Classics Spin – The Result

June 6, 201618 Comments

On Friday I mentioned that I was taking part in the latest Classics Spin. The idea of the Spin was to list twenty books from my Classics Club list, number them 1 to 20, and the number announced today (Monday) represents the book I have to read before 1st August 2016.

The number that has been selected by the Classics Club this time is #15, which means the book I’ll be reading is:

Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger

This is what the book is about:

Prince of Foxes, set in Renaissance Italy, is the fast-paced, suspenseful story of Andrea Orsini, a peasant boy who rises far and becomes a secret agent for the cunning and powerful Cesare Borgia, who entrusts him with the most delicate political, military and romantic missions. It is a classic of American popular fiction. When first published in the mid-twentieth century, it became an instant best-seller and was turned into a hit movie with Orson Welles cast as Borgia and Tyrone Power as Orsini.

One of the things I like about the Classics Club is that each individual member can decide how they want to define a classic. As well as conventional classics, my own list also includes modern classics, ‘forgotten’ classics, and books like this one, which are classic historical fiction. I’m very pleased that the spin has chosen Prince of Foxes for me as I’ve had a copy on my shelf for a long time and have just never managed to get round to reading it. I’ll do my best to read and review it sometime in June or July, but I want to finish Kristin Lavransdatter, my book from the previous spin, first!

Have you read this book? If you took part in the classics spin too, are you happy with your result?

Classics Spin #13: My list

June 3, 201621 Comments

The Classics Club have just announced another of their Classics Spins. It’s hard to believe this will be the thirteenth! I probably shouldn’t be taking part in this one as I haven’t even finished my book from the last Spin yet (although I think I have a good excuse, considering it was Kristin Lavransdatter) but as usual I couldn’t resist joining in.

Here is a reminder of the Spin rules:

* List any twenty books you have left to read from your Classics Club list.
* Number them from 1 to 20.
* On Monday the Classics Club will announce a number.
* This is the book you need to read by 1st August 2016

And here is my list:

1. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (re-read)
2. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3. Louise de la Valliere by Alexandre Dumas
4. Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
5. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
6. Howards End by EM Forster
7. I, Claudius by Robert Graves
8. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
9. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (re-read)
10. The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
11. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
12. The Red House Mystery by AA Milne
13. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
14. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
15. Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger
16. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
17. The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe
18. Lost Horizon by James Hilton
19. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (re-read)
20. Louise de la Valliere by Alexandre Dumas

I have exactly twenty books left to read for the Classics Club, so this list was very easy to put together. However, I haven’t included The Man in the Iron Mask as it comes after Louise de la Valliere in the d’Artagnan series and I don’t want to read them out of order. I’ve listed Louise twice instead.

I don’t really mind which book I get at this stage as I’ll be reading them all soon anyway. I’m always happy with Dumas or du Maurier, though, and I would also love to get The Leopard this time.

Are you taking part in the Classics Spin? Which books from my list do you think I should be hoping for?

A resolution revisited

May 27, 201635 Comments

Sorry about the unannounced disappearance over the last week or so. I had a stressful day at work last Friday trying to deal with a difficult colleague and it left me feeling very down for a few days and not very interested in blogging. I was struggling to concentrate on any of the books I was in the middle of reading and found myself reaching instead for The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett to re-read a favourite scene…and of course I ended up re-reading the rest of the book! As anyone who has read it will know, it finishes on such a cliffhanger that it’s almost impossible not to want to pick up the next book in the series as soon as possible, so naturally I have had to move straight on to a re-read of Pawn in Frankincense as well.

Having been reminded of how much I used to enjoy returning to my favourite books again and again, I remembered the list of reading resolutions I posted at the beginning of the year. My top resolution was to spend more time on re-reads…and until now, not a single one of my 2016 reads has been a re-read! This is something I really want to change as there are so many books I keep saying I would love to re-read and it makes me feel frustrated and sad that I just never seem to get round to doing it.

So, for the rest of the year I’m determined that I’m going to stick to my resolution and do a lot of re-reading! I’m not going to set any targets in terms of numbers, as I don’t cope very well with targets where reading is concerned…or with lists. I know that if I mentioned any specific titles here I would immediately feel under pressure and lose my enthusiasm for re-reading them, so I’m afraid you’ll have to wait and see which books I choose to re-read!

Do you enjoy re-reading too or do you prefer to discover new books?

Which are your favourite books to read over and over again?

2016 Walter Scott Prize shortlist

March 24, 2016July 22, 201616 Comments

Following the announcement last month of this year’s longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, today the shortlist of six books has been revealed. As I am currently attempting to work my way through all of the books shortlisted for the prize since it began in 2010 (see my progress here), I was particularly interested to see which titles would make the list this year. And here they are:

Sweet Caress by William Boyd

A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

Mrs Engels by Gavin McCrea

End Games in Bordeaux by Allan Massie

Tightrope by Simon Mawer

Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar

Have you read any of these? If not, are there any you’re interested in reading?

So far I have only read one of the six – A Place Called Winter, which I enjoyed, although I haven’t posted my review yet. I know very little about any of the other books on the list, but I do know that Tightrope is a sequel and End Games in Bordeaux is the fourth in a quartet, which means, with my preference for reading a series in order, I will have some catching up to do before I can start either of those two!

I’m surprised – and slightly disappointed – that there’s no place on the shortlist for A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson or Dictator by Robert Harris, both of which had been longlisted, but congratulations to the six authors above. The winner will be announced in June.

Classics Spin #12: The Result!

March 7, 201624 Comments

Last week I decided to take part in the Classics Spin. The idea of the Spin was to list twenty books from my Classics Club list, number them 1 to 20, and the number announced today (Monday) represents the book I have to read before 2nd May 2016.

The number that has been selected by the Classics Club this time is #8, which means the book I’ll be reading is:

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

I have to admit, this is not one of the books I was hoping for – although I’m still quite happy with this result. I do think I’ll enjoy it, but having just finished Vanity Fair today I would really have liked something shorter and lighter. This is the longest book left on my Classics Club list so trying to read it by the May deadline might be too ambitious, but I should at least have time for the first volume, The Wreath.

Have you read Kristin Lavransdatter? What did you think? And if you took part in the spin too, what will you be reading?

Classics Spin #12: My list

March 3, 2016March 3, 201632 Comments

The Classics Club have announced another of their Classics Spins today; I wasn’t sure whether to take part as I’m already reading two classics (Mauprat by George Sand and Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray) but I’m more than halfway through both so I’m sure I’ll have time to read one more before the spin deadline!

Here is a reminder of the Spin rules:

And here is my list:

1. The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
2. Louise de la Vallière by Alexandre Dumas
3. Mary Anne by Daphne du Maurier
4. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
5. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
6. I, Claudius by Robert Graves
7. Howards End by E.M. Forster
8. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
9. The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte M. Yonge
10. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
11. Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
12. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
13. The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
14. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
15. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (re-read)
16. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
17. Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger
18. Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
19. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
20. East of Eden by John Steinbeck

It was easy to put this selection together because I only have 25 books left on my Classics Club list now. At this stage, I really don’t mind which one I get, but I’m particularly hoping for number 2, 3, 10, 12 or 17.

Have you read any of these books? If you’re a member of the Classics Club, will you be joining in with this spin?

2016 Walter Scott Prize longlist announced

February 25, 201622 Comments

As some of you may know, I am in the process of slowly working my way through all the shortlisted titles for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction since it began in 2010. Historical fiction is my favourite genre and I have so far found the books nominated for this prize to be of a consistently high quality.

You can learn more about the prize on the Walter Scott Prize website and you can follow my progress through the shortlists on this page. Kay of What Me Read has already joined me in this project and if anyone else would like to do the same, you’re more than welcome.

Anyway, the reason I’m posting this today is that this year’s longlist has just been announced – with the shortlist to follow in March and the winner in June. I’m not currently planning to attempt to read the entire longlist, which includes thirteen books, but I would like to dip into the list from time to time and read at least some of them.

The thirteen books are as follows:

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
Sweet Caress by William Boyd
A Petrol Scented Spring by Ajay Close
A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale
Dictator by Robert Harris
Devastation Road by Jason Hewitt
Death and Mr Pickwick by Stephen Jarvis
Mrs Engels by Gavin McCrea
End Games in Bordeaux by Allan Massie
Tightrope by Simon Mawer
Signs For Lost Children by Sarah Moss
Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn
Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar

The only one I have read so far is A God in Ruins, but I do have Dictator on hold at the library and can’t wait to read it. I have heard good things about Sweet Caress – and Death and Mr Pickwick sounds interesting, although I’m not sure if I should wait until I’ve read The Pickwick Papers first. Most of the others are new to me, so I have some investigating to do!

Have you read any of these books?