Never too Late to Read Classics discussion
Archive 2024 & 2025 Reads
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2024: Authors of Well Written Works reading schedule
I'll also support Flannery O'Connor. It seems to me an excellent choice.
I support Langston Hughes, Iris Murdoch, Rebecca West and Mrs. Oliphant
Jen wrote: "Damn, no takers on Hurston, yet a lot for Faulkner. They could be very interesting to compare, as southern gothic writers of the same era but different gender and race."I support Hurston too.
I already have Not Without Laughter on my 2024 reading list, so I'd like to support Langston Hughes for sure.
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Msg 2 updated and thank you!
As there are still slots open, I nominate:Rumer Godden
Winifred Holtby
Patricia Highsmith
and, so I include one "token" male author:
Jack Kerouac
(I meant to say "toking" male author. Sorry.)
Brian E wrote: "As there are still slots open, I nominate:Rumer Godden
Winifred Holtby
Patricia Highsmith
and, so I include one "token" male author:
[author:Jack Kerou..."
"Toking"... wocka wocka ;)
If Highsmith is up for a vote, I support it.
Nicky wrote: "May I suggest Jean Rhys.My supportive vote goes to Joan Didion."
If Jean Rhys is up for a vote, I'd support it.
I'll support Mrs. Oliphant as that should earn her a spot in the BIg 12. I support her because:- While I've read 4 of her Chronicles of Carlingford books (#.5, #1, #2 and #5) I stopped as I dithered about whether to skip the allegedly boring and fairly long #3 Salem Chapel and go to the allegedly more interesting though still long #4 The Perpetual Curate. This should motivate me to finally make a choice.
- Mrs. Oliphant would be the 1st 19th century author on the Top 12 list.
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We now have 8 of our 12!
Please take a moment to look over the suggestions and see if there is any you would like to support.
Thanks for helping with this process!
Lesle wrote: "All updated in Msg 2We now have 8 of our 12!
Please take a moment to look over the suggestions and see if there is any you would like to support.
Thanks for helping with this process!"
It looks like you missed my supporting vote for Jean Rhys.
I wasn't going to support Ms. O'Connor as I thought I had read enough of her as I read Wise Blood, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories and Everything That Rises Must Converge. I should have a book in mind to read in order to support an authorBut, because:
- Jonathan said "Hope we can get into some southern gothic next year"
- no one personifies the southern gothic genre more than O'Connor;
- O'Connor and Faulkner would provide two opportunities to experience that genre:
- a supporting vote will add a 9th member of the Top 12; and
- I still have her other novel The Violent Bear It Away to read:
I support Flannery O'Connor
I support Rebecca West and Margaret Oliphant
Jonathan wrote: "Brian E wrote: "I wasn't going to support Ms. O'Connor as I thought I had read enough of her as I read Wise Blood, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories and [book:E..."Thank you for the info! The movie goes to my want-to-see list!
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Got it! Thank you Jen. Appreciate it :)
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There are 9 of the 12 in our final list.
If you have any support or suggestions please notate in the comments.
Thank you!
I support Carson McCullers, Jean Rhys and Joan Didion.
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I enjoyed the short story "Barn Burning" by Faulkner in college. I have a few of his books on my reading list that I'd love to get to.
With grad school limiting how many books (or sometimes which ones) I can get to during the semesters, I'm hesitant to add my own author ideas to this list. Looks solid so far, though!
Leslie, as it looks like Joan Didion will be included, you should be aware that the vast majority of her books are non-classics not within the time period. When she nominated Didion, Jen was aware of this and specifically mentioned that she had in mind Didion's 'classic novels' Run River and Play It As It Lays. As John also mentioned that he thought Didion worth supporting even though only 3 of Didion's works would be eligible, I think it can be assumed that 'supporters' are aware of this. For me, even though I did not like Play It As It Lays I'd be willing to give her Run River a try.
I bring this subject up only to give you a heads up because her most read book The Year of Magical Thinking is from 2005 and I would anticipate people seeing Didion's name and wanting to read that 21st Century book.
But in thinking back, when an author rather than a specific book is the topic, some people have chosen to read books outside the time frame before. I know that many chose to read 1979's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler for the Italo Calvino.
Lesle, I've just talked myself into thinking this comment is unnecessary. In the words of legendary social commenter Emily Litella: "Never mind." But rather than deleting this post, since I went to the trouble of compiling this list, I will post it anyway, at least for informational purposes for next year's expected Didion monthly read
Fiction
Run, River (1963)
Play It as It Lays (1970)
A Book of Common Prayer (1977)
Democracy (1984)
The Last Thing He Wanted (1996)
Non-fiction
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968)
The White Album (1979)
Salvador (1983)
Miami (1987)
After Henry (1992)
Political Fictions (2001)
Where I Was From (2003)
Fixed Ideas: America Since 9.11 (2003)
Vintage Didion (2004)
The Year of Magical Thinking (2005)
We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction (2006)
Blue Nights (2011)
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I did actually look her up and figured Jen was suggesting she only had only a few reads.
If we get enough authors we could double up on that one. There is always angles :)
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If there are others suggested that might be good for pairing for a month please let me know.
Thanks!
Please add Highsmith and Kerouac. Thank you!
Jonathan wrote: "Rosemarie wrote: "Jonathan, we read the works of Juan Rulfo earlier this year in our year long buddy read of Latin American authors...."Jonathan, besides the Latin American authors general read, NTLTRC did a Monthly "Authors" Read in November of 2021 on Juan Rulfo and Willa Cather. There is some discussion in that thread about both his novel Pedro Páramo and short story collection El Llano en llamas
This is the link to that discussion thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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I have one more thought:
Chester Himes (1909-1984)
He served seven and a half years in the Ohio State Penitentiary for armed robbery. While in prison he began writing short stories. He earned respect from other inmates and prison guards that helped shield him from the prison viloence. His brief tenure as a screenwriter was cut short when Warner Brothers chief Jack Warner used offensive racial epithets and fired him because he was African American. Himes's crime fiction has been compared favorably to that of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Jim Thompson.
In May 2011, and again in 2020 Penguin Modern Classics in London republished five of Himes' detective novels from the Harlem Cycle.
I support Chester Himes (swoon) , Rumer Godden and Joan Didion.
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Updated msg 2!
We have 12 selected. Are we good with those?
I think I would like to add another choice to double up with Joan Didion month. Any thoughts about that?
Lesle wrote: "Thank you Carol!Updated msg 2!
We have 12 selected. Are we good with those?
I think I would like to add another choice to double up with Joan Didion month. Any thoughts about that?"
About doubling up or about add'l authors? Doubling up - thumbs up. If the latter, perhaps one of the British Patricks - Patrick Hamilton or Patrick Leigh Fermor?
Lesle wrote: "We have 12 selected. Are we good with those?I think I would like to add another choice to double up with Joan Didion month. Any thoughts about that?"
1) I'm good with the 12.
2) While I don't think doubling up is necessary, if you want to do it, it just adds rather than subtracts.
While doubling up with one of the existing nominees would be an appropriate way to go, I also want to mention that I very much like Carol's suggestion of Patrick Hamilton. I have read and enjoyed his Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude and had hoped to read the NYRB compilation of his Gorse trilogy novels called Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky next year.
With all the recent social use of the term "gaslighting" I have become more interested in reading Hamilton's play on which the movie Gaslight was based, Gaslight Also, Alfred Hitchcock made a movie out of another Hamilton play Rope. He is an intriguing author.
Lesle wrote: "Thank you Carol!Updated msg 2!
We have 12 selected. Are we good with those?
I think I would like to add another choice to double up with Joan Didion month. Any thoughts about that?"
I'm good with those. There are lots of challenges I want to participate in so I'm not worried about being short on reading material.
If you're concerned about Didion month being light on reading options, maybe it could be before or after a month for an author that has alot of works that folks want to read and their reading for that month could spill over into Didion month?
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We have our 12 Authors for next year. I appreciate all the great suggestions and feedback to help us with those choices and support.
Let me spend sometime looking into the choices more for the layout for next year.
Included somewhere in the list will be Patrick Hamilton and possibly one of my thoughts,
Thank you everyone 🙂
Its an excellent list Lesle - I'm looking forward to it; now if I can just clear some of this year's backlog.......
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I love the results! I’ve not been good at reading group reads this year but I hope to be better!
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V S Naipaul Amitav Ghosh
Graham Greene
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Amitav Ghosh
Graham Greene"
Thank you, but unfortunately this suggestion thread is completed. See msg 1 for the schedule for next year.
I will note your suggestions for 2025. Appreciate the thoughts.
Speaking of Iris Murdoch (scheduled for January)...This article fortuitously popped up in my inbox this morning and I felt I should share.
Dunne, Luke. "Iris Murdoch Through 3 Great Works in Philosophy and Literature" TheCollector.com, December 2, 2023, https://www.thecollector.com/iris-mur... .
(Lesle, feel free to move this post to her thread when you open one next month.)
ForestGardenGal wrote: "Speaking of Iris Murdoch (scheduled for January)...This article fortuitously popped up in my inbox this morning and I felt I should share.
Dunne, Luke. "Iris Murdoch Through 3 Great Works in Ph..."
Thank you!
Never too Late to Read Classics
Books mentioned in this topic
Gaslight (other topics)The Slaves of Solitude (other topics)
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (other topics)
Hangover Square (other topics)
Rope (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Samuel Beckett (other topics)Thomas Wolfe (other topics)
Langston Hughes (other topics)
Jean Rhys (other topics)
Rumer Godden (other topics)
More...
Flannery O'Connor and Juan Rulfo"
Jonathan, we read the works of Juan Rulfo earlier this year in our year long buddy read of Latin American authors.
Please feel free to post your comments about Rulfo and any other Latin American authors there. It's an informal thread with no set schedule.
And by this time of year most of our reading schedules have become even more flexible when we realize our reading plans were too ambitious-I speak from experience!