danielle Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 What would you consider the "don't miss" literary works of the 20th and now 21st century? I'm thinking ahead to developing a reading list for senior year, and don't want to stop with Orwell or C.S. Lewis! Don't worry about censoring--dd has been through it all on Wikipedia.:001_smile: Danielle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle in AL Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 Well this is probably an easy no brainer, but two of my favorite books are To Kill a Mockingbird and The Giver. Both are easy reading, but have great themes and in the case of To Kill a Mockingbird, great characterization. I haven't read much else which is considered modern since we're stuck in the Middle Ages for history now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 (edited) Here's my 20th century "don't miss" list (in no particular order), based on what I have personally read (or seen, if it is a play). Enjoy! Warmest regards, Lori D. BRITISH novels - The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien) -- trilogy - Till We Have Faces (Lewis) - The Screwtape Letters (Lewis) - The Great Divorce (Lewis) - The Man Who Was Thursday (Chesterton) - All Hallows Eve (Williams) - Descent into Hell (Williams) - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Adams) - Life With Jeeves (Wodehouse) - Peter Pan (Barry) - Animal Farm (Orwell) - Brave New World (Huxley) - Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde) - Lord of the Flies (Goldman) - Watership Down (Adams) - All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot) - My Family and Other Animals (Durrell) - The Once and Future King (White) short stories - a Father Brown mystery (Chesterton) - a Peter Wimsey mystery (Sayers) - The Open Window (Saki) - The Monkey's Paw (Jacobs) - The Most Dangerous Game (Connell) - Smith of Wooten Major (Tolkien) - Life by Niggle (Tolkien) - A Child's Christmas in Wales (Thomas) - Et in Sempiternum Pereant (Williams) drama - Pygmalion (Shaw) - The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde) AMERICAN novels - A Canticle for Leibowitz (Miller) - Farenheit 451 (Bradbury) - Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury) - The Jungle (Sinclair) - To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) - Black Like Me (Griffin) - The Chosen (Potok) - I Heard The Owl Call My Name (Craven) - Earthsea trilogy: Wizard of Earthsea; Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore (LeGuin) -- if you don't have time for all 3, do Tombs of Atuan - Peace Like a River (Enger) short stories - something by O. Henry - A Good Man is Hard to Find (O'Connor) - Revelation (O'Connor) - The Lottery (Jackson) - There Will Come Soft Rains (Bradbury) - The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (LeGuin) drama - Our Town (Thornton Wilder) - Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller) - A Raisin in the Sun (Lorraine Hansberry) WORLD novels - The Hiding Place (ten Boom) -- Holland - Cry The Beloved Country (Paton) -- South Africa - A Day of Pleasure (Singer) -- Poland - The Joy Luck Club (Tam) -- U.S./China - The Good Earth (Buck) -- China (written by American) - I Heard The Owl Call My Name (Craven) -- U.S./Canadian Native Peoples (written by American) - All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque) -- Germany - The Full Cupboard of Life (Smith) -- Botswana (written by a Brit who lived there) - The Samurai (Endu) -- Japan (set in 1500s) short stories - The Metamorphosis (Kafka) -- Germany - a short story from Cosmicomics (Calvino) -- Italy - August 25, 1983 (Borges) -- Argentina Edited August 4, 2009 by Lori D. corrected error; added info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in MD Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 I'm going to add only one book, and it's not one you'll find on any other list of must reads. It's Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee McPhee is a non-fiction writer, but his works read more like fiction. But I recommend Encounters because he takes one individual passionately devoted to a cause (environmentalism) and "pits" him against 3 others passionately devoted to the opposite cause. What makes it so great (besides the writing) is that both sides are presented sympathetically. The reader get to learn that both sides have good reasons for their strongly held opinions. These days, I think that's an important lesson to learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielle Posted August 5, 2009 Author Share Posted August 5, 2009 Great suggestions (still hoping for a few more). OOHH, John McPhee, now I wouldn't have thought of him, but it's a great offbeat one. I'm thinking about including some Tracy Kidder (perhaps my favorite modern writer) because I think creative non-fiction is a really important trend. But I'm still up for more suggestions... Danielle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 I'm not an expert for the American literature, but here are some of the world (non-anglophone) literature masterpieces which are maybe a less obvious, but still excellent choices, so you might wish to consider those: Mann, Th. - Death in Venice, The Magic Mountain, Doctor Faustus, etc. - basically anything from his opus is worth reading Camus, A. - The Stranger Sartre, J. P. - Nausea, No Exit Proust, M. - Combray (the first part of Remembrances of the Things Past) Hesse, H. - The Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf Pirandello, L. - One, No One and One Hundred Thousand; Six Characters in Search of an Author Zweig, S. - Yesterday's World Kafka, F. - The Trial Kundera, M. - The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Life is Elsewhere Pasternak, B. - Doctor Zhivago Singer, I. B. - The Slave, Shosha, many of the great short stories (Yiddish lit-wise, I also recommend Sholem Aleichem) Kertesz, I. - Fateless Levi, P. - If This is a Man Kazantzakis, N. - The Last Temptation of Christ On the lighter note, I'm also very found of E. Kishon's satires, and I think they offer some of the best of the Israeli literature. I didn't include poetry in this selection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkholland Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank This is on the SL 20th Cent. list. I just got done reading it and couldn't put it down. It is set around 1959 when the US was concerned with an attack from the Russians (the Cold war period). It was a very thoughtful work, great for lots of interesting discussion, and a very good study on the nature of man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faithr Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 In response to Ester Maria's list: The Unbearable Lightness of Being has quite a lot of s*x in it and I do not think it would be appropriate for a high schooler at all. Also I have always thought Doctor Zhivago as using the revolution as an excuse for adultery. Sorry, I know that's simplistic but I'd read A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich over Dr. Zhivago for a high schooler. I also think that Kazantakis book The Greek Passion is much better than The Last Temptation of Christ, though I don't think it is appropriate for high schoolers either but my memory is fuzzy on that) Also I'd pick Siddhartha by Hesse over the other two for a high schooler. It isn't that I am big on censoring but I do think that some things are left best for college and adult reading. There is lots of great lit out there without having to get too dreary and vulgar so soon! A fun book on the cold war is Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene. He's a wonderful writer who doesn't get enough credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 In response to Ester Maria's list: The Unbearable Lightness of Being has quite a lot of s*x in it and I do not think it would be appropriate for a high schooler at all. Also I have always thought Doctor Zhivago as using the revolution as an excuse for adultery. Sorry, I know that's simplistic but I'd read A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich over Dr. Zhivago for a high schooler. I also think that Kazantakis book The Greek Passion is much better than The Last Temptation of Christ, though I don't think it is appropriate for high schoolers either but my memory is fuzzy on that) Also I'd pick Siddhartha by Hesse over the other two for a high schooler. :confused: Most of my class back in high school read at least something by Kundera, even before our senior year, and we sure did mention him in our literature classes (though we did not actively study his works). In fact, one of the students from my generation wrote her graduation thesis on certain aspects of his works, which implies she had basically read the entire opus at that age. Nearly everybody I know who did read Kundera "discovered" him about the high school age. I personally don't think sex is a problem, as long as the work doesn't revolve around physical intimacy and the possible ways to represent it. There are such works, and I wouldn't list them. For Kundera, though, sex is mostly merely a tool - which he might utilize less subtly than some other writers, true - but still only a tool, in most of his works, something which helps to illustrate a point, to represent it, but it's not a purpose for itself. I would have more problems with the emotional specifically-adult content in those works, than with the fact there are some scenes of adult physical intimacy involved. I see nothing problematic with Kazantzakis' works, though. I also personally prefer Christ Recrucified, but my suggestions were in general more general importance-based than personal preference-based, for all of the authors I brought up. Camus or Sartre are far more "problematic" religion-wise, yet you don't object about that. Where do you see bigger problem with Kazantzakis? Regarding Hesse, though, I definitely don't think Siddhartha is his top. I thought it was a rather average work, even at 11-12 when I read it for the first time (it was my third Hesse, after Demian and a collection of his short prose), and especially later. I found both Steppenwolf, and especially Glass Bead Game, to be more challenging and more profound readings, and even of more intertextual importance - Siddhartha is not nearly as much referenced to, in our culture on the whole, as is either of the two. I always considered Siddhartha a kind of "light Hesse" choice, not something I'd read to actually judge or get acquainted with his opus, something to read "by the way", but not really to study. It isn't that I am big on censoring but I do think that some things are left best for college and adult reading. There is lots of great lit out there without having to get too dreary and vulgar so soon! Dreary, vulgar... Literature is art. Its primary function isn't to fill gaps in one's past time, or to help one with their "personal growth" or anything alike - despite the fact people use it to do that too; but that's more a side-effect than the main goal. I never understood people who choose their children's readings based on those criteria - something of the kind "interesting, age-appropriate, exciting, which teaches or at least indirectly promotes our values" - past middle school. I think that fails the entire purpose of teaching literature in high school, the appreciation of such form of art. It's basically degrading art to something which should "teach and be useful". Don't get me wrong - it is a legitimate approach, absolutely, but I think it's a failed one. That being said, I do think older high schoolers, provided decent education background, have ability to understand art to a slightly higher level than the one in which we operate with the terms "appropriate", "inappropriate", "adult content", etc. :) Those of you who mind sex in literature - I'd really like to know how do you teach history of art. Do you ignore all of the "inappropriate" art as well, even though some of those might be the masterpieces of painting and photography (or sketching, or... whatever)? I'm not talking about pornography, but history of art is filled with nudes. Excellent ones amongst them too. I'm certainly not advocating bombing young children with something they can't handle, but with gradual exposure to more and more complex works, which might involve more "adult content" and general growing up, learning more and learning more about art too, I really see no reason why Kundera would be something a 17 y.o. could not handle. :confused: Especially since I know a bunch of people who did, and I dare to say a lot of them were quite average, both with regards to academic and emotional component. I digressed, into a direction you didn't bring up, sorry about that, but I really have an issue with some of the things I see around me IRL, with so much sheltering that I think it's starting to produce contra-effects. This isn't a reply to you personally, I'm not trying to read into your post something you haven't written, it's more my general observations on some trends I've seen. I do see your point. I do agree that some works are best approached at an older age. But I also think that the "ideal age" is highly individual, as people grow at different paces. And I also think that our society is really trying to slow down that pace in a pretty artificial way, trying to shelter the children more than they actually should be sheltered at that age. I have the impression the previous generations weren't as sheltered as this one. I'm speaking all that as somebody who's secular too. I understand the need to rule some things out if you live according to a specific religious worldview, some things are just not in accordance with. Were I Orthodox, I probably wouldn't want too much non-Torah-values in my house, and that would be a legitimate request too; but since I'm not, I hold the kind of views I do. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielle Posted August 6, 2009 Author Share Posted August 6, 2009 More great suggestions. I knew there would be lots I hadn't though of, and I hate to admit I've never read Kundera, so now I've got an assignment! Anybody have a suggestion for female writers? I read Doris Lessing's "The Golden Notebooks" at about 17, but I was a much more "emo" adolescent than my dd is. Ditto "The Bell Jar". Dd prefers happy endings, no easy task in the 20th-21st century! Danielle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faithr Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Hi Ester Maria! Well, I guess we just have different approaches. I don't live in an ivory tower where literature is some abstract art. It is powerful stuff that leaves deep impressions. I live with teenagers who have friends who are grappling with (let me just list the things that happened this year) a suicide, an abusive boyfriend, nasty drunken hook ups that leave the young lady feeling suicidal, a young man who went to jail because he and his friend were stoned and beat up a young boy because they thought it would be funny to steal his sled. One of my daughter's friends (16 years old) was told by her dr not to have sex with the boys in her high school because they all had herpes. This is the reality that teens around here confront. They don't need cynical, dark, nihilistic, etc stuff in their literature. They are already surrounded by this. Let them read things that are uplifting, broadening, ennobling, inspiring. I don't mind some dark stuff. I think Lord of the Flies is great because it shows what happens when you make up your own morality. I like To Kill a Mockingbird because it shows someone trying to confront evil. And they are both excellent works of literature. Maybe you live with teens who are very philosophical about life and never have to deal with the nitty gritty dark side, but in our very well off, upper class, very academic local high school the few incidents I've mention don't even begin to tell the whole story. These teenagers are like this because they are expected grow up very quickly when it comes to cynicism, violence and sex but aren't given enough responsibilities or challenges or to actually be grown up. They are for the most part latch-key children, raised in day care, who don't have clue! It is tragic! My heart breaks for the confusion and pain these kids feel. They don't need it from their literature too. They have the rest of their lives to learn about the heavy stuff. Let them do that when they are more confident in who they are, have formed their values, are ready to take on the more darkly complex. Let them experience joy and success first. I have vivid memories of reading The Bell Jar and being depressed for weeks afterward and thinking about what it would be like to kill myself. I guess I'm gullible and respond to literature on a very emotional level. And I don't want to expose them to drivel either in the name of overprotecting them. I am not a prude. I have no problem with nudity in art. But there is a difference between Michelangelo's David and the really almost soft porn of Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being. And I am a believing Christian so I think sex is a gift from God that is to be protected and cherished and should take place only in the beautiful institution of marriage. Many of the values of 20c literature go against the very values I believe in. I am laughing a little because in my circle I am considered very permissive and not at all overprotective. I guess it is all in one's perspective! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Some my son has read this summer and really enjoyed include Invisible Man, Poisonwood Bible, and A Call to Heroism. He also really likes Guns, Germs, and Steel, but you might want to use that along with history studies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristin in Hawaii Posted September 26, 2009 Share Posted September 26, 2009 I have just re-read both of those and they seem so different now that I am an adult of 43 years. I would not introduce them to my son for a few more years (he is 13 now) but they are too important to miss. Conditioning.... whew... Aloha, Kristin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 I'd read A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich over Dr. Zhivago for a high schooler. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elizabeth Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 I'm not an expert for the American literature, but here are some of the world (non-anglophone) literature masterpieces which are maybe a less obvious, but still excellent choices, so you might wish to consider those: Mann, Th. - Death in Venice, The Magic Mountain, Doctor Faustus, etc. - basically anything from his opus is worth reading Camus, A. - The Stranger Sartre, J. P. - Nausea, No Exit Proust, M. - Combray (the first part of Remembrances of the Things Past) Hesse, H. - The Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf Pirandello, L. - One, No One and One Hundred Thousand; Six Characters in Search of an Author Zweig, S. - Yesterday's World Kafka, F. - The Trial Kundera, M. - The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Life is Elsewhere Pasternak, B. - Doctor Zhivago Singer, I. B. - The Slave, Shosha, many of the great short stories (Yiddish lit-wise, I also recommend Sholem Aleichem) Kertesz, I. - Fateless Levi, P. - If This is a Man Kazantzakis, N. - The Last Temptation of Christ On the lighter note, I'm also very found of E. Kishon's satires, and I think they offer some of the best of the Israeli literature. I didn't include poetry in this selection. Magic Mountain is one of my favorite books. Primo Levi likewise. Frankly, I would be far more concerned that Primo Levi would be too intense for dd that is a concern with my very sensitive daughter as opposed to sexual content. Why I am I surprised she is this way? I was the student who audibly sobbed during Fahrenheit 451 in humanities class in high school. I recently read a beautiful novel that I think I will share with dd this year titled The Gods of Raquel link here http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Raquel-Moacyr-Scliar/dp/0345353579/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_7 I often think that magical realism as a literary style can go very wrong. Scliar hits all the right notes. Thanks for a wonderful list that I plan on utilizing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 Thanks for recommending Brave New World. I just finished it and it was very interesting. Beware that the Cliffs Notes equate chasitity with aversion to sex. I had to reframe that for my son. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 For female writers -- you should certainly consider Margaret Atwood. Doubtless The Handmaid's Tale is the most famous, but she has many other novels & short stories, including her more recent alternative future themed novels. Alias Grace might be an interesting read. Be aware that she does cover issues of sexuality to various degrees; Oryx and Crake, for example, has some themes of pedophilia/internet porn, and The Handmaid's Tale deals with sex in an age of infertility (the role of the "handmaids" is to bear children). There are other famous women writers of the 20th c to consider including Zora Neale Hurston, Isabel Allende, Pearl Buck, Nadine Gordimer, Toni Morrison, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, Leslie Marmon Silko, Joyce Carol Oates....? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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