Karen at Books and Chocolate is hosting the Back to the Classics challenge again. I didn’t do so great at this year’s but I’m going to give it a try again! All the details are here!

Here are the 12 categories and to note:

• All books must have been written at least 50 years ago; therefore, books must have been written by 1967 to qualify for this challenge. The ONLY exceptions are books published posthumously.

Here are some books I may read. I’m giving myself a few choices just in case….!

1.  A 19th Century Classic – any book published between 1800 and 1899.

Cousin Phyllis – Elizabeth Gaskell (1864)

Agnes Grey – Anne Brontë (1847)

2.  A 20th Century Classic – any book published between 1900 and 1967.

Raising Demons – Shirley Jackson (1957)

The Dollmaker – Harriette Simpson Arnow (1954)

3.  A classic by a woman author.

Read: A Raisin in the Sun – Lorraine Hansberry

This Crooked Way – Elizabeth Spencer (1952)

A Raisin in the Sun – Lorraine Hansberry (1959)

4.  A classic in translation.  Any book originally written published in a language other than your native language. Feel free to read the book in your language or the original language. (You can also read books in translation for any of the other categories).

Seven Years in Tibet – Heinrich Harrer (1952)

Chess Story – Stefan Zweig (1941) 

Children of the Alley – Naguib Mahfouz, Peter Theroux (Translator) (1959)

5.  A classic published before 1800. Plays and epic poems are acceptable in this category also.

The Monk – Matthew Lewis (1796)

The Castle of Otranto –  Horace Walpole (1764)

6.  An romance classic. I’m pretty flexible here about the definition of romance. It can have a happy ending or a sad ending, as long as there is a strong romantic element to the plot.

Katherine – Anya Seton

Winthrop Women – Anya Seton

7.  A Gothic or horror classic. For a good definition of what makes a book Gothic, and an excellent list of possible reads, please see this list on Goodreads.

Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin (1967)

Whatever happened to Baby Jane? – Henry Farrell (1960)

8.  A classic with a number in the title. Examples include A Tale of Two Cities, Three Men in a Boat, The Nine Tailors, Henry V, Fahrenheit 451, etc.

Three Guineas – Virginia Woolf (1938)

And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie (1939)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey (1962)

9.  A classic about an animal or which includes the name of an animal in the title.  It an actual animal or a metaphor, or just the name. Examples include To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, The Metamorphosis, White Fang, etc.

The Tiger in the Smoke –  Margery Allingham (1952)

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? – Horace McCoy (1935)

The Call of the Wild – Jack London (1902)

10. A classic set in a place you’d like to visit. It can be real or imaginary: The Wizard of Oz, Down and Out in Paris and London, Death on the Nile, etc.

Hawaii – James A Michener (1959)

My Side of the Mountain – Jean Craighead George (1959)

The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)

11. An award-winning classic. It could be the Newbery award, the Prix Goncourt, the Pulitzer Prize, the James Tait Award, etc. Any award, just mention in your blog post what award your choice received.

Strawberry Girl – Lois Lenski (Newberry award 1946)

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Newberry award 1959)

12. A Russian Classic. 2017 will be the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, so read a classic by any Russian author.

Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak (1957)

(I secretly avoid Russian classics so hopefully I can get through this one. Also I have to ask, are there Russian classics written by women?)