Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

2025:

Victober 2025:

A challenge to read Victorian Literature (written by British or Irish Authors and written/published from 1837-1901).

- Margaret Oliphant: Hester
- Jane Eyre (reread)
- Shirley
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror
- Lizzie Leigh

From Birth to Now Challenge:

1993 - The Virgin Suicides
1994 - The Memory Police
1995 - I Who Have Never Known Men
1996 - Into the Wild
1997 - Out
1998 - The Hours
1999 - White Oleander
2000 - Me Talk Pretty One Day
2001 - The Secret Life of Bees
2002 - Kafka on the Shore
2003 - Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
2004 - After Dark
2005 - Never Let Me Go or The Glass Castle
2006 - Sharp Objects or The Road
2007 - The Vegetarian or Call Me By Your Name
2008 - The Silver Linings Playbook
2009 - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
2010 - Just Kids or Room
2011 - My Brilliant Friend
2012 - A Man Called Ove or Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
2013 - Spilled Milk
2014 - Station Eleven
2015 - A Little Life or Eileen
2016 - Beartown
2017 - Tender Is the Flesh
2018 - My Year of Rest and Relaxation
2019 - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
2020 - My Dark Vanessa
2021 - Klara and the Sun or Crying in H Mart
2022 - Babel
2023 - Tom Lake
2024 - Sociopath
2025 - The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom or Atmosphere

Hi Claire, I have read a lot of the books on your list and I can tell you that you have some great reading ahead of you. Good luck with your challenge.

Great list, Claire. Good luck!

Thank you Terry and Sara!

Reading Around The World Challenge:

This one will probably take me into my 70s... but it's been fun to make nonetheless. Hopefully it might inspire someone...

Some of these are classics, some are not (hope that's okay!)

-----

Oceania:

Australia (home) - Hysteria: A memoir of illness, strength and women's stories throughout history or This House of Grief
Fiji -
Kiribati -
Marshall Islands -
Micronesia -
Nauru -
New Zealand - Owls Do Cry or An Angel at My Table
Palau -
Papua New Guinea -
Samoa -
Solomon Islands -
Tonga -
Tuvalu -
Vanuatu -

Europe and the UK (just separated them here for ease of searching -- not for political reasons):

England - Middlemarch
Scotland - Trainspotting
Wales - How Green Was My Valley
Northern Ireland - Milkman or Cal

Albania - Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History
Andorra -
Austria - Beware of Pity
Belarus - Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
Belgium - I Who Have Never Known Men
Bosnia and Herzegovina - Goodbye Sarajevo
Bulgaria -
Croatia -
Czechia - The Unbearable Lightness of Being or The Metamorphosis
Denmark - The Copenhagen Trilogy
Estonia -
France - A Leopard-Skin Hat
Germany - Kairos
Greece -
Hungary - Abigail
Iceland - Restoration
Ireland - Small Things Like These
Italy - My Brilliant Friend
Kosovo -
Latvia - Soviet Milk
Liechtenstein -
Lithuania - Between Shades of Gray
Luxembourg -
Malta -
Moldova -
Monaco -
Montenegro -
Netherlands - The Safekeep or The Diary of a Young Girl
North Macedonia -
Norway - Out Stealing Horses
Poland - The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story or Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Portugal - The Double
Romania - Nostalgia
Russia -
San Marino -
Serbia - The Tiger's Wife
Slovakia -
Slovenia -
Spain - Marina or A Heart So White
Sweden - Beartown
Switzerland - Siddhartha or Heidi
Transnistra -
Turkey - Madonna in a Fur Coat
Ukraine - Dead Souls or The Museum of Abandoned Secrets
Vatican City -

North America:

Canada - Anne of Green Gables
United States of America - (so many to choose from!!)
Greenland - Crimson

Edit: need to add countries from The Caribbean -- whoops!


Central and South America:

Argentina - Tender Is the Flesh or Things We Lost in the Fire
Belize -
Bolivia -
Brazil - The Hour of the Star
Chile - Paula or Eva Luna
Colombia -
Costa Rica -
Cuba -
Dominican Republic -
Ecuador -
El Salvador -
Guatemala -
Guyana -
Honduras -
Nicaragua -
Mexico - Mexican Gothic
Panama -
Paraguay -
Peru -
Suriname -
Uruguay -
Venezuela -

(I realise there is some debate about which countries are in the Middle East vs. Asia -- I just went via the first sources I found)

Middle East:

Akrotiri and Dheklia -
Bahrain -
Cyprus -
Egypt -
Iran - Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Iraq -
Israel -
Jordan -
Kuwait -
Lebanon -
Oman -
Palestine - You Exist Too Much
Qatar -
Saudi Arabia -
Syria -
Turkey -
United Arab Emirates -
Yemen -


Asia:

Afghanistan -
Armenia -
Azerbaijan -
Bangladesh -
Bhutan -
Brunei -
Cambodia -
China - Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
Georgia -
India -
Indonesia -
Japan - Never Let Me Go
Kazakhstan -
[Korea, Democratic People’s Republic Of (North Korea) - ]
Kyrgyzstan -
Laos -
Malaysia -
Mongolia -
Myanmar (Burma) -
Nepal -
Pakistan -
Philippines -
Republic of Korea (South Korea) - Greek Lessons
Singapore -
Sri Lanka -
Taiwan -
Tajikistan -
Thailand -
Timor-Leste -
Turkmenistan -
Uzbekistan -
Vietnam -

Africa:

Algeria -
Angola -
Benin -
Botswana -
Burkina Faso -
Burudini -
Cabo Verde -
Cameroon -
Central African Republic -
Chad -
Comoros -
Congo, Democratic Republic of the -
Congo, Republic of the -
Cote d’Ivoire -
Djibouti -
Equatorial Guinea -
Eritrea -
Eswatini -
Ethiopia -
Gabon -
Gambia -
Ghana -
Guinea -
Guinea-Bissau -
Kenya -
Lesotho -
Liberia -
Libya -
Madagascar -
Malawi -
Mali -
Mauritania -
Mauritius -
Morocco -
Mozambique -
Namibia -
Niger -
Nigeria -
Rwanda -
Sao Tome and Principe -
Senegal -
Seychelles -
Sierra Leone -
Somalia -
South Africa -
South Sudan -
Sudan -
Tanzania -
Togo -
Tunisia -
Uganda -
Zambia -
Zimbabwe -

Claire, you are so ambitious! For Cambodia, I recommend In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner. And for Ethiopia, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Both of these are fairly recent, but very impactful novels.8

Terry wrote: "Claire, you are so ambitious! For Cambodia, I recommend In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner. And for Ethiopia, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Both of these are fairly recent, but v..."

Thank you, Terry! I will definitely look into these! I have finally found at least one book for each country. Just need to update this thread :)