Willa Cather’s birthday was just a couple days ago (12/7) and since then I’ve been thinking about her life and her novels. Cather published 12 novels, 11 of which I’ve read. Shortly after I became a Cather fan some years ago, I decided not to read all of her novels immediately, but to ration them out so that I’d occasionally have a “new” Cather novel to enjoy. The only one I haven’t read is Shadows on the Rock. I’ve decided that 2012 will be the year to read it.
To celebrate the reading of this novel, I’m going to re-read all of Cather’s novels in 2012 and would like to invite you to read along with me.
The Challenge:
Read one Willa Cather novel each month in order of publication from January through December 2012.
The Reading List:
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January: Alexander’s Bridge (1912)
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February: O Pioneers! (1913)
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March: The Song of the Lark (1915)
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April: My Ántonia (1918)
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May: One of Ours (1922)
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June: A Lost Lady (1923)
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July: The Professor’s House (1925)
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August: My Mortal Enemy (1926)
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September: Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
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October: Shadows on the Rock (1931)
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November: Lucy Gayheart (1935)
- December: Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940)
Guidelines for this Challenge:
1. Read all 12 of Willa Cather’s novels in order of their publication, one per month, from January 2012 through December 2012.
2. Sign-up/express your interest in participating in the comments section below. If you find this challenge after January feel free to jump in.
3. If you have a blog please post the badge/image on your site with a link back to this post for others to find.
How this will work:
1. I’ll write a post on the first day of each month reminding everyone what book is up for the month and will provide a little background or interesting information about the novel.
2. I’ll post my thoughts about the book on the third Monday of each month.
3. Share your thoughts each month about the novel–however brief or detailed–in the comments section of my post on the novel.
4. If you have a blog, provide the link to the post that you write for your blog in the comments section for others to find. OR, if you don’t have a blog but post reviews on Goodreads, LibraryThing, or elsewhere, provide the link to your review in the comments section.
The Un-Rule for this challenge:
I’d love for more people to discover Willa Cather’s novels and their diversity. I hope you’ll join me in reading all 12 novels, but if you don’t have the time to commit to all 12, please feel free to join in for a few of the novels or even just one. My only request is that you read the novel in 2012 and not refer only to a past reading experience.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Cool Cather Links:
The Willa Cather Foundation — the mothership for Cather enthusiasts, an amazing resource.
The Willa Cather Archive — another fantastic resource, free digital texts of most of her novels, Cather scholarship, and much more.
Cather on Wikipedia — a quick intro/refresher on Cather.
Cather at Project Gutenberg — ebook downloads of several Cather novels.
Hope to see you in January!