2016 - Where in the world have you been? (book finished and review linked)

[Courtney]

I spent time in England with The Little White Horse.

[Shomeret]

I am currently crossing the English Channel on the way to France in 1944 with a woman journalist character in Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy which I'm still reading.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I finished The Potbellied Virgin, from Ecuador, and ended up really loving it. I learned so much about the history, religion, politics, and economy in a short number of very dense pages. Over the weekend there was an earthquake in Ecuador, and only after that did I encounter the mentions of earthquakes in the novel... kind of unsettling. But I think most people, once they give the novel a chance, will love the story of the SIsterhood of the Bead on the Gown of the Potbellied Virgin. Here is my review.

[Carol]

I left Japan with In the Miso Soup by Ryū Murakami. My review is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Shomeret]

I have finally finished my amazing WWII journey to France, England, Germany, Poland plus several locations in the Pacific theatre. My review of Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Val]

Carol wrote: "I left Japan with In the Miso Soup by Ryū Murakami. My review is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

I read a couple of Ryū Murakami's books some years ago. I don't remember the details, but do remember them being intense and disturbing, so that is probably a very accurate review.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

After a bit of a break, I've finished 2 in the past week or so:

Monsoon Love and Other Nepali Stories (Nepal), 2★ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Fire On The Mountain (Himachal Pradesh) 4★ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Carol]

I finished these 3 earlier in April, but couldn't get time to write thoughtful reviews until today.

I was in America (in the '50s) with A Rage in Harlem. A 5-star read and here's a link to my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I then went to Australia with The Dragon Man, a
3-star read. Here's a link to my review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


From there, i visited Laos (in the 70s) with Anarchy and Old Dogs, a 4-star read. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and now, I'm in England with my first Inspector Banks novel. A Dedicated Man.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Lately I have finished:

One of Us Is Sleeping by Josefine Klougart, from Denmark (my review) - very atmospheric, stream of consciousness, nothing all that Danish to it really....

The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy by Pauline Chiziane, translated from the Portuguese, the first female author to ever be published from Mozambique!! Excellent, excellent, book, much to enjoy on multiple layers. my review

The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud, set in Algeria, a parallel book to The Stranger by Albert Camus. my review is here but spoiler: I wasn't as huge of a fan of this one as all the judges giving it awards!!

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Revisited South Korea to learn more about the Gwangju Uprising/Massacre with Human Acts by Han Kang. My review is here but for my tastes, I enjoyed The Vegetarian more. They are by the same author. Human Acts is more obviously rooted in Korean history, if that matters to you, but The Vegetarian really pulled me inside of it.

[Val]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Revisited South Korea to learn more about the Gwangju Uprising/Massacre with Human Acts by Han Kang. My review is here but for my tastes, I enjoyed The Vegetarian more. They are by the same author. Human Acts is more obviously rooted in Korean history, if that matters to you, but The Vegetarian really pulled me inside of it. "
I have just read The Vegetarian and it was good, but as you say there is not a lot about South Korea, apart from the fact that their attitudes to mental illness and marriage could do with moving into the twenty-first century. (I haven't written a review yet.)

[Val]

I have now, here it is:
The Vegetarian by Han Kang from South Korea
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

These are also from the Booker International list:
White Hunger by Aki Ollikainen from Finland
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Death by Water by Kenzaburō Ōe from Japan
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Lilisa]

I was in Italy with Venice: Pure City and in Argentina with Perla.

[Shomeret]

I finally finished my journey to 17th century Holland plus the contemporary U.S. and Australia in The Last Painting of Sara de Vos. I liked the characterization and the author brought the paintings to life. See my review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I finished A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam yesterday. A fantastic debut novel. As I said in my review, it wasn't too graphic re the war, but goodness me it did bring the memories of things I saw during my visit to the Liberation War Museum in Dhaka flooding back!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Val]

I have read that one Andrea and agree it was excellent. (The second book is also good; I haven't read the third yet.)

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

Val wrote: "I have read that one Andrea and agree it was excellent. (The second book is also good; I haven't read the third yet.)"

A lady in another group recently read #3 as a standalone and she said it was great. I'm not sure how that one connects with the first 2 in the trilogy though (no obvious character overlaps that I can see).

[Rusalka]

Oh that's a series?!? I have The Good Muslim on my shelf. I had no idea. Thank you both!

[Val]

If you want to read them chronologically Rusalka, A Golden Age is the first one, set about ten years before The Good Muslim.
(The third one is The Bones of Grace: A Novel. It was published in the UK yesterday; I haven't checked the Australian publishing dates.)

[Rusalka]

If it's available somewhere in the world, I can get it here (thank you interwebz!).

Would you guys recommend reading them in chronological order? It's my usual default, but I was going to try and read this this year.

[Courtney]

I was a bit all over the place with World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

If you like dystopia and world-focused books, this is the book for you.

[Val]

Rusalka wrote: "If it's available somewhere in the world, I can get it here (thank you interwebz!).

Would you guys recommend reading them in chronological order? It's my usual default, but I was going to try and read this this year."
They are set at specific points in the history of Bangladesh, so it makes sense to read them in order for the historical context, but it wouldn't matter otherwise.

[Val]

The Vegetarian won the Man Booker International Prize by the way.

[Shomeret]

I was in alternate dystopian Egypt, Italy and England with Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine which I almost loved. See my review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

Finished The Shadow Lines (Kolkata/Dhaka/London) today, 3.5★

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Joy]

I just recently finished a few!

Algeria - The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud [2 stars] https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Greece - The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley by Éric Weiner [3.5 stars] https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Saint Croix - Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow [4 stars] https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Slovakia - House of Bathory by Linda Lafferty [3.5 stars] https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Czech Republic - The Bloodletter's Daughter: A Novel of Old Bohemia also by Linda Lafferty [4 stars] https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Whew, lots of reading!

[Lilisa]

Joy wrote: "I just recently finished a few!

Algeria - The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud [2 stars] https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Greece - [book:The..."

Great variety Joy - you've been busy - nice going and great reviews too.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I read a novella yesterday, Translator Translated by Anita Desai - little more than a short story really. Three stars, no review, but notable because it prompted me to do some research on indigenous Indian languages.

The translator character in this story learned Oriya/Odia as a tribute to her deceased mother, because it was literally her 'mother' tongue, and this led to the opportunity to take on the role of translating the work of an unknown author. Unknown because she writes in Oriya, a supposedly minor indigenous language. I was surprised to discover (from Wikipedia!) that Odia is spoken by more than 40 million people on the sub-continent. In hindsight it shouldn't be a surprise, considering the size of the population.

[Lilisa]

Interesting Andrea - I had not realized that many people spoke Oriya. Originally from the state of Orissa or now called Odisha. It's very disconcerting that many state, city and street names have been changed - over a period of several, several years - it's the drip effect - very annoying! I still refer to Bombay as Bombay rather than Mumbai and Calcutta as Calcutta rather than Kolkata, etc.

[Val]

It is a bit confusing referring to provincial languages like Oriya/Odia as 'minor indigenous languages', but it kind of makes sense in an Indian context. Schools generally use the official languages, Hindi and English, so although millions of Indians speak other languages as their first tongue, they don't usually read or write in them. They are seen as 'minor' in importance rather than number of speakers.
I get confused with the changes in city names too. My Dad lived in Tamil Nadu for a while and he used the Anglicised names for the cities. My daughter did her final year degree project in Maharashtra and she uses the current names. Thanks to them I end up using a mixture, such as Madras not Chennai but Mumbai not Bombay, and I had to look up where Tiruvannamalai was because I had never heard of it, while I had heard a lot about Trinomalee (not to be confused with Trincomalee).

[Lilisa]

Finished Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire. Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Val]

I have finished Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan from Indonesia.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa is next on the list.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Val wrote: "A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa is next on the list."

I got this from the library today but I think I'm going to try finishing my other Ghana book first. Looking forward to it!

[Courtney]

I just finished . It was primarily based in England, but there was a quick stop in the Ottoman empire. This was a great biography and I recommend it for anyone that needs inspiration in their life.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I finished up Wife of the Gods, a crime novel set in Ghana. Pretty good! My review is here. I'm going to make red-red, a traditional dish, sometime soon. It even gets mentioned at the end of the book.

[Lilisa]

I was in Italy with The Glassblower of Murano - review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and in India/Pakistan with Train to Pakistan - review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Claire]

I was in New Zealand with the heroic aviator Jean Batten who broke a number of solo flying records in the 1930's, her story brought to life by Fiona Kidman in The Infinite Air. My review here.

[Shomeret]

I have completed my trip to 19th century India with Michelle Moran's Rebel Queen. I really liked the protagonist. I learned some things about the period and I thought the book dealt with some significant themes. On the other hand, I had a problem with it. See my review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Claire]

On Turtle Island, a coral cay in the Great Barrier Island, Australia with Jenni Ogden's A Drop in the Ocean.

My review here.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I reluctantly left Kerala last night, finishing The Tusk That Did the Damage. Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Hanna]

Ok, my journey starts in Sweden and finishes in Saudi Arabia. So far I've read:
Sweden - City of My Dreams (4 stars)
Denmark - One of Us Is Sleeping (5 stars - one of my favourite books of all time)
Austria - Women as Lovers (4 stars)
Romania - The Land of Green Plums (3 stars)
Saudi Arabia - Girls of Riyadh (4 stars)

No reviews sorry, don't really enjoy writing those.

Next destination is Iraq - Die Orangen des Präsidenten

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I finished Songs At the River's Edge: Stories From a Bangladeshi Village a couple of days ago, but have only just written my review because I wanted to soak up the warm fuzzy feelings the book gave me for as long as possible. I gave it 5★.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Courtney]

I just left Canada from Summon the Keeper, The Second Summoning, and Long Hot Summoning. It's an urban fantasy that incorporates a lot of humour.

I also spent some time in South America (Venezuela and Bolivia) and Europe (Prussia, France, and England). A quick pit stop was made in Russia and Mongolia in The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World.

[Val]

Some more books from the Booker International Prize shortlist:

A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa from Angola, which is superb.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler from Austria, which is pleasant and enjoyable.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Four Books by Yan Lianke from China, which is strange.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Shomeret]

I have finished my historical trip covering about fifty years of African American history plus Paris and a German concentration camp during WWII. This was The Book of Harlan by Bernice L. McFadden. I thought that it probably should have been longer to cover all the themes involved and develop all the characters properly. See my review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Rusalka]

I've moved from Pakistan with Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, to Nigeria (I think so far) with Who Fears Death.

I enjoyed Our Lady more than his other book A Case of Exploding Mangoes, but didn't love it. I have to process my thoughts a bit more before writing a review.

[Val]

I must have liked A Case of Exploding Mangoes as I gave it five stars, but it is some years since I read it. I will probably like Our Lady of Alice Bhatti as well, so it is going on the to-read list. I look forward to reading your review when you have written it Rusalka.

[Rusalka]

His writing style is very similar in the two books, so definitely add Our Lady if you liked Exploding Mangoes!

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Val wrote: "Some more books from the Booker International Prize shortlist:

A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa from Angola, which is superb."

Oh great. I have this on my library stack, which means I'll hopefully read it sooner rather than later. I am falling in love with the work of that publisher after reading The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy by Paulina Chiziane, and now they have her memoir out too, which I have a review copy of.

[Carol]

I finished The Twelfth Department by William Ryan. It's a police procedural set in 1937 Russia and, while I haven't yet written a review, I have it 5 stars. It's outstanding.