Welcome to the first week of February! I am starting to feel a bit burned out on all the heavy history I’ve been reading, and am planning on reading some detective thrillers or other relaxing fiction this week.
Teaser Tuesday
“We don’t even know what our population is,” he said in answer to the question Cassie asked. “It’s growing that fast. A few months ago, I would have said thirty-five to forty thousand in the county. There are over ten thousand units in the main camps alone. But I was talking to the director at the water treatment facility and he says they’re handling sewage now for sixty thousand plus. Imagine that,” he said with a snort, “We guess how many residents we have by the sewage they produce.” – THE BADLANDS, CJ BOX
Don’t worry, I won’t be going on another multi-month long Box tear. There’re only six books in the Cassie Dewell series. That’s like, a week and a half of reading at most.
Classics Club Spin #43
The Classics Club Spin prompts us to take twenty of our upcoming CC reads, number them, and then wait for the spin to ‘pick’ a number. We are then compelled to read the book chosen. I have a slight problem in that I don’t have 20 books remaining on my list, just 16 or so, so I told Chatgpt to pick ten books at random: the way I’ll play with the rules is that if 1-10 are chosen, I’m fine; if 11 through 20 are chosen, I just subtract ten. It’s a bit like aces in blackjack, but without losing money. So, my list:
- Resurrection — Leo Tolstoy
- Paradise Lost — John Milton
- On the Nature of Things — Lucretius (trans. Anthony Esolen)
- The Shahnameh — Ferdowsi
- Ida Elizabeth — Sigrid Undset
- Cancer Ward — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- Rebecca — Daphne du Maurier
- Mansfield Park — Jane Austen
- Angle of Repose — Wallace Stegner
- Their Eyes Were Watching God — Zora Neale Hurston
Reading Freely 
Good luck in the Spin! I love Rebecca and also enjoyed Mansfield Park, but haven’t read any of the others. I’m looking forward to being able to take part again now that I have a new CC list.
I’ve been wanting to read Rebecca for a while, so fingers crossed. And congrats on the new list! This is my second round with the CC.
Austen is always good. I hope you get that 😀
It’ll be my last first read for Austen! I save the chunky one for last.
I hope you get 2 or 7.
My list will be live tomorrow
Will look forward to seeing it!
I’ve doubled up for Classics Club spins before.
I had Rebecca on my first list. Pretty fun thriller. I’ll be curious if you get that Undset–I’ve definitely liked her and haven’t read that.
Undset comes HIGHLY reccommended, and Ida seemed more approahable than Kristen!
I loved Kristen Lavransdatter. Gloomy but so good.
Rebecca is the only one of these I’ve read. Very good, not quite what I was expecting. Expectations! Ugh. Number of these on my TBR though. Enjoy!
I’ll be curious to hear what you think of Rebecca!
Thank you! I have so many Rebeccas/Beckies in my life it’ll be interesting.
I have read and loved the last four books on your list, so I wish you 7,8,9,10,17,18,19 or 20!
We’ll know in a few days!! 😀
I hope you get Angle of Repose. That’s a book I would love to reread.
I’ve loved the Stegner I’ve read, so I’m looking forward to it!
I really liked Rebecca, keep being tempted to reread it — it surprised me how much I liked it, actually. Then I read a bunch more of du Maurier’s work because it convinced me to give it a shot, though I don’t think I liked that as much, haha. Hope you enjoy whatever gets picked!
Did you try My Cousin Rachel? Also tempted that by one — one of my best friends is named Rebecca, and her sister is Rachel. I thought it was a funny coincidence.
I did! My Cousin Rachel felt quite similar to Rebecca in some ways, and I rather liked it.
I’ve read a couple of these. I have Resurrection by Tolstoy and Paradise Lost by Milton on my TBR. Paradise Lost intimidates me! LOL Good luck with the spin! 🙂
Thank you!
Happy February! Your spin game sounds fun! Rebecca is one I’ve been meaning to read for years and I’ve also been curious about Paradise Lost.
I’ve only read three from your ten – Mansfield Park, Rebecca and Their Eyes Were Watching God – all five star reads! Hope you get something great!
I’ve only read two of these. I read Rebecca as a teenager, but will be re-reading it for my bookclub for June! Angle of Repose was on my first CC list and I enjoyed it very much. It’s long, though.
You have chosen some heavyweights for this challenge. I read a number on your list, but the one that surprised me the most was Cancer Ward. It was unbelievably good.