CurrerBell | 'Nother Year, 'Nother 75

I didn't quite make the goal of 75 for 2025 (only 68), so here's hoping for better success this year. Rereads are included but are not always specifically noted. (At my age, some number of rereads are to be expected!) This page largely summarizes my entire reading for the year.

I'm also using this page to identify my ongoing French reading project, Viva la France; and I'm adding a new category for what will be an ongoing read/reread of (state of) Maine literature.


BFB = Big Fat Books 2026
GC = Great Courses video
K or KU = Kindle or Kindle Unlimited (not included if used in tandem with a treeware edition)
LoA = Library of America
Maine = State of Maine
NCE = Norton Critical Edition
ROOT = Read Our Own Tomes 2026
RTT-M & RTT-Q = Reading Through Time monthly and quarterly reads
VF = Vive la France
Z = Emile Zola Group Read

Jan (9), Feb (6), Mar (3), Apr (4), May (3), Jun (2),
Jul (0), Aug (0), Sep (0), Oct (0), Nov (0), Dec (0), Total (28)

Vive la France:

(French reading project, primarily in translation and with a focus, but non-exclusive, on the 19th century novel. These titles are included in the monthly listings so that their listings here do not add to total reading but only assemble the VF books into one convenient thread.)

2023:

Aug 18 ... Balzac, Wild Ass' Skin; Chouans ... other stories

2024

Mar 21 ... Balzac, Country Doctor; Quest of the Absolute ... other stories
Apr 14 ... Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris
May 13 ... Hugo, The Toilers of the Sea
May 21 ... Balzac, Eugénie Grandet; Country Parson ... other stories
Jul 5 ... Corneille, Le Cid and The Liar (trans Richard Wilbur)

Jul 8 ... John Greene, The Great Tours: France Through the Ages
Aug 8 ... Hugo, Les Misérables (Modern Library) (trans Julie Rose)
Sep 2 ... Zola The Fortune of the Rougons (Oxford World's Classics)
Sep 14 ...Alan Schom, The Shadow Emperor: A Biography of Napoleon III
Oct 10 ... Jean-Pierre Isbouts, In the Footsteps of Vincent van Gogh (Great Courses video)

2025

Jan 1 ... Zola, Thérèse Raquin (Oxford World's Classics)
Jan 29 ... Dumas père, La Reine Margot (Oxford World's Classics)
Feb 19 ... Zola, His Excellency Eugene Rougon (Oxford World's Classics)
Feb 28 ... Stendhal, Red and Black (Norton Critical Edition)
Mar 26 ... Zola, The Kill (Oxford World's Classics)

Apr 6 ... Dumas père, Chicot the Jester
May 11 ... Dumas père, The Black Tulip
May 22 ... Dumas père, The Forty-Five Guardsmen
Jun 2 ,,, Dumas père, The Three Musketeers (trans Richard Pevear)
Aug 11 ... Ian Davidson, Voltaire: A Life

Oct 8 ... Zola, Money
Dec 31 ... Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma (Oxford World's Classics)
Dec 31 ... Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut

2026

Feb 5 ... Zola, The Dream
Feb 13 ... Zola, The Conquest of Plassans
Mar 18 ... Dumas père; Twenty Years After

State of Maine

(Maine read/reread project – fiction, poetry, drama, history, etc.. Heavy but non-exclusive emphasis on Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary Ellen Chase, Elizabeth Strout, and Carolyn Chute.)

2025

Nov 22 ... Elizabeth Strout, Amy and Isabelle 4****
Dec 29 ... Wesley McNair (ed), Maine in Four Seasons 4****

2026

Feb 15 ... Lois Lowry, Like the Willow Tree 4****
Mar 2 ... Elizabeth Strout, Abide with Me 5*****
Apr 16 ... The Maine Poets, ed Wesley McNair 4½****
Apr 20 ... Elizabeth Coatsworth, The Enchanted 3½***
Apr 30 ... Sanford Phippen, The Best Maine Stories 5*****

May 9 ... Elizabeth Coatsworth, Silky 4****
Jun 1 ... Paul Doiron, Blaze Orange (short story) 3½***

January:

7 ... ROOT Katherine Rundell, Impossible Creatures 3½***
9 ... Katherine Rundell, The Poisoned King 3***
14 ... BFB ROOT J.A. White, The Thickety (2): The Whispering Trees 5*****
19 ... BFB ROOT J.A. White, The Thickety (3): Well of Witches 4****
24 ... K Ian McEwan, What We Can Know 3½***

25 ... ROOT Johan Van Overtveldt, The Mystic Hand: How Central Banks Shaped the 21st Century Global Economy 3½***
25 ... BFB J. A. White, The Thickety: The Last Spell (4) 4½****
28 ... ROOT RTT-M C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold 4****
31 ... K Ian McEwan, In Between the Sheets 1*

Welcome back!

New Year greetings from Kuala Lumpur. My project is at least physically completed and an addition to the city scape.

Look forward to keeping up with you in 2026

February:

5 ... ROOT RTT-Q VF Z Emile Zola, The Dream 3½***
9 ... K Rupert Holmes, Murder Your Employer 2½**
13 ... ROOT RTT-Q VF Z Emile Zola, The Conquest of Plassans 4½****
15 ... RTT-M Lois Lowry, Like the Willow Tree 4****
23 ... ROOT T.L. Huchu, The Library of the Dead 5*****

28 ... ROOT T.L. Huchu, Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments 4½****

March:

2 ... ROOT Elizabeth Strout, Abide with Me 5*****
3 ... K T.L. Huchu, When Two Sorcerers Collide (ZamaShort Book 7) ("Edinburgh Nights" short story) ½*
18... BFB ROOT Alexandre Dumas pere, Twenty Years After 3½***

April:

4 ... ROOT Robert Henryson, The Testament of Cresseid and Seven Fables, trans Seamus Heaney 5***** (but 2** to Heaney's translation)
16 ... Maine ROOT The Maine Poets, ed Wesley McNair 4½****
20 ... Maine Elizabeth Coatsworth, The Enchanted 3½***
30 ... Maine ROOT Sanford Phippen, The Best Maine Stories 5*****

May:

9 ... Maine Elizabeth Coatsworth, Silky 4****
20 ... BFB ROOT Lois Lowry, The Giver Quartet Omnibus 4½****
31 ... ROOT RTT-M Miss Read, Thrush Green, 3½***

June:

1 ... K Maine Paul Doiron, Blaze Orange (short story) 3½***
8 ... K Miss Read, Winter in Thrush Green 3***