Lietuva / Lithuania discussion

Hello, it's nice that you are intrested in our country.
Can I recommend something? It depends what would you like to know about Lithuania, would you like to know the history of lithuania or just get familiar with local fiction writers? What sort of books would you like to read? Science or just literature? I don't think there's much translated books, but I will try to help you :-)
Now it's well known and popular book, that you probably already know, called Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys that tells story about lithuanian girl and times of lithuanian people exile.

There I found a site worth visit ;)
http://www.booksfromlithuania.lt/old/...

Hi Amy

I'm English and live in Lithuania from choice, after spending a lot of time working here.

I would not bother trying to learn the language or Russian. Just save up some money and come and see for yourself. It is not expensive to live. You can get by as a tourist with just English and lots of young people prefer to practice their English. You will have a lot of fun.

Between Shades of Gray is a good book to learn about history, but has not much to do with life in Lithuania today, which is more or less a normal European country.

As for books, the books I have in English are very few, most about recent history. Maybe the best books to start with are the guide books: lonely Planet, etc. For what you can do in Vilnius at the moment read Vilnius In Your Pocket from www.inyourpocket.com.

Hope this helps.

Helene

Hi Amy

Here are a couple of good books in English, about history.

Vilnius City of Strangers by Laimonas Bredis

Vanished Kingdoms The history of half-forgotten Europe by Norman Davies.

The last one has a chapter on Poland-Lithuania which is nicely controversial :)

Helene

Thanks Helene :) I appreciate that very much.

Amy

Hello again :)
You are welcome to visit Lithuania and I can provide first help here. I have brother who studied history and meeting him I think he would be interested to help you even with the most difficult questions about it.
I also have a friend from Russia who started from zero to learn Lithuanian and is very interested in Lithuanian culture. Maybe he could give you some advise about learning our language and what to expect. If you wish, I could give his contacts for you.
The link I gave you only lists translated LT books and you should look for English titles in it. You can find a lot of informative material about Lithuania history just on Wikipedia.
In the same amazon I found many lithuanian language self study courses, have you tried this? After a little research I'm a bit astonished as it's really hard to find LT books in English.

I could give some recommendations of Lithuanian books translated in English which weren't mentioned here yet.

Recently, Andrius Tapinas released a first steam punk semi-fictional novel "Hour of the Wolf" for a very low price (English translation is cheaper to buy than Lithuanian!)

http://www.amazon.com/Hour-Wolf-Steam...

Then there are some compilations of Lithuanian authors in two books for free. One is called "Sex. Lithuanian Style" (it's just a provocative title!):

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...

And the other one is by Lithuanian female authors called "No Men, No Cry": http://www.skaitykle.lt/e-knygos/knyg...

The Dedalus Book of Lithuanian Literature attempts to reflect the transition of Lithuanian literature since the beginning of the twentieth century, when Lithuania was still an agrarian and colonized country on the margins of Europe, to its present modern and post-modernist phase. Lithuanian literature was suppressed in the nineteenth century by the Russians but by the eve of WW II was flourishing again. A new Russian occupation reversed this and led to a Soviet-style socialist realism in fiction. The last decades of the twentieth century saw the rise of a new generation of writers who dealt with Lithuania's history and the contemporary world. The Dedalus Book of Lithuanian Literature features the classic authors and the authors who have only recently come to prominence like Herkus Kuncius or Giedra Radvilaviciute.

http://www.amazon.com/Dedalus-Bookof-...

one more book translated in English :) Balys Sruoga - Forest of the Gods.

http://www.skaitykle.lt/e-knygos/knyg...

Here is a near future sci-fi book, Master Version 1.1, translated into English:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...