Annette's 2020 Challenge Buffet

[Annette]

For my first trip to the buffet, I will choose the following challenges. Hopefully I have not overfilled my plate!

Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR
Challenge #3 - Your Birth Year Top 10 Best Sellers
Challenge #4 - Members Choice Classic/Genre Challenge
Challenge #6 - Short Story Challenge
Challenge #7 - 2020 Group Reads Challenge

I am still choosing the books that I am planning to read for challenges #1, #3 and #4. I will get those posted soon.

[Annette]

Challenge #3 - Your Birth Year Top 10 Best Sellers or, in my case, the 1960 Bestsellers
I have linked the five books that I read.

Fiction Bestsellers
1. Allen Drury, Advise and Consent
√ 2. James A. Michener, Hawaii
√ 3. Giuseppe di Lampedusa, The Leopard
4. Irving Wallace, The Chapman Report
5. John O’Hara, Ourselves to Know
6. Marcia Davenport, The Constant Image
7. Mary Ellen Chase, The Lovely Ambition
√ 8. Taylor Caldwell, The Listener
√ 9. Nevil Shute, Trustee from the Toolroom
√ 10. John O’Hara, Sermons and Soda-Water: The Girl on the Baggage Truck/ Imagine Kissing Pete / We're Friends Again

Nonfiction Bestsellers
1. D. C. Jarvis, Folk Medicine
2. Better Homes and Gardens First Aid for Your Family
3. The General Foods Kitchens Cookbook
4. Alexander King, May This House Be Safe from Tigers
5. Better Homes and Gardens Dessert Book
6. Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Ideas
7. William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
8. Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative
9. Jack Paar, I Kid You Not
10. Pat Boone, Between You, Me and the Gatepost

[Annette]

Challenge #4 - Members Choice Classic/Genre Challenge

I am still reading on the original list but to reduce the stress of meeting my goal I filled in with what I read that fits the categories and completes the challenge.

* indicates original selection

√ 1. 18th Century or older: A Journal of the Plague Year
√ 2. 19th Century: Mary Barton
√ 3. 20th Century: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
√ 4. Current or Past Group Read: Stoner
√ 5. An Author not read before: July's People by Gordimer Nadine
√ 6. Diversity Classic, read a book from a religion, culture, country, or race different than yours*: Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story
√ 7. Science Fiction: The Martian Chronicles
√ 8. Romance*: These Old Shades
√ 9. Historical fiction: Mansfield Park
√ 10. Nonfiction: Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
√ 11. Mystery/Crime: Death on the Nile
√ 12. Horror or Humor: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

[Annette]

Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR

I concentrated on some of the books that I own but hadn't read. I was not able to complete this list in 2020 but I will keep plugging away at the books.

Old School:
√ 1. Leaves of Grass from The Portable Walt Whitman
2. War and Peace currently reading
√ 3. A Tale of Two Cities

New School:
√ 4. Kim
5. Dr Zhivago
√ 6. Round River

The Remaining Six:
√ 7. Lolita
8. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell currently listening on Audible
9. The Brothers Karamazov
10. The Master and Margarita
11. Silent Spring currently reading
√ 12. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World

And the Alternates:
√ A1. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
√ A2. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

[Annette]

Challenge #6 - Short Story Challenge

Read 24 short stories. This equates to only two per month for the year.
1. The Body Snatcher Feb 9-11, 2020
2. The Machine Stops Feb 10, 2020
3. The Sandman Feb 11-17, 2020
4. Antigone Feb 28-Mar 6, 2020
5. Young Goodman Brown Mar 6-8, 2020
6. The Bottle Imp Mar 23-26, 2020
7. Markheim Mar 26-27, 2020
8. The Blue Cross: A Father Brown Mystery Mar 27, 2020
9. The Lover Apr 1-9, 2020
10. On the Shortness of Life Apr 1-11, 2020
11. White Nights Apr 6-11, 2020
12. Sir Gawain and the green knight Apr 5-7, 2020
13. Esme, Matchmaker, Tobermary and Mrs Packletide's Tiger from The Chronicles of Clovis Apr 11, 2020
14. The Pearl Apr 11-14, 2020
15. Sosu's Call Apr 11/2020
16. The Lion and the Puppy: And Other Stories for Children (read complete collection) Apr 24-26, 2020
17. A Fountain, A Bottle, A Donkey's Ears and Some Books by Robert Frost (read online) May 2, 2020
18. Dr. Faustus May 15-19, 2020
19. Farmer Giles of Ham from Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham May 15-19, 2020
20. The Day It Snowed Tortillas: Tales from Spanish New Mexico (read complete collection) May 15-19, 2020
21. Bloodchild and Other Stories (read complete collection) May 21-25, 2020
22. The Snows of Kilimanjaro (found online) May 25, 2020
23. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions May 29-June 15, 2020
24. There Will Come Soft Rains and the rest of The Martian Chronicles June 22- July 31, 2020
25. The Return of the Soldier July 6-15, 2020
26. Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson July 21-29, 2020
27. The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton read all which turns out to be a partial collection July 26-28, 2020 Am continuing with The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton which is a different but overlapping collection.
28. The Nose August 18-20, 2020
29. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories (read complete collection) August 19-Sept 1, 2020
30. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (read complete collection) August 20-September 11, 2020
31. The Overcoat September 11, 2020
32. Blackberry Blue: And Other Fairy Tales (complete collection)
33. A Small, Good Thing (read online at classicshorts.com) September 30, 2020
34. The Fire Next Time September 15-16, 2020
35. Julius Caesar October 30-November 9, 2020
36. A Simple Heart from Three Tales: A Simple Heart, Saint Julian the Hospitalier and Herodias (Complete Edition): Classic of French Literature November 26-28, 2020
37. The Captain's Daughter November 28-December 6, 2020

[Annette]

Challenge #7 - 2020 Group Reads Challenge

Between New School, Old School, Short Story/Novella, and Quarterly Long read our group selects 40 new books per year to go on our bookshelf. This challenge is to read 12 of these forty.

1. We Have Always Lived in the Castle Jan 4-6, 2020
2. Stoner Jan 7-Feb 6, 2020
3. The Body Snatcher Feb 9-11, 2020
4. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Feb 1-15, 2020
5. Mary Barton Feb 1 - Mar 15, 2020
6. My Cousin Rachel Feb 20-Mar 8, 2020
7. Death on the Nile Mar 10-14, 2020
8. Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror Mar 13-20, 2020
9. The Lover Apr 2-9, 2020
10. White Fang Apr 2-15, 2020
11. Mansfield Park Apr 22- May 15, 2020
12. Dr. Faustus May 15-19, 2020
13. Dangerous Liaisons May 7- June 22, 2020
14. To the Lighthouse June 7-29, 2020
15. The Country of the Blind June 1, 2020
16. There Will Come Soft Rains June 22, 2020
17. A Journal of the Plague Year April 11- May 7, 2020
18. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas: An American Slave June 22-July 6, 2020
19. Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson July 19-26, 2020
20. The Nose August 18-20, 2020
21. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories August 19-Sept 1, 2020
22. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court August 3-September 6, 2020
23. Camille: The Lady of the Camellias September 2-20, 2020
24. The Fire Next Time September 15-16, 2020
25. The Color Purple May 20, 2020
26. Tortilla Flat September 20-October 27, 2020
27. Julius Caesar October 30-November 9, 2020
28. Our Man in Havana November 5-15, 2020
29. The Winter's Tale Novemeber 11-24, 2020
30. A Simple Heart from Three Tales: A Simple Heart / The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller / Herodias November 26-28, 2020
31. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman finally finished on November 29, 2020

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Enjoy your challenge, I look forward to seeing your choices.

[Annette]

Bob wrote: "Enjoy your challenge, I look forward to seeing your choices."

Wouldn't have thought of doing this without your leadership, Bob. Thanks for introducing the challenges!

[Annette]

Edited my lists to include my reading so far.

[Annette]

Added to my lists to include my reading so far.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Lots of good reads. I saw you read Trustee from the Toolroom, Nevil Shute is a favorite of mine, hope you enjoyed it.

[Annette]

Bob wrote: "Lots of good reads. I saw you read Trustee from the Toolroom, Nevil Shute is a favorite of mine, hope you enjoyed it."

I did like Trustee from the Toolroom although there were bits of minutiae that might have driven others to distraction. I'm nerdy enough to enjoy that kind of thing. I had only read On the Beach by Shute before this.

[Annette]

Today I finished Kim so I updated my Challenge Buffet lists. I am reading a lot but often not with an eye to finish the challenges I chose. Oh well, I can always return to those books to next (or another) year. This year has been hard on my reading mojo.

[Annette]

Today I finished Sermons and Soda-Water, the last book I needed for my birth year challenge. And I am pushing away from the table. I guess my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I completed
Challenge #3 - Your Birth Year Top 10 Best Sellers,
Challenge #4 - Members Choice Classic/Genre Challenge,
Challenge #6 - Short Story Challenge and
Challenge #7 - 2020 Group Reads Challenge.

I read a lot of unplanned books and that was great but the result was I did not finish Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR. I only finished 8 of the 12 books and I'm not going to cram in the rest in the remaining time. They will be finished - eventually.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Congrats on an excellent year!

[Annette]

Thanks, Bob. I enjoyed the challenges that you created!