Hopes for 2019

Happy New Year! 2018 was a difficult and challenging year and I'm so glad it's over. I've seen quite a few people setting a 'word for the year' and have decided to try it out for this year in the hope that it might give my life some much needed direction. 

Balance - is the works I've chosen. Over the past few years all of my focus has been on work. I had a stressful job working for a politician. Every day there was more and more work and try as I might I never felt on top of it and everything was urgent and priority. The result was I neglected myself and after months of insomnia I started having panic attacks and then ended up off work with stress. So this year I want to find balance in my life. 

So here are a few things I want to do throughout 2019 to help me find some balance:

• Volunteer - use some of my free time to help causes I'm passionate about. 
• Get back to going to the gym  - this fell to the wayside in 2018. I want 2019 to be the year that I take this seriously. 
• Return to Scotland - I have completely fallen for Scotland. It's were my family are from and I feel myself there. I've visited the Scottish Borders. Perthshire and the Isle of Skye. I'd love to go even further next time maybe to the Outer Hebrides. 
• Work on the house - We live in a Victorian cottage and whilst I love it when we bought it there was a lot that needed done. We've none quite a lot of the major stuff - new roof, new boiler, double glazing and new kitchen but there's so much more that needs sorted out. This is of course dependant on money! But I'd like to put new carpet in the bedrooms and wooden flooring in living and dining rooms. 
• Work on the garden - Finally sort out the back of the garden. The previous owners used the back of the garden as a dumping ground (most annoying as the council dump is about a 5 minute drive away). I want to clear it all out and start a veg patch. 
• Do well in my new job - In a few weeks I'll start a new job. I obviously want to do well but I also don't want to get into the same head space I was before. I can't let trying to achieve at work get in the way of enjoying the rest of my life. 
• Attempt IVF again - After two failed attempts it's been a struggle getting up the courage to try again. 

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Classics Club Challenge

I'm a Project Manager by day. Anyone who knows me knows that in addition to loving to read I also love to plan, to make lists and to research. Guess I'm in the right profession! 

I used to alternate reading classics and contemporary fiction but that has well and truly fallen to the wayside over the last few years. I wanted to get back into reading classics and came across the classics club when researching ideas. So how could I resist! 

The plan is to read 50 classics within the next five years (by 24 November 2023). 

The List

1. The Romance of the Forest - Ann Radcliffe
2. Kidnapped - Sir Walter Scott
3. Frankenstein - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
4. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
5. The Count of Monte-Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
6. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
7. Cranford - Elizbeth Gaskell
8. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
9. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
10. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
11. Ben-Hur - Lew Wallace
12. Little Dorrit - Charles Dickens
13. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
14. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
15. Dracula - Bram Stoker
16. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
17. Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte
18. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
19. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
20. The Hound of the Baskervilles - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
21. The Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan
22. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
23. Claudine's House - Collette
24. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
25. The Well of Loneliness - Radcliffe Hall
26. Orlando - Virginia Woolf
27. All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
28. Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
29. Brighton Rock - Graham Greene
30. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
31. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
32. Doctor Faustus - Thomas Mann
33. 1984 - George Orwell
34. Love in a Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford
35. Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
36. Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
37. The Talented Mr Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
38. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
39. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
40. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
41. The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orzy
42. Passing - Nella Larsen
43. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
44. The Ivy Tree - Mary Stewart
45. The King Must Die - Mary Renault
46. The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
47. My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier
48. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
49. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
50. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell

Hello

I've been reading blogs for a number of years now and have finally built up the courage to start my own. I love reading and I've started this blog primarily to jot down my thoughts on the books I read. 

But first some introductions...

My name is Sarah Elizabeth and I'm in my late thirties. I have a Masters Degree in Human Rights and Criminal Justice. By day I'm a criminal justice programme manager. When not at work I like to spend my time reading or with my two dogs - Zelda and Porter. In addition to reading and my dogs, I love my husband, knitting and being by the sea. This blog will mostly be about books, but other topics may slip in once and awhile.