I teach high school and last year we read The Hate U Give together in my sophomore class. I think it’s a great alternative for To Kill a Mockingbird that is own voices and more relevant for today’s teenagers, especially with recent events! Great recommendations, thanks!
@@bookslikewhoa You really really really need to read The Invention of Wings. It's historical fiction and I absolutely fell in love with it. I also recommend Practical Magic. It's not based on romance, but it shows more of real life problems.
I applaud your willingness to try something different. I have thought the first 50 pages or so of Mockingbird was very slow, and students nowadays might be bored by it before giving up.
Such a great list! I'd add: The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid. I think some Latinx authors would qualify: Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Laura Esquivel, Sandra Cisneros, Julio Cortazar, etc. SFF: Octavia Butler and Ursula K LeGuin. Comics: Maus by Art Spiegelman, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.
What a wonderful list! It is interesting that you started modern classics at the year 1950. Most people I’ve talked with start their definition of modern classics as anything written after World War 1, seeing as how that is the event that not only changed the world as we knew it, but also changed how many people saw the world as well. My favorites are the great dystopian sci-fi’s such as Animal Farm and 1984 by Orwell, Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, and Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury.
Stoner, Gilead, and Excellent Women on one list. Wow! That's my kind of list. I know I'm late to the party; I just discovered this channel, but I would offer Their Eyes Were Watching God, Slaughterhouse 5, and Death Comes to the Archbishop as will-be modern classics. Thanks for a great analysis.
I didn’t know there was a movie! I’ll have to look it up because I tried to watch the Netflix show and couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’ll like the movie better :)
Thanks so much for listing the titles in the description!!! So many booktubers don’t and then it’s hard to remember/find the titles when I want to look them up.
I love The Things They Carried, we studied it at school and it’s the only school book I’ve ever seen universally loved. Everyone said it was an incredible book, and it is.
Toni Morrison is so good and so layered. I bet she is lost on a lot of high schoolers (unfortunately, but not surprisingly). If you pick her up again, I definitely recommend her audiobooks as she narrates many of them and is so good. I also definitely need to grab a copy of The Remains of the Day soon!
My list of suggested reads as modern classics is as follows :- Atonement - Ian McEwan A Thousand Splendid Suns -Khaled Hosseini One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn The Road - Cormac McCarthy Thank you for your video which has given me much inspiration for future reads.
My all time favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird as I see a lot of me in Boo Radley, It is also my favorite movie and I was in the play back in 1998. I just ordered If Beale Street Could Talk. Some books I also enjoy are One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time
This is, by far, the best recommendation video I've seen on YT. I just discovered your channel today (from Beautiful Bookish Bethany) and am really having fun going through your videos. Amazing content! Thank you!
I can’t recall how I found your channel, but I’m so glad I did as it’s improved my sleep! I like watching your videos during the day and re-listening to them as I fall asleep. I find your voice so soothing. Thanks for making awesome videos about classics!
just read these books recently but i somewhat feel like "kafka on the shore" and especially "norwegian wood" by haruki murakami may be seen as classics at some point
As for guesses for 'future modern fiction'/currently kinda sort of modern fiction in my eyes, I'll also add Octavia Butler, Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Bell Hooks. (those are the ones I can think of right now)
The Bluest Eye is a story that has stayed with me as few things have..I also want to say that I really appreciate your take on Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is hard to Find..
Several of your recs (The Sparrow, The Secret History, The Remains of the Day) are among my favorite books of all time! For some reason I feel way more invested in talking about modern classics and even just classics from the 20th Century than from the earlier centuries because it feels like you're more able to participate(?) in the discourse of whether they do become modern classics or not. One writer who stands out for me is Clarice Lispector, whose books used to be so hard to find when I was in college, but has since had a push for rediscovery that involves translations and reprintings. Guesses of writers who would become considered moderns classics: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ursula K. Le Guin (already established as an sff classic but I think she has crossed over for people considering "literary merit"), Orhan Pamuk.
Your make up looks 💕 especially the lipstick. Lol sorry had to mention it. I am new at the modern classics. I read lots of Victian Lit. Appreciate this video.
You have interesting ideas. I was surprised that you didn’t include any Latin writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Juan Rulfo, Carlos Fuentes, among others. I’d also include Ray Bradbury, Asimov, and George Orwell.
For me, One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), East of Eden (John Steinbeck), Pedro Paramo (Juan Rulfo), The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver), and White Teeth (Zadie Smith) are some of my favourite modern classics. I definitely predict that Signs Preceding the End of the World (Yuri Herrera), Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel), The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot, non-fiction), Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel), Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Madeleine Thien), and Emperor of All Maladies (Siddhartha Mukherjee non-fiction) will (hopefully) all be classics one day *crossed fingers* Really enjoyed this video and everyone's recommendations in the comments!
@@apocalypsereading7117 yeah! We read it for school and to be honest is the only book I was forced to read that I actually enjoyed. It was really good 👍
What a nice video! loved the list. I read some & have most of these books, so can't wait to read them. If this is a British list, Daphne Du Maurier would be on there for sure, can't do without the gothic option :) I'd like to recommend an overlooked, translated author into the mix though, Stefan Zweig, a German author. I think he has very strong prose in his very short books. I'd recommend Chess and 24 Hours In The Life Of A Woman, which are both little novellas. People's favorite would be more Chess, if you want to try one :) I think you'd enjoy it. Cheers.
Yeah, Du Maurier got caught in between my 2 videos, because I've since defined "modern classic" as post-1950... if I ever revise that first classics video, she's such a great place to start!!
Where did those 24+ minutes go? Thank you for providing an excellent video. Outof your selection, I have read only 3 books Never Let You Go, To Kill a Mockingbird (I finished the audiobook today), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I certainly cannot argue with your selection,, nor would I want to as it has given me food for thought. For additional suggestions, I would have included John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men), Ian McEwan (Atonement ) and Khaled (Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns) Thank you again and I look forward to your next video.
This list is amazing. I love to hear how you talk about books. I think it is like taking a short lit class!! And I am loving your new podcast too. Thanks for all your amazing content.
I've just read Things Fall Apart and I loved it so much! 💖📚 It is such a brilliant book I absolutely loved descriptions of their culture and the everyday life of the people in the tribe. I've already bought the whole trilogy and I'm super excited to read the rest of the African trilogy. 🌞🌺📚
I loved hearing your thoughts on this topic. I totally agree that Remains of the Day and Stoner are ~~~flawless~~ novels! My favourite modern classic is The Master and Margarita, but I think my "gateway" modern classics were books by Kurt Vonnegut and J.D. Salinger :)
I read If We Were Villains for a bookclub and really enjoyed it! Also enjoyed Song of Solomon, which I also read in school. My favorite "modern classic" is We Capture the Castle, which is technically outside your timeframe (1948). I think it's really accessible, especially for people who enjoy romance
Great recommendations. Some of my favourite modern classics are 1984 & Animal farm by Orwell, People in the Summer Night by F. E. Sillanpää, The Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guin & anything by Italo Calvino 😀
Apparently, The Prime of Miss Jean Brody, is now available in full for free to watch on U Tube, thank goodness Julie Andrews who was considered for the title role didn't get cast ahead of Maggie Smith who gives a truly memorable performance in the title role.
I’ve been reading 1984, and I it’s scarily real. Written in 1949, titled 1984, still real in 2020. Maybe even too close to reality. Sometimes it’s even uncomfortable. So I’d definitely add that to this list. Early this year I read Fahrenheit 451 and it’s also so applicable to reality. I would add that to the list too. I read I know why the caged birds sing by Maya Angelou in June and I absolutely LOVE IT. Her writing is amazing, I kept being stunned by her and it’s a book that I already want to pick up to read again. I plan on reading to kill a mockingbird till the end of the year, can’t wait!
I think there are some fantastic choices in this video. I've just recently read If Beale Street Could Talk and would like to read more James Baldwin. For Toni Morrison I would definitely recommend Song of Solomon
As a 65 year old woman of color, I've read several books by Toni Morrison. I tried to read Beloved when it first came out and I couldn't finish it. I didn't like the book or the movie. I started with Sula by Toni Morrison back in the '70's. This is a good book to start with and it's not very long.
Wow, this is close to the list I would have picked for the same category. There are only a couple that I didn’t like/wouldn’t recommend, and so many that I love. Great video, Mara.
You make such a good point about different countries having different books. I havnt even thought about it much! Some books may not make it to US publishing house.. based on little scraps of info I’ve gathered regarding the industry. And an ARC I just got mentioned the authors other works is standard reading in English or British schools... made me more aware of things. Lol love this video! Okay... HOW did I make it through life without even knowing what to kill a mockingbird was about 🤦🏽♀️ lol
amazing i was wondering what your opinion of the secret history was!! i loved it- if we were villains is also brilliant (don’t know if it’ll be as much a classic as tsh but still very enjoyable) so would love to hear your thoughts on that and the “dark academia” genre as a whole! sounds as though you’d love it.
LOVE this video! I would like to recommend a dark horse candidate for modern classic: Jesmyn Ward. I think she is good to read along side Toni Morrison and James Baldwin; she incorporates a lot of their themes. Also, her prose is devastatingly beautiful. "Salvage the Bones" is where everyone starts, but I would submit her memoir "Men We Reaped" is just as good a starting point.
I read Song of Solomon in school as a teenager and while I recognized the writing as exceptional, I didn't exactly enjoy my time reading it. A couple books I LOVED which I consider modern classics are A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Highly recommend if you havent picked them up.
I am mexican so I am totally biased, but do take into consideration the MASTER of modern classic latin literature... Gabriel García Márquez. Thank you for your recommendations, I will consider for future reading. ;)
Thanks for the great recommendations! Definitely a few of these on my TBR now. If you like coming of age stories in a boarding school setting you have to read Moab is my washpot by Stephen fry. I don't often read or recommend biographies but this is a true gem. Also the writing is just beautiful. Definitely worth checking out
If you like Remains of the Day you might also enjoy Concise Chinese English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo. It's about a young woman who moves from China to England and keeps a diary to learn English but also to just process everything and it has that dual perspective. i've wanted to read flannery o'connor for a long time but apparently she hated james baldwin and i just can't vibe with that at the moment, lol. maybe i'll get to it one day but i'm not in a rush. great list tho!
So, turns out I haven't actually read any of these, with the exception of The Handmaid's Tale, which is a favourite. But I've wanted to read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for a long time now, I must get onto it (I did read Memento Mori by Muriel Spark many, many years ago, but can't remember it too well). You need to see the movie of Jean Brodie, it's SO good! The Remains of the Day is one that sounds right up my alley. Thanks for this list, I think I will put a number of these on my TBR: ASAP list. I'm inspired!
I love this video. My freshman English teacher taught me to love and pick apart classic and modern literature and I’ve learned to love it. I have a list of books I’m interested in but I’m glad I can get a perspective on them (and find some new interesting books) before I read them. Usually the back summary doesn’t really catch my interest very well. Edit: I recently bought “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about it.
Thanks for these recommendations I think they're great! But I am quite surprised The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath wasn't included as a modern classic. If you haven't read it I think its a great read !
Good stuff you will also love 21st century: 'Half of a Yellow Sun'; 'White Teeth'; 'The Great Fire'; 'The Road'; 'No Country For Old Men'; 'Atonement'; 'Nemesis'; 'Indignation'; 'Ordinary Wolves'; 'Blueprints of the Afterlife'; 'A Brief History of Seven Killings'; 20th Century - 'Invisible Man'; 'Gravity's Rainbow'; 'The Crying of Lot 49'; 'If He Hollers Let Him Go' ; 'Dispatches'; 'The White Album'; 'Brideshead Revisited'; 'A Frolic of His Own'; 'The Executioner's Song'; 'Dog Soldiers', 'Underworld'
Very nice! Thanks for the recommendations. I would suggest a couple of Beat authors: Jack Kerouac (On the Road) and William S. Burroughs ( Naked Lunch). Trippy!!
I read Never Let Me Go as a teen and LOVED it. I read Remains of the Day as a teen and I hated it, when I was a kid. Maybe it's time for me to revisit it...
For people interested in reading Louise Erdrich, she runs a bookstore called Birchbark books in Minneapolis which fulfills online orders and if you buy one of her books she'll sign it for you! Opportunity to support a native-owned business
Mara, I love your videos. I wish you could share with us THE GOLDFINCH. I just loved it, my favourite from Donna Tartt. I strongly think that it will become a modern classic. The writing is so beautiful, different, based on this blending of analogies with reality, with memories, with imagination. A book which from my point of view is important from its writing, not the story itself. I would love to know your opinion.
Don't agree with many of your picks-which is fine. Actually, I feel like I'm always disagreeing with your views hahaha. I very much respect your opinions and enjoy listening to them. I have read 4 novels by Morrison and think PARADISE is the absolute best. Granted I have yet to read BELOVED or THE BLUEST EYE. I did read SoS and found it was not my cup of tea. If you read it, I hope you have better luck with it. I think HOMEGOING will be a modern classic. The prose is gorgeous and the story is captivating.
Haha I actually always think of you when I think of people who probably follow me to get "anti-recommendations" :D - but I always appreciate your perspective!
@@bookslikewhoa Oh no! haha I think I've said this before but you and I have very similar or almost identical benchmarks/criterion for fiction and nonfiction. I'd even say we have similar ideas on books. We have enjoyed some of the same books, but where we diverge we Really Diverge. We both loved THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR, WHY WE GET FAT, and NO VISIBLE BRUISES. I just wrote on GR my review for NEVER LET ME GO-spoiler I think the book is terrible. I know you would not agree with it, but I think you would see my view as valid. I think our main tastes differ in that I love and read more lit in translation; I'm not a fan of light romances, fantasy romance, nor contemporary romances; and that I rarely if ever read fantasy. Oh! And I read more horror than you.
Oh, interesting...I read The Secret History first, but I liked If We Were Villains better. I didn’t know there was a trend about that. I love guessing about which currently writing authors are going to get canonized but I don’t think I’m very good at it haha
The Best Modern Classics I have read thus far 1980 - A Confederacy of Dunces 1974 - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 1967 - The Master and the Margarita 1959 - Naked Lunch 1959 - The Haunting of Hill House 1957 - On the Road
At 57 years old, To Kill a Mockingbird is still my all time favorite novel. I must say, I have never heard about in the context of teaching about race. Like many people, I first read it in high school. To me it is a coming of age story that is told so beautifully through the words of Harper Lee. It’s the one book I pick often just to read a few lines selected randomly.
pls make a review of the the everyman's library edition. the difference between 'sewn' and 'glued'. what is the advantage and disadvantage. plssss. thank you.
@@justicepagente9151 If one is then probably all of them are. I don't own one from everyman's library, but as they seem to be a more luxurious brand it is probably the case. Most classics that are sold in nicer editions are sewn, apart from pockets. To further answer your question, the reason why it is always better is that the glue after a while loses its grip on the pages which many times makes the book fall apart, that will not happen with a sewn.
@@justicepagente9151 If you want to buy the best quality books on the market you should check out ''Folio Society''. Sure their books are quite expensive (around 35 pounds), but they will last a lifetime and are not sold permanently, so you will not loose to much money if you sell. They are handsewn, paper from germany, and made in Germany/England. I don't think they have Dostojevsky, but I know for certain they have other classic writers such as Kafka, Hesse and many more. Other than those that I know are always handsewn it is impossible to tell from online from other publichers as it is most often not writen, if you want to be sure you'll have to go to a bookshop and check it yourself.
Yes, I get it because I am Mexican American and it’s sad that people clump the ,” Hispanics or Latin people “ in the same category, we all have our own:culture, foods, books, heroes and even languages. It is very frustrating.
your summaries were really great - just enough to make me intrigued. The Bloody Chamber is such a dream (albeit a gory one) ^_^ I think I actually liked the film of The Remains of the Day more than the book! unfortunately Wide Sargasso Sea was forced upon me in high school with basically no context except "it's postcolonial"...
I teach high school and last year we read The Hate U Give together in my sophomore class. I think it’s a great alternative for To Kill a Mockingbird that is own voices and more relevant for today’s teenagers, especially with recent events! Great recommendations, thanks!
I think THUG is definitely on the fast track to be a modern YA/children's classic
@@bookslikewhoa You really really really need to read The Invention of Wings. It's historical fiction and I absolutely fell in love with it. I also recommend Practical Magic. It's not based on romance, but it shows more of real life problems.
I applaud your willingness to try something different. I have thought the first 50 pages or so of Mockingbird was very slow, and students nowadays might be bored by it before giving up.
Such a great list!
I'd add: The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid. I think some Latinx authors would qualify: Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Laura Esquivel, Sandra Cisneros, Julio Cortazar, etc. SFF: Octavia Butler and Ursula K LeGuin. Comics: Maus by Art Spiegelman, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.
Great list! I actually had a couple of those on there but cut for time
Yes Cortázar! i wish more ppl knew about him and his amazing stories
Are you me? LOL these are almost exactly the titles that came to mind as I was watching
Cortázar is freaking amazing
Latinx isn't appropriate when they have actual national identities.
What a wonderful list! It is interesting that you started modern classics at the year 1950. Most people I’ve talked with start their definition of modern classics as anything written after World War 1, seeing as how that is the event that not only changed the world as we knew it, but also changed how many people saw the world as well.
My favorites are the great dystopian sci-fi’s such as Animal Farm and 1984 by Orwell, Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, and Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury.
Stoner, Gilead, and Excellent Women on one list. Wow! That's my kind of list. I know I'm late to the party; I just discovered this channel, but I would offer Their Eyes Were Watching God, Slaughterhouse 5, and Death Comes to the Archbishop as will-be modern classics. Thanks for a great analysis.
The Haunting Of Hill House is FANTASTIC! Book & old film
I low key love the 1999 version... I know it's not good, but I still love it :D
bookslikewhoa I actually like the 90s version too. I’m blanking on the name of the actress who plays Eleanor but she KILLED IT🔥🔥🔥
Also both her & CZJ’s PJ wardrobe in that movie is on POINT 👏
I didn’t know there was a movie! I’ll have to look it up because I tried to watch the Netflix show and couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’ll like the movie better :)
Thanks so much for listing the titles in the description!!! So many booktubers don’t and then it’s hard to remember/find the titles when I want to look them up.
I love The Things They Carried, we studied it at school and it’s the only school book I’ve ever seen universally loved. Everyone said it was an incredible book, and it is.
Toni Morrison is so good and so layered. I bet she is lost on a lot of high schoolers (unfortunately, but not surprisingly). If you pick her up again, I definitely recommend her audiobooks as she narrates many of them and is so good. I also definitely need to grab a copy of The Remains of the Day soon!
I didn't know she narrated her own audio!! I will definitely go that route once I get back to her!
My list of suggested reads as modern classics is as follows :-
Atonement - Ian McEwan
A Thousand Splendid Suns -Khaled Hosseini
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Thank you for your video which has given me much inspiration for future reads.
So many great recommendations- thank you for taking the time to put this together!
My all time favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird as I see a lot of me in Boo Radley, It is also my favorite movie and I was in the play back in 1998.
I just ordered If Beale Street Could Talk.
Some books I also enjoy are One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time
To Kill a Mockingbird is also my all time favorite book. My dogs name is Boo Radley❤️ thought that would be a fun fact
Wow your makeup is on point and I am obsessed with your earrings and cardigan 😍 Love these videos!
This is, by far, the best recommendation video I've seen on YT. I just discovered your channel today (from Beautiful Bookish Bethany) and am really having fun going through your videos. Amazing content! Thank you!
Welcome aboard!
I can’t recall how I found your channel, but I’m so glad I did as it’s improved my sleep! I like watching your videos during the day and re-listening to them as I fall asleep. I find your voice so soothing. Thanks for making awesome videos about classics!
I'm so glad!
adding 80% of this to the tbr. thank you
just read these books recently but i somewhat feel like "kafka on the shore" and especially "norwegian wood" by haruki murakami may be seen as classics at some point
I absolutely loved the remains of the day ! It was so pure and pleasant
Loved seeing the secret history on your list!! No one is more perfect in their craft than Donna Tartt
As for guesses for 'future modern fiction'/currently kinda sort of modern fiction in my eyes, I'll also add Octavia Butler, Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Bell Hooks. (those are the ones I can think of right now)
GREAT list!
I found The Handmaids Tale a real slog to get through! Great video, will def look into some of these.
I agree with you. And moreover such a depressing novel.
Interesting list - thank you - I need to read The Remains of the Day, I have heard such good things about it
I loved the movie "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" starring Maggie Smith. It inspired me to read the book!
The Bluest Eye is a story that has stayed with me as few things have..I also want to say that I really appreciate your take on Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is hard to Find..
One of the MOST WHOLESOME CHANNELS ON BOOKTUBE...luv ya🤗💙👍👍👍
haha I found you just know trought that video, just came here to check out the modern classics! Very nice, already subscibed
Several of your recs (The Sparrow, The Secret History, The Remains of the Day) are among my favorite books of all time! For some reason I feel way more invested in talking about modern classics and even just classics from the 20th Century than from the earlier centuries because it feels like you're more able to participate(?) in the discourse of whether they do become modern classics or not. One writer who stands out for me is Clarice Lispector, whose books used to be so hard to find when I was in college, but has since had a push for rediscovery that involves translations and reprintings.
Guesses of writers who would become considered moderns classics: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ursula K. Le Guin (already established as an sff classic but I think she has crossed over for people considering "literary merit"), Orhan Pamuk.
Yes, exactly-- we're getting to take part in making them a classic!!
Very interesting list - I will look for Remains of the Day - thanks for sharing
Hope you enjoy it!
Your make up looks 💕 especially the lipstick. Lol sorry had to mention it. I am new at the modern classics. I read lots of Victian Lit.
Appreciate this video.
I read The Handmaid's Tale yesterday - in one night. Just loved it! 😱
You have interesting ideas. I was surprised that you didn’t include any Latin writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Juan Rulfo, Carlos Fuentes, among others. I’d also include Ray Bradbury, Asimov, and George Orwell.
Hi Mara, I'm Marra! I so love your list of modern classics. I am absolutely enamored with classics as well but, primarily Victorian Gothic Lit.
For me, One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), East of Eden (John Steinbeck), Pedro Paramo (Juan Rulfo), The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver), and White Teeth (Zadie Smith) are some of my favourite modern classics.
I definitely predict that Signs Preceding the End of the World (Yuri Herrera), Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel), The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot, non-fiction), Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel), Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Madeleine Thien), and Emperor of All Maladies (Siddhartha Mukherjee non-fiction) will (hopefully) all be classics one day *crossed fingers*
Really enjoyed this video and everyone's recommendations in the comments!
Pedro Páramo is my favourite book but i never see it talked about anywhere =(
@@apocalypsereading7117 yeah! We read it for school and to be honest is the only book I was forced to read that I actually enjoyed. It was really good 👍
I love your classic lit videos, and I’m so excited to add these to my goodreads!! I am starting The Remains of the Day tomorrow ❤️
Hope you enjoy it!
What a nice video! loved the list. I read some & have most of these books, so can't wait to read them. If this is a British list, Daphne Du Maurier would be on there for sure, can't do without the gothic option :) I'd like to recommend an overlooked, translated author into the mix though, Stefan Zweig, a German author. I think he has very strong prose in his very short books. I'd recommend Chess and 24 Hours In The Life Of A Woman, which are both little novellas. People's favorite would be more Chess, if you want to try one :) I think you'd enjoy it. Cheers.
Yeah, Du Maurier got caught in between my 2 videos, because I've since defined "modern classic" as post-1950... if I ever revise that first classics video, she's such a great place to start!!
Where did those 24+ minutes go? Thank you for providing an excellent video. Outof your selection, I have read only 3 books Never Let You Go, To Kill a Mockingbird (I finished the audiobook today), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I certainly cannot argue with your selection,, nor would I want to as it has given me food for thought. For additional suggestions, I would have included John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men), Ian McEwan (Atonement ) and Khaled (Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns)
Thank you again and I look forward to your next video.
This list is amazing. I love to hear how you talk about books. I think it is like taking a short lit class!! And I am loving your new podcast too. Thanks for all your amazing content.
I'm so glad!
I've just read Things Fall Apart and I loved it so much! 💖📚 It is such a brilliant book I absolutely loved descriptions of their culture and the everyday life of the people in the tribe. I've already bought the whole trilogy and I'm super excited to read the rest of the African trilogy. 🌞🌺📚
it's on my tbr i hope im gonna love it as well
I'm so glad!
Thanks for all your videos
I loved hearing your thoughts on this topic. I totally agree that Remains of the Day and Stoner are ~~~flawless~~ novels! My favourite modern classic is The Master and Margarita, but I think my "gateway" modern classics were books by Kurt Vonnegut and J.D. Salinger :)
Ive read slaughterhouse 5, what other Vonnegut novels would you recommend? Currently in the midst of the catcher in the rye and love it
I read If We Were Villains for a bookclub and really enjoyed it! Also enjoyed Song of Solomon, which I also read in school. My favorite "modern classic" is We Capture the Castle, which is technically outside your timeframe (1948). I think it's really accessible, especially for people who enjoy romance
Yes, that one just missed the cut! I love it too
Great recommendations. Some of my favourite modern classics are 1984 & Animal farm by Orwell, People in the Summer Night by F. E. Sillanpää, The Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guin & anything by Italo Calvino 😀
Apparently, The Prime of Miss Jean Brody, is now available in full for free to watch on U Tube, thank goodness Julie Andrews who was considered for the title role didn't get cast ahead of Maggie Smith who gives a truly memorable performance in the title role.
I started Possession once upon a time. You’re making me want to pick it up and give it another try. It was going way over my head at the time
I think you'd like it- it's got very angsty romance vibes with a big splash of Rossetti like fake literary history
I’ve been reading 1984, and I it’s scarily real. Written in 1949, titled 1984, still real in 2020. Maybe even too close to reality. Sometimes it’s even uncomfortable. So I’d definitely add that to this list. Early this year I read Fahrenheit 451 and it’s also so applicable to reality. I would add that to the list too. I read I know why the caged birds sing by Maya Angelou in June and I absolutely LOVE IT. Her writing is amazing, I kept being stunned by her and it’s a book that I already want to pick up to read again. I plan on reading to kill a mockingbird till the end of the year, can’t wait!
Your eye makeup looks gorgeous!
Thank you!!
I am definitely going to grab a copy of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sing. Seems very interesting!
I think there are some fantastic choices in this video. I've just recently read If Beale Street Could Talk and would like to read more James Baldwin. For Toni Morrison I would definitely recommend Song of Solomon
Nice to hear that not everybody connects with The Handmaid's tale... I thought I was alone in this.
Sula got me hooked on Toni Morrison. Highly recommended.
As a 65 year old woman of color, I've read several books by Toni Morrison. I tried to read Beloved when it first came out and I couldn't finish it. I didn't like the book or the movie. I started with Sula by Toni Morrison back in the '70's. This is a good book to start with and it's not very long.
Wow, this is close to the list I would have picked for the same category. There are only a couple that I didn’t like/wouldn’t recommend, and so many that I love.
Great video, Mara.
You make such a good point about different countries having different books. I havnt even thought about it much! Some books may not make it to US publishing house.. based on little scraps of info I’ve gathered regarding the industry. And an ARC I just got mentioned the authors other works is standard reading in English or British schools... made me more aware of things. Lol love this video! Okay... HOW did I make it through life without even knowing what to kill a mockingbird was about 🤦🏽♀️ lol
If you want a great read to understand Indonesia then try "This Earth of Mankind" and the accompanying books by Pramoedya Ananta Toer.
amazing i was wondering what your opinion of the secret history was!! i loved it- if we were villains is also brilliant (don’t know if it’ll be as much a classic as tsh but still very enjoyable) so would love to hear your thoughts on that and the “dark academia” genre as a whole! sounds as though you’d love it.
LOVE this video! I would like to recommend a dark horse candidate for modern classic: Jesmyn Ward. I think she is good to read along side Toni Morrison and James Baldwin; she incorporates a lot of their themes. Also, her prose is devastatingly beautiful. "Salvage the Bones" is where everyone starts, but I would submit her memoir "Men We Reaped" is just as good a starting point.
Absolutely.
I came to Jesmyn Ward by way of 'Men We Reaped' followed by 'Salvage The Bones'. I'm now reading 'Sing Unburied, Sing' alongside 'Sula'.
Just rented The Remains of the Day from the library. Can’t wait to read it!
Awesome! Miss Jean Brodie near the top of my stack
A great job. Many thanks ❤
I read Song of Solomon in school as a teenager and while I recognized the writing as exceptional, I didn't exactly enjoy my time reading it.
A couple books I LOVED which I consider modern classics are A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Highly recommend if you havent picked them up.
I am mexican so I am totally biased, but do take into consideration the MASTER of modern classic latin literature... Gabriel García Márquez.
Thank you for your recommendations, I will consider for future reading. ;)
Great video with great recommendations!
Thanks for the great recommendations! Definitely a few of these on my TBR now. If you like coming of age stories in a boarding school setting you have to read Moab is my washpot by Stephen fry. I don't often read or recommend biographies but this is a true gem. Also the writing is just beautiful. Definitely worth checking out
Hallo girl, thanks for your generosity.
If you like Remains of the Day you might also enjoy Concise Chinese English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo. It's about a young woman who moves from China to England and keeps a diary to learn English but also to just process everything and it has that dual perspective.
i've wanted to read flannery o'connor for a long time but apparently she hated james baldwin and i just can't vibe with that at the moment, lol. maybe i'll get to it one day but i'm not in a rush. great list tho!
Thanks for the rec!!
Read The Sparrow a couple of years ago. Remember liking it, but don’t remember a thing about the book. Interesting.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is my whole heart in paper form 😫 it is the modern classic of modern classics💕
So good!!!!
So, turns out I haven't actually read any of these, with the exception of The Handmaid's Tale, which is a favourite. But I've wanted to read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for a long time now, I must get onto it (I did read Memento Mori by Muriel Spark many, many years ago, but can't remember it too well). You need to see the movie of Jean Brodie, it's SO good! The Remains of the Day is one that sounds right up my alley. Thanks for this list, I think I will put a number of these on my TBR: ASAP list. I'm inspired!
Ooo, yes, I can totally see you loving Jean Brodie if you love Christie
Never heard of THE SPARROW, but the description of it reminds me of A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ in a big way.
I love this video. My freshman English teacher taught me to love and pick apart classic and modern literature and I’ve learned to love it. I have a list of books I’m interested in but I’m glad I can get a perspective on them (and find some new interesting books) before I read them. Usually the back summary doesn’t really catch my interest very well.
Edit: I recently bought “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about it.
Thanks for these recommendations I think they're great! But I am quite surprised The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath wasn't included as a modern classic. If you haven't read it I think its a great read !
Good stuff you will also love 21st century: 'Half of a Yellow Sun'; 'White Teeth'; 'The Great Fire'; 'The Road'; 'No Country For Old Men'; 'Atonement'; 'Nemesis'; 'Indignation'; 'Ordinary Wolves'; 'Blueprints of the Afterlife'; 'A Brief History of Seven Killings'; 20th Century - 'Invisible Man'; 'Gravity's Rainbow'; 'The Crying of Lot 49'; 'If He Hollers Let Him Go' ; 'Dispatches'; 'The White Album'; 'Brideshead Revisited'; 'A Frolic of His Own'; 'The Executioner's Song'; 'Dog Soldiers', 'Underworld'
My son read the Things they carried for his IB English in highschool. He had me read it. Was really great book. Hard read because of all the violence.
Very nice! Thanks for the recommendations.
I would suggest a couple of Beat authors: Jack Kerouac (On the Road) and William S. Burroughs ( Naked Lunch). Trippy!!
Great list! Even a couple I hadn't heard of.
Cheers. 🍻
No Graham Greene?! Brighton Rock was too early, but I'd add either The Quiet American or Our Man in Havana to this list ^_^
Ugghhhhhh I knew I was missing something!!!! :*( :*(
@@bookslikewhoa To be fair, someone will always be missed out!
Great list! Where did you get those shelves behind you?
Thank you for this video I've read a lot of these but there are also some that I'm defiantly looking into!!!
I read Never Let Me Go as a teen and LOVED it. I read Remains of the Day as a teen and I hated it, when I was a kid. Maybe it's time for me to revisit it...
Haha, they are definitely very different books!
For people interested in reading Louise Erdrich, she runs a bookstore called Birchbark books in Minneapolis which fulfills online orders and if you buy one of her books she'll sign it for you! Opportunity to support a native-owned business
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Mara, I love your videos. I wish you could share with us THE GOLDFINCH. I just loved it, my favourite from Donna Tartt. I strongly think that it will become a modern classic. The writing is so beautiful, different, based on this blending of analogies with reality, with memories, with imagination. A book which from my point of view is important from its writing, not the story itself. I would love to know your opinion.
Don't agree with many of your picks-which is fine. Actually, I feel like I'm always disagreeing with your views hahaha. I very much respect your opinions and enjoy listening to them.
I have read 4 novels by Morrison and think PARADISE is the absolute best. Granted I have yet to read BELOVED or THE BLUEST EYE. I did read SoS and found it was not my cup of tea.
If you read it, I hope you have better luck with it.
I think HOMEGOING will be a modern classic. The prose is gorgeous and the story is captivating.
Haha I actually always think of you when I think of people who probably follow me to get "anti-recommendations" :D - but I always appreciate your perspective!
@@bookslikewhoa Oh no! haha
I think I've said this before but you and I have very similar or almost identical benchmarks/criterion for fiction and nonfiction. I'd even say we have similar ideas on books. We have enjoyed some of the same books, but where we diverge we Really Diverge. We both loved THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR, WHY WE GET FAT, and NO VISIBLE BRUISES.
I just wrote on GR my review for NEVER LET ME GO-spoiler I think the book is terrible. I know you would not agree with it, but I think you would see my view as valid.
I think our main tastes differ in that I love and read more lit in translation; I'm not a fan of light romances, fantasy romance, nor contemporary romances; and that I rarely if ever read fantasy. Oh! And I read more horror than you.
I agree with so many of your picks. Great video.
Thanks for watching!
What about 1984? Ray Bradbury? John Steinbeck?
Oh, interesting...I read The Secret History first, but I liked If We Were Villains better. I didn’t know there was a trend about that. I love guessing about which currently writing authors are going to get canonized but I don’t think I’m very good at it haha
Love these recommendations!
The Best Modern Classics I have read thus far
1980 - A Confederacy of Dunces
1974 - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
1967 - The Master and the Margarita
1959 - Naked Lunch
1959 - The Haunting of Hill House
1957 - On the Road
God, I love Kazuo Ishiguro. Never Let Me Go absolutely destroyed me the first time I read it.
At 57 years old, To Kill a Mockingbird is still my all time favorite novel. I must say, I have never heard about in the context of teaching about race. Like many people, I first read it in high school. To me it is a coming of age story that is told so beautifully through the words of Harper Lee. It’s the one book I pick often just to read a few lines selected randomly.
I found your channel through that video.
Me too! ❤️ New sub here 🤠
I should reread Things Fall Apart. I freaking hated it as assigned reading but mostly because of the projects I had to do.
Great suggestions, thanks!
I love your bookcasees where did you gett them
You got me at Ishiguro,
pls make a review of the the everyman's library edition. the difference between 'sewn' and 'glued'. what is the advantage and disadvantage. plssss. thank you.
Sewn is ALWAYS the better
@@therealignotus7549 do you have any idea if all Dostoevsky books in everyman's library edition are sewn?
@@justicepagente9151 If one is then probably all of them are. I don't own one from everyman's library, but as they seem to be a more luxurious brand it is probably the case. Most classics that are sold in nicer editions are sewn, apart from pockets.
To further answer your question, the reason why it is always better is that the glue after a while loses its grip on the pages which many times makes the book fall apart, that will not happen with a sewn.
@@justicepagente9151 If you want to buy the best quality books on the market you should check out ''Folio Society''. Sure their books are quite expensive (around 35 pounds), but they will last a lifetime and are not sold permanently, so you will not loose to much money if you sell. They are handsewn, paper from germany, and made in Germany/England.
I don't think they have Dostojevsky, but I know for certain they have other classic writers such as Kafka, Hesse and many more.
Other than those that I know are always handsewn it is impossible to tell from online from other publichers as it is most often not writen, if you want to be sure you'll have to go to a bookshop and check it yourself.
Is there a list of the books and authors?
I'm not completely sure if this is classed as a modern classic but I would recommend The Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard.
Are you based in Knoxville? I saw the Mckay's used book tag on Gilead. If so, we should be reading buddies! lol
Yes, I get it because I am Mexican American and it’s sad that people clump the ,” Hispanics or Latin people “ in the same category, we all have our own:culture, foods, books, heroes and even languages. It is very frustrating.
You have impeccable taste- love this video
your summaries were really great - just enough to make me intrigued. The Bloody Chamber is such a dream (albeit a gory one) ^_^ I think I actually liked the film of The Remains of the Day more than the book! unfortunately Wide Sargasso Sea was forced upon me in high school with basically no context except "it's postcolonial"...