Classics Club Spin April 2021 #ccspin #MyCCSPINList

Time for another Spin! #26 – Number reveal 4/18, read by 5/31

Click the image above to go to the announcement post.

My Spin List:

1	The Postman Always Rings Twice – JM Cain
2	Twelve Years a Slave – Solomon Northup
3	Confederacy of Dunces – JKToole
4	If Beale Street Could Talk – James Baldwin
5	Eileen Chang’s Love in a Fallen City
6	A Few Green Leaves – B. Pym
7	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – PK Dick
8	Under the Greenwood Tree – Hardy
9	The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
10	At the Mountains of Madness – Lovecraft
11	The Three Musketeers – Alex Dumas
12	Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin
13	Revolutionary Road – Richard Yates
14	Steppenwolf – Hesse
15	Death Comes for the Archbishop – W.Cather
16	Rabbit, Run – Updike
17	All Passion Spent – Vita Sackville West
18	American Pastoral – Philip Roth
19	The King Must Die – Mary Renault
20	Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

Here’s hoping all of these are immediately available at the library.  GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

Copyright © 2007-2021. Care’s Online Book Club aka Care’s Books and Pie. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club aka BkClubCare.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Classics Club Spin Nov 2020 #ccspin #MyCCSPINList

Time for another Spin! – I love these so much. It’s one of the reasons I joined the Classics Club in the first place.

Click the image above to go to the announcement post.

“Before Sunday 22nd November 2020, create a post that lists twenty books  that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list.”

This is my Spin List:

1	The Postman Always Rings Twice – JM Cain
2	Twelve Years a Slave – Solomon Northup
3	Confederacy of Dunces – JKToole
4	the Counterfeiters – A. Gide
5	Eileen Chang’s Love in a Fallen City
6	A Few Green Leaves – B. Pym
7	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – PK Dick
8	Under the Greenwood Tree – Hardy
9	The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
10	At the Mountains of Madness – Lovecraft
11	The Three Musketeers – Alex Dumas
12	Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin
13	Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon
14	Steppenwolf – Hesse
15	Death Comes for the Archbishop – W.Cather
16	Rabbit, Run – Updike
17	All Passion Spent – Vita Sackville West
18	The Way We Live Now – Trollope
19	The King Must Die – Mary Renault
20	Jude the Obscure – Hardy

Here’s hoping all of these are immediately available at the library and that the spin  number result is a few-page-count title!  Please.  GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Online Book Club aka Care’s Books and Pie. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club aka BkClubCare.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Tender is the Night

Thoughts by F.Scott Fitzgerald, 1934, 356 pages

Challenge:  Classics Club Spin

Genre: Classic

Type/Source: ebook, library

 Why I read this now:  SPIN!   

MOTIVATION for READING: I had read somewhere that this was his best work. I may have read that wrong. Could be it is still a topic of debate.

WHAT’s it ABOUT:  LOTS going on in this book and to be honest, I didn’t give it my full attention (which might mean that I actually failed to finish. Shame on me! I am still counting it as read…)

Dick Diver is married. He and his wife make a lovely much-admired couple and live in an amazingly glamorous spot on the French Riviera leading a glamorous life. But really, he is a psychoanalyst married to a former patient (named Nicole, who seems perfectly lovely in the first half) and is now attracted (the Dick dude) to a cute young glamorous up&coming actress who throws herself at him. But really, I didn’t get much farther than that. I love that history shocks me – that WHAT?!          WHY young ladies don’t throw themselves at happily married men they meet on the beach AND admire the wives and yet still throw themselves at the husband anyway AND TELL THEIR OWN MOTHER?!  in the late 1920s?!  did they? Do they?

I would have never. (Told my mother.)

I put the book down and ten days later when I had the time and mindspace to jump back in, I found out that it was a 14 day library ebook loan and I FAILED. Oooops. It expired.

So I spent a few hours watching YouTube BookTube videos and caught myself up on the plot of what I missed.

Dick and Nicole’s marriage implodes. He does end up sleeping with the young actress apparently but the book takes a turn and shares how Dick and Nicole met in the first place; then Nicole sleeps with a friend, — apparently, they talk it out “LIKE ADULTS” (whatever that might mean) and it ends ambiguously with Dick being an alcoholic and Nicole hopefully have her HEA. I heard it had an ambiguous ending.

OK, maybe I kept zoning out on the less than 10 minute BookTube reviews. Sue me.

THOUGHTS: This book does seem to have CARE PIE written ALL OVER IT! But no, nope. I just didn’t quite get into that must-finish-keep-reading-it’s-past-my-bedtime-don’t-care state which I was wanting.

Should I have audiobooked it?!

oH yEA.  I will watch the movie. Hopefully sooner than later. Casting looks suspect in my distant future viewpoint yet the pretties and the settings look like it just might deliver.  Jason Robards, Jennifer Jones, Joan Fontaine?! and Jill St John. Adapted to the 1960s and made in 1962. Sign. me. up.

RATING:  Three slices of pie.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

The Time Machine Audiobook then Film

Thoughts by  HG Wells, Tantor 2008 (orig 1853), ~ 4 hours

Narrated by Scott Brick

Challenge: Classics Club, Back to Classics Genre or Movie Adaption?

Genre: Science Fiction

Type/Source: Audiobook/Library

 Why I read this now:  Hard to say…

MOTIVATION for READING: I love time travel stuff.

WHAT’s it ABOUT:  A gentleman invents a time machine and jettisons himself off into the far, very far, future.

Humanity splits into good and bad?  leisure class and workers – lots to dissect here if I was feeling academic, which today I am not. But, even as I reflected its place as commentary on society and its juxtaposition with what is going on now in relation to capitalism, etc, I just don’t have the energy to do more than recognize it likely has something to say that I might want to pay attention to?

THOUGHTS: It was OK. Some of these old-timey books, I just love and get right into the rhythm. This one had me a bit impatient. I now know what Morlocks are. I certainly can appreciate the classic and the WOW! factor this has enjoyed over the years.

I was more excited to read somewhere that the 1960 film version was considered quite cool; the special effects still impress. So we watched it and it was a fun.

With so many classics, the fun is saying “Yep, read it.” and I am glad to be able to say so now. Check it off the list.

RATING:  Three slices of pie.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Classics Spin Aug 2020

Updated, copied directly from the Classics Club announcement: If you joined the game last week, find number 18 on your CC Spin #24 List! That’s the CLASSIC you are challenged to read by 30th September, 2020.

Since I missed the announcement post, I have to grab 20 titles and then toss them into a randomizer to find which will be put in the 18th spot so I can read it! I love the SPIN…

The last time I “spun”, I had 19 books left on my original list:  Crossing off the ones I did read since then and adding in some from my NEXT batch of 50, I get this odd ball list:

1. The Three Musketeers – Alex Dumas
2. Jude the Obscure – Hardy
3. Rabbit, Run – Updike
4. Naked Lunch – Wm Burroughs
5. Love in a Cold Climate – Nancy Mitford
6. Dead Souls – Nikolay Gogol
7. Candide – Voltaire
8. Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon
9. Confederacy of Dunces – JKToole
10. Twelve Years a Slave – Solomon Northup
11. The Way We Live Now – Trollope
12. the Counterfeiters – A. Gide
13. A Handful of Dust – Waugh
14. The Ox-bow Incident – Walter Van Tilberg Clark
15. Eileen Chang’s Love in a Fallen City
16. One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes
17. They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
18. The Bird’s Nest – Shirley Jackson
19. The King Must Die
20. NEW: Tender is the Night
21. NEW: Persuasion
22. NEW: Madame Bovary
23. NEW: Waves
24. NEW: If Beale Street Could Talk
25. NEW: Giovanni’s Room
26. NEW: Pale Fire
27. NEW: Villette

SO…. Then I copied the list into a google sheet and then used the function RANDOMIZE RANGE a few times. After all that, I looked which book title was in the 18th slot.

and…

TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F.Scott Fitzgerald

1	Waves
2	Confederacy of Dunces – JKToole
3	Jude the Obscure – Hardy
4	Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon
5	Eileen Chang’s Love in a Fallen City
6	the Counterfeiters – A. Gide
7	They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
8	Giovanni’s Room
9	Pale Fire
10	The King Must Die
11	The Three Musketeers – Alex Dumas
12	Twelve Years a Slave – Solomon Northup
13	Villette
14	Madame Bovary
15	Persuasion
16	If Beale Street Could Talk
17	The Way We Live Now – Trollope
18	Tender is the Night
19	Dead Souls – Nikolay Gogol
20	Rabbit, Run – Updike

 

I was hoping for Villette. I left off / paused, if you will, reading it right when the Pandemic hit and I just am not inspired to get back to it…

 

Copyright © 2007-2019. Care’s Online Book Club aka Care’s Books and Pie. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club aka BkClubCare.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.ing

April 2020 Mini-Reviews

Thoughts

 

I want to post something and I don’t really want to write a “review”. These mini-reviews are what I can do. NEEDS MUST.

I already told you how much I loved Mad With Yellow. In fact, I am still MAD with the color yellow! Do you think it is the color of the season? I seem to notice every woman on TV who wears bold yellow…   And only because I don’t see men wearing bold yellow often. But, I WOULD NOTICE IF THEY DID!  I am loving yellow in fashion this season.

I’ve told you that I very much enjoyed Call Me By Your Name. I still haven’t seen the movie. Haven’t figured out how to carve out 2 hours of alone time in the apartment to do this. I just don’t think the husband would want to see it. Hmmmm. ANYWAY.

[One of my coworkers admitted that they drive around the block the equivalent time that it used to take to commute to work just to have some alone time. I get that.]

Tell Me Lies was a free audiobook that I DNF’d. Ugh. Could NOT be enticed to care! I really am not much of a thriller reader unless very VERY good. I must be swept away. If I get an inkling of an eye-roll moment, the whole deal is sunk. Ugh. AND THEN! I read the description on goodreads (and wondered how I missed it) and thought to myself, “yea. No.” Hey, it was free. Whatever.  (I am not the right reader for this – give me a break?)

The Sisters Brothers was the last book I needed to read for the Super Rooster Tournament of Books. I had been avoiding it and it really was a good read!  The movie was beautiful. The movie plot line didn’t quite jive with what I hoped to see, but I always like to give credit to another’s interpretation. (In other words, I am very forgiving and rarely say that condescending phrase, “the book is always better.” – absolutes should be avoided. And coulda/woulda/shoulda…) My advice is to just “read the book.” #shrug

I read The Banker’s Wife for a book club. Remember that admission earlier that I’m not much of a thriller reader? yea….    I really did enjoy the book club discussion, though, and we had some fun thoughts shared without being … horrid to it. #BIGSMILEYFACE. The women in this book kick some bad guy ass but it really isn’t my style of favorite read.

I just couldn’t get into Cut & Run. I got disoriented trying to figure out the different voices. #whentoomanynarratorsdistractfromanaudiobook

and finally, sadly, this pandemic just makes a reading of Dorian Gray, just hard. Difficult. Unrelateable. Weird.  DNF’d about half way or definitely 1/3+ way. Will have to figure out a way to talk the husband into watching the movie.

ha!

Be Safe. Be Well. Live in the Moment. Tell me what shows I must see.

Here’s a pie I baked for Coconut Cream Pie Day:

It’s actually Almond Joy Mousse Cake Pie!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Online Book Club aka Care’s Books and Pie. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club aka BkClubCare.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Treasure Island

Thoughts by Robt Louis Stevenson, Audible Studios 2017 (orig 1882), 6 hours 23 minutes

Narrated by the Philip Glenister, Daniel Mays, Catherine Tate, Owen Teale.

Challenge:  Back to Classics Challenge (Place, 19th C, Nature or Genre?), Classics Club

Genre: Adventure

Type/Source: Audio / Audible

WHAT’s it ABOUT:  A coming of age tale on the high seas, battling pirates for buried treasure. 

WHAT’s GOOD: Very fast paced, lots of dastardly deeds and swashbuckling. I enjoyed “young Jim”‘s mother who was full of love AND snark. Her only son craves a more adventurous life than running a seaside inn where the clientele is lowlifes and drunks but yay, that’s how they meet The Pirate. Well, the first pirate of many. So First Pirate dies and leaves a map that is discovered by Jim. Second Pirate attempts to steal map and threatens the life of the poor innkeepers but is thwarted. When Jim entrusts ‘gentlemen’ to secure a ship to voyage to the island where said treasure is suspected, we find out that the cook is our Third Pirate who declares mutiny. Jim is often dismissed as too young but then always exceeds expectations in every situation.

 What’s NOT so good:  Oh, it is perfectly fine if you like pirates and swashbuckling. The audio had long pauses between chapters which were a beat too long.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  I missed this in school but I can understand why this is often taught to middle school kids. I am curious why the fast food seafood chain decided to name it Long John Silvers. Took a risk there, donchathink? But maybe not. Well, come to think of it, I don’t even know if they are still in biz. They had a long run, though.

RATING:  Four slices

No pie mentions noted.

 

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Books and Pie. All rights reserved. This post is an original post by Care from Care’s Online Book Club aka Care’s Books and Pie.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Round Two of Classics Club 50 Challenge

I have decided to create my second #CC50 list on goodreads.

Book List 2

My idea for this list is to keep adding to it any book that fits the criteria and if by the date when 5 years is up (in Dec 2024, I’ll have read at least 50 of them.

Sound good?   

Starting with Villette by Brontë, my first book of the year. However, it’s looking like I will finish Treasure Island before that.

 

Help! My enthusiasm for Villette is waning! it’s so long. ugh. I better come across a pie reference soon…

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post is an original post by Care from Care’s Online Book Club aka Care’s Books and Pie.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

I Completed my Classics Club 50 (with substitutions) #cc50

I did it!  I (sort of) did it!!  I DID read over 50 classics in 5 years!!!

On Dec 19, 2014, I listed 50 classics that I wanted to read by Dec 19, 2019. I defined ‘classic’ as anything over 25 years old.  This was the list.

HOWEVER, I allowed myself to swap in books to replace my original and since I can’t find any language on the Club site that endorses or expressly prohibits this, I’m going with it. Hey  –  as far as I know, there aren’t any ClassicsClubPolice, so…

[PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give the golden trophy anyway!  please please?!?!]

I will admit I didn’t review every book. Sorry. I invite you to search any titles  via the search tool on my blog (upper right corner) if you want to see if I have read a specific book. You can also check bkclubcare on goodreads.

Here I list the substitutes only and then list the few I did not get to from my original 50. Sound fun? Ok, let’s go. For an overall list, click here on my update page.

The 17 (Runner Ups) that were not “Original 50”:
The Winter’s Tale / Shakespeare – Jan 2015
The Making of a Marchioness / FHBurnette – Apr2015
The Talented Mr. Ripley /PHighsmith June2015
Atlas Shrugged/Ayn Rand July2015
Brave New World – Jan2016
Go Tell It on the Mt/JBaldwin May2016
TKAM/Lee Sep2016
The Four Million/O.Henry Dec2016
The Summer of My German Soldier/BGreene Apr17
The Grand Sophy/GeoHeyer Aug17
Waiting for Godot/SamBeckett Sep17
Angle of Repose/WStegner Oct17
A Wizard of Earthsea/LeGuin Apr 2018
Jane Eyre/Bronte Apr18
O Pioneers/Cather Jun18
A Clockwork Orange  Aug19
Now in November / Josephine Johnson Nov 2019

The ones (count: 13) I still need to read, maybe, someday:
48. The Three Muskateers – Alex Dumas – have ready on audio!
46. Jude the Obscure – Hardy – I own a copy, in a box, buried
44. Rabbit, Run – Updike – yea, rethinking if I have to …
42. Cry the Beloved Country – Alan Paton – DNF’d once, own a copy
31. Dead Souls – Nikolay Gogol
26. Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon
24. Confederacy of Dunces – JKToole
23. Twelve Years a Slave – Solomon Northup
22. The Way We Live Now – Trollope
19. the Counterfeiters – A. Gide
14. Eileen Chang’s Love in a Fallen City
13. They Were Sisters – Dorothy Whipple – difficult to find!
7. The King Must Die – Mary Renault – considering audio

Yes, I realize that 17 doesn’t quite equate 13. That’s OK, right? I read MORE than 50 classics in 50 years! yay me

Will I make a ROUND 2 list and commit to Dec 2024?  maybe. . .  [Updated 1/12/2020 with links to my next list of classics by Dec 2024!]

 

 

Copyright © 2007-2019. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

The Ox-Bow Incident

Thoughts by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Kindle edition (orig 1940), 290 pages

Category  2. 20th Century Classic. 

A cowboy book, out on the range. Reminded me of western movies, and maybe I ‘ve seen the movie based on this book but if I did, it was a very long time ago.

I would like to see the film (again) eventually.

It’s about good versus evil and mob mentality. It’s about wanting to see what happens, fear of missing out, not sure how to stop it but sure as hell gonna try. It’s about quite a bit and it is very masculine-centric.

“Most men are more afraid of being thought cowards than of anything else, and a lot more afraid of being thought physical cowards than moral ones.”

It’s about uncertainty. It’s about power. It’s full of dread.

“you can feel awful guilty about nothing when the men you’re with don’t trust you.”

It is right and wrong, black and white and yet exposes all the ambiguity.

“…getting angry enough not to be scared when you knew you were wrong.”

I gave this four slices of pie.

No pie mentions noted.

Classics Club 50

“…she did a lot of intelligent feeling.”

Copyright © 2007-2019. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.