Reader of a Certain Age

In looking back over my 2018 reading year, it became apparent that my Classics TBR list was not working.  I tried to include a variety of different books across several time periods, but I ended up with a lot of books that simply did not call out to be read.  I am not ready to give up on the idea of the Classics TBR, but in order to increase my chances of success, I’m making some changes.

First of all, I am going to remove the Persephone books.  I have a separate reading goal to read all of them so including a selection on the Classics TBR seems redundant.  I have cut the list down to 70 books (as opposed  to 100, and have made substitutions as necessary to create a list that I am excited about.  I am going to try to read these 70 books within 5 years (14 books a year), so my target completion date is 12/31/2023.

I hope these changes will provide a good inspirational boost to start out 2019.

Here is the revised list:

Pre-20th Century Classics

1. Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
2. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
3. The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
4. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
5. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
6. Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell
7. Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim – Finished 1/2/2019
8. Villette by Charlotte Bronte
9. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
10. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
11. The Backwoods of Canada by Catharine Parr Traill
12. Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope – Finished 2/9/2019
13. The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Leo Tolstoy
14. The Annotated FairyTales by Maria Tatar
15. Kivert’s Diary by Francis Kivert
16. Adam Bede by George Eliot – Finished October 2019
17. To Have and to Hold: A Tale of Providence and Perseverance in Colonial Jamestown by Mary Johnston
18. Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper
19. Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
20. The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo
21. Evelina by Fanny Burney
22. The Odd Women by George Gissing
23. The Half Sisters by Geraldine Jewsbury
24. The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow & Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond by Mrs. Oliphant – Finished 6/4/2019
25. The Eustache Diamonds by Anthony Trollope – Finished October 2019
26. Phineas Redux  by Anthony Trollope – Finished 4/17/2019
27. The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope – Finished 6/15/2019
28. The Duke’s Children by Anthony Trollope
29. East Lynne by Ellen Wood
30. The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde – Finished 3/11/2019
31. The Rebecca Rioter by Amy Dillwyn
32. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
33. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
34. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Need to choose an alternate
35. John Halifax, Gentleman by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

20th Century Classics

1. Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin – Finished September 2019
2. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton
3. The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
4. Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
5. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
6. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
7. Queen Lucia (Lucia, #1) by E. F. Benson
8. A Country Doctor’s Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov
9. Mary Peters by Mary Ellen Chase
10. Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns, finished 1/28/2019
11. An Autobiography by Agatha Christie, finished 5/25/2019
12. Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks
13. Shadow of a Lady (Richard Medford #1) by Holly Roth – Finished 6/15/2019
14. Something of Value by Robert Ruark
15. Albert and Jacob by Cora Sandel
16. Canoeing with the Cree by Eric Sevareid
17. Bel Lamington by D. E. Stevenson
18. A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
19. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
20. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
21. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
22. Little Boy Lost by Margharita Laski – Finished 5/6/2019
23. The Town House (House #1) by Norah Lofts
24. Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
25. The Narrow Corner by W. Somerset Maugham
26. South Riding by Winifred Holtby
27. Emily of New Moon (Emily #1) by L. M. Montgomery
28. The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
29. The World my Wilderness by Rose Macaulay
30. The Last Hurrah by Edwin O’Connor
31. In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
32. The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
33. Memed My Hawk (Ince Memed #1) by Kemal Yasar
34. The Home of the Blizzard: A True Story of Antarctic Survival by Douglas Mawson
35. Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson

Alternates

• A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
• The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
• Laughing Boy by Oliver LaFarge
• A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird
• Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
• The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
• The Mysteries of Udolpho  by Ann Radcliff
• Wilderness and the American Mind by Roderick Nash
• Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
• The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
• The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth and Her German Garden is a short novel/novella published at the end of the 19th Century by Elizabeth von Arnim. The author was born in England but married a German aristocrat and lived on a country estate in Germany–the location of the eponymous ‘Garden’. While most reviews focus on the garden aspect of this short work, for me it is more an examination of life as a woman, mother and wife in a culture that did not value those roles in life. Yes, the book is about an amateur gardener who yearns for the freedom and solace of nature in general and the garden in particular, but this is really just one way she carves out time and space for herself and her interests in the face of competing demands from her family and society at large. I very much admire the depiction of a woman who absolutely demands that she have the right to her own space and interests and who unapologetically embraces her disdain of boring company. von Arnim has a biting sarcasm and wit that she puts to fulsome use especially when describing the bufoonery of her husband who is given the moniker of “The Man of Wrath”. But in amongst the rhapsodic descriptions of the pleasures of time alone in the garden with a book and her own thoughts, there were plenty of darker elements playing out on the page.

The author rather matter of factly describes in some detail how most of the people who work on the estate are Russian or Polish laborers who are gathered up by a ‘man who can speak their language’ and brought to the estate where they are put under armed guard to try to keep them from escaping to go to work for local peasants who pay them more and treat them better. She does express some empathy for the women who work as hard as the men and are paid less and are expected to cheerfully return to work hours after childbirth. For the most part, however, Elizabeth, disparages most of the servants, peasants and farm laborers as ‘children’ or ‘animals’.

Her vituperative commentary is not not only directed at those of lower classes . There is a long section of the book devoted to a month long visit to the estate of 2 women–one a long-time friend of the protagonist and the other a relative of a friend who found herself alone during the Christmas holidays. Elizabeth and her long-time friend took an almost instant dislike to the other woman and spent the next month making fun of her and making sure she understood that she was an interloper. I understand that at least some of this is supposed to be satiric comedy, but it came across to me as just snarky, privileged snobbery.

Characterization

Elizabeth is well-drawn as smart, independent woman of means who is successfully mapping out a fulfilling life for herself. The other characters in the book are not fleshed out but are drawn in broad strokes. They are primarily foils that the author uses to illustrates aspects of Elizabeth’s character. While the characters are not full-bodies, they do serve the purposes of the novel. Three out of 5 points for characterization.

Plot

There is not really a plot to speak of. The book is a series of diary entries held together loosely with an ongoing narrative about the planning, planting and care of the garden. There are a series of vignettes having to do with visiting neighbors, holiday celebrations, sleigh rides, etc. but not much happens to the characters and none of them undergo any change over the course of the novel. I don’t think plot is that important to the theme of novel (how to live a fulfilling, emancipated life as woman in the 19th Century). Three points for plot.

Writing Style

The writing style is beautiful and easy to read. The descriptions of the landscape are superb and the wit is acerbic and subtle. I have absolutely no complaints about the style. Four stars for writing style.

Thought Provoking

The book certainly did provoke me into thinking about the privileged position of the upper classes during the late 19th/early 20th centuries. The thing that really bothered me was how Elizabeth was looking for space in her life to be true to herself while at the same time expressing almost a crude disdain for the very people who were making is possible for her to live the life she desired. Of course, the immigrant labor issue is relevant today which was something I certainly did not expect to encounter. The book was also interesting as an early feminist text about gender roles and the difficulty women had (and still have) in finding time just for themselves. Five stars for writing style.

Pure Enjoyment

I did enjoy probably 75% of this book quite a lot. The class issues notes above were definitely a problem for me. Three stars for pure enjoyment.

Overall

Over all 4 out of 5 stars.

As noted in this post, I ended up DNFing the very first book I tried to read off of my Classics Club Challenge list.  This presented me with the dilemma of whether or not to replace the book with something else or just cross it off the list.  In the end, I decided to create a list of alternate books.  In the event that I don’t read a given book on the original TBR, I will note that on the original list and read a book off the alternate list in its stead.

I also decided that the British Crime Classics are not really worthy of inclusion in this list.  I am going to remove them from the list and add 10 other classics.

Here is the list of 10 alternates:

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
Evelina by Fanny Burney
The Mysteries of Udolpho  by Ann Radcliff
Wilderness and the American Mind by Roderick Nash
The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo
The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Leo Tolstoy
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell
An Autobiography by Agatha Christie

Here is the list of 10 replacements for the British Crime Classics:

Laughing Boy by Oliver LaFarge
A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird
The Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers

 

After reading an old interview with Tony Hillerman late last year, I decided to re-read the Leaphorn and Chee novels in chronological order.  I read the series in the 1990’s but in a rather haphazard way and am now quite certain that there are one or two that I did not read.

Reading the first 6 novels was definitely an interesting and enjoyable endeavor.  While the quality of the novels up through The Ghostway was a bit uneven every book has been a lot of fun to read.  Hillerman  created a terrific mileu for his detective stories and Leaphorn and Chee are great, complex characters.

The first three books in the series (The Blessing Way, Dance Hall of the Dead, and Listening Woman) feature Lt. Joe Leaphorn and the next three (People of Darkness, The Dark Wind, and The Ghostway) feature OfficerJim Chee.  While both of these characters are compelling in their own right, their pairing in  Skinwalkers brings together one of the genre’s greatest detective teams.

While Leaphorn is trying to crack a lead in three unsolved homicides someone makes an attempt on Jim Chee’s life by blasting three shotgun holes in his mobile home while he is sleeping.  This chain of events brings the two  together as they investigate these seemingly unrelated incidents.  Initially,  Leaphorn is skeptical about Chee, assuming that cops don’t get shot at for no reason.  Also, Chee is practicing to become a healer and Leaphorn is vehemently antagonistic to the traditional spiritualism embodied in the yataalii.

For his part, Chee is cognizant of Leaphorn’s scrutiny, but maintains his professionalism and goes systematically about his investigation.  It soon becomes apparent that the Navajo belief in witches or Skinwalkers is playing a significant role in the murder spree, and  Chee’s knowledge of the traditional Navajo religion is crucial to solving the crimes.

Here is the short analysis of the five broad categories I use to consider when thinking about a novel.

Characters

I particularly enjoyed the way Hillerman depicted the evolution of the relationship between Leaphorn and Chee.  The character development of the two main protagonists gets much deeper than in any of the 6 preceding novels. Comparing and contrasting the strengths and weaknesses of each character against those of the other leads to much more layered complexity and interest.  Both Leaphorn and Chee are described as having an almost visceral connection to the landscape which becomes crucial to their criminal investigations.  The minor characters are also deftly drawn–Hillerman does not resort to caricatures.  Five out of 5 for Characters.

Plot

The mystery is intriguing and the narrative momentum keeps you turning the pages.  I am usually terrible at solving the mystery before the author’s explicit reveal, but I did have this one about 90% figured out shortly before the motive was explained.  Hillerman did a masterful job of bringing in magical elements of traditional Navajo culture and giving them credence while acknowledging that the crimes have a logical, fathomable solution.  Five out 5 for Plot.

Writing Style

Hillerman’s writing style is not flashy, but he can sure paint a good landscape or thunderstorm.  His exquisite use of the four corners geographic and cultural backdrop, makes it an integral part of the characters and the plot they inhabit.  While I totally expect and accept violence and sex in my detective fiction, I do appreciate that there is little graphic violence and no explicit sex in Hillerman’s writing.  It is difficult to find anything to criticize, but I did note one instance where a pair of characters travels to a location in one vehicle, but they leave the location in a different one. It is mystifying to me that an editor did not note this discrepancy and flag it for reconciliation. I seem to remember reading somewhere that Hillerman kind of had a reputation for these disparities.  Four out of 5 for Writing Style.

Made Me Think

Hillerman’s exploration of the tension between life on the Navajo reservation and the majority Caucasian culture is always interesting and thought-provoking.  In Skinwalkers, there is the additional tension between the more worldly Lt. Leaphorn and the more traditional Jim Chee which emphasizes that intra-cultural differences are often as important as the larger clashes between the minority and majority cultures.  Skinwalkers also explores conditions of poverty, access to health care, and misappropriation of religious beliefs.  Five out of 5 for provoking thought.

Pure Enjoyment

This book is brilliant. Five out of 5 for pure enjoyment.

I am a real fan of detective fiction, but this is one of very few representatives of the genre that I would rate 5 out of 5.

In March I decided to begin the Classics Club Challenge.  I created my list of 100 classics to read in 5 years and was excited to participate in my first Classics Spin Challenge.  The spin resulted in adding one of the British Crime Classics, Calamity in Kent by John Rowland, to my TBR.

This morning, I excitedly cracked open my Kindle and began reading and almost immediately felt my heart sink.   After 35 pages I found that I just could not devote the 4 to 5 hours it would take to finish reading it.  The premise is not bad–a murder that takes place in a resort town “lift” that transports people from the town heights to the beach, which creates a locked room situation.   But from page one we are subjected to a journalist narrator who not only tells you what he is thinking but tells you why he is thinking it and then tells you again.  He then proceeds to behave in an unethical manner while justifying it to himself and the reader.   It was annoying and preposterous and I am not going to waste my time on it.

Now I have a dilemma.  Do I consider that I have checked a book off my list of 100 Classics?  Do I add another book to the list to account for this total failure?  Do I want to replace all of the 10 British Crime Classics?  I am not sure.

For the time being, I redid Spin #17 and will be reading a Persephone Book, Effie Briest by Theodor Fontane .  I’ll decide later about how to handle books I DNF.

 

The Classics Club Lucky Spin Number is 3.  A review of my list reveals that my first Classics Club read is from the British Library Classic Crimes section of my Classics TBR.  I will be reading  Calamity in Kent by John Rowland before April 30, 2018.  

Looking back, I probably should not have included Crime Classics on my Spin list as I am participating in March Mystery Madness and am reading a LOT of mysteries in March.  On the other hand, Calamity in Kent will provide an easy success for my first book in the Classics Club challenge.  I will also choose another  book off of my master list to be read by the end of April.

 

This is my list of books for the Classics Club Spin 17 event.  On March 9 the Club organizers will post a number between 1 and 20.  Participants will have until April 30, 2018 to finish the book on their list corresponding with the spin number.

1. No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym
2. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
3. Calamity in Kent by John Rowland
4. Manja by Anna Gmeyner
5. The Two Mrs. Abbotts by D. E. Stevenson
6. To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck
7. Lady Susan by Jane Austen
8. The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
9. Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane
10. Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
11. The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
12. Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
13. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
14. The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
15. The Incredible Crime by Lois Austen-Leigh
16. The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
17. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
18. Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski
19. Alexander’s Bridge by Willa Cather
20. Shirley by Charlotte Bronte

100 classics I want to read in the next five years (by March 31, 2023).  This is for the Classics Club  challenge.  For more information see the Classics Club website.

To meet this goal I should try to read 2 books off this list every month.  At that rate, I would finish a little ahead of schedule, but it provides some leeway for life to get in the way.

Note:  This list was edited on 4/29/2018 to replace the British Crime Classics with 10 other titles and to add a list of 10 alternate books that can substitute for any book on the list that ends up on the DNF pile.

Persephone

My long-term goal is to read all the Persephone Classics. This list of 30 books includes all the Persephones I currently own plus a few more that are high on my priority list.

Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane – Finished 4/19/2018
The Godwits Fly by Robin Hyde
Maman, What Are We Called Now? by Jacqueline Mesnil-Amar
Into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg
On the Other Side: Letters to my Children from Germany 1940-46 by Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg
Hetty Dorval by Ethel Wilson
The World that was Ours by Hilda Bernstein
The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
Manja by Anna Gmeyner
Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vere Hodgson
The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski – Finished 6/6/2018
An Interrupted Life: The Diaries and Letters of Etty Hillesum 1941-43 by Etty Hillesum
Fidelity by Susan Glaspell
Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
Mariana by Monica Dickens – Finished 7/26/2018
William – an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton
Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski
The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Children who Lived in a Barn by Eleanor Graham
The Montana Stories by Katherine Mansfield
The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow by Mrs Oliphant
The Hopkins Manuscript by R. C. Sheriff
Reuben Sachs by Amy Levy
The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby
Heat Lightning by Helen Hull
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
The Two Mrs. Abbotts by D. E. Stevenson
Kitchen Essays by Agnes Jekyll
The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

Pre-20th Century Classics

Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
The Red Sphinx by Alexander Dumas
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell – Finished 5/20/2018
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
The Professor by Charlotte Bronte
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
A study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
The sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Belinda by Maria Edgeworth
The Backwoods of Canada by Catharine Parr Traill
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott – finished 6/18/2018
Marriage by Susan Ferrier
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

20th Century Classics

The Children by Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton – Finished 4/28/2018
The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton
The Reef by Edith Wharton
Maurice by E. M. Forster
Nightingale Woods by Stella Gibbons
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
The Day of the Scorpion by Paul Scott
The Towers of Silence by Paul Scott
A Division of the Spoils by Paul Scott
The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner – Finished 7/19/2018
Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier – Finished 5/26/2018
Alexander’s Bridge by Willa Cather
One of Ours by Willa Cather
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym
Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym
Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym
To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck
In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck
The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck

Replacements for the British Crime Classics

Laughing Boy by Oliver LaFarge
A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird
The Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers

Alternates

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
Evelina by Fanny Burney
The Mysteries of Udolpho  by Ann Radcliff
Wilderness and the American Mind by Roderick Nash
The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo
The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Leo Tolstoy
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell
An Autobiography by Agatha Christie