of the stories had somewhat ambiguous endings that can be characteristic of short stories. I don't think any of the stories will be particularly memorable for me which is why I gave this only 3 stars.

[Laurie]

I have added three more to the classic/genre challenge and one to the women's century challenge.

Classic/genre challenge:
18th century or earlier All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare
19th century Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Current or past group read Summer by Edith Wharton

Women's Century Challenge:
Summer by Edith Wharton

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Mary Barton is on my list for this year, Gaskell is a favorite. I read Summer a while back and thought is was really good, not a happy ending, but Wharton doesn't always leave one with the happy ending.

[Laurie]

No, Edith Wharton was not about happy endings and Elizabeth Gaskell didn't give many of her characters a particularly happy ending either. They both wrote well but they are not the authors to look to for feel good books.

[Laurie]

I've added two stellar classic short stories for challenge #6: The Dead by James Joyce and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin. The first is 64 pages and the second is only 6 but I found it to be the more powerful story for me.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

I agree, having read both, The Story of an Hour is the better read. I've read it several times. "Powerful" excellent description

[Laurie]

I added two creepy short stories to my short story challenge:
The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

[Laurie]

Halfway through the short story challenge. My 12th short story was Transcendental Wild Oats by Louisa May Alcott which is the first short story I have read by her. It was a mildly satirical depiction of a group of people who try to found a commune based on common ownership of property, strict vegetarianism, and working only when and where one feels led to do so. Unfortunately no one knew much about farming or felt led to take care of the crops once they were planted, so their source of food was a failure.

[Kathleen]

Laurie wrote: "Halfway through the short story challenge. My 12th short story was Transcendental Wild Oats by Louisa May Alcott which is the first short story I have read by her. It wa..."

Oh, that sounds like something I must read. Thanks, Laurie!

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Laurie wrote: "I've read the 2nd book of my women's century challenge: Efuru by Flora Nwapa. Stylistically this book is very different from European or American books but the story o..."

I have put that one on my list to read.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

Very interesting since her parents were part of a communal living experiment. She would have had some rare insight there.

[Laurie]

I've read the 4th book on the Women's century challenge. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty which I gave 4.5 stars. I also counted it as the 20th century book on the classics/genre challenge.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

It seems to me that The Optimist's Daughter is a book that is even better in retrospect. I need to read it again at some point, because it has lingered with me, like a soft memory. Congratulations on your progress. I have made none, but still hoping to get to this challenge before mid-year.

[Kathleen]

Oh, I enjoyed that one too, Laurie, and agree with Sara--I read it long ago and still remember how it felt.

You're doing great on these challenges!

[Laurie]

Thanks, Sara and Kathleen, I'm on target with my plan so I am happy with my progress.

[Laurie]

I have added to each of my challenges this week.

The classic/genre challenge:
Diversity classic - Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
3.5 stars

Women's century challenge:
The Door by Magda Szabó
4.5 stars - My review

Short story challenge:
A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell
5 stars - my review

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

I agree A Jury of Her Peers is remarkable. I enjoyed your review.

[Laurie]

I added another to the short story challenge. I planned to read The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells in June but I finished my novels and decided it would be something quick I could read today. I gave it 5 stars. I thought it was incredibly thought provoking so I look forward to the group discussion.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

I'm planning to read it next week, Laurie, so I am encouraged by your reaction. See you at the discussion.

[Vesna]

Laurie, wonderful list and you have already accomplished quite a lot. I'd like to read Szabó's The Doors, among others, and just to alert you that the link to your review is not working for some reason. I did find it when I went to your GR bookshelf and enjoyed reading it.

[Laurie]

Vesna wrote: "Laurie, wonderful list and you have already accomplished quite a lot. I'd like to read Szabó's The Doors, among others, and just to alert you that the link to your review is not working for some re..."

Thanks, Vesna. I fixed the link to my review so hopefully it works now.

[Laurie]

I have read the sixth book of my Women's Century challenge with The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall which I gave 3 stars.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

You are making terrific progress! Radclyffe Hall sounds like the name of a novel, not an author, how intriguing.

[Kathleen]

I've heard mixed reviews of this, and have been wanting to read it and also The Waiting Years from your challenge. I haven't been able to het ahold of them, but still have hope! Enjoyed your review.

[Laurie]

Sara wrote: "You are making terrific progress! Radclyffe Hall sounds like the name of a novel, not an author, how intriguing."

It's actually her last name which was hyphenated, but she removed the hyphen for her professional name.

[Laurie]

Kathleen wrote: "I've heard mixed reviews of this, and have been wanting to read it and also The Waiting Years from your challenge. I haven't been able to het ahold of them, but still have hope! Enjoyed your review."

I bought the Kindle book for The Well of Loneliness since it is only $2.49. I found The Waiting Years in used bookstore a few years ago.

[Laurie]

I have finished the 6th book for my Women's century challenge. I gave The Wedding by Dorothy West 4 stars. Dorothy West was part of the Harlem Renaissance and this is only her second novel which was published almost 50 years after her first.

My review

[Sara, Old School Classics]

You are breezing through this one, Laurie. How interesting that she waited 50 years between novels.

[Laurie]

I've finished the 8th book of my Women's Century Challenge and the 18th of the short story challenge. I was able to count Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang for both challenges. I have discovered that I like short stories, but I would prefer to read an anthology or single stories by a single author periodically rather than a collection of stories by the same author.

This collection by Chang was the typical mixed bag for me in which I thought 2 stories were quite good, very much disliked 2 others, and thought the rest were simply mediocre. Overall I enjoy Chang's writing, and I haven't read many books by Chinese writers so it is good to observe the country through the eyes of a native born writer. I rated the collection 3 stars.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

Laurie wrote: "I have discovered that I like short stories, but I would prefer to read an anthology or single stories by a single author periodically rather than a collection of stories by the same author."

I generally feel the same, Laurie. I did, however, find a collection by Ron Rash that blew me away this year. One of the best books I have read so far. Burning Bright. You might try it if you are in the mood for some great short stories.

[Laurie]

Sara wrote: "Laurie wrote: "I have discovered that I like short stories, but I would prefer to read an anthology or single stories by a single author periodically rather than a collection of stories by the same..."

I have added it to my TBR. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Laurie]

I have completed the 9th book of my Women's Century Challenge. I read Comedy: American Style by Jessie Redmon Fauset which I gave 4 stars. Here is my review.