Challenge Link-Up Post: New Classic by a Favorite Author

Please link your reviews for your New Classic by a Favorite Author here.  This is only for the New Classic By A Favorite Author category.  This should be a classic that you haven't read before, written by one of your favorite authors. 

If you do not have a blog, or somewhere public on the internet where you post book reviews, please write your mini-review/thoughts in the comments section.  If you like, you can include the name of your blog and/or the title of the book in your link, like this: "Karen K. @ Books and Chocolate (Carry On, Jeeves)."

Challenge Link-Up Post: Classic by a New-to-You Author

Please link your reviews for your Classic By An Author That's New To You here.  This is only for the Classic By An Author That's New To You category.  This should be a classic by an author you've never read before (it doesn't necessarily have to be an author you'd never heard of.) 

If you do not have a blog, or somewhere public on the internet where you post book reviews, please write your mini-review/thoughts in the comments section.  If you like, you can include the name of your blog and/or the title of the book in your link, like this: "Karen K. @ Books and Chocolate (Crime and Punishment)."

Challenge Link-Up Post: Classic by a BIPOC Author

Please link your reviews for your Classic By a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and Person of Color) Author here.  This is only for the Classic By a BIPOC Author category.  These should all be classic books that were written by an authors who are not white; i.e., Black, Native American, Asian, Latinx, etc. The classic can be written in your native language or in translation.  

If you do not have a blog, or somewhere public on the internet where you post book reviews, please write your mini-review/thoughts in the comments section.  If you like, you can include the name of your blog and/or the title of the book in your link, like this: "Karen K. @ Books and Chocolate (The Bluest Eye)."

Challenge Link-Up Post: Classic in Translation

Please link your reviews for your Classic in Translation here.  This is only for the Classic in Translation category.  These should all be classics that were originally written in a language other than your primary language; that is, if you are a native English speaker, it should be a classic written in another language other than English.  If you are not a native English speaker, it could be in English (or any other language, other than your primary language). If you want to read the book in its original language, that's fine too!

If you do not have a blog, or somewhere public on the internet where you post book reviews, please write your mini-review/thoughts in the comments section.  If you like, you can include the name of your blog and/or the title of the book in your link, like this: "Karen K. @ Books and Chocolate (One Hundred Years of Solitude)."

Challenge Link-Up Post: 20th Century Classic

Please link your reviews for your 20th Century Classic here.  This is only for the 20th Century Classic category.  All books in this category must have been published between 1900 and 1971 to qualify as classics (except for posthumous publications.  If you do not have a blog, or somewhere public on the internet where you post book reviews, please write your mini-review/thoughts in the comments section.  If you like, you can include the name of your blog and/or the title of the book in your link, like this: "Karen K. @ Books and Chocolate (The Grapes of Wrath)."

Challenge Link-Up Post: 19th Century Classic

Please link your reviews for your 19th Century Classic here.  This is only for the 19th Century Classic category.  All books in this category must have been published from 1800 to 1899.   If you do not have a blog, or somewhere public on the internet where you post book reviews, please write your mini-review/thoughts in the comments section.  If you like, you can include the name of your blog and/or the title of the book in your link, like this: "Karen K. @ Books and Chocolate (Bleak House)."

Two More Reading Challenges: WWII Reading Challenge and Chunkster Challenge

Two more great challenges for 2021! I'd love to read one per month from each of these lists  which are books from my own TBR shelves. And of course some of them cross over and count for other challenges including my own Back to the Classics Challenge -- a win-win!

World War II Reading Challenge. Hosted by Becky's Book Reviews, it includes fiction and non-fiction, and basically includes any books written about or during the WWII era -- the war itself, leading up to the war, and the direct aftermath. Lots of choices from my TBR shelves! I don't have a lot of historical fiction but I definitely have quite a few books published during the era, and several nonfiction books I've been meaning to read. 

Non-Fiction:
Our Hidden Lives by Simon Garfield
Long Live Great Bardfield by Tirzah Garwood
A Good Place to Hide by Peter Grose
Maman, What Are We Called Now? by Jacqueline Mesnil-Amar
Millions Like Us by Virginia Nicholson
Fashion on the Ration by Julie Summers
Our Uninvited Guests by Julie Summers

Fiction:
A House in the Country by Ruth Adam
A Footman For the Peacock by Rachel Ferguson
The Bachelor by Stella Gibbon
Westwood by Stella Gibbon
Chloe Marr by A. A. Milne
The Chequer Board by Nevil Shute
Ordeal by Nevil Shute (UK title: What Happened to the Corbetts)
The Foolish Gentlewoman by Margery Sharp
Growing Up by Angela Thirkell
The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell
Marling Hall by Angela Thirkell
Miss Bunting by Angela Thirkell
Peace Breaks Out by Angela Thirkell
Love Among the Ruins by Angela Thirkell

Chunkster Challenge 2021. Hosted by Impressions in Ink, it's any book more than 450 pages. I still have my unfinished list from the Big Book Summer Challenge, and if I can read one from this list every month, it would cut my stack nearly in half.
Here's what's left. Some of them could count for other challenges, as noted. 

Nonfiction:
Our Hidden Lives: The Remarkable Diaries of Postwar Britain by Simon Garfield (544 pp)  (WWII Challenge)
Long Live Great Bardfield by Tirzah Garwood (495 pp) (WWII Challenge)
Trollope by Victoria Glendinning (551 pp)
Slipstream: A Memoir by Elizabeth Jane Howard (528 pp)
A London Family, 1870-1900 by Molly Hughes (600 pp)
Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee (869 pp)
Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford (744 pp)
Charles Dickens by Michael Slater (696 pp)

Novels: 
T. Tembarom by Frances Hodgson Burnett (518 pp)
The Complete Claudine by Collette (656 pp) (European Reading Challenge)
Painting the Darkness by Robert Goddard (608 pp)
Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge (571 pp) (Also counts for Back to the Classics)
Bella Poldark by Winston Graham (688 pp) 
Penmarric by Susan Howatch (735 pp)
The Little Ottleys by Ada Leverson (543 pp)
The Macdermots of Ballycloran by Anthony Trollope (731 pp) (Classics Club)
Ralph the Heir by Anthony Trollope (770 pp) (Classics Club)
Marcella by Mrs. Humphrey Ward (560 pp) (Back to the Classics)
Hudson River Bracketed by Edith Wharton (547 pp) (Classics Club)
La Debacle by Emile Zola (536 pp) (Back to the Classics, European Reading Challenge)

Short Stories:

The Canterbury Tales retold by Peter Ackroyd (464 pp) (Back to the Classics)

Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens (635 pp) (Back to the Classics)

The World Over: The Collected Stories of W. Somerset Maugham, Vol. II (681 pp)
The Portable Dorothy Parker (626 pp) (Classics Club, Back to the Classics)
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (495 pp)
The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh (640 pp)
The Collected Stories of Edith Wharton (640 pp)
The Most of P. G. Wodehouse (701 pp)
The Collected Stories of Stephan Zweig (720 pp) (European Reading Challenge)

WWII/Postwar Era Fiction

Mr. Skeffington by Elizabeth von Arnim

Tea is So Intoxicating by Mary Essex

Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge 

English Climate: Wartime Stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens (680 pp)

So, quite a few choices! I could even try to read separate books for each challenge, without crossing over -- which would be another 24 books from the TBR shelves completed! Bloggers, which do you recommend from these lists? 

Back to the Classics 2020: The Winner

And the winner is. . . . 

Reese @ Typings!!!

Reese won a $40 gift card from Amazon.com! (I know it was posted as $30, but let's be honest, 2020 was a rough year and we all need a little more joy, right? Plus, inflation). So, congratulations, Reese! And many thanks and congratulations to everyone who participated in this challenge -- 83 people signed up, and 34 people completed the challenge. 

We're all winners because we got to share the joy of books and each one of us crossed some classic books off our to-read lists!. I hope everyone enjoyed all the new books and authors they discovered. Also, I hope all everyone has signed up for the 2021 Back to the Classics Challenge, I can't wait to see what everyone else is reading! 

Later this week I'll add the link-up posts so you can add your reviews and see what everyone else is reading. Thanks again to everyone for participating. I hope everyone is having a good new year with lots of wonderful books to read. 

Challenge Link-Up Post: Classic by a Woman Author

Please link your reviews for your Classic by a Woman Author here.  This is only for the Classic by a Woman Author category.  If you do not have a blog, or somewhere public on the internet where you post book reviews, please write your mini-review/thoughts in the comments section. If you like, you can include the name of your blog and/or the title of the book in your link, like this: "Karen K. @ Books and Chocolate (Wives and Daughters)."

European Reading Challenge 2020: Completed!

Another challenge finished! I was hoping to make it to twelve countries, but I was never able to get past page 19 of my Russian book selection -- might have to keep it for 2021. But I visited eleven different countries for this challenge, and finished six books from my own shelves. Here's what I read, with links: 

Austria: The Exiles Return by Elisabeth de Waal

Belgium: The Professor by Charlotte Bronte
France: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Georgia: The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili
Germany: The Dancing Bear by Frances Faviell
Hungary: Temptation by Janos Szekely
Italy: Madame Solario by Gladys Huntington
Spain: Every Eye by Isobel English 
Switzerland: In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
UK: Crossriggs by Jane & Mary Findlater
Ukraine: The Misunderstanding by Irene Nemirovsky

I loved nearly all the books I read for this challenge, but if I had to choose favorites, I'd have to pick Temptation, Every Eye, and Crossriggs, with In the Mountains as an Honorable Mention. And The Eighth Life! (didn't I say it was a great year? Tough to choose!).  I'm definitely going to revisit some of my favorite countries in 2021 and hopefully some new ones as well -- in literature, since I can't go in person. 

Thanks again to Rose City Reader for hosting this challenge! I'm looking forward to my 2021 list.