Favorite Modern Classics | What Is A Modern Classic?

[@carolinelist-b4p]

I really want to read 'Address Unknown' now! Some modern classics I really like are: Stefan Zweig - Chess Novella Mariama Ba - So Long A Letter Mildred D. Taylor - Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Italo Calvino - If On A Winter's Night A Traveller

[@jensreadinglife]

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is one of my favorite books from childhood! And I’ve wanted to read Italo Calvino for decades and am not sure why I never have!

[@belle2157]

To Sir With Love is another teacher story. The book is better than the movie. I also love Up the Down Staircase. I enjoy your channel because you bring forth the older, and lesser known, quality books. I may have to check out Cold Comfort Farm. The cover is drawing me in.

[@jensreadinglife]

I love To Sir, With Love! I read it in high school and I should have mentioned it here! I'm so glad you are enjoying my content. Thank you so much for watching and commenting.

[@RobynLG]

I also love books about school and/or teachers. Such a great list.

[@jensreadinglife]

I don’t know why they are so good but they are! 😁

[@imsathyasekar]

So happy you mentioned “Miss Pym disposes”. It’s my favourite Tey book. I also enjoy school stories Amber I so loved the depth Tey brought to the school, the teachers and students. The mystery was very secondary in consequence!

[@jensreadinglife]

I completely agree!!!

[@elizabethbrink3761]

This is such a wonderful list! I love To Serve Them All My Days!

[@jensreadinglife]

Me too! It’s such a wonderful book and one I need to reread.

[@JacquelineCaron]

Great list of books! I purchased a used copy of South Riding based on your recommendation, did not know it was a mini-series?! will have to check it out. I am one that is NOT intimidated by a chunk of a read - am actually drawn to them! Business as Usual sounds intriguing - will add that to my list. Have you ever seen the PBS series Mr Selfridge? I highly recommend the PBS series made some years ago based on a department store set in the 1890s - The Paradise. It was so good, but they only released 2 seasons. I so love that cover of High Rising, I tend to 'display' it on my shelves thru most of the winter months. collecting this series too ( and like Miss Read, haven't started it yet! ). Hope you have a wonderful Memorial weekend!! thanks again for being here! Jacqueline 🌺🦋

[@gerrid9092]

Jacqueline, Thrush Green is a good place to start with Miss Read. I’m new to her but have now read 5 or so. I found Thrush Green easier to get into than the Fairacre series. I plan to read that one too. But it just didn’t grab me as quickly. They are such cozy and peaceful reads, I mostly read them before bedtime now.

[@JacquelineCaron]

@@gerrid9092 thank you for that recommendation - I have collected some of the Thrush Green series as well - will start with that. 🙂

[@jensreadinglife]

I hope you enjoy South Riding! I loved both Mr. Selfridge and The Paradise. Both were excellent series.

[@ReadingIDEAS.-uz9xk]

So many books and so little time! Happy reading to you.

[@jensreadinglife]

So, so true!

[@Dinadoesyoga]

Thanks for the suggestions! Several of these I hadn't heard of and added them to my tbr.

[@jensreadinglife]

I'm glad you found some new to you titles!

[@MLLatUtube]

I love Cold Comfort Farm - such a great book. I stopped the video to buy both South Riding and Appointment with Venus. A lovely list to work on - I am looking forward to it.

[@jensreadinglife]

I hope you enjoy them both!

[@dianameister475]

I really got into modern classics when I did a personal reading challenge to read a book published every year in the 20th century. I discovered a lot of 5 star books 😀

[@jensreadinglife]

That sounds like a fun challenge! I would love to know what some of your 5 star reads were.

[@danielle8455]

I just read Excellent Women based on your recommendation and I loved it. I am now reading Crampton Hodnet. As I also loved Middlemarch I just ordered South Riding. I prefer chunky books and wished Barbara Pym wrote chunkier. And Ladies of the Club is a really good book...another Middlemarch via American 1860s.

[@jensreadinglife]

I’m so glad you enjoyed Excellent Women and are going to read more Pym. 😊 And I have never heard Ladies of the Club compared to Middlemarch so now you have me even more intrigued! If you enjoy South Riding, try To Serve Them All My Days.

[@allisonryder4781]

I discovered you and i added 5 or 6 of your offerings to my tbr

[@jensreadinglife]

I'm glad you are here and that you have found some new books for your TBR!

[@938quilt]

many years ago I read a book about a teacher called Among Schoolchildren. I remember liking it at the time

[@jensreadinglife]

Ok, after looking that book up, I realized I read it decades ago and really liked it! I may have to seek it out and reread it!

[@kathleencraine7335]

Great list and just-right summaries of each book. Address Unknown also blew me away--thanks for spotlighting this tiny powerful read. Business as Usual has been on my radar for years--just need to find a copy. I've been chronologically reading through Holtby and next up is South Riding. You may have these but a few more to add to your list: anything by Barbara Pym, Dorothy Whipple (Persephone Books) and E. H. Young (Virago). Other titles: The Enchanted April (1922) and Father (1931), both by Eliz. von Arnim; They Came Like Swallows (1937) by William Maxwell; Now in November (1935) by Josephine Johnson; Diary of a Provincial Lady (1930) by E. M. Delafield; I Capture the Castle (1948) by Dodie Smith; Little Boy Lost (1949) by Marghanita Laski; A Chelsea Concerto (1959) by Frances Faviell; and 2 that are a bit past your limit: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (1971) by Eliz. Taylor and A Month in the Country (1980) by J L Carr--like Delderfield, it *feels* like an early 20th c. modern classic.

[@jensreadinglife]

Thank you so much for your recommendations! I am adding a bunch of them to my TBR. I've read and loved Barbara Pym, The Enchanted April, I Capture the Castle and Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. A few others you mentioned are new to me so I am looking them up!

[@kathleencraine7335]

Now in November won the Pulitzer in 1935 and Little Boy Lost is a Persephone (for your next Persephone splurge!). I thought of two more: All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West (Virago) and The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. I think you didn't get on with The Fountain Overflows, but The Return of the Soldier is very short and very sharp, about an injured WWI soldier coming home on leave and the clash of social classes. Your library might have it.

[@jensreadinglife]

@@kathleencraine7335 Thanks for the additional recommendations! I will add them to my tbr.

[@JacquelineCaron]

I had another book recommendation for you. When you were speaking about Selfridges, I thought of this one I recently picked up in a little free library, 'Lillian Boxfish Takes A Walk'. A novel about a woman working at R H Macy's department store in the 1930s.

[@jensreadinglife]

Yes! I read that one at New Year's a few years back. It was lovely!

[@gerrid9092]

I really liked High Rising and have just started Wild Strawberries, though had to put aside for some library books that came in. You’re right about Angela Thirkell being a bit like Stevenson. I love the characters and setting in both their works and especially the humor. I’ve read several on your list and Cold Comfort Farm is one that I’ve been intending to read. Appointment with Venus was fun. I admit that I was skeptical after reading the synopsis.

[@jensreadinglife]

I'm reading Wild Strawberries now and enjoying it! I think you will like Cold Comfort Farm when you get to it.

[@gerrid9092]

@@jensreadinglife I just now finished Miss Buncle Married, which left me feeling so happy. I think I need to continue on with Wild Strawberries 🍓 as I complete some other things (library holds etc.) that feel more of an obligation, since they’re taking me away from my first reading loves. 😉 Definitely putting Cold Comfort Farm onto my TBR shelf. It seems like a good fall or winter read.

[@seanoconnor2865]

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Also a 1969 film with Maggie Smith. Film adaptation of Cold Comfort Farm also enjoyable.

[@jensreadinglife]

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a wonderful book! I need to watch the movie.

[@Imaginetheday1967]

I added several of these to my TBR. 😊 Have you read Good-bye Mr. Chips? Published (I think) in 1936. If you like teacher stories, you should look at it. I really liked it.

[@jensreadinglife]

I haven't read it yet but I just got a copy of it and am planning to read it in the fall.

[@938quilt]

wow weird- I went to amazon to add one you recommended (ok more than one LOL!) but was adding one and saw Hihg rising and added it then a few minutes later you talked about it!

[@jensreadinglife]

Lol, that is too funny! Great minds think alike.

[@MJ-in-Canada]

I read and enjoyed an older copy of “Cold Comfort Farm.” Your copy has a cover by one of my favourite cartoonists: Roz Chast!😀 As for Françoise Sagan, imagine writing a classic when you’re a teenager!

[@jensreadinglife]

It really is amazing that she wrote that book so young! She had such maturity to her writing.

[@WaterBearReads]

My sister has been trying to get me to read Cold Comfort Farm for ages! Thank you for that reminder! Modern Classics - hmmm - for me its when a work of literature gets republished time and again - even if for a while it falls out of publication but returns. Or if it gets the illustration treatment long after its initial publication such as Eva Ibbotson's 'Journey to the River Sea'. Also, if it was made into a film or movie or theatre production like 'Wicked'. Its actually quite hard to pinpoint exactly what it is! Great question!!!

[@jensreadinglife]

I think you will love Cold Comfort Farm! It's so delightful! And I love your thoughts on what makes a Modern Classic. I agree that being republished is definitely a criteria.

[@marep17]

I see Appointment with Venus was made into a movie. That should be fun. Free on KZbin. Can I ask where you buy the Angela Thirkell books? I see they are on Amazon but wondered if you had a different source. Great list. Thank you.

[@jensreadinglife]

Yes, I should have mentioned the movie! I want to watch it this summer! Most of the Angela Thirkell books I have found through Thriftbooks. But you can get some of them from Blackwell's (they ship free to the US), Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

[@lizanelson4777]

Which book was it that you said you went ahead and bought the next few in the series? Because I didn’t see one that had a continuation. Or did you just say you would now read more from that same author?

[@jensreadinglife]

It must have been High Rising by Angela Thirkell. It’s the first in her Barsetshire series. Which is a series of books all set in the same area but not always featuring the same characters. I hope that helps! 😊

[@GinaStanyerBooks]

What a great video idea!

[@jensreadinglife]

Thanks Gina! 😊

[@insearchofwonder]

I struggle with modern classics - I feel like a lot of books that were written from the twenties through to the sixties were just trying too hard to color outside the lines. They were very experimental with narrative styles and plots and that distracts me from the story. They're interesting to read from a strictly intellectual standpoint, but I rarely find them a pleasant reading experience. That's just me. Having said that, South Riding has been on my TBR since I saw it mentioned in another book. And High Rising sounds interesting.

[@jensreadinglife]

That is a really interesting perspective and I definitely agree that there are a lot of experimental books written in that time period but I also think there are lots that aren’t. Sometimes it’s just finding those right books that speak to the reader within you! Or realizing that’s a time period you aren’t interested in and moving on! 😁

[@insearchofwonder]

@@jensreadinglife oh yes there are some that aren't but it seems like the main ones are the Virginia Woolf type novels in the sense that they're constantly pushing the envelope in terms of narrative style of the structure of the novel or whatever. I'm like, just tell me a story. 😂😂 But yes, there are plenty of authors who just wrote great stories, like Agatha Christie or Georgette Heyer.

[@michaelmccarty]

Wonderful list -- thank you!

[@jensreadinglife]

You are welcome!

[@carlabrown6849]

Great video! I don't know if it's considered a modern classic, but I think you'd like the book "To Sir With Love", by E. R. Braithwaite. There's also a famous and wonderful movie with Sidney Poitier starring as the teacher, but of course the book is better.

[@jensreadinglife]

I should have mentioned that book in this video because I love it. I have lost my copy so it slipped my mind when I was putting this together.

[@joysedgwick812]

I assume you have read the Miss Read books? I really enjoyed your video, for once I have read most of your chosen books and loved them. As our tastes seem to coincide I really must read “Business as Usual”, that one is new to me!

[@jensreadinglife]

I haven't read Miss Read (which I can't believe) but have a number of her books on my shelves and am planning to get to her this summer finally! I know I will love her. If we have similar reading tastes, I think you will enjoy Business as Usual!

[@938quilt]

Cold Comfort Farm took me a bit to get into - couple of the guys were really creep IMO but she made it work LOL!

[@jensreadinglife]

There were definitely some oddball characters! But, you are right, she made it work!