Tag Archives: Classics

Round Two of Classics Club 50 Challenge

January 12, 20201001 Books To Read Before Dying, Announcement Post, Audio, Challenge, Classics, Classics Club, ListsChallenge, Classics, Classics Club 50, going to reread a few and also read those that I can't remember if I read or not, Round TwoCare

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…

pierating

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.

Signing up for the 2020 Back to the Classics Challenge

January 2, 2020Announcement Post, Challenge, ClassicsChallenge, Classics, Classics Club 50Care

My selections here are mostly from my Classics Club 50 (<– Book List 1; I’m working on Book List 2) and are shown in RED.

I Completed NINE Categories of the Back to the Classics 2019

December 9, 20191001 Books To Read Before Dying, Author Recommendation, Book Blogging Community, Celebration, Challenge, ClassicsChallenge, Classics, Classics Club 50, I only read one classic over 500 pages and it has to account in a different categoryCare

Updated 12/17/19 to provide link to 9th finished book! Pls just DM-Tweet me?

I copied my sign up post to compare my plan (in red) to what happened (blue).

Categories Achieved in Green

(if I get Candide read and reviewed as well as a review of The Ox-bow Incident, I just might get to say I completed 9…)

1. 19th Century Classic. Any classic book originally published between 1800 and 1899. – The House of the Seven Gables – Nat Hawthorne 1851 √ LINK to REV

2. 20th Century Classic. Any classic book originally published between 1900 and 1969. – The Ox-bow Incident by Walt VanTilberg Clark 1940 √ (Link to review)

3. Classic by a Woman Author. NANCY MITFORD’s LOVE IN A COLD CLIMATE √ LINK to REV

4. Classic in Translation. CANDIDE – Voltaire √ Finished! YAY ME

5. Classic Comic Novel. Any comedy, satire, or humorous work. ? A Handful of Dust by E Waugh √ LINK to REV

6. Classic Tragic Novel. Tragedies traditionally have a sad ending… Hardy: Jude the Obscure – Hardy: the Woodlanders√ LINK to REV

7. Very Long Classic. Any classic single work 500 pages or longer, not including introductions or end notes. – The Three Muskateers should work for this. X – didn’t get to this.

8. Classic Novella. Any work of narrative fiction shorter than 250 pages. – One Fine Day – Mollie Panter-Downes 179pp 1947 √ LINK TO REV

9. Classic From the Americas (includes the Caribbean). Includes classic set in either continent or the Caribbean, or by an author originally from one of those countries. – ? X – didn’t get to this.

10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia). Any classic set in one of those contents or islands, or by an author from these countries. – Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook? √ Link to review

11. Classic From a Place You’ve Lived. Read locally! Any classic set in a city, county, state or country in which you’ve lived, or by a local author. – The Age of Innocence / Wharton / Newport RI – Now in November 1934 by Josephine Johnson / Missouri √ LINK TO REV

12. Classic Play. Any play written or performed at least 50 years ago. Plays are eligible for this category only. X X – didn’t get to this.

Maybe this year

I will read at least 6

and achieve this Challenge

for the first time!

~~YAY! I have done 8 and if I hurry I can read Candide~~ DONE! and count it for Translation and achieve 9. What a thrill. I’m so excited!!!

pierating

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 Golden Notebook

November 26, 2019Challenge, Pie, What's in a Name 2019"The housewife’s disease: resentment, apple pie, Back to Classics, Challenge, Classics, Classics Club 50, coinky-dink with Milkman with use of phrase BEYOND THE PALE, cranberry pie recipe, feminist tome, funny thing that I could usually buy frozen cranberries year round in the midwest but not in New England, kidney pie, longest book I read this year, my second Lessing book, pigeon pie, set in Africa, sodden sods sitting here swilling, unfairness, worrying over all the details."Care

Thoughts by Doris Lessing, Perennial Classics 1999 (orig 1962), 635 pages

Category 10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia). Any classic set in one of those contents or islands, or by an author from these countries. Is one of my Classics Club 50, too. AND What’s in a Name for the Precious Metal category…

I read this for a snail mail buddy read but it didn’t quite get traction. I don’t think my buddy finished it or maybe just didn’t say much about it. I don’t remember.

I read this at the end of May into June.

It is the longest book I read this year. It felt like it.

It is very odd. I don’t think I can give any kind of summary.

As Ruthiella has said and I paraphrase, “It is a slog at times; it is brilliant at times.”

It did have a lot of pie mentions.

The book cover above links to goodreads if you care to read the many varying reviews others have put there.

I gave it three slices of pie.

I really don’t remember all that much other than thinking the 1950s weren’t what we saw in TV sitcom reruns.

So how about some pie!

This is Crustless Cranberry Pie and I love this during the holidays – so festive and easy. And the grocers usually have cranberries in the produce section.

Varied from allrecipes.com:

1 cup all-purpose flour

not quite 1 cup white sugar (I usually try to use less than a recipe specifies)

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups cranberries – fresh, rinsed

1/2 cup walnuts – optional

1/2 cup melted butter

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp almond extract (I use 1/4 tsp because this stuff is strong!)

Preheat to 350 degrees

Grease a glass or ceramic pie pan.

Combine flour, sugar, salt.

Stir in cranberries and nuts, toss to coat.

Stir in butter, eggs, and almond extract.

Spread the batter into the pan.

Bake for 40 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.

Serve warm. or not. Great for breakfast the next day, too. No need to refrigerate.

pierating

Back to the Classics 2019 List Ideas

January 6, 2019Announcement Post, Challenge, Classics, Classics ClubChallenge, Classics, Classics Club 50Care

My selections here are mostly from my Classics Club 50 and are shown in RED.

The Four Million and other stories

December 28, 2016Author Recommendation, Classics, Humor, Life, Pie, Story Collection83rd book of the year, Classics, O.Henry, poignant, pumpkin pie was also mentionedCare

Thoughts by O.Henry, Airmont 1963 (orig 1906), 189 pages

Challenge: Back to Classics – short story category

Genre: Short Stories

Type/Source: Paperback / discounted books store

Why I read this now: For the challenge; took me months! eek

MOTIVATION for READING: Guess what! I live in the town where O.Henry grew up. There’s a statue of him downtown; he’s Greensboro NC’s most famous citizen.

WHAT’s it ABOUT: All of these are very much “O.Henry” in style and theme. A twist at the end, down to earth people or down on their luck or just REAL, lots of clever witty banter and humor.

WHAT’s GOOD: See above.

What’s NOT so good: I really did need to take little sips of these stories and obviously could not just sit and power through. Probably just me. There do have that turn-of-the-century flavor.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Some funny, some sweet, and some quite sad. O.Henry loved people, I think.

RATING: Four slices of pie! Lemon meringue.

p.152 – “She was Aileen’s friend; and she was glad to see her rule hearts and wean the attention of men from smoking pot-pie and lemon meringue.”

pierating

Copyright © 2007-2016. 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.

Germinal

September 27, 20161001 Books To Read Before Dying, Audio, Author Recommendation, Book Blogging Community, Book to Movie, Classics, Pie, Translation#GerminalAlong, 60th book of the year, audiobook and ebook back and forth not whispersynced, Classics, Emile Zola, favorite character: Widow Desire, Germinal, Hardy and Dreiser are also known as authors of naturalism, I tweeted at Naxos asking about translation information, pies and pastries, set in Northern France 1860s, translationCare

GerminalButton2

Thoughts by Émile Zola, eKindle Penguin Classics 2004 (orig 1885), 596 pages

Translation by Roger Pearson (and Notes and Introduction¹).

Audiobook Naxos Audio 2015, 19 hours 55 minutes, narrated by Leighton Pugh. (No translation information provided.)

BackToTheClassics2016

Lots of good stuff on Twitter, see hashtag #GerminalAlong. Good times talking about horrible times in the mining regions of France in the 1860s.

I found three pie mentions:
p.89 “Just you wait, you dirty little scamp. I’ll teach you to make mud-pies indeed!”

p.127 “… so to he had come to recognize them, the way one recognizes amorous magpies disporting in the pear trees in the garden.”²

p.171 “…You know it’s all pie in the sky³…”

I also consider these a cousin of pie – it’s a pastry filled with goodness, so it counts.

volauvent <– a vol-au-vent.

Zola amazes me. I’ve read Thérèse Raquin and was blown away by the grit and darkness, the skill in the story-telling, the audacity to write it in the first place. [My review of that here.] It doesn’t do much to inspire a love for much of humanity – he skewers everyone; but it is a reminder that literature is art. Germinal solidifies my understanding of the ‘naturalism literary movement’. Oh I wish I had majored in literature in college. Maybe I’ll go back when I retire.

Germinal couldn’t sound more boring and yet it is so alive! He makes history touchable / “feel-able” / real and I see why he is and was held in high regard. Skip it if you aren’t in the least bit curious, definitely read it if you want to experience history in all its grittiness and be transported to another place and time. Zola manages to capture so many motivations and is incisive yet gentle with all. Brilliant.

Rating: Five slices of pie.

BIG SHOUT OUT to all my readalongers! Especially Top Host Melissa (here’s her review).

1 – I didn’t read the Notes and I read the Intro after, as recommended.

2 – Unverified internet research has told me that the word magpie came before ‘pie’ and may have influenced what we call these pastries. See here.

³ – I found a Slate magazine article explaining the phrase ‘pie in the sky’: … coined by a champion of the American proletariat. “Pie in the sky” comes from an early 20^th-century folk song written by labor activist Joe Hill, aka Joe Hillstrom, a legendary member of the Industrial Workers of the World.

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The Garden Party and Other Stories

March 9, 20141001 Books To Read Before Dying, Author Recommendation, Challengean excellent choice for a book club, book cover links to goodreads, Classics, Katherine Mansfield, photo of the author links to Wikipedia, The Garden Party, why some parents name their children extremely similar names confounds me, working on my backlog of reviewsCare

Thoughts The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield, Kindle Edition 2012 (Orig 1922), 192 pages

A lovely LOVELY collection! Though it has been well over a month since I read this, I can still recall the wit and deep meaning wrapped up into interesting little stories. I can see why Virginia Woolf would admire her writing; they were in the same ‘set’ of modernist writers so says Wikipedia. I must finally get to my bio of Woolf so I can find out more. I really didn’t know anything about Katherine Mansfield before researching books for the Classics Challenge and seeing this on the list of Books To Read Before I Die.

She died young; age 34 in 1923.

The Garden Party was my favorite of the stories – masterful! A wealthy family plans a picnic when a poor neighbor suffers a tragedy. The debate begins of whether or not it is proper to continue with the party. Well, of course it is. Right? No answers, just interesting thoughts and contrasts on sensitivity of youth and propriety. Complex and insightful; very easy to read.

Recommended. FREE eBooks available.

Read for the Classics Challenge – Woman Author Category.

“Laurie put his arm round her shoulder. “Don’t cry,” he said in his warm, loving voice. “Was it awful?”

“No,” sobbed Laura. “It was simply marvellous. But Laurie—” She stopped, she looked at her brother. “Isn’t life,” she stammered, “isn’t life— ” But what life was she couldn’t explain. No matter. He quite understood.

“Isn’t it, darling?” said Laurie.

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Copyright © 2007-2014. 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 in 2014

January 8, 20141001 Books To Read Before Dying, Book Blogging Community, Book to Movie, Challenge, ClassicsClassicsCare

Click the button above to go to Karen’s Announcement Post for this challenge…

I’m signing up for another challenge! I have shied away from this one in the past but then I realized that I like classics and I like to read books on that 1001 crazy list so WHY NOT?

This photo links to my goodreads shelf…

The 2014 categories:
Required:

A 20th Century Classic – something by Virginia Woolf (Orlando or Flush)
A 19th Century Classic – The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (in house and maybe audio, too)
A Classic by a Woman Author – The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield (free for Kindle!)
A Classic in Translation – The Autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux: The Story of a Soul √
A Classic About War – The Art of War by Sun Tzu (in house, have had this forever)
A Classic by an Author Who Is New To You – Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (in house) or something by Zola

Optional Categories:

An American Classic – The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (have in house, bought because author is KAΘ)
A Classic Mystery, Suspense or Thriller – The Sign of Four (Sherlock Holmes) by AC Doyle (eBook, for WiaN7)
A Historical Fiction Classic – (will probably skip this one)
A Classic That’s Been Adapted Into a Movie or TV Series – Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (in house)
Extra Fun Category: Write a Review of the Movie or TV Series adapted from Optional Category #4.

Very excited!

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The Woman in White

December 3, 2010Author Recommendation, Book Blogging Community, Book Sharing, Classics, Mystery, ReadersImbibingPerilClassics, dastardly Counts, foregoing the writing of a review by pointing to other better ones, found it free for my ereader, I still need to get back to my print version and read Camille Cauti's Intro and Notes, long long long books are perfect on an ereader, love my iPad for reading books, RIP, The Woman in White, Wilkie CollinsCare

Thoughts The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Barnes & Noble Classics 2005 (orig 1859-1860), 635 pages

MOTIVATION for READING: I was enticed to read this after reading so many glowing reviews during RIP last year (and likely the year before that.) I borrowed a print copy from my friend Holly but was caught up in a reading-slowdown in October when I got a puppy to chase after. Reading went out the window; I only read 2 books that month! And then… I was in Western Kansas with my iPad when I decided to check the free books available for my iBook application. Hot Diggety – this novel was available. I somehow found the place I had left off during that slump the month before and this classic was my companion under the bitter end.

LOVED IT!

Thus, being of lax mind and out of review practice, I will point you to my favorite review of this favorite story. Chris at BookARama captured it best, in my opinion. And do seek out the Book Blog Search for many many more.

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