Shortly after starting my blog, I joined The Classics Club and I’m excited about my first chance at the spin list.
So what is the spin list? Select 20 books from my classics club list I need to read. The moderators will pick a random number and whatever book corresponds with the book (numbered on my list) my goal will be to read and review the book by the end of the month (August). I have 3 classics off the shelf for buddy reads in August so hopefully the spin book might coincide with the spin number.

Here’s my spin list candidates:
- My Antonia
- The Bell Jar
- The Bluest Eye
- Great Expectations
- How Green Was My Valley
- Invisible Man
- The Joy Luck Club
- The Lady and the Law
- Lady Susan
- A Lesson Before Dying
- A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- The Odd Women
- Oliver Twist
- The Pastures of Heaven
- Ruth
- Silas Marner
- Sula
- Tar Baby
- Tess of the d’Ubervilles
- Tortilla Flat
After making this list, I’ve been seriously thinking about revising my classics club list. Since I’ve read about 20 classics so far this year and have plans to read more before the year ends, I *think* I might need to ADD to my original list? My appetite for classics seems to be insatiable because of books like Middlemarch and The Woman in White. Reading at least 1 classics a month has become essential to my reading routine. And let’s not forget I enjoy opportunities to pair them well with many of my teas. Lol!
These are a few I’m thinking about adding:
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- Lady Audley’s Secret
- Jane and Prudence
- Jezebel’s Daughter
- Elizabeth and her German Garden
- Evelina
- The Scarlett Pimpernel
- Twelve Years a Slave
- Les Miserables
- To the Lighthouse
- The Mill on the Floss
- Passing
- The Phantom of the Opera
- A Raisin in the Sun
- A Room with a View (I just finished this today)
So what’s the verdict? Should I add more books? What’s your recommendations?
Have you read any of these? Any favorites?
Great list! If you don’t get Tess, I shall hope you get one of the Toni Morrisons. I decided to have a cut-off date of 1965 for my own CC list, so she was too late for it, but I’ve got several of her books on my TBR or wishlist after being blown away by Beloved a year or so ago. I also end up reading a lot of classics that aren’t on my list, but I decided not to add them – I already put 90 on my original list so that seems like more than enough to cope with! But there’s no reason not to add more if you want to – or you could finish in less than five years, and straight away have a second list… 😀 Hope you get a good spin!
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I’ve read Morrison before but it’s been too long and I several on my list. Maybe I’ll pick up Sula since it’s been on my shelf longer than the others.
Good advice on the list. I’ll probably leave as is and then start a new one. Finishing in less than 5 could work too.
I just checked the spin number.. 😊
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Ooh, Lady Susan should be fun! I haven’t read it but keep meaning to. I look forward to hearing what you think of it.
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My first #cclist waxed and waned as I added and took off books over the entire five years I ran it. At some point though, I decided to start a second list that became the foundation for my #cclist 2. Now that I’ve started #cclist 2, I have a third list in progress. I may switch some books in and out of the list to assist with readalongs that may pop up in the next five years 🙂
There’s no right or wrong way, but I hope this helps.
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This is really good advice. Especially since some of the ones I want to add I don’t have a hard copy of yet and the ones on my current list I have the majority of those on mg shelves (which was one of the reasons I put those titles on there).
But I’m excited about starting a second list. This helps a lot. 😊
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I really enjoyed Lady Audley’s Secret, Evelina, Jane and Prudence, and The Scarlet Pimpernel and think they’d make excellent additions to your list!
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Passing, To the Lighthouse, and Jane and Prudence are TOP NOTCH, you can’t go wrong! You’re a classics superstar!
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So, you have Lady Susan! What delights you have in store
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Oops, pressed Send by mistake…
… once you’ve got over the fact that the Lady in question is no lady! I only recently watched Love and Friendship, a witty cinematic version of this early Austen, and really enjoyed it.
And when you’ve finished the novel you might like my take on it at https://calmgrove.wordpress.com/2016/05/28/lady-susan/ where I use a 21st-century equivalent of the epistolary style to critique the novel… 😁
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