The Classics Club Spin Result

Published on August 2, 2018August 2, 2018 by Margaret11 Comments

The spin number in The Classics Club Spin was announced yesterday. It’s number …

9

which for me is He Who Whispers by John Dickson Carr. The rules of the Spin are that this is the book for me to read by August 31, 2018.

My copy is a Golden Age Mystery, one of the Green Penguin Crime and Mystery series paperbacks, published in 1953 (first published in 1946). It features Dr Gideon Fell.

Here’s the blurb from Goodreads:

At the edge of the woods by the river stands the tower. Once part of a chateau since burnt down, only the tower remains. The inside is but a shell with a stone staircase climbing spirally up the wall to a flat stone roof with a parapet.

One that parapet the body of Howard Brooke lay bleeding. The murderer, when Brooke’s back was turned, must have drawn the sword-cane from it sheath and run him through the body. And this must have occurred between ten minutes to four and five minutes past four, when the two children discovered him dying.

Yet the evidence showed conclusively that during this time not a living soul came near him.

I’m looking forward to reading He Who Whispers as I haven’t read any of Carr’s books before and I’m really pleased one of the crime fiction novels I listed came up in the Spin.

Did you take part in the Classics Spin? What will you be reading?

Classics Club Spin

Published on July 26, 2018July 26, 2018 by Margaret16 Comments

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin. The Club has four new moderators – Brona, Deb, Kay and Margaret (not me). And I’m pleased to see they are carrying on with the Classics Club Spin!

The Spin rules:

List any twenty books you have left to read from your Classics Club list.
Number them from 1 to 20.
On Wednesday 1st August, the Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List, by 31st August, 2018.

This is my list:

All Quiet on the Western Front Appleby's End Birdsong Clouds of Witness: Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteryâ¦ The Dancer at the Gai-Moulin (Maigret #10)

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Appleby’s End by Michael Innes
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L Sayers
The Dancer at the Gai Moulin by Georges Simenon

Far From the Madding Crowd Greenmantle (Richard Hannay, #2) Gulliver's Travels He Who Whispers (Dr. Gideon Fell, #16) Love in the Time of Cholera

6. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
7. Greenmantle by John Buchan
8. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
9. He Who Whispers by John Dickson Carr
10.Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Man in the Queue (Inspector Alan Grant, #1) Oliver Twist Parade's End The Return of the Native The Riddle of the Third Mile (Inspector Morse, #6)

11.The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey
12.Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
13.Parade’s End by Ford Maddox Ford
14.The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
15.The Riddle of the Third Mile by Colin Dexter

Ruling Passion (Dalziel & Pascoe, #3) The Shadow Puppet The Saint-Fiacre Affair (Maigret, #13) Sweet Thursday Three Men in a Boat (Three Men, #1)

16.Ruling Passion by Reginald Hill
17.The Shadow Puppet by Georges Simenon
18.The Saint- Fiacre Affair by Georges Simenon
19.Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck
20.Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome

It shouldn’t matter which one comes up as I do want to read these books – but I’d like it to be one of the shorter books!

Classics Club Spin

Published on March 4, 2018 by Margaret19 Comments

The Classics Club It’s time for another Classics Club Spin. I feel rather guilty because although I did read my last Spin book, Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens, I still haven’t finished writing a post about it!

The Spin rules:

List any twenty books you have left to read from your Classics Club list.
Number them from 1 to 20.
On Friday 9 March the Classics Club will announce a number.
This is the book to read by 30 April 2018.

This is my list:

Lorna Doone Nicholas Nickleby Little Dorritt Oliver Twist Romola

1) Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor by R D Blackmore

2) Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

3) Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

4) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

5) Romola by George Eliot

Birdsong Parade's End Mary Barton North and South Far from the Madding Crowd

6) Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

7) Parade’s End by Ford Maddox Ford

8) Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

9) North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

10) Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

The Return of the Native Three Men in a Boat Love in the Time of Cholera One Hundred Years of Solitude All Quiet on the Western Front

11) The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

12) Three Man in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome

13) Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

14) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

15) All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

East of Eden The Grapes of Wrath Sweet Thursday Gulliver's Travels Framley Parsonage (Chronicles of Barsetshire #4)

16) East of Eden by John Steinbeck

17) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

18) Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

19) Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

20) Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope

It shouldn’t matter which one comes up as I do want to read these books – but I’d like it to be one of Steinbeck’s books, or Birdsong.

Classics Club Spin

Published on November 10, 2017 by Margaret15 Comments

The Classics Club It’s time for another Classics Club Spin. I’ve been hoping we’d get another Spin in before the end of the year and here it is.

The Spin rules:

List any twenty books you have left to read from your Classics Club list.
Number them from 1 to 20.
On Friday 17th November the Classics Club will announce a number.
This is the book to read by 31 December 2017.

This is my list:

Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor by R D Blackmore
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Parade’s End by Ford Maddox Ford
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Framley Parsonage (Barsetshire Chronicles, #4) by Anthony Trollope
Orlando by Virginia Woolf

It shouldn’t matter which one comes up as I do want to read these books – but ideally at this time of year I’d like it to be one of the shorter books on this list.

The Classics Club Spin Result

Published on October 4, 2016 by Margaret6 Comments

The result of the Classics Club Spin is No. 1 which for me is Silas Marner by George Eliot. I am so pleased – I wanted a short book and lo and behold this is a short book!

Although the shortest of George Eliot’s novels, Silas Marner is one of her most admired and loved works. It tells the sad story of the unjustly exiled Silas Marner – a handloom linen weaver of Raveloe in the agricultural heartland of England – and how he is restored to life by the unlikely means of the orphan child Eppie.

Silas Marner is a tender and moving tale of sin and repentance set in a vanished rural world and holds the reader’s attention until the last page as Eppie’s bonds of affection for Silas are put to the test.

First published in 1861 as Silas Marner: the Weaver of Raveloe, George Eliot described it as ‘a story of old-fashioned English life’.

Classics Club Spin

Published on October 2, 2016 by Margaret6 Comments

I was just thinking another Classics Club Spin would be nice and it appeared!

The Spin rules:

List any twenty books you have left to read from your Classics Club list.
Number them from 1 to 20.
On Monday the Classics Club will announce a number.
This is the book to read by 1 December 2016.

I decided to organise my list in page number order from short to enormous. I want to read all of them at some time but right now as I have a backlog of other books that I want to read before December, I hope that one of the shorter books (that is numbers 1 – 4) is chosen!