I love taking part in the spins hosted by The Classics Club – this is the seventeenth and although I’ve missed one or two I think I’ve managed to participate in most of them. As I just recently started my second Classics Club list, I have plenty of books to choose from for this spin and I’ll be happy to read any of them.
Here are the rules for Spin #17:
* List any twenty books you have left to read from your Classics Club list.
* Number them from 1 to 20.
* On Friday 9th March the Classics Club will announce a number.
* This is the book you need to read by 30th April 2018
And here is my list:
Five Victorian Classics
1. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
2. Jezebel’s Daughter by Wilkie Collins
3. Desperate Remedies by Thomas Hardy
4. The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade
5. The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson
Five Classics in Translation
6. The Black Sheep by Honoré de Balzac
7. The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov
8. La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas
9. In a Dark Wood Wandering by Hella S Haasse
10. Germinal by Emile Zola
Five 20th Century Classics by Women
11. Don’t Look Now and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier
12. That Lady by Kate O’Brien
13. Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
14. High Rising by Angela Thirkell
15. The Corn King and the Spring Queen by Naomi Mitchison
Five 20th Century Classics by Men
16. How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
17. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
18. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
19. Claudius the God by Robert Graves
20. A Passage to India by EM Forster
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Have you read any of these books? Which numbers do you think I should be hoping for on Friday?
She Reads Novels 
A nice list (of which I have read some!) Knowing me, I would be wanting the Bulgakov!
I would be very happy to get the Bulgakov! I’ve loved everything else I’ve read by him.
The Black Arrow is a fun read, true Stevenson and education, too. I haven’t read it in so long, but when I was on a “medieval” phase, it was one of my favorites!
That’s good to know! I love books set during the Wars of the Roses and The Black Arrow does sound fun.
Great list- I especially love these categories! I really enjoyed Jane and Prudence and High Rising and am also interested in reading A Passage to India soon. I hope you enjoy whichever title gets picked!
Thank you! High Rising would be my first Angela Thirkell book and I’m curious to see what I think of it. I would be happy with Jane and Prudence too as I’ve read a few other books by Barbara Pym and am looking forward to reading more.
Exciting! Hope you enjoy High Rising whenever you do pick it up!
Philistine that I am, no I’ve not read any, and only recognise about half the titles. I’m a timid reader, I’ve concluded!
Oh, and I will be joining in with my list, mostly based on the last one I posted…
I hope the spin gives you something you’ll enjoy. Some of the titles on my list are quite obscure and may not be what everyone would consider classics – as I’ve been participating in the Classics Club for about six years now, I’ve read a lot of the better-known classics that interested me and had to dig deeper to find more that I wanted to read. I’m looking forward to most of them anyway!
We both have The Black Arrow on our lists 🙂
I can’t wait to read The Black Arrow! Based on the other Robert Louis Stevenson books I’ve read, I’m sure it will be an entertaining read. 🙂
We don’t share any books on our lists of 20 (mine is coming out Monday), but we do share several authors. I have read nine of the books on your list. No ten! You have several very good ones, so it’s hard to pick one for you. Good luck! I hope we both get a good number.
Thanks. I can’t wait to find out what I’ll be reading!
Lots of goodies there! Nicholas Nickleby, of course, but I also loved The White Guard, the Daphne du Maurier collection and The Chrysalids. I had a love/hate relationship with The Grapes of Wrath but it’s essential reading. Hmm… I hope you get The White Guard because I’d like to hear what you think of it… Good luck! Hope you get one you enjoy!
I’ll be happy if I get The White Guard. I’ve read two other books by Bulgakov and loved both, so I have high hopes for it. Nicholas Nickleby is another one I’m hoping for, after reading your review recently.
What a lot of brilliant books! Like I said, I love How Green Was My Valley; I love Steinbeck but Grapes of Wrath, well, I like it and I do not like it at the same time, but I think one must read it once for sure! I remember reading Passage to India during my formative years, and not being terribly impressed. But I do need to revisit it as I fell in love with Forster’s writing with Howard’s End. Nicholas Nickleby and The White Guard and Germinal (Vi! Va! Zola) are all in my TBR and one day I shall get to them! I hope you have a great spin and get to really enjoy the book that comes your way!
Thank you! I haven’t read many of Steinbeck’s books but I loved East of Eden and will be interested to see what I think of Grapes of Wrath. I’m not sure if A Passage to India will be my sort of book as I’ve had mixed feelings about Forster in the past, but I’ll be happy to give it a try.
I’ve read a few of these books – my favourite of them is A Passage to India. The Grapes of Wrath is also on my list – but at a different number. I hope you get one you enjoy.
Thank you, Margaret. I’ll be happy with The Grapes of Wrath as I’ve been wanting to read more Steinbeck since reading and loving East of Eden last year. A Passage to India is one that I’m not sure about, so I’m pleased to hear you liked it.
Lots of titles on your list unknown to me. The only one I’ve read is The Grapes of Wrath, a good read but a little depressing. We have one book in common on our lists,The Black Arrow. I hope you enjoy the book you read for the spin.
Thanks, Yvonne. I would love to get either The Grapes of Wrath or The Black Arrow!
The Black Arrow seems to be a number of lists and sounds a lot of fun. You’ve got a number of great reads on there, Helen. The Chrysalids and Claudius the God are old favourites; The Grapes of Wrath I’m working up to. I’ve got my list ready and was thinking of waiting until the draw to publish it, but I might get too impatient before then!
The Black Arrow does sound fun and I’ve enjoyed the other books I’ve read by Stevenson, so I’ll be happy with that one. The Chrysalids would be a good one to get too. I love John Wyndham! I hope the spin picks a great book for you on Friday. 🙂
Hard to pick just one from this list! I’d be hoping for the Pym, or the Hardy myself. 🙂
Thomas Hardy is one of my favourite Victorian authors, so I would love to get Desperate Remedies. I’d be happy with the Pym too.
I’ve read numbers 10, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19 and 20. I enjoyed them all but especially Germinal and The Grapes of Wrath.
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed so many of the books on my list. I would like to get Germinal as it’s been a long time since I last read anything by Zola.
I like the 20th Century choices. You could finish the Claudius biography.
I would like the spin to give me Claudius the God so I can read it before I forget what happened in the first book. Any of the 20th century classics would be good, though.
I have only read Claudius by Graves, fantastic. But your other titles, -some by authors I’ve read other works, look appealing.
I read I, Claudius last year and enjoyed it, so I’m looking forward to reading Claudius the God. I think I’ll be happy to read any of the books on my list, though.
Oh, Helen, I am so embarrassed, I have only read I, Claudius, I missed you wrote Claudius the God. I don’t know any of your interesting looking titles. I’m curious about what you get.
This has inspired me, everyone has so many great lists for their spins that I had to make up a whole new Classics Club list!
I’ve read several off your list. Germinal and The Grapes of Wrath are both brilliant (and actually have similar themes — would be great to read one after the other and compare them!). I also loved Angela Thirkell and Barbara Pym, definitely lighter fun reads. Have not heard of Jezebel’s Daughter but I do enjoy Wilkie Collins so I’m intrigued. Good luck with your spin pick!
Thanks. It would be nice to get one of the lighter reads like the Thirkell or Pym, but I do want to read both Germinal and The Grapes of Wrath, so I’ll be pleased if I get either of those. I’ve read all of Wilkie Collins’ better known books now and have moved on to the more obscure ones. I don’t know anything about Jezebel’s Daughter but I’m hoping I’ll enjoy it.
Good luck with your new Classics Club list!
I have read 16. How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
17. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
18. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Loved them all!
That’s great – I’m looking forward to reading all three!