Lisa M's 2021 Buffet

[Lisa M]

Hi everyone :)

I didn't read that much last year - I buried myself in computer games during the craziness - but my bookworm has returned with a strong desire to read classics so lets see how many I can read this year :)

Currently Reading:

Read 2021:
1. Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener 1947
2. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx 1848
3. Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg 1956
4. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston 1937
5. The Last Battle: The Classic History of the Battle for Berlin by Cornelius Ryan 1966
6. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh 1945
7. Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future by Svetlana Alexievich 1997

[Lisa M]

Challenge #1 - Old & New TBR Challenge

Only six of the 12 books selected are required be Classics based on the Groups definitions. At least 3 books from the Old School category (published before 1900) and 3 books from the New School category (published between 1900 & 1999). The other six and your two alternates can be any genre or age you wish to read.

In the spirit of this challenge my selections are from my physical TBR rather than e-books/library etc

Old School
1 Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (1874)
2 North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (1855)
3 The Warden by Anthony Trollope (1855)

New School
1 The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West (1956)
2 The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley (1953)
3 My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier (1951)

Six more
✓1 The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1848)
2 Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1818)
3 Right Ho, JeevesP.G. Wodehouse (1934)
✓4 Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (1945)
5 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)
6 Surfacing by Margaret Atwood (1972)

Alternative:
1 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (1957)
2 Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)

[Lisa M]

Challenge #2 – Does a Century Make a Difference?

Select 10 books from any single year of interest, then select 10 more from 100 years earlier, for a total of 20 books. List your choices for other members to explore. The challenge is to successfully read 10 of the 20 books selected, five from your year of choice and five from 100 years earlier.

[Lisa M]

Challenge #3 - Second Place or Worse

Go back through the groups past polls and select seven (7) total books that are of interest to you but lost the poll and never made it to our group bookshelf. Ideally pick two books from New School, two from Old School, two from Short Story/Novella, and one from the Quarterly Long Read.

New School
1
2

Old School
1
2

Short Story/Novella
1 Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg (lost the poll March 2021)
2

Long Read
1

[Lisa M]

Challenge #4 - Members Choice Classic/Genre Challenge Choose one book per category for a total of 12 books.

1. 18th Century or older,
2. 19th Century,
✓3. 20th Century,
Brideshead Revisited by Eveleyn Waugh 1945
✓4. Current or Past Group Read,
Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future by Svetlana Alexievich Picked December 2019 for New School
✓5. An Author not read before,
Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
✓6. Diversity Classic, read a book from a religion, culture, country, or race different than yours.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
7. Science Fiction,
8. Romance,
9. Historical fiction,
✓10. Nonfiction,
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
11. Mystery/Crime,
12. Horror or Humor,

[Lisa M]

Challenge #5 - Decade/Century Challenge

The Century Challenge: Read 10 books from any 10 consecutive decades (1 book per decade). Authors can only be used once in the challenge. You can use authors previously read by you. Or you can add a level of difficulty to your challenge by selecting only authors you've never read before.

1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)
1940 Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener (1947)
1950 Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg (1956)
1960 The Last Battle: The Classic History of the Battle for Berlin by Cornelius Ryan (1966)
1970

[Lisa M]

Challenge #6 - Short Story Challenge

Read 24 short stories. This equates to only two per month for the year.

1-18 = Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener a collection of 18 linked short stories plus another which I would deem a novella because of it's length

[Lisa M]

Challenge #7 - 2021 Group Reads Challenge

The challenge is to read 12 of this years group selections. Between New School, Old School, Short Story/Novella, Revisit the Shelf, and Quarterly Long read our group selects 40 new and 12 reread books per year, giving us plenty of choices.

1 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (March>New School)
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

[Lisa M]

Challenge #8 - Expand Your Horizon With New Authors

Seek out six (6) authors that you have never previously read, male or female, from any genre you want, but please use the group's time line insuring that authors selected books were published before the year 2000

1. James A. Michener: Tales of the South Pacific
2. Karl Marx: The Communist Manifesto
3. Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God
4 Allen Ginsberg: Howl and Other Poems
5 Cornelius Ryan: The Last Battle: The Classic History of the Battle for Berlin
6 Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited

[Lisa M]

Challenge #9 - A-Z Author Challenge
A Svetlana Alexievich: Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future
B
C
D
E
F
G Allen Ginsberg: Howl and Other Poems
H
I
J
K
L
M James A. Michener: Tales of the South Pacific (1947)
N
O
P
Q
R Cornelius Ryan: The Last Battle: The Classic History of the Battle for Berlin
S
T
U
V
W Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited
X
Y
Z Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God

[Lisa M]

Challenge #10 - A-Z Title Challenge

A
B Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
C The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
D
E
F
G
H Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
I
J
K
L The Last Battle: The Classic History of the Battle for Berlin by Cornelius Ryan
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T Tales of the South Pacific (1947) by James A. Michener
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

[Kathleen]

Welcome to the challenge, Lisa! I love your old and new choices--a great assortment. Enjoy your reading!

[Lisa M]

Kathleen wrote: "Welcome to the challenge, Lisa! I love your old and new choices--a great assortment. Enjoy your reading!"

Thanks Kathleen!

[Lisa M]

Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener, published 1947, 359 pages, Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction
Completed: March 9th
Rating: 4 stars

I gather Michener was a. big. deal. in his time and seems to have specialised in writing epic multi-generational historical fiction novels. However these days he's never mentioned and it's only my love of historical fiction that bought this author to my attention, this is my first time reading his work.

So in saying that, Michener's first book, Tales of the South Pacific, is not an epic multi-generational historical fiction. It's a contemporary book of it's time and based on the authors personal experience in the Pacific in WW2. It's writing style was very engaging, it was never tedious and stands up very well almost 80 years after publication and I really enjoyed it.

The stories are loosely linked by recurring characters and are chronologically ordered from 1942 when allied forces stopped the Japanese expansion in the Pacific to 1944 with an invasion of a fictional island but symbolises the beginning of the end. The stories are about the impact of the massive American deployment of armed forces, of American men (and a few women) asking "Why am I here?", and their interactions with the colonial, immigrant and indigenous people of the South Pacific. But by having recurring characters the stories still felt full of adventure and invested in their stories.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Enjoy your challenges!

[Lisa M]

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx (1848) Nonfiction/poltical
Completed: March 15


Sooo... I have two reactions (rants) first to my edition and then the text itself.

My edition is this one above, an orange popular penguin, and it's 288 pages. Part 1 is an "introduction" that has 13 chapters and is 187 pages. Part 2 is the text itself. First every single preface to the text that Marx/Engels wrote when any edition was translated/published, then finally, the Communist Manifesto itself.... last.. which is 40 pages.

For some reason this annoys the hell out of me lol. To my mind the text itself should be at the front, then the millions of prefaces (because I can see the historical significance of them) then any essays about the work at the back. Just calling an essay of that length and breadth an "introduction" is wrong. There is no mention of this essay which is the bulk of what the reader is paying for and spending time on, in the blurb at the back. The contents page makes no note of who the author of this "introduction" is or that it's not actually the text it just feels to me like the publishers have intentionally tried to confuse readers? I've read countless penguin classics, and other imprints of classics, that have come with (short) introductions, or essays and other texts and never had any confusion over what I am reading and who wrote it lol. For the record the introduction is by a dude called Gareth Stedman Jones. This is essentially his book, and the communist manifesto is an appendix. He even has an "acknowledgements" page at the front but without his name. It's so weird.

Ok so the text itself when I finally got it... It's kind of weird how such a slight text, that is amateurish at times, written in response to the economic and political climate of 1840s France, England and Germany, became so important in the twentieth century. It became a standard bearer for one part of the world, therefore demonised in another part of the world and doesn't live up to the hype lol. It just feels that an opportunity was missed, by making it so feared and outlawed it gave it legitimacy instead of making it irrelevant.

[Lynn, New School Classics]

Lisa M wrote: "Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener, published 1947, 359 pages, Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction
Completed: March 9th
Rating: 4 stars

I gather Michener ..."


What a nice review of this book. I have my parents' copy on my bookshelf, but I still haven't read it.

Sorry that the Communist Manifesto was frustrating.

[Liesl]

Lisa M wrote: "The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx (1848) Nonfiction/poltical
Completed: March 15


Sooo... I have two reactions (rants) ..."

I generally skip reading the introduction and move to the text so as to avoid the spoilers that are constantly outlined in the introduction discussions. I can totally understand your frustration here. I feel an introduction should provide a little background about the time and environment in which the work was written and published. Possibly even information about the author and some of the issues that they were addressing. If the publishers want to publish a critical analysis of the work, they should add it at the end of the book.