What are some of your all-time favorites?

[Lilisa]

I'm always looking for recommendations (not that my to read list continues to grow!), so I thought I'd start a thread here.... What are some of your all-time favorites you'd want to recommend to others? I have a ton, but here are a few that this group might want to check out from around the world - I've tried to select books or authors folks may not be familiar with as opposed to more familiar ones that are also among my favorites like Maugham, Shakespeare or The Help, A Fine Balance, etc.

Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China, The Distant Land of My Father, Portrait of a Turkish Family, What Is the What, Gentlemen and Players, Beneath a Marble Sky, Molokai, Purple Hibiscus, Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family, Cleopatra's Daughter, Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution, The Beautiful Mystery

What's yours?

[Chrissie]

Lilisa,I second your recommendation of the first three you name.They were all super! "Purple Hibiscus" too. I think I gave "Molokai" four stars. In addition to these I would add:

Olga's Story: Three Continents, Two World Wars and Revolution--One Woman's Epic Journey Through the Twentieth Century
The House by the Dvina: A Russian Childhood
Mosaic: A Chronicle of Five Generations
The Pure Land
All That I Am
Between Love and Honor
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps
Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace
The Forgotten Highlander: My Incredible Story Of Survival During The War In The Far East
The Homecoming Party
Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire
Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968
A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary
THE STORYTELLER: MEMORY, SECRETS, MAGIC AND LIES
The Seamstress
That Summer in Sicily: A Love Story
I should stop, I guess. All of these books depict the atmosphere of the country in which they take place. All are really excellent. Each one is special in its own way.

[Lilisa]

Chrissie wrote: "Lilisa,I second your recommendation of the first three you name.They were all super! "Purple Hibiscus" too. I think I gave "Molokai" four stars. In addition to these I would add:

Olga's Story: Th..."

Thanks s ton Chrissie. I am only familiar with four on your list. I ordered Dvina last week as it's been on my list for a long time and run across Dogs, Mosaic and Seamstress. They all look very much like books I would enjoy. I'm adding them to my TBR list - exactly what I was going for!

[Chrissie]

You can also look on my shelves. I classify books by where they take place. an easy way is to go to my favorites shelf where I only have five star books. I got sick of adding books so I stopped. I tried to pick books that fit this challenge. Glad I could help.

[Lilisa]

Chrissie wrote: "You can also look on my shelves. I classify books by where they take place. an easy way is to go to my favorites shelf where I only have five star books. I got sick of adding books so I stopped. I ..."

Thanks Chrissie!

[Louise]

Great list, here are a few others :

Night Train to Lisbon
Last Tales
My Struggle: Book One
Cloud Atlas

[Lilisa]

Here are some more favorites:

A Fine Balance
Americanah
Half of a Yellow Sun
Rules of Civility
The Yellow Birds
Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed by Life
Glimpses of Bengal

[Lilisa]

Some more of my favorites from the past few months are:

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa
The House by the Dvina: A Russian Childhood
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
How the Light Gets In
Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East
The Luminaries
The Invisible Bridge

[[deleted user]]

I'm not sure where to put this so I thought about maybe here. The books that have been my favorite have been ones where the book helped me understand the people and the culture. For example:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Snow Angels
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

I would like to find more books like these. Does anyone have any suggestions or is there a place that I can find some suggestions? Thank YOU!!!

[Lilisa]

Cassie - many of the books listed in this thread will give you great insight into the cultures of the country they're set in. Also check out the group's bookshelf in the upper right hand corner of this page - folks generally indicate which country and/or region the story is set in. You can browse folks' books. That's why I enjoy this book group a lot. I've had a chance to check out books I wouldn't necessarily have come across as well as readers' ratings.

[Lilisa]

Adding three more books to my all-time favorites list:

A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story
Guernica
An Officer and a Spy

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Some of my favorites from the years I've been in this group:

The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (Trinidad)
Euphoria (Papua New Guinea)
The Garden of Evening Mists (Malaysia)
The Tiger's Wife (Croatia, actually unnamed)
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (Chechyna)
Birds Without Wings (Turkey)

[Lilisa]

And a few of mine from over the last few months:

Island of a Thousand Mirrors (Sri Lanka)
Eleni (Greece)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Australia)

[Claire]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Some of my favorites from the years I've been in this group:

The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (Trinidad)
Euphoria (Papua New Guinea)
[book:The Garden of Evening ..."

Birds Without Wings is one of my all time favourite books. I enjoyed The Gift of Rain & looking forward to reading The Garden of Evening Mists this year.

Love your suggested titles, so great to be part of this group!

[Lilisa]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Some of my favorites from the years I've been in this group:

The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (Trinidad)
Euphoria (Papua New Guinea)
The Garden of Evening ..."</i>

Just started reading [book:The White Woman on the Green Bicycle and fixing to read Euphoria in July.

[Lilisa]

Some of my favorites from the last few months for this group are:

Orhan's Inheritance
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Not Even My Name: A True Story
Mademoiselle Chanel

[Claire]

Some favourites from Around the World that I've read in the first half of 2015:

The Autobiography of My Mother(Dominican Republic)
The Yellow Rain (Spain)
The Wall (Austria)
Tales From the Heart(Guadeloupe)
Unbowed:My Autobiography (Kenya)
The Enchanted April (Italy)
Kamchatka (Argentina)
The Dead Lake (Kazakhstan)
Stone in a Landslide (Catalonia, Spain)

[Lilisa]

One more The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress - mystery set in New York in the '20s, '30s. I loved the audio - read by Ariel Lawhon.

[Lilisa]

Four that made my "Favorites" list from the last few months of 2015 are: The Marriage of Opposites Pompeii, The Agony and the Ecstasy and Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World.

[Shomeret]

Favorite Mysteries of All Time that take place in countries other than my own:

The Seven Perfumes of Sacrifice--Israel
Prayer of the Dragon--Tibet
The Ronin's Mistress--Japan

Favorite Historical Fiction of All Time that takes place in countries other than my own:

Dreaming the Serpent Spear -- Britain
Erzulie's Skirt--Dominican Republic

[Lilisa]

A couple of books I've read this year that have made their way to my Favorite list are:
- The White Tiger - India
- The Gift of Rain - Malaysia

[Heather]

That's weird. I have not read one book on these lists. I'd better get started!!

[Lilisa]

Lol - that's a lot of books to add to your list, Heather!

[Heather]

Here are some of my favorites:
The Time Traveler's Wife, Chicago, IL, USA
The Sparrow Sisters, Granite Pointe, ME, USA
The Light Between Oceans, Australia
True to the Highlander, Scotland

I have to admit that I rarely was aware where the stories I read take place. Now I'm aware :-)