Books in which the location plays a large role

[Mochaspresso]

for Savannah, GA.



for Afghanistan



For Vietnam

[Ann D]

If you want a gripping historical novel set in Japan, your group could read James Clavell's 1975 novel, SHOGUN. Most people I know couldn't put it down. Romance, adventure, suspense - it has it all.

[Mochaspresso]

I'm not a fan of this book, but the settings play a huge role in Eat, Pray, Love.

[Ann D]

Here are two very readable fiction books about China that my in-person book club really enjoyed:

Shanghai Girls
Dreams of Joy

They are by Lisa See.

[Jane]

I am rereading A God Strolling in the Cool of the Evening, which I enjoyed the first-time around and am enjoying now. It is about Lusitania [present-day Portugal] set in the time of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus [middle to late 100s AD]. The protagonist, a magistrate,years after the story had taken place, is writing his memoirs. The author of the novel is Mário de Carvalho.

[Phebe]

Michael McDowell's Southern Gothics are exquisite and carefully rooted in place, which is Gulf Shores near the Gulf of Mexico and the Alabama countryside north of there: Elementals, Cold Moon Over Babylon, and Candles Burning.

Here is what I do with novels and nonfiction: I look it all up on Google Maps on the iPad and follow along! Some authors make up the specific location, but with McDowell you can follow nearly all the action on labeled highways, at least till you try to find the places the ghosts got involved with....

There is a wonderful novel by S.J. Bolton, , set in the Shetland Islands. I need to read more of hers. I followed along step by step on Maps and I found EVERYTHING, even the places where the sailboat wrecked, the private island, everything, and I got quite fond of the Shetlands.

[Gina]

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows took place on the island of Guernsey during World War II.

[Jane]

The Mayor of Casterbridge again. Michael Henchard has a past history with a woman from Guernsey, Lucetta Templeman.

[Peggy]

I don't think anyone suggested Bangkok 8, a mystery set in Thailand. There are more books in the series, but I've only read the first and really liked the different perspective.