Tuesday, August 5, 2025

The Best Classics You Didn't Know You'd Love to Read

Would you trust me here? My mom read only gothic novels and my dad was not a reader. I am not a person who got a great education in the classics in school. 

Frankly, classics intimidated me. 

What changed? How did I become a person who now loves to read classics?

I don't know. I think it was because I gradually came to hear about other regular folk like me who read a classic book and loved it.

So that's what I would encourage you to do. Try a classic, maybe one of these, if one of these sounds intriguing. Read it. Share your experiences with other people.

Cautionary Note: Of course, not every book works with every person. You may try one of these or some other classic and hate it. I urge you to try, try again. I promise that you will eventually find your way to a classic that will amaze you, that will make you wish you'd been reading classics all your life.

Here is a list of classics I rated as 5-star reads that were rated highly by a lot of other people...

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry...Average rating 4.33 with 2,361,760 ratings

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery...Average rating 4.32 with 1,074,981 ratings

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas...Average rating 4.32 with 987,712 ratings

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith...Average rating 4.30 with 497,115 ratings

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen...Average rating 4.29 with 4,608,287 ratings

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien...Average rating 4.29 with 4,330,337 ratings

Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse...Average rating 4.29 with 31,172 ratings

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie...Average rating 4.26 with 324,517 ratings

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote...Average rating 4.24 with 17,517 ratings

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott...Average rating 4.17 with 2,383,331 ratings

True Grit by Charles Portis...Average rating 4.17 with 67,989 ratings

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas...Average rating 4.10 with 339,517 ratings

A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr...Average rating 4.10 with 22,719 ratings

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens...Average rating 4.09 with 894,139 ratings

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens...Average rating 4.04 with 252,409 ratings

Animal Farm by George Orwell...Average rating 4.01 with 4,328,747 ratings

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck...Average rating 4.01 with 968,600 ratings

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck...Average rating 4.01 with 257,281 ratings



Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.    
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Saturday, August 2, 2025

The Sunday Salon: A Paris in July Composed of Thirteen Books, Two Maigret Series, Eating at Brasserie du Parc, Baking Croissants, and a Real Visit to Paris

  







I'm delighted that you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Welcome! 

What is the Sunday Salon? The Sunday Salon is a place to link up and share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great opportunity to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 






We spent the weekend in Paris, Texas, and what a fun weekend it was! We ate pastries at the Paris Bakery, shopped at some Paris stores, traiped through a Paris farmers' market, got a library card from the Paris Public Library, and, of course, visited the Eiffel Tower. 





What I Read Last Week:






What I'm Reading Now:

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (Book Club)

Aflame: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer (Nonfiction)

The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood (Fiction)

Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff (1001 Children's Books)






What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: So Much Paris in July

Eleven Wonderful Kick-Back Reads Perfect for the Beach that Just Happen to Also Be Set in France

Photos from Paris that Always Cheer Me Up















I delighted this month in celebrating Paris in July. I enjoyed being in Paris this July by:

(1) Reading books set in Paris...These are listed in Enjoyment Order, from Most to Least...


Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola

Remembering Paris by Denis Tillinac

In Montmartre: Picasso, Matisse, and the Birth of Modern Art by Sue Roe  

The Jules Verne Prophecy by Larry Schwartz and Iva-Marie Palmer 

Claudine: A Fairy Tale for Exceptional Grownups by Marian Grudko

Picasso and Minou by P. I. Maltbie

Fantômette et la maison hantée by Georges Chaulet 

The French Art of Living Well: Finding Joie de Vivre in the Everyday World by Cathy Yandell

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 

A Bakery in Paris by Aimee Runyon

La Vie, According to Rose by Lauren Parvizi

 

(2) Watching... 

Maigret (1992) on BritBox. (Mystery series)

Maigret (2018) on BritBox. (Mystery series)

 Odette Toulemonde on Kanopy. (Movie)


(3) Practicing my French on Duolingo.



(4) Eating at Brasserie du Parc, 
a French restaurant in downtown Houston.


(5) Baking croissants.


(6) Visiting Paris...Paris, Texas, that is.




I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. Now I've established a regular routine of writing down my 3 Good Things. Here are 3 Good Things from last week:


Good Thing #1:
G-granddaughter Lucy loved 
having her 3rd birthday party
She found a beautiful (imitation) ammonite 
in the dig-for-fossils pit.



Good Thing #2:
We had a great time at 
A Wrinkle in Time,
a play put on by children at
nearby
Alvin Community College.



Good Thing #3:
My friend Janet and I, 
in our search for 
a reported Northern Bobwhite
in our area, arrived
at a private bird hunting area. 
The only bobwhite we found
was on the sign. Ha!



Weekend linkup spots are listed below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

I hope you will join the linkup for Sunday Salon below.


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Friday, August 1, 2025

Le Road Trip: A Traveler's Journal of Love and France by Vivian Swift: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop




Today's Featured Book: 

Le Road Trip: 

A Traveler's Journey of Love and France

by Vivian Swift

Genre: Travel Nonfiction

Published: April 10, 2012

Page Count: 208 pages

Summary: 

Le Road Trip tells the story of one idyllic French honeymoon trip, but it is also a witty handbook of tips and advice on how to thrive as a traveler, a captivating visual record with hundreds of watercolor illustrations, and a chronicle depicting the incomparable charms of being footloose in France.





 


BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.







THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 







You really have to see this book to really appreciate how lovely it is. Yes, Vivian Swift has written the story of the road trip she and her new husband took through Paris and France, and that’s lovely in itself, but she is also an artist who takes the tiny details of a trip and shares them with her readers through her compelling drawings, and that takes you right to what is beautiful and amazing about France.

I loved this book.








The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

May 9th - 15th - Have you ever looked at the young adult book section in a modern bookstore and felt out of touch or old? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

Duh! Yes!

P. S. I just realized after I published this post that I posted a prompt from May...Oh dear...I shall keep it and add the real prompt for today.

August 1 - 

 What book are you currently reading? What made you choose this title to read? 

- submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer

I am currently reading a biography of Mark Twain by Ron Chernow. It is over 1000 pages long. I am reading it in connection with (do you follow this? it's a bit circuitous) reading James, a dual book club selection for this month.


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