Nominate MobileRead's 10 best fiction books of the 20th Century

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Am I the only one who thinks the decades should be listed as 1900-1909, 1910-1919, 1920-1929, etc.? Don't most people think of the decades that way--e.g., the sixties are 1960-1969, not 1961-1970.

We're doing it as decades of the 20th century, not decades of the 1900s.

[EDIT: People wishing to argue about the definition of the 20th Century, or the best way to split years into decades should start their own thread on the subject in the lounge. Any such posts in this thread will be deleted.]

[BearMountainBooks]

1901-1910 Anne of Green Gables
1921 -1930 - The first Nancy Drew was published. (Author was various, but the books were published under Carolynn Keene). The Secret of the Clock is book one.
1941-1950 Het Achterhuis in 1947 (First publication of The Diary of Anne Frank - Netherlands). I read the English version, which came out later--but I didn't know whether to list the first published or the one closest to what I read?



1971-80 - Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters. I actually think Peters body of work represents "some of the greatest" of a certain era, but this first book in the Amelia Peabody series was published in 1975 so I shall nominate it in that category. While she was far from the first cozy writer, she was a forerunner in historical cozies with the Amelia Peabody series (Egypt specifically although other locals are covered in some of the books). She was also a forerunner in her use of humor. While I probably actually enjoyed her Vicky Bliss series more for the humor, that style is evident in much of her work (excluding some of the Barbara Michaels Gothic works).

There are probably many other better known books/authors that had an impact on other genres (Tolkien, Donaldson, etc) but I think Peters had an incredible impact on the mystery writing world partially because she didn't stay in one sub-genre (Gothic/horror, humor, historical, cozy) and also because she was prolific and so very good at story telling and characterization. She also wrote from a time when female authors were not taken as seriously as their male counterparts. Her very education in Egyptology and other areas was rare, yet she turned it into a very long-running and entertaining series. The style in which she wrote opened up a whole new freedom for authors to explore the idea of humor in mysteries from coy, silliness, outrageous -- all the way through to and including dry wit.

For those who don't read mysteries, or cozies specifically, her impact was probably negligible, but for those of us who do, well, what a wonderful treat to have discovered and read along as her style morphed and as her characters grew and changed.

[treadlightly]

1901-1910 Anne of Green Gables
1921-1930 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
1931-1940 Brave New World
1941-1950 1984
1951-1960 To Kill a Mockingbird
1961-1970 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
1971-1980 The Stand
1981-1990 The Pillars of the Earth
1991-2000 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

This list might be helpful for suggestions, except for the one-year shift.

[issybird]

1931 - 1940 The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

This list might be helpful for suggestions.

Thanks for the link. I remind everyone that nominations should only be made for books that you have read.

[issybird]

1941 - 1950 - TBA.

[Rizla]

Can we criticize other people's nominations (i.e. debate)?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Can we criticize other people's nominations (i.e. debate)?

I'd rather keep this thread just for nominations. When we get to voting threads, discussion of the nominations would be welcome.

[crich70]

Lost Horizon 1931-1940 (it was published in 1933)

[GeoffR]

1931-1940 Jean-Paul Sartre, La Nausée [English: Nausea] (1938)

1951-1960 Walter M. Miller Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959)

1961-1970 Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, Brandbilen som försvann [English: The Fire Engine That Disappeared] (1969), from the Martin Beck series.

1971-1980 C. J. Cherryh, The Book of Morgaine (1979)

1981-1990 Robert Holdstock, Mythago Wood (1984)

1991-2000 Neal Stephenson, Cryptnomicon (1999)

[Rizla]

The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler, 1939.
The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler, 1953.

[HomeInMyShoes]

1911-1920 Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
1921-1930 The Trial by Franz Kafka
1931-1940 Ali and Nino by Kurban Said
1941-1950 Cannery Row by John Steinbeck; everyone else can just stop nominating for this decade now
1951-1960 Rabbit Run by John Updike
1961-1970 Farewell Gul'sary by Chingiz Aitmatov
1971-1980 The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
1971-1980 If On a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
1981-1990 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
1991-2000 A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

I haven't read enough from the first decade to make a reasonable nomination. It was a seriously difficult task in a couple of decades. Deliverance for 1961-1970 was close, A Fine Balance for 1991-2000 was close, there were at least five very good choices for 1981-1990.

[issybird]

1961 - 1970 Spring Snow, Yukio Mishima

[Bilbo1967]

Not much non-fiction here? I don't see it having been excluded, so how about;

A History of Western Philosophy - Bertrand Russell (1941-1950*)

*Sorry HIMS - Cannery Row is a damn fine book as well!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Not much non-fiction here? I don't see it having been excluded, so how about;

A History of Western Philosophy - Bertrand Russell (1941-1950*)

*Sorry HIMS - Cannery Row is a damn fine book as well!

I didn't explicitly exclude non-fiction, but I certainly should have done - sorry. I feel that fiction and non-fiction are so different, it's impossible to put them in the same list.

[Edit: title changed, and a note added to the first post]