I started out really strong on my reading projects at the beginning of the year, but have sort of faded. This is a pretty common phenomenon for me – January brings lots of vigor and optimism, and then I lose focus after a few months. I’ve made solid progress on two major projects/challenges, though, and reviewing it will, hopefully, give me a shot of energy to keep moving forward!
A Century of Women
According to my analytics, I’ve read 17 books for this challenge, and written 13 reviews. The books I’ve reviewed for this project, so far this year, are:
- Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper (1965)
- In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden (1969)
- The Cape Cod Mystery by Phoebe Atwood Taylor (1931)
- The Edwardians by Vita Sackville West (1930)
- The Priory by Dorothy Whipple (1939)
- My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather (1926)
- The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (1977)
- Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain (1933)
- Jubilee by Margaret Walker (1966)
- The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns (1985)
- Firestorm by Nevada Barr (1996)
- An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James (1972)
- Because of the Lockwoods by Dorothy Whipple (1949)
I decided at the beginning of the year to focus my attention on two decades – the 30’s and the 60’s, since I had a good start in both of them. This was wildly successful, and allowed me to completely fill the 30’s, and fill the 60’s with the exception of 1960. For the second half of the year, I am going to focus on the 40’s – I only need 1942 and 1947 to complete that decade – and the 50’s – I need to read books for 1953, 1954, 1956 and 1958. If I complete those two decades, I will have finished 1930 through 1969 by the end of the year. I really need to sprinkle in some books from the beginning of the century, though, since those will be the hardest for me to fill and I don’t want to just leave it to the end.
Back to the Classics 2022
I have finished 7 out of 12 categories so far:
- 19th Century Classic: open;
- 20th Century Classic: The Priory by Dorothy Whipple;
- Classic by a woman author: My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather;
- Classic in translation: Maigret and the Minister by Georges Simenon is waiting for a review;
- Classic by a BIPOC author: Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
- Mystery/detective/crime classic: A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes
- Classic short story collection: open
- Pre-1800 classic: open
- Non-fiction: Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
- Longest on your TBR: open
- Set in a place I’d like to visit: open
- Wild card: Charlotte Fairlie by D.E. Stevenson
This leaves me with a couple of categories that are pretty easy to fill, but also with the two that will be hardest for me: pre-1800 classic and short story collection. The first is hard because I don’t enjoy reading books published pre-1800; the second because I struggle with short stories. This is solid progress, though, so I’m pleased with it.
The also have a second round of The Classics Club going, but I’ve done so poorly on it so far that I’m just going to ignore it for now.