Challenge Post - 2021 Back to the Classics Challenge

Books read for the 2021 Back to the Classics Challenge. I will be listing the books I read for this challenge below, with reviews linked as they are completed.

1. A 19th century classic: any book first published from 1800 to 1899

2. A 20th century classic: any book first published from 1900 to 1971. All books must have been published at least 50 years ago; the only exceptions are books which were written by 1971 and posthumously published.

3. A classic by a woman author.

4. A classic in translation, meaning any book first published in a language that is not your primary language. You may read it in translation or in its original language, if you prefer.

5. A classic by BIPOC author; that is, a non-white author.

6. A classic by a new-to-you author, i.e., an author whose work you have never read.

7. New-to-you classic by a favorite author -- a new book by an author whose works you have already read.

8. A classic about an animal, or with an animal in the title. The animal can be real or metaphorical. (i.e., To Kill a Mockingbird).

9. A children's classic.

Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery

10. A humorous or satirical classic.

11. A travel or adventure classic (fiction or non-fiction). It can be a travelogue or a classic in which the main character travels or has an adventure.

12. A classic play. Plays will only count in this category.

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Reading Challenges for 2021

I usually do set a numerical goal on the Goodreads reading challenges each year, and find them to be a great way to feel some sense of accomplishment in reading [x] number of books in a given year. Since I also started reviewing some digital ARCs through NetGalley last year, I've been writing more reviews in general (though the non-ARC books I read I may or may not review). I've toyed with the idea of doing some additional challenges before, but haven't--so I'm going to try for it this year! Because this is my first time doing this, I tried to choose challenges that mesh pretty well with what I already tend to read. This means, basically, that they're challenges I could have done okay on with books I read naturally over the course of a year. Yeah, that might not quite be in the "move out of your comfort zone" spirit of many challenges, but it seems like a way to ease into it. So, without further ado, I'm going to be trying the following: Rose City R...

Review: Collected Poems of Federico García Lorca, revised bilingual edition

I finished reading this anthology a few weeks ago, and apparently forgot to ever post a review. While García Lorca is one of the best-known Spanish poets, I was actually quite unfamiliar with his work before picking up this collection. Perhaps starting with an anthology of this size was jumping in off the deep end, but it was an enjoyable experience. Because this edition uses several different translators, there's a lot of variation even beyond what's inherent in the poems. Despite a very limited knowledge of Spanish, I found I enjoyed it being a dual language book--especially for sections where I didn't like some of the stylistic choices of the translations much and could then compare with the original. All in all, a very enjoyable collection of poetry.

Review - Mahagony

I received an electronic ARC of this book via NetGalley. This is not an easy book to assign a star rating. It's beautifully written--the language is poetic, and as the story and characters shift through time and perspective, the writing itself reflects this. This is a credit to both Glissant and to translator Betsy Wing. The book itself is not always pleasant--but that is part of the point. The narrative dips back and forth through time, and deals with themes of slavery, colonization, sexual exploitation, etc. in Martinique. The shifting narrators and time periods can become somewhat confusing to the reader, and I think it is this more than anything else that made this relatively short book take me a fairly long time to read--that, along with the extended discussion of narrator vs. author toward the beginning of the novel. It was worth reading. It would be worth reading again, with a little more background on Glissant's other work and the history of Martinique, to...

Undirected Reading

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