Victorian Bingo Challenge 2015

I found this Victorian Bingo Reading Challenge, I have always loved bingo and the Victorian era, so I could resist. You must read a minimum of four books, and you can play horizontally, vertically, diagonally, etc. There is another bingo version as well, and to see the rules of both click here.


In looking at this I decided to read five books and due them diagonally from Q-N. Here is my list:

1840's

Barry Lyndon by William Thackeray (1844)


1850's

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (1855)



1860's

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky



1870's

Middlemarch by George Eliot (1874)



1880's

Washington Square by Henry James (1880)



So will you be joining me as well?

TBR 2015 Challenge

 Over the past years I have seen blog posts about this challenge, but I have never joined, and decided to take the plunge for next year. Here are the general rules per Adam from RoofBeamReader.com;

1. Read 12 books on my "to be read" list for at least one year, and books publication dates must be before 1/1/2014. Rereads are not allowed. There are two books I can add as a substitute in case we are not able to get through two of them on our original list.

2. Complete and final list of our books we will be reading, must be blogged by Jan 15, 2015.

3. Monthly Check-Ins early month on the 15th.

For the official rules and to see about the giveaway check here

Here is my list:

1. Germinal by Emile Zola (1885)
2. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens (1841)
3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1869)
4. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1869)
5. Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens (1857)
6. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
7. The Secret Garden (1911)
8. We Took to the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich (1942)
9. Nella's Last War: The Second World War Diaries of housewife, 49 by Nella Last (2006)
10. The Titled Americans by Elisabeth Kehoe (2005)
11. Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone (2008)
12. Once A Grand Duchess: Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II by John van der Kiste (2004)

Alternates:

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian (1970)

The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball (2011)

Do you plan on joining the challenge?

It's Monday! What are you reading? 11/24/14

  I haven't participated in this for quite awhile. This will I will continue to read both of these books:



What will you be reading?

Night of Documentaries....

Normally I do not review any type of movies on here, however the other night I saw a few documentaries that I felt I had to share.

Mile..Mile and a Half

This consisted of 6 friends that take a 25 day journey hiking through the John Muir trail. They share photos and video of their whole experience, including talking to other hikers they meet along the way. Seeing the landscape was breathtaking and peaceful. The film was about an hr and a half. I rate it 9/10, a must see if you are one that loves nature. You can see this through netflix and I think also itunes.

Mile Mile and a half trailer

Tiny: A Story About Living Small

Think your living space is small, what about 84 sq ft or 124? This documentary is about a couple who decide to build a small (what I would call mini) house on their own with no previous experience. They interview other people who now live in small houses some made the choice due to economics, down sizing or environmental reasons. I thought this film was interesting, and you can get an update about where the couple is now on their blog. I did wish though it went more in depth on their decisions how to build their house and where they learned how to construct it, so rate it 7/10. This can be seen on netflix and itunes.
Tiny Trailer


Have you seen any good documentaries or films lately?

Classic Spin Number

 I know that I am a few days late posting but the number for the Spin is 13! I was a little surprised since I had so many previous event/spin books listed that one of them didn't make it. I have started reading The Age of Innocence of Edith Wharton, only about a chapter or so in, to early to see if I will like it or not. Have you read Age of Innocence? If so what are your thoughts? I have until Jan. 5, 2015 to finish it.

Classics Spin #8!!

So I realized I haven't posted on here in a long time. How time flies, anyways it is time for another classic spin.

  If you have read my blog before, then you will recognize the first ten books, were all previous spin list or event books that I have yet to finish. I hope that I get something that is somewhat a light read.

1. Heart of Darkness and selected short stories by Joseph Conrad
2. Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
3. Germinal by Emile Zola
4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
5. The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
6. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
7. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
8. Persuasion by Jane Austen
9. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
10. The Secret Garden by Hodgson Burnett
11. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
12. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
13. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
14. Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
15. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
16. Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn
17. The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper
18. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
19. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
20. The memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln

What book on your list are you hoping to read or dreading? I have tried to read Conrad's books and gotten stuck. I am in the first part of Walden but not finding it very interesting, and I have heard the second part is better. I am about halfway through Jane Eyre and Sense and Sensibility, and finding I am liking Jane Eyre more than I originally thought I would. I have read a few chapters in Germinal and found it quite interesting, as well as War and Peace (although trying to remember all of the characters and their nicknames is a huge challenge). I have previously read The Outsiders multiple times, but for books listed 12-20 I have never read and just listed ones that I thought sounded interesting.