Classics Considered

It's only taken me several days, but I think I've come up with a good list for this week's Top Ten Tuesday : 1. The Kill , by Émile Zola Making an exception in my "no more reading challenges" resolution - I plan to read The Kill for Fanda's Zoladdiction event next month.  It's one of Zola 's shorter novels and, from what I hear, an interesting one! 2. Ben-Hur , by Lew Wallace (re-read) I just started Book 2, so I have a ways to go yet.  :) 3. North Korea's Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society , by Jieun Baek How do people share information that's illegal, and what information would a person risk their life to access?  This topic appeals to me for both historical and universal reasons. 4. The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea , by Bandi "Bandi" is an author in North Korea, whose short stories from the 80s and 90s were smuggled out and published recently.  Saw this whi...

Meet Ned, a new resident of the Bookcase. Wow, it's already New Year's Eve Eve!  Christmas festivities are sadly winding down...  Tomorrow, people will wait outside in the freezing cold to ring in 2018, and I'll be in my snug, warm house, probably curled up with Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night , thus attempting to relive a New Year's memory from three years back .  Though surprising at times, 2017 has been a good year for me, and as someone who gets post-holiday blues, a book can help ease the transition into the next one. I've talked already about 2017 in review , and how I've decided not to take on any more reading challenges , as tempting as they are.  That said, a few goals for 2018 have been floating around in my mind (I love the word "goal" because, for some reason, it sounds more flexible to me than "plan").   Here's a few of my open-ended reading goals for next year: Bring back Book Journals.   I have quite a few chunksters o...