Book Related Thoughts

Book Related Articles

December 2023

I became aware of Alison Bechdel because of the Bechdelcast - a podcast that discussed movies using Alison Bechdel's "rules."  I found one of her books, "Fun Home," at the Friends of the LIbrary sale.  It sat on my shelf for ages, while I finished school.  Eventually, it showed up on my bookclub's reading list, so I got around to reading it.  I found it interesting that so many books were mentioned in the book.  I had to find a list of them, so I could potentially read them all.  I found the list on Goodreads, of course.  It's listed below, along with the link to the Goodreads list.


Books mentioned in Fun Home


1 The Sun Also Rises

by Ernest Hemingway

 

2 The Great Gatsby

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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3 The Catcher in the Rye

by J.D. Salinger

 

4 Baby and Child Care

by Benjamin Spock 


5 The Guermantes Way

by Marcel Proust


6 A Happy Death

by Albert Camus

 

7 Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen 


8 The Merry Wives of Windsor

by William Shakespeare


9 Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

by Alison Bechdel


10 Earthly Paradise

by Colette


11 Ulysses

by James Joyce

 

12 The Odyssey

by Homer


13 Washington Square

by Henry James

 

14 The Well of Loneliness

by Radclyffe Hall


15 Rubyfruit Jungle

by Rita Mae Brown

 

16 The Myth of Sisyphus

by Albert Camus

 

17 The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde

 

18 And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic

by Randy Shilts

 

19 As I Lay Dying

by William Faulkner

 

20 Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives

by Nancy Adair


21 Dubliners

by James Joyce


22 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

by James Joyce

 

23 Orlando

by Virginia Woolf

 

24 Desert of the Heart

by Jane Rule


25 Beaton in the Sixties: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, 1965-1969

by Cecil Beaton


26 The Unexpurgated Beaton: The Cecil Beaton Diaries As He Wrote Them, 1970-1980

by Hugo Vickers (Editor)

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27 The Homosexual Matrix

by C.A. Tripp


28 Our right to love: A lesbian resource book

by Ginny Vida


29 Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing

by May Sarton


30 Lesbian Nation: The Feminist Solution

by Jill Johnston


31 Maurice

by E.M. Forster

 

32 Paper Darts: The Letters of Virginia Woolf

by Frances Spalding


33 Flying

by Kate Millett


34 The Waterfall

by Margaret Drabble


35 The Wind in the Willows

by Kenneth Grahame


36 The American Dream & The Zoo Story

by Edward Albee

 

37 The Worm Ouroboros

by E.R. Eddison


38 Women in the Shadows

by Ann Bannon


39 Zelda

by Nancy Milford


40 Wallace Stevens

by Wallace Stevens

 

41 James and the Giant Peach

by Roald Dahl


42 The World of Winnie-the-Pooh (Winnie-the-Pooh, #1-2)

by A.A. Milne


43 Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism

by Mary Daly

 

44 The Dream of a Common Language

by Adrienne Rich


45 Beginning with O (Yale Series of Younger Poets)

by Olga Broumas


46 The gay report: Lesbians and gay men speak out about sexual experiences and lifestyles

by Karla Jay


47 The Front Runner (Harlan's Story, #1)

by Patricia Nell Warren


48 La Bâtarde

by Violette Leduc


49 Delta of Venus

by Anaïs Nin


50 The Unlit Lamp

by Radclyffe Hall


51 The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts

by Umberto Eco


52 Sophie's Choice

by William Styron


53 Charity Girl

by Georgette Heyer

 

54 Frederica

by Georgette Heyer


55 Goodbye, Mr. Chips / To You, Mr. Chips

by James Hilton


56 The Taming of the Shrew

by William Shakespeare


57 The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald

by Arthur Mizener


58 Don Quixote

by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra


59 Faust

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


60 The Second Sex

by Simone de Beauvoir


61 Sappho Was a Right-On Woman: A Liberated View of Lesbianism

by Sidney Abbott


62 The Addams Family: An Evilution

by Charles Addams


63 The Tin Drum

by Günter Grass


64 The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form

by Kenneth Clark


65 The Stones of Venice

by John Ruskin


66 The Trumpet of the Swan

by E.B. White


67 A Child's Garden of Verses

by Robert Louis Stevenson


68 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

by Robert Louis Stevenson


69 No Sex Please, We're British: A Comedy in Two Acts

by Anthony Marriott


70 An Ideal Husband

by Oscar Wilde


71 Danny Dunn, Time Traveler (Danny Dunn, #8)

by Jay Williams


72 Little Women

by Louisa May Alcott


73 You Can't Take it With You

by Moss Hart


74 The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)

by J.R.R. Tolkien


75 Heart of Darkness

by Joseph Conrad


76 The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Vol. One, 1888-1912

by Virginia Woolf


77 Harmonium

by Wallace Stevens


78 Anna Karenina

by Leo Tolstoy


79 The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life & Work

by Joseph Campbell



October 2023

I had 2 trips planned for Summer 2023, so I was starting to second guess my decision to set my annual reading goal at 130 books.   I have come to terms with the fact that I am now a couple of books ahead, so I'm not as nervous about it.  I hit book 103 today, and my goal is 130.  27 to go between October 10 and December 31.  Totally doable, I believe, especially since I have several books started.  I can do it!

June 2023

I found this article when I was searching for books and movies by women, for a meetup group.  60 Best Books for Women 2023 is a list of books by women authors.  I have read some of them, and I have heard of several more.  It's worth looking into some of them.  Support the authors.  Buy or check out the books on this list.

I hope that this link works - 2023 Annual Challenge .  It's the link to my Goodreads annual challenge for 2023.  As of June 3, 2023, I have read 62 books in 2023.  My goal is to read 130 books, or exceed it.  I have found, over the years, that how I am doing on my reading challenge reflects how my life feels like it is going.  I am feeling somewhat on top of things at the moment, and the fact that I am almost halfway through my challenge at halfway through the year shows it.

May 2023