As many of you know, I participated in A Literary Christmas hosted by Tarissa at In The Bookcase in an effort to read some Christmas stories to bring more Christmas cheer. Here is a list of the Christmas stories I read:
For a full review, please go here.
For someone who has read Cold Comfort Farm, I was so excited to find this book, however I was disappointed to discover the title is misleading. Instead of being further adventures from Cold Comfort Farm, it is actually a compilation of short stories by Stella Gibbons and Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm is only one of them. And to add further disappointment, only one or two of them even remotely mentions Christmas. Fool me once, and all that ……
In any case, for a book of short stories they were quite interesting, even if they were mostly missing the Christmas theme.
Thirty-three year old Miss Rhoda Harting is a single spinster who makes her living as a writer. Retiring to a cottage in Buckinghamshire one Christmas season she finds herself lonely, a stark contrast to her usually reclusive yet positive character. On Christmas Day she encounters three children at her door who are attracted by her tiny Christmas tree in the window of her cottage. After lunch and a wild story, the arrival of their father sets up a question: is Rhoda destined to live life as a spinster or will love rearrange her carefully ordered life?
A very unexpected challenge popped up at Carol’s place, Journey and Destination, the 2019 Christian Greats Challenge, and after some mulling over, I’ve decided to join. I have a few books that might fit these categories that I’m reading or want to read and it might help me get through them (Augustine’s City of God, I’m looking at YOU!)
The following are the categories and my choices:
Why? I’ve always wanted to read Eusebius.
Yay! The Deal Me In Challenge is here again! Many thanks to Jay at Bibliophilopolis for hosting this challenge which has helped me to read many more Short Stories, Essays, Poetry and Children’s Books than I ever would have without it.
The rules are simple. Choose short stories to correspond to each card in a deck of cards. Then draw one card each week and read the story that corresponds.
What do you need for this challenge?
“Marley was as dead as a doornail.”
We all know this treasured Christmas story. Scrooge, a cantankerous old bachelor who lives a solitary life and whose sole purpose is to increase his wealth, initially has a vision of his dead partner, Jacob Marley, on his doorknocker. Not one for fancy, Scrooge humbugs his daydream, but when he is visited by Marley’s ghost, which is then succeeded by three other spirits – the spirits of Christmas past, present, and future, Scrooge learns many lessons of what he has lost, what he has become, and his fate if he continues on his selfish and merciless path.
A Picture Book reading challenge? Do you sense a trend? Am I going easier and easier with my reading? 😉 Perhaps, but I couldn’t resist this Picture Book Reading Challenge hosted by Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews.
What makes this challenge fun is that she has different categories for reading:
I used to regularly participate in the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. It was one of my favourite challenges and was reasonably easy for me to accomplish. Then life became busy and 52 books now seems almost impossible to read in a year. But 2019 is a new year and I’m determined to make reading more of a priority. So the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge is back on Classical Carousel!
For this challenge, all you have to commit to do is to read 52 books, 1 during each week of the year. The rules are relatively broad and easy to accomplish:
Already I have some books on my radar to read including Tom Jones, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Moby Dick, David Copperfield, Kidnapped and The Grapes of Wrath.
I’m excited to add the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge to my Back to the Classics, and Newbery Award challenges for 2019! What challenges are you going to participate in in the new year?
Yes, it’s chilly winter weather. We haven’t received any snow yet but only because it’s been sunny. A few days ago, I woke to -6ºC weather and brrrrr!!! …. it certainly wakes you up in the morning!
© Cleo @ Classical Carousel
A Newbery Reading Challenge for 2019! What could be better?! This is a new challenge for me, a challenge to read Newbery Award & Honor Books and Caldecott Medal and Honor books. I love children’s books and this is an opportunity to focus on some of these books for 2019.
Julie from Smiling Shelves is hosting the Newbery Reading Challenge for 2019 and the rules are as follows:
There are five different levels to the Newbery Reading Challenge but I’m going to aim for the easiest, L’Engle at 15-29 points.
Mother and Child Reading by Alfred Smith Carlton source Wikimedia Commona
Here it is again, the Back to the Classics Challenge where we are challenged to read a number of classic books during the year! I’m very scared to attempt any challenges after the reading year I had in 2018, but I’m sloughing off my failures and having a very positive, sunny attitude towards my reading in 2019! With that in mind, I’m going to join Karen at Books and Chocolate‘s Back to the Classics Challenge! Here are the categories and possible book choices for them:
The Magdalen Reading ~ Rogier van der Weyden (Public Domain) source Wikimedia Commons
While the books listed are not set in stone, I’m going to try to stick as closely to them as I can. I think I’m most looking forward to the comedy category ….. I definitely need some comedic relief lately! 😉 I’m also excited about reading another Greek play and perhaps getting back into sync with my ancient Greek challenge, and I do need to read another Shakespeare to get me going on the Bard again. So many classic books, so little time!
If you’d like to join this challenge too, just hop over to Books and Chocolate and sign up. It’s truly one of the best challenges of the year!