2018 Challenge Wrap-Up

I was trucking along quite happily towards these goals for the first half of the year, but then things went south. It was still fun to participate, though, and see what others were reading.

I read seven books for this challenge.

1. A 20th century classic: The Land of Mist by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. A classic by a woman author: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
3. A children’s classic: Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
4. A classic crime story, fiction or non-fiction: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
5. A classic travel or journey narrative, fiction or non-fiction: Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum
6. A classic with a single-word title: Candide by Voltaire
7. A classic by an author that’s new to you: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

All of these turned out to be quite good. I finally read some Agatha Christie this year and love her writing, overlooking that she clearly had some dodgy views towards other ethnicities. It was fun to discover just how wonderfully dark and strange Peter Pan really was. Candide was a wild trip, one I’d like to re-read at some point. The Land of Mist of mildly infuriating but still enjoyable. Sailing Alone Around the World was a truly amazing memoir from a Canadian I hadn’t heard of before picking up the book.

Viktor E. Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning will probably stay with me the longest. A harrowing first-hand account of life in WW2 concentration camps mixed with descriptions of Logotherapy, his Buddist-like branch of psychotherapy.

Contact address for the draw:

I, unfortunately, read only three food-related books for this challenge. I love to read them, but often don’t find myself picking them up, so that’s something I’ll have to work on for next year.

1. Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson
2. Stir by Jessica Fechtor
3. 32 Yolks by Eric Ripert

I loved Stir, the memoir of Jessica Fechtor’s time reflecting on her life through food as she recovered from a brain aneurysm. I enjoyed both Marcus Samuelsson’s and Eric Ripert’s autobiographies on how they entered the world of cooking. Interestingly, both were co-written by Veronica Chambers, so maybe it’s just her writing I like. I found 32 Yolks a particularily gripping read, one I’d love to see him follow up with another book.

I think I’ll be signing up for these challenges again. Failure can still be fun (my 2018 motto)! I’ll post those new lists soon.

This challenge doesn’t end until July, but so far I’ve read four of the novels I need, with another nearly done, which puts me a bit behind but not too bad. Really enjoying this one, as I’m sadly out of touch with Canadian literature.

1. Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
2. Packing My Library: An Elegy and Ten Digressions by Alberto Manguel
3. Sailing Alone around the World by Joshua Slocum
4. Property Values by Charles Demers

And finally, The Classics Club! This one isn’t done end until April 2022. I’ve read fourteen of the books for this challenge, which puts me just a bit behind. I finished the last one early, so I can always just fall back on past victories if needed.

1. Candide by Voltaire (1759)
2. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (1844)
3. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope (1894)
4. Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum (1990)
5. Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome (1900)
6. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (1904)
7. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (1926)
8. The Land of Mist by Arthur Conan Doyle (1926)
9. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1939)
10. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (1946)
11. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)
12. Travels with Charley in Search of America by by John Steinbeck (1962)
13. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)
14. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (1968)