Helensq tries again

So after a late start in 2011 I have determined to have another go. But as last year it is the books and the company that motivate me most, not the tally.

December
60. Twelth Night by William Shakespeare
59. The Story of English by Joseph Piercy
58. Their Eyes were Watching God by Zola Neale Hurston
57. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

November
56. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
55. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
54. Absolution by Patrick Flanery
53. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

October
52. Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald
51. The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck
50. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

September
49. Larry's Party by Carol Shields
48. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
47. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

August
46. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
45. Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
44. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
43. Troublant tête-à-tête by Lucy Monroe

July
42. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
41. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
40. The Autobiography of an Ex- Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson
39. When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant
38. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis

June
37. A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
36. Winesberg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
35. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
34. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
33. Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

May
32. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
31. Boléro by Janine Boissard
30. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
29. Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth
28. The Road Home by Rose Tremain
27. Call of the Wild by Jack London
26. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
25. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris

April
24. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
23. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
22. What Maisie Knew by Henry James
21. A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
20. God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World laid the foundations of modern science by James Hannam

March
19. How to read Egyptian hieroglyphics by Mark Collier
18. The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean

February
17. The Keys to Egypt: The Race to Crack the Hieroglyph Code by Lesley Adkins
16. One Day by David Nicholls
15. Washington Square by Henry James
14. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schafer
13. The Penguin Book of Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt by Joyce Tyldesley
12. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
11. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
10. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

January
9. A Thousand Miles up the Nile by Amelia B. Edwards
8. The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving
7. The Secret Life of France by Lucy Wadham
6. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
5. Sex and Stravinsky by Barbara Trapido
4. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
3. Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne
2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
1. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

Welcome back, Helen!

Welcome back!

Agatha is always a great way to ring in the new year!

I found you Helen. And I gotcha starred.

Welcome back and Happy Reading in 2012!

The best of luck with your reading in 2012!

Ooh, a Christie! A good start to the reading year :)

How was the Scarlet Letter?

January's progress

I had planned to delay writing up my January's reading until the end of the month but prompted by Lucy's question, that seems too long to wait. I think from now on I will update my reading every couple of books.

Two themes focus my reading at the moment - the start of my discovery of American literature and continuing the preparation for our Nile cruise (hence the ticker theme). US friends will have to forgive my zero prior knowledge of their literature - and please do point me in the direction of new discoveries.

I've decided to approach the American literature more or less chronologically and to alternate it with some lighter reads. as it turns out my favourite books this month have been two of the former - I really enjoyed Tom Sawyer and Uncle Tom's Cabin. Tom Sawyer is of course really a children's book but I loved Mark Twain's deep understanding of a boy's mind and there were many laugh out loud moments.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is much more serious but whilst I certainly found it fascinating from a historical perspective, I was also gripped by the tale, not having any idea how it ended. My favourite book of the month.

Two aspects interested me in particular in both books - the strength of the female characters and attitudes to racism. I expected the latter in Tom Sawyer but hadnt previously appreciated that Harriet Beecher Stowe combined a passionate anti-slavery zeal with some attitudes to black people that in today's world are patronising and unacceptable. However, I do not think the books can be criticised for this - they are of their time and it would be a great loss to censor them for it.

The Scarlet Letter was altogether more of an endurance test. Other than the general satisfaction of being able to say I have read it for completeness of my literary pursuits, I found little to enjoy or recommend it. The themes of sin, penitence and punishment, and the imagery of roses and the forest could well be the subject of numerous school essays but I am glad that I was spared it in my own school days for the altogether more enjoyable pleasures of Wuthering Heights.

Of the other books this month so far, Death on the Nile was a bit of fun - I just hope we are spared the murders on our own cruise. Interesting to read of people going to Abu Simbel in its original location.

Brixton Beach was another disappointment from Roma Tearne - not because of the quality of the writing, or the story itself (both excellent) but because like the second book I read by her, I was disappointed by the overwhelming similarities in characters and themes to the first book I read, Mosquito, which I thought was fantastic. I would so like to read a book by Roma Tearne that isn't about the civil war in Sri Lanka, doesn't have an amazingly gifted artist and a cross-generation relationship, whether teacher-pupil, or love affair, or both. Until I do, sadly, I think I shall remove Roma Tearne from my list of favourite authors.

Sex and Stravinsky was very enjoyable, clever and completely full of co-incidences, rather like a baroque opera, (which I think was the point). Well written, very little Sex or Stravinsky but some great portrayals of the mother daughter relationship (how glad I am that both my own are so much healthier and happier!). I'd like to read more by Barbara Trapido.

Enough! I'm enjoying The Secret Life of France and am then steeling myself for Moby Dick. The Scarlet Letter may suddenly seem better after all!

I am the opposite of you: I loved The Scarlet Letter (thanks to a wonderful American Literature professor), but hated Wuthering Heights. Just goes to show that LT is for everyone!

I had to read the Scarlet Letter in school and it remains one of my least-favorite classics ever.

Moby Dick was on the reading list the same year ... and I never finished it.

The rest of January's reading

So in the end a record tally for me of 9 books in one month. None of the last three of the month were particularly engrossing but shared the common theme of a foreigner's view of other countries. The Secret Life of France was an interesting exploration of the French mindset by an expat Brit who has lived in France for more than 20 years. It was very Paris-centric - I'm not convinced it was representative of our friends in Normandy. And there was a rather unnecessary long history section which seemed out of place and didn't add to the narrative.

Continuing the ex-pat theme, The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon is a book of essays written by an American, mostly about his experiences and impressions of a trip to England, interspersed with a couple of famous short stories - Rip van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Some very prescient comment about the British view of America and the future balance of the relationship between them, and a very interesting essay about native Americans and their treatment. But I found little to enjoy in the innumerable essays about an English country Christmas etc etc - too much a flavour of "quaint lil' old England" for my taste.

Finally the doughty Amelia B Edwards on her A Thousand Miles up the Nile - a Nile cruise on a dahabiya in the second half of the 19th century. I'm going to take it with me to Egypt because I think some of the descriptions will be best read in situ, on board our own dahabiya. But the description of a camel ride at Assouan must be one of the funniest things I have ever read.

So now into February - and for now I have deferred the dubious pleasures of Moby Dick in favour of the very good company of Huck Finn.

You've had an excellent reading month Helen. And am I to understand that you are going to Egypt? That's great. I hope you post about it.

So my first book of February was Huckleberry Finn - so enjoyable and even better thanTom Sawyer! Huck grows through his experiences, and his relationship with Jim is a delight. The only downer for me was when Tom reappears and I got so cross with him! But the last line of the book was just brilliant and a laugh out loud moment!

Now moving on to two books at once, unusually for me - The Reluctant Fundamentalist for my non- American novel, (edit - reading Hamid's biography shows that he lives part of the time in New York, so not quite true) and God's Philosophers for the JanetinLondon memorial read - and because it looks interesting.

Just found your thread! Can't wait to check out your reading list as well!

My reading plan for the next month or so:

American classics:
Moby Dick Herman Melville
The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams
Portrait of a Lady Henry James
Turn of the Screw Henry James

Interspersed with:
The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid
Water for Elephants Sara Gruen
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer

And in-between, some non-fiction:
And God's Philosophers James Hannam
The Penguin Book of Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt Joyce Tydesley

The non-American choices depend a bit on my mood at the time. As I will be on holiday at the end of the month I am expecting to want some lighter reads.

Wonderful February list!

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the best book I have read this year by a long way. It's difficult to write too much about it without spoiling it for others but it combines tension, love, intrigue and surprise. The way it is written is unusual, thought provoking and ambiguous to the end. I could criticise some aspects - is the change in attitude of the main character really plausible? Is it religion or social injustice that drives him? Is the voice of the narrator - still young - what you would expect given his previous history? But these are minor issues, that just add to the pleasure of thinking about the story in retrospect. If you haven't read it, do so!

15% in and Moby Dick is surpassing all expectations. I may be some time....

I've never attempted Moby Dick. What were your expectations?

So, I have added Moby Dick to my list of 'read in 2012' books. Is this cheating? Well, the early chapters did indeed start well. There were enticing description, characters and scene setting, and the tension surrounding the unmet Captain. I particularly enjoyed the episode where Ishmael met and got to know Queequeg - it reminded me of the humour of Three Men in a Boat.

But then the book failed to live up to early promise. Before long, like so many others before me, I got bogged down in the lengthy descriptions of whales, whalers and whaling. Somehow, there was always something better to do than reading....

In the end, I jumped to the last 15% and so read the final episode. I know I will have failed to appreciate many of its finer points but I now feel I am more than adequately familiarised with this particular Great American Novel. So I have decided to give it one star and count it read.

I really wonder about some classics like Moby Dick that are known for having long, unnecessary, and boring sections--now we would definitely consider that bad writing. Maybe authors didn't have very good editors until fairly recently?

Interesting question. The opening essay of The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon described the difficulties the author had in getting his book of essays past an editor's scrutiny so the role of the editor is not new. It could be that the editors of 150 years ago were not so good as today - or perhaps rather that the sticking power of their target market was better then than it is now? At least in the absence of a good teacher, such as Alcottacre had (#11).

A writer of non-fiction who I like a lot, whatever the role of her editor, is Joyce Tyldesley. I have now finished her book of the Myths and legends of Ancient Egypt. This is the second book by her that I have read in preparation for our holiday next week (yippee!) on the Nile. She has a lucid, readable style that is both informative and enjoyable. I hadn't previously realised that some of the papyri discovered in tombs contained stories and fables, rather than just funerary scripts, and Tyldesley draws out what we can learn about Egyptian daily life as well presenting a very accessible version of the stories themselves. This particular book also includes a very useful, succinct overview of Egyptian history.

I've just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. What a treat! An easy read but plenty of substance - both the history of Guernsey in the war and the joys of reading, and sharing of books. Couldn't put it down!

I've now started Washington Square by Henry James. I'll be taking it to Egypt with me tomorrow. Will report back on both reading and the pleasures of the Nile in about ten days.

Hope you are having a great time on the Nile!

Ooh, I'm jealous... but have a great time. :) Bring back some pictures for us!

RE: Papyri -- Some of them even contain bizarre drawings of things like anthropomorphic rats on thrones being served wine by anthropomorphic cats... they're fascinating to see! They look like someone's doodles, or an ancient cartoonist's work. I've tried to find a book or study about them, but so far have been unsuccessful. Does the Tyldesley book mention these at all?

The traveller returns

Egypt surpassed all expectations! We spent a week travelling at a leisurely pace up the Nile from Luxor (Thebes) to Aswan on a beautiful Dahabiya. For the most part we progressed under tug-power but also made the most of the prevailing winds, as you can see from the photo our our boat below. There were just seven of us on board - the boat sleeps a maximum of 12. We saw many other large 'hotel boats' pass us by - mostly three quarters empty despite it being the peak season. We were the only group in some temples we visited - Egypt's toursim has been hit hard by the negative and over-blown reports of the revolution in the media and many ordinary people are suffering greatly as a result. I would urge anyone thinking of going to seize the opportunity this year!


Despite all the reading I had done in advance, nothing prepared me for just how beautiful and awe-inspiring the temples and tombs would be. I always thought of Egyptian art as being somewhat stylised but the artistry and aesthetic quality were incredible. Particular highlights were the paintings of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings (unfortunately no photos allowed) and Medinet Habu temple. Every inch of the walls of both temples and tombs are covered with the most intricate carvings and decorations and at Medinet Habu both the structure of the temple and the the original colour are particularly well preserved.



There are a few more photos in my member gallery here of art, architecture and the beauty of the Nile scenery.

I spent a lot of time reading but my count towards the 75 books in a year made less progress because I re-read several of the books I had already read this year. Amelia Edward's A Thousand Miles Up the Nile was particularly evocative as she too travelled on a dahabiya. The Keys to Egypt: The Race to Crack the Hieroglyph Code has inspired me to learn to read some hieroglyphs myself before we return to Egypt, (as we intend to do in 2015 when the new museum in Cairo is due to open). But both the two novels I read, One Day and Henry James' Washington Square lacked substance and I wouldn't recommend them other than as holiday reading.

Your Egypt pictures are wonderful! What an amazing trip! Did you use some kind of guide/travel agent service or manage everything on your own?

We booked with Explore Egypt - a small tour operator who also manage the dahabiya we were on. They were excellent both before and during the tour and I would highly recommend them.

You really do need a guide to explain the sights and manage some of the Egyptian hassle for you! They also took us to some cheap but excellent restaurants off the beaten track - things we would never have found on our own.

Moving on, at least partially, from my Egyptian sojourn, I turned to a book recommended by my mother, The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean. Principally set in the siege of Leningrad, it is a thought-provoking book as what is left unsaid is as important as what is written or indeed spoken. A junior curator of the Hermitage gallery, Marina, works to save the paintings - or at least their memory - during the siege of Leningrad and the hardships it brought. A series of beautifully crafted descriptions of paintings of the Madonna and Child paintings provide a commentary on the horror of the period and Marina's experience of it. This is set into relief by the parallel story of Marina towards the end of her life where it becomes apparent that despite the superficial return to 'normality' much remains unspoken. A well written and pleasingly understated novel of memory, loss and love.

My progress through the 75 books challenge has taken a slow turn because I am spending much of my time on the daily commute studying hieroglyphs, using the excellent How to read Egyptian hieroglyphics. It's a fascinating language and highly satisfying to be able to make out at least some of the common names and inscriptions but leaves little time for much else! But in the meantime I am also determined to finish God's Philosophers by James Hannam, now highly recommended by my husband as well as many LT friends.

Have you read Sisters of Sinai? Now that you are safely returned from your travels, if you read this you may be entertained by the description of these 19th century Scottish twin sisters' journeys, including one up the Nile, with a rather less excellent tour operator! It's a fascinating book.

Continuing my new-found and continuing enthusiasm for all thing Egyptian, the last two weeks have seen pretty intensive study of hieroglyphics! Thanks to Collier's excellent book, How to read Egyptian hieroglyphs I feel I have largely achieved my initial goal of being able to interpret the cartouches and have a rudimentary understanding of how hieroglyphic writing works. Collier's book took me through the cartouches and offering formulae and I was delighted to find on my trip to the British Museum last weekend that I could at least spot and read some of the phrases I have learnt. The book continues on through more complex grammar - verb tenses and so on and whilst I have made some initial forays into that, it is clear that it would take many years of intensive study to master the language properly and to be honest that was never my intention. I am therefore going to ease off on the amount of time I give to this in order to have more time for reading the languages I already understand!

That being so, I would highly recommend the book. Many other books about hieroglyphs don't get much beyond the initial single letter sounds. Collier takes you very smoothly through to the structure of the language, many more complex hieroglyphs and much useful context about the cults of the various gods which form the basis of so many of the funerary objects in our museums. Highly recommended if, like me, you suddenly discover an urge to discover more about this fascinating culture.

I am spending the week after Easter in Normandy and we are going to take a day trip to Paris specifically to see the Egyptian rooms of the Louvre so I will be able to put my embryonic skills to the test once more! In the mean time, I am, at last, a third of the way through God's Philosophers and going strong!

#33 Gennyt - thanks for the recommendation - I'll definitely look it out!

I'll have to look for that one. Learning to read hieroglyphics is definitely on my bucket list. :)

I guess this should have occurred to me, but I never realized hieroglyphs had verb tenses and grammar.

No I hadn't either until I started looking into it. The also wrote stories, which I hadn't realised either!

If you are enjoying learning to read hieroglyphics, I think you'll definitely enjoy Sisters of Sinai - both sisters set themselves the task of learning various ancient languages and the deciphering of ancient scripts with great enthusiasm, undeterred by snooty male Cambridge academics who dismiss them because of their lack of formal academic credentials. Reading it made me want to dust off my various obscure grammar books of ancient and medieval languages and have another go...

Helen, I'm happy to have lucked into your thread especially in time to enjoy your wonderful Egypt pictures! And soon you're going to the Louvre - wow! Enjoy for all of us. Learning to read hieroglyphics is one I've marked off my bucket list along with learning ballet and cooking gourmet-ly.
For some reason I feel compelled to try to defend Moby-Dick, and I'm not sure that I can or that Melville needs defending..... I confess that it's past time for a reread, and I haven't done it. I will though, and I'll be immersed in the world of a whaling vessel and try to open the 19th century part of my mind to appreciate how the old folks gained knowledge. As to style, Richard Powers often does some similar lengthy side-trips into whatever world he's discussing, and I don't mind those either. As to modern editors, I don't know where they are.
I'm sorry for the above paragraph off the top of my head - neither helpful nor to the point, but I'll leave it anyway.
*Guernsey* is such a treat! I wouldn't have found it had it not been for LT. Sisters of Sinai is on my wishlist too.

The pace of my reading is recovering once more, though, as I said at the outset of this challenge, I am not in it just for the numbers.

I have now completed God's Philosophers. I am glad to have done so - I feel it has enhanced my knowledge and understanding of a very interesting period and topic about which I knew very little - either the historical period and role of the church, or the early development of science.

That said, it was not engrossing. In contast I got much more involved in A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor, read in very rainy Normandy last week. Chosen as a direct result of recommendations from other LT members, my first reaction was that nothing really happens, each character is at a turning point in their lives and by the end of the book there has been a subtle but very marked shift. The writing is beautiful, the pictures painted believable and evocative. A good read and an author I will look out again.

I then returned to my American sequence with another Henry James novel, What Maisie Knew. I thought Washington Square was somewhat tedious; this one was tortuous. The story of a confused little girl trying to make sense of the troubled, angry world of her divorced parents and their second (and subsequent) partners. In principle it should be a very interesting and thought-provoking book as it portrays a dysfunctional family at a time when divorce and child neglect was not the common theme it is now but the writing is unbelievably convoluted and the characters either unlikeable or unlikely. I won't be reading any more books by Henry James.

I'm ow reading The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields. This is another that I have bought because it came up so often in the automatic LT recommendations for me and I wanted to see why. So far, so good....

In the meantime I have also been to the Louvre - indeed we spent an entire day there! The Egyptian collection is fabulous - enormous and very well presented indeed. But we do feel a bit Egypted-out by now!

I am extremely jealous of your trip to Egypt! I have always wanted to go as Egyptology is an interest of mine. Thanks for sharing the pictures, Helen!

I've now finished The Stone Diaries and find myself bemused. On one level, I really enjoyed it - the writing is good, much of the story is engaging, and I didn't want to put it down. When I was half-way through the book I thought it was heading for four stars.

But then I found myself cooling, even irritated by the book. The story of Daisy, a Canadian-born woman of the 20th century, it starts before her birth and ends after her death. It is a fictional biography - or rather autobiography. And therein lies my principal problem with the book. At certain points, it is made clear that the narrator is Daisy herself. Yet she could not possibly have known some of what was related from before her birth, and certainly couldn't have written beyond the grave. I found this increasingly off-putting and unsatisfying.

My second criticism is to do with the thread of the narrative. It centres on selected episodes or periods of Daisy's life; I liked that approach, and the way the reader could fill in and deduce what had happened in the intervening decade. However, there was no sense of the character of Daisy developing. She certainly changed in each phase of her life, but the changes were disconnected and did not seem to bear much relation to her previous experiences. It felt like a sequence of random snapshots. And because of this, I didn't really connect with Daisy (or indeed any of the other characters) as a person, which meant the final, harrowing episode was not moving, as it could have been, but just rather unpleasant.

I have read other people's reviews who clearly think much more of this book than I do. I am glad I read it - I like books I can feel strongly about and that give me pause for thought. For that reason I will award it 2 stars.

Next up: House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. I loved The Age of Innocence last year so have high hopes.

You have raised some very interesting points about The Stone Diaries. I am one of the readers of that fall into the 'loved it' category but I can see where the discrepancies you have pointed out would be frustrating for some readers. For me, the snapshots included in the book really gave it an autobiographical feel, only to learn later that the photos are photos of random people.

I may have been at a disadvantage then as I read it on my kindle and the photos weren't included. I hadn't realised this - a rare black mark for my kindle.

I would consider reading other books by Carol Shields as I liked her writing style. Is there one you would recommend?

My high hopes were more than fulfilled. The House of Mirth is the deeply enjoyable, if tragic story of Lily Bart and her inexorable descent from social position. It is deftly written, with excellent observation and wry comment. Brought up for a comfortable life in high society, and unable to flourish in any other, Lily needs to marry a rich man. Yet despite being blessed with great beauty and apparently having a pragmatic approach to her situation, she lets numerous opportunities escape her. Then her 'friends' turn against her and her reputation is slandered. Times get harder and harder and chances of comfort, let alone happiness become more and more distant....

Many others have written much more thoughtfully than I can about this book. I did wonder though why Lily had failed to get married earlier in her life - if she was socially determined to live in that society, wouldn't she have accepted her lot and accepted a marriage of convenience, even without a mother to keep her on track? Was it her beauty that doomed her to unhappiness? But was anyone happy in her society - not apparently. Maybe Lily realised that deep down but couldn't break free from the patterns of behaviour and thinking into which she had been trained.

Whatever the analysis, I enjoyed this book even more than The Age of Innocence. I shall leave Edith Wharton for the time being whilst I discover other American authors but she is an author to whom I will definitely return.

Now onto Gillespie and I by Jane Harris.

I came across this list of the 100 greatest American novels of the 20th century on BookRiot and decided to copy it into my thread so I can use the touchstones as an easy way to link through to them. (Edit - if only the touchstones worked!) Some - two at the time of first posting - I have already read, in other cases I have read others by the same author (each author only gets one slot), still others I will never read. But I would welcome any comments on the merits of any particular novels.

The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)
Maggie, Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane (1893)
The Country of Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett (1896)
The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899)

The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903)
The Golden Bowl by Henry James (1904)
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (1905)
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (1906)
Three Lives by Gertrude Stein (1909)

My Antonia by Willa Cather (1918)
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (1918)
Winesberg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (1919)

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis (1920)
Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man by James Weldon Johnson (1921)
Cane by Jean Toomer (1923)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dresier (1925)
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926)
The Bridge of the San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (1927)
Home to Harlem by Claude McKay (1928)
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929)
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe (1929)

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930)
Flowering Judas and Other Stories by Katherine Porter (1930)
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1931)
Call It Sleep by Henry Roth (1934)
Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald (1934)
The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934)
Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara (1934)
The USA Trilogy by John Dos Passos (1936)
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936)
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)
Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West (1939)
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)

Native Son by Richard Wright (1940)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (1940)
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (1943)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (1943)
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946)
Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener (1947)
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (1948)
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (1948)
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson (1949)

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951)
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952)
Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin (1953)
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (1953)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
Andersonville by MacKinley Kantor (1955)
On the Road by Jack Keroauc (1957)
Gimpel the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1957)
The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever (1957)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1958)
The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud (1958)
Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth (1959)
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (1959)
The Little Disturbances of Man by Grace Paley (1959)
Browngirl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall (1959)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
Rabbit, Run by John Updike (1960)
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth (1960)
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (1961)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (1961)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (1962)
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1963)
A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter (1967)
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (1967)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick (1968)
Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (1969)
them by Joyce Carol Oates (1969)
The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford (1969)

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion (1970)
The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor (1971)
Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed (1972)
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (1972)
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973)
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow (1975)
JR by William Gaddis (1976)
Roots by Alex Haley (1976)
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (1977)
The World According to Garp by John Irving (1978)
Airships by Barry Hannah (1978)

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1980)
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980)
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (1982)
The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1982)
Cathedral by Raymond Carver (1983)
Love Medicine by Lousie Erdrich (1984)
Necromancer by William Gibson (1984)
White Noise by Don Delillo (1985)
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1985)
City of Glass by Paul Auster (1985)
Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (1989)
The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick (1989)

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (1990)
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez (1991)

Gillespie and I was a great enjoyment. The story of one Harriet Baxter and some unfortunate events in which she was involved, one way or another, it both beguiled and chilled. Deceptively easy going, especially to start with, it gradually becomes apparent that all is not as it first seems.

Well written, at times very amusing - and indeed gripping. I can't say more for fear of spoiling it. It would have had 4.5 stars but for the fact that I think it could have done with just a little more editing. But that is not to detract from an excellent read, and highly recommended.

Since finishing Gillespie and I, I have completed two more American books in quick succession. The first was The Awakening by Kate Chopin, an early feminist novel. The story of Edna and her dawning realisation that the role of of wife and mother was insufficient for her life's fulfilment, it was an interesting companion to Edith Wharton's House of Mirth. Wharton's writing is better -I found Chopin's metaphors (or should that be motifs?) of the sea and music a bit obvious - but it gave me new lines of reflection, both on its own score and in comparison to the character of Lily Bart. Definitely a good find for me.

I then turned to The Call of the Wild by Jack London. Completely different, it is a yarn told from the perspective of Buck, a dog caught up in the gold rush. Gruesome, violent, bloody, Buck is a real hero but it is definitely not a children's book. Nor is it one I would read a second time but well worth reading once.

Next up, The Road Home by Rose Tremain.

Interesting list - I can hardly ever resist a list! I may have to make a note of it for my own reading.

Lolita is one of my all-time favorite books. I am not a re-reader by nature, but I'm going to re-read the annotated version because it's a book I know I missed a lot in when I originally read it.

And perhaps the book that is my all-time favorite is also on the list: The Things They Carried. I loved everything about that book. It's not often that you have a book that is perhaps equally about war and writing.

Thanks for the list! I think I'll paste it over in my own thread to examine it more closely.

Thanks Ursula - it's great to get some views and comments on the books I might read. I'm finding that list is really useful because it is organised by date of publication of the book, rather than birth date of the author, which gets a bit confusing when some had very long writing careers and others much shorter. I'm about to start on Sister Carrie, by Dreiser, one of the few that I read before, many years ago, but remember enjoying.

But I get ahead of myself. My latest book was The Road Home by Rose Tremain. The story of an east European immigrant from an EU accession country, it is very pertinent and contemporary in its portrayal of Britain today. Perhaps a little too stereotyped, particularly in the references to obesity and other British characteristics, and indeed to life in the post communist era of those countries (based on my knowledge of having had several east European au pairs living with us over a 7 year period post 2000). But the book is well written, and presents an engaging portrait of the main character, with some successful devices for linking the story of his past with his current experience. Definitely a 4star book for me.

A quick canter through Etymologicon, a chatty book about the roots and origins of words in the English language. I find etymology and the development of languages fascinating and have read and enjoyed several rather more serious tomes on the subject. This one was rather lighter in tone - certainly very informative but over time the jokiness became rather irritating. Not a book to read cover to cover, but ideal for dipping into. The sort of book I'd put in the spare bedroom, if only I had a 'proper' book rather than an e-book.

Next up was Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. I'm now up to 1900 in the journey through American literature and I found this interesting for its depiction of an emerging Chicago (one of the few cities in the States I have been to) and the trials and tribulations of city life for the struggling classes. I didn't particularly take to Carrie - too passive and unbelievably naive at times but that didn't matter. I read the book many years ago, enjoyed it then and perhaps even more now.

As a change I am now going to pick up my French again with a book by Janine Boissard. I've read others by her - well-written chick lit. What's different this time is that it's an e-book. Last time I looked for French novels on Amazon kindle site, about six months ago, there were barely any other than the free classics. Now there's masses available (most at vast expense but then so are books in France).

And I've updated my ticker in honour of the torch relay. Can't wait for the river pageant for the diamond jubilee next week - we've got a grandstand view overlooking Tower Bridge, thanks to my husband's employer opening up their office for the occasion. A fantastic summer in Britain.

Boléro by Janine Boissard is, ironically, an excellent book to read in the week of one's 25th wedding anniversary. A sordid tale of an affair that proves irresistable, brings passion but not happiness and threatens a happy marriage. It has made me appreciate all the more what I have enjoyed for the past quarter of a century and hope to continue to enjoy for the next.

Another American book next - and one I anticipate will be somewhat gruelling - The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. I have enjoyed George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London in the past so will be interested to compare this tale of the hardships of immigrants working in a meat packing factory at the start of the last century.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is probably the most depressing, grim novel I have ever read. Enough said.

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller was a much better read! Vividly written, it succeeded in engaging me in the story of Achilles in a way not previously achieved by any of my classics teachers. I particularly liked the way Miller made the gods' interactions in mortals' lives seem entirely to be expected.

Back to American classics: guided by the reviews here on LT, I have decided to give Gertrude Stein's Three Lives a miss. So now onto The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington.

On your list, I think To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, and The Grea Gatsby are all very readable in addition to being classics. Some people who read Catcher in the Rye for the first time as an adult rather than as a teenager do find the main character a little annoying.

I tried to read a Gertrude Stein book once and couldn't get into her style at all.

Back from a week in France - a last break before work for the Olympics really picks up. Unfortunately it was once again very, very wet and rainy so although we got plenty of gardening and some walking between showers, we also go a lot of reading done.

I really enjoyed The Magnificent Ambersons - though I am a bit surprised it made the top 100 list for the 20th century American literature. I thought the description of the impact of the arrival of the automobile and the point of transition from the old society to a mechanised, urban 20th century was very well recounted. There was enough ironic humour, some interesting and some likeable characters - all in all, a good read.

But Water for Elephants outstripped it. I loved this book. Great descriptions of circus life in the 1930s, clearly well researched and a pacey story, balanced by a portrayal of extreme old age and the loss of independence that comes with it. Is there a parallel drawn between the care for, and life of, the circus animals and that of the old man? Couldn't put it down - definitely worth 4.5 stars.

However, Winesberg, Ohio only made it to 2 stars. I didn't like the episodic nature of the book - essentially a loose connection of short stories, or, rather, portraits.

Finally, I started A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. I know everyone else seems to be hooked on Bring Up the Bodies but I found Wolf Hall the least enjoyable of the several books I have read by Mantel, so decided instead to take this one from my To Be Read folder. About 20% in - its another long historical book - I am enjoying it so far more than I did Wolf Hall.

A Place of Greater Safety is a very long book. I am sticking with it because like her other books it is well written, but it is a bit of a slog that at times is more like a very detailed history text book....

Finished A Place of Greater Safety! What a slog. Very well researched, comprehensive, well written - but a bit too much of a good thing. I did learn a lot, but as a literary and reading experience, I preferred the sections that were written from the women's perspectives - a more oblique commentary on the events of the French revolution.

Followed by Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. A young idealist, early feminist and very tentative socialist, Carol, marries a small town doctor in the 1910s and tries - but largely fails - to bring artistic, cultural and social enlightenment to the town and her husband. It took me a while to really start appreciating this book because I found Carol so naive. However, I then realised that that made the author's critique (some say satire) of small town America all the more effective, as it allows the book to appeal to the very audience the author was mocking. And Carol's journey towards maturity - or is that suffocation?- is thought-provoking and engaging. Definitely a good discovery in my survey of the American classics.

I have very mixed views about When I lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant. It tells the story of a young Jewish woman who goes to Palestine - Tel Aviv- immediately after the second world war and gets caught up in the Jewish fight for independence. It explores identity - national, racial and individual - and idealism versus reality. There is adventure and pace and the story is set in a time and place I haven't come across in any other novels. I couldn't put it down.

But....it should have been a really great novel but somehow the writing didn't quite realise the potential of the tale. I didn't feel as immersed in the sights and smells of Paelstine as I wanted to, and I didn't fully relate to Evelyn or understand her. I just wanted more. So whilst I certainly recommend it, it scores 4, but not 4.5 stars, for me.

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man gave a very readable insight to the challenges and prejudices facing a mixed race person in early 20th century America (and Europe), with a poignant final note. Published in 1912 it is hard to remember it is a novel. Another unexpectedly enjoyable discovery.

Spurred on by the success of my recent American books, I moved straight onto The Great Gatsby. Wow! A real gem that I wish I had read long ago. Some of the most beautiful, evocative writing i have ever read, capturing an essence of a time and place in a truly remarkable way. And a real step change from all the earlier American novels I have read in my (nearly) chronological journey. Much more modern and luminous than any of the earlier ones.

Two more books read -one brilliant, the other dire! First up Half of a Yellow Sun is a superb story set in the Biafran war in the 1960s. Moving, gruelling, gripping - one of my best reads in the past two years.

But Troublant Tête-à-Tête by Lucy Monroe was quite the opposite. I would never read a book like this in English - but it was on a special deal on Amazon and was a chance to practise my French. But it wasn't worth it - trite, corny, implausible, irritating. All I can say is that I now know a lot more French vocabulary for affairs of the heart.

I love The Great Gatsby! It sounds like you need to come up with a way to use your new French vocabulary :)

Yes, I really didn't know what I had been missing! I'm looking forward to trying Tender is the Night, but I am reading the books in chronological order and that was published in 1934. I'm currently up to 1926 with The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway and several more to come in between!

Hmmm, not so sure about using the vocab - at least I'll be well prepared should a handsome Frenchman in deepest Normandy ever chance upon me in my garden and decide to sweep me off my feet and into his strong arms...Oh no! I'm beginning to sound like the book!

The Sun Also Rises - american ex-pats in France and Spain in the 1920s. The benefits of reading American novels in strictly chronogical order is that it is easier to spot step changes in style and idiom. That doesn't necessarily make the books more enjoyable and so this book scored the same as the dire chick lit en français of my previous forray, not because of the lack of any literary merit but because the characters and the plot were just totally unappealing and unlikeable.

Interesting list of American fiction. I've not read many of them... I recently read Country of the Pointed Firs after it was recommended on here - I enjoyed that. It's episodic and elegaic. I hated Gatsby when we had to read it at school, I'm afraid, but glad you enjoyed it. I might feel differently reading it now, I guess.

I've only fairly recently read To kill a mockingbird, which I loved, and Catcher in the Rye which I had more mixed feelings about. I think I would have found its teenaged narrator intensely irritating even as a teenager myself, but I don't think we are meant to find him sympathetic necessarily. Oh, and I read and enjoyed The call of the wild as a child - but it may have been an abridged version.

I must try some other Mantels, I've only read Beyond Black apart from the Tudor two, and found the former quite strange though beautifully written.

Good to hear of your experiences with some of the books I have read or still have to come. There are certainly books I had never heard of before, many of which I have very much enjoyed. I've got a way to go until I get to To Kill a Mockingbird as I am only up to 1929!

Since I last posted I've finished - and loved - Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver. It deals with questions of personal versus tribal (Cherokee) loyalties, and the concept of family and motherhood. It reminded me why she is my favourite author - I love the pictures she paints, the characters - and the observation of the natural world. I hadn't realised that the book was a sequel to The Bean Tree which I haven't read but it didn't matter. A slightly unsatisfying twist at the end - all a bit too neat - but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.

Now reading Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe. Not entirely sure about it yet but other reviewers have enjoyed it so Im sticking with it.

Glad you enjoyed Pigs in Heaven - I think I liked The Bean Trees even more, so that one is worth seeking out too, as indeed is all her writing. Which other ones have you read of hers?

I will definitely look out The Bean Trees, even though I feel as if I must know how it ends, having read the follow-on.

The first book I ever read by Kingsolver was Prodigal Summer which really sparked my enthusiasm for her writing. Since then I've read The Poisonwood Bible, and Lacuna (probably my least favourite - mainly because I don't particularly like novels with 'real' people in them - but still very highly rated compared to other authors). I really enjoy the attention to the natural world - coupled with some good stories, variety of settings and well-depicted characters.
What have you read?

I've read all her novels (though I gather a new one is due out this autumn) - the first was The Poisonwood Bible which I loved, and then was delighted to discover the other novels, followed by her collections of essays, including High Tide in Tucson - which I also really loved. Reading the latter was one of the rare occasions when I've wanted to write to an author to tell them how much I appreciated their work. (I didn't actually do so, though in these days of emails and social networking it ought to be easy enough to send a message to an author.)

You've inspired me to read the rest - I hadn't thought of trying the essays. Thank you!

Wish I hadn't thought of reading Look Homeward, Angel. It's dreadful!

A poor month. I struggled along with Look Homeward Angel until I could bear it no longer. Then, looking for something more modern I turned to The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. But I regret to say, I abandoned that one too - mainly because I found it distasteful. I do not consider myself in anyway prudish and am certainly not anti-gay but the graphic descriptions of sex were just too much. I thought the characters were stereotypes, the story tedious and the writing pretentious.

Finally I realised that reading had lost its pleasure for me so I decided desperate measures were needed so I abandoned the second book in a row and turned ist ear to The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, the next in my American sequence. I don't ever normally read crime fiction and only picked it because it was next on "the list" and I got it free on my kindle! As it turned out, I enjoyed it far more than I expected. A very different style of writing and story than any I have yet encountered and I'm not sure I followed all the twists and turns but I pleased myself in guessing at least part of the denouement.

Sorry to hear you've had difficulty settling to reading, but I'm glad the Maltese Falcon was a hit! I read that one a good 20 years ago, can't remember much of the plot but I do remember lots of twists and turns! I hope you find something else good to keep you enjoying your reading.

Three more read, and enthusiasm returning. I thought Larry's Party was much better than The Stone Diaries, also by Carol Shields. It is one of those where nothing much really happens but the main character, and we the reader, come to reflect on and understand a bit more the things that drive us and our decisions, and make us who we are. I liked the way it was structured and although the ending was a bit too neat, it had a sense of fulfilment.

A Farewell to Arms was another that I enjoyed much more than than the previous book I read by the same author, ie The Sun Also Rises. I can't quite believe I have never read it before - and in particular that it wasn't a set book at school, but then our Eng Lit lessons were just that - English by geography, rather than language. So I didn't know how it would end until the very last page - so sad!

Finally, and best of all The Good Earth - the life story of a Chinese farmer in the first half of the 20th century. In some ways written rather like a folk tale or at least a story from an oral narrative tradition, it gripped me from the first page to the last.

Tender is the Night - nothing like as good as The Great Gatsby-I thought it needed editing down somewhat. A somewhat depressing tale of the weakness of (a) man and the power, real or insinuated, of women.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton - a delight. A family mystery, unravelled over three different time periods simultaneously with a fairy tale theme woven through. Reminded me of Possession by AS Byatt in some ways.

I couldn't put it down and read late into the night! The only thing that made it a 4 star read rather than 4.5 star (5 stars being almost unattainable in my rating scheme) was that's some of the clues and hints were a little bit obvious, especially in the early part of the book. But I need to re-read the fairy tales to spot the references I missed earlier - always a good sign if I want to revisit a book.

#78 O good! I am planning to take that one with me on holiday on Tuesday. I hope I enjoy it as much!

Hope you have a lovely holiday. Will you have plenty of time to read? I find I am often so busy I read less when away than I do at home!

I go on holiday on my own, and usually manage to read a lot, even though I'll also be doing some exploring and visiting places. I'm going to Malta, which I don't know at all.

I love island holidays - the Scillies are my life-long favourites. I'm sure you'll enjoy Malta - we went to Malta and Gozo about 20 years ago. It has probably changed a lot since then but we particularly liked Gozo because it was so unspoilt. Our then-18 month old son started talking in earnest when we were there with "church" as one of his first three words - probably because he saw so many whilst there!

Will you post some photos when you get back?

I'm just back today, and catching up on a few threads more easily than I could do from my phone while away.

Gozo was lovely - no doubt it has changed since you were there but it's still much quieter and less developed than Malta. And I'm not surprised at your son talking of churches - they do rather dominate the landscape don't they. Especially that new one completed only recently, which could hold apparently three times the size of the population of the village!

I'm hoping to post some pictures on my thread soon - I need to get them off my camera and my phone and get them organised online first.

Absolution by Patrick Flanery proved disappointing after a promising start. Set in South Africa it traces the history of a white family and their connections at then end of, and post the apartheid era, and the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sam, a biographer of a liberal white writer, Clare Wald, has his own, personal interest in understanding her and finding out what happened to her family. But can she be trusted - and what can he tell her?

For the first third of this book I thought it was excellent - well written and constructed, with some interesting and engaging narrative threads. Whose perspective was 'the truth'? What really happened? But as the book went on, it became too long-winded and overly complex. It needed some considerable editing. And I was also unconvinced by the very negative portrayal of the vilence of South Africa - is it really that bad?

This is the first book by this author and I think he shows a lot of promise. I would certainly read a future work by him. But not this one again.

I had forgotten just how engrossing Gone with the Wind was. Christmas shopping, housework, cooking - all have been put on hold for the past week whilst I relived the story of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler! No need to recount the story, no wish to reflect on the less attractive aspects of the narrative, it is simply one of the best reads all year. Definitely 4.5 stars!

We went to Bath on Saturday to visit their wonderful Christmas market. It is one of the best markets in the country - the stalls were lovely, the weather cold but dry and we did well on the Christmas shopping. But perhaps the star of the day was the beautiful Georgian architecture. It really is a stunning city, well worth a visit and inspired me to re-read Northanger Abbey and the story of Catherine Morland's visit to Bath.

I love Jane Austen's books, particularly her wit and insight. Northanger Abbey is not my favourite but the portrayal of a young uncertain teenager with an over active imagination is very familiar! A clever parody of gothic novels with the obligatory love match. A delight.

The trip to Bath sounds like it was wonderful.

I have continued my exploration of Christmas markets with a visit to Berlin. I was lucky enough to have to go on business but managed to fit in brief visits to two markets - one uninspiring but the other absolutely delightful and in the best German tradition. It was my first time in Berlin and with a sprinkling of snow and clear blue skies it was very pretty. I have determined to visit it again entirely for pleasure as there is much to see and it is a very vibrant place, even in the cold!

The pressures of the trip, with evening meetings and no commuting, meant that I have had little time for reading so it has taken me longer than I would have expected to finish Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck. My first time reading it, I was deeply moved by the depiction of friendship, loneliness, mental disability and the harshness of post-crash life in America. The final few pages in particular left me speechless.

Final posting of the attempt - I got to 60 books - with one more nearly completed. The last two were The Story of English by Joseph Piercy - a topic I fasting really interesting but this was a disappointing book. Although it started well, with some interesting chapters on old English, the rest of the book was too superficial with an anecdotal, piecemeal style. And whole topics were completely ignored - such as the impact of imperialism on the global spread of English.

The final book of the year, read out loud by my husband, son and myself by the fire in Normandy, was Twelfth Night by Shakespeare (of course!). We are going to a twelfth night party on Saturday and needed to refresh our memories of the characters. A great way to end the year's reading.

Next year I am going to continue with the American novels but also aim to read a Dickens each month (or thereabouts - given the length of them, it may prove to be somewhat fewer). As I have concluded I am not ever likely to reach 75 books, especially if I pick up the Dickens, I am going to record my progress on Club Read.