Tania's Around the World with authors or utter madness!

[Tania]

Well I am blaming Coral my librarian for this. I've done 83 counties so far going round the world which leaves me 157 to go. So I am going to run this beside that and I will try to read 80 authors of different countries. How hard can it be?

Will start this from 1st January 2017. Let the madness begin. ha ha ha

[Tania]

The authors read with counties of birth and book.

34 read - 31 in authors home country

# If the book is set in the authors home country

Algeria - Yasmina Khadra - The Attack
# America - Jill Shalvis - Lost and Found Sisters
# Antigua and Barbuda - Jamaica Kincaid - A Small Place
Australia - B.P. Gregory - Orotund: Collected Short Stories Volume Two
# Canada - Lynsay Sands - Immortally Yours
# Chile - Alejandro Zambra - The Private Lives of Trees
# Dominica - Paula A. John - Taming a Hurricane
# East Timor - Luís Cardoso - The Crossing: A Story of East Timor
# England - Jodi Ellen Malpas - The Protector
# Faroe Islands - Heðin Brú - The Old Man and His Sons
# France - Jean-Dominique Bauby - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
# Ghana - Bernard Osei Annang - The African Dream: A Revolutionary Rebellion (A Historical Fiction based on The Anglo Ashanti Wars
# Honduras - Elvia Alvarado - Don't Be Afraid, Gringo
# Kenya - Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - Weep Not, Child
# Kyrgyzstan - Chingiz Aitmatov - Jamilia
# India - Rudyard Kipling - The Jungle Book
# Iran - Sadegh Hedayat - The Blind Owl
# Malta - Mark Harland - Malta 'My Island'
# Mongolia - Galsan Tschinag - The Blue Sky: A Novel
# New Zealand - John Ling - Fallen Angel
# Nepal - Subarna Prasad Acharya - Out of Kathmandu
# Paraguay - Emmy Barth - No Lasting Home: A Year in the Paraguayan Wilderness
# Sao Tome & Principe - Gervásio Kaiser - Native Dance: An African Story
# Scotland - John Buchan - The 39 Steps
Slovenia - Damjan Koncnik - Greenland - The End of the World
# South Sudan - Repent Ritti Jada - Traditional Animal Stories of South Sudan: Lessons for Its Children
# Sri Lanka - Sonali Deraniyagala - Wave
# Suriname - Cynthia McLeod - The Cost of Sugar
# Taiwan - Wu Ming-Yi - The Man with the Compound Eyes
# Turkmenistan - Ak Welsapar - The Tale of Aypi
# Ukraine - Nikolai Gogol - The Nose
# Vanuatu - Mikaela Nyman - Sista, Stanap Strong! A Vanuatu Women's Anthology
# Yemen - Wajdi Al-Ahdal - A Land without Jasmine

[Tania]

These are my books so far. Have already discovered some authors are shy about there heritage. With the easy countries out the way England, USA and Canada I think the fun is about to start as I have found a lot of my authors to read are from these countries.


1. America Wil S. Hylton - Vanished: The Sixty-Year Search for the Missing Men of World War II
2. Australia B.P. Gregory - Orotund: Collected Short Stories Volume Two
3. Canada Zohra Saeed - Desert Flower
4. England Bruce Chatwin - Utz
5. Malta Mark Harland- Malta 'My Island'
6. Slovenia Damjan Koncnik - Greenland - The End of the World

[Kate, Moderator]

Wow! You've set yourself a task and a half!
Not sure if you want recommendations but I read Baking Cakes in Kigali which is set in Rwanda but by an author called Gaile Parkin who was born in Zambia. Does the book have to be in the same country as the author was born?

[Tania]

I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Am just going for author and the country they where born in. Thanks for the book.

[Mercia]

An interesting variation on a theme. My favourite read on my round the world challenge was Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng's The Garden of Evening Mists, which is also set in Malaysia. Where possible I liked to choose authors from the country, especially after a few unfortunate occasions of stopping reading a book because the author had a deeply patronising attitude to the non-Westerners they were writing about. Of course such books were harder to find so only made up a small portion of my current tally of 92 books.

[Tania]

Mercia, my library has that so have put it on there wish list thanks

[Tania]

7. Sao Tome & Principe -Gervásio Kaiser - Native Dance: An African Story

[Anna]

You might find this site helpful for choosing books from various parts of the world:

www.tripfiction.com

It displays location based fiction.

[Tania]

Anna Faversham wrote: "You might find this site helpful for choosing books from various parts of the world:

www.tripfiction.com

It displays location based fiction."

Thanks that looks helpful.

[Tania]

8. Ukraine - Nikolai Gogol - The Nose

[Tania]

9. Scotland - John Buchan - The 39 Steps

[Anna]

Good one!

[Tania]

10 Iran - Sadegh Hedayat - The Blind Owl

[Tania]

Am reading by Yasmina Khadra which will give me Algeria for author and Israel for country setting which I am really enjoying.
Also have by Ak Welsapar on the go for Turkmenistan which so far is not bad - plus author and book from same country.
Have by Chingiz Aitmatov on order which should show up in the next week which will give me book and author from Kyrgyzstan

Have to say I never looked at the authors till now but have realize most of them are English, Canadian or American so this is making my challenge on books a little harder to find now.

[Tania]

11. Algeria - Yasmina Khadra - The Attack

[Tania]

12. Kyrgyzstan - Chingiz Aitmatov - Jamilia

[Tania]

13. India - Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar - From Dunes to Dior

[Tania]

14. Turkmenistan - Ak Welsapar - The Tale of Aypi

[Tania]

13. India - Rudyard Kipling - The Jungle Book

Change of person for number 13.

[Tania]

15. New Zealand - Roger Cowell - 1969: A Year in Tonga: Book 2: Volunteer: survive or thrive?.

[Tania]

16. Dominica - Paula A. John - Taming a Hurricane

[Tania]

Since starting this I am becoming a little more fussy about the books in trying to find books and authors from the same country. Am only 16 books in and am already changing books for counties which has become a must for England, Australia, USA and Canada.

Have lined up Horacio Castellanos Moya for El Salvador. Sergio Ramírez for Nicaragua, Cynthia McLeod for Suriname and Wu Ming-Yi for Taiwan.

[Tania]

1. America - Jill Shalvis - Lost and Found Sisters

Change of person for number 1

[Tania]

3. Canada - Lynsay Sands - Immortally Yours

Change of person for number 3

[Tania]

17. Taiwan - Wu Ming-Yi - The Man with the Compound Eyes

[Tania]

4. England - Jodi Ellen Malpas - The Protector

Change of person for number 4

[Tania]

Looked at doing all 240 countries of authors but am giving up on that before I start. Have already found places where I cant find books for this in English and some that I cant find authors, so will stick to the 80. Am happy so far with 17 countries and 12 of them in authors home land, will have to see if I can keep that percent going.

[Tania]

18. Yemen - Wajdi Al-Ahdal - A Land without Jasmine

[Mercia]

If you are on Amazon Prime you can currently download for free via Kindle First The Birdwoman's Palate set in Indonesia and written by Indonesian Laksmi Pamuntjak.

[Tania]

Thanks, I've marked down to get. Doing it this way is a lot harder trying to find the books and in English as well.

[Tania]

19. Faroe Islands - Heðin Brú - The Old Man and His Sons

[Tania]

20. Kenya - Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - Weep Not, Child

[Tania]

21. Antigua and Barbuda - Jamaica Kincaid - A Small Place

[Tania]

22. Nepal - Subarna Prasad Acharya - Out of Kathmandu

[Tania]

23. France - Jean-Dominique Bauby - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

[Tania]

24. Sri Lanka - Sonali Deraniyagala - Wave

[Tania]

15. New Zealand - John Ling - Fallen Angel

Change of person for number 15

[Tania]

25. Ghana - Bernard Osei Annang - The African Dream: A Revolutionary Rebellion (A Historical Fiction based on The Anglo Ashanti Wars

[Tania]

26. East Timor - Luís Cardoso - The Crossing: A Story of East Timor

[Tania]

27. South Sudan - Repent Ritti Jada - Traditional Animal Stories of South Sudan: Lessons for Its Children

[Tania]

28. Honduras - Elvia Alvarado - Don't Be Afraid, Gringo

[Tania]

29. Suriname - Cynthia McLeod - The Cost of Sugar

[Tania]

30. Vanuatu - Mikaela Nyman - Sista, Stanap Strong! A Vanuatu Women's Anthology

[Tania]

31. Papua New Guinea - Leonard Fong Roka - Moments in Bougainville: A Collection of Short Stories

[Tania]

32. Paraguay - Emmy Barth - No Lasting Home: A Year in the Paraguayan Wilderness

[Tania]

33. Mongolia - Galsan Tschinag - The Blue Sky: A Novel

[Tania]

34. Chile - Alejandro Zambra - The Private Lives of Trees

Missed a book