All right, clubbers! Back in early November, we announced The Classics Spin #16, challenging you to read Book #4 on your spin list by December 31.
Guess what? Today is December 31! Happy New Year’s Eve!
Did you read your book? Did you write about it, or will you?
What was your book, and what did you think? Share below. Feel free to link to your post below, if/when you write about your book.
As always, the prize is the reading experience. Details here.
Twitter hashtag: #ccspin
– the Club
The Classics Club 
Not only did I finish the spin, I finished before the 31st! I read Agnes Grey, by Anne Bronte and I enjoyed it.
https://relevantobscurity.com/2017/12/27/agnes-grey/
LikeLike
Read Adam Bede by George Elliot and actually even finished it up a couple weeks early which surprised me as it is fairly long.
Here’s my review.
http://youmeandacupofteablog.blogspot.com/2017/12/book-review-adam-bede.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
I finished My Brilliant Career this morning, one day late, but it is done. Did I love it? No. Were there good parts? Yes. https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2018/01/first-review-of-2018-my-brilliant-career.html
LikeLiked by 2 people
Mine was Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief. I posted my review on 12/23: https://wordsandpeace.com/2017/12/23/book-review-arsene-lupin-gentleman-thief/
As you are at it, you might want to have a look at my 3 posts on 2017 stats – specially if you enjoy pies and charts, lol
LikeLiked by 2 people
Mine was A Tale of Two Cities. I did finish on the 30th and I had to lay down for a rest afterwards. It was a headache starting, trying to figure out why is Charles Dickens telling me all that and I felt it started making some sense about page 200. I am still not convinced as to why Carlton ended up in that route. You may say for love but still…
LikeLiked by 2 people
I finished 1984 yesterday and plan to have a review up later this week. I ended up loving it and thought it was the perfect book with which to close 2017. Here’s hoping it will feel a lot less relevant in 2018 though!!
LikeLiked by 3 people
I finished my spin book, The Tragedy of Mariam by Elizabeth Cary, in early December and I liked it a lot more than I expected to! Here’s my review: https://warmdayswillnevercease.wordpress.com/2017/12/08/book-review-the-tragedy-of-mariam-by-elizabeth-cary/
LikeLiked by 2 people
This sounds fascinating. I should make a note of this for my next Classics Club list.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My book was Uncle Tom’s Cabin!. I finished it and reviewed it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Melodrama to the max!
LikeLike
Yes I did – The Diary of a Provincial Lady – it got better with reflecting time.
http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/the-diary-of-provincial-lady-by-e-m.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love Diary, and I just learned that there is a series of them. I’ll have to watch out for them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh man, I feel like such a failure since everyone has finished so far! I had Shirley picked to read but left it until the middle of the month to start. By that time we had been so busy for Christmas and the last days of school and preparing for family that I just wasn’t in the right headspace to get into it. Hopefully I’ll get to it in 2018!
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s a very good one. You’ll finish it sometime.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! I hope to. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I finished mine with 90 minutes to spare! I read The Well of Loneliness, my review can be found here: https://wordpress.com/view/readingrecordblogblog.wordpress.com
LikeLiked by 2 people
I have long heard of that but never read it. Just going off to read your review.
LikeLike
Well, maybe not. It wouldn’t come up from that link.
LikeLike
Phew, I thought it was me or my PC…
LikeLike
I think it is the way the link is done, from the WordPress view page instead of directly from the web page.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I read George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London – a sobering read. https://piningforthewest.co.uk/2017/12/31/the-classics-club-spin-no-16/
LikeLiked by 2 people
Gosh, that’s really being devoted to your research.
LikeLike
Yup! Henry IV, Part I: http://howlingfrog.blogspot.com/2017/12/spin-title-henry-iv-part-1.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
I read all three Henry plays during the last year or so. Very interesting, as I was also reading a series on the Wars of the Roses, and of course, Henry’s reign was what started everything.
LikeLike
I read Part I of Don Quixote and have decided to count that as completing the spin. Part II was published 10 years later so i feel justified in taking a few months off before tackling it. I’ll post a review of part I in the new year.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I couldn’t handle part II.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh dear, I was hoping it would be better than Part I.
LikeLike
He probably only wrote Part II because other people wrote unauthorized sequels (which he thought were bad) and cashed in on his story. He wanted to reclaim ownership of the characters and plot, and make sure everyone knew the others were “phony.” I think you’re justified in counting Part I as reading the book, although I think Part II, though super silly, has some merit. It’s also quite different, as Quixote changes (grows up?) in part two. Hope you get to it at some point. 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
I was looking for some character development in Book I, which did not happen, so I’ll look forward to that in the second part!
LikeLike
More of the same, it seemed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I read The Catcher in the Rye. Sadly the most positive thing I can find to say about it is that it wasn’t as bad as I feared…
Happy New Year, one and all – lang may your lum reek, as we say in Scotland!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh, dear, I barely remember it from high school. Maybe that’s when everyone should read it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I suspect it would have worked better for me back then…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I did. I read Letters from Egypt by Lucie Duff Gordon. Here is my link:
LikeLiked by 2 people
Another book and author I’ve never heard of! What a rich treasury of literature one discovers via the Classics Club…
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s very true.
LikeLike
I was up to the wire as well as I only finished The Good Earth last night. Here’s the link to my review: https://whatcathyreadnext.wordpress.com/2017/12/31/book-review-the-good-earth-by-pearl-s-buck/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I commented on your blog, but I thought I’d add it here, too, that I read this book in high school and was bothered by some of the same things you mentioned, so I did not finish it. I wonder what I would think of it now.
LikeLike
Yes, I finished my spin book, Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading more of Cather’s books (I’ve only read three so far). Here is my review:
LikeLiked by 3 people
I read this recently but have yet to write my review. I’ll wait to read yours until I’ve done that but glad you enjoyed it, I did too. Also loved her My Antonia.
LikeLike
I finished at 12:15 this morning. And I have the headache to prove it. Late night reading sessions don’t work so well when you have a toddler. Review here: http://mounttoberead.blogspot.com/2017/12/1984-by-george-orwell.html
LikeLiked by 2 people
From your review I guess you didn’t like this one, but it was really about the perils Orwell saw coming to pass in his own time, just exaggerated.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Definitely not an easy read (some scenes are the stuff of nightmares) but in a world of fake news, AI, cyber warfare, climate change, etc he foresaw an awful lot of what may be coming to pass. So it continues to act as a warning.
LikeLike
I was surprised how quickly I finished Hall Caine’s “The Manxman” (review at: http://skullandbook.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-manxman-by-hall-caine.html). I really enjoyed it, and actually had to hold off on posting my review until today. This was my first successful spin, and it’s oddly gratifying. It made me feel like i was reading in solidarity with all the other Classics Clubbers, not just in my own little world. Since I’m coming near the finish line on my first list, I’m also looking forward to the next spin, which will, I hope, be equally inspiring.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I hadn’t heard of this one before. Congratulations on finishing the spin!
LikeLike
I can safely say I’ve never heard of this book or the author so thanks for adding to my bookish knowledge. Interesting that Hitchcock made a film based on it.
LikeLike
Yes, I did finish it, thanks! It was Anne Bronte’s Agnes Grey (which I reviewed here: https://wp.me/s2oNj1-agnes) and I was pleasantly surprised by it — because I’d been led to expect that, being semi-autobiographical, it would end up being a misery memoir about Anne’s awful experiences as a governess.
Luckily the narrative wasn’t all doom and gloom: and, curiously, it ended in almost Austenesque fashion … but I won’t say more for fear of spoiling anyone’s reading experience! Anyway, looking forward to the next spin in, when, mid-January?
LikeLiked by 2 people
If you’re up for more Anne, Samantha Ellis in her book Take Courage makes the case that Anne’s depiction of a governess’s life is much more accurate than her sister’s in Jane Eyre. My review of Take Courage here if you’re interested: https://whatcathyreadnext.wordpress.com/2017/09/25/book-review-take-courage-by-samantha-ellis/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, thanks very much for this, Cathy, I’ll have a look at that.
LikeLike
All of the Brontes were such good writers. I know this was a pleasant surprise to me when I read it long ago.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Having just finished Austen’s completed works it’s good to get going on the Brontë sisters, so much eye-opening enjoyment still to come!
LikeLike