2016 - Where in the world are you? (currently reading)

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Yesterday I started The Door by Magda Szabó only recently translated into English from Hungarian although the novel is 30 years old. Except for the prologue there is nothing about a door, it is more about a housekeeper. You can comb out details about Hungary from World War I upwards but the focus is on the writer woman and her housekeeper.

[Shomeret]

I'm in 16th century England. Christopher Marlowe, the playwright, is a student at Cambridge and one of his student friends has gone missing. He soon discovers his friend's dead body. Marlowe believes that he was murdered. This is Dark Entry by M. J. Trow, the first in a series of mysteries in which Christopher Marlowe investigates. I love the idea. Marlowe is such an interesting historical personality and I may be discovering a bit about Tudor England in the process.

[Carol]

Shomeret wrote: "I'm in 16th century England. Christopher Marlowe, the playwright, is a student at Cambridge and one of his student friends has gone missing. He soon discovers his friend's dead body. Marlowe believ..."

This sounds fascinating. Can't wait to see your review.

[Lilisa]

I'm in Italy with The Glassblower of Murano. Storyline is interesting, the female character needs to buck up though :-) and writing could be better...but at least the setting is Venice/Murano - what's not to like about that...

[Rita]

South Africa with Wilbur Smith's Rage. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3.... Set in the time of apartheid and Mandella, at over 800 pages long, it is challenging. It has taken me a while to get in to it.

[Rusalka]

I'm in both Norway and the Eastern front with The Redbreast

[Jayme]

I'm in Ethiopia with Cutting for Stone.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I'm in Israel with Some Day by Shemi Zarhin. I am learning so much about how Jewish people in Israel group one another and the tiny stereotypes between groups, but really the story centers on one family. Very enjoyable read so far.

[Shomeret]

My trip to 16th century England was interrupted because I had to return the book to the library.

I am now in 19th century India with Michelle Moran's Rebel Queen. It making me feel as if I'd never been to 19th century India before when of course I had with Rudyard Kipling and other British Raj perspectives. Now I'm seeing it through new eyes.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I'm in Southern India (Kerala, perhaps) with The Tusk That Did the Damage, which I've been keen to read ever since Claire brought it to our notice last year. About 1/3 of the way in, I'm quite enthralled by it.

[Claire]

I'm in Canada, France and Maine with Annie Proulx's historical novel Barkskins.

[Lilisa]

Claire wrote: "I'm in Canada, France and Maine with Annie Proulx's historical novel Barkskins."

Oooh, Claire, I'm going to guess you're the first one to read it in this group. How is it?

[Claire]

It's an intriguing and relatively captivating read so far, thankfully, as its a big book! But interesting to read about the French colonial experience and to follow the descendants of two different men, one who marries a local Indian woman, the other a ship Captain's daughter, adopting sons when his own don't come fast enough, and to see their terrible ends.

The forest is the other protagonist, the thing white men try to conquer/massacre/push back to reap the lands and the many forces that resist them.

It's a kind of commentary on history through a variety of characters and the forests themselves. All that and I'm only a fifth the way in!

[Lilisa]

Sounds fascinating and lots going on. My head's spinning already! It's on my TBR list - will keep an eye out for your review. Enjoy.

[Lilisa]

I'm reading There Was and There Was Not: A Journey through Hate and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia, and Beyond. It started in Istanbul, now in the U.S. for background and context, then will be headed back to Turkey for four years. An American writer of Armenian descent travels to Turkey and sets out to understand firsthand the people her community abhors because of the Armenian genocide.

[Rusalka]

I have moved on to Pakistan with Our Lady of Alice Bhatti

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Claire wrote: "It's an intriguing and relatively captivating read so far, thankfully, as its a big book! But interesting to read about the French colonial experience and to follow the descendants of two different..."

I love her writing so much, this is a book I'm really looking forward to. I haven't seen her take on such a large scope project before.

[Carol]

I am in Japan with Journey Under the Midnight Sun, and also in Egypt with The Mamur Zapt and the Spoils of Egypt. The first is another wonderful police procedural from Keigo Higashino. The second is my first read in this historical mystery series, which takes place in Cairo in the early 1900s (pre WWI) when Egypt was under indirect British rule. "Mamur Zapt" is the title given to the British head of Cairo's secret police. I'm soaking up the details and atmosphere re this period of Egyptian history, one about which I know so little.

[Carol]

Jayme wrote: "I'm in Ethiopia with Cutting for Stone."

I will be interested to read your review. I've had this on my bookshelf for years and never selected it - so clearly I need a push, lol.

[[deleted user]]

I'm in India. Sort of. With Fountainville It's a retelling of one of the Welsh myths of the Mabinogion - Seren have done a series by different authors. Very strange, quick read - it keeps feeling like it's about to fall into dystopia or magic realism, but this might just be the real world now. Will be looking out the rest of the series - and more by Tishani Doshi.

[Shomeret]

I'm in the U.S. but I'm about to leave for Paris in 1940 with The Book of Harlan by Bernice L. McFadden. I've recently been to Paris in that period with Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy, but this is a different perspective. The POV character is an African-American musician.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I'm in Japan with Super Sushi Ramen Express: One Family's Journey Through the Belly of Japan by Michael Booth. I just finished reading about kanseiki, fascinating.

[Jayme]

I am in Iran with Iran Awakening.

[Lilisa]

I'm in Rwanda withBaking Cakes in Kigali and in France with The Olive Farm.

[Diane]

I really need to get better at posting in this thread. I am currently in Russia again with Dead Souls. Since I have already "been" here this year with Eugene Onegin and The Idiot, it is not counting toward my total. This is my first book by Gogol.

[Diane]

In Iceland with The Perfect Landscape.

[Shomeret]

I'm now in Shanghai which is about to be invaded by the Japanese. Yes, it's another WWII novel, Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones. This one is from the perspective of an African American musician who is leading a jazz band playing in Shanghai's clubs. It's an unusual viewpoint. I found out about it in a discussion thread for The Book of Harlan which I read and reviewed recently.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

Shomeret wrote: "I'm now in Shanghai which is about to be invaded by the Japanese. Yes, it's another WWII novel, Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones. This one is from the perspective of an African Ame..."

I haven't read that one yet, but I hope you enjoy it. One of my favourite novels set in China (and I have read a LOT of books set in China) is The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones. There's nothing particularly literary about it, but I loved it nonetheless.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I'm in the Galápagos Islands with Enchanted Islands by Allison Amend. This is one of those locations that while owned by Ecuador, I feel like it is distinct enough to intentionally read something set there. (I also read The Potbellied Virgin set in Ecuador, but more of a small town, mountain village setting.

[Carol]

Shomeret wrote: "I'm now in Shanghai which is about to be invaded by the Japanese. Yes, it's another WWII novel, Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones. This one is from the perspective of an African Ame..."

I'm looking forward to reading your review of this one. The description is intriguing.

[Carol]

I'm in Egypt with Khan Al-Khalili, Japan with Journey Under the Midnight Sun and the US with Don't You Cry.

[Shomeret]

Carol wrote: "Shomeret wrote: "I'm now in Shanghai which is about to be invaded by the Japanese. Yes, it's another WWII novel, Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones. This one is from the perspective ..."

I just finished it and it's amazing. I learned a great deal more than I previously knew about the situation in Shanghai in WWII. I need to review a Net Galley first. There's research I have to do to check the author's historical references. But when I'm done with that I'll review Night in Shanghai and post the link on the finished thread in this group.

[Claire]

I'm in Hungary with Péter Gárdos's Fever at Dawn based on the true story of his parents and how they met, both Holocaust survivors, a story he discovered when his mother handed him a bundle of letters, letters between his parents during a period when his father believing he only had 6 months to live, was in search of a wife. Bound to become a film, Péter Gárdos is also a film director.

[Diane]

I am in Sierra Leone with The Bite of Mango, learning about the author's harrowing experiences in this war-torn country.

[Claire]

I'm in the Austrian Alps with Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life, one of the novellas that appealed to me from the Man Booker International shortlist.

[Val]

It is a good list Claire. I enjoyed A Whole Life.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I started Sixty Degrees North: Around the World in Search of Home, which visits different places 60 degrees north latitude. Totally up my alley, because it starts in the Shetland Islands.

[Claire]

I'm going to be in Bangladesh for a while, well it was East Pakistan in the opening chapter of Tahmima Anam's first novel in her Bangladesh trilogy, all of which I am now reading through:

A Golden Age
The Good Muslim
The Bones of Grace: A Novel

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Claire wrote: "I'm going to be in Bangladesh for a while, well it was East Pakistan in the opening chapter of Tahmima Anam's first novel in her Bangladesh trilogy, all of which I am now reading through:

[book:A ..."

I love getting stuck in a country.

[Claire]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Claire wrote: "I'm going to be in Bangladesh for a while, well it was East Pakistan in the opening chapter of Tahmima Anam's first novel in her Bangladesh trilogy, all of which I am now reading thr..."

Oh yes, it's a great feeling and to be with the same people.

[Lilisa]

Headed to New Zealand with The Bone People and to Jamaica with Goldeneye: Where Bond Was Born: Ian Fleming's Jamaica.

[Diane]

Traveling though Peru with Deep Rivers by José María Arguedas.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I recently checked in on my 2016 reading goals and discovered I was far behind on my African reading project.

So I started in on Mystique. A Collection Of Lake Myths for Cameroon and Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight for Zambia.

[Shomeret]

I'm in England following the story of an immigrant from Trinidad in 1967 with an ARC of The Muse by Jessie Burton.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I've started reading Staying On by Paul Scott, which won the Man Booker Prize in 1977. It's set in a fictional hillstation in Gujarat. What is surprising me about it so far, is how funny it is.

[Lilisa]

Diane wrote: "Traveling though Peru with Deep Rivers by José María Arguedas."

Diane - I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Deep Rivers when you're done - it sounds interesting.

[Hanna]

I'm in Turky reading Böner som faller till marken. So far I like it!

[Santosh]

I am from Hyderabad, India and I'm reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, want to finish it well before the movie releases.

[Shomeret]

I am in Spain during the Spanish Civil War with The Muse and the Spanish aspect is coming to a climax. I now believe I know the motivations of the POV character in the Spain narrative. This is a different viewpoint on the Spanish Civil War. It deals with a foreign family who are unengaged with the conflict, but have contacts with Spaniards who are very engaged with it.

[Diane]

Lilisa wrote: "Diane wrote: "Traveling though Peru with Deep Rivers by José María Arguedas."

Diane - I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Deep Rivers when you're done - it so..."

I enjoyed it a lot. The language and descriptions of the Peruvian landscape are gorgeous. The descriptions of people suffering from a typhus plague are a bit graphic, though.