Marilyn's 2024 Buffet Challenge

[Marilyn]

List of Challenges:

✔︎Challenge #3 - Century
✔︎Challenge #4 - Members Choice
✔︎Challenge #5 - Short Story
✔︎Challenge #7 - Expand Your Horizon With New Authors
Challenge #9 – Fiction/Non-Fiction
Challenge #12 - Series
Challenge #15 - A-Z Author

* Book or ebook I own
✔︎ Finished Reading

[Marilyn]

Century Challenge
10/10

✔︎1912 The Reef by Edith Wharton
✔︎1920 Hungry Hearts and Other Stories by Anzia Yezierska
✔︎1936 *South Riding by Winifred Holtby
✔︎1940 *The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
✔︎1953 *Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
✔︎1961 China Court: The Hours of a Country House by Rumer Godden
✔︎1977 A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters
✔︎1981 *Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
✔︎1992 *Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud
✔︎2001 *The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

[Marilyn]

Member's Choice Challenge
12/12

✔︎19th Century: The Hidden Hand or, Capitola the Madcap by E. D. E. N. Southworth
✔︎20th Century: *Palladian by Elizabeth Taylor
✔︎21st Century: *Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
✔︎Book in translation: Abigail by Magda Szabó
✔︎An Author not read before: Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker
✔︎Diversity Classic: *The Living is Easy by Dorothy West
✔︎Science Fiction/Fantasy: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
✔︎Action/Adventure (Western): The Searchers by Alan LeMay
✔︎Young Adult: They Went Left by Monica Hesse
✔︎Nonfiction: Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
✔︎Mystery/Thriller: The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
✔︎Horror or Humor: *Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym

[Marilyn]

Short Stories
24/24

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
1. He
2. That Tree
3. The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
4. Maria Concepción
The Ghost Stories Of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton
1. The Lady's Maid's Bell
2. The Eyes
3. Afterward
4. Kerfol
5. The Triumph of the Night
6. The Looking Glass
7. Miss Mary Park
8. Bewitched
9. Pomegranate Seed
10. All Souls
Hungry Hearts and Other Stories by Anzia Yezierska
1. Wings
2. Hunger
3. The Lost "Beautifulness"
4. The Free Vacation House
5. The Miracle
6. Where Lovers Dream
7. Soap and Water
8. "The Fat of the Land"
9. My Own People
10. How I Found America

[Marilyn]

New Authors

1. Carlos Ruiz Zafón
2. Esther Freud
3. Monica Hesse
4. Anzia Yezierska
5. Molly Keane
6. Erica Armstrong Dunbar

[Marilyn]

Fiction/Nonfiction Challenge
5/5 + 3/5

The Wire
✔︎Fiction: *Hard Revolution by George P. Pelecanos
Nonfiction: *Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon

Children in War
✔︎Fiction: *Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
Nonfiction: *A Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika by Alfons Heck

Holocaust
✔︎Fiction: Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
✔︎Nonfiction: Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account by Miklós Nyiszli

Lower East Side
✔︎Fiction: Hungry Hearts and Other Stories by Anzia Yezierska
✔︎Nonfiction: Fighting for Life by S. Josephine Baker

"There were no women in Vietnam"
✔︎Fiction: The Women by Kristin Hannah
✔︎Nonfiction: You Don't Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becker

[Marilyn]

Series

Mountain Novels by John Ehle
*Lion on the Hearth
Last One Home

Olivia Curtis sequel by Rosamond Lehmann
The Weather in the Streets

Dakota Pioneers series by O.E. Rølvaag
*Peder Victorious: A Tale of the Pioneers Twenty Years Later
*Their Fathers' God

[Marilyn]

A-Z Authors With Only One Book Published by Virago
3/25 plus Q

I am trying to do less planning at the beginning of the year but I just can't resist getting out the spreadsheets and overplanning a challenge that I won't finish this year.

Aleramo, Sibilla - A Woman
✔︎Baker, Dorothy - Cassandra at the Wedding
Coleman, Emily Holmes - The Shutter of Snow
Douglas, Ellen - The Rock Cried Out
Egerton, George - Keynotes and Discords
Ferguson, Rachel - The Brontës Went to Woolworths
Glyn, Elinor - Three Weeks
Hewitt, Dorothy - Bobbin Up
Ivy Litvinov - She Knew She Was Right
Janet McNeill - Tea at Four O'Clock
Kelly, Mary - The Spoilt Kill
✔︎LeGuin, Ursula - The Left Hand of Darkness
Mitchell, Gladys - The Rising of the Moon
Norton, Mary - The bread and butter stories
Olivia - Olivia
Porter, Katherine Ann - The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
Q
Rodoreda, Merce - The Time of the Doves
Seghers, Anna - The Seventh Cross
Talbot, Laura - *The Gentlewomen
Ursula Holden - Tin Toys Trilogy
Victoria Glendinning - A Suppressed Cry
Wells, H.G. - Ann Veronica
X beatriX Lehmann - *Rumour of Heaven
✔︎Yezierska, Anzia - Hungry Hearts and Other Stories
Zoe Wicomb - You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town

[Marilyn]

As with many others, I am planning to work on the books that I own. Hopefully I have chosen the challenges that will help me most. Thanks Bob for all the choices!

[Wobbley]

The Red House Mystery is lots of fun, and I've had good luck wth Rumer Godden so far. Enjoy your challenges!

[Lori]

Looks like you are planning some great reads, Marilyn. I’m also continuing the mountain series by Ehle. Hope you have a fantastic year!

[Shaina]

I love your Virago A-Z challenge. I have only read LeGuin from that list but have The Spoilt Kill: A Staffordshire Mystery as reprinted by the British Crime Library, Ann Veronica and the Collected Stories on my TBR. I want to start with Gladys Mitchell - Speedy Death this year but it depends on how my year progresses.

I'll come back to see your thoughts on the Virago books.

[Marilyn]

Wobbley wrote: "The Red House Mystery is lots of fun"

Red House Mystery was a fun read. Great start to the year!

[Wobbley]

Marilyn wrote: "Red House Mystery was a fun read. Great start to the year!"

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I actually think A.A. Milne is underrated as a writer. Of course the Winnie-the-Pooh books are undeniably wonderful, but he has a lot more breadth than that. If you're looking for another fun one sometime (though not a mystery), I recommend Four Days' Wonder.

[Marilyn]

Wobbley wrote: "If you're looking for another fun one sometime (though not a mystery), I recommend Four Days' Wonder.

Added to the trb someday list. Thanks!

[Wobbley]

Marilyn wrote: "Wobbley wrote: "If you're looking for another fun one sometime (though not a mystery), I recommend Four Days' Wonder.

Added to the trb someday list. Thanks!"

Yay!!

[Marilyn]

Finished The Shadow of the Wind. 3 stars. I think I would have liked this better if it had been about 100 pages shorter. It had a good story but not enough for 487 pages. But, according to the GR rating, all of the awards and a blurb by Stephen King, I seem to be in the minority opinion on this one.

[Wobbley]

For me, Shadow of the Wind was more about the writing and atmosphere, and its length didn't bother me. Sorry it didn't work that well for you though. I hope your next one will be a hit!