Play Book Tag discussion
January 2017: Foreign Literature
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Announcing the January Tag(s) - yes, Tags
Denizen wrote: "This has been tough.My Recommendations:
Embers - Maria Sandor
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
We Need New Names - NoViolet Bulawayo
I will be choosin..."
Embers is on my list of possibilities for January.
Book Concierge wrote: "Denizen wrote: "This has been tough.I will be choosin..."
Oh ... I had forgotten about Please Look After Mom ... definitely on my TBR and a great choice for January's tag."
Definitely rooting for people to read Please Look After Mom. FYI- It's written in the 2nd person-which can take while to get used to.
Does anyone know if there is a way on goodreads to search a bookshelf for a certain tag.For example, searching the "PBT Fiction 100" bookshelf for a foreign literature tag? Or searching a certain user's bookshelf (or your own bookshelf) for a tag?
Joi wrote: "Does anyone know if there is a way on goodreads to search a bookshelf for a certain tag.For example, searching the "PBT Fiction 100" bookshelf for a foreign literature tag? Or searching a certain..."
Pretty sure the answer is no . . .the searching seems to be primarily by title without any other options.
Joi wrote: "Does anyone know if there is a way on goodreads to search a bookshelf for a certain tag.For example, searching the "PBT Fiction 100" bookshelf for a foreign literature tag? Or searching a certain..."
There is no way that I know of....but if you go to the books page and click on the "see top shelves", it will bring up a page with a lot shelves on it. You can then use your "browser" search. I mostly use chrome and hit Ctrl-F. This will bring up a box and you can type in "foreign" for example and it will tell you how many times the word appears on the page (and scroll through the highlights of where it is). Not the browser search is searching for words that appear on the page -- it is not searching the GR database.
I am going to start with A Passage to India and recommendThe Hunchback of Notre-Dame. I will try and sneak in one extra book if I can, but we'll see as I start grad school next month as well.
Michael wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "... I'll trade Life and Fate for Garden of Evening Mists..."Deal. We have invented a singlet version of Share a Shelf.
Denizen wrote: "...I was looking at Forever Flowing..."..."
Cool, that worked nicely for the animals month and I needed a little push to read Life and Fate.
I'll be honest: I am not excited for this tag. At all. I have no idea what I will read, nothing sounds even remotely appealing.I am sure I will find something...maybe the Professor and the Housekeeper...
Nicole R wrote: "I'll be honest: I am not excited for this tag. At all. I have no idea what I will read, nothing sounds even remotely appealing.I am sure I will find something...maybe the Professor and the Housek..."
A foreign romance?
Nicole R wrote: "I'll be honest: I am not excited for this tag. At all. I have no idea what I will read, nothing sounds even remotely appealing.I am sure I will find something...maybe the Professor and the Housek..."
Dare I say it? Anna Karenina?
Jgrace wrote: "Dare I say it? Anna Karenina? "Absolutely not. While in theory that is a book I should read and would likely enjoy, I just cannot handle that type of commitment to a book with work and law school. My brain would fry!
Jgrace wrote: "Dare I say it? Anna Karenina?..."Okay, you did pique my interest with your recommendation. It is available on Audible and read by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Her narration has gotten rave reviews and I am tempted.
But, 36 hours. Oof. I do drive a lot but that would take me all month....I do listen at 1.25x speed, so that gets me down to about 28.5 hours....
Nicole R wrote: "Jgrace wrote: "Dare I say it? Anna Karenina?..."Okay, you did pique my interest with your recommendation. It is available on Audible and read by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Her narration has gotten rave r..."
I was joking. Poking fun at myself actually. I own Anna K in 3 formats and I've never made it past 250 pages. It hangs over my TBR like a curse. She seems to be on every must read list and fits for sooo many tags.
Jgrace wrote: "I was joking. Poking fun at myself actually. I own Anna K in 3 formats and I've never made it past 250 pages."Maybe we should read it together?!?!
Have you not made it past page 250 because it is so bad?
Nicole R wrote: "Jgrace wrote: "I was joking. Poking fun at myself actually. I own Anna K in 3 formats and I've never made it past 250 pages."Maybe we should read it together?!?!
Have you not made it past page 2..."
It's definitely not bad. It's probably just personal taste. It's a book about marital infidelity. "All happy families are alike etc. etc....." I've had ,and continue to have, more than enough family drama in my own life. I think I should try War and Peace. Some battle strategy and tragedy to balance the societal gossip might work better for me.
Nicole R wrote: "Jgrace wrote: "I was joking. Poking fun at myself actually. I own Anna K in 3 formats and I've never made it past 250 pages."Maybe we should read it together?!?!
Have you not made it past page 2..."
I have a copy and if you two decide to read it, I'm in. I'm already reading one Russian as an exchange with Michael, so this would fit in nicely.
Nicole R wrote: "I'll be honest: I am not excited for this tag. At all. I have no idea what I will read, nothing sounds even remotely appealing.I am sure I will find something...maybe the Professor and the Housek..."
There are foreign romance novels. Mary Stewart wrote romance mysteries (don't think that's up your alley, though), but here is a list to a Wikipedia list of British romance writers separated by England, Scotland & Wales.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...
Thanks, Karin! I am going to try and stretch myself beyond the U.K. I would ultimately like it to be a book originally published in another language and something that reflects on the local culture. I plan to stretch myself, the question is whether I can stretch myself to 1,000 pages of Russian literature! Lol
Nicole R wrote: "Thanks, Karin! I am going to try and stretch myself beyond the U.K. I would ultimately like it to be a book originally published in another language and something that reflects on the local culture..."I am not much of a Russian lit fan, so can't help you there. I was trying to find something from anywhere other than the UK, but got lists that were either classics or had mainly American authors with stories set elsewhere. I know I've read romances like that, but darned if I can remember what they were now.
Booknblues wrote: "Nicole R wrote: "Jgrace wrote: "I was joking. Poking fun at myself actually. I own Anna K in 3 formats and I've never made it past 250 pages."Maybe we should read it together?!?!
Have you not ma..."
I loved Anna K but read it multiple times decades ago. Give it a try, I say. I finished War and Peace but my eyes were crossing multiple times. It's not one I recommend.
If I was going with Russian Lit, I think I might try Chekhov, shorter stories might be more doable. Also I've never read Pushkin, but I'm familiar with the operatic Eugene Onegin and I've always wanted to at least try to read a translation.
Kristel wrote: "Silk is a foriegn literature and very short and I liked it 4 stars worth"Tolstoy has some short works and all his work is worth reading. The Kreutzer Sonata, and The Death of Ivan Ilych 86 pages.
The Nose is very short. 31 pages.
Talking about russian lit, has anyone read dr. Zhivago?
LibraryCin wrote: "Talking about russian lit, has anyone read dr. Zhivago?"I have thought about it, but when I watched the movie on TV or something once, it was very powerful, and I cannot revisit the story. I liked the movie, but there is a reason I don't read Russian literature.
Of course, now that movie is 50 years old instead of less than 15 years old, so it would probably seem very dated to me. I am not one for old movies most of the time.
Nicole R wrote: "I'll be honest: I am not excited for this tag. At all. I have no idea what I will read, nothing sounds even remotely appealing...."
Foreign romance: The Food of Love or The Wedding Officer: A Novel of Culinary Seduction both by Anthony Capella.
This may be stretching the "foreign" tag ... but Capella was born in Uganda and I believe is a Brit by nationality, though has lived/worked in Italy.
VERY short review of Food of Love
LINK to my review of Wedding Officer
Or you could try The Enchanted April - British author, but set in Italy.
This sounds so good as well. I have several books on my shelves for most of them.
LibraryCin wrote: "Talking about russian lit, has anyone read dr. Zhivago?"A wonderful read, reflecting on a couple of decades back. Books by Makine are less sweeping in scope and have great romance built into the historical fiction.
LibraryCin wrote: "Talking about russian lit, has anyone read dr. Zhivago?"I loved Dr Zhivago - read it several times decades ago. I'm not sure it would be your cup of tea, however.
Thanks for the info on dr zhivago. I like the story, but i wasnt sure.
Denizen wrote: "This has been tough.My Recommendations:
Embers - Maria Sandor
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
We Need New Names - NoViolet Bulawayo
I will be choosin..."
I vote for In the Shadow of the Banyan
Nicole R wrote: "Thanks, Karin! I am going to try and stretch myself beyond the U.K. I would ultimately like it to be a book originally published in another language and something that reflects on the local culture..."Hmmmm....for you that is a hard one....finding one that you will fits your reading style and what you look for in your reading experience.
We've had the discussion about why you don't like certain books that would fall in this category. But never what do you like. So, what is it about One Hundred Years of Solitude that you like so much? Maybe that will help people make suggestions. I do think Russian literature stays away from the things you don't like. Has Crime and Punishment ever piqued your interest. It may be longer than what you are looking for with your school but it is a fascinating character study. But, not very plot driven. Well, not plot driven at all.
I actually think you might enjoy The Glass Palace It is a sweeping historical fiction set in Burma, deals with it being part of the British colonies for a time, has a love story, and I don't remember any violent parts. Much of it has a "fairy-tale" quality to it but not overtly.
Regina wrote: "We've had the discussion about why you don't like certain books that would fall in this category. But never what do you like. So, what is it about One Hundred Years of Solitude that you like so much?"Regina and I had a conversation behind the scenes this morning about her question but I thought I would restate my answer here in case others want to join in.
When I read foreign lit, I want to learn something about the culture or the politics or society. I want to be able to appreciate what the author is saying. I loved One Hundred Years of Solitude because the story of the town of Macondo is the story of Colombia and the stories of the Buendia family are the stories of each generation. It was not nonfiction but I felt like I got a glimpse at the history and culture.
So, books like Anna Karenina are totally daunting for me. I want to be able to appreciate what the author is saying but feel like I need to read multiple nonfiction books on Russia before I can get it.
It is a silly hangup of mine, perhaps borne of my academic nature. And I realize it is a self-perpetuating cycle: if I would read more foreign lit then I would understand more and enjoy other books more.
I am going to look at The Glass Palace. I love sweeping historical fiction and really know nothing about Burma, which would maybe make the reading better for me so that everything is new and I am not plagued by the feeling that I know the context but cannot remember it....
Nicole R wrote: "Regina wrote: "We've had the discussion about why you don't like certain books that would fall in this category. But never what do you like. So, what is it about One Hundred Years of Solitude that ..."I'm going to recommend to you Beasts of No Nation because a) it is short and b) I gave it five stars. It doesn't exactly meet your criteria set out above, but it's short so you can decide whether you need to delve deeper. You absolutely do not need to delve deeper beforehand . . .
Nicole, I am looking forward to sharing 100 years with you. Finally a gift to me that a tag let's me get to this. Might you like Shadow of the Wind? Have you already read it? That's a true favorite of mine, translated from Spanish. I am also going to read Paul Coehlo's the Spy, which is Mata Hari, and under 200 pages, it turns out...Happy reading, blessings to you, Amy
Nicole R wrote: "Regina wrote: "We've had the discussion about why you don't like certain books that would fall in this category. But never what do you like. So, what is it about One Hundred Years of Solitude that ..."I'm putting my word in for Glass Palace. I think you would like it. And the audiobook is performed by Simon Vance. (just sayin')
Maggie G is a fantastic narrator. She did The Bell Jar perfectly. Might have to examine Anna K. I listen at 1.5 speed, so that helps.
My recommendation would be The Picture of Dorian Gray and any collection written by Nanae Aoyama. It seems that Aoyama is not so famous as Murakami but she's definitely my favorite Japanese writer. She's so good at writing about personal experience. So proud that I'm finally able to read Japanese!I'm not sure what I will read. I'm working on A Christmas Carol. Does that count?
Jgrace wrote: "Nicole R wrote: "Regina wrote: "We've had the discussion about why you don't like certain books that would fall in this category. But never what do you like. So, what is it about One Hundred Years ..." I wondered if it was available on audio. I would imagine it translates nicely and should make it more attractive for Nicole.
Nicole R wrote: "When I read foreign lit, I want to learn something about the culture or the politics or society. I want to be able to appreciate what the author is saying. I loved One Hundred Years of Solitude because the story of the town of Macondo is the story of Colombia and the stories of the Buendia family are the stories of each generation. It was not nonfiction but I felt like I got a glimpse at the history and culture. ..."Have you read Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune or Inés of My Soul ? Either of them might give you that sweeping historical epic ... great story, strong women characters, definitely a sense of the history and era in time.
BC Welcome Back! You had a two day trip or something, correct? Hope you had fun.
Sherling wrote: "I'm not sure what I will read. I'm working on A Christmas Carol. Does that count? .."We typically rely on members to be on the honor system to not start the book for the monthly tag until the month begins. Or, at least to have read the bulk of it in the appropriate month (it took me four months to read Les Miserables, but one of the monthly tags is what inspired me to finally push to the end, so I counted it that month).
As to whether that specific book counts, if A Christmas Carol is tagged foreign literature here on GoodReads, then it counts. Or, if it meets your specific definition of foreign literature then it also counts!
Dickens was British so if you are not British then it could technically be foreign literature....
I am doing it...I am taking the plunge and listening to Anna Karenina! It is time. It will take me all month but I should be able to wrap it up.And, I reserved both The Glass Palace and The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem as back ups.
Nicole R wrote: "I am doing it...I am taking the plunge and listening to Anna Karenina! It is time. It will take me all month but I should be able to wrap it up.And, I reserved both The Glass Palace and The Beaut..."
I can't wait to hear what you think of Anna Karenina. I really want to read it but I have loads of books that fit this month's tag. I would rather wait and read it a different month. I really hope you can get to The Glass Palace
I thought Anna Karenina might have proved a boring read or something, but I ended up enjoying it a lot, and if I remember correctly it only took me a couple of weeks to complete it. Starting with the new year I will be reading War and Peace as a group read with another group (I don't think I will count it for January tag as I'm pretty sure it'll take me much longer than that to read) - this book scares me much more than Anna Karenina did.
Marina wrote: "I thought Anna Karenina might have proved a boring read or something, but I ended up enjoying it a lot, and if I remember correctly it only took me a couple of weeks to complete it...."I loved AK but found W&P a bit of a slog. Too much war and not enough peace;-)
Nicole R wrote: "I am doing it...I am taking the plunge and listening to Anna Karenina! It is time. It will take me all month but I should be able to wrap it up.And, I reserved both The Glass Palace and The Beaut..."
I'm going to try to locate my copy, so I can read it as well. I've had it forever and keep putting it off.
Nicole R wrote: We typically rely on members to be on the honor system to not start the book for the monthly ..."Thanks Nicole. I'll read something else for January tag then. Maybe Great Expectations.
Can the books we read for the monthly tag also be counted for the PBT Stairs challenge? Even if we count them for different tags? Say it counts for self improvement on the monthly tags but for leadership on the PBT Stairs challenge?
Play Book Tag
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I will be choosin..."
Oh ... I had forgotten about Please Look After Mom ... definitely on my TBR and a great choice for January's tag.