Every time Karen and I run a ‘club’ year, I know there are people who wish they’d been warned earlier – so here you go!
There is just over a month to go until we ask everyone to read and review books from 1954, wherever you write about books. Any sort of book, any language. I always love our six-monthly club events, and 1954 is looking like a bumper year for my bookshelves.
Very much looking forward to it myself!!! Once I’ve finished reading indies, I must get my head around the books I want to read for 1954! :D
Fab :) I have sneakily already started…
Hooray! Very much looking forward to it!
excellent!
Your image is perfection! I’m going to have to go on a quest for 1954 books.
thanks Christine :)
I’ve got caught out in the past by not having anything ready to read. This year I’m well prepared having scoured the TBR and found two options : She Who Was No More by Boileau-Narcejac and , An Impossible Marriage by Pamela Hansford Johnson
Impossible Marriage is on my list too!
Lovely! I have something in mind, so this is a valuable reminder.
excellent :)
Thanks for the information! I’ll look what I can find about 1954 books.
fab!
Alas, only Tintin for me this time round, as I have deadlines and lots of admin to do, but always a joy to participate and read other people’s reviews!
Definitely a good contribution!
I shall have a go at this for the first time. Not a very quick reader so will probably only manage one or two books but definitely want to read Because of Sam by Molly Clavering.
Oo good choice – have read one by her, but not that
Thanks for that. I already looked up your page the other day trying to see when exactly I’d have to start.
When you first came up with your year, I checked, whether I had read any books from 1954 and I have “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding and “I am Legend” by Richard Matheson, both good books for the year. None on my TBR pile. But I looked at lists of books from the year and have decided it will be “Under Milk Wood” by Dylan Thomas. So, this time, I am really prepared.
Excellent, I look forward to seeing your thoughts!
I have announced in on my blog (here). Hopefully, some of my reader friends will participate.
Thanks Marianne!
I might reread one of my favourite Canadian novels (Ethel Wilson!) but this is shaping up to be an exceptionally chaotic spring, so fingers crossed.
The Toll Gate by Georgette Heyer, Charlotte Fairlie (alt titles Blow the Wind Southerly/The Enchanted Isle) by D. E. Stevenson, Destination Unknown (Alt title So Many Steps to Death) by Agatha Christie are possible 1954 titles.
I have an extensive list but sadly none from my own shelves! Nevertheless I shall persist and narrow it down. I’m hoping to finish at least two of these:
The Feast of July by H. E. Bates
Naked Earth by Eileen Chang
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer
The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty
The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit by P. G. Wodehouse
At least two are available on audio from my library and one is a play, so who knows, I could finish three!
This is going to fall fortuitously together with the Narniathon, as April’s book is The Horse and His Boy, published in 1954. I’ll see what else comes to hand. Looking forward as always!
oh that’s perfect!
I checked my Books Read spreadsheet (goes back only to 2010) and found that while there’s not a lot of books from 1954, they are nearly all excellent reads (just one total dud):
I Married the Klondike memoirs Laura Beatrice Berton
Destination Unknown mystery Agatha Christie
The Dancing Bear memoirs Frances Faviell
Slide Rule memoirs Nevil Shute
Charlotte Fairlie novel D E Stevenson
Wildfire at Midnight mystery Mary Stewart
Pardon my Parka memoirs Joan Walker (this is the one I disliked)
Not at all surprised my list crosses over Jerri C’s, above. :^)
Looking through the other books from the 1950s (why yes, I do have a sheet where I’ve sorted them by year, another by author) I can see that it was a good decade for good books. DE Stevenson, Mary Stewart, Agatha Christie, Barbara Pym and many others were in top form. Lots of excellent memoirs coming to light then too.
I can get behind her suit and hat but I don’t care for those shoes at all!
I need to comb through the TBR! Fingers crossed! I know there’s a D.E. Stevenson so I might have to indulge …
And I have Elizabeth Fair’s “The Native Heath” on my Kindle TBR – hooray!
Having to hunt around a bit to find something I want to read from 1954. Iris Murdoch, Under the Net. A challenge to rise to?
Caroline (Bookword.co.uk)
good luck!!
You can see the response to the challenge on Monday!
Caroline
I have two books I’ve always meant to read that I am eyeing for this challenge – Lord of the Flies, which I’ve never read and checked out from the library based on a request from a 9 yo foster son who no longer lives with me, but it’s just sitting there announcing itself so maybe; Lucky Jim – I was doing one of those Back to the Classics challenges and one item was a comic novel and this one kept coming up – I bought a nice version but never cracked it. Maybe now.
I’ve already read what is probably the most memorable title on the list – The Story of O.
OK, I have chosen Under Milk Wood by, of course, Dylan Thomas because a) I have never (shamingly) read it and b) I can listen to the recording (with Richard Burton of course!) on Spotify and it will accompany my spring cleaning.
So, what’s the drill? Everyone reads their choice and then posts a review on wherever they normally write about books between April 18 and 24? And then what…?
Brilliant! Post your review link here, and Karen and I will put together a list – and together we’ll build up an overview of the year.
This sounds wonderful.
Luckily, I already had planned to read Christie’s Destination Unknown in April. My copies of William Golding, Shirley Jackson, and J.R.R. Tolkien are already packed (I’m moving early/mid April) but I do still have The Tortoise and The Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins. Also tempted by Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade by Patrick Dennis.
Aunt Mame is great fun!
Two more titles that would fit: Shrouds of Darkness by ERC Lorac. Been meaning to try her for a while so that should be good. Also, Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan.
Regarding links to our reviews, I don’t have a blog but am on GoodReads. Would that be ok?
Absolutely it would! Anywhere you write reviews is great. And I enjoyed Bonjour Tristesse, many years ago. Don’t think that’s one of the Loracs I have, sadly.
First time participating. I’m reading “The native heath” by Elizabeth Fair because I very much enjoyed “Bramton Wick” some time ago but then I haven’t read any other of her novels (don’t know why). Happy reading to you all
How does one search out books published in a particular year such as 1954? (I am not a native of the 21st century.)
Wikipedia has a ‘1954 in literature’ which is a good starting point, and there are GoodReads lists etc. I have all my books listed on LibraryThing with the date of publication, which is how I find out what to pick.