"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish".
It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.
There is always a "Top Ten Tuesday" on the 4th of July for the US Americans and I thought, I'll take the opportunity to create a German one on our National Holiday.
"German Unity Day (German: Tag der Deutschen Einheit) is the National Day of Germany, celebrated on 3 October as a public holiday.[1] It commemorates German reunification in 1990 when the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) joined the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), so that for the first time since 1945 there existed a single German state." (Wikipedia)
Ahmad, Aeham "The Pianist from Syria" (aka The Pianist of Yarmouk) (GE: Und die Vögel werden singen. Ich, der Pianist aus den Trümmern) - 2017
Grass, Günter "The Box: Tales From the Darkroom" (GE: Die Box. Dunkelkammergeschichten) - 2008 (Nobel Prize winner 1999)
Grjasnowa, Olga "All Russians Love Birch Trees" (GE: Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt) - 2012
Hansen, Dörte "This House is Mine" (GE: Altes Land) - 2015
MacGregor, Neil "Germany. Memories of a Nation" - 2014
Pamuk, Orhan "Snow" (TR: Kar) - 2002 (Nobel Prize winner 2006)
Pausewang, Gudrun "The Last Children" (GE: Die letzten Kinder von Schewenborn oder … sieht so unsere Zukunft aus?) - 1983
Regener, Sven "Berlin Blues" (GE: Herr Lehmann) - 2001
Tellkamp, Uwe "The Tower" (GE: Der Turm) - 2008
Wolf, Christa "They Divided the Sky" (aka Divided Heaven) (GE: Der geteilte Himmel) - 1963
📚 Happy Reading! 📚
Happy Unity Day!! I keep meaning to read more German history - especially of the post-War period. I do have a few books sitting waiting to be read - mostly about Berlin (inevitably). I'll get to *at least* ONE next year... Promise [grin]
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kitten. I can really recommend the Neil MacGregor book, if you want one about German history. It's great.
DeleteThank you for the post! Unfortunately most books with a German connection in the English-speaking world are dominated by the second war. I usually do a little splash of German history in October as a nod to Unity Day, but with school/TBR pile/etc I'm not sure what I'll manage this month.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stephen. Most of these books are not about WWII. Some are about East Germany when it was still GDR, others just take place in Germany. Or, if you want more history, as I recommend to Kitten above ^^, take the Neil MacGregor book.
DeleteHappy Unity Day!!! :D
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lark. We had a nice day with friends.
DeleteHappy Unity Day. I will have a look on the list for the German Reading Month.
ReplyDeleteI hope you will find something there that you enjoy, Lisbeth.
DeleteI have read "Der geteilte Himmel" for my master's and liked it. I am not familiar with the other books, except the Pausewang one, but I have not read it.
ReplyDeleteMost of them are newer, Eva. I have presented many of my favourite German books (like Buddenbrooks) before and wanted to make a different kind of list.
DeleteI think I have lost "contact" with the newer German books, but I also have no time to really pay much attention to that. And some of the newer books are so badly written that I will not read them, especially books for children and teens. Whenever I am back in Germany, I find it hard to find good children's literature that has not been translated from another language into German. I think that my husband reads more "modern" German literature than I do these days, which is very funny.
DeleteI wouldn't know about books for teens and children, Eva. And you are right, we have a lot of translated books here, though we also have some great new authors. I am sure you would love Dörte Hansen.
DeleteI have to look her up :).
DeleteDefinitely. She writes about "our area".
DeleteInteresting!
DeleteAnd her first book has been translated into English. I wouldn't bee surprised if the others will follow.
DeleteInteresting, there are not so many current German speaking writers who get translated into English.
DeleteWe found in our international book club that English was often the last language that any books were translated into.
DeleteI think this is a mainly a cultural reason. I think that many German books simply do not appeal to English speaking readers.
DeleteI don't know about that. Most readers I have met (whether in real life or online) are quite interested in what's going on around them. It's the companies that more or less tell us (especially American companies) that their people are not clever enough or interested enough. Years ago, I remember, British films always had to have an American actor in it to be even shown in the States because "our public doesn't watch a movie if they don't know any actors". Luckily, viewers have shown them that this is ridiculous.
DeleteAnd it think the same goes for international books, probably even more.
Interesting about the actors. Most people I know here do not care much about translated books from other countries. They simply don't care much about other countries in general. That is also why it is so hard to attract students to foreign languages and world cultures. Our college is trying hard to change that by offering subjects like "global studies," but it is an uphill battle. Most foreign languages at colleges are getting eliminated these days because students don't care.
DeleteThat is a shame. I suppose certain politicians don't want people to know about other countries so they can feed them more lies.
DeleteNo, I don't think that has anything to do with politicians. I think it is more a "frame of mind" here. This country is so big that people simply don't care much about other countries, especially Europe. And there is still a deep-rooted idea that Europe is corrupt. Many Americans have relatives or ancestors who left Europe because they were fed up with the way of living there. It is hard to explain; you need to have lived here a long time to understand (although you don't have to approve of it). But most Europeans also have no idea what America is like (I just have to listen to my relatives). There are so many prejudices on both sides: no wonder it is hard to overcome them.
DeleteThat is one of the impressions we get here, that's true.
Delete