It’s time for another Classics Club spin, in which we’re given until May 17th to produce a list of 20 titles remaining on our Classics Club list, and then on that date a random number tells us which book on our list to read next. Because I have under twenty titles remaining on my list, I’m going to do the same thing I did last time: if the random number is above 10, I’ll simply subtract ten and go with the result. “#19” would translate to “#9” on my list, and so on.
Spin List Candidates!
(1) Ida Elizabeth. Sigrid Undset
(2) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Betty Smith
(3) Resurrection, Leo Tolstoy
(4) All the Little Live Things, Wallace Stegner
(5) The Mind of the South, W.J. Cash
(6) On the Nature of Things, Lucretius. Translated by Anthony Esolen.
(7) Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
(8) Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
(9) Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
(10) Cancer Ward, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Reading Freely 
nice list, I red 4/10.
I wish you #2, such a wonderful praise of books and reading.
I would love 2 as well:
https://wordsandpeace.com/2026/05/13/the-classics-club-the-classics-spin-44/
I also only have 10 titles, I just double the list, as I have seen others do
I’ve read a couple of these. I remember really liking Their Eyes Were Watching God but it’s a been a long time.
I hear the Esolen translation is good, but that’s not the one I read.
He’s an excellent translator in my experience — I read him for Dante’s Divine Comedy, plus St Augustine’s Confessions. For Divine Comedy, he had annotations and appendices that explained supporting elements of the text, like medieval cosmology or the the structure of the Aeneid that Dante was reproducing in part.
I’ve read #2 and #9. I enjoyed both, but I think the Stegner has stuck with me more.
I can see that. I read his Big ROck Candy Mountain some years ago and it’s been indelible!
We read that one in our book club and I much preferred Angle of Repose!
Angle of Repose begins with a man having his life’s story chronicled, I think?
It does. It took me a bit to get into it, but I ended up enjoying the story and the characters. It has a little bit of controversy around it, too!
You should just lie, cheat and murder your way to Mansfield Park. Reading Austen will make you a better person (especially needed after all that aforementioned lying, cheating and moidering!)
😆
I probably said this last spin, but I hope you get Angle of Repose. I still think about that book (and love to talk about the angle of repose of our mulch pile in the garden 😀 )
Your wish is granted!
Yay!
Good idea to only put the ten books, I have copied them and they appear twice but I will probably pick up your idea next month, if I will think about it. LOL
I have read #2 and 8. I know a lot of people put Mansfield Park last on their list of Jane Austen reads but that is Northanger Abbey for me, even though that still is a lot better than many, many other books.
In any case, I wish you a good spin.
Thanks for visiting my post.
Mansfield Park has long intimidated me because of its length.
I can imagine, I hear that a lot. But often, once you start such a tome, they rope you in and you enjoy it. In any case, I hope you get a good spin.
The only one of these I’ve read is Mansfield Park, which I enjoyed, though not as much as some of Austen’s other books. I’m curious about that Sigrid Undset book as I loved her Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy.
This one is supposed to be emotionally demanding — it’s about a woman who marries badly.
There are some HEAVY books on this list… Mansfield Park may be the only relatively “light” read. It’s not fluff though – it’s a beautiful story of a young woman holding her own amidst a licentious and hostile environment. Hope you get a classic you’ll enjoy, wherever the spinner lands. 🙂
Cancer Ward is one I’m weirdly looking forward to because it’s Solzhenitsyn. I’ve yet to be disappointed by anything I’ve read of him.
I listened to the audiobook of Their Eyes Were Watching God, narrated by Ruby Dee, and it was a fabulous experience.
I loved Mansfield Park, so that would be great. As for A Tree… I bought a copy because I never read it, but it is very long! Good luck!
Why have I never read All the Little Live Things? I think I’ve read everything by Stegner, but no!