Best Books of 2020

[@SophiaClef]

Some of my favorite books of 2020: 1. The Golovlyov Family by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin 2. Charlotte Löwensköld by Selma Lagerlöf 3. The Little Tragedies by Alexander Pushkin 4. The Color Purple by Alice Walker 5. The Warden by Anthony Trollope 6. Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse 7. Ivan Vasilievich by Mikhail Bulgakov Plans for 2021: And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov Ulysses by James Joyce Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Clarice Lispector, Colette, Flannery O'Connor, E. M. Forster, John Irving etc. To finish The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon and Dune by Frank Herbert

[@KDbooks]

Well... The Golovltov Family is being added to the basket

[@TheCodeXCantina]

Hi Sophia, I'm new to your channel but I love what I see! I definitely love some of the stuff happening here! Ulysses has always terrified me. I'm looking forward to reading some more Lispector this year too. ❤️❤️❤️ so amazing :D

[@SophiaClef]

Thank you! ❤️

[@GalacticReads]

I haven't heard of a lot of these so I appreciate your recommendations! I love reading things that aren't on my radar. The Golovlyov Family ticks all the boxes in what I want in a book. Your passion for it is infectious too. Now I have to hunt it down in my library!

[@SophiaClef]

Thank you! I hope it's not too hard to find!

[@ReligionOfSacrifice]

Somebody loves to move their hands about when they talk. I love Anthony Trollope's books. Here is where the ones I read have fallen on my list: Three in the top 100 books I've ever read. 56) "The Warden" by Anthony Trollope 69) "The Way We Live Now" by Anthony Trollope 84) "Can you forgive her?" by Anthony Trollope I still plan to read the following: "Barchester Towers" by Anthony Trollope “He Knew He Was Right” by Anthony Trollope FAVORITE AUTHORS 1) Ivan Turgenev (Fathers and Sons) 2) Leo Tolstoy (Resurrection) 3) Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Idiot) 4) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich) 5) C. S. Lewis (The Magician's Nephew) 6) Charlotte Brontë (Vilette) 7) J. R. R. Tolkien (The Hobbit) 8) Isaac Asimov (Foundation and Empire) 9) Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) 10) Mark Twain (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) 11 Anne Brontë (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) 12) George Eliot (Silas Marner) 13) Anthony Trollope (The Warden)

[@HugoReads]

Im planning on reading Ulysses and Don Quixote sometime this year too! Definitely looking into The Golovlyov family!

[@SophiaClef]

Great! The Golovlyov Family can be confusing if you're not familiar with Russian classics. Maybe start with Crime and Punishment ;)

[@HugoReads]

@@SophiaClef haha yeah, starting next week!

[@josmith5992]

The Color Purple is so good and the film makes me weep every time. Glad to hear you’ll be carrying on with the Barchester series Sophia, Trollope is one of my favorite writers and I found him very comforting this year. A friend and I are finishing up our reading of E.M. Forster’s novels this year and for a starting point I’d recommend A Room With A View or Howard’s End although sometimes reading an author chronologically can be rewarding.

[@SophiaClef]

The adaptation of the Color Purple was sooo goood, the actors, the costumes, the visuals, everything! I've heard that the rest of the series is even better than the first book! I watched the adaptations of A Room with a View and Howard's End and they were great! I hope that the books are even better!

[@dmitrysmirnov6043]

I really love Hesse’s works and it’s good to hear that you consider looking more into his books. I think that Steppenwolf might be one of if not the best his work, at least for me personally. Although, speaking of my experience, maybe it had greater impact on me because I read it at younger age? Hard to say. Anyway, I’d highly recommend his The Glass Bead Game, but if you are going to dive into his bibliography maybe skip Narcissus and Goldmund, it is not really good in my opinion

[@SophiaClef]

I've already read the Glass Bead Game, Siddhartha, and Demian.

[@katrinabrown]

Golovlyov Family has been added to my tbr! I enjoy a good difficult story to process.

[@SophiaClef]

I hope you'll enjoy it!

[@jimsbooksreadingandstuff]

Interesting selection, The Color Purple is on my want to read list.

[@laurengent8362]

I recently found your channel through Katie at Books and Things and I’m so glad I did. I love this video and there are definitely a number of books you mentioned that I want to check out. I’m not going to lie I am extremely intrigued by The Golovltov Family now and definitely will be checking it out 😄 I was wondering if you had read The Last Day of a Condemned Man by Victor Hugo? If not, I would highly recommend it 🖤

[@SophiaClef]

Amazing! I've been following Katie for about 3 years now. And I read The Last Day of a Condemned Man in 2020. Although I really enjoyed it, it didn't have the same emotional impact on me as the other books on this list, because of its length, I think.

[@laurengent8362]

@@SophiaClef Katie’s channel is great isn’t it ☺️ I’m just glad to have found someone else that has read The Last Day of Condemned Man. Other than the books in this video are there any classics that you have read that would recommend? 🖤

[@SophiaClef]

@@laurengent8362 I have a series on Russian classics, you can find the playlist Klassik. In those videos I introduce people to the shorter works of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin etc.

[@leeah8419]

I've been thinking about reading Dune but I've heard so many negative reviews. Good to see a positive one as well :)

[@SophiaClef]

It's quite an unusual book. The fact that so many people have strong opinions about it means something. At least it won't leave you indifferent!

[@leeah8419]

@@SophiaClef Yes, exactly! I remember watching the 1984 adaptation growing up and being fascinated by the setting and the world :)

[@onfaerystories]

Thank you for this video, I can't wait to try and read most books on this list very soon! They sound exactly up my alley! I never heard about Les rois maudits, I'd love to know more about it! :0 I'll start reading Anna Karenina once I'm done with La conquête de Plassans (#4 Rougon-Macquart, Zola), I have 114 pages left and, right now, I'm just loving it. ❤️ I read them in order. :) I've heard about The Color Purple, of course, but the hype made me hesitate as well. ^^" My favourite books of the year: The Story of My Life by Helen Keller (an 1904 autobiography by a woman both blind and deaf from birth who was freed from the prison of her silent mind - poignant and mind blowing) Notre-Dame de Paris - Victor Hugo (I wasn't expecting the ending, forgot the Disney movie... This ending wrecked me haha!) Claude Gueux et autres textes engagés - Victor Hugo (I especially loved Hugo's speeches as a senator in this one, you wouldn't hear something so eloquent and daring nowadays, and when you realize that the causes he fought for won in the end...! It's truly powerful and inspiring) Les mots étrangers - Vassilis Alexakis (His French is very accessible! But it has also been translated. As a language and culture lover, I'm sure it would move you too - I cried... A lot haha!) Animal Farm - George Orwell (genius!) The Diary of Anne Frank (I'm glad I've finally read it)

[@SophiaClef]

Wow! Thank you for all the recommendations!

[@svea7175]

Such an interesting list! I need to get to Steppenwolf, it sounds like something I'd enjoy a lot. My first E. M. Forster novel was Maurice, it was really sweet but I wasn't the biggest fan of his writing style...Flannery O'Connor's short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find“ is famous for a reason, it was quite depressing but I'm still glad I read it!

[@SophiaClef]

Something tells me that you'll enjoy Steppenwolf. Great choice!

[@chervon5773]

If And Quiet Flows the Don sounds scary check out Solzhenitsyn’s Red Wheel series. It looks really promising but a large project to take on.

[@boysonthm1462]

Hi Sophia, I like the way you describe books. Your analysis is rich in perspective, and i like that you try to be objective as much as possible. There is famous book called "of mice and men" by John Steinbeck. I recommend you check it out. I would like to hear your take on it.

[@SophiaClef]

Thank you! I read Of Mice and Men a few years ago. This year I'm going to try East of Eden.

[@boysonthm1462]

Try also "grapes of wrath" by John Steinbeck. Personally for me, Fyodor Dostoevsky and John Steinbeck are my favourite authors. Their books have a humbling factor and I like the fact that they write about local people and local issues, not to say that I have a problem with sophistication and prestigious.

[@SophiaClef]

@@boysonthm1462 There's no better way to recommend books! Thank you!

[@chhhhhris]

Uh oh, Mr. Bugakolv _comparing_ instead of _contrasting_ Tsarist feudalism with the USSR. More anti-communism? Will I be disappointed reading Buglakov's bourgeois counter-revolutionary writings? ha-ha

[@SophiaClef]

I don't know..

[@chhhhhris]

@@SophiaClef that response makes me sad

[@SophiaClef]

@@chhhhhris You can't expect me to know how you would react to Bulgakov :)

[@EveryoneWhoReadsitMustConverse]

Loved this Sophia! I will be getting into Lispector more in 2021, I love her work. And, Flannery O'Connor is probably my favorite author. Please list your Best Of... in the description box or here in the comments for ease of following your recommendation 😝

[@SophiaClef]

I wrote the list in the pinned comment :3 You actually inspired me to add Flannery O'Connor to my reading list! Thank you!

[@EveryoneWhoReadsitMustConverse]

@@SophiaClef very cool, Sophia! Short stories like 'A good man is hard to find' and 'everything that rises must converge' will give you an idea of what to expect from her. Her 2 novels are awesome though with 'The Violent Bear it Away' being the best imo