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It's February! Anyone doing any reading for Black History Month or any other commemorative observance currently in progress? My challenges have a few appropriate works among them, so I'm angling that way when I can.

Quest for Women
Miss MacIntosh, My Darling - Marguerite Young (completed 2/17/22)
The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏng - Lady Hyegyeong (completed 2/25/22)
The Amber Gods and Other Stories - Harriet Prescott Spofford (completed 2/26/22)
Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann (Currently Reading)
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor (Currently Reading)
Six Months in the Sandwich Islands - Isabella Lucy Bird

People of Color Old & New
The Lonely Londoners - Sam Selvon (completed 2/8/22)
The Coldest Winter Ever - Sister Souljah (completed 2/11/22)
Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela (Currently Reading)

Bingo
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John le Carré (completed 2/5/22)
Train to Pakistan - Khushwant Singh (completed 2/15/22)
Far From the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy (completed 2/19/22)
Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories - Truman Capote (completed 2/24/22)
Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino (Currently Reading)
Absalom, Absalom! - William Faulkner
Waiting for God - Simone Weil
To Live - Yu Hua

declaring my "Core 8" for February:

3 x Personal Challenge:
Unnatural Death Sayers, Dorothy L. 1927
Caravaners, The Arnim, Elizabeth von 1909
Memed, My Hawk Kemal, Yasar 1955

3 x Group Read:
Cyrano de Bergerac Rostand, Edmond 1897
Nausea Sartre, Jean-Paul 1938
Master & Margarita, The Bulgakov, Mikhail 1967

2 x CarryOver from 2021:
Day Of The Jackal, The Forsyth, Frederick 1971
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes Wilson, Angus 1956

I have a couple of books to complete, a few for Black history month and some newly translated books.

Finishing:
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens Finished 2/5/22
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather Finished 2/4/22

Black history month:
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo
Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Translated fiction:
More Than I Love My Life by David Grossman Finished 2/12/22
My Brilliant Life by Kim Ae-ran Finished 2/2/22
The Book of Mother by Violaine Huisman Finished 2/15/22

Continuing on in February with my various challenges and working my way chronologically through a list of 1800's British novels. Up this month are -

The Old Curiosity Shop

Barnaby Rudge

Martin Chuzzlewit

Jane Eyre

Agnes Grey

Vanity Fair

This may be more than I can read this month. If I make it to Vanity Fair, it will probably carry over into March.

Laurie wrote: "I have a couple of books to complete, a few for Black history month and some newly translated books.

Finishing:
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
[book:The So..."

Good to see your Black History Month plans, Laurie. I've heard a lot of about Aidoo, so I hope to get to her myself one of these days.

Always fun to see everyone's plans! Mine are dependent on my fantasy of unlimited reading time coming true. Chances of that are slim, but here they are anyway:

Continuing
The Old Curiosity Shop, Charles Dickens
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Lilias! Yoga: A Guide to Enchancing Body, Mind, and Soul for the Mature Practitioner, Lilias Folan

Additional February Reads
The Door, Magda Szabó
The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot

Long Term Read Starting late February
Bleak House, Charles Dickens

Black History Month
The Weary Blues, Langston Hughes (have to thank Katy for this--I picked it up after seeing how much she enjoyed it!)
Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine

Kathleen, I love Langston Hughes. We had acting students in an advanced English course where the actors read Langston Hughes. Cadence was beautiful. Enjoy!

Now that I am ready for the winter storm that will reach for a very few days to South Texas, I will pick up my reading again. All those living and working north of here in North America, you are in my thoughts.

Read:
1992. Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estés Feb 06
1929. The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley Feb 06
2020. Sun Tzu & Machiavelli Leadership Secrets: Master the Art of War and Become the Prince Dominate Your Competition with Timeless Principles by Larry Parkman Feb 07
2017. No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Le Guin Feb 08
1898. English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs Feb 10
1925. Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade by Henri Pirenne Feb 16
c 1750. Micromegas by Voltaire Feb 16
1998. These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner Feb 18
2021. Ariadne by Jennifer Saint Feb 19
2020. A very modern dictionary Feb 20
2003. Urban Europe, 1100-1700
2021. The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe by Matthew Gabriele
2006. Cyrano by Edmond Rostand
fanfic to prepare to read the play. Feb 25.
1897. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

Reading:
2013. Heap House by Edward Carey.
1831. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
traditional. Yiddish Folktales edited by Beatrice Weinreich Feb 26

Planning
401. The Bhagavad Gita by Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
1954. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1954. The Bad Seed by William March

Cynda wrote: "Now that I am ready for the winter storm that will reach for a very few days to South Texas, I will pick up my reading again. All those living and working north of here in North America, you are in..."

Some good ones Cynda!

ooh - The Poisoned Chocolates Case - one of my faves - interested to hear what you think Cynda...

it has a special place on my shelves cos I have an early hardback edition (and the story's not bad either!) ;o)

Cynda wrote: "Kathleen, I love Langston Hughes. We had acting students in an advanced English course where the actors read Langston Hughes. Cadence was beautiful. Enjoy!"

This is my first time reading him, and I see just what you mean, Cynda! Definitely enjoying--thanks.

And I hope you get to No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters. I don't think it's her best set of essays, but it's still great.

@Greg. Thanks. I hope to read much during closed in winter. We shall see :-)

@Kathleen. Your comment would normally set me looking for a better liked book. In this situation, I am reading as group participation with nonfiction group. I will hope for good conversation at least. . .
;-)

Cozy Pug - I'm currently listening to Vanity Fair read by Frederick Davidson. I'm loving it! I only listen to about a chapter a day so it's slow going but I like it that way.

On another note - Frederick Davidson narrates one of the Jeeves and Wooster books available on Audible and it was AWFUL. All the other Jeeves books on Audible are Jonathan Cecil who is just fantastic, but I couldn't handle that one by Frederick Davidson and ended up reading the book instead.

When his voice came on Vanity Fair I thought "hey! I recognize those tones!" :p But, the snooty sarcasm that I hated for Bertie Wooster, is absolutely PERFECT for Vanity Fair. :D

I too love Langston Hughes. He has some beautiful poetry.

I tend to like listening/reading to small pieces of many books at a time. Then I can always find what I'm in the mood for. :) Usually I'll plug slowly along and then as it gets near the end I'll finish it all out in one go.

These are the books I'm currently reading/listening too:

Vanity Fair
The Old Curiosity Shop
The War of the Worlds
King Solomon's Mines
Nausea
The Mystery of the Blue Train
Ring for Jeeves
The Decameron
The Sun Also Rises


I'm a Newbery Quest to read all of the Newbery Medal and Honor winners. These are the books I have planned for February. I only have about 1/4 of the list left to go. Wahoo! :)

New Land: A Novel for Boys and Girls
The Tangled-Coated Horse and Other Tales: Episodes from the Fionn Saga
Clearing Weather

Natalie wrote: "Cozy Pug - I'm currently listening to Vanity Fair read by Frederick Davidson. I'm loving it! I only listen to about a chapter a day so it's slow going but I like it that way.

On anoth..."

I'm looking forward to Vanity Fair! I'll be reading though vs listening.

I LOVE Jonathan Cecil's Bertie & Wooster audiobooks. He is so so good at the various voices and is a spot on Bertie. Snooty sarcasm doesn't feel right at all for Bertie. Glad you're enjoying the narration for VF!

Natalie wrote: "I tend to like listening/reading to small pieces of many books at a time. Then I can always find what I'm in the mood for. :) Usually I'll plug slowly along and then as it gets near the end I'll fi..."

King Solomon's Mines is on my list for the year, but it'll be several months before I get to it. Blue Train is really good, I do love Poirot.

Well done on your Newberry challenge - that's wonderful!

Kathleen wrote: "Always fun to see everyone's plans! Mine are dependent on my fantasy of unlimited reading time coming true. Chances of that are slim, but here they are anyway:

Continuing
[book:The Old Curiosity S..."

Glad to see your Black History Month plans as well, Kathleen. I must admit that still haven't gotten around to Hughes in any capacity, but I can say that the Rankine is excellent!

Cozy Pug - Jonathan Cecil as Bertie Wooster is one of the things that makes me happiest in the world. It just feels me with pure joy.

I know King Solomon's Mines is on the March group reads list but I tend to start reading as soon as I see they've won. I learned last year that waiting means I sometimes don't get the books from the library or I run out of time, so I'd rather just read them early. :D

RJ's FEBRUARY READS:

WILL FINISH:


Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child


The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham


Gone South by Robert R. McCammon


The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams


Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

WILL READ BUT WON'T FINISH:

The Drowning Pool by Ross Macdonald
The Hod King by Josiah Bancroft
This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson
Asimov's Chronology of the World by Isaac Asimov
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories by Arthur Machen
Green Tea and Other Weird Stories by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Aubrey wrote: "Glad to see your Black History Month plans as well, Kathleen. I must admit that still haven't gotten around to Hughes in any capacity, but I can say that the Rankine is excellent!"

Thank you, Aubrey--so glad to hear more love for Rankine. Can't wait to start it. I'm thoroughly enjoying Langston Hughes. You should consider moving him up your list. :-)

RJ, you have some fun stuff going on, as usual! Looking forward to what you think of The Razor's Edge. I enjoyed Le Fanu's stories--hope you do too.

Kathleen wrote: "Always fun to see everyone's plans! Mine are dependent on my fantasy of unlimited reading time coming true. Chances of that are slim, but here they are anyway:

Continuing
The Old Curiosity S..."</i>

Dickens is always a good idea Kathleen. Wish you a lot of reading time in February!

My list:
1.[book:The Analects Began this in January, hopefully would understand and digest this by February. One tough read.
2. Rock Crystal
3. Strange Fruit (for Black history month)
4. L'Argent
5. Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver Hope to get progress further

Ila - I love Mary Oliver!

Ila wrote: "Dickens is always a good idea Kathleen. Wish you a lot of reading time in February!"

Thank you, Ila--I wish the same for you, and look forward to your thoughts on Strange Fruit especially.

ooh - Rock Crystal - v.few of my GR friends have that shelved - I think it deserves to be much better known - hope you enjoy it Ila...
:o)

Ila, I was amazed by how good Strange Fruit was. Definitely a highly underrated classic that I'm glad you're engaging with.

Kathleen, the next Hughes work I spot at a used bookstore/book sale, I'm grabbing. Count on it!

The Weary Blues by Langston Hughs is available from Amazon for $2.99 if anyone wants to read his first published collection.

Thanks everyone!

Kathleen wrote: "RJ, you have some fun stuff going on, as usual! Looking forward to what you think of The Razor's Edge. I enjoyed Le Fanu's stories--hope you do too."

Thanks Kathleen. The Razor's Edge edge started out slow but, like some other classics, I noticed that by the 25% point I was completely hooked. I should wrap it up in the next couple weeks and I'll post a review in the other thread when I do.

I read Carmilla by Le Fanu and really liked it, although the ending wasn't as good as the first 2/3 of the story. I'm looking forward to reading more; right now I am mixing Le Fanu's stories with the RLS and Machen collections I am also reading, making my own "Weird" anthology of sorts. Machen especially seems to fit nicely with Le Fanu.

I see you are reading The Brothers Karamazov which is one of those books that I really need to get to (and there are SO many of those!). For some unknown reason, I've gotten the Karamazov Brothers linked in my head with the Property Brothers, a show my mother and sister love to watch. Hopefully I will be able to shake that association before I start reading the book.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "RJ, you have some fun stuff going on, as usual! Looking forward to what you think of The Razor's Edge. I enjoyed Le Fanu's stories--hope you do too."

Thanks Kathleen. The Razor's ..."

Too funny, RJ! There's absolutely no common thread I can think of between the Property Brothers and the Karamazov's, so I think that image will fall away quickly once you start reading. :-)

I can see the Le Fanu/RLS connection, but don't know Machen so will have to check him out. And I'll watch for your Razor's Edge review!

Today marks the day I finally finished the longest book I put down for this year's reading challenges, having started it on Jan 1st. Considering my next longest is a third shorter, or 400 pages fewer, it should be relatively smooth sailing from here on out.

Yay, Aubrey! Such a good feeling to get over a big hurdle. Last year I started Black Lamb and Grey Falcon on January 1 and I was still reading it in December. I finished in time but it was a slog.

Thanks, Annette :) And oh boy, that one's a slog indeed. Certainly one of the ones I was glad to get over with so that I never had to read it again.

Aubrey wrote: "Thanks, Annette :) And oh boy, that one's a slog indeed. Certainly one of the ones I was glad to get over with so that I never had to read it again."

I never finished Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. I also envy you all for the amount you read. Will look forward to next year when I will enter the Bingo Challenge.

Cheers, Luffy. I've found restricting myself to a single uber long read per year helps immensely with my ability to finish it off. I hope your bingo gives you a good structure for conducting your own long reads (with perhaps even a group read or two coming out of it).

For Black History month I read "Recitatif: A Story" by Toni Morrison. and this month I'm reading "Of Human Bondage"

Aubrey wrote: "Cheers, Luffy. I've found restricting myself to a single uber long read per year helps immensely with my ability to finish it off. I hope your bingo gives you a good structure for conducting your o..."

Of course! :)

Closing out the shortest of months with nine works read. Feels like I'm finally hitting my stride challenge reading wise, so while February proved accomplished, March seems like it will be even better (especially if it continues to warm up where I'm at).

I am hitting stride here too. To keep it coastal: Catching a wave.

Hoping March will be a good month for reading classic horror and science fiction.

Cynda, what are you planning to read in classic horror and science fiction?

of my target 8, I got 6 finished:

Unnatural Death Sayers, Dorothy L. 1927
Caravaners, The Arnim, Elizabeth von 1909
Memed, My Hawk Kemal, Yasar 1955
Cyrano de Bergerac Rostand, Edmond 1897
Master & Margarita, The Bulgakov, Mikhail 1967
Day Of The Jackal, The Forsyth, Frederick 1971

1 is ongoing:
Nausea Sartre, Jean-Paul 1938

1 got left (for logistical reasons that are too boring to go into) to carry over into March:
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes Wilson, Angus 1956

I did finish several other books outside the supposed "core" 8, but hey-ho best laid plans and all that...

How my February reading plan worked out -

The Old Curiosity Shop ��

Barnaby Rudge ��

Martin Chuzzlewit ��

Jane Eyre chose to replace this with...

Dombey and Son ��

Agnes Grey ��

Vanity Fair ��

100% completed

Way to go Cozy Pug! That is a great collection and feat! 😀

Wow CozyPug! That’s a lot of reading :)

Thanks Natalie and Janelle! It was February - cold, dark, rainy, snowy. I hibernated with books 😂

Hi Terris. In the second half of March I plan to read

Science Fiction
The Martian Chronicles by.Ray Bradbury
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Horror
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Bad Seed by William March
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

Let me know if you want to read with!

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of my faves! 👽☺️

Looking forward! Thanks Natalie.