Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
Weekly Topics 2022
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20. A fiction or nonfiction book that is set during 1900 -1950
I would like to read something set in the early 1900s through the 1920s, a time frame I'm not real familiar with. Some options include: Babbitt, We the Living, To the Lighthouse, The Magic Mountain, Chéri, and The Secret Agent.I just read Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by Russian author Teffi, which is set in 1918, and highly recommend it.
Since I do a classics challenge every year, this is an easy one for me. I'm planning to read something both written and set during the era. A few options:The Great Gatsby (I've been meaning to reread it)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (on my list for this year, but this year is zipping by)
The Magic Mountain (I impulse-bought it when it was on sale.)
The A.B.C. Murders (because I'm working my way through Christie's bibliography)
The Thin Man (another reread, but it's been YEARS)
For historical fiction set during the time period:
The Remains of the Day
The Given Day (richly detailed and nuanced)
An Artist of the Floating World
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
For classics set during the time period: So many. But I do want to give a shout-out to Passing by Nella Larsen. It's quite good.
Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres so I have a lot to choice from for this prompt, even after I exclude books focused on WW1 and WW2.Early 20th century
The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson
The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse
The Birth House by Ami McKay
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
1920s
Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang
The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye
The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
1930s
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe
Sea Glass by Anita Shreve
1940s
The Stars Are Fire by Anita Shreve
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
As Close to Us as Breathing by Elizabeth Poliner
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
1950s
Bury What We Cannot Take by Kirstin Chen
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
Let Him Go by Larry Watson
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan
The Hours Count by Jillian Cantor
Ruby by Cynthia Bond
Angie wrote: "Since I do a classics challenge every year, this is an easy one for me. I'm planning to read something both written and set during the era. A few options:The Great Gatsby (I've been m..."
@ Angie. Passing sounds great. I see that several of my gr friends read it, but somehow this is the first time I've heard of it. Thanks!
I too am most likely going to read something both written and set during this time period, as I continue my quest to catch up on the classics I've never read.I've been working my way through Hemingway, so have picked For Whom the Bell Tolls. But I also want to read some Christie, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd or Death on the Nile are two I've been dying to read (pun intended!)
Passing does sound great too!
I am not entirely sure what I will read for this one. A couple of the books I have as possibilities for other prompts do fit here, for example Tidepool and The Keep. I think In the Garden of Spite is set in the early 1900s. I also was considering Miss Benson's Beetle but that is set in exactly 1950 so it might be stretching it a little, I don't know. I have been enjoying some classic gothic horror lately, mostly 1800s but some early 1900s too, so might default to one of them. Or a non-fic history book.Suggestions are non-fiction:
999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz
Rise Up Women!: The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes
You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World
Mod
1920s
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1920)
The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1922)
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1923)
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (1927)
Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence (1928)
1930s
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1931)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
I, Claudius by Robert Graves (1934)
1940s
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (1940)
The Women on the Porch by Caroline Gordon (1943)
All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946)
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (1948)
In Amazon's First Reads for November there is a Historical Fiction book set in Japan in the 1940's, with a Jewish character:The Last Rose of Shanghai: A Novel by Weina Dai Randel
Figured I'd share now, so people can grab a free book for this prompt (or the continent, historical fiction or Jewish character prompt).
Here is the summary from Amazon since The Last Rose of Shanghai listing on here has nothing:
(view spoiler)
I'm hoping to read one of these:Miss Mapp (Mapp and Lucia #2) - E. F. Benson (written in 1922)
Sunset Song (A Scots Quair #1) - Lewis Grassic Gibbon (WWI and later; written in 1932)
Now in November - Josephine Winslow Johnson (Depression-era; written in 1934)
Recommended:
The Lost Girls of Paris (World War II)
Coventry (World War II)
The Nightingale (World War II)
Silhouette of a Sparrow (1920s)
The Pull of the Stars (1918)
I seem to be attracted to the 1920's at the moment.The first few fit several prompts
✅*To the Lighthouse pub. 1927
✅*The Master and Margarita
✅A Gentleman in Moscow
The Alice Network 1915 +1947
The Rose Code
The Gift of Rain
Josephine Baker's Last Dance
Passing
The Chaperone
The Chosen and the Beautiful
Gods of Jade and Shadow
The Diviners
✅The Four Winds
Maisie Dobbs next in series
nonfiction
Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
Recommended:
Mrs. Dalloway
Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Widows of Malabar Hill
Rebecca
What the Wind Knows
Rules of Civility
This Tender Land
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
Only Time Will Tell
Narrative non-fiction
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
I'm confused. Is the prompt "A fiction or nonfiction book that is set during 1900 -1950" or "A fiction or nonfiction book that was written during 1900 - 1950"? Because I don't think that Brave New World and I, Claudius were set during 1900 - 1950.
Monica- It should be setting. The Best of Decade lists are misleading for this prompt since they are based on year published, not the setting. Some work but not all. In addition to the ones you mentioned, Death Comes for the Archbishop is not valid either. It’s set in the 1800s.
There are so many choices for this. I'll probably finish reading Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis. But would recommend Murder at the Brightwell or The Right Sort of Man or The Listening House, if you'd like historical mystery. The Listening House and The Honjin Murders were both actually written in the 1930s and have been republished.
Multiple choices, please correct me if I'm choosing wrong ones:The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Diviners by Libba Bray
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Romanov by Nadine Brandes
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
The Book ThiefAll the Light We Cannot See
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
A Gentleman in Moscow
What the Wind Knows
The Four Winds
I read All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. The main story focused upon experiences that occurred during the 1930s when the narrator, Jack, partook in the political machine of the depressed South, but he did not stick to a linear timeline when recounting his tale. Jack also incorporated enlightening childhood memories, researched historical discoveries, and future personal developments, but I considered these digressions as supportive.Another book that I enjoyed and offer for consideration is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
What do you guys think about a book MOSTLY set in 1900 to 1950?I am reading East of Eden. It starts with the father in the Civil War, but that is really background for the main story that takes place in the early 1900s.
I will be reading 'The Sisters of St Croix' by Diney Costeloe.I can recommend The Chestnut Tree by Charlotte Bingham and Liverpool Angels by Lyn Andrews.
I read and would recommend The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. It's set in the 1930s and is about the packhorse librarians in Kentucky. Another fiction book about the packhorse librarians, but quite different, is The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.
I was a bit worried about this as I started a few with this prompt in mind only for it to turn out that they were set in some vague unspecified time.I read this one, though, and realized that it's set in 1917!: Let Us Dream
I read The Diviners by Libba Bray last year it is set in the late 1920's and was really good.I think I'll go with an Agatha Christie novel as for some reason I have not read her. What do you think is a good one to start?
What are you reading for this prompt?I read Comes a Stranger by E.R. Punshon
This was set in the 1930's . Published in 1938
I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, set in 1946. I don't recommend it.
This was probably the prompt I was least excited by. I don't read a lot of historical fiction I think because so much that gets recommended it set during WWII so the limitations of this genre and this time period scared me. But once again a prompt that scares me has opened my eyes to some interesting options. I ended up reading Wild Women and the Blues It wasn't as fabulous as I think it could have been but I enjoyed it quite a bit and think I would enjoy reading more from the roaring 20s.
My goal with this prompt is to read a book that is NOT set during WWII. I have read so many WWII books, some of which I have loved, but want to not pick the obvious choice for this prompt. So I think I am going to choose one of these:This Tender Land - Set in 1932 Minnesota, this one has been on my TBR for a long time. Might be time to finally mark it off.
The Bombay Prince - This is the third book in a series set in India in the 1920s. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two.
When Stars Rain Down - Set in Georgia in 1936 when the KKK comes to town.
I read Death in a Darkening Mist by Iona Whishaw. This is a historical mystery set in 1946. If you like historical mysteries, this is a good series. The main character was a spy during World War 2 and she has settled into a small town in British Columbia where she keeps getting involved with mysteries. In this one, her knowledge of Russian involves her in a case involving Doukhobors, a pacifist Russian sect that settled in Canada. I knew a little about them (they are remembered for the naked protests they held when the government wanted to force them to send their children to school).Other books set during this period that I would recommend include Little Shoes: The Sensational Depression-Era Murders That Became My Family's Secret and Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (true crime), Cocaine Blues and Gaudy Night (mystery), Miss Buncle's Book (humor), and A Time of Gifts (travelogue).
I'm making a side challenge out of this prompt. I want to read at least 20 set in the early 1900's. ✅To the Lighthouse pub. 1927
✅The Master and Margarita 1930's Russia
✅A Gentleman in Moscow 1920s- Russia
✅The Man from St. Petersburg 1914
✅The Bombay Prince 1921 India
✅The Masterpiece 1920's NYC
✅Murphy's Law 1901 NYC
✅The Haunting of Tram Car 015 1912 Egypt
✅When We Cease to Understand the World WWI - on
✅The Murder of Roger Ackroyd pub 1926
✅The Remains of the Day 1930s-1950s
✅The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
✅A Town Like Alice WWII Malaya, Australia
✅The Notebook WWII Eastern Europe
✅In Farleigh Field WWII England
✅The Four Winds Depression era USA
I read The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste, a book set in 1935, during the invasion of Abyssinia/Ethiopia by fascist Italy (so sadly pertinent). I liked this book very much. It managed to be poetic (quite a few Iliad references) but also very descriptive of war and its effect on people and country. My only criticism would be that it was rather slow to begin with.
I read Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman about Hitler's rise to power before the 2nd World War.
I read Atonement, by Ian McEwan. About a third of it is set over the course of one evening in 1935, and the rest is set during WWII.There are many old children's books that I think would be lovely to read for this prompt, like anything by Noel Streatfeild, The Secret Garden, or All-of-a-Kind Family. I had several other recommendations (Sula, Katalin Street, The Blind Assassin), but looking at them again I realize that each of them doesn't completely take place before 1951 (though most of each one does!)
I read When Stars Rain Down by Angela Jackson-Brown. I wasn't expecting to like it, but it moved me so much.Others I'd recommend are:
The Book Thief
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Homegoing
Passing
Memoirs of a Geisha
Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
The Henna Artist
The Garden of Evening Mists
Well this prompt is about the easiest I can imagine as probably half of my reading material is set in this era :-)I'm just going to add one of my murder mysteries.
Reading The Hidden Palace.Set right between 1900 and WWI, this book should be interesting. I loved the first book, so I'm jumping straight into this one.
I read:
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson is a delightful Cinderella story set and published in London in the 1930s. Miss Pettigrew is a timid, dowdy and very respectable spinster governess who the employment agency mistakenly sends to the door of the flamboyant actress and nightclub singer Miss Delysia LaFosse. Miss Pettigrew steps into a world of glamour and scandal, finding herself both shocked and enthralled. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Here is my review
I read The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956. It technically covers up to 1956, but it is mostly about the years in the prompt.
I read West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. It mostly took place during 2 weeks in 1938, told through the memory of a 105-year-old man, who was remembering what he did when he was 17-18 years old.Reading this book felt very much like you were in the era: dust bowl orphans, hobos, Hoovervilles, the very few cross country highways, reliance on trains and telegrams, the first inklings of the start of WWII, race relations, women's status, and the true wonder of seeing giraffes for the first time. The basis of this story is inspired by true events.
I gave it ⭐⭐⭐⭐, but would bump it up to ⭐⭐⭐⭐.25 if possible.
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (other topics)The Power of the Dog (other topics)
The Snow Child (other topics)
Ethan Frome (other topics)
The Age of Innocence (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Thomas Savage (other topics)David Benioff (other topics)
Heather Morris (other topics)
Lynda Rutledge (other topics)
Winifred Watson (other topics)
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What are you reading for this prompt, and do you have any recommendations?