Top Ten Tuesday: A TTT Freebie — 10 classics on my TBR list

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s is a freebie week, meaning we all come up with our own TTT topics.

I thought I’d return to an oldie but goodie — classic reads that I still need to get to. My list of to-read classics changes all the time, but for right now, these are the ten classics that I’d most like to read:

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Dracula by Bram Stoker (a re-read, but it’s been enough years that it’ll probably feel new to me)
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells
Peony by Pearl S. Buck
Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott (or really, anything by this author besides the Little Women trilogy, which I’ve read)
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier

After putting this list together, it occurs to me that it’s weighted toward male authors, which doesn’t make me happy — so this whole topic may need further thought! Or a follow-up post, at the very least.

Have you read any of these books, and if so, which do you recommend?

What did you write about for this week’s TTT? Please share your links!

Save

26Dec2018

Shelf Control #149: The Bone People by Keri Hulme

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: The Bone People
Author: Keri Hulme
Published: 1984
Length: 450 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

In a tower on the New Zealand sea lives Kerewin Holmes, part Maori, part European, an artist estranged from her art, a woman in exile from her family. One night her solitude is disrupted by a visitor—a speechless, mercurial boy named Simon, who tries to steal from her and then repays her with his most precious possession. As Kerewin succumbs to Simon’s feral charm, she also falls under the spell of his Maori foster father Joe, who rescued the boy from a shipwreck and now treats him with an unsettling mixture of tenderness and brutality. Out of this unorthodox trinity Keri Hulme has created what is at once a mystery, a love story, and an ambitious exploration of the zone where Maori and European New Zealand meet, clash, and sometimes merge. Winner of both a Booker Prize and Pegasus Prize for Literature, The Bone People is a work of unfettered wordplay and mesmerizing emotional complexity.

How and when I got it:

I bought it years ago, probably at a library sale (like so many of the books on my shelves!).

Why I want to read it:

I’ve been hearing about The Bone People for years, and have been told repeatedly that it’s a must-read. I haven’t read much fiction set in New Zealand, and I’m fascinated by the sound of the story!

Have you read any books set in New Zealand? Any you’d recommend? Please let me know!

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

Save

17Oct2018

Shelf Control #139: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: In Cold Blood
Author: Truman Capote
Published: 1966
Length: 343 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.

How and when I got it:

I bought a copy about 5 years ago at a used book store in Anchorage, Alaska (of all places!)

Why I want to read it:

In Cold Blood is one of those modern classics that seemingly everyone reads eventually. I never had it assigned for school, and just never got around to picking up a copy until recently. It seems like a big oversight in my reading life never to have taken the time to read In Cold Blood, and I’m planning to make this a priority in the coming year.

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how: