Because, as we all know, life gets in the way of reading, so it's only fitting that a summary of my reading year would be peppered with some RL facts. Conversely, I find that a lot of my reads influence my life too, so it all balances somehow.

It happens that this is a bit of a late posts, but just now I'm finding myself with some time back at my PC for something other than work, work, work, moving, and family, friends, travel, family, moving.

All this because the 20th of December I moved back to my hometown after living 14 years in the capital and surrounds.

The reasons are varied and long-spanning, but the decision itself was taken on middle November, during a long conversation with my dad on his car, coming back from a family pilgrimage to a doctor appointment of my aunts over yet another health scare. Given the tone and MO of my extended family these last years, it was a weird mix of emotional and logical, and much like I tend to do with my "upend your whole life" choices, followed through pretty much immediately. Historically, it has worked for me splendidly, and this is shaping up to not be the exception.

What it did translate, though, was into over 200 hours of work plus a long-distance move packed into 3 weeks. And then a huge amount of work over my grandparents belongings mixed in with the end-of-years-festivities and job-hunting when I landed. I'm still cleaning, boxing, tagging, selling, giving and throwing, basically living at mom's from a couple of suit-cases and not yet really sure that I'll adapt back to life in a little town, but I'm inexplicably happy.

Now, if I could make myself some time to read....

Anyway, huge introduction aside, looking back to my 2018, it is no wonder that I terribly failed or barely squeaked by on some of the challenges, but I find that I'm satisfied with the over-all haul.

I did manage over 12 new-to-me classics (though I wiggled a bit over picking titles already on my tbr). Depending on how you define "classic", I likely doubled this.

• Eugenie Grandet by Honerè de Balzac (22/1)
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (16/8)
• The Tennat of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë (22/8)
• O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (25/8)
• The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1/9)
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (8/9)
• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (11/9)
• The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle (11/10)
• The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (19/10)
• The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (21/10)
• La Divina Comedia by Dante Alighieri (26/10)
• His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (9/11)
• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emma Orczy (29/11)

As for 25 female authors, I managed 25 that I had chosen, and some extras. Then again, I usually find that without looking into it too much, my reading is quite balanced among the male/female line. The interesting part is all those I ear-marked that I did not got to, and so am bumping up for this 2019.

A

• Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey (16/8)
• Margaret Atwood: The Penelopiad (24/8)

B

• Anne Brontë: The Tennat of Wildfell Hall (22/8)
• Natalie Babbitt: Tuck Everlasting (21/7)

C

• Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus (17/10)
• Willa Cather: O Pioneers! (25/8)

D

• Marguerite Duras: Los Ojos azules, pelo negro (25/11)
• Jeanne DuPrau: The City of Ember (4/8)

F

• Carrie Fisher: The Princess Diarist (9/8)

G

• Elizabeth Gaskell: North and South (11/9)

H

• Patricia Highsmith: Strangers on a Train (4/9)
• Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Shuttle (26/1)

I

• Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little House in the Big Woods (29/7)

J

• P. D. James: Children of Men (27/8)

K

• M. M. Kaye: The Ordinary Princess (5/8)

L

• Madeleine L'Engle: A Wrinkle in Time (9/1)
• Ursula K. Le Guin: The Dispossed (4/1) The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (24/1) The Word for World is Forest (26/1) Four Ways to Forgiveness (18/4)

M

• Robin McKinley: Deerskin (12/7)
• Marissa Meyer: Cinder (26/9)

N

• Naomi Novik: His Majesty's Dragon (5/9)

O

• Emma Orczy: The Scarlet Pimpernel (29/11)
• Nnedi Okorafor: Akata Witch (10/9)

P

• Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper (1/9)

R

• Mary Roberts Rinehart: The Circular Staircase (23/10)

S

• Elizabeth George Speare: The Witch of Blackbird Pond (20/10)

Language-wise, I failed catastrophically. Mostly because it was a hectic year and my books in English are digital and so forever on hand on my phone, but still, 6 out of 20... I have 3 more half-way, so I'll have a headstart this year (and my mom's library on hand*grin*)

• Dante Alighieri, La Divina Comedia (26/10)
• Honerè de Balzac, Eugenie Grandet (22/1)
• María Brandán Araoz, Vecinos y detectives en Belgrano (3/9)
• Marguerite Duras, Los ojos azules, pelo negro (25/11)
• Pairault, Suzanne, Verónica, ¿Estrella de Cine? (31/8)
• Lisbeth Werner, Puck y la Fierecilla (28/10)

Bingo was huge help and had me busting my yearly challenge by September, plus introducing me to many authors, some of which have become favorites, so even more positives. So yeah, upheavals and all, it was a good reading year.

Very easy and fast read. It would have been the type of book I would have adored as a kid in that liminal space where high reading skills put you beyond children's books but maturity does not really afford you adult reads. So yeah, classic adventures for the win.

The devise of telling the story from the third limited of a character other than the Scarlet Pimpernel allows for a show of his BAMF qualities that would have sounded boastful otherwise, so that's another good bit.

Most of my gripe comes from the ever moronic woman (I'll leave the political and racial alone this time). We are constantly told she's the cleverest woman in Europe, but either that's a huge fail of informed quality, or the author was taking the mickey on it by drawing a contrast of what the world says of a characters intelligence vs what happens behind curtains of a person's life. Still, the fact that she's absolutely useless and most times an obstacle, continued to bother me. I thought the story would redeem her when she decides to go to France, that we would be shown her being resourceful and clever and see her save the day right alongside the Pimpernel. Hell, for a bit there I was prepared to be blown out of my mind by a turn of the XX century female author writing a woman saving the hero. Alas, no dice.

The other bit that is a bit weak (beyond several un-reveals, duh), is the constant over explaining. Orczy does an excellent job of showing the pieces so that you can puzzle it out. It is a pity she wastes pages and belittle her readers intelligence by spelling it all out yet again in expository dialogues and what not.

Anyway, if you are not nit-picking like I've been, it is good entertainment.

How to tag this.

Know this though: if you expect a romance... well, there is romance, but it's not really the meat of the story. More like a sprinkled seasoning to give the excuse, and a happy ending I guess.

What this is about is industrialization, the theme for most characters was the failure point of their principles or what they considered their cornerstones, and the running one on interactions was misunderstandings arising from lack of enough knowledge to "wear another's shoes" (and no, I do not mean empathy), and it was masterfully done (if long-winded). So masterfully actually, that I had a raging fit and had to stop reading at one point (workers vs owners/strikes), because it is still such an on point analysis today.

The vehicle for all that is us following Margaret Hale through a three-year-long trauma conga line, through which she carries herself with so much poise and holding herself to such impossible standards that I could not help but want to shake her.

I'm a bit addled still by how packed this was, and I confess I'm downright intimidated by the prospect of her other books. I think I'll leave Wives and Daughters for another year's reading project.

So many misunderstandings! And they keep getting worse

This one was fast fun and a different flavour on the usual tropes of it's genre. Big on representation, feminism, and an interesting peek into a rich and varied culture and myth set that I confess I know nothing about.

The kids feel a bit older than they are (might be a cultural thing), and this thing of putting the end of the world responsibilities onto the children's shoulders is one that constantly sticks in my craw now that I'm older, but I happen to know it was the bomb when I was a kid (Harry Potter, I'm looking at you) so the one star demoted might be an "unintended audience" thing.

Wondering what else I can get my hands on from the area, which this book's popularity might make easier, so kudos too for broadening horizons and opening markets.