Spin Number 39 -- CLASSICS CLUB

CLASSICS CLUB SPIN

Spin Number 39

I started my first Classics Club list in January 2019, finished it by the end of 2023, and started my second Classics Club list in January this year. But in the six years I've been part of the Classics Club, I have missed every single CC Spin! Finally, I caught this one in time to participate.

The Classics Club is an online "Community of Classics Lovers" started in 2012 to “unite those of us who like to blog about classic literature, as well as to inspire people to make the classics an integral part of life.” To join, you create your own list of 50 "classics" (loosely defined) and read them in five years. Details are on the Classics Club website. 

Every now and again, the Classics Club organizes a CC Spin. The idea is to pick books from your CC list and on a certain date, the organizers pick a random number and you read that books by a specific date. 

You can find more details here, but these are the basics:

• Pick twenty books from your Classics Club list that you still want to read.
• Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog before Sunday, 20th October.
• Classics Club will randomly pick a number and announce it on their website on October 20.
• Read that book by the 18th of December and share your review (if you write one) on the Classics Club website. 

My CC Spin #39 list:

1. The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens, Booker Prize
2. Beat Not the Bones by Charlotte Jay, Edgar Award 
3. A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong, Edgar Award
4. The Secret City by Hugh Walpole, James Tait Black
5. Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien, James Tait Black
6. England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell, James Tait Black
7. Unconditional Surrender by Evelyn Waugh
8. The Devil's Advocate by Morris West, James Tait Black
9. The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy, James Tait Black
10. Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins, James Tait Black
11. Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen, James Tait Black
12. The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch, James Tait Black
13. Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge, Pulitzer Prize
14. The Aerodrome by Rex Warner, Burgess Top 99
15. Indian Summer by William Dean Howells, Burgess Top 99
16. The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes, Burgess Top 99
17. The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, The College Board
18. The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling, Easton Press Greatest
19. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Easton Press Greatest
20. The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, Easton Press Greatest

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It lay down in a hollow, rich with fine old timber and luxuriant pastures; and you came upon it through an avenue of limes, bordered on either side by meadows, over the high hedges of which the cattle looked inquisitively at you as you passed, wondering, perhaps, what you wanted; for there was no thorough-fare, and unless you were going to the Court you had no business there at all.

-- from Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. I

I like that opening sentence because you know there is going to be some kind of English country house involved in the story. Just my cup of tea!

Lady Audley's Secret was published in 1862 and became a Victorian best seller. It is a scandal-filled thriller with plenty of action, featuring a scheming heroine, a murder mystery, and plenty of twists. I understand why it was so popular!

This was the second book I read for Victober, a celebration of Victorian literature that takes place every October on Instagram. 

See the Publisher's Description below for more details.  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Lady Audley's Secret:

Seated in the embrasure of this window, my lady was separated from Robert Audley by the whole length of the room, and the young man could only catch an occasional glimpse of her fair face, surrounded by its bright aureole of hazy, golden hair. 

Robert Audley had been a week at the Court, but as yet neither he nor my lady had mentioned the name of George Talboys.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Lady Audley's Secret was one of the first and most successful sensation novels of the late 19th century. A young gentleman of leisure, Robert Audley, is spurred into action when his friend George Talboys goes missing from Audley Court. As an amateur detective, Robert travels the length and breadth of the country, only to discover that the answer to the mystery lies in the true identity of his uncle's wife, Lady Audley. True to its genre, the novel brings danger home to the private sphere of the country house and questions the unassailable boundaries of class..

The Breaking Point and Other Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Breaking Point and Other Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The Fentons were taking their usual Sunday walk along the Embankment.

-- from "The Alibi," the first story in The Breaking Point and Other Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier.

I'm in a Du Maurier Deep Dive group on Instagram. We are working our way through all of Daphne du Maurier's books. We started with the novels, with a brief diversion to read The Birds, probably her best-known collection of short stories. Now we are reading the other short story collections. The Breaking Point is our current read. 

In general, I prefer novels to short stories. But I am also a completist when it comes to favorite authors like du Maurier. So I often find myself in the position of having finished the novels and have only short stories left to reach my goal. I've enjoyed the two collections of du Maurier stories we've read so far, but they are a little uneven. That's the thing about short stories, isn't it?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from "The Blue Lenses" in The Breaking Point:

It must have been during the fifth week that Marta West had tentatively suggested, first to Nurse Ansel and then to her husband, that perhaps when she returned home the night nurse might go with them for the first week. It would chime with Nurse Ansel's own holiday.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In this collection of suspenseful tales in which fantasies, murderous dreams and half-forgotten worlds are exposed, Daphne du Maurier explores the boundaries of reality and imagination. Her characters are caught at those moments when the delicate link between reason and emotion has been stretched to the breaking point. Often chilling, sometimes poignant, these stories display the full range of Daphne du Maurier's considerable talent.

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the highest pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided to him has been conducted.

-- from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. That is the kind of long, shaggy opening sentence I love and anticipate from Charles Dickens. 

It's October, which means it is time to read Victorian literature in celebration of Victober! Victober is the best thing I ever picked up from Instagram. Do you participate?

This year, The Pickwick Papers is my Victober choice. I'm a big fan of Dickens and, while there are a few of his books I've read multiple times, there are still a few I've never read. The Pickwick Papers is one of them. I don't know much about it, other than that it is one of his funnier books. I am only a few chapters in and I agree. So far, I love it. 

The Pickwick Papers is a long book! You can see in the above picture that my edition fills three volumes. I decided to read it with my ears and the audiobook is 31 hours long!

Have you read it? 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Pickwick Papers:

Fastened up behind the barouche was a hamper of spacious dimensions--one of those hampers which always awakens in a contemplative mind associations connected with cold fowls, tongues, and bottles of wine--and on the box sat a fat and red-faced boy, in a state of somnolency, whom no speculative observer could have regarded for an instant without setting down as the official dispenser of the contents of the before-mentioned hamper, when the proper time for their consumption should arrive.

Mr. Pickwick had bestowed a hasty glance on these interesting objects, when he was again greeted by his faithful disciple.

Here, members of the Pickwick Club are embarking on a journey. I love the description of their picnic basket. It reminds me of scenes in The Wind in the Willows.  

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Journey through the English countryside with the inimitable Mr. Samuel Pickwick in Charles Dickens' first novel, a delightful tapestry of episodic misadventures, colorful characters, and sparkling wit. As founder of the Pickwick Club, Mr. Pickwick, accompanied by his loyal friends, embarks on a series of whimsical excursions. From the bustling streets of London to quiet country inns, their travels are punctuated by chance encounters, misunderstandings, and comic predicaments, all narrated with Dickens' signature blend of satire, humor, and keen observation of human nature.

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

Sorry I forgot to post last evening, or even this morning. The week got away from me! 

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Helen Cartwright was old with her life broken in ways she could not have foreseen.

-- from Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy. 

Have you encountered this book yet? If not, you will. It has all the makings of a of a super popular hit book -- an an introverted, unhappy main character, living alone, who learns to embrace life once more. In this case, the protagonist is an 83-year-old lady just waiting to die, who finds redemption through her unlikely friendship with a little mouse. 

It's got all the warm and fuzzies of books like A Man Called Ove and Elinore Oliphant is Completely Fine. If you liked those -- and I loved them -- you will love Sipsworth. I certainly did! I read it in two days. I plan to give it to my 85-year-old mother for Christmas. 

Sipsworth is my book club's pick for next month. I know it will be popular. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Sipsworth:

This isn't a loud noise, but a persistent one.

Something is happening downstairs in her house on Westminster Crescent that hasn't happened before.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Following the loss of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss. She retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit: “Each day was an impersonation of the one before with only a slight shuffle—as though even for death there is a queue.”

Then, one cold winter night, a chance encounter with a mouse sets Helen on a surprising journey. Over the course of two weeks in a small English town, this reclusive widow discovers an unexpected reason to live.