Russian War Literature

After informing you about Russian Children's literature and Russian Sci-Fi, I'm now going to make a list of Russian war literature. Judging by what I see people read about World War II around blogosphere it's as if Russia was not taking part in it, or Russia don't have writers, or people just don't know about all the wonderful books on the topic! Being a clever girl, I ruled out the first two possibilities and was left with a sad fact that readers are not acquainted with Russian war literature enough. (UPD: while searching for translations I realized that it's actually the publishers that are not acquainted with it enough. If you happen to know a publisher, please do everybody a favour and show him this list!)

So I've decided to list all the awesome books that tell first hand about the terrible period of WWII in Russia. But I needed some help myself remembering everything, so I asked my mom during my Christmas trip home, and being a seasoned bookworm, bookhoarder and an expert in Soviet literature, she was eager to help. Then I consulted my very well-read BF, who also added a couple of books. So here is the result of our combined efforts. I've sorted it according to the authors' last names and provided the most common translations of the titles.

1. Abramov, Fyodor Aleksandrovich: Brothers and Sisters (1958) WWII from the point of view of a small village that needs not only to take care of its own needs, but also provide for the war in the absence of all its men.
2. Bondarev, Yuri Vasilyevich: The Battalions Request Fire (1957), The Hot Snow (1969), The Shore (1975) The last one is a bit philosophical and very heartbreaking. The other two are extremely famous and tell about some of the hottest WWII battles in Russia.
3. Chukovsky, Nicolay Korneevich: Baltic Skies (1955) The story of the pilots defending Leningrad during its siege.
4. Fadeyev, Alexander Alexandrovich: The Young Guard (1945) An account of the actions of a youth partisan organization. Idealized, of course, but really engaging.
5. German, Yuri Pavlovich: The Cause You Serve, My Dear Man, I'm Responsible For All (1958-1965) Although only the second book is about war, it’s a trilogy, so you’d better start from the beginning. It’s about a doctor who worked in the East before war and then became a war surgeon.
6. Granin, Daniil Alexandrovich: A Book of the Blockade (1979) A chronicle based on interviews, diaries and personal memoirs of those who survived the siege of Leningrad during 1941-44. It’s very difficult to read because of all the horrors of the time, and I confess I’ve read only parts of it. But I promise I’ll do better, because it’s essential. My Lieutenant (2011) is one of his later works, and I haven’t read it yet, but my mom says it’s good. Basically, grab any book by him if you see it, he’s great.
7. Grossman, Vasily Semyonovich: Life and Fate (1959) An epic novel focusing on the battle of Stalingrad
8. Ilyina, Elena: The Fourth Height (1945) It’s my favourite childhood book which I have re-read several times. It’s a biography of a war hero Gulya Koroleva from her childhood to her heroic death in a battle.
9. Kataev, Valentin Petrovich: Son of the Regiment (1945) About a boy adopted by a regiment. I have wonderful childhood memories of it!
10. Kaverin, Veniamin Alexandrovich: The Two Captains (1944) An awesome novel about polar exploration, love and treason, which ends in the period of WWII.
11. Kurochkin, Viktor Aleksandrovich: At War as at War (1970) How a young war academy graduate gains appreciation from his older and more experienced subordinates and becomes a real commander.
12. Matveev, German Ivanovich: Tarantul trilogy (1945-1957) It’s about boys against saboteurs in a sieged Leningrad! Suspense, adventure, mystery, danger! 
13. Medvedev, Dmitry Nikolaevich: It Happened Near Rovno (1948) A story about a special troop of scouts and saboteurs working in the rear of German army.
14. Nekrasov, Viktor Platonovich: Front-line Stalingrad (In the trenches of Stalingrad) (1946) A first-hand account of one of the most bloody battles of the war - the battle of Stalingrad
15. Panova, Vera Fyodorovna: The Train (1946) About a medical train and its nurses.
16. Pikul, Valentin Savvich: The Requiem for Convoy PQ-17 (1970), Boys with bows (1974) The first is a “documental tragedy” of one of the Arctic convoys, destroyed by German submarines and aviation. The second is autobiographical and tells about a sea cadet’s school.
17. Polevoi, Boris Nikolaevich: Story of a Real Man (1947) The book is about a pilot who started flying again after the amputation of two legs. Mostly about strong character, and very impressive!
18. Semyonov, Yulian Semyonovich: Seventeen Moments of Spring (1969) and all the rest of The “Isaev – Stierlitz” Series. Spy fiction, guys! And watch the mini-series of the same name, it’s awesome.
19. Sholokhov, Mikhail Aleksandrovich: They Fought for Their Country (1969) A novel about the first, the hardest and the bitterest period of war – the period of retreat. Sholokhov won a Nobel prize for literature, so don’t miss on him!
20. Simonov, Konstantin Mikhailovich: The Living and the Dead (1959) Simonov was a war journalist, so not only has he been everywhere and seen everything, he also really can write.
21. Tvardovsky, Aleksandr Trifonovich: A Book About a Soldier (Vasili Tyorkin) (1942-45) A humorous and optimistic poem about an ordinary soldier, resourceful and plain, going resiliently through the everyday hardships of the war. A streak of comedy in all the tragedy!
22. Vasilyev, Boris Lvovich: The Dawns Here Are Quiet (1972), Not on the Active List (1974), Tomorrow There Came War (1984) or really anything you can find by him. He’s awesome. I was crying like mad while reading The Dawns Here Are Quiet.

I hope this list will encourage you to pick some of the books that are not only great sources for learning about the Russian take on WWII, but are also literary and psychological masterpieces.

P.S. Special kudos for those who know what ribbon is used as a bookmark in the picture :) For those who have no idea, here's the link.

The Arthurian Literature Reading Challenge 2014

This awesome challenge is hosted by Jean at Howling Frog Books, and if you want to know more and sign up (and believe me, you do!), please go HERE.

I'm super-excited about it, and I hope to do the Paladin level, which requires reading more than 6 works, two of which may be Recent (1950+) and two must be Old (pre-1800). What books am I planning to read in particular? Below I've listed what seems to me to be the most important works in Arthurian canon. There are much more, but those in the list are famous and/or classical. (I couldn't use English Wikipedia page, because it's too overwhelming, so I used the Russian one instead.)

Some of the books from the list I have read before, but I've still put them here for consistency's sake. I'm planning to go through the ones I haven't read in chronological order until I'm run out of enthusiasm or unless I have to skip something because of its insufferable nature (The Faerie Queene, I'm looking at you). We'll see how many I'll get through by the end of next year :) I'll track my progress here and link my reviews to this list.

1. Historia Brittonum attributed to Nennius (9th century)
2. The works of Geoffrey of Monmouth:
· The History of the Kings of Britain (1136)
· Life of Merlin (1150)
3. Mabinogion by Anonymous (14th century)
4. The poems of Chrétien de Troyes:
· Erec and Enide (circa 1170s)
· Cligés (circa 1170s)
· Yvain, the Knight of the Lion (circa 1180s)
· Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart (circa 1180s)
· Perceval, the Story of the Grail (circa 1190)
5. The poems of Hartmann von Aue:
· Iwein (late 12th century)
· Erec (late 12th century)
6. Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach (c. 1210s)
7. Lancelot-Grail by Anonymous (c. 1210s-1230s)
· Estoire del Saint Grail
· Estoire de Merlin
· Lancelot propre
· Queste del Saint Graal
· Mort Artu
8. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by The Pearl Poet (14th century)
9. Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (1485)
10. The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser 1590
11. Idylls of the King by Alfred  by Lord Tennyson (1856–1885)
12. King Arthur by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1848–9)
13. The Defence of Guenevere by William Morris (1892)
14. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (1889)
15. The Once and Future King by T. H. White
· The Sword in the Stone (1938)
· The Queen of Air and Darkness (or The Witch in the Wood) (1939)
· The Ill-Made Knight (1940)
· The Candle in the Wind (1958)
· The Book of Merlyn (1958)
16. The Merlin series by Mary Stewart
· The Crystal Cave (1970)
· The Hollow Hills (1973)
· The Last Enchantment (1979)
· The Wicked Day (1983)
· The Prince and the Pilgrim (1995)
17. The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck (1975)
18. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (1983)
19. The Coming of the King: The First Book of Merlin by Nikolai Tolstoy (1988)
20. The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell
· The Winter King (1995)
· Enemy of God (1996)
· Excalibur (1997)

What do you think of the list? Haven't I left out something important or awesome? I can't wait to kick the challenge off! :)

My Own Definitive Science Fiction List With Blackjack And Hookers

In preparation for Carl's Sci-Fi Experience and The Vintage Sci-Fi Month, I'm joining Rinn's Sci-Fi Challenge, because I rather like her definitive list. I've learned about this challenge from Riv, who has posted her own list here, with some awesome additions.

So for my own version I'm keeping the books from both Rinn's and Riv's lists, with the addition of some of my own favourites. I've made this list even more representative of Soviet/Russian Sci-Fi, because heck, I know a thing or two about it! I was trying to behave and not to put all Lukyanenko, Strugatsky brothers and Belayev there, although it was really hard to choose just one or two of their books. I hope you find something new here, and as for me, I'm on my way to fill the gaps and read the books that are not crossed out yet :)

'Classic' science fiction
1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
2. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
3. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
4. The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
5. Amphibian Man by Alexander Belayev
6. Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
7. Abduction of a Sorcerer by Kir Bulychov
8. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
9. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
10. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
11. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
12. R.U.R. by Karel Čapek
13. The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
14. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
15. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
16. Dune by Frank Herbert
17. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
18. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
19. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
20. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
21. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
22. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
23. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
24. Ringworld by Larry Niven
25. The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven
26. Sannikov Land by Vladimir Obruchev
27. 1984 by George Orwell
28. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
29. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
30. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
31. Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
32. Hard to Be a God by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
33. Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
34. The Garin Death Ray by Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy
35. Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
36. Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
37. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
38. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
39. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
40. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
41. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
42. We by Yevgeni Zamyatin

Newer science fiction
43. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Attwood
44. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
45. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
46. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
47. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
48. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
49. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
50. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
51. Guardians of Paradise by Jaine Fenn
52. Neuromancer by William Gibson
53. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
54. Labyrinth of Reflections by Sergei Lukyanenko
55. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
56. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
57. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
58. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
59. The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
60. House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
61. Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
62. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
63. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
64. Old Man's War by John Scalzi
65. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
66. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
67. Mockingbird by Walter Tevis

Young Adult science fiction
68. Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson
69. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
70. Breathe by Sarah Crossan
71. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
72. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
73. Earth Girl by Janet Edwards
74. Legend by Marie Lu
75. Cinder by Melissa Meyer
76. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
77. Across the Universe by Beth Revis
78. Divergent by Veronica Roth
79. All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
80. What's Left Of Me by Kat Zhang

Sooo, what do you think about this list? Sounds great, right? :)

R2D2 is approving:

source

Back to the Classics 2013 Wrap-up

I have finished Back to the Classics challenge! I've completed not only the required categories, but also all the optional ones, which means I've earned 3 entries. Sometimes I entered a book for a category and then changed it, because I read something more suitable and it'd be a shame not to have it in the final list, so sometimes I even have two books linked in some of the categories. However, there is only one book left in each category in the final list: 

The Required Categories:

1. A 19th Century Classic: The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
2. A 20th Century Classic: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
3. A Pre-18th or 18th Century Classic: Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos 
4. A Classic that relates to the African-American Experience: Light in August by William Faulkner
5. A Classic Adventure: Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Bernard Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
6. A Classic that prominently features an Animal: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Optional Categories:

1. Re-read a Classic: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
2. A Russian Classic: The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
3. A Classic Non-Fiction title: Philosophical works by Kant and Rousseau
4. A Classic Children's/Young Adult title: The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame
5. Classic Short Stories: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

I've really enjoyed the challenge and am looking forward to signing for 2014 version!

P.S. I have signed up as Arenel @ Slightly Cultural, Most Thoughtful and Inevitably Irrelevant, but then linked my Google account and changed my blog name, so later entries are signed Ekaterina @ In My Book.

The Classics Spin #3

It is the third Classics Club Spin already, but it is the second for me, and I hope it'll be the first one I actually succeed in :) I failed miserably in the first spin, because I had some bad luck and I got Middlemarch, which is not only over 900 pages long, but is also not gripping enough to make me finish all these 900 pages in a month and a half during university semester. I read the first part and I haven't picked it up again since. I was actually so ashamed of it that I didn't participate in the second spin, which I regret. But now I'm fully recovered, have some time and will give it another try! To make things simpler, I'll just take the list for the first spin and change the books I have already read since then to other books from my Classics Club list. So here goes:

5 I can't wait to read:

1) Eco, Umberto: The Name of the Rose Austen, Jane: Mansfield Park

2) Fitzgerald, F. Scott: The Great Gatsby Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women

3) Maugham, W. Somerset: Of Human Bondage

4) Waugh, Evelyn: Brideshead Revisited

5) Woolf, Virginia: Mrs. Dalloway Hardy, Thomas: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

5 I'm hesitant to read:

6) Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales

7) Joyce James: Ulysses

8) Milton, John: Paradise Lost

9) Hugo, Victor: Les Miserables

10) Ovid: Metamorphoses

5 I really don't know what to expect from

11) Stoppard, Tom: Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead

12) Rand, Ayn: Atlas Shrugged

13) Du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca

14) Eliot, George: Middlemarch - now I know!! But I'll let it be :)

15) Apuleius, Lucius: The Golden Ass

1 I just can't finish:

16) One Thousand and One Nights - still cannot finish it! But I'm 75% done with it already which means there are only about 700 pages left, what a trifle :)

4 Random:

17) Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations

18) Twain, Mark: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

19) Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Lost World

20) Kerouac, Jack: On the Road Radcliffe, Anne: The Mysteries of Udolpho

Source

Once Upon a Time VII Wrap-Up

Once Upon a Time challenge at Stainless Steel Droppings was a very nice event - no stress, but motivated me to pick up some great books. Now it is finished, and I want to recap what I have read for the challenge.

My goal was to complete Quest the First, that is simply to read 5 books falling somewhere into the categories, but I ended up completing Quest the Third, which means I not only read 5 books for the challenge (more in fact!), but I also read at least one book for each of the categories (fantasy, folklore, fairy tale, mythology) and topped it off with A Midsummer Night's Dream.

So here is what I read with the category I count it for in brackets:

1. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin (fantasy)
2. Oedipus the King by Sophocles (mythology)
3. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett (fantasy)
4. Mabinogion (folklore)
5. Stardust by Neil Gaiman (fairy tale)
6. Harry Potter y la cámara secreta by J. K. Rowling (fairy tale)
7. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (fantasy)
8. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (fairy tale)

The event was fun, and I will definitely participate in it in the years to come! Thanks for hosting it, Carl!

Once Upon a Time VII Master Post

Once Upon a Time challenge at Stainless Steel Droppings suits my spring yearning for escapism very well! So here I am, putting aside all the classics I can't focus on now, and indulging in fantasy, Sci-Fi, and whatever takes me far from our world :)

The challenge runs from March 21st through June 21st and has several levels of participation. I'm up to...

which means reading at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time categories. They might all be fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology…or a combination from the four genres.

I will use this post as a master post for the challenge and keep a list of all the books read for the challenge.

Books read:

1. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin (fantasy)
2. Oedipus the King by Sophocles (mythology)
3. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett (fantasy)
4. Mabinogion (folklore, mythology)
5. Stardust by Neil Gaiman (fairy tale, fantasy)
6. Harry Potter y la cámara secreta by J. K. Rowling (fantasy)
7. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (fantasy)
8. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (fairy tale)

The Classics Club Group Check-In #2

It's time for the second Classics Club group check-in! It's half a year since I joined the club, and I've enjoyed the experience and the community so far!

As for now my list consists of 63 books, and I've already finished 9 of them! And here's the list:

1. Shakespeare, William: Macbeth
2. Shakespeare, William: Twelfth Night 
3. Balzac, Honore: Eugenie Grandet
4. Dickens, Charles: A Christmas Carol
5. Hoffmann, E. T. A.: The Life And Opinions Of the Tomcat Murr
6. Melville, Herman: Moby Dick
7. Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World
8. Mann, Thomas: Death in Venice
9. Williams, Tennessee: A Streetcar Named Desire

As you can see, the most difficult here is probably Moby Dick, and I'm really proud of making it through it! But I can say that I enjoyed pretty much all of the books I read) 

I'm currently in the middle of 2 books: One Thousand and One Nights and The Old Curiousity Shop. The former is there in my reader for almost a year, but it's over 3000 pages, and though quite delightful at times, is really very tiring too. The later is the unhappy Dickens I picked in December and which I still can't finish because I just get irritated with stupid meek Nell and her grumpy gambling grandfather all the time.

I'm looking forward to crossing out some (hopefully!) shorter and more dynamic modernist books from my list in March, but really I'm not very good at planning. So far I'm quite content with my progress on the list, so we'll see if I can actually finish it in 5 years =) Wish me good luck!

The Classics Spin!

The Classics Club is organizing a fun event called The Classics Spin! The rules are easy:

• Go to your blog.
• Pick twenty books that you’ve got left to read from your Classics Club List.
• Try to challenge yourself: list five you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favorite author, rereads, ancients — whatever you choose.)
• Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog by next Monday.
• Monday morning, we’ll announce a number from 1-20. Go to the list of twenty books you posted, and select the book that corresponds to the number we announce.
• The challenge is to read that book by April 1, even if it’s an icky one you dread reading! (No fair not listing any scary ones!)

That's real fun, so I'm joining, and here's my list:

5 I can't wait to read:

1) Eco, Umberto: The Name of the Rose

2) Fitzgerald, F. Scott: The Great Gatsby

3) Maugham, W. Somerset: Of Human Bondage

4) Waugh, Evelyn: Brideshead Revisited

5) Woolf, Virginia: Mrs. Dalloway

5 I'm hesitant to read:

6) Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales

7) Joyce James: Ulysses

8) Milton, John: Paradise Lost

9) Hugo, Victor: Les Miserables

10) Ovid: Metamorphoses

5 I really don't know what to expect from

11) Stoppard, Tom: Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead

12) Rand, Ayn: Atlas Shrugged

13) Du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca

14) Eliot, George: Middlemarch

15) Apuleius, Lucius: The Golden Ass

1 I just can't finish:

16) One Thousand and One Nights

4 Random:

17) Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations

18) Twain, Mark: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

19) Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Lost World

20) Kerouac, Jack: On the Road

So now I'm keeping my fingers crossed while waiting for February 18. Hope it'll be something nice!) But even if it isn't I'll still make some progress, and this is a good thing!

------------------------

UPD! The chosen number is 14!
Which means I'll read Middlemarch by George Eliot before April 1st. Well, it's not a bad choice at all!

Russian Classic (pre-1960) Children's Literature

Classic Children’s Literature Challenge is already here, and I've decided to participate also by committing a list of less known Russian Classic Children's literature. I've chosen the books I personally like, which are also translated into English (the corresponding titles are taken from Wikipedia). The books are organized chronologically. I hope this list will encourage someone to explore these wonderful books!


XIX Century

Krylov, Ivan Andreyevich: fables
He takes a lot from Esop and Lafonten, of course, but his fables are somewhat different and more funny than theirs. So it's a lighter read and perfect fore children!

Pogorelsky, Antony: Black Hen, or Living Underground (1829)
An early fantasy story which it not like anything I've ever read. I remember how long it troubled my imagination after I read it as a child, so I plan to re-read it sometime.

Pushkin, Alexander Sergeyevich: The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda (1830), The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1831), The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish (1833), The Tale of the Dead Princess (1833), The Tale of the Golden Cockerel (1834)
Who doesn't know these? =) If you are interested in children's or Russian literature (or both), it's a must!

Yershov, Pyotr Pavlovich: The Little Humpbacked Horse (1834)
A traditional fairy-tale in literary adaptation. A good introduction to the rich Russian fairy-tales heritage.

Tolstoy, Lev Nikolayevich: Childhood (1852)

It's not a light read at all, as the childhood he describes is full of sorrows and difficulties. But it's amazing how Tolstoy allows you to see the world with child's eyes. And you can always boast you know something else by him, apart from War and Peace =)

Aksakov, Sergey Timofeyevich: The Scarlet Flower (1858)

Another literary adaptation of a fairy-tale. One of my favourite!

XX Century

Olesha, Yury Karlovich: Three Fat Men (1924)
A somewhat political and revolutionist fairy-tale, but well written and full of adventures. When I read it I was of course aware of the propaganda in it, but it didn't spoil the book at all.

Kassil, Lev Abramovich: The Black Book and Schwambrania (1933)
That's my personal favourite! Set in the pre-revolutionary Russia, the book tells about normal schoolboys and the country they created for themselves in their imagination. But as world around them changes, the dreams make way for reality, which is not so perfect. But their fantasy land will stay with them and help them survive.

Kataev, Valentin Petrovich: A White Sail Gleams (1936)
Again a story about the life of schoolboys in the whirl of revolution. You immediately connect with the main characters, and you can't put the book down! 

Gaidar, Arkady: The Blue Cup (1936), Chuk and Gek (1939), Timur and his Gang (1940), stories
Gaidar wrote short stories which to someone may seem to have too much moral in them. Well, maybe. But they are still very nice and have quite fascinating adventures in them. And Timur from Timur and his Gang was my first literary love ever =)

Lagin, Lazar Yosifovych: The Old Genie Hottabych (1937)
What would a normal schoolboy do if he finds a jinn, who has spent millions of years in a bottle and is now willing to serve his savior? You'll see =) A VERY funny book!

Bazhov, Pavel: The Malachite Casket (1939), The Mistress of the Copper Mountain, tales
The magic of the old legends of Ural, where malachite is the main trade and business. The mood of the stories is really unique, and they are just fascinating.

Volkov, Alexander Melentyevich: The Wizard of the Emerald City (1939) (plus the rest of the Magic Land series: Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers (1963), The Seven Underground Kings (1964), The Fiery God of the Marrans (1968), The Yellow Fog (1970), The Secret of the Abandoned Castle (1982))
This is an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, and to my mind it's much better than the original. You may have fun finding the differences between two books, but sometimes they are so much different, that you can just think of them as of two absolutely different literary works. I've read it hundreds of times, and the series is my absolute favourite!

Rybakov, Anatoly: The Dirk (1948), The Bronze Bird (1956)
It's very like Harry Potter, only without magic =) But the realism of the situation makes it even better! There is a mystery which a group of children tries to solve, and it gets more and more dangerous! Rybakov is more famous for his "adult" writings, Children of Arbat being the most famous, but these books are in some aspects even better.

Gubarev, Vitali Georgievich: Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors (1951)
This is again a fantasy book about a girl getting in the country behind the mirror. Sound familiar?) But this one is far more sane and full of adventures. Oh, have I mentioned that her reflection travels with her and has all her nasty traits of character which she can observe and enjoy? Well, that's what mirror is for)

Nosov, Nikolay Nikolaevich: The Adventures of Dunno and his Friends (1954) (plus the rest of the series: Dunno in Sun City (1958), Dunno on the Moon (1966))

First two are books for small children with a lot of funny and harmless adventures. But the last one (well, it doesn't really fits into pre-1960 rule, but still) is a real children's sci-fi and dystopian novel! Boring to read as a child, but as an adult I quite enjoyed it.

A lot of attention was put to children's education in Russia and especially in Soviet Union, so many famous authors wrote for children and there are a lot of unforgettible books to be found in the field. So I'll be happy if this small guide helps you find some good books if you feel interested, and I'll be very happy to read your thoughts on these books if you've read them or if you will read them!

Team 1001 Introductory Post

Beginning from 17.09.14 all the challenge updates are moved to a SEPARATE PAGE

Great news! Rachel at Resistance is futile is gathering a team for a long-lasting project of reading books from  the 1001 list! She plans to link all the members' reviews to the list and make quarterly update memes. You can read the rules and join here.

Now, I've been interested in the list for quite some time, and I'm keeping my own list here. So I think that to create a group for this is a great idea!

I'll use this post as a master and link my reviews (or something) here, bit I'll still keep the list at Google Drive, as it is very convenient.

The books I've read so far:

1. Aesop's Fables - Aesop (c.4th BC)
2. The Golden Ass - Apuleius (c.260)
3. The Thousand And One Nights - Anonymous (c.850)
4. The Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter - Anonymous (c.900)
5. The Tale Of Genji - Murasaki Shikibu (c.1000)
6. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe (1719)
7. Candide - Voltaire (1759)
8. The Castle Of Otranto - Horace Walpole (1765)
9. The Sorrows Of Young Werther - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1774)
10. Dangerous Liaisons - Pierre Choderlos De Laclos (1782)
11. The Mysteries Of Udolpho - Ann Radcliffe (1794)
12. Sense And Sensibility - Jane Austen (1811)
13. Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen (1813)
14. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen (1814)
15. Persuasion - Jane Austen (1818)
16. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen (1818)
17. Frankenstein - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1818)
18. The Life And Opinions Of The Tomcat Murr - E T A Hoffmann (1820)
19. Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott (1820)
20. The Red And The Black - Stendhal (1831)
21. The Hunchback Of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo (1831)
22. Eugene Onegin - Alexander Pushkin (1833)
23. Eugenie Grandet - Honore De Balzac (1834)
24. Le Pere Goriot - Honore De Balzac (1834-5)
25. The Nose - Nikolay Gogol (1836)
26. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (1838)
27. The Fall Of The House of Usher - Edgar Allan Poe (1839)
28. The Charterhouse Of Parma - Stendhal (1839)
29. A Hero Of Our Time - Mikhail Lermontov (1840)
30. Dead Souls - Nikolay Gogol (1842)
31. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (1843)
32. The Pit And The Pendulum - Edgar Allan Poe (1843)
33. The Purloined Letter - Edgar Allan Poe (1844)
34. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (1844)
35. The Count Of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (1845-6)
36. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (1847)
37. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (1847)
38. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (1847)
39. Moby Dick - Herman Melville (1851)
40. Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)
41. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (1857)
42. Oblomovka - Ivan Goncharov (1859)
43. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (1859)
44. The Woman In White - Wilkie Collins (1860)
45. On The Eve - Ivan Turgenev (1860)
46. Fathers And Sons - Ivan Turgenev (1862)
47. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (1865)
48. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott (1868)
49. The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins (1868)
50. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky (1868-9)
51. War And Peace - Leo Tolstoy (1869)
52. Through The Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll (1871)
53. Spring Torrents - Ivan Turgenev (1872)
54. The Enchanted Wanderer - Nicolai Leskov (1873)
55. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (1877)
56. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)
57. Bel-Ami - Guy De Maupassant (1885)
58. The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (1885)
59. Germinal - Emile Zola (1885)
60. Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
61. The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
62. The Master Of Ballantrae - Robert Louis Stevenson (1889)
63. The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (1891)
64. The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)
65. The Time Machine - H G Wells (1895)
66. The Island Of Dr Moreau - H G Wells (1896)
67. Dracula - Bram Stoker (1897)
68. The Invisible Man - H G Wells (1897)
69. The War Of The Worlds - H G Wells (1898)
70. The Hound Of The Baskervilles - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)
71. Call Of The Wild - Jack London (1903)
72. The Forsythe Saga - John Galsworthy (1906)
73. Death In Venice - Thomas Mann (1912)
74. Crome Yellow - Aldous Huxley (1921)
75. We - Yevgeny Zamiatin (1924)
76. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
77. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf (1925)
78. The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie (1926)
79. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf (1927)
80. Decline And Fall - Evelyn Waugh (1928)
81. Lady Chatterley's Lover - D H Lawrence (1928)
82. All Quiet On The Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque (1929)
83. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1932)
84. Tender Is The Night - F Scott Fitzgerald (1934)
85. Tropic Of Cancer - Henry Miller (1934)
86. At The Mountains Of Madness - H P Lovecraft (1936)
87. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (1936)
88. The Hobbit - J R R Tolkein (1937)
89. Chess Story (The Royal Game) - Stefan Zweig (1942)
90. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1943)
91. Ficciones - Jorge Luis Borges (1944)
92. Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren (1944)
93. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh (1945)
94. Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake (1946)
95. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell (1949)
96. I, Robot - Isaac Asimov (1950)
97. The Catcher In The Rye - J D Salinger (1951)
98. Foundation - Isaac Asimov (1951)
99. The Old Man And The Sea - Ernest Hemingway (1952)
100. Lord Of The Flies - William Golding (1954)
101. The Lord Of The Rings - J R R Tolkein (1954-56)
102. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
103. Justine - Lawrence Durrell (1957)
104. Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak (1957)
105. On The Road - Jack Kerouac (1957)
106. Homo Faber - Max Frisch (1957)
107. The Once And Future King - T H White (1958)
108. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee (1960)
109. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess (1962)
110. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - Ken Kesey (1962)
111. One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzheitsyn (1963)
112. Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut (1963)
113. The Master And Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov (1967)
114. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? - Philip K Dick (1968)
115. 2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C Clarke (1968)
116. Cancer Ward - Aleksandr Solzheitsyn (1968)
117. The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles (1969)
118. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr (1969)
119. The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams (1979)
120. If On A Winter's Night A Traveller - Italo Calvino (1979)
121. The Name Of The Rose - Umberto Eco (1980)
122. Perfume - Patrick Suskind (1985)
123. Beloved - Toni Morrison (1987)
124. Disgrace - J M Coetzee (1999)
125. Choke - Chuck Palahniuk (2001)

The books I tried but did not finish for various reasons:

1. Romance Of The Three Kingdoms - Luo Guanzhong (c.1300)
2. The Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan (1678-84)
3. The 120 Days Of Sodom - Marquis de Sade (1785)
4. Last Of The Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper (1826)
5. Crime And Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)

2013 Challenges

I'll just put them all here in no particular order with rules and my intentions.

What's in a Name Challenge 2013

Between January 1 and December 31, 2013, read one book in each of the following categories:

• A book with up or down (or equivalent) in the title: Deep down True, The Girl Below, The Diva Digs up the Dirt
• A book with something you'd find in your kitchen in the title: Loose Lips Sink Ships, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Breadcrumbs
• A book with a party or celebration in the title: A Feast for Crows, A Wedding in Haiti, Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness
• A book with fire (or equivalent) in the title: Burning for Revenge, Fireworks over Toccoa, Catching Fire
• A book with an emotion in the title: Baltimore Blues, Say You're Sorry, Dreams of Joy
• A book with lost or found (or equivalent) in the title: The Book of Lost Fragrances, The World We Found, A Discovery of Witches

Books may be any form (audio, print, e-book), books may overlap other challenges, books may not overlap categories. Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed but encouraged. You do not have to make a list of books before hand and you do not have to read through the categories in any particular order.

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

The Colorful Reading Challenge 2013

The Colorful Reading Challenge is simple:

1. Just choose 9 books with colors in the titles.
2. The books can overlap with other reading challenges (because let's face it, we need them to.)
3. Post your links to your reviews each month to share with other participants.
4. The challenge runs from January 1, 2013 to December 1, 2013.
5. Read to your heart's content!

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

  Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge 2013: Scattergories

This challenge runs from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013. All novels must have been originally written before 1960 and be from the mystery category. To complete the challenge you need to read books from minimum 8 of the following categories:

1. Colorful Crime: a book with a color or reference to color in the title
2. Murder by the Numbers: a book with a number, quantity in the title
3. Amateur Night: a book with a "detective" who is not a P.I.; Police Officer; Official Investigator (Nurse Keate, Father Brown, Miss Marple, etc.)
4. Leave It to the Professionals: a book featuring cops, private eyes, secret service, professional spies, etc.
5. Jolly Old England: one mystery set in Britain
6. Yankee Doodle Dandy: one mystery set in the United States
7. World Traveler: one mystery set in any country except the US or Britain
8. Dangerous Beasts: a book with an animal in the title (The Case of the Grinning Gorilla; The Canary Murder Case; etc.)
9. A Calendar of Crime: a mystery with a date/holiday/year/month/etc. in the title (Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Holiday Homicide, etc.)
10. Wicked Women: a book with a woman in the title--either by name (Mrs. McGinty's Dead) or by reference (The Case of the Vagabound Virgin)
11. Malicious Men: a book with a man in the title--either by name (Maigret & the Yellow Dog) or by reference (The Case of the Haunted Husband)
12. Murderous Methods: a book with a means of death in the title (The Noose, 5 Bullets, Deadly Nightshade, etc).
13. Staging the Crime: a mystery set in the entertainment world (the theater, musical event, a pageant, Hollywood, featuring a magician, etc)
14. Scene of the Crime: a book with the location of the crime in the title (The Body in the Library, Murder at the Vicarage, etc.)
15. Cops & Robbers: a book that features a theft rather than murder
16. Locked Rooms: a locked-room mystery
17. Country House Criminals: a standard (or not-so-standard) Golden Age country house murder
18. Murder on the High Seas: a mystery involving water
19. Planes, Trains & Automobiles: a mystery that involves a mode of transportation in a vital way--explicitly in the title (Murder on the Orient Express) or by implication (Death in the Air; Death Under Sail) or perhaps the victim was shoved under a bus....
20. Murder Is Academic: a mystery involving a scholar, teacher, librarian, etc. OR set at a school, university, library, etc.
21. Things That Go Bump in the Night: a mystery with something spooky, creepy, gothic in the title (The Skeleton in the Clock, Haunted Lady, The Bat, etc.)
22. Repeat Offenders: a mystery featuring your favorite series detective or by your favorite author (the books/authors you'd read over and over again) OR reread an old favorite
23. The Butler Did It...Or Not: a mystery where the butler is the victim, the sleuth....(gasp) the criminal....or is just downright memorable for whatever reason.
24. A Mystery By Any Other Name: any book that has been published under more than one title (Murder Is Easy--aka Easy to Kill [Christie];Fog of Doubt--aka London Particular [Christianna Brand], etc.)
25. Dynamic Duos: a mystery featuring a detective team--Holmes & Watson, Pam & Jerry North, Wolfe & Goodwin, or....a little-known team that you introduce to us.
26. Size Matters: a book with a size or measurement in the title (Death Has a Small Voice, The Big Four, The Weight of the Evidence, etc.)
27. Psychic Phenomena: a mystery featuring a seance, medium, hypnotism, or other psychic or "supernatural" characters/events
28. Book to Movie: one vintage mystery that has appeared on screen (feature film or TV movie).
29. The Old Bailey: a courtroom drama mystery (Perry Mason, anyone?Witness for the Prosecution...etc.) 
30. Get Out of Jail Free: This is a freebie category. One per customer. You tell me what special category the book fits ("It's got an awesome cover!"..."First book I grabbed off my shelf") and it counts. Only thing I won't take is "It's a Vintage Mystery!"--that's a given. :-)

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

Books On France 2013 Reading Challenge

For this challenge all books related to France count: 

• it can be set in France,
• written by a French author,
• written in French (not Canadian French),
• about a French theme: French cuisine (how the French influenced American cuisine is accepted for instance), French fashion, etc.

I'm going to go for level 2, “beaucoup”= 6 books, which is enough for the beginning, I think.

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

New Authors Challenge 2013

Guidelines:

• The challenge will run from January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2013.
• Since this is an author challenge, there is no restriction on choosing your novels. They can definitely be from other challenges. However, the authors must be new to you and, preferably from novels.
• Anthologies are a great way to try someone new, but only a third of your new authors can be from anthologies.

I'm going to try 25 new authors in 2013.

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

Narrative Poem Reading Challenge 2013

Rules:

• The challenge will start on January 2013 and end on December 2013.
• Only narrative poems will be counted. If it's just a good poem, but not a narrative poem, it doesn't count.
• The length of the poems may vary, from long epics such as Illiad and Odyssey to Poe's The Raven. Don't worry about it. If you read a collection of narrative poems, you may write a review for each poem or as a group of it. But please put all reviews in the master post that will come later on..

I am aiming at Orpheus level (5 – 8 narrative poems) and here is the list of boos I plan to read for the challenge (may change!):

• Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales
• Ovid: Metamorphoses
• Milton, John: Paradise Lost
• Scott, Sir Walter: The Lady of the Lake
• Virgil: Aeneid
• Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Re-read some Scandinavian mythology or Tolkien (?)

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

2013 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge

Reading Challenge Details:

• Runs January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2013 (books read prior to 1/1/2013 do not count towards the challenge).
• The goal is to outdo yourself by reading more books in 2013 than you did in 2012. You can move up a level as often as you’d like but no moving down.
• Books can be any format (bound, ebook, audio).
• Novellas that are at least 100 pages in length, as well as full-length novels, will count for this reading challenge.
• Re-reads and crossovers from other reading challenges are allowed.

I'm going for "Out of breath" level, which is to read 6-10 more books in 2013 than in 2012. I'll fill in the concrete number by the end of 2012.

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

 

2013 Ebook Challenge

It's not actually a challenge for me, as I read mostly on my Sony reader, but... it can be fun! I've chosen level 4 - Memory stick – 50 ebooks, but I hope I'll be able to go up to the next level with 75 ebooks. I will not plan my books in advance, but I'll submit reviews.

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge

The task is to read one book each month whose title includes one or more of the key words for that month.
A title can be a variation on one of the key words. For example, a title could include the word 'snowing' or 'snowflake' even though the key word is 'snow.' Key words can be tweaked. For example, "Cinder" or "Ashes" can count for the key word 'Fire' and that would be just fine. If the key word is 'family' then a title could include the word 'sister' or 'mother.' If the key word is 'food' then a title could include the word 'cake.'

Monthly Key Words:


To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

Around the World in 80 Books Challenge

Around the World in 80 Books Reading Challenge

You would probably say that I'm hooked on challenges, but I really like the idea of this one. It is called Around the World in 80 Books and is hosted by Stacey at Have Books, Will Travel.

I have made my own rules (I may, may I?), as Stacey's are probably too much for me. So here is my modified version:

• I have five years to complete my journey. My start date is November 6, 2012 and my end date will be November 5, 2017. Who knows what will happen in 5 years, I'll just go at my own pace and pick up what I like, as my main reason for this undertaking is to explore a bit and probably find something new out of my comfort zone.
• I'm counting the books that take place in a particular country. If a book takes place in multiple countries then I will count it towards the country I don't yet have in my list. A cheat? You bet! ;)
• I can't promise to research a lot about the country, but if there are some cultural peculiarities in the book, I may include some background knowledge that I find interesting in my reviews.

I'm not going to make a list in advance, I'll just put here the links to the books which count, and we'll see where it'll bring me!

My Book List:

1. CZECH REPUBLIC:

• Povídky z druhé kapsy (Stories from Another Pocket) by Karel Čapek

2. UNITED KINGDOM:

• Macbeth by William Shakespeare
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
• Henry V by William Shakespeare
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• The Mabinogion by Anonymous
• Murder in Two Flats by Roy Vickers

3. ITALY:

• Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

4. FRANCE:

• Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac
• The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard
• Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
• Germinal by Emile Zola

5. RUSSIA:

• Осенние визиты (Autumn Visits) by Sergey Lukyanenko

6. USA:

• Hotel by Arthur Hailey
• A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

7. JAPAN:

• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

8. GREECE

• Oedipus the King by Sophocles

9. SUDAN

• My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl

visited 9 states (4%)
Create your own visited map of The World or jurisdische vertaling duits?