Top Ten Tuesday: Classics I Haven't Read

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week the theme is Modern Books You Think Will Be Classics In The Future (submitted by Veros @ Dark Shelf of Wonders). I was having a look at some lists of classics and it seems I am not great at even recognising what a classic classic is let alone looking at modern books and thinking it will become a classic in the future. So I am turning the theme on it's head and instead sharing 10 classics I haven't yet read. 

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque - Not too long ago we watched the recent German adaptation of the movie and then an older English version. Remarque was clearly something of a celebrity in his day as he was involved with Marlene Dietrich and married to actress Paulette Goddard

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin -- Mile Franklin, real name Stella  has given her name to not one but two of the major awards in Australian literature (Miles Franklin award and Stella Prize)  but I haven't read anything by her. The book was published in 2001.

The Tree of Man by Patrick White - Patrick White is the only Australian winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. 

The Fortunes of Richard Mahony by Henry Handel Richardson - I had this book on my shelves for a long time but at some point it didn't survive a cull. Like Miles Franklin, Richardson is using a male name but is actually a female writer. 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - I haven't actually read any of the books by the Bronte sisters.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank - You would think I would have managed to read this given how much I read about WWII. 

Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien - It's not like I haven't tried! I have read and loved The Hobbit at least 3 times. I have started the first book int he Lord of the Rings trilogy several times but I have never made it through to the end. 

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - I did get this on audio a few years ago, mainy because Richard Armitage was one of the narrators. I didn't get very far though. 

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne - I read Around the World in Eighty Days a couple of years ago and really loved it but haven't read anything else by him yet.  According to Goodreads there are apparently 6726 different editions of this book! Made choosing a cover a bit of a challenge.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - I have known lot of people over the years who name this as a childhood favourite but I never read it!

I am contemplating using this as the basis to maybe join in on the Classics Spin next year, but we will see. I would have to find another 10 classics to add to make a full list. What's your favourite classic?

Top Ten Tuesday: Backlist Titles

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme i

s Forgotten Backlist Titles (Spread love for books that people don’t talk about much anymore!). I am going to twist the theme a little bit and make my list the last 10 books that I have read that were published prior to 2020. Here we go!

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa - published in 2013

The Red Notebook by Antoine Durain - published in 2015

The Drifter by Anthea Hodgson - published in 2016

The Martian by Andy Weir - published in 2011

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne - published in 1872

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico - published in 1958

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett - published in 1996

Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes - published in 2016

Act Like It by Lucy Parker - published in 2015

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer - published in 2019

Have you read any of these?

Six Degrees of Separation: Born to Run to I Wish I Had a Red Dress

 

 

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz. 

 

This month's starting point is Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen.

I did try a few different paths, but I kept on coming back to one word and one unlikely connection which was Bruce from Finding Nemo

via GIPHY

So, my first link is to 20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne which features Captain Nemo 

I recently read another another book by Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days.

Another person who went around the world was Jessica Watson when she attempted a solo navigation around world at the age of 16, so my next book is True Spirit: The Aussie Girl Who Took On The World.

If you hear the name Watson, I can't think of the phrase "elementary my dear Watson" so my next book is A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes book by Arthur Conan Doyle.

My next link is to Poison Study by Maria V Snyder, both because of the word Study and the fact that the woman on the cover is wearing a red dress, and it's also the first in a series.

And speaking of a red dress, my last choice this month is I Wish I Had a Red Dress by Pearl Cleage 

Next month's starting point is Hydra by Adriana Howell. I think I already know what my first link might be. Just need to make it work for the whole chain now!

Will you be joining us?

This week...

I'm reading

I finished reading My Father's House which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also finished the audiobook of Around the World in Eight Days. Now, for a complete change of pace, I am listening to the audio of The Martian and I started reading Hopeful Hearts at Cornish Cove by Kim Nash.  I haven't actually read Kim Nash before, but there was great excitement in the tour company's Facebook page when this one was announced so I didn't want to miss out. It is very readable so far!

My read-on-a-theme bookclub theme this time is books to screen. I have already listed to Around the World in Eighty Days which is my official choice, but I decided that the time was right to read/listen to The Martian by Andy Weir. The Martian is one of my all time favourite movies. If I am scrolling through the TV channels and I see it on, I will always watch it.  This means that I have probably seen the end of the movie at least a dozen or more times. The beginning... not so much. This definitely qualifies for the theme this month so I will have two books to talk about!

I'm watching

We haven't really watched anything this week

Life

It is a long weekend here this weekend! So far it has been very pleasant. We went to a wedding celebration for friends on Saturday and on Sunday we enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon in the city visiting the Monet and Friends exhibition at Lume and then having a delicious Thai dinner.

We really enjoyed the time we spent at Monet and Friends. This is one of those immersive experiences where the art is displayed on huge screens all around you, including using the floor. It is digitally enhanced, so for example, if there is a dragonfly in a painting it will be hovering above the flowers rather than static, and there is also classical music added to it. We ended up staying for a couple of hours. The first time through the display we just sat and watched it. The second time through we sat at the cafe having a pot of tea and a macaron, listening and watching but from a different angle this time!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Sing!

Musings on Music: Ed Sheeran

Weekend Cooking: Pi Day

Sunday Salon : Historical Fiction Reading Challenge February Statistics

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

This week...

I'm reading

I have made some progress in my reading this week, but not enough to finish anything. I should be able to finish My Father's House this week and maybe even finish listening to Around the World in 80 Days hopefully.

I'm watching

We finished watching Cunk on Earth this week. We loved and thought it was very funny. 

I did also watch Hacksaw Ridge over the weekend. Originally I thought I was on the History Channel and was watching a documentary. I was thinking gee that actor looks like Andrew Garfield. And then I saw Hugo Weaving and realised it was a movie. 

Life

What a weekend we had! We spent lots of time with thousands of people and lots of time in the car not going very far but it was worth every minute.

First off we went to see Ed Sheeran in concert at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday night, along with another 109000 people. You read that correctly. More than 109000 people. It's the biggest ticketed concern in Australian history and Ed Sheeran's biggest concert ever. It took us an our to get out of the stadium and walk to the car park, and then it took us around 45 minutes to just get out of the car park. Was it worth it? Absolutely!

On Sunday we went to the Avalon International Air Show. It took us 2 hours to get there and then an hour to get 10km getting out of car park. Was it worth it? Absolutely! So much fun seeing, feeling and hearing the roar of the big jets, and appreciating the skill of the pilots. It was, however, very warm!

Originally we were supposed to go to the air show on Friday night, but I had double booked us for Ed and the air show on the same night. I have, however, already put the next air show dates in the diary so hopefully I won't make the same mistake again!

On the down side, I realised that I have lost a stone from my wedding ring which is a bit upsetting.

Here's a taster from the Air Show.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Sir Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - March Linky 

Weekend Cooking: What I Baked In My Kitchen in February

Six Degrees: The Passages to Men Are From Venus, Women Are From Mars

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Top Ten Tuesday: The Classics edition

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Favorite Heroines (or heroes, if you prefer!) but I am going to go off topic this week...again. I am currently listening to Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, so I thought that I would share classics I have read. I know that I should have read many more, but oh well. No guilt allowed right!

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne - Listening to this now!

Les Miserable by Victor Hugo - What a massive undertaking this was!

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - I read this last year for Cook the Books and thoroughly enjoyed it!

East of Eden by John Steinbeck -   There's several books on this list that I read thanks to Oprah's book club!

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald - I read this back in high school and then read it again 10 years ago.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - This was another Oprah read. I did end up going on to read and enjoy a number of his books.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen  - Still the only Austen I have ever read - Shocking I know!

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - I read this after reading Mr Pip!

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell - I did think about putting up the cover of the DVD of the BBC series as the picture here (hello Richard Armitage) but I restrained myself!

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - I really enjoyed this! Another Oprah read!

What's your favourite classic?

This week...

I'm reading

My read on a theme bookclub theme this month is book to screen. I was tossing around a few ideas but I have ended up landing on Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne on audio. I watched the TV series with David Tennant last year. So far I can't help but think how different it is from the book and how the things that I thought I knew about the book aren't in it so far!

I am also back reading The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan. I am reading this for Cook the Books, so I need to find something to cook from it so I can post about that when I share the post for Weekend Cooking over the next few weeks.

I'm watching

I went to the movies twice last week. I went to see The Whale, starring Brendan Fraser and then on Saturday night we went too see A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks. These are two very different movies. Both good but both different. The Whale was quite confronting and Otto was uplifting and feel good

We also finally finished watching Only Murders in the Building, so now we wait for the next series. We also started watching the final series of Picard and the second series of Jeremy Clarkson's series about running his farm, Clarkson's Farm. I don't always agree with Clarkson, but this show does make me laugh.

Life

Speaking of laughing, we went to see British comedian Sarah Millican live. It is the second time we have seen her and she was just as good the second time around.

Max

We started Advanced Manners training this week, although to be honest, I am pretty sure Max has forgotten all of his basic manners training.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Celebrating Later in Life Romances

One French Summer by Gillian Harvey

Weekend Cooking: The Library Book Edition

Sunday Salon: 2022 in Review

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - January statistics

 

Last year I started sharing statistics each month for the Historical challenge, and my plan is to continue to do this again this year. I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! Having visited most of January's posts, I can tell you that there are some very interesting books being reviewed - unusual times and places, translated fiction and more.

In terms of the books, there were 84 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 31 participants. This is 13 more than for the same month last year. There were 80 individual titles reviewed, written by 79 different authors, although 4 books were co-authored and I am never quite sure whether to count those more than once! There were 5 reviewers who reviewed more than 5 books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 9 or just 1.

There were 4 books that were each reviewed twice. The first book was My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor. Based on the reviews at She Reads Novels and What Cathy Read Next, I have requested this book from the library.

The second book to be reviewed twice was Queen of Thieves by Beezy Marsh which was reviewed at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews and Laura's Reviews.

The next book to be reviewed twice was Sisters of Castle Leod by Elizabeth Hutchison Bernard. This was reviewed at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews and also at A Darn Good Read

The final book which was reviewed twice was The Rose and The Thistle by Laura Frantz, reviewed at A Darn Good Read and at Laura's Reviews

In addition to these authors, there was one author who had more than one book reviewed and that was Agatha Christie. Shellie from Shellie Loves Books reviewed lesser known title Sad Cypress and Laura from Laura's Reviews reviewed Toward's Zero. Both of these bloggers are participating in the Read Christie Challenge.

I wanted to give a personal shout out to Sarah from Belle's Library who reviewed Around the World in 80 days. The theme for my read on a theme bookclub is Book to Screen. I had been debating about which book to read, but as soon as I saw her post I knew that it was time for me to read this Jules Verne classic, especially seeing as I watched the TV series starring David Tennant late last year.

It's not too late to join the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. The sign up post is here, and you can find the February linky to add your reviews here.

I am also sharing this post with Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.