Opened this comment so everyone has a place to discuss what they are reading for the January discussion. Don’t leave it all lonely here!
Opened this comment so everyone has a place to discuss what they are reading for the January discussion. Don’t leave it all lonely here!
Just finished a re-read of The Red Badge of Courage and I hadn’t remembered how much of an internal journey that was. Apparently that was what made it a book that influenced how war was written about by later authors – Hemingway was apparently much influenced. Certainly writing about war in specific details of the fighting wasn’t new – think of The Iliad.
Quite a long time ago, I read a mystery by Laurie R King (The Game) that centers on Kimball O’Hara as a British spy who has disappeared. Turns out this is Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, which I never read (not sure I’ve read any Kipling actually, certainly not in 40 years or so).
I’m also contemplating Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, which I haven’t read as an adult.
Another idea is The Wizard of Oz, trying to catch all the political undertones. This would be a good prelude to Wicked and our April visit by Gregory Maguire,
Anyone else chosen a classic yet? I am still wavering – think I need some time in the library stacks to see what grabs me.
Not sure if a book identified as “destined to become a classic” counts but I just finished The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers which is told from the POV of a young soldier and his experiences in Iraq and what they did to him.
Decided I should really be familiar with the classic A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas and found a lovely copy with illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman. This is a charming story that would make a great annual read aloud – if you were people who enjoyed being read to.
It would be fun to find an audio version read by Thomas himself. Pretty sure I’ve heard this on the radio.
Decided on my “classic” read for January – going to revisit the Forsythe’s in John Galsworthy’s The Man of Property – the first in what turned out to be 3 trilogies that is just the greatest soap opera – a perfect read for a wintery night.
Had forgotten how humorous this author is – his descriptions of the family members contrasted with their opinions of themselves – are quite funny.
HAVE JUST DISCOVERED MY FAVORITE LITERARY AWARD – The WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award
Kind of an interesting twist on reading a classic. Just finished Peter Carey’s Parrot and Olivier in America which is a fictional retelling of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America – which is a classic.
I realized I had never read Hemingway, so I checked out The Old Man and the Sea. (Yeah, I cheated -a really short one.) Hope to discuss it Saturday morning.