I’m so glad I found your channel. My favourite (and almost only) genre is literary fiction and I’m struggling to find TH-cam channels about it! Thank you for your amazing videos! ❤
I, too, am a literary fiction fan. I find the stories to be slower paced and more in depth. I have read a few of your recommendations and enjoyed them thoroughly. I do like the occasional thriller with a fast paced plot. Variety is the spice of life!
Sorrow and Bliss beginning this list straight up made me subscribe. For some reason, we literary fiction lovers are sort of a minority in booktube lol. So it's a delight to find you. Thank you.
Thank you so much for making this video, you are amazing with describing the synopsis of all these books! Added them all except for the one I read- My Dark Vanessa- my ALL time favorite book 🤗🤗
thanks for the awesome recs! subscribed. My Dark Vannesa hurt so much while reading but it was good. And I also vouch for A Little Life. Jude is always on my mind.
I’m a big literary fiction fan as well! I recommend for you to read Nightcrawling, The Swimmers, The Island of Missing Trees, The Paper Palace and basically anything by Lily King.
Thank you so much for all of these recommendations, Kate!! I’m going to check them out. I’ve had Nightcrawling on my radar for awhile but haven’t taken the plunge, your rec has pushed it up my TBR!
I think Klara and the Sun is literary fiction just as much as 1984 by George Orwell. While the premise kind of indicates they're beyond 'just' literary fiction, in reality, their major focus remains on the characters, their development and the impact of that growth on their lives. This list seems very interesting, the one I'll immediately start reading would be Sorrow and Bliss. They way you described it made me really interested; also will be looking forward to more fun videos and recommendations on your channel.
I am not sure that I would completely agree with the definition of Literary Fiction, which can be of any genre from spy novels John Le Carre to Fantasy Jorge Luis Borges, but all of them do have that degree of Interiority, which was developed by European Modernist writers (Woolf, Musil, Hamsun &c.). I got hooked on Literary works by Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, a simply magnificent book. I have not worked my way up to the contemporary period, but I may get there in 3 or four decades. I would suggest that you look to the past and see how this genre develops over time (plus, used/out of print books are quite a bit cheaper than new ones.) Good video.
@@ExLibrisKari whenever I start a new area of reading, I prefer to progress chronologically: We'll to the Woods No More-Edouard Dujardin-First use of stream of consciousness Knut Hamsun- Most well known is Hunger but I would recommend Mysteries or Pan. Death On the Installment Plan-Louis-Ferdinand Celine Hermann Brock-Sleepwalkers & The Death of Virgil Leonora Carrington-For your Surrealist fun, but one of my favorites The Door-Magda Szabo Progress in Love on the Slow Side-Jean Paulhan The Late Matea Pascal-Luigi Pirandello, he also wrote Six Characters in search of an Author And, of course anything by Andre Gide Also, outside of the Modernist realm Aphra Behn, best know for Oroonoko, but read her novel Love Letters where she was the first writer to address feminist issues. I have read this 3 times & it's better each time. She is one of my favorite writers along side Umberto Eco & Italo Calvino (Please read If on a Winter's Night a Traveler!!!) Enjoy
The difference between quality lit and genre trash used to be problamatic. But nowadays it's simple. Anything with a TRIGGER WARNING is quality ilt and is worth your time. Anything WITHOUT a trigger warning is probably crap.
OMG I cried so hard reading Kazuo Ichiguro's novel. IDK if I have a Life! Really, feeling it. I cried my eyes out... I cannot sleep for a week thinking about this people. I mean, no corpses in Ukraine or Gaza moved me so hard!....
Thanks!! I’m starting to stress out about Les Mis lol I’m going to have to fit it in with the women’s prize for fiction short list reading and now I want to read some of the international Booker short list before that winner is announced too 😅
@Ex Libris Kari oh, would you rather push it back a little? I was thinking how we should approach it and all I could come up with was having two weeks for each volume, so as there are 5 volumes it would take us 10 weeks to finish (so that's two and a half months and not two months of reading 🙈). honestly when you break it down it's about 20 pages a day so that's... not horrible? but if you're feeling overwhelmed we can totally push it towards the second half of the year or something. no worries, I'm flexible 😀
I think your plan on how to divide it up sounds perfect! But yeah, if we could push it back just a little bit, it would be really helpful because I want to be fully committed and not trying to just squeeze it in! You said before that avoiding the summer months is best for you? When would you be good to start?Anything after June is good for me! Thanks for being so flexible 🤗
@@ExLibrisKari sure, no problem! as it turned out I probably won't be traveling that much during the summer anyway, so we might as well start in July/August 😉 I think middle of July might be the best so we would finish it by the end of September (I tend to have a lot of reading plans for October/November so I'd rather be finished with it by then 🙈) hope that works for you..?
I used to read a lot of literary fiction, (and contemporary generally) but since my Mega Reading Slump have moved away from that genre...though Klara & The Sun looks like my cup of tea, with not only the author but the sci-fi and the tear-inducing writing. Look forward to it haha! Yeah....A Little Life really f*ck:-)d me up too, (but I loved it, the characters, the writing) but Hanya was super lovely when I met her lol XD
@@ExLibrisKari I will def get to Klara 'One Day' haha, as my tbr is c. 140 books and I've another stack coming from the poor old Book Depository 📚📚📚📚📚📚💰💸
Great video! Adding a few of those to my tbr. A "little" gripe about that definition of lit-fic. I mean it's a hard thing to define, and they get a lot of it right, but it also seems outright dismissive at the same time. Like a blanket statement that there is no character driven sci-fi or fantasy. I was going to use Klara and the Sun as an example of why and how they got the definition wrong, but since you made the point already, no need to repeat it. It also tries to argue that lif-fic isn't a genre unto itself in the very first sentence, and then goes on to define it as a genre. Kiernan over at KDBooks made a great (and fairly short, at about 3 minutes) video about it just recently. You should find it by searching for What is Literary KDBooks. Anyway, I find books that transcend genre lines to be the most satisfying in many ways. Like David Mitchell and Kazuo Ishiguro, whose books (almost) never stick to just one genre. Or Robin Hobb, whose books are deeper character studies well within the definition of fantasy, than you'll find in 90% of lit-fic. Or Robert Silverberg's sci-fi that started to push the genre as a whole to a more character focused lane in the sixties.
I definitely agree with you that the definition isn’t perfect and it can’t cover everything we call lit fic. It’s funny that you mentioned Robin Hobb because I have been really interested in picking up her books based on what I’ve heard about her character work. Labeling books with genres is clearly more of a marketing thing to help people find what they’re looking for easier but it can’t be 100% reliable because obviously authors don’t write themselves into genre boxes! I hope you enjoy whichever books you pick up from this list!
I’m so glad I found your channel. My favourite (and almost only) genre is literary fiction and I’m struggling to find TH-cam channels about it! Thank you for your amazing videos! ❤
I'm so happy to hear that you enjoyed the video! 💖 It's true that literary fiction seems to be one of the less popular genres on TH-cam unfortunately!
Me too, do you know any other booktubers who read literary or historical fiction??
I, too, am a literary fiction fan. I find the stories to be slower paced and more in depth. I have read a few of your recommendations and enjoyed them thoroughly. I do like the occasional thriller with a fast paced plot. Variety is the spice of life!
I definitely agree with you, I love to mix things up and throw in thrillers and some other faster paced genres sometimes!
Sorrow and Bliss beginning this list straight up made me subscribe. For some reason, we literary fiction lovers are sort of a minority in booktube lol. So it's a delight to find you. Thank you.
Lol us lit fic people have to stick together! Happy to have you here 💕
Thank you so much for making this video, you are amazing with describing the synopsis of all these books! Added them all except for the one I read- My Dark Vanessa- my ALL time favorite book 🤗🤗
thanks for the awesome recs! subscribed. My Dark Vannesa hurt so much while reading but it was good. And I also vouch for A Little Life. Jude is always on my mind.
I still think about A Little Life all the time too! I’m looking forward to rereading it sometime. I’m glad you enjoyed the recs! 💖
Thank you for the recommendations! So far I have read 3 books from your list, and loved them! ❤
I’m a big literary fiction fan as well! I recommend for you to read Nightcrawling, The Swimmers, The Island of Missing Trees, The Paper Palace and basically anything by Lily King.
Especially paper palace if you like unlikable characters :)
Oh wait I’m sorry I have one more reccommendation - if you like weird and you can handle unsettling. Milk Fed by Melissa broder is so good.
Thank you so much for all of these recommendations, Kate!! I’m going to check them out. I’ve had Nightcrawling on my radar for awhile but haven’t taken the plunge, your rec has pushed it up my TBR!
Your shelves are just so satisfying to look at!
Thank you! 💗
I have read “Sorrow and bliss”, “”” “Vladinir” (because of you) and “A little life”. Loved the! And the last one is one of my favourite books!
All three of those are soo good 💕
Couple books I have read already and loved, couple books that I now really want to read! 😊 Thank you for the recommendations! 😉
I hope you enjoy whatever you end up picking up! ☺️
I run a book club with classic literary fiction: Tolstoy, Steinbeck, Somerset Maugham, etc.
I think Klara and the Sun is literary fiction just as much as 1984 by George Orwell. While the premise kind of indicates they're beyond 'just' literary fiction, in reality, their major focus remains on the characters, their development and the impact of that growth on their lives. This list seems very interesting, the one I'll immediately start reading would be Sorrow and Bliss. They way you described it made me really interested; also will be looking forward to more fun videos and recommendations on your channel.
I agree with you on Klara / 1984!
Hope you enjoy Sorrow and Bliss ✨ thanks for watching!! 💕
I watch a lot of book tube channels & I haven’t heard of a lot of these. Interesting.
Thanks for my summer reading list🤩
I hope you enjoy whatever you decide to pick up! 💖
I am not sure that I would completely agree with the definition of Literary Fiction, which can be of any genre from spy novels John Le Carre to Fantasy Jorge Luis Borges, but all of them do have that degree of Interiority, which was developed by European Modernist writers (Woolf, Musil, Hamsun &c.).
I got hooked on Literary works by Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, a simply magnificent book. I have not worked my way up to the contemporary period, but I may get there in 3 or four decades. I would suggest that you look to the past and see how this genre develops over time (plus, used/out of print books are quite a bit cheaper than new ones.) Good video.
i'd love to dive into some older literary fiction! thanks for sharing your thoughts
@@ExLibrisKari whenever I start a new area of reading, I prefer to progress chronologically:
We'll to the Woods No More-Edouard Dujardin-First use of stream of consciousness
Knut Hamsun- Most well known is Hunger but I would recommend Mysteries or Pan.
Death On the Installment Plan-Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Hermann Brock-Sleepwalkers & The Death of Virgil
Leonora Carrington-For your Surrealist fun, but one of my favorites
The Door-Magda Szabo
Progress in Love on the Slow Side-Jean Paulhan
The Late Matea Pascal-Luigi Pirandello, he also wrote Six Characters in search of an Author
And, of course anything by Andre Gide
Also, outside of the Modernist realm Aphra Behn, best know for Oroonoko, but read her novel Love Letters where she was the first writer to address feminist issues. I have read this 3 times & it's better each time. She is one of my favorite writers along side Umberto Eco & Italo Calvino (Please read If on a Winter's Night a Traveler!!!)
Enjoy
Thanks for all the great recs! I’ve owned “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler” for years now- I need to get to it!
Your library is extremely impressive
Thank you!
The difference between quality lit and genre trash used to be problamatic. But nowadays it's simple. Anything with a TRIGGER WARNING is quality ilt and is worth your time. Anything WITHOUT a trigger warning is probably crap.
Loved this!
Thank you Toni! 💓
OMG I cried so hard reading Kazuo Ichiguro's novel. IDK if I have a Life! Really, feeling it. I cried my eyes out... I cannot sleep for a week thinking about this people. I mean, no corpses in Ukraine or Gaza moved me so hard!....
Just found your channel. Great recommendations 💗
Thanks for watching! 💕
Hi Kari, when I realised what the title meant ‘A Little Life’ it was so upsetting. Have you read The Push by Ashley Audrain?
Hi Marlene! Yeah the meaning behind the title is so terrible... I have read The Push, I loved it, it's one of my favorite books!
Beautiful bookcase…books! Books and more beautiful books!
Thank you! 😊📚
sooo many great recommendations!
Thanks!! I’m starting to stress out about Les Mis lol I’m going to have to fit it in with the women’s prize for fiction short list reading and now I want to read some of the international Booker short list before that winner is announced too 😅
@Ex Libris Kari oh, would you rather push it back a little? I was thinking how we should approach it and all I could come up with was having two weeks for each volume, so as there are 5 volumes it would take us 10 weeks to finish (so that's two and a half months and not two months of reading 🙈). honestly when you break it down it's about 20 pages a day so that's... not horrible?
but if you're feeling overwhelmed we can totally push it towards the second half of the year or something. no worries, I'm flexible 😀
I think your plan on how to divide it up sounds perfect! But yeah, if we could push it back just a little bit, it would be really helpful because I want to be fully committed and not trying to just squeeze it in! You said before that avoiding the summer months is best for you? When would you be good to start?Anything after June is good for me! Thanks for being so flexible 🤗
@@ExLibrisKari sure, no problem! as it turned out I probably won't be traveling that much during the summer anyway, so we might as well start in July/August 😉 I think middle of July might be the best so we would finish it by the end of September (I tend to have a lot of reading plans for October/November so I'd rather be finished with it by then 🙈) hope that works for you..?
Random play displayed this video. Auto-subscribing. You're very articulate❤
Thank you!! 💖 happy to have you here 😊
I used to read a lot of literary fiction, (and contemporary generally) but since my Mega Reading Slump have moved away from that genre...though Klara & The Sun looks like my cup of tea, with not only the author but the sci-fi and the tear-inducing writing. Look forward to it haha!
Yeah....A Little Life really f*ck:-)d me up too, (but I loved it, the characters, the writing) but Hanya was super lovely when I met her lol XD
Haha you’ll have to let me know what you think of Klara once you get to it! I’m so jealous you met Hanya 🥹
@@ExLibrisKari I will def get to Klara 'One Day' haha, as my tbr is c. 140 books and I've another stack coming from the poor old Book Depository 📚📚📚📚📚📚💰💸
Haha I totally understand the "one day" dilemma! I did a final goodbye order to Book Depository too 😢
Go As River
It's called literature.
Great video! Adding a few of those to my tbr.
A "little" gripe about that definition of lit-fic. I mean it's a hard thing to define, and they get a lot of it right, but it also seems outright dismissive at the same time. Like a blanket statement that there is no character driven sci-fi or fantasy. I was going to use Klara and the Sun as an example of why and how they got the definition wrong, but since you made the point already, no need to repeat it. It also tries to argue that lif-fic isn't a genre unto itself in the very first sentence, and then goes on to define it as a genre.
Kiernan over at KDBooks made a great (and fairly short, at about 3 minutes) video about it just recently. You should find it by searching for What is Literary KDBooks.
Anyway, I find books that transcend genre lines to be the most satisfying in many ways. Like David Mitchell and Kazuo Ishiguro, whose books (almost) never stick to just one genre. Or Robin Hobb, whose books are deeper character studies well within the definition of fantasy, than you'll find in 90% of lit-fic. Or Robert Silverberg's sci-fi that started to push the genre as a whole to a more character focused lane in the sixties.
I definitely agree with you that the definition isn’t perfect and it can’t cover everything we call lit fic. It’s funny that you mentioned Robin Hobb because I have been really interested in picking up her books based on what I’ve heard about her character work. Labeling books with genres is clearly more of a marketing thing to help people find what they’re looking for easier but it can’t be 100% reliable because obviously authors don’t write themselves into genre boxes! I hope you enjoy whichever books you pick up from this list!
Wishy-washy girly dullness. But each to their own
I’m an LT junkie.
Subscribed.