16 Wonderful Classics From Around the World

[@MrReaderAndFamily]

As a male viewer, I want to say you're one of the few BookTubers I regularly watch! From what I’ve noticed, men-and especially younger men-don’t seem to read much these days. When I talk to women about reading, about half can usually name a book they’ve read or started recently, even if it was earlier this year. But when I ask the men in my circles, it’s a very different story-maybe 1 out of 20 can recall a book they’ve read, and that’s often something from school. It’s surprising how big the gap seems! Women definitely seem to outnumber men as readers by a wide margin, and it’s refreshing to see content like yours that might inspire more of us men to pick up a book.

[@theflyingninja1]

Have you read Katie's book? I loved it.

[@AbiofPellinor]

I'm so excited for the Reading the Globe wrap ups because there are going to be so many amazing recommendations!

[@ChristyLuisDostoevskyinSpace]

I basically added all of these to my tbr. Thanks, Katie!

[@dayanafacanha5685]

Hey Katie, I loved this video. Here are some more recommendations of Brazilian classics: • Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro. A Novel. • Julia Lopes de Almeida, The Banrkrupcy. • Jose de Alencar, Senhora. Profile of a Woman. • Manuel Antonio de Almeida, Memoirs of a Militia Sargent. • Martins Pena (Any plays you can find. It's a lot of fun!) • Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star. Hope you enjoy it! Greetings from Brazil!

[@PatJohnson-j3w]

I have added several books to my TBR. Thank you, Katie.

[@KierTheScrivener]

There's so many great classics here that I want to read. I love your love for the Blue Castle, it's such a special, funny, beautiful novel for me as well.

[@katiejlumsden]

Yes, I think both of my two favourite Canadian books were recommendations from you, so thank you very much :)

[@laracroft1829]

Thanks!

[@katiejlumsden]

Thanks very much :)

[@hannahsutherland9329]

I loved the Blue Castle! I loved the comparing the themes in her YA/childrens novels to the themes presented in the Blue Castle

[@fishjj76]

I want my book collection to contain classic novels from all over the world. I'm nowhere near complete so these videos help a lot. Thank you.

[@isabellemenez5704]

I read some of these and added the others to my ever-growing TBR ! As a French reader, I would recommend Victor Hugo's The toilers of the sea (I read it when I was a teenager but still have the book on my shelves), Jacques Prévert's poetry, Emile Zola's saga of the Rougon-Macquart and, on a different, lighter level, Marivaux's plays. Thanks for sharing with us !

[@katiejlumsden]

Definitely keen to read more by Victor Hugo and try some of those other authors!

[@stephenn3727]

Thank you Katie

[@veroreads]

Such a great (and useful!) video! One of my goals next year is to read more international classics so thank you for a great list of recommendation! ☺

[@gracetaylor7351]

I love the blue castle !❤loved this Katie

[@PageTurnersWithKatja]

Thanks so much for mentioning Reading the Globe, Katie ❤ Once I reduced my original list of classics to 7 - removing 5 modern classics - we ended up with male oriented picks 🙈.That said, the contemporary reads are female oriented, and for the whole project, it becomes an even split. 😅 I want to read Eileen Chang too, starting with Lust, Caution. The Beautiful Summer sounds brilliant. Added the three Indian fiction books to my TBR Oh my gosh, January Nana is one of my favourite modern classics hands down. I'll have to try the book from the Philippines with the fab play 🤩

[@mame-musing]

Katie, this was great. Thanks for the synopses. I’ll be adding nearly all these novels to my book wish list. When I read “Picnic at Hanging Rock” I thought the story was frustratingly anticlimactic. I read it near the time I also read “A Passage to India”. I thought both were murky cave mysteries. Happy New Year to both you and Nick!

[@sherrirabinowitz4618]

I have been wanting to read The Blue Castle it is in my TBR, I think I will move it up. Thanks😊

[@scallydandlingaboutthebooks]

Some interesting things here that I haven't read. I really must get to Noli Me Tangere which has been on my long-term TBR for years. The Machado de Assis is one of my all time favourite classics in translation.

[@katiejlumsden]

I think you'd really like Noli Me Tangere!

[@bennobenny750]

I love foreign classics. My only issue is finding a translation that captures the magic of the original, some times I'm going through four editions before finding the best one.

[@donnaleone3818]

Have you read the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy by Singrid Undset? Norwegian author. Classic!! I highly recommend.

[@katiejlumsden]

Thanks for the recommendation! I haven't.

[@noteworthyfiction]

❤❤

[@wendycayless]

Two South African classics from the 19th century I would recommend are The Little Karoo by Pauline Smith (short stories) and The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner. An early 20th century South African classic I love is The Marabi Dance by Modikwe Dikobe. Bessie Head is another writer I recommend (born in South Africa but considered a Botswanan writer). A contemporary writer you might like is Henrietta Rose-Innes who is a distant cousin of mine. And then there is Nadine Gordimer.

[@katiejlumsden]

Thanks for the recommendations!

[@LaurieInTexas]

I have had a copy of Noli Me Tángere for years, and I really need to read it. Two modern classics by women I recommend are The Door by Magda Szabó (Hungary) and The Wall by Marlen Haushofer (Austria). I have been doing a challenge for many years to read a book by an author from every country, and I try to read as many by women as I can but finding classics before the 20th century is difficult unless you choose poetry. I'm okay with poetry but I really want to read novels or memoirs.

[@katiejlumsden]

Thanks very much - very excited to try those two!

[@launchedathousand]

I loved the Blue Castle and sadly it was her only adult book, I wish she had written more like it but pretty sure it was the YA like Anne of Green Gables that was paying the bills and what her editors and the public wanted. Looking forward to your new interpretation of the goal for the New Year, I love hearing about classics from other countries outside of England and the US.

[@katiejlumsden]

I had in my head that The Tangled Web was another of hers for adults? I definitely need to read more by her.

[@peterfionaphillips7929]

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. Set during WW11, translated from German. Excellent read.

[@katiejlumsden]

Oh yes, I've read some of Fallada's short stories years ago and loved them! I must pick that up.

[@joelharris4399]

The United Nations of Mostly Twentieth-Century Global Literary Productivity 🏁

[@fishjj76]

The only 19th-century Australian classic novel I can think of is "For the Term of his Natural Life" by Marcus Clarke. I haven't read it in many years, but my memory of it is that it is a cross between "The Count of Monte Cristo" and a Dickens novel.

[@katiejlumsden]

Sounds intriguing!

[@ImogenReeves]

The Waiting Years was the 1st book I finished this year & found it emotional, reflective & sad despite the 3.75 star rating I eventually gave it

[@millercgr]

Hi Katie - Have you read anything by Kundera? If you decide to include something from a Czech novelist I would definitely recommend - sometimes very political but not always. Of course I would recommend a female Victorian-era American author I know you will love. Please try Sarah Orne Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs - a classic that is uniquely American about life in a 19th century village in Maine.

[@katiejlumsden]

Thanks for the recommendations!

[@jamesduggan7200]

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting was very good, as was Love in the Time of Cholera. A Man Called Ove has become a favorite. I believe Before the Coffee Get Cold is from Japan, tho I can't be sure. tbh I prefer reading in the original, so I tend only to read things written either in English or French.

[@MarcelaChandía]

If you read Japanese Literature from the Heian Period (794-1185) almost everything is by female authors, and most of them are translated 😉 If you prefer non-fiction, there is, for example, the 'diaries literature' (that span Heian and Kamakura, so 794-1333), where you can learn through the pencil of women of the time how their lives were lived, and the challenges that they faced. Sorry, Japanese Classical Literature Teacher here 😝 By the way, I read The Blue Castle this year and it was amazing ❤

[@katiejlumsden]

Thanks for the recommendation! Any specific titles you'd recommend?

[@MarcelaChandía]

@@katiejlumsden Well, The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon is a zuihitsu (poorly translated as essays, that genre is more like an autobiographical chronic with brief essays in it, literally is 'let the pen run'), in the diary literature The Diary of Lady Murasaki by Murasaki Shikibu (there you have opposite political sides: Shonagon y Murasaki). Another that centres around the 'bad side' of the glamour and perfection of aristocratic life, especially for women, is The Kagero nikki by Michitsuna no Haha. There is a translation that goes by that title by Sonja Arntzen and the one by Seidensticker is called The Gossamer Years

[@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd]

The one from Canada looks interesting. Although I am not a woman I do not have enough money and want more. Also HNY!⚛❤

[@faithbooks7906]

Train to Pakistan sounds very interesting. I would like to read more about the Partition. Are you still interested in buddy reading La Vendee by Trollope? I am still up for it! I am thinking my calendar will clear towards the end of January (maybe 1/19 or 1/26). Or it could happen in February. And it is fine if you have other plans too! No pressure! Happy New Year!

[@katiejlumsden]

Absolutely! Starting either of those weeks works for me - perhaps we go for the 26th January and carry it on into February? I think it’s on the longer side. How do you usually do buddy reads? Are you on Voxer?

[@faithbooks7906]

@@katiejlumsdenhi Katie! I responded a couple of days ago! Where did it go?? Anyway, I would love to buddy read La Vendee, maybe starting 1/26. My voxer is frober7747. Thanks. I actually tried to find you on voxer but not sure if I did.