Category: Reading Challenges

Signing up for the 2013 Historical Fiction Challenge

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It’s that time of year again when plans are being made for 2013 and next year’s reading challenges are being announced! I prefer not to sign up for too many challenges as in the past I’ve been so bad at actually completing them, but there are one or two I can never resist – and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge is one of them.

The Historical Fiction Challenge is again being hosted by the wonderful Historical Tapestry and runs from 1 January to 31 December 2013. There are five different levels of participation to choose from:

20th century reader – 2 books
Victorian reader – 5 books
Renaissance Reader – 10 books
Medieval – 15 books
Ancient History – 25+ books

This is one challenge I never have any trouble completing, so I will be signing up at the Ancient History level, which means reading at least 25 historical fiction books next year. As historical fiction is my favourite genre and forms such a large percentage of my reading every year anyway, it’s not too ‘challenging’ for me, but I still love taking part as I enjoy discovering new historical fiction blogs and seeing what everyone else has been reading each month.

If you’re interested in joining too, see this post at Historical Tapestry.

Classics Challenge November Prompt

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This year I have been taking part in a Classics Challenge hosted by Katherine of November’s Autumn. Every month Katherine has posted a prompt to help us discuss the classic novels we are reading.

I have enjoyed taking part in the challenge and although I haven’t managed to answer all of the prompts, I did want to respond to this one as it provides a sort of summary of the year’s reading, encouraging us to look back at all the classics we have read in 2012.

Here are this month’s questions and my answers:

Of all the Classics you’ve read this year is there an author or movement that has become your new favorite? Which book did you enjoy the most? Or were baffled by?

It’s not exactly a movement, but it seems that a lot of the classics I’ve been drawn to this year have been what I would describe as swashbuckling adventure novels: Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini, The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope and Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. I would like to read more books by all of these authors, especially Sabatini and Scott.

I also enjoyed Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men on the Bummel (though not as much as one of my favourite books from last year, Three Men in a Boat) and my two Austen re-reads (Mansfield Park and Emma).

I can’t say I’ve been baffled by any of the classics I’ve read this year, but the one I found the most challenging to read was A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, purely because I didn’t like the style of his writing.

Who’s the best character? The most exasperating?

My favourite character from the classics I’ve read this year is definitely Andre-Louis Moreau, the hero of Scaramouche. I also liked Joe Gargery in Great Expectations – Dickens’ novels are always filled with memorable characters and I remember writing about Joe in response to one of the first Classic Challenge posts of the year.

The most exasperating has to be Sylvia from Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell. I was irritated by her silliness in the first half of the book and although she did start to mature after that, she still continued to frustrate me with some of the decisions she made.

From reading other participants’ posts which book do you plan to read and are most intrigued by?

The Mill on the Floss seems to have been a popular choice for the Classics Challenge and I definitely want to read that one soon. Vanity Fair, The House of Mirth, The Heir of Redclyffe and East of Eden are other books I’ve added to my list for 2013 after reading other participants’ posts.

Have you read any of the books I’ve mentioned in this post? Are there any more classics you think I really need to read next year?

Classics Challenge October Prompt: Chapter Musings

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This year I have been taking part in a Classics Challenge hosted by Katherine of November’s Autumn. Every month Katherine posts a prompt to help us discuss the classic novel we are currently reading. The prompt for October is:

Chapter Musings

Jot down some notes about the chapter you’ve just read or one that struck you the most. It can be as simple as a few words you learned, some quotes, a summary, or your thoughts and impressions.

The classic I’m reading at the moment is A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, the story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front during World War I. This is the first Hemingway book I’ve read and I wasn’t sure what to expect, as he seems to be one of those authors people either love or hate. I’m only seven (very short) chapters into the book so it’s really too early to tell, but so far I’m finding it a lot more readable than I had thought it would be.

Chapter 1, which is the chapter I’ve chosen to focus on for the purposes of this post, is less than two pages long yet it has a lot of significance as it sets the scene and the tone of the novel. We learn almost nothing about our narrator in these two pages, not even his name, and although it’s obvious that he is involved with the army in some way, he seems very detached from what is going on around him.

“Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves.”

I’ve included the quote above because I think it’s a good example of Hemingway’s writing style. He uses simple, direct language and seems to like stringing together very long sentences using the word ‘and’! He also manages to paint vivid pictures of his settings while avoiding flowery descriptions. I’m not sure yet whether I like his writing or not, but I’ll see how I feel after reading a whole book written in this style.

Chapter 1 ends with the following two sentences:

“At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera. But it was checked and in the end only seven thousand died of it in the army.”

R.I.P. VII is here!

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It’s September tomorrow and summer is coming to an end (not that we’ve had much of a summer here in the UK this year). But as the nights start to get darker it means it’s time for R.I.P. (R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril), one of my favourite reading events! As always, R.I.P. VII is hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings and runs throughout the months of September and October. The idea is to read books that could be classified as one of the following:

Mystery
Suspense
Thriller
Dark Fantasy
Gothic
Horror
Supernatural
Or anything sufficiently moody that shares a kinship with the above.

There are a few different levels of participation to choose from. I’m planning to participate in Peril the First, which means reading four books.

I’m listing below a selection of books I would like to read that fit the above categories. I certainly don’t expect to have time to read all of these before the end of October, but I wanted to give myself plenty of options. It’s also possible that I’ll change my mind and decide to read some books that I haven’t mentioned. I’m very bad at sticking to lists!

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – This has been on my R.I.P. list for the last two years and I still haven’t read it!

The House by the Churchyard by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu – I’ve read Uncle Silas and want to try another Le Fanu book. I might be tempted to read Carmilla instead as it’s much shorter.

The Seance by John Harwood – This was recommended to me after I read and loved John Harwood’s other novel, The Ghost Writer.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – I’m hoping I’ll enjoy this as much as We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson – It’s on my Classics Club list along with the Mary Shelley and Sheridan Le Fanu books above, so this is a good opportunity to read all three.

The Quarry by Johan Theorin – Another one that was on my list last year.

Blood Harvest by S.J. Bolton – This is the only book by S.J. Bolton that I still haven’t read.

Dragonwyck by Anya Seton – I love Anya Seton and have been wanting to read this for years!

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill – Another book I’ve been meaning to read for a long time.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King – I read the first book in the Mary Russell series in January and loved it, but still haven’t had time to read the second one.

Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor – I read The American Boy and The Anatomy of Ghosts in 2011 and enjoyed them both, so I’m looking forward to this one.

The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters – Another series I started and haven’t continued with.

The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe – I’ve read three of Radcliffe’s other gothic novels, so I’d like to try this one too.

Who else is taking part in R.I.P. this year? See Carl’s post for more information and to sign up.

Classics Challenge August Prompt: Quotes from Jane Austen’s Emma

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This year I am taking part in a Classics Challenge hosted by Katherine of November’s Autumn. The goal is to read at least seven classics in 2012 and every month Katherine is posting a prompt to help us discuss the books we are reading. This month we are asked to share some quotes from our current read.

The classic I just finished reading yesterday was Emma by Jane Austen. This was a re-read for me and I’ll be posting my thoughts on the book next week. For now, here are some quotes from Emma. Katherine’s prompt recommended choosing some that were not so well-known. I’m not sure it’s possible to find any quotes from a Jane Austen novel that are not well-known, so I’ve just posted a selection of my favourites. Some might be more obscure than others.

“That is the case with us all, papa. One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.”

***

“I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry. Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing! But I never have been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall. And, without love, I am sure I should be a fool to change such a situation as mine.”

***

“A sanguine temper, though for ever expecting more good than occurs, does not always pay for its hopes by any proportionate depression. It soon flies over the present failure, and begins to hope again.”

***

“To be sure – our discordancies must always arise from my being in the wrong.”

“Yes,” said he, smiling, “and reason good. I was sixteen years old when you were born.”

“A material difference, then,” she replied; “and no doubt you were much my superior in judgement at that period of our lives; but does not the lapse of one-and-twenty years bring our understandings a good deal nearer?”

“Yes, a good deal nearer.”

“But still, not near enough to give me a chance of being right, if we think differently.”

***

Was it new for any thing in this world to be unequal, inconsistent, incongruous — or for chance and circumstance (as second causes) to direct the human fate?

***

“I cannot make speeches, Emma,” he soon resumed; and in a tone of such sincere, decided, intelligible tenderness as was tolerably convincing. “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth from me.”

***

Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.

A Classics Challenge – February: Joe Gargery

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This year I am taking part in a Classics Challenge hosted by Katherine of November’s Autumn. The goal is to read seven classics in 2012 and every month, Katherine will be posting a prompt to help us discuss the book we are reading.

The novel I’m currently reading for the challenge is Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and this month Katherine is asking us to answer some questions about a character from the book we are reading. As you would expect from any Dickens novel there are plenty of memorable characters in Great Expectations to choose from – Miss Havisham, Pip, Estella, Mr Jaggers, Abel Magwitch and many others – but the character I’ve decided to write about is one of my favourites, Joe Gargery.

Level 1
What phrases has the author used to introduce this character? What are your first impressions of them? Find a portrait or photograph that closely embodies how you imagine them.

Joe is the brother-in-law of the novel’s narrator, Pip, and one of the biggest influences on his early life. Joe and his wife (Pip’s sister, referred to throughout the novel as Mrs Joe Gargery) have brought Pip up since he was orphaned as a child. Mrs Joe is a hard, overbearing woman who is often cruel to Pip, but Joe is a kind and loving father figure.

Here is our first introduction to Joe, as seen through Pip’s eyes:

Joe was a fair man, with curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face, and with eyes of such a very undecided blue that they seemed to have somehow got mixed with their own whites. He was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow – a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness.

Level 2
How has the character changed? Has your opinion of them altered? Are there aspects of their character you aspire to? or hope never to be? What are their strengths and faults? Do you find them believable? If not, how could they have been molded so? Would you want to meet them?

I haven’t finished the book yet but based on what I’ve read so far, Joe doesn’t really change over the course of the book and my opinion of him hasn’t altered. The thing that does change is the way Pip views him. After Pip meets Miss Havisham and Estella he starts to feel ashamed of Joe because of his lack of education and refinement. Joe doesn’t have much interest in money, property or any of the other things that are so important to most of the other characters in the novel – he seems happy with his simple way of life and doesn’t have any ‘great expectations’, unlike Pip.

Who are your favourite characters from Great Expectations? What do you think of Joe Gargery?

A Classics Challenge – January: Charlotte Brontë

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This year I am taking part in a Classics Challenge hosted by Katherine of November’s Autumn. The goal is to read seven classics in 2012 and on the 4th day of every month, Katherine will be posting a prompt to help us discuss the book we are reading.

The first book I’ve chosen to read for the challenge is The Professor by Charlotte Brontë. I’m almost halfway through the book and have been enjoying it so far. I’ll be posting my thoughts about the book itself after I’ve finished reading it, but for this month’s prompt, Katherine is asking us to focus on the author – in this case, Charlotte Brontë.

There are three different levels of participation this month depending on how far into the book we are, and I feel I’ve read enough of The Professor to answer the questions for all three levels.

Level 1
Who is the author? What do they look like? When were they born? Where did they live? What does their handwriting look like? What are some of the other novels they’ve written? What is an interesting and random fact about their life?

Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire on April 21, 1816, the third of the six children of Reverend Patrick Brontë and his wife Maria Branwell Brontë.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum

The Brontë family lived at Haworth Parsonage, now the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

Charlotte Brontë is the author of four novels: Jane Eyre, one of my favourite classics, Villette, which I read last year, The Professor, and Shirley. I am reading The Professor now and will hopefully have time for Shirley too before the end of the year.

Charlotte Brontë's signature

Here’s an interesting piece of trivia about Charlotte: A tiny manuscript of an unpublished Charlotte Brontë story was sold at auction in 2011 to a French museum. The story was written in 1830 when she was fourteen years old and each page measures only 1.4 x 2.4 inches.

Level 2
What do you think of their writing style? What do you like about it? or what would have made you more inclined to like it? Is there a particular quote that has stood out to you?

I find it hard to explain exactly what I like about Charlotte Brontë’s writing style, but I obviously like it enough to want to read all four of her books! I love the way she expresses the feelings and emotions of her characters; she chooses exactly the right words and phrases to convey their sadness, loneliness and suffering as well as their moments of happiness and love.

However, there are a few aspects of her writing that I don’t like so much. Two problems I’m having with The Professor are the overwhelming number of references to physiognomy (judging a person’s character from their appearance) and also a tendency to include a lot of French dialogue which is not translated, making it difficult for a non-French speaker to follow what’s being said. Overall, though, I do like the way she writes and am looking forward to reading the rest of this book.

Level 3
Why do you think they wrote this novel? How did their contemporaries view both the author and their novel?

The Professor was Charlotte Brontë’s first novel, although it remained unpublished until after her death. The main character, William Crimsworth, is a teacher at a school in Belgium. As Charlotte herself (like her sister Emily) had spent some time studying and teaching in Brussels, she was able to draw on her own experiences when writing this novel. It seems that The Professor wasn’t very highly regarded during Charlotte’s lifetime and she was unable to find a publisher for it, even after she began to have success with her other novels.

Have you read any of Charlotte Brontë’s novels? What do you think of her work?

Don’t forget to visit Katherine’s blog post where you can find links to other participants’ responses. We are all reading different books so a variety of different authors are being highlighted this month.