Ten Books I’m Looking Forward to Reading This Year

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Top Ten Tuesday Ten Books I Didn't Get To in 2018

Last week’s Top Ten Tuesday were books that I meant to read in 2018 but didn’t which is a looking back on the year, so how could I resist this weeks topic of ten books I’m looking forward to reading this year, which, of course, is looking forward.  It’s mostly better to look ahead than back. 😉  Actually, the topic is the ten newest reads I’ve added to my TBR list, but being somewhat of a non-conformist, I thought I’d change it up a bit.

While there will be one overlap from my last Top Ten Tuesday topic, I have mostly new choices in mind for this list.  Luckily I plan to read more than ten books this year!

  1.  Moby Dick by Herman Melville- yes, this is a repeat from my last list but who could resist this cover?!!  And Brona’s is having a read along in February …. isn’t she …..??
  2. How To Be A Friend: An Ancient Guide to True Friendship by Marcus Tullius Cicero – this one not only looks great but looks to be a relatively easy read which is not always the case with Cicero

Moby Dick Herman Melville

How To Be A Friend an ancient guide to true friendship Cicero

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

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The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha ChristieThe Mysterious Affair at Styles: “The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the time as ‘The Styles Case’ has now somewhat subsided.”

Detective: Hercule Poirot

Published: 1920 (1st published book)

Length: 224 pages

Setting: Essex

Written at: Dartmoor

Published in 1920, The Mysterious Affair at Styles is not only Agatha Christie’s first published novel but the first to introduce the reader to Hercule Poirot, her fastidious yet likeable Belgian detective whose mind nimbly gathers clues, deftly processes information and cunningly solves murders with style and aplomb.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles Melbury House

~ source Wikimedia Commons

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Books I Meant to Read in 2018 But Whoops!

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Top Ten Tuesday Ten Books I Didn't Get To in 2018

So ….. books I meant to read in 2018 but whoops ….. Never mind Top Ten Tuesday for this topic; for me it should be Top Fifty.  But I will try to be considerate and in the spirit of not boring you to death and making your eyes glaze over, I’ll keep it to ten …… I think ……. 😉

So here we go!

  1. Crime and Punishment DostoyevskyCrime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  2. Moby Dick Herman MelvilleMoby Dick by Herman Melville
  3. Tevye the Dairyman and Motl the Cantor

 

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The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

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the age of innocence

The Age of Innocence: “On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York.”

It’s 1870s New York, the Gilded Age of America, where substantial economic growth has bred a culture of wealth, class and entitlement.  There are certain ways you behave and certain ways you don’t.  The approval of the masses govern your actions and if you fall out of step, the resulting repercussions could be fatal to your social standing.  However as opulent as the “gild” may appear, gilding is often used to mask flaws, and Wharton, in this Pulitzer Prize novel, examines the cracks and blemishes of New York society underneath the glamour.

The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence (1785 or 1788) Joshua Reynolds source Wikipedia

Newland Archer is a young man who is firmly entrenched in the Gilded Age, the dictums of New York society inscribed in his soul with the expectations of the generation preceding his firmly entrenched in his behaviour.  Then enters Madame Olenska. Ellen Olenska is the cousin of his betrothed, May Welland.  While May is simple and uncomplicated, sort of a clear mirror of the society in which they move, Ellen is foreign and complex and holds an attraction for Newland that draws him outside of his societal shell, allowing him a new perspective on life. Suddenly the world he saw as sensible and practical now receives a critical appraisal from him as it appears small-minded, predictable and stifling.  As his attraction for Ellen grows, so does his dissatisfaction.  There is a possible turning point, but the break never materializes as Newland and May wed, beginning their married life.  Yet Ellen appears in their lives yet again and the uncomfortable unknown is always whispering around us: will Archer satisfy his longing and run away with Ellen or will old society New York curb his emotions and steer him on a more dutiful course?

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The True Saint Nicholas: Why He Matters to Christmas

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The True Saint NicholasThe True Saint Nicholas: “Like many good things, this story begins with a mother’s prayer.”

I downloaded The True Saint Nicholas on a whim as I was trying to accomplish my reading for A Literary Christmas challenge but I decided to read it for my Christian Greats challenge instead.  Oh my, what a amazing book, a fascinating biography of this wonderful saint and his transformation into Santa Claus.

Saint Nicholas Jaroslav Cermák

Icon of Saint Nicholas by Jaroslav Cermák ~ source Wikipedia

Raised in a prosperous family, Nicholas showed an early intelligence, growing up to become a priest and then experiencing an unexpected appointment as the bishop of Myra.  Thus began the Great Persecution under Diocletian where Christians, being suspected as enemies of the empire, were imprisoned, thrown to lions, roasted alive or torn limb from limb.  Churches were destroyed and scriptures burned.  Galerius followed Diocletian with even stricter edicts, imprisioning and torturing Nicolas until the people became weary of bloodshed and Galerius reinstated Christian rights.  Finally Constantine, after seeing a vision of the cross, conquered the empire and proclaimed freedom of religion whereupon Nicolas was eventually released.  Both mental and physical destruction of church and families brought about by the Great Persecution was evident in Myra but Nicholas, buoyed by a new inner strength gained by his time in prison, supported people in a way that was nothing short of miraculous and “the doors of his house were open to all.”  With his deep trust in God, Nicholas faced life’s challenges with a calm yet active faith which endeared him to all people.  Tradition says he was one of the bishops who attended the Council of Nicea which gave us the Nicene Creed, slapping the face of the priest, Arius, who was spreading heresy.  He was detained for his troubles but later released.  Our good saint spent the rest of his life in Myra, serving the people and in his later years, his greatest joy were the children who came to him.  In 340, Nicholas fell ill and died on what is now his feast day, December 6th.  He was buried in a marble tomb in the city’s cathedral.

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An Apology for Idlers by Robert Louis Stevenson

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an apology for idlers

Idle Hours (1895) by Henry Siddons Mowbray ~ source Wikimedia Commons

In An Apology for Idlers, Stevenson takes up the call to support and promote idlers, however not idlers in the common sense.  Idleness “does not consist of doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognized in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class …”  There is a great deal in favour of diligence but there is also something to be said against it; Stevenson has picked up his pen to do so.

Stevenson first targets school, saying that books are all well and good in their place but “they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life”.  The streets give just as good an education, as Dickens and Balzac discovered, as you can learn to see things from a new perspective.

an apology for idlers

Idle Afternoon (c.1874) by Gillett Holdredge ~ source Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

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The 2019 Chunkster Challenge

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2019 Chunkster Challenge

When it comes to challenges, I’m so easy to convince and thanks to Jean at Howling Frog Books, I’ve decided to join the 2019 Chunkster Challenge!  This challenge is hosted by Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews.  While I’m hesitant to add another challenge, I have quite a few chunkster’s tabled for 2019 that it sort of makes sense to join.  See how I manage quite easily to argue myself into it? 😀

The rules for the 2019 Chunkster Challenge are somewhat complex so I’m setting them down here.  It’s all based on a point system:

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2018 In Review

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That says it all.  2018 was a terrible reading year for me.  I’d read two books for the year before my Literary Christmas challenge and it was only thanks to some picture books and other Christmas reads that I was boosted to 11 books for the year.  Very pitiful.  I must say, I started a number of other books, I just never finished them.  So because my year was so awful in this respect, I’m going to compile a very different Year In Review for 2018 than I have for previous years.  If anyone wants to read my previous year reviews, here they are:

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Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

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Christmas at Cold Comfort FarmFor 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.

 

The Little Christmas Tree

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?

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