19 Nov 2010

Back to the Classics - what to read?



Enjoying a quite night in trying to put together a shortlist of books for the "Back to the Classics Challenge 2011".
Here is what I have so far:

- A Banned Book
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

- A Book with a Wartime Setting (can be any war)
Atonment by Ian McEwan

- A Pulitzer Prize (Fiction) Winner or Runner Up:
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
American Pastoral by Philip Roth

- A Children's/Young Adult Classic
The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett
Peter Pan by J. Barrie
Little Women by Louisa Alcott

- 19th Century Classic
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
La Dame aux Camelias by Alexander Dumas

- 20th Century Classic
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

- A Book you think should be considered a 21st Century Classic
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

- Re-Read a book from your High School/College Classes
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

9 comments:

  1. Yay! You're reading Atonement! It really is a beautiful and heartbreaking story...I can't wait to read your review of it! Great choices all around, Willa :)

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  2. There are so many good books on here - I'm already looking forward to all of your reviews.

    Frances Hodgson Burnett books are my childhood. The Little Princes by her is is also amazing.

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  3. Thanks Melissa and Sam :-) Sam, The Little Princess is a good idea, I will put that one on as well!

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  4. I loved Wuthering Heights. Definitely a great pick for the 19th century. Good luck with the challenge!

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  5. A great list, and a beautiful blog, I'm still coming up with options myself

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  6. @SmallReview: Thanks :-)

    @Katrina: Thanks for the praise, I will stop by your blog and see how you are doing on the challenge

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  7. What a fun challenge... some great books here! Including several I'm not familiar with... the Pulitzer doesn't get loads of press here in the UK really so I suspect there are probably a whole load of prize-winners from that one that I don't know much about.
    I LOVE the Secret Garden!

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  8. Good luck with your challenge! You've got some books on there that I need to read one of these days. I can say that The Bell Jar was wonderful.

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  9. Nice choices. I might have to join this challenge. I know that there are all sorts of classics that I probably should have read at some point...Being an English Lit teacher and all. There are just so many! But, this is the joy of life. I'll never run out of unread books!

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