Archive for category Intro and Sign Up
Paris in the Springtime part deux: Alexandre Dumas Circuit Sign Up
Posted by admin in Intro and Sign Up on March 1, 2010
Welcome to the sign up for the Alexandre Dumas tour, part two of the Paris in the Springtime circuit 🙂
The tour will begin on April 19, overlapping with the last weeks of the Zola tour, and will last for about three weeks, depending on the number of participants. If you have signed up for Zola and also wanted to sign up for Dumas, note that we will be sending tour day assignment emails in the next few days; you may want to wait until you know when you are assigned for that tour.
You can sign-up for the tour until March 12, and we would love to have you part of it!
When you indicate that you want to participate, please keep in mind that we will assign you a date during the tour on which you should post. If you are unable to meet your assigned date, let us know and we can reassign you: otherwise, we’ll take you off the schedule. Please let us know when you sign up your preferred and/or unavailable days during the month.
Information compiled by Rebecca of Rebecca Reads, Teresa of Shelf Love, Nicole of Linus’s Blanket, Chris of book-a-rama and Kay of Kay’s Bookshelf.
The sign-up has closed.
Zola (April) Classics Circuit Sign Up
Posted by admin in Intro and Sign Up on February 18, 2010
The Classics Circuit is pleased to announce that your vote for Paris in the Spring authors was a tie! Since both Emile Zola and Alexandre Dumas are well worth reading and discussing, both French authors will tour the Circuit this Spring. Although you can sign up to read and then invite both authors to your site, don’t feel obligated to do so: the two tours will be slightly overlapping, so keep your own reading schedule and abilities in mind.
Today begins sign up for the Emile Zola tour, which will begin April 5 and run until April 23 or April 30, depending on the number of interested tour participants. Once sign up closes for this tour, we will open sign up for the Alexandre Dumas tour. The tours will be overlapping by a week or so (again, depending on the number of tour participants).
When you indicate that you want to participate, please keep in mind that we will assign you a date during the tour on which you should post. If you are unable to meet your assigned date, let us know and we can reassign you: otherwise, we’ll take you off the schedule. Please let us know when you sign up your preferred and/or unavailable days during the month.
Zola Circuit sign up will be open until the evening of Sunday, February 28. Sign up is now closed. If you would still like to join the tour, send an email to the tour leader at classicscircuit@googlegroups.com as soon as possible.
Information compiled by Rebecca of Rebecca Reads, Teresa of Shelf Love, Nicole of Linus’s Blanket, and Chris of book-a-rama.
March Classics Circuit Sign Up: Georgette Heyer
Posted by admin in Intro and Sign Up on January 20, 2010
In March, we will be welcoming Georgette Heyer to the Classics Circuit!
Georgette Heyer wrote a number of different kinds of novels, so we are excited to celebrate her talent. While she is known for her romances, she also wrote historical novels and mysteries/thrillers. We hope you can find something that you’d like to read! Estella at Estella’s Revenge wrote about her multiple forays into Georgette Heyer’s novels. If you are looking for where to start, her article might help you figure out which way to go.
We’d love if you did decide to join us in March for the Heyer tour, but if you aren’t interested Heyer, go ahead and read the author you’d voted for on your own. We’re all about celebrating any kind of classics around the blogosphere!
The March Georgette Heyer tour will run daily from March 1, 2010 to March 31, 2010. Please make a note on the sign up of any days that you cannot participate or any days that you prefer so we can assign you a day that will work for you.
A great big thanks to Teresa at Shelf Love, Eva at A Striped Armchair, Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews, Kay at Kay’s Bookshelf, Chris at Book-a-rama, and the entire Classics Circuit committee for helping get this tour off the ground!
Sign Up is closed.
February 2010: Harlem Renaissance Introduction and Sign Up
Posted by admin in Intro and Sign Up on December 16, 2009
Yesterday, we introduced the historical background of the Harlem Renaissance. Today begins the sign up for that tour! See below to sign up. Sign up is closed.
Some people have expressed worry that they don’t know much about the options for this tour: the Harlem Renaissance is not something that they are incredibly familiar with. To tell you the truth, we aren’t experts either.
However, we have taken some time to pull together what we feel is a rather comprehensive list of writers, philosophers, and artists, that we think would make this tour fun. Although we haven’t read most of these works, we’ve done research through Wikipedia and other websites, found quotes from readers on what they liked about each author’s works, and tried to cover a variety of territory. We have list for the beginning of the movement, the poets, the fiction, and other options for the tour.
Harlem Renaissance: Other Options
Posted by admin in Intro and Sign Up on December 16, 2009
If you’d like to go a different direction for this Classic Circuit Tour, you can try something other than reading one of the author’s books. Here are some ideas to help you, from reading general information about the movement to studying about the visual artists and musical artists behind it.
Harlem Renaissance: Fiction
Posted by admin in Intro and Sign Up on December 16, 2009
Although Zora Neale Hurston is probably the most recognized novelist to come out of Harlem, she began her writing career with folktale studies, and her novels reflect that. Jessie Redmon Fauset and Nella Larsen wrote novels focusing on middle class women. Wallace Thurman ‘s The Blacker the Berry looks at discrimination among black people, and Walter White‘s novel looks at the discrimination in the South.
Harlem Renaissance authors wrote in every genre. Randolph Fisher wrote a Harlem-based mystery novel. George Schuyler wrote dystopian science fiction. Arna Bontemps wrote historical fiction. Claude McKay‘s novels captured the “gritty” side of life in Harlem, from alcohol and murder, and Richard Bruce Nugent was the African-American to write about open homosexuals, focusing on life in Harlem in the 1920s.
In short, in addition to the lesser-known short story and drama writers, there are plenty of fiction options to choose from in the Harlem Renaissance!
Harlem Renaissance: Poets
Posted by admin in Intro and Sign Up on December 16, 2009
Once African-Americans had an audience through periodicals and the community in Harlem, poetry flowered. It’s important to note that most of the individuals we consider “poets of the Harlem Renaissance” also wrote fiction (novels and short stores) and nonfiction or anthologies. The Harlem Renaissance created all sorts of writers.
Langston Hughes is probably the first poet people think of, since he was an active writer and social activist during the Renaissance. His novels, stories, and plays are also notable. Claude McKay was already a published poet when he moved to Harlem, and he also contributed some novels to the movement. Jean Toomer‘s poetic novel Cane (1923) was also a milestone for African-American literature in the 1920s.
Countee Cullen and Arna Bontemps were also noted poets, the later a great friend of Langston Hughes. Both also wrote children’s literature after the Harlem Renaissance ended. A few less well-known poets and writers also made a significant contribution.
Harlem Renaissance: The Beginning of the Movement
Posted by admin in Intro and Sign Up on December 16, 2009
The Harlem Renaissance began because African Americans were thinking about race relations in America.
W.E.B. Du Bois wrote some nonfiction before, during, and after the Renaissance that helped shape some of the political thought, such as his The Souls of Black Folk. In the early years of the century, James Weldon Johnson‘s poetry became a “national anthem” for African-Americans, and his semi-autobiographical The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, was a landmark, although it was published anonymously because of Johnson’s race; it’s telling that just 15 years later he could republish it fully claiming his identity.
Add Charles Chesnutt‘s early novels and political leadership with the NAACP, some less well-known social activists and writers, and the 1925 anthology of African-American writing edited by Alain Locke, and the Harlem Renaissance was well underway.
A Brief Historical Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance
Posted by admin in Coming Soon, Intro and Sign Up on December 15, 2009
February in the United States means celebrating Black History Month. What better way to celebrate this very vital part of our society by paying homage to an extremely pivotal historical event in our cultural history: The Harlem Renaissance?
Just what is the Harlem Renaissance, you ask? If you are like me, you faintly remember discussing it briefly in high school English class, forced to read a few poems but not understanding the significance or the finer points of the discussion. Thankfully, the Classics Circuit is here to enlighten you about what you (and I) might have failed to learn in high school. Read the rest of this entry »
Edith Wharton (January 2010): Sign Up
Posted by admin in Intro and Sign Up on November 9, 2009
We are delighted to announce that sign up is open for all interested in participating in the January 2010 Classics Circuit: Edith Wharton.
Below you will find some general information about Edith Wharton, her writing, summaries of her novels, and links to blogger’s reviews and other reader’s reviews. Yes, it is a lot of information! Believe it or not, even this is not comprehensive. Some stories, novellas, and poems by Wharton are collected in different publications, and those would work too! We hope this might help you decide what you’d like to read for the tour and in what way you may like to welcome Wharton to your blog. And maybe it, along with all the Wharton stops, will help you decide on your next Wharton read once the tour is over.
If you already decided how you’d like to participate, skip to the “To Participate” section for information on how to sign up.
Read the rest of this entry »
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