Sara's Classics Buffet for 2020

[Sara, New School Classics]

Challenges for the Buffet:
Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR
Challenge #2 - The Year You Were Born and 100 Years Earlier
Challenge #3 - Your Birth Year Top 10 Best Sellers
Challenge #4 - Members Choice Classic/Genre Challenge
Challenge #5 - Decade/Century Challenge
Challenge #6 - Short Story Challenge
Challenge #7 - 2020 Group Reads Challenge

[Sara, New School Classics]

COMPLETED 10/19/20

✔ 1. Dr. Thorne
✔ 2. Ruth
3. Romola (DNF'd at 238 pages)

1900-1999:
✔ 4. Elkhorn Tavern
✔ 5. The Tall Woman
✔ 6. The Spectator Bird

Wildcards:
✔ 7. The Song of the Lark
✔ 8. A Long Long Way
✔ 9. The Bridal Wreath
10. The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë
✔ 11. The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
✔ 12. Benediction

Alternatives:
✔ 1. A Thread of Grace
✔ 2. The Woodlanders

[Sara, New School Classics]

The Year You Were Born:

1951:
1. The Sea Around Us
2. The Stars, Like Dust
✔ 3. The Daughter of Time
4. The Day of the Triffids
✔ 5. The Grass Harp
6. The Log from the Sea of Cortez
7. Spartacus
8. They Came to Baghdad
✔ 9. My Cousin Rachel
10. The Illustrated Man

1851:
1. Moby-Dick, or, the Whale
2. The Stones of Venice
✔ 3. Ghost Stories and Mysteries
4. The Short Stories of Sheridan Le Fanu, Including (Complete and Unabridged): 54 Stories from These Collections - The Purcell Papers, in a Glass Darkly, the Watcher and Other Weird Stories, a Stable for Nightmares, Ghostly Tales, the Murdered Cousin, Madam
5. The King of the Golden River
6. The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada
✔ 7. Mr. Harrison's Confessions
8. Tanglewood Tales: A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys
9. Lavengro
10. Amalia

Best Sellers:
1. From Here to Eternity
2. The Caine Mutiny
3. Moses
4. The Cardinal
5. A Woman Called Fancy
6. The Cruel Sea
7. Melville Goodwin, USA
8. Return to Paradise
9. The Foundling
10. The Wanderer

NF: The Sea Around Us
Kon-Tiki

[Sara, New School Classics]

COMPLETED 6/7/2020

✔ 1. 18th Century or Older Meditations
✔ 2. 19th Century The Woodlanders
✔ 3. 20th Century The Little Drummer Girl
✔ 4. Current/Past Group Road Stoner
✔ 5. Author Not Read Before Death in Venice
✔ 6. Diversity Classic Kokoro
✔ 7. Science Fiction Brave New World
✔ 8. Romance The King's General
✔ 9. Historical fiction Elkhorn Tavern
✔ 10. Nonfiction Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
✔ 11. Mystery/Crime, My Cousin Rachel
✔ 12. Horror or Humor We Have Always Lived in the Castle

[Sara, New School Classics]

Century:
✔ 1850 - Ruth
✔ 1860 - No Name
✔ 1870 - The Life of Charles Dickens : Volume I
✔ 1880 - The Canterville Ghost
✔ 1890 - Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson
✔ 1900 - White Fang
✔ 1910 - The Song of the Lark
✔ 1920 - The Mistress of Husaby
✔ 1930 - The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
✔ 1940 - Pastoral

Decade:

1950 - The Town
✔ 1951 - My Cousin Rachel
1952 - Invisible Man or The Far Country or Excellent Women
1953 - The Crucible or Black Wings Has My Angel
1954 - A Fable
✔ 1955 - The Breaking Wave
✔ 1956 - Old Yeller
✔ 1957 - A Death in the Family
✔ 1958 - Our Man in Havana
1959 - The Tin Drum or Advise and Consent

[Sara, New School Classics]

Short Stories Read:
1. The Cask of Amontillado
2. The Golden Apples - collection 7 stories
3. The Storyteller
4. The Body Snatcher
5. The Story of an Hour
6. Babette's Feast
7. Sorrow Acre (Isak Dinesen - No listing)
8. The Story of an Hour
9. A Modest Proposal
10. The Old Nurse's Story
11. The Bishop
12. Brooksmith
13. Whole New Worlds
14. The Jockey
15. Burning Bright - Collection (12 Stories)
16. The Return of the Thin White Duke
17. House Taken Over
18. The Shot
19. Graven Image
20. Putois
21. A. V. Laider
22. A Whimsy of the World
23. The Masque of the Red Death
24. Great-Great-Grandpa's Hat Box
25. 2BR02B
26. A Glimpse of Stocking
27. The Country of the Blind
28. Looking back
29. Ghost Coach: A Short Story
30. The Man Higher Up
31. Bernice Bobs Her Hair
32. The Other Two
33. A Good Man Is Hard To Find
34. The Man of the House
35. The Gioconda Smile
36. The Man Who Shot Snapping Turtles by Edmund Wilson (not listed on GR except in a collection
37. Girls, At Play
38. Like a Winding Sheet
39. The Curfew Tolls
40. Father wakes up the village
41. Neighbors
42. To Be Read at Dusk
43. The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton - Collection (11 stories
44. Hunted Down: By Charles Dickens - Illustrated
45. How Beautiful With Shoes
46. Doctor Marigold
47. The Piazza Tales - Collection (6)
48. The Chrysanthemums
49. The Door
50. A Wagner Matinee
51. Pockets
52. The Lazy Tour Of Two Idle Apprentices
53. The Nose
54. Spook Lights: Southern Gothic Horror - Collection (12)
55. The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade
56. An Upheaval
57. My Kinsman Major Molineux
58. Incarnations of Burned Children
59. A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories - title story only
60. The Red Crown
61. The Star


TOTAL stories read: 102

[Sara, New School Classics]

COMPLETED 11/3/20

Group Reads Participated

1. Stoner
2. The Body Snatcher
3. My Cousin Rachel
4. A Modest Proposal
5. White Fang
6. The Country of the Blind
7. A Journal of the Plague Year
8. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
9. Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson
10. The Nose
11. Our Man in Havana
12. 84, Charing Cross Road

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Sara I look forward to seeing your lists as you put them together. I too plan on trying a bunch of the challenges. For me it will be therapy, cathartic I think is the word, odds are against me finishing so I must learn to accept it without guilt.

[Sara, New School Classics]

lol. I was thinking not a chance that I could finish them all--but fun to try.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

I enjoyed looking over your lists. I thought it was interesting that for the decade challenge, we both picked the decade of the 50’s. What I found interesting is that A Death in the Family is the only match from your ten choices and my ten.

Of the books from your list that I’ve read my highest recommendation goes to Ruth. Honorable mentions go to Where Angels Fear to Tread, In the Heart of the Sea, Up at the Villa, Brave New World, and The Day of the Triffids.

[Sara, New School Classics]

Very interesting indeed. You have read most of mine and I have read most of yours. I'm really happy that six of them get a solid thumbs up from you--lets me know I am sure to enjoy most of my reading from this list. Let's nominate A Death in the Family and see if we can get a group read.

[Sara, New School Classics]

Read The Daughter of Time. Had intended to use it as a crime/mystery both here and at Bingo, but it really did not fit the category to me. It was much more just historical fiction. So, I am using it in my "year I was born" and will have to find something else to fill the mystery category.

[Sara, New School Classics]

I feel as if I am making very slow progress on all these challenges and need to speed things up...however, I am glad I read Meditations very slowly. That marks one off for the Genre challenge.

[Julie]

Sara wrote: "I feel as if I am making very slow progress on all these challenges and need to speed things up...however, I am glad I read Meditations very slowly. That marks one off for the Genre ch..."

I think you are doing great - remember it is only February 11th today ;-) still more than 10 months left of the year

[Sara, New School Classics]

True, Julie, but I'm already behind the schedule I set myself. Just like filling a plate at the buffet--you always want more than your tummy can hold. :)

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

I agree, you are doing well, your Genre challenge is half finished and there is a lot of reading time left in the year.

Short stories have been my salvation this year and most have been really good.

[Sara, New School Classics]

I have another group that reads a short story every two weeks and this one once a month, so the short stories will not give me any problem either, Bob. I really love mixing them in, and they often tell me if I do (or do not) want to read more of an author. I've picked up a dozen from your reading that I've added to the TBR and I'm anxious to get to them. I appreciate having your expertise to draw from.

[Sara, New School Classics]

At last another read for the Old and New Challenge. I try to pick books for that particular challenge that are important to me to get read this year. The Spectator Bird has been on my radar for a long time--I am delighted to have at last read, and enjoyed, it.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

I've never read anything by Stegner, but I have Angle of Repose on my shelf. Time, I need more time.

[Annette]

Angle of Repose is on of my all-time favorite books!

[Terry]

angle of Repose is one of the few books I have read three times.

[Sara, New School Classics]

Bob wrote: "I've never read anything by Stegner, but I have Angle of Repose on my shelf. Time, I need more time."

Make time, Bob. You will be glad you did. Annette and Terry have just backed me up on that!

[Sara, New School Classics]

Annette wrote: "Angle of Repose is on of my all-time favorite books!"

It made my favorites folder as well, Annette.

[Sara, New School Classics]

Terry wrote: "angle of Repose is one of the few books I have read three times."

I promised myself to read it again at some point. I believe Stegner is the kind of writer who offers you so much, you are sure to get more with a re-read.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Annette wrote: "Angle of Repose is on of my all-time favorite books!"

Terry wrote: "angle of Repose is one of the few books I have read three times."

Sara wrote: "Bob wrote: "I've never read anything by Stegner, but I have Angle of Repose on my shelf. Time, I need more time."

Make time, Bob. You will be glad you did. Annette and Terry have j..."

I'm convinced, I'll start it this summer. Gentle persuasion is so much better than thumbscrews, thank you!

[Sara, New School Classics]

lol. Yep, those thumbscrews are tough--but they almost always work.

[Sara, New School Classics]

Super short-story The Old Nurse's Story. I have always liked Elizabeth Gaskell and this is not exception...a good ghost story is always fun.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

I’m fond of Gaskell’s writing, I consider her a favorite. But I have only read three of her books, North and South, Cranford, and my favorite, so far, Ruth. But I’ve never read any of her short stories, that will be remedied soon.

[Sara, New School Classics]

Ruth is on my old and new challenge this year, Bob. Hope to get to it soon. I loved North and South and found Cranford charming. Her biography of Charlotte Bronte, The Life of Charlotte Brontë was quite good and very interesting because she actually knew her.

[Sara, New School Classics]

So far I have read 32 short stories - so that challenge is technically finished. I will continue to read them, however, and log them on. It will be interesting to see how many I actually read in a year's time.

The short story collection I just finished is stellar! Burning Bright by Ron Rash. Even if you are not a huge fan of short stories, I'm betting you will like these.

[Sara, New School Classics]

Dang. Got to go for an alternate on my Old and New Challenge. I have decided to DNF Romola after 238 pages of forced reading. I was more than willing to give Eliot leaway in making a slow start, she generally does and then presents one with gold, making all those details count. I'm just not seeing it here.

[Candi]

Bummer, Sara! Something tells me this won't work for me then either. I remember when we were reading Daniel Deronda, and for me at least, it was initially a bit of a chore. But then it improved and ended up being a fine read. 238 pages sounds more than fair here.

[Sara, New School Classics]

I kept thinking of that, Candi. None of her books starts off easy, they are all long, and you have to take a slower pace, but by this point in the others I wouldn't have thought of putting them away. I'm sure many people (because this has beaucoup of 5-star ratings) would tell me I quit too soon, but I just couldn't face another page of it.

Maybe I am wrong, but I think the setting was the problem. She knows England and she takes you there, the people speak in dialogue that rings true, and the emotions they express are ones you can recognize. This one was full of Italian references I had to stop and look up, had the stiffest dialogue imaginable (nobody anywhere ever spoke like the barber in this novel), and everyone of the characters seemed wooden to me. If you cannot muster any feeling for the blind scholar, it is time to go.

[Candi]

Stiff dialogue is something that always irks me, Sara. Maybe you're right about the setting. Authors should probably stick with what they know/do best.

[Sara, New School Classics]

And yet, Henry James thought it was her best book and she herself apparently said it was her favorite because she had expressed her philosophy the most clearly. I wondered if I was reading the same book they were.

[Candi]

How strange, Sara! Well, your taste must be different from theirs!

[Brian E]

I read Romola in January and it was definitely a less than compelling read, although it did get better toward the end. I have read her other novels except for Felix Holt and did not have similar problems with any of her other works.
I think it was both the setting and the dialogue as she was consciously writing a 'historical' novel set in a foreign country. The historical and foreign aspects would likely be more popular and interesting to readers of the time. They might have been interested in Eliot's insights into the history of Florence at the Bonfire of the Vanities period. However, modern readers looking back, seek Eliot for her insights into people living in Victorian England rather than 15th Century Florence. We would look elsewhere for those insights.

[Sara, New School Classics]

You have stated perfectly my objections to the novel. I congratulate you for getting through it.

[Brian E]

Sara wrote: "You have stated perfectly my objections to the novel. I congratulate you for getting through it."

I have both a stubborn tendency to finish what I start and a lot of free time.

[Sara, New School Classics]

My younger self would have been right with you, my older self looks at the TBR and knows I am going to die with unread books--so I'm choosy. :)

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

It's a big disappointment when a book you expect good things from doesn't live up to expectations. Thank you for taking the time to explain why it fell short, I have no problem leaving it on the shelf. I hope your replacement is five stars.

[Sara, New School Classics]

Thanks, Bob. I hate DNFing anything and especially one by an author I have always enjoyed before. My replacement is a Hardy...surely that will be a winner.

[Brian E]

At least in Hardy's historical novel, The Trumpet-Major, he only went back 75 years and stayed in the same locale he normally writes about.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Sara wrote: "Thanks, Bob. I hate DNFing anything and especially one by an author I have always enjoyed before. My replacement is a Hardy...surely that will be a winner."

Sara, reading Hardy has at times left me emotionally wrecked, but I've never been disappointed. I haven't read The Woodlanders, fingers crossed, I hope it's great.

[Brian E]

I thought the Woodlanders was a good one. I have a DVD of the 1997 movie version with Rufus Sewell (who was also in the Middlemarch series).

[Sara, New School Classics]

Bob wrote: "Sara wrote: "Thanks, Bob. I hate DNFing anything and especially one by an author I have always enjoyed before. My replacement is a Hardy...surely that will be a winner."

Sara, reading Hardy has at..."

I have also never struggled with a Hardy, although he often leaves my emotions in tatters. I'm looking forward to The Woodlanders and have Under the Greenwood Tree on another challenge list.

[Sara, New School Classics]

Brian wrote: "The thought the Woodlanders was a good one. I have a DVD of the 1997 movie version with Rufus Sewell (who was also in the Middlemarch series)."

I like Rufus Sewell. I will try to imagine him while I am reading it.

[Philina]

Rufus Sewell is great! I've also got the Middlemarch mini-series.

[Philina]

Under The Greenwood Tree isn't at all bad ;-) . I also like Hardy very much. Gaskell, too, so I totally recommend Wives and Daughters.

[Sara, New School Classics]

Yes, I have read Wives and Daughters. I have enjoyed all of Gaskell that I have read and have Ruth on my list for this year.