It’s time for another Classics Club spin.
This is the Classics Club’s 37th CC Spin…and mine. Yes you read that correctly. I have participated in EVERY single Classics Club spin, along with Jean @Howling Frog.
What is a CC Spin?
- Simply pick twenty books that you’ve got left to read from your Classics Club List.
- Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog before Sunday, 21st April.
- A number from 1-20 will be announced.
- Read that book by 2nd June.
For full details on how to play along, or to join the classics club, click on the link at the beginning of this post.
As many of you may already know, I like to buddy read with you whenever I can, so if one of our books match, I am happy to switch them around before the lucky number is drawn so our numbers match too.
My CC Spin #37:
- Sense and Sensibility annotated edition | Jane Austen & David M Shapard (reading with Margaret @Books Please)
- The Awakening | Kate Chopin (reading with Joel @ I Would Rather Be Reading)
- Death of Ivan Ilyvich | Leo Tolstoy
- Homage to Catalonia | George Orwell
- Cimarron | Edna Ferber
- Animal Farm | George Orwell
- The April Baby’s Book of Tunes | Elizabeth von Arnim
- (A) The Three Miss Kings | Ada Cambridge
- I Am a Cat by Natsume Sōseki (reading with Deb @Readerbuzz)
- (A) A Fence Around the Cuckoo | Ruth Park
- (A) Bush Studies | Barbara Baynton
- The Bell Jar | Sylvia Plath (reading with Kelly’s Thoughts and Ramblings)
- (A) Outbreak of Love | Martin Boyd
- Sapphira and the Slave Girl | Willa Cather
- Cousin Bette | Honore de Balzac (reading with Karen @BookerTalk)
- Night and Day | Virginia Woolf
- Down and Out in Paris and London | George Orwell
- (A) Thirty Years in Australia | Ada Cambridge
- The Trouble with Happiness | Tove Ditlevsen
- Picture of Dorian Gray | Oscar Wilde
My Previous 36 Spin Results:
One book was a DNF as I lost it during a move.
Three were barely so-so reads and another couple were curiosities that didn’t really appeal to me but I could see their merits. The rest were delights. From the surprise packages to the known favourites, the CC Spins have become one of my favourite bookish events of the blogging year.
I can’t wait to see what spin #37 brings me.
Clicking on a book cover will take you to my book response post for that title.
Happy Spinning!
Later: The winner is number eight.
It’s The Three Miss Kings by Ada Cambridge for me – now I just have to work out which box marked ‘AUST’ this one got packed into. Worse case scenario I could read it on Project Gutenberg.
The Three Miss Kings – Elizabeth, Eleanor and Patty – were brought up in a remote seaside settlement in Victoria, Australia, their father a mysterious man of ‘preposterous eccentricity’, their late mother a dignified, accomplished woman who instilled in the girls an appreciation of ‘spiritual and intellectual aspirations’ which compensates for their lack of worldly experience. Such virtues serve the sisters well when, on the death of their father, they begin a new life in Melbourne. Under the watchful eye of one of society’s more respectable patrons, they learn quickly about ‘life, and love, and trouble, and etiquette among city folks’ – to emerge radiant in their succession to both marriage and gentility.
First published in 1891, The Three Miss Kings was one of Ada Cambridge’s most popular novels, a delightful story of young women’s gentrification in a colonial society still tied to the aspirations of its English forebears.
| This post was written on the traditional land of the Wangal clan, one of the 29 clans of the Eora Nation within the Sydney basin. This Reading Life recognises the continuous connection to Country, community and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They are the traditional custodians of the lands, seas, and skies on which we live and they are this nations first storytellers. |
This Reading Life 
Good luck with this spin. They all look like great choices.
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I’ve tried to keep to slimmer books as I suspect May will be a slightly chaotic month settling into our new home & not necessarily conducive for reading…
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I’ve read some of these, The Three Miss Kings might be my favourite, but the Willa Cather is new to me, I’m off to see if I can download a copy.
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I’d love to have a good excuse to read another Ada Cambridge book – I really enjoyed The Sisters.
I’m trying to read Cather in chronological order, so SSG is next up.
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I’d be happy to read any of these, even the ones I’ve already read:)
Congratulations on being a ‘stayer’!
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Ha – thanks!
I’ve been thinking about that side of my personality lately. I spent eighteen years working at the same preschool before moving to Sydney and after a couple of inbetween casual positions, took up a position at the local bookshop which has now lasted 15 and half years. I am indeed a stayer.
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We share a Cather and a Wilde, but of different titles. Let’s see who’ll get them.. 😉
My list will be up tomorrow morning.
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I’ll check it out 🙂
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Sometime I’d love to see a ranking of Don’t Bother to Must Read for your spin choices.
Good luck!
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Hopefully once I move, I will have more time to play with my blog again. I feel my cc spin page needs a refresh…
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Great list. I’ve read six of your list.
My list.
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I almost missed this one. My post will go up on Saturday!
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I forgot that it was coming up too, thankfully I spotted it on Karen @ BookerTalk’s feed 🙂
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That’s exactly where I saw it!
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Interesting list with lots of books I’m not familiar with. I’ve been curious. Since you know what the spin number will be, do you put a book for that number that you want to read next, or do you not pick the spin number until later? Or do you pretend you don’t know it when you make your spin list?
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That’s a good question.
I have loved the serendipity of the Spins from the very beginning and when I took over being one of the moderators of the CC I was concerned I would lose that surprise element.
But then I learnt to schedule the cc spins 3 or 4 in advance. That way by the time the spin eventually ‘pops’ up on my feed again I’ve forgotten all the details. I almost missed this one – it was only becasue I saw list #37 on the feed of BookerTalk’s page that I knew it was on again!
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Great list! I’ve read a few, and I see a bunch I’d love to learn more about. I remember hearing about Cimarron (maybe my mother, ages ago?) — I have one Edna Ferber book on my TBR, and now I’m thinking it should go on my spin list next time around!
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I read So Big a while ago and really enjoyed it – so much so, I picked up a couple of her other books.
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The Bell Jar is on my spin list, too. Maybe one of us will get it!
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I tweaked my list so that we are now reading the Bell Jar on the same number. I’ve been meaning to read it for years and I’ve started reading her bio, The Red Comet, so now would be a great time to spin it 🙂
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It’s always fun to see what are on people’s TBR list for the Classics. I enjoyed the annotated S&S, which I read a few years ago–S&S is one of my favorite Austens and always seems fresh to me.
I love Edna Ferber, but haven’t yet read Cimarron. I am planning to read So Big later this year, so maybe I’ll read Cimarron as well.
I read The Bell Jar a couple of years ago and was relieved to finally take it off the TBR list. I know there I people who really love it, but I found it incredibly oppressive.
Picture of Dorian Gray was better as a first read than a reread, but definitely an important classic.
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Fingers crossed for The Awakening!
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Nice list! I’m interested in The Bell Jar too, though I haven’t got it on my Classics Club list. Maybe next time!
Also, best of luck if the Balzac gets chosen! I have to say, my brief experience with that gentleman was less than prepossessing.
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