This year in an effort to make my reading more intentional, as well as to read more classics, I joined the Back to the Classics Challenge 2016 at Books and Chocolate (love that blog name!).
This is my preliminary list and I reserve the right to change my mind 😉 My goal this year is to read 25 books and these books represent almost half of that goal. Last year my goal was to read 20 books and I read 24.
Classics Challenge 2016
✔︎1. 19th Century Author – Emma by Jane Austen – Finished March 2016 – Not my favorite Austen novel. I feel like I could have skipped a good many chapters in the middle and not missed a thing!
2. 20th Century Author – Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
3. Female Author – Laddie by Stratten Porter
4. Classic in Translation – One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
5. Classic Non-White Author – Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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6. Adventure Classic – The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore  Cooper
✔︎ 7. Fantasy Classic – Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll – Finished Jan 2016 – This was only an okay pick for me. I realize I’m not really the target audience being an adult and all that, but it was just too odd for me. Fantasy is not a favorite of mine, so I’m glad I got it out of the way!
8. Classic Detective – Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
9. Name of Place in Title – Middlemarch by George Eliot
✔︎10. Banned Book – The Call of the Wild by Jack London – Finished February 2016 – Jonah and I read this book together with him mostly reading to me. It was good and highly recommended especially for an animal/adventure lover.
11. Classic Re-read – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
12. Short Stories – A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
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Have you read any of these books? I’d love to know your thoughts.
This list looks so good, and I’m considering doing the challenge myself. I love Austen, though Emma isn’t my favorite. Will you blog about them as you read them?
I’m not exactly sure how much I will blog about them as I go. I can’t decide yet! You should do the challenge 🙂 Thanks for reading.
whew! That’s a long list Jen! Good luck! I’m taking a CS Lewis class and will be reading Mere Christianity. Little Women is a favorite of mine. My kids have read many of these and my husband read Last of the Mohicans as part of his personal challenge to read classic lit.
I know. A little intimidating, but it will be a good challenge I think. I’m looking forward to Mere Christianity!
Great challenge! 🙂 I have read “Little Women” and “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” and both were excellent. Douglass’s book really makes you aware how horrifying slavery was (this seems like an obvious point, but seeing it from his perspective, and realizing that this is a true story, is really appalling).
I think you’ll like “Little Women,” too.
Also, there are some truly excellent black and Hispanic female authors out there whose works are now considered classics: Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison immediately come to mind (side note: Hurston lived in Florida for quite some time!), as well as Sandra Cisneros and Julia Alvarez. Just wanted to put those out there, because they are all really good writers…and maybe some of your kids (especially your girls) will enjoy them once they get a little older :).
Thank you! I have never heard of Zora Neale Hurston, so I will have to investigate, especially since she lived in Florida. Thank you for sharing those authors with me. Little Women will be a re-read, but I’m not sure I remember much. Thanks for your comment!
Anna is reading a couple of these books in Challenge I this year — Call of the Wild and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. How are doing with reading now that’s it’s mid February?
I just finished reading Call of the Wild with Jonah. We enjoyed it! The vocabulary was challenging for him, but he worked hard. I was getting ready to start Last of The Mohicans, but realized it is the last book in a series, so I’m going to start with Deerslayer first. So far so good!
Oh, awesome list, Jen!
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