Classics Club Spin #34

UPDATE: THE SPIN NUMBER IS 13!

CC Spin is back! 

It’s easy. At your blog, before next Sunday 18th June, 2023 create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list. This is your Spin List. You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the spin period. On Sunday 18th, June we’ll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by the 6th August, 2023.

As my reading schedule will be quite tight coming July, I choose only short classics (100-200ish pages) which I think I would enjoy. There are only ten of them, so I double the entry to make it twenty. Here's my Spin list:

1. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
2. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
3. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
4. Mrs. Harris Goes to Moscow by Paul Gallico
5. Three Men in A Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
6. Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome
7. The Enchanted Barn by Grace Livingston Hill
8. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
9. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
10. Letters from My Windmill by Alphonse Daudet
11. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
12. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
13. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
14. Mrs. Harris Goes to Moscow by Paul Gallico
15. Three Men in A Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
16. Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome
17. The Enchanted Barn by Grace Livingston Hill
18. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
19. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
20. Letters from My Windmill by Alphonse Daudet

Have you read these books? Which one do you wish me to get?

The Cat Saw Murder by Dolores Hitchens (1939): A Murder Mystery #ReadingTheMeow2023

🐈 Samantha is probably the richest cat in the world. The black cat is an heiress of a wealthy eccentric lady, inheritor of quite a fortune! Now she lives with Rachel Murdock, the deceased lady's (Agatha) sister.

🐈 Rachel is a seventy years old spinster, living in a village with her sister Jennifer, also a spinster. Their ordinary peaceful days is interrupted when Rachel receives a letter from her step-niece, Lily, calling for help. So, go Miss Rachel and Samantha the cat to Breakers Beach, California, to stay at a shabby boarding house where Lily lives.

🐈 Lily is a gambler and in desperate need of cash. She has a share of her aunt's inheritance, but she can only get that after Samantha's death. So, when Miss Rachel found that a poisoning attempt had been made towards the cat, we had suspicion of whodunnit, right? Is Lily a murderer, then? Not of the cat, surely, since she will see a murder - as indicated in the title, but maybe the guy that went missing? The guy (fellow resident) to whom it seems Lily has a crush? Or perhaps deeper than that? Whoever it may be, there is indeed something sinister going on in the house.

🐈 Then Lily herself was murdered, while Miss Rachel was drugged at Lily's bedside when she's visiting her niece's room. Lieutenant Mayhew is the formal investigator of the case, but the real sleuth is, of course, Miss Rachel - a calm, intelligent old lady who'll remind you instantly of Miss Marple. Though Miss Rachel is much more agile than Miss Marple. It's amazing to read how she heaves herself up the attic to spy on the other residents through a hole in their attics!

🐈 However smart and agile Miss Rachel is, she wouldn't solve the case without Samantha. The dear cat has a trusting personality, and likes to follow people. When the murder was committed, she's the only witness, though of course she can't tell it to anyone. But by following the murderer out of the room, Miss Rachel later notices something which shouldn't have been there. And that turns out to be an important clue to the case.

🐈 This is a combination of a gripping murder thriller with a cozy mystery of a charming amateur sleuth and her cat. It also has the Golden Age crime fiction vibes, being published in 1939. The plot is reasonable, spiced with some thrilling action near the end, and good investigation from the police. Though I've guessed the murderer correctly from the beginning, it's still an entertaining crime story to read. I loved the charming Rachel Murdock and the grubby Lieutenant Mayhew. I wish to see more of this unlikely partnership, with Samantha purring and meowing every now and then, preferably in the most critical moment.

Rating: 4,5 / 5

**My 1st book for Literary Potpourri's  #ReadingTheMeow2023**

Getting to know the Meow:
My name is Samantha.
I am very rich, I am an heiress of a wealthy lady.
I love following people around, no matter who they are.
My contribution to the story: I witnessed a murder, and then following the murderer around. It's up to Miss Rachel (she's the nice smart lady who takes care of me) to notice anything amiss with me after that, and solving the mystery. I can't tell her who the murderer is, she can't speak my language!

Book Title Challenge

Woman Writing by Hendrik Jacobus Scholten

I saw this fun bookish tag in Golden Age of Detective Fiction blog, who had also seen it in another blog. I thought it would be a fun way to bring back some favorite books I have read and reviewed here years ago. So, let's play!

A Book with A Number In The Title

Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

You might be more familiar with Dumas' Three Musketeers, but my favorite from this series is actually the direct sequel: Twenty Years After. It is, as the title hinted, twenty years after the four friends' last action in The Three Musketeers. We saw them in this book as more matured men. They struggled with more personal or family issues, and it all changed their views. But one thing stays rather the same: their friendship. It was even more deepening toward the end. A very compelling, heartwarming book, still with some swashbuckling scenes to entertain you.

A Book with A Name In The Title

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

One of my favorite books that deal about conscience and free will. "If God does not exist, then everything is permitted" always provides you ample ground of argument.

A Book with A Setting In The Title

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

This book remains one of my favorites from Christie. It's a straightforward case, inside a family, and set in a peaceful English countryside. It is also Christie's first book. And having been listening about the writing process in her autobiography very recently, only added the book's charm in my memory. Christie even named her first house 'Styles'!

A Book with An Animal In The Title

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A wonderful book that deals on the two sides of human being: the good and the evil.

Book with a Colour In The Title

The Black Tulips by Alexandre Dumas

A lesser known work of Dumas, though with the same intricately woven plot. Combining historical events and passionate agricultural personages, the result is highly entertaining story.

A Book with One Word In The Title

Beloved by Toni Morrison

A very powerful read that will blow your mind. If you have to read only one from Toni Morrison, this one would the perfect choice. It's a beautiful albeit bitter story about slavery in the South of America around the end of Civil War, or in the Reconstruction era.


Feel like doing this yourself? Then consider yourself tagged!

 

Summer by Edith Wharton: A Review

💚 Charity Royall is one of just a few of Edith Wharton's heroines who didn't come from upper class society. She came from "up the Mountain" - a slum raked with poverty - but her mother gave her away to be brought up by a lawyer in a respectable house.

💚 Charity grew up with these two identities pulling each other inside her. In a way, she's ashamed of her origin, and grateful of her respectable house. But she also feels of not really belonging in the Royalls' family, and longing to be independent. That's why she takes a job as the village librarian in order to fulfil her dream, though she hates the job.

💚 When Lucius Harney - a handsome young architect, nephew of her boss - comes from the city, Charity is attracted to him. I think she's more attracted to the prospect of leaving her shameful past, than to Lucius himself. Or is it that she feels flattered to be loved by an educated man? Either way, Lucius is Charity's only ticket to freedom and more exciting life. The fact that Mr. Royall wants to marry her, and even made an inappropriate advance to her (ugh!) only strengthens her longing.

💚 As much as I'm excited for Charity's growing intimacy with Lucius, knowing that it is a Wharton's story, I was having trepidation along the reading. Wharton's naturalism meant that most of her heroines are unable to make a life of their own. Charity and Lucius' fourth-of-July cheerful outing is so good that I feared something terrible must awaits in the next chapter(s).

💚 Summer is a coming-of-age story. I'm happy with Charity's development into a matured and wiser woman. Maturity means that one can accept of one's self as it is, and thus, knowing what must have to be done and what's best for one's own.

💚 I have read this book in a very wrong moment, and that's why I didn't enjoy it as much as I should've been, though I realized it as one of Wharton's finest writings. I think I might have to stay away from Naturalist authors for some time. It's not good for my depression. At this moment I only need cheerful stories with happy ending, or fast-paced stories that don't require me to feel anything.

Rating: 3,5 / 5

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Feel/Look Like Summer

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week's prompt is...

Top Ten Books or Covers that Feel/Look Like Summer

The first four are books with the word "summer" in their titles. I have only read two, while the other two are in my TBR.

Summer by Edith Wharton (Read but not yet reviewed)

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden

The next five are with covers that looks like summer:

My Good Life in France by Janine Marsh

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

The Girl, the Dog, and the Writer in Provence by Katrina Nannestad

The Earth by Émile Zola

Five Go Off in a Caravan by Enid Blyton

And the last one is simply the essence of summer trapped in a book:

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Have you read any of them? Any favorite?

 

Six Degrees of Separation, from Friendaholic to The Martian

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme, now hosted by Kate @ books are my favorite and best.

On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

This month we start from:

0. Friendaholic by Elizabeth Day

"As a society, there is a tendency to elevate romantic love. But what about friendships? Aren't they just as – if not more – important? So why is it hard to find the right words to express what these uniquely complex bonds mean to us? In Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict, Elizabeth Day embarks on a journey to answer these questions." - Goodreads

I haven't read this book, but the title says it all. The center theme is about friendship, which I picked to build my first chain - a friendship of two men which was developing throughout the years, or throughout the books where they were in together. I'm talking about....

1. The Big Four by Agatha Christie

...Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings. It was when fighting this international intrigued which threatened to control the world, that Poirot and Hastings were in the closest danger of death. In the most crucial hours, we get to see how deep their friendship was.

For my next chain, I used the word Four from the title, and picked another book from Christie with the same number in the title:

2. 4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie

It is one of Miss Marple's cases, where she looks into her friend's claim that she witnessed a murder on a train.

Again, I use one word from the last book title: Paddington, for my next chain:

3. A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

Everyone knows who Paddington is, a fictional animal character who can think and talk like human being.

Another book with animal who can think like human being, and even narrate the book from its point of view is:

4. The Black Beauty by Anne Sewell

"Black Beauty's story, as told by himself, is the fascinating tale of the life of a horse a hundred years ago, when horses were a part of daily life." - Amazon

Another book with a horse in the story as well as in the title, would be my next chain:

5. All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

Before finding this book in online second hand bookstore, I didn't know that this book has been adapted into movie starring Matt Damon! Have you watched it?

And so, for my last chain, here is another book from my TBR with Matt Damon starring in the movie adaptation, and also appears in the cover:

6. The Martian by Andy Weir

"A meticulously researched, briskly paced and surprisingly funny story about an astronaut left behind on Mars, presumed dead, who must now figure out how to survive and let the folks back on Earth know he is alive and needs rescue." - a Goodreads review.

I haven't read this, because this is a rare condition where I have watched the movie first before reading the book. Serious question: is it worth reading?



There, another fun chain to build. It begins with a book which provides many possibilities to create lovely chains. The one I posted here was my third options, which I found most interesting.

Have you read those books? If you do #sixdegree, how it worked out for you this time?

 

Throwback Thursday #1: Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin

Throwback Thursday is a monthly bookish meme hosted by Davida @ The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog every first Thursday of the month, where we are highlighting one of our previously published book reviews.

I see this as an opportunity to re-post (or translate posts originally published in Bahasa Indonesia) my old book reviews, previously posted in my old (now inactive) blogs.

For my first #ThrowbackThursday, I picked a book I've read and reviewed in June 2014. It's a heartwarming, mouthwatering book about baking cakes and humanity.

Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin

🧁 In 1994 Rwanda was torn by ethnic genocide. Now in 2000, six years after the tragedy, the survivors are still in traumatic condition. Distrust and fear are still thickly clouding their daily lives. In this condition, the Turangaza family move in from Tanzania, and live in an apartment.

🧁 Angel Tungaraza is a professional cake baker, and through this business Angel spread to the neighborhood the spirit of reconciliation. Reconciliation of the two ethnics that were fighting in the genocide: the Tutsis and the Hutus, as well as personal reconciliation with each of their pasts.

🧁 In Kigali, seems that everyone has experienced the losing (at least) a family member. Although coming from Tanzania (and did not experience the genocide), Angel and her husband, Pius, are also victims of traumatic experience of losing their children by death. AIDS, as we all know, is another deathly terror in Africa at that time besides Rwandan genocide. The Tungarazas’ children have died of AIDS, and now Angel and Pius must raise their grandchildren (five of them!) by themselves. Fortunately, in the time of resurgent after the tragedy, there are plenty of things to be celebrated. And, what is a celebration without a cake?

🧁 Since the best cake in Kigali is Angel’s, her business springs, and people from all background come to her apartment to order cakes. Gaile Parkin described the cakes to tiny details in every chapter, and that—apart from the people struggles—gives the book its unique attraction. Each chapter portrays each cake, each event of celebration, each individual, with each problem.

🧁 Angel’s cakes are not only delicious in taste, but they are also impressive in decoration. The cakes are rich in colors (as the African like it) and they are tailor-made to the celebration itself (or the person who is celebrating it). But Angel does not run the business only for money, more than that, she helps her customers to regain happiness in her own simple way.

🧁 When customers come, Angel would let them sit down, and gives them her portfolio for their reference, while she is preparing her Tanzanian spiced tea, accompanied with cupcakes. She never runs out of these cupcakes because she used to make them from what’s left of the cakes she makes for customers.

🧁 Over the tea and cupcakes—and most of all, her friendly but professional manner—Angel would drive her customers to tell their success—or bitter—stories of life. Being a good listener with tender heart, Angel often brings hope—if not solution—to them. And, as a bonus, she gets the order, plus the happiness of baking and decorating beautiful cakes, which is her passion.

🧁 For a debut, Gaile Parkin has written a tremendous work. ‘Baking Cakes in Kigali’ is a sweet and pleasant reading which bears a serious theme. It flows naturally and conveniently, offers sweetness (from the cakes things), a bit of mystery (from Angel’s traumatic past), and a lot of humanity aspects (love, racialism, freedom, etc.). I love it from the beginning, and the book certainly made me craving for cupcakes! :)


Have you read this book?
I just realized that it has a sequel - I would love to go back to Kigali and 'taste' Angel's cupcakes again!