The 1900 to 1950 Readathon discussion

A thread to discuss reading plans and recommendations for challenges 1 and 2. I've put these two together as what some people count for challenge 1 can be other people's challenge 2.

I'd recommend "My Brilliant Career" by Miles Franklin from my country Australia. It's a coming of age story about Sybylla who has grown up in a lower class rural family and is desperate to move up the social rankings. It's brilliantly frustrating and Sybylla is prickly and head strong.

It was published in 1901 and use to be a compulsory read in high school but not so much anymore. Miles Franklin is also a female author; Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin chose the male sounding part of her name because she thought it would be more successful,

Charise wrote: "I'd recommend "My Brilliant Career" by Miles Franklin from my country Australia. It's a coming of age story about Sybylla who has grown up in a lower class rural family and is desperate to move up ..."

I've seen the beautiful 1979 adaptation by Gillian Armstrong, one of the best films of the australian new wave in cinema - highly recommended.

I have a book to recommend that hasn’t been mentioned yet. It will fit a few categories of the Readathon too. It is called “Love Insurance” by American author Earl Derr Biggers. It was first published in 1914. I have an edition by Hesperus Press published in 2014... hard to believe that’s 100 years later. I already started reading it and it’s very good and quite funny too. To me, it feels like a mix of PG Wodehouse and Agatha Christie but on the inside French flap it says “PG Wodehouse meets Oscar Wilde meets The Great Gatsby in this charming novel...” The cover is a gorgeous illustration of people at a fireworks celebration on the water.

From the back flap it speaks of the author, Earl Derr Biggers. He lived 1884-1933, sadly he died young at just age 43 from a heart attack. He was an American author and play write. His most famous creation would be the Chinese Detective Charlie Chan with 6 novels in the series that were made into movies.

I'll read Of Love and Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross. (1947)

1. The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore published in 1916
2. The Foundation Pit by Andrei Platonov which was finished in 1930 and published in 1987

1. One of Wharton's novels I haven't gotten to yet, I think either Summer or The Custom of the Country
2. Jenny by Sigrid Undset

Anja wrote: "1. One of Wharton's novels I haven't gotten to yet, I think either Summer or The Custom of the Country
2. Jenny by Sigrid Undset"

I really enjoyed Custom of the Country. The first couple chapters made me a bit frustrated with the heroine, but it paid off.

I'm in Canada so I'm planning on reading L.M Montgomery but another author would be Nellie McClung who wrote several novels and was one of the leaders in the suffragette movement hear and the famous Persons Case.

For challenge #1 I'll be reading "El túnel" by the argentinian author Ernesto Sábato. For #2 I've been thinking on "Passing" or perhaps "Miss Pettigrew lives for a day" if I want something lighter.

For my own country, Germany, I will be choosing one of Eduard von Keyserling´s novels. The one I already read was quite interesting, with great and vivid characterisations and realistic and trivial sounding but very expressive dialogs. The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse could be on my list as well.

For a different country, I was thinking Orlando by Virginia Wolf or As I lay dying by William Faulkner.

I'm American so for my home country I picked a children's fantasy called "Shadow Castle," it sounds whimsical and maybe a bit weird so that's going to be fun.
For a classic from another country I'm going with "Women in Love." I read "The Rainbow" last year and loved it and this is it's sequel. I'm also considering "Embers" by Sandor Marai a Hungarian classic published in the forties.

For another country I might try Claudine at School by Colette

Two of my 2021 goals are to read classics I somehow missed over the years and to read more American Literature.

1. Titles from my country (America) O Pioneers! Cather; Age of Innocence, Wharton; and The Pearl, Steinbeck

2. Titles from a country not my own: Vera, Elizabeth von Arnim (Australian); Siddhartha, Hesse (Swiss); "Metamorphosis," Kafka (Bohemian); and The Phantom of the Opera, Leroux (French)

Vera is Elizabeth von Arnim's semi-autobiographical novel that is the probable basis for Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

Lorri wrote: "Vera is Elizabeth von Arnim's semi-autobiographical novel that is the probable basis for Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier."

I love her writing, but I've not read that one yet.

For a book in my own country, I'm planning on reading All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West, and maybe Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann if I have time.

If someone's interested in Spanish classics, I'd recommend The Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo José Cela (it is a bit gruesome, so keep that in mind) and The House of Bernarda Alba and Other Plays by Federico García Lorca, which also happens to be a play. Both pretty easy to read, too.

Helen wrote: "I'm in Canada so I'm planning on reading L.M Montgomery but another author would be Nellie McClung who wrote several novels and was one of the leaders in the suffragette movement hear and the famou..."

Hello fellow Canadian. :) I plan on reading Rilla of Ingleside. :)

Betina wrote: "For challenge #1 I'll be reading "El túnel" by the argentinian author Ernesto Sábato. For #2 I've been thinking on "Passing" or perhaps "Miss Pettigrew lives for a day" if I want something lighter."

I have Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day on my TBR list. Unfortunately, the libraries where I live don't have Passing. It is a book that I would love to read.

Lorri wrote: "Two of my 2021 goals are to read classics I somehow missed over the years and to read more American Literature.

1. Titles from my country (America) O Pioneers! Cather; Age of Innocence, Wharton; a..."

I would really like to read Vera by Elizabeth Von Arnim as I read Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier for the first time at the start of this year and loved it!!

Janice, Passing is in the Public Domain, thete is a very good audio version available on Librivox, https://librivox.org/passing-by-nella... or you can download text to your kindle or phone from Gutenberg or Internet Archive.

Vera is available there too.

Tania wrote: "Janice, Passing is in the Public Domain, thete is a very good audio version available on Librivox, https://librivox.org/passing-by-nella... or you can download text to your kindl..."

Thank you, Tania, for letting me know. I think I would use audio as I don't like reading for long times on screens. :)

Since it's the month of May I thought I'd Start the readathon with Frost in May by Antonia White. First published in 1933. Set in an English Girls School.
Another set in a girls school in Melbourne, Australia is
The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson. First published in 1910.
Looking forward to reading them both and comparing the girls school settings between England and Australia in the different decades.
Many years ago, I saw the film of The Getting of Wisdom, but can hardly remember it now.

Hello. I'm Gelli and these are my list for the 1900 to 1950 readathon this month of May.

1. Read a book published 1900-1950 from the country you're from (Philippines)
Banaag at Sikat by Lope K. Santos (1906)

2. Read a book published 1900-1950 from a different country
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

I started the readathon with Three Men in the Snow for the prompt "From your own country".

Challenge #1: (USA), Jack London, White Fang, 1906, (05/15/21)
Challenge #2: (Germany), Hermann Hesse, Beneath the Wheel, 1906, (05/07/21)

I loved Beneath the Wheel when I read as a teenager. Will be curious to hear what you think. I’d been thinking recently to pull out my copy for a re-read.

For my country, which is Germany, I read The Artificial Silk Girl (Das kunstseidene Mädchen) by Irmgard Keun. It was published in 1932.
I didn't expect the writing style which was stream of consciousness-like and it was a rather difficult and strenuous read sometimes.
I rated it three stars.

I finished the books for these two challenges. Both books have been on my shelves for ages, so it was high time to read them.
1 - a book from my own country: "Professor Unrat" (The Blue Angel) by Heinrich Mann, published 1905.
This novel takes place in a small town in Germany and tells the story of a middle-aged schoolmaster, authoritarian,moralizing and misanthropic, who becomes obsessed with a young cabaret-singer. This fatal affair destroys his career and drives him into madness.
I enjoyed the novel. It is a spiteful caricature of a hypocritical small-town-society at the turn of the 19th century. I liked the psychological aspects, too: How inhibition can turn into decadence and self-destruction.
2 - a book from another country: "Gäst hos verkligheten" (Guest of Reality) by Pär Lagerkvist, published 1925.
This is an autobiographical novel and describes a childhood owershadowed by a horrible fear of death and annihilation and the growing realisation that there is no God to find comfort.
I didn't enjoy this novel as much as some of Lagerkvists later novels.