Task #5: A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa)

[Bonnie G.]

Allie wrote: "Riah wrote: "Did you see the post about this prompt on the Book Riot website? https://bookriot.com/2018/01/09/books...

I was surprised by how many of the books on it were not actuall..."

I felt the same Allie, but I will say that in LFE the child's mother definitely communicates some of the cultural clashes faced by those immigrating to the US from China and looks at the nature of Chinese identity for immigrants. It is a very broad interpretation of the prompt, but Book Riot is in charge and if it is good enough for them.... Also, I am a bit of a China hound, I lived and worked there on and off for years, so I am sure I will read some things set there during the year anyway, as I always do. For now though I am counting LFE and also a book I am finishing (and loving) that is also about in part about the cultural tension for Chinese people in the US,

[Annie]

I'll be doing either (or tbh, maybe both?) Egg & Spoon and/or Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas.

though, I also thought about Notes of a Desolate Man, but am hesitant because Taiwan. -shrugs-

[Riah]

Erica wrote: "Theresa wrote: "I'm torn between a few options: Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, The Good Earth, Midnight's Children, or The God of Small Things. [b..."

I didn't realize the NYPL put together a Read Harder list. It has some recommendations I hadn't seen yet. Thanks for sharing it!

[Barbara]

Caroline wrote: "I’d like to read a book set in South Africa or Brazil for this one, since I have less reading experience with those two countries than with the rest. I’d also love to read something written by a So..."

The Prey of Gods takes place in South Africa. I thought that the author was from there, but now that I double check it, everything I can find indicates she's from Austin, TX. I guess I got myself confused.

[Jennifer]

Little Fires Everywhere is on my TBR list and without reading Book Riot’s article on books to read for this prompt I would never have considered it!!

[Carol]

I am planning on reading (well, actually started) The Windfall by Diksha Basu.

[Sonia]

I just finished reading The Windfall by Diksha Basu and realized that it fits this task.

[Ann]

I am going to be reading Feast Days, set in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

[Krees]

Just finished The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See which takes place in China. I really enjoyed it.

[Caroline]

For this challenge I was looking for something written by a South African or Brazilian author, and since I also have a goal of reading more female authors and writers of color, I did some research and found this list: http://www.okayafrica.com/south-afric.... I thought this might be interesting to some of you, and if you have similar resources, please share!

[Doris]

I just finished reading Mao: The Unknown Story for this: I can't say that I *liked* it - it's not a book about a likeable character - but it was fascinating. And disheartening. And unbearably sad and painful at times.

[Megan]

Does Snow Flower and the Secret Fan count? Or We Are Not Such Things: The Murder of a Young American, a South African Township, and the Search for Truth and Reconciliation

[Tammy]

Megan wrote: "Does Snow Flower and the Secret Fan count? Or We Are Not Such Things: The Murder of a Young American, a South African Township, and the Search for Truth and Reconciliation"

We Are Not Such things should also count for the true crime category.

[Tania]

Daph wrote: "I highly recommend Cry, the Beloved Country. It's one of the most amazing, affecting books I've ever read."

That's the one I'm thinking about reading for this prompt.

[Kellie]

I'm going to read The Master and Margarita, which works nicely for this topic, a book published posthumously and, for my copy at least, a book with a cover I hate:

[Marie]

Clockworkpurple wrote: "I'm going to read The Master and Margarita, which works nicely for this topic, a book published posthumously and, for my copy at least, a book with a cover I hate:
[bookcover:The Mas..."

Ha ha, that cover is terrible!

[Viv]

I read We That Are Young by Preti Taneja. It's a retelling of King Lear set in India around the time of the anti-corruption riots (2011).

[Adam]

I highly recommend the book I’m currently reading for this task: Her Mother’s Mother’s Mother and her Daughters by Maria José Silveira (translated by Eric M.B. Becker). The book canvasses the history of Brazil from 1500 to 2001 as experienced by numerous generations of the women of one family.

[Lori]

Celebrating the near Lunar New Year, lots of free books, for this category, on Amazon. It appears you can choose more than one!
https://www.amazon.com/b?ie-UT8&n...

[Lori]

Allie wrote: "Riah wrote: "Did you see the post about this prompt on the Book Riot website? https://bookriot.com/2018/01/09/books...

I was surprised by how many of the books on it were not actuall..."
I had Little Fires Everywhere filled marked for this category. Then I read it and suspected I copy and pasted the title into the wrong line item. Seriously stretching it to fit this category!

[Bonnie G.]

Lori wrote: "Allie wrote: "Riah wrote: "Did you see the post about this prompt on the Book Riot website? https://bookriot.com/2018/01/09/books...

I was surprised by how many of the books on it we..."

It was a book suggested by Book Riot. I thought the same, but I guess the issue of Chinese people living in America and the culture clash was why it was chosen. I used it for this prompt, but I am reading Ministry of Utmost Happiness next so I will have covered it a couple ways. (Also, I seem to read a lot from China and India every year, and I am reading something from Cambodia for the postcolonial prompt so I am sure there will be others.)

[Andrea]

I just finished The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

[Jay]

I finished Ghachar Ghochar: A Novel, a book about a family in India that finds sudden wealth and realizes that they have lost the ways they used to act as a family. It's a short book, but offers plenty to reflect on and to compare with your own family situations.

[Beth]

I'm on the waiting list for The Bear and the Nightingale, 20 more weeks! But, I might be reading Daughters of the Night Sky or The Joy Luck Club for the prompt since the wait is so long in.

[Katie]

I read 1808 by Laurentino Gomes for another challenge -- it is a historical account of the years when the Portuguese court fled to Brazil to prevent being conquered by Napoleon. It is a really interesting book and I found it to be an accessible history book that is not overly academic. It's well-researched and includes a lot of primary sources. I would definitely recommend it!

[Rayne]

My hold at the library for Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood came up, so that's what I'm reading for this prompt. I'm really enjoying it so far. So it's a win for me.

[Ann]

I'm going to read The Tsar of Love and Techno. My huge Book Outlet order, including this one is due to arrive this week.

[Cosette]

How about Boxers ? It's a graphic novel but set in China..... I'm not trying to shortcut the challenge but I think it should count

[Mya]

Cosette wrote: "How about Boxers ? It's a graphic novel but set in China..... I'm not trying to shortcut the challenge but I think it should count"

Boxers would count. And if you want to double-dip/multitask, it also counts toward #8: A comic written or illustrated by a POC, & #18: A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image.

[Bobby]

I read The Hour of the Star for this challenge, and it was so wonderful I read the entire book without getting out of my chair.

I also wanted to get some background on what the BRICS countries are all about (I had never heard of the concept before this challenge came up), so I read The BRICS: A Very Short Introduction. It was okay for getting an overall understanding, but was also mind-numbingly dull.

[Allie]

Ann wrote: "I'm going to read The Tsar of Love and Techno. My huge Book Outlet order, including this one is due to arrive this week."

Ohhhh I hope you love it! One of my favorites from last year!

[Bonnie G.]

Nate wrote: "Hi. I'm thinking of reading a book by a Brazilian author. Does anybody have any recommendations? Thanks."

Clarice Lispector is amazing. People (not I, but others) like Paulo Colheo. I also recommend City of God, but it is a very heavy read.

[Ann]

Allie wrote: "Ann wrote: "I'm going to read The Tsar of Love and Techno. My huge Book Outlet order, including this one is due to arrive this week."

Ohhhh I hope you love it! One of my favorites ..."

I am looking forward to this one!

[Anna]

Nate wrote: "Hi. I'm thinking of reading a book by a Brazilian author. Does anybody have any recommendations? Thanks."

I read Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands some years ago and I liked it a lot. Can recommend.

Also, you made me google...
I found a list of non-angloamerican scifi with some Brazilian books:
http://restlessbooks.org/blog/2014/7/...
and 10 "best" Brazilian writers (in quotes because it's always subjective):
https://theculturetrip.com/south-amer...
List of great books by Brazilian writers:
https://media.bookbub.com/blog/2016/0...

I hope this helps! I might go for one of these myself (probably the scifi ones...). I was slightly disappointed by this task because I would've preferred it to be "read a book by an author from one of these countries", but I'm happy I'm not the only one who's thinking of doing it this way :)

[Mya]

Nate wrote: "Hi. I'm thinking of reading a book by a Brazilian author. Does anybody have any recommendations? Thanks."


Nate, I am also curious to read a book set in Brazil & found several that sound interesting. The two that made it to the top of my list are Crow Blue, by Adriana Lisboa, & One Hundred Years After Tomorrow: Brazilian Women's Fiction in the Twentieth Century, which is a collection of stories by a range of Brazilian authors.

[Mya]

Nate wrote: "Hi. I'm thinking of reading a book by a Brazilian author. Does anybody have any recommendations? Thanks."

I just discovered that the fantastic fiction website (one of my favorite databases) can be searched by the country of the author. (If a book is set in a particular country, I appreciate knowing that the author has lived there.)


Here's their list of Brazilian authors.
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/coun...


For people wondering about options for the remaining BRICS countries -

India:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/coun...

China:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/coun...

South Africa:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/coun...

& Russia:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/coun...


Offering the links as another way for people to find authors who sound interesting. :)

[Nekolina]

I read The Elephant Chaser's Daughter by Shilpa Raj for this task and really enjoyed it. It's a memoir of a girl born in a small village in India who attends a school for the poor started by a philanthropist and the struggles she experiences living between the two worlds.

The Elephant Chaser's Daughter

[Rachel]

I read Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah.

I know it's written by a comedian, but this book explored race, prejudice, and poverty in South Africa during and post-apartheid in a way that I had never experienced before. I highly recommend.

[Sharon]

What about Crazy Rich Asians?

[Bonnie G.]

Sharon wrote: "What about Crazy Rich Asians?"

It is set in Singapore, not a BRICS country. Its hilarious though, super fun read.

[Michelle]

I just finished Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing. Quite interesting and very timely for me since the final season of "The Americans" has just started.

[Sharon]

Thanks Bonnie! Sounds like a good read

[Christa]

The second in the series should count, “China Rich Girlfriend”

[Kerri]

Audra wrote: "I'm reading The Tsar of Love and Techno for this task."

I love Anthony Marra and fantasize about being able to write as well as he does. I only wish he would write more. I hope you love the book! It's not an easy read, but definitely worth it.

[Karen]

For this Task I am reading The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden.

The story is set in Russia, here is the blurb if anyone would like to know more.

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

[Bonnie G.]

Shay wrote: "Does Belarus count since it was former USSR?? I just finished The Invisible Life of Ivan Iaesenko..."

Belarus has been an independent nation since 1991, right around the same time as Poland.

[Harper]

I read a lot of books about India and thought I would add some recommendations, with * by titles I especially loved:
History
The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857
White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India
Begums, Thugs, and White Mughals
Nehru: The Invention of India
* Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary
* Women of the Raj
The Emergency: A Personal History
Modern day nonfiction
* Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India
* A Question of Order: India, Turkey, and the Return of Strongmen
Where India Goes: Abandoned Toilets, Stunted Development and the Costs of Caste
* Seeing Like a Feminist
* The Lost Generation: Chronicling India's Dying Professions
* Footprints of Partition: narratives of four generations of Pakistanis and Indians
* In the Time of Trees and Sorrows: Nature, Power, and Memory in Rajasthan
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Memoir
* No One Else A Personal History of Outlawed Love and Sex
Curfewed Night
Azadi's Daughter, A Memoir: Being a Secular Muslim in India
The Girl Who Ate Books: Adventures in Reading
Historical fiction
Beneath a Marble Sky
The Widows of Malabar Hill
The Englishman's Cameo
* The Twentieth Wife
* Brothers At War
* East of Suez
Mysteries
The Widows of Malabar Hill
* The Englishman's Cameo
Cut Like Wound
* The Taj Conspiracy
Fiction
Five Point Someone
The Wildings
The Hundred Names of Darkness
The Golden Pigeon

[Megan]

I read The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey for this one -- set in 1920s India.

[Sherri]

I just finished Bury What We Cannot Take by Kirsten Chen. It is set in China & Hong Kong. You could potentially triple dip with this book. It is set in China & Hong Kong so that would check off a book set in or about one of the BRICS countries. I think you could check off a book of colonial or post colonial literature. It is only 286 pages so it could easily be read in one-sitting. For bonus points some of you may hate the cover.

[Pamela]

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles