The latest Classics Club Spin has been announced. To join in, I choose twenty books from my classics list. On Sunday, June 15th, the Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The goal is to read whatever book falls under that number on my Spin List by August 24th, 2025.
This time I am changing my approach, because it is summer and I am determined to read all the books on my 20 Books of Summer List. Thus I am only including books of moderate length (no more than 250 pages). That only left 15 books, so I repeated the top five books in the list at the end of the list. Thus, some books are on the list twice.
So, here is my list of 20 books for the spin...
- Patricia Highsmith – The Talented Mr.Ripley (1955)
- Madeleine L'Engle – A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
- Graham Greene – Our Man in Havana (1958)
- Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
- Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
- John Steinbeck – Cannery Row (1945)
- Oscar Wilde – The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
- Virginia Woolf – Flush (1933)
- Anne Brontë – Agnes Grey (1847)
- Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart (1958)
- Muriel Spark – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961)
- Dashiell Hammett – Red Harvest (1929)
- Christopher Isherwood – Goodbye to Berlin (1939)
- Robert Louis Stevenson – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
- Lewis Carroll – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
- Patricia Highsmith – The Talented Mr.Ripley (1955)
- Madeleine L'Engle – A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
- Graham Greene – Our Man in Havana (1958)
- Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
- Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
The three books I would most like to read for this spin are A Wrinkle in Time by L'Engle, The Talented Mr.Ripley by Highsmith, or Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene. However, any of the books on my list would be fine.
Good luck with the Spin. Things Fall Apart is excellent. I also enjoyed Agnes Grey although Ann Bronte's The Tenant of Wilfell Hall is in my opinion her better book. Must read Farenheit. I read Bradbury's Martian Chronicles decades ago and I continue to have fond memories.
ReplyDeleteKathy, All the books you noted sound good. I wish that I had put The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on my list. The Martian Chronicles is on my Classics List but I don't have a copy of it yet.
DeleteGreat list. I cannot tell you how many times THINGS FALL APART has been applicable to our world.
ReplyDeletePatti, I should really just go ahead and read Things Fall Apart sometime this year even if it does not come up for this spin this time. I have heard so much praise for it.
DeleteWhoops! THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, A WRINKLE IN TIME, OUR MAN IN HAVANA, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, and FARENHEIT 451 are all listed twice -- not that they are not all worth reading twice. I think your computer burped when you were posting this.
ReplyDeleteJerry, thanks for noticing those extra books on the list but this time it was intentional. I only want to read a short classic for this spin and doubled up on my favorites to make up a list of twenty. Some people do that when they only have a few books left on their list. I don't think I will ever get to that point -- of being close to finishing my list.
DeleteFun choices for this spin. I'd like to read The Talented Mr. Ripley at some point; and I've been wanting to reread Farenheit 451. Maybe this fall. My summer reading list is already too long to even think about adding in more books. ;D Happy spinning!
ReplyDeleteLark, I keep avoiding The Talented Mr. Ripley because I think it will be a tense and uncomfortable read, but I do really want to read it.
DeleteI hope you get Fahrenheit 451. We just read it in our book club (it was a re-read for me having read it in high school) and I really enjoyed it. It's as relevant now, if not more so, than when it was written. I listened to the audio narrated by the author and while I'll admit he's not the best narrator, there was an excellent lengthy interview with him at the end. He said it was the only book he wrote that he considers true science fiction. He classified books like The Martian Chronicles as Fantasy, in that they could never actually happen. This book could! (and that's scary)
ReplyDeleteKelly, that is very interesting that Bradbury classified The Martian Chronicles as fantasy, and I can understand his point. My husband classifies all science fiction or fantasy as "science fantasy" for similar reasons. Fahrenheit 451 would be a fine pick for this spin, except I think all of my multiple copies have tiny print.
DeleteGood luck with the spin, Tracy. I've read 'Mr. Ripley'. Oh, I've also read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - hope you get that one! :-)
ReplyDeleteKay, I would be happy with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I can't remember if I have read it or not, but it would be fun.
DeleteI'm torn! I loved Our Man in Havana but I also loved The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Jekyll and Hyde, so I hope you get one of those!
ReplyDeleteFictionFan, I have realized that many of the books on this list I have only as ebooks. That is sort of a good thing, since I need to get more comfortable reading ebooks and fit more ebooks into my reading. Of the ones you mentioned, Our Man in Havana and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie are ebooks and Jekyll and Hyde I have two print copies of. Any of those would be good, although I lean toward the Graham Greene book.
DeleteOh, you do have some great choices here, Tracy! I think Fahrenheit 451 is disturbingly timely. And I'd love to know what you think of Things Fall Apart. That one made quite an impact on me.
ReplyDeleteMargot, those two books are always popular on my spin lists, and I don't know why their number doesn't come up. Maybe this time.
DeleteI'm sort of rooting for Muriel Spark. I haven't read her yet ... but I want to. I will look to see what you get. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteSusan, I don't think I have read anything by Muriel Spark either, so her book would be a new experience. Once I have set up a spin post I am always impatient to get the result.
DeleteI hope you get what you fancy. Your list makes me want to reread Jekyll and Hyde. Perhaps I'll do that in the autumn as it's rather creepy.
ReplyDeleteCath, I have a nice copy of Jekyll and Hyde and that would be a really good one to read soonish (or to save until autumn). And a very nice length too.
DeleteI just read Our Man in Havana! I liked it—I hope you will whenever you read it! The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Fahrenheit 451 are all favorites of mine; I wish them all on you! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elizabeth. The spin number is 11 and I will be reading The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. That will be interesting, I haven't read anything by Muriel Spark.
DeleteI hope you enjoy The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Deb, I hope so too. And I hope you enjoy The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown, which I had heard of but forgotten about, so I read more about it at Goodreads.
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