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Your challenge is a great one! I like the idea of reading Native American Literature for your American choice. May I recommend Leslie Marmon Silko's, Ceremony. It was very good.
**Edit** Sherman Alexie is also another great author for your Native American choice.
I appreciate the recommendation and I will look into it.Quote:
Originally Posted by grace86
Dark Muse posted a list of the books she had from different countries, so I figured I could do the same. And my list is based on the un-read novels I have at home, and if I included the ones I've already read, I am sure it'd look a bit different. But this is what I've got to work with so far. 20 countries.
Nigeria
India
Egypt
Argentina
France
Morocco
Mozambique
Zimbabwe
South Africa
USA
Russia
Sweden
New Zealand
Ireland
Turkey
Peru/Spain (Mario Vargas Llosa - which one would you put him in?)
Kenya
Cameroon
England
Australia
Great idea for a book list. Just out of curiosity, are you using the author or the setting as the basis?
I am using the author. Books that are written by authors from each of these countries.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bustrofedon
Muse, if you haven't got a Dutch author (The Netherlands) you can't go far wrong with something by Cees Nooteboom. I'd recommend Lost Paradise, which is just stunning, or Rituals which is a bit bleak but amusing. He's a great writer, not well known enough in my opinion.
Also, for Norway I would recommend either something by Knut Hamsun (Hunger is really his best work) or something by Tove Jansson. I read a book called The True Deceiver a while ago which was amazing. Of course there is always the Moomintrolls :D
I do not think I have anything by Dutch writers so I will keep your recommendations for that in mind.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheFifthElement
For Norway, I acutally have Pan by Knut Hamsun, but since a few months back I read "The Bridal Wreath" by Sigrid Undset, I plan on reading "The Wife" the 2nd book in the trilogy soon.
I don't believe Tove Jansson would be suited for Norway as she is Finnish. She'd be much better to read for Finland. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by TheFifthElement
:lol: Dur, silly me!Quote:
Originally Posted by thelastmelon
She's a great read wherever she's from :D
Haha, woops. I've done that before. My social studies teacher asked, "is anyone's family from Sweden?" to which I yelled out "Francois is Swiss!" :willy_nilly:Quote:
Originally Posted by TheFifthElement
The teacher was just like "uhhh, great, but does anyone here have family from Sweden?"
I wondered that as well because I was going to suggest Bruce Chatwin's On the Black Hill as a title for Wales, then I realised that Chatwin was English. However he has managed to tune into the Welsh psyche so well in the book (no mean feat for an Englishman, let me tell you!) that he could be regarded as an Honorary Welshman.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bustrofedon
I looked at the list of Welsh authors suggested by mal4mac and found not only had I heard of some of them (and had read some as well) but had actually met one or two! If you are daunted by choosing an unknown author you might like to refer to the list of publications by the Library of Wales. This is '...a Welsh Assembly Government projest designed to ensure that all the rich and extensive literature of Wales that has been written in English will now be available to readers in and beyond Wales....texts until now unavailable, out of print or merely forgotten... to showcase what has been unjustly neglected... to bring back into play the voices and actions of the human experience that has made us, in all our complexity, a Welsh people.'
I find this a refreshing and comforting attitude - the Welsh language activists fought so long and so hard for the reinstatement and recognition of Welsh as a living language - a not unworthy cause - that they tended not only to ignore but to deride and denigrate works written in English in Wales by Welsh authors. I am glad to see this area of creativity receiving its due recognition at last.
Being a Swede and all.. that is really quite annoying. Haha!Quote:
Originally Posted by JuniperWoolf
2. Australia - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.Quote:
Originally Posted by thelastmelon
Quote:
Originally Posted by thelastmelon
3. South Africa - Disgrace by J.M. CoetzeeQuote:
Originally Posted by thelastmelon
Awesome challenge, let me see what I've read so far:
Brazil: Livro de Maguas by Florbela Espanca
England: Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
Greece: 100 poems by Constantin Kavafis
Mexico: La Nostalgia de la Muerte by Xavier Villaurrutia
Spain: Fuente Ovejuna & others plays by Lope de Vega.
USA: Poems by Anne Sexton