Century of Books

A New Century of Books

1925-2025

I am starting anew with a new Century of Books project even though I haven't quite completed my last one. I have enjoyed doing this previously, and am starting this new go-round with pretty much the same parameters. But I just couldn't miss the chance to shift my Century to the range of 1925 to 2025. The balance is too perfect! Since I am beginning this in the middle of 2025, however, I am giving myself until the end of 2026 to complete this Century.

I'm looking forward to filling my new Century with books that reflect life in the years referenced. Other than the date range, though, not much else has changed. I'm using the same criteria as last time: 

• All Women
• Repeats and Rereads are Fine! 
• Only caveat being that the titles I add here can't have been reviewed on my blog in the past -- so rereads okay but only if I've never reviewed them before

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A New Century of Books

1920-2020

I am starting anew with a new Century of Books project even though I haven't quite completed my last one. I have enjoyed doing this previously, and am starting this new go-round with new parameters. Since so much time has already passed since the turn of the century, I'm shifting my Century to the range of the 20s to the 20s. I'm looking forward to filling my new Century with books that reflect life in the years referenced. Other than the date range, though, not much else has changed. I'm using the same criteria as last time: 

• All Women
• Repeats and Rereads are Fine! 
• Only caveat being that the titles I add here can't have been reviewed on my blog in the past -- so rereads okay but only if I've never reviewed them before

1920 - Bliss / Katherine Mansfield

1921 - Latchkey Ladies / Marjorie Grant

1922 - The Enchanted April / Elizabeth von Arnim

1923 - The Ladies of Lyndon / Margaret Kennedy

1924 - The Home Maker / Dorothy Canfield Fisher

1925 - Magic for Marigold / L.M. Montgomery

1926 - The Blue Castle / LM Montgomery

1927 - To The Lighthouse / Virginia Woolf

1928 - Quicksand / Nella Larsen

1929 - Harriet Hume / Rebecca West

1930 - Rhododendron Pie / Margery Sharp 

1931 - Father / Elizabeth von Arnim

1932 - Footsteps in the Dark / Georgette Heyer

1933 - Why Shoot a Butler? / Georgette Heyer

            Business as Usual / Jane Oliver & Ann Stafford 

1934 - Miss Buncle's Book / D.E. Stevenson

1935 - Four Gardens / Margery Sharp 

1936 - Civil to Strangers / Barbara Pym

           Ballet Shoes / Noel Streatfeild 

1937 - The Nutmeg Tree / Margery Sharp

1938 - Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day / Winifred Watson

1939 - Clothes-Pegs / Susan Scarlett 

           Sally Ann / Susan Scarlett 

1940 - Peter & Paul / Susan Scarlett 

            The Man in the Dark / Susan Scarlett 

1941 - Babbacombe's/ Susan Scarlett 

1942 - Table Two / Marjorie Wilenski

            Under the Rainbow / Susan Scarlett

1943 - Summer Pudding / Susan Scarlett 

1944 - Cluny Brown / Margery Sharp

1945 - Miss Carter & the Ifrit / Susan Alice Kerby

1946 - Three Summers / Margarita Liberaki

           Britannia Mews / Margery Sharp

           The Four Graces / D.E. Stevenson

1947 - Night Walk /Elizabeth Daly

           Poppies for England / Susan Scarlett

1948 - The Lottery & Other Stories / Shirley Jackson

1949 - Her Side of the Story / Alba de Cespedes

1950 - Do Evil in Return / Margaret Millar

1951 - The Frenchman & The Lady / Elizabeth Cadell

           The Benevent Treasure / Patricia Wentworth

1952 - The Forbidden Notebook / Alba de Céspedes

1953 -  The Silver Curlew / Eleanor Farjeon

1954 - Inseperable / Simone de Beauvoir 

1955 - An Episode of Sparrows / Rumer Godden

1956 - Wildfire at Midnight / Mary Stewart

1957 - A Winter's Love /Madeleine L'Engle

1958 - The Story of Holly and Ivy / Rumer Godden

1959 - Green Water, Green Sky / Mavis Gallant

1960 - Something Light / Margery Sharp

1961 - In A Summer Season / Elizabeth Taylor

1962 - The Moon Spinners / Mary Stewart

1963 - The Wall / Marlen Haushofer

1964 - The Fiend / Margaret Millar

1965 - Flight of the Falcon / Daphne du Maurier

1966 - Empty Wardrobes / Maria Judite Carvalho

1967 - Death of an Old Girl / Elizabeth Lemarchand

1968 - The Affacombe Affair/ Elizabeth Lemarchand 

           The Faces / Tove Ditlevsen

1969 - Alibi for a Corpse / Elizabeth Lemarchand

1970 - Woods in Winter / Stella Gibbons

            A Tale of Two Families / Dodie Smith

1971 - Don't Look Now & other Stories / Daphne Du Maurier

1972 - The Word for World is Forest / Ursula Leguin

1973 - Duchess of Bloomsbury Street ? Helene Hanff

1974 - The Hearing Trumpet / Leonora Carrington

1975 - The Crocodile on the Sandbank / Elizabeth Peters 

1976 - Ashes, Ashes, All Fall Down / Zdena Salivarova

1977 - Unhappy Returns / Elizabeth Lemarchand

1978 - Bookshop / Penelope Fitzgerald

1979 - Family Gathering / Elizabeth Cadell 

1980 - Judgement Day / Penelope Lively

1981 - The Goldberg Variations / Nancy Huston

1982 - The House of Spirits / Isabel Allende

1983 - Jumping the Queue / Mary Wesley

1984 -  According to Mark / Penelope Lively

1985 - The Magnificent Spinster / May Sarton

1986 - The Well / Elizabeth Jolley 

1987 - Out of the Rain / Elizabeth Cadell

1988 - Thornyhold / Mary Stewart

           The Premonition / Banana Yoshimoto

1989 - Goodbye Tsugumi / Banana Yoshimoto

1990 - The Plague Stone / Gillian White

1991 - Queen of the Tambourine / Jane Gardam

1992 - Entertaining Angels / Marita Van der Vyver

1993 - The Invisible Man at the Window / Monique Proulx

1994 - Rattlebone / Maxine Clair

1995 - Divine Comedy / Elizabeth Pewsey

1996 - Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex / Oksana Zabuzhko       

           Volcanic Airs / Elizabeth Pewsey    

1997 - Unaccustomed Spirits / Elizabeth Pewsey

            Unholy Harmonies / Elizabeth Pewsey

1998 - Brotherly Love / Elizabeth Pewsey 

1999 - I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere / Anna Gavalda 

2000 - Winter Solstice / Rosamond Pilcher

           The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse / Louise Erdrich

2001 - Violets / Kyung Sook-Shin 

2002 - Lake of Dead Languages / Carol Goodman

2003 - Dead-End Memories / Banana Yoshimoto

           Sweet Darusya / Maria Matios

2004 - My Death / Lisa Tuttle

2005 - The Lake / Banana Yoshimoto

2006 - The Villa in Italy / Elizabeth Edmondson

2007 - Hardly Ever Otherwise / Maria Matios

2008 - The Sarabande of Sara's Band / Larysa Denysenko

            Episodic Memory / Liubov Holota

2009 - The Museum of Abandoned Secrets / Oksana Zabuzhko

2010 - The Silence of Trees / Valya Dudycz Lupescu

2011 -  The Buddha in the Attic / Julie Otsuka

2012 - The Lost Button / Irene Rozdobudko

           A Biography of a Chance Miracle / Tanja Maljartschuk

2013 - The Old Woman With the Knife / Gu Byeong-Mo

           A Russian Story / Eugenia Kononenko

2014 - Tokyo Ueno Station / Yu Miri

2015 - The House With the Stained-Glass Window / Zanna Sloniowska

2016 - The White Book / Han Kang
           Forgottenness / Tanja Maljartschuk

2017 - The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree / Shokoofeh Azar

            What You Can See From Here / Mariana Leky

2018 - The Employees / Olga Ravn

           Some Maintenance Required / Marie-Reneé Lavoie

2019 - Dog Park / Sofi Oksanen

           Daughter / Tamara Duda

           Philipovna, Daughter of Sorrow / Valentina Gal

2020 - All Adults Here / Emma Straub

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Time to Begin Again with a New Century of Books (ACOB)

I really enjoyed my four-year century which I began in 2014. And I finally, finally finished it in December 2018! So I'm going to set up another Century List to work away on, and this time aim to have it done in only TWO years ;) 

I think that the reason it took me so very long last time was that I set myself very stiff parameters: all books by women, with no repeats of any author, and no rereads. It was the no repeating of the same author that really got me. It was hard not to keep reading an author once I found one I really liked. However, this process also meant I found a bunch of brand-new-to-me authors who I can now read more of! 

So, my 2019-2020 criteria are much looser:

• All Women
• Repeats and Rereads are Fine! 
• Only caveat being that the titles I add here can't have been reviewed on my blog in the past -- so rereads okay but only if I've never reviewed them before

• That's It! Now to get reading

1900- A Gift From the Grave, or, The Touchstone / Edith Wharton

1901- The Benefactress / Elizabeth Von Arnim

1902- My Career Goes Bung / Miles Franklin

1903- On the Wings of the Wind / Allen Raine
           Lady Rose's Daughter/ Mary Augusta Ward

1904- The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen / Elizabeth Von Arnim

1905- The  Scarlet Pimpernel / Baroness Orczy

1906- The Railway Children / Edith Nesbit

1907- Fraulein Schmidt and Mr. Anstruther / Elizabeth Von Arnim

1908- The Circular Staircase / Mary Roberts Rinehart 

1909- Old Rose and Silver / Myrtle Reed 

1910- The Getting of Wisdom / Henry Handel Richardson

1911-  The Story Girl / LM Montgomery

1912- The Reef / Edith Wharton

1913- The Custom of the Country / Edith Wharton

1914- The Pastor's Wife / Elizabeth Von Arnim

1915- The Voyage Out / Virginia Woolf 

1916- Trifles / Susan Glaspell

           With Her in Ourland / Charlotte Perkins Gilman

1917- Up the Hill & Over / Isabel Ecclestone Mackay 

1918- What Not / Rose Macaulay

1919- Night and Day / Virginia Woolf

1920- The Age of Innocence / Edith Wharton

1921- The Trumpet in the Dust / Constance Holme

1922- Glimpses of the Moon / Edith Wharton 

1923- Whose Body? / Dorothy L. Sayers 

1924- The Crowded Street / Winifred Holtby

1925- Mrs Dalloway / Virginia Woolf

1926- Clouds of Witness / Dorothy L. Sayers

1927- But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes / Anita Loos

          Unnatural Death / Dorothy L. Sayers 

1928- The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club / Dorothy L. Sayers

          Lord Peter Views the Body / Dorothy L. Sayers

1929- Passing / Nella Larsen

1930- Strong Poison / Dorothy L. Sayers

1931- Five Red Herrings / Dorothy L. Sayers

1932- Cold Comfort Farm / Stella Gibbons

           Have His Carcase / Dorothy L. Sayers

1933- Murder Must Advertise / Dorothy L. Sayers

          Hangman's Holiday / Dorothy L. Sayers

1934- The Nine Tailors / Dorothy L. Sayers

1935- Wigs on the Green / Nancy Mitford

1936- Miss Buncle Married / D.E. Stevenson

1937- The Years / Virginia Woolf

          Busman's Honeymoon / Dorothy L. Sayers

1938- Hasty Wedding / Mignon Eberhart

1939- In the Teeth of the Evidence / Dorothy L. Sayers

1940- Christmas At Cold Comfort Farm / Stella Gibbons

          Death at the Bar / Ngaio Marsh

1941- Fire in the Blood / Irene Nemirovsky

1942- The House Without the Door / Elizabeth Daly

1943- The Two Mrs. Abbotts / D.E. Stevenson

1944- The Clock Strikes Twelve / Patricia Wentworth

1945- The Iron Gates / Margaret Millar

1946-  Miss Pym Disposes / Josephine Tey

1947- A View From the Harbour - Elizabeth Taylor

1948- The Case of William Smith / Patricia Wentworth

1949- Rest and Be Thankful / Helen MacInnes

1950- Some Tame Gazelle / Barbara Pym

1951- Anna, Where Are You? / Patricia Wentworth

1952- Murder in the Mill-Race / E.C.R. Lorac

1953- Jane and Prudence / Barbara Pym

1954- Moominsummer Madness / Tove Jansson

1955- The Ten Thousand Things / Maria Dermout

1956- The Fairy Doll / Rumer Godden

1957- Love is My Reason / Mary Burchell

          Moominland Midwinter / Tove Jansson 

1958- Hospital Corridors / Mary Burchell

1959- A Woman of Letters / March Cost

1960- The Watching Cat / Pamela Fry 

1961- Tell Me A Riddle / Tillie Olsen

1962-  Tales from Moominvalley / Tove Jansson

           The Master Key / Masako Togawa

1963- Family Lexicon / Natalia Ginzburg

1964- The Stone Angel / Margaret Laurence

1965- Sofia Petrovna / Lydia Chukovskaya; trans. Aline Werth

          Moominpappa At Sea / Tove Jansson

1966- The Road Past Altamont / Gabrielle Roy

1967- My Friend Says It's Bullet-Proof / Penelope Mortimer

1968- What's It Like Out? / Penelope Gilliatt

1969- The Sculptor's Daughter / Tove Jansson

1970- Moominvalley In November / Tove Jansson

          The Lion in the Lei Shop / Kaye Starbird

1971- Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont / Elizabeth Taylor

1972- The Summer Book / Tove Jansson

           Striding Folly / Dorothy L. Sayers
           The Bridge of Beyond / Simone Schwarz-Bart

1973- The Dressmaker / Beryl Bainbridge

1974- Abbess of Crewe / Muriel Spark 

1975- Dora, Doralina / Rachel de Queiroz 

1976- Ask For Me Tomorrow / Margaret Millar

1977- Ceremony / Leslie Marmon Silko

          Children of My Heart / Gabrielle Roy

1978- Letter to Sister Benedicta / Rose Tremain

1979- Territory of Light / Yuko Tsushima

1980- Alice Fell / Emma Tennant

1981- Totto-Chan / Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

1982- The Women of Brewster Place / Gloria Naylor

1983- Banshee / Margaret Millar

1984- The City & the House / Natalia Ginzburg

1985- Betsey Brown / Ntozake Shange

1986- Sitting in the Club Car Drinking Rum & Karma Kola / Paulette Jiles

1987- Circles of Deceit / Nina Bawden

1988- Kitchen / Banana Yoshimoto

1989- Asleep / Banana Yoshimoto

          House of Dolls / Barbara Comyns

1990- The Ladies From St Petersburg / Nina Berberova

1991- The Chalk Circle Man / Fred Vargas; trans. Sian Reynolds

1992- Daughters of the House / Michèle Roberts

1993- Following the Summer / Lise Bissonnette

          News from the City of the Sun / Isabel Colgate
          Croatian War Nocturnal / Spomenka Stimec

1994- Rocking the Babies / Linda Raymond

1995- I Who Have Never Known Men / Jacqueline Harpman

1996- A Pure Clear Light / Madeleine St John

1997- The Essence of the Thing / Madeleine St John

1998- I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops / Hanan al-Shaykh

1999- Hardboiled & Hard Luck / Banana Yoshimoto

2000- Stone Field, True Arrow / Kyoko Mori

This year heralds a truly challenging challenge! The Century of Books, started and hosted by Simon at Stuck in a Book, is running again for 2014.

I really wanted to challenge myself to read 100 books for this challenge all in this year, but it's just not going to be feasible, so in order to enjoy my century of books I will be taking the 2 year option and splitting my titles over 2014-2015.

My own criteria are that they will all be books by women, and they will be ones that have been on my shelves for some time (except for a few in the pre-copyright years before 1923 which will be downloaded). Oh, and no rereads for this one.

These are my planned reads so far, but I am always open to change. I will add and link the reviews as I go along.



1900 - The Visits of Elizabeth / Elinor Glyn

1901 - My Brilliant Career / Miles Franklin

1902  - Life, the Interpreter / Phyllis Bottome

1903 - Katharine Frensham / Beatrice Harraden

1904  - Freckles / Gene Stratton Porter

1905 - House of Mirth / Edith Wharton

1906 - Spinner in the Sun / Myrtle Reed

1907 - The Enchanted Castle / Edith Nesbit

1908 -  Love's Shadow / Ada Leverson

1909 - The Caravaners / Elizabeth von Arnim

1910 - Molly Make-Believe / Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

1911 - Jenny / Sigrid Undset

1912 - House of Windows / Isabel Ecclestone Mackay

1913  - Pollyanna / Eleanor H. Porter

1914 - The Professor's Legacy / Cecily Ullmann Sidgwick

1915  - Herland / Charlotte Perkins Gilman

1916  - The Golden Arrow / Mary Webb

1917  - I, Mary Maclane / Mary Maclane
       
1918  - Return of the Soldier / Rebecca West

1919  - Aleta Day / Francis Marion Beynon

1920  - Penny Plain / O. Douglas

1921  - The Brimming Cup / Dorothy Canfield

1922  - The Garden Party / Katherine Mansfield

1923  - Uncanny Stories / May Sinclair

1924  - The Rector's Daughter / F.M. Mayor

1925  - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes / Anita Loos

1926  - Lolly Willowes / Sylvia Townsend Warner
          - Crewe Train / Rose Macaulay

1927  - The House Without Windows / Barbara Newhall Follett

1928  - Plum Bun / Jessie Redmon Fauset

1929  - The Last September / Elizabeth Bowen

1930  - The Edwardians / Vita Sackville West
          - After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie /  Jean Rhys

1931  - Beggar's Choice / Patricia Wentworth

1932  - Christmas Pudding / Nancy Mitford
       
1933  - Diary of a Provincial Lady / E.M. Delafield

1934  - Murder on the Orient Express/ Agatha Christie
       
1935  - The Young Clementina / D.E. Stevenson

1936  - The Wheel Spins / Ethel Lina White

1937  - The Rising Tide / Molly Keane

1938 -  Address Unknown / Kathrine Kressman Taylor

1939  - Mrs Miniver / Jan Struther

1940 - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter / Carson McCullers

1941 - Between the Acts / Virginia Woolf

1942 - Death and the Dancing Footman / Ngaio Marsh

1943 -  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn / Betty Smith
         
1944  - A Fine of Two Hundred Francs / Elsa Triolet
          - Gigi / Colette
         
1945  -  The Tin Flute / Gabrielle Roy
         
1946  - Krane's Cafe / Cora Sandel
                   
1947  - An Avenue of Stone / Pamela Hansford Johnson

1948 -  One Foolish Heart / June Wilson

1949  - Olivia / by Olivia (Dorothy Strachey)

1950  -  To Love and Be Wise / Josephine Tey

           
1951  - A Game of Hide and Seek / Elizabeth Taylor

1952  - The Tiger in the Smoke / Margery Allingham

1953  - The Orchid House / Phyllis Shand Allfrey
         
1954  - The Tortoise and the Hare / Elizabeth Jenkins
       
1955 - Winds of Heaven / Monica Dickens

1956  - The Keys of My Prison / Frances Shelley Wees

                
1957 - Those Without Shadows / Francoise Sagan
         - Street of Riches / Gabrielle Roy
         - An Air That Kills / Margaret Millar

1958 - Greengage Summer / Rumer Godden
         - The Silent Rooms / Anne Hébert

1959 - The Vet's Daughter / Barbara Comyns

1960 - The Light in the Piazza / Elizabeth Spencer

1961  - Tete Blanche / Marie Claire Blais

1962  - We Have Always Lived in the Castle / Shirley Jackson
          - The Time of the Doves / Merce Rodoreda

1963  - A Favourite of the Gods / Sybille Bedford

1964  - The Garrick Year / Margaret Drabble

1965  - After Julius / Elizabeth Jane Howard

1966 -  Les Belles Images / Simone de Beauvoir

1967 - The Stratton Story (or, Mrs. Westerby Changes Course) / Elizabeth Cadell

1968 - Greensleeves / Eloise Jarvis McGraw

1969 - A Bouquet of Barbed Wire / Andrea Newman

1970  - Beyond This Point are Monsters / Margaret Millar
       
1971 -  Lives of Girls and Women / Alice Munro

1972 - The Innocents / Margery Sharp
       
1973 - Book of Eve / Constance Beresford Howe

1974 - The Diviners / Margaret Laurence

1975 -  Taxi / Helen Potrebenko

1976 - Bear / Marian Engel
         - Enchanted Summer / Gabrielle Roy
         - Legend in Green Velvet / Elizabeth Peters 

1977  - Edith's Diary / Patricia Highsmith
          -The Girls from the Five Great Valleys / Elizabeth Savage
         - Garden in the Wind / Gabrielle Roy

1978 - A Woman of Independent Means / Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey

1979  - Offshore / Penelope Fitzgerald

1980  - Basic Black with Pearls / Helen Weinzweig

1981  - Newspaper of Claremont Street / Elizabeth Jolley
         
1982  - The Severed Wasp / Madeleine L'Engle
          - Mrs. Caliban / Rachel Ingalls

1983  - The Cannibal Galaxy / Cynthia Ozick

1984  - House on Mango Street / Sandra Cisneros 

1985  - Home Truths / Mavis Gallant
         
1986  - Pack of Cards / Penelope Lively

1987 - Bohunk Road / Hope Morritt
         
1988  - The Bean Trees / Barbara Kingsolver

1989  - Three Legged Horse / Ann Hood

1990  - Symposium / Muriel Spark

1991 - Deathly Delights / Anne Dandurand
         
1992 - His Mother's House / Marta Morazzoni

1993  - The Women in Black / Madeleine St John

1994 - One Sweet Quarrel / Deirdre McNamer

1995  - Winter Journey / Isabel Colgate

1996 - Fairy Tale / Alice Thomas Ellis

1997 - Aurora Montrealis / Monique Proulx
         - My Soul to Keep / Tananarive Due

1998  -The Widows / Suzette Mayr

1999 - The Perfect Woman / Suzanne Harnois 
         - Memoria / Louise Dupre 

2000 - The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly / Sun-Mi Hwang; translated from the Korean by
 Chi- Young Kim