Hi, folks!

It’s time to look back and wrap-up some of my 2019 year-long reading projects.

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Back to the Classics

Back to the Classics, hosted by Karen, aims at encouraging readers to tackle classic books. Below are the categories for 2019, and the books I read for each:

1. 1. 1. 19th-century Classic: The Morgesons, by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard (1862)
      2. 20th Century Classic: Nada, by Carmen Laforet, tr. Edith Grossman (2007. Original: Nada, 1944)
      3. Classic by a Woman Author: Evelina, by Frances Burney (1778)
      4. Classic in translation: A Woman, by Sibilla Aleramo, tr. Rosalind Delmar (1980. Original: Una donna, 1906)
      5. Classic Comic Novel: The King of a Rainy Country, by Brigid Brophy (1956)
      6. Classic Tragic Novel: The Well of Loneliness, by Radclyffe Hall (1928)
      7. Very long classic: Emmeline, by Charlotte Turner Smith (1788, 520 p.)
      8. Novella: The Black Lake, by Hella Haassee (1948. Original: Oeroeg, 1948)
      9. Classic From the Americas: The Country of the Pointed Firs, by Sarah Orne Jewett (1896)
      10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania: The Pillow Book, by Sei Shonagon, tr. Meredith McKinney (2006. Original: 枕草子 – Makura no sōshi, c.1002)
      11. Classic From A Place You’ve Lived: A Falência, by Júlia Lopes de Almeida (‘The Bankruptcy’, 1901)
      12. Classic Play: Girls in Uniform (or Gestern und Heute), by Christa Winsloe (1930)

Contact: Goodreads

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European Reading Challenge

European Reading Challenge is hosted by Gilion, and the idea is to tour Europe through books. Below are the books I read in 2019:

• My level of participation: 5 star (deluxe entourage)
  1. Austria: Intimate Ties, by Robert Musil, tr. Peter Wortsman (2019. Original: Vereinigungen, 1911)
  2. UK: North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell (1854 – 1855)
  3. Iceland: Butterflies in November, by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, tr. Brian FitzGibbon (2014. Original: Rigning í nóvember, 2004)
  4. Germany: Girls in Uniform, by Christa Winsloe (Gestern und Heute, 1930)
  5. France: The Years, by Annie Ernaux, tr. Alison L. Strayer (2017. Original: Les Années, 2008)
  6. Italy: Family Lexicon, by Natalia Ginzburg, tr. Jenny McPhee (2017. Original: Lessico famigliare, 1963)
  7. Ireland: Belinda, by Maria Edgeworth (1801)
  8. Russia: Sofia Petrovna, by Lydia Chukovskaya, tr. Aline Werth, emended by Eliza Kellogg Klose. (1994. Original: Sofia Petrovna, written in 1939-40, and first published in 1965). Also published as The deserted house, tr. Aline B. Werth. (1967)
  9. Spain: Nada, by Carmen Laforet, tr. Edith Grossman (2007. Original: Nada, 1944)
  10. The Netherlands: The Black Lake, by Hella Haasse, tr. Ina Rilke (2013. Original: Oeroeg, 1948)

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Victorian Reading Challenge

Victorian Reading Challenge is hosted by Becky to promote Victorian literature. Below are the categories for 2019, and the books I read for each:

• BINGO CARD: Option A (first line, horizontal):
  • Free choice:
    • Belinda, by Rhoda Broughton (1883)
    • Aurora Leigh, by Elizabet Barret Browning (1856)
  • Any Brontë sister:
    • Gondal’s Queen by Emily Brontë, edited by Fannie Elizabeth Ratchford (1955)
    • Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë (1847)
  • Elizabeth Gaskell:
    • North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell (1854)
    • Gothic Tales, by Elizabeth Gaskell, edited by Laura Kranzler (2000)
  • George Eliot:
    • Middlemarch, by George Eliot (1871)
    • The Journals of George Eliot, edited by Margaret Harris and Judith Johnston (2000)
  • Free choice:
    • Hester, by Margaret Oliphant (1883)
    • The Beth Book, by Sarah Grand (1897)
    • Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti (1862)

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Classics Club

The Classics Club readers commit to read and blog about at least 50 classics over five years. In 2019, from my list, I read the following books:

1. North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell (1854)
2. The Country of the Pointed Firs, by Sarah Orne Jewett (1896)
3. If not, winter, poems by Sappho, tr. Anne Carson (2003)
4. Cassandra at the Wedding, by Dorothy Baker (1962)
5. Lavinia, by George Sand (1833)
6. The Morgesons, by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard (1862)
7. Aurora Leigh, by Elizabet Barret Browning (1856)
8. Wise Blood, by Flannery O’Connor
9. Belinda, by Maria Edgeworth (1801)
10. The Beth Book, by Sarah Grand (1896)
11. Sofia Petrovna, by Lydia Chukovskaya, tr. Aline Werth, emended by Eliza Kellogg Klose. (1994. Original: Sofia Petrovna, written in 1939-40, and first published in 1965). Also published as The deserted house, tr. Aline B. Werth. (1967)
12. Evelina, by Frances Burney (1778)
13. The Rover, by Aphra Behn
14. The Well of Loneliness, by Radclyffe Hall (1928)
15. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton
16. Hester, by Margaret Oliphant (1883)
17. Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti (1862)
18. Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbens
19. Someone at a Distance, by Dorothy Whipple
20. Fidelity by Susan Glaspell
21. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë (1847)
22. Middlemarch, by George Eliot (1871)
23. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792)
24. Emmeline; or The Orphan of the Castle, by Charlotte Smith (1788)
25. Diary of a Provincial Lady, by E. M. Delafield (1930)
26. Belinda, by Rhoda Broughton (1883)
27. Gothic Tales, by Elizabeth Gaskell, edited by Laura Kranzler (2000)
28. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)
29. Around the World in 72 Days, by Nellie Bly (1890)
30. The Black Lake, Hella Haassee (1948)
31. Letty Fox: Her Luck by Christina Stead (1946)
32. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin (1899)

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Century of Books

This is a reading project created by Simon, with the aim of reading and reviewing a book published in every year of the 20th century. I am taking it as a long-term project, and my aim is to read one book for every year of the 19th century. Here is my list. In 2019, I read the following books for this project:

1. North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell (1854 – 1855)
2. The Country of the Pointed Firs, by Sarah Orne Jewett (1896)
3. Lavinia, by George Sand (1833)
4. The Morgesons, by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard (1862)
5. Aurora Leigh, by Elizabet Barret Browning (1856)
6. Belinda, by Maria Edgeworth (1801)
7. The Beth Book, by Sarah Grand (1896)
8. Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti (1862)
9. Hester, by Margaret Oliphant (1883)
10. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë (1847)
11. Middlemarch, by George Eliot (1871-72)
12. Belinda, by Rhoda Broughton (1883)

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Other personal projects

As for my personal reading projects, I read most (but not all) of the new-to-me authors I wanted to get to know in 2019:

New-to-me Authors to read in 2019

• Radclyffe Hall
  • The Well of Loneliness (1928)
• Frances Burney
  • Evelina (1778)
• Sarah Orne Jewett
  • The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896)
• Ouida/ Maria Louise Ramé
• Ann Quin
• Renata Adler
  • Speedboat (1976)
• Violette LeDuc
• Elena Garro
• Carmen Laforet
  • Nada, tr. Edith Grossman (2007. Original: Nada, 1944)
• Christina Stead
  • Letty Fox: Her Luck (1946)
• Annie Ernaux
  • The Years, tr. Alison L. Strayer (2017. Original: Les Années, 2008)
• Brigid Brophy
  • The King of a Rainy Country (1956)

I read 05 of the 10 books on my Spring TBR:

1. The Years, by Annie Ernaux, tr. Alison L. Strayer (2017. Original: Les Années, 2008)
2. Iphigenia, by Teresa de la Parra, tr. Bertie Acker (1993. Original: Ifigenia, 1924)
3. The Well of Loneliness, by Radcliffe Hall (1928)
4. Mouthful of Birds, by Samanta Schweblin, tr. Megan McDowell (2019. Original: Pájaros en la boca, 2008)
5. Nobody’s Looking at You: Essays, by Janet Malcolm (2019)

And I read 05 of the 10 books on my Autumn TBR:

1. Gothic Tales, by Elizabeth Gaskell, edited by Laura Kranzler (2000)
2. Belinda, by Rhoda Broughton (1883)
3. Victorian Ghosts in the Noontide: Women Writers and the Supernatural, by Vanessa D. Dickerson (1996)
4. The Journals of George Eliot, edited by Margaret Harris and Judith Johnston (2000)
5. Diary of a Provincial Lady, by E. M. Delafield (1930)

Finally, for the local book club I take part in, I read 09 of the 12 books we discussed:

1. The Heart of the Matter, by Graham Greene (1948) ✓
2. Family Lexicon, by Natalia Ginzburg, tr. Jenny McPhee (2017. Original: Lessico famigliare, 1963) ✓
3. Call me by your name, Andre Aciman (2007) ✓
4. Artemisia, by Anna Banti, tr. Shirley D’Ardia Caracciol (2003. Original: Artemisia, 1947) ✓
5. Go Tell It On The Mountain, by James Baldwin (1953) ✓
6. Lost in Translation, by Eva Hoffman
7. The Wall, by John Lanchester
8. Conversations with Friends, by Sally Rooney ✓
9. Botchan, by Natsume Soseki ✓
10. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
11. Hot Milk, by Deborah Levy (2016) ✓
12. Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov ✓

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That’s it for now, folks.  How did your projects go this year?

Yours truly,

J.

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