2019 - Where in the World Are You? (Currently Reading)

[Nadine in California]

I'm in the fictional West African country of Ukemby in Praise Song for the Butterflies. Love Bernice McFadden!

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I’m in Serbia, probably, with Checkpoint by David Albahari, translated from the Serbian.

[Diane]

Carol wrote: "Diane wrote: "Currently in Israel with One Night, Markovitch by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. Maybe I'll run into Carol, since she's there, too."

Indeed! Although other bo..."

I enjoyed this book. I own another one by her I'd like to read, too.

[Diane]

In France with Tartuffe by Molière.

[Carol]

Diane wrote: "Carol wrote: "Diane wrote: "Currently in Israel with One Night, Markovitch by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. Maybe I'll run into Carol, since she's there, too."

Indeed! Alt..."

If you haven’t read Waking Lions, it is superb. It was not what I thought it was in the first 75 pages.

[Lilisa]

In the Balkans (unnamed countries though) with The Tiger's Wife.

[Diane]

Carol wrote: "Diane wrote: "Carol wrote: "Diane wrote: "Currently in Israel with One Night, Markovitch by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. Maybe I'll run into Carol, since she's there, too...."

That is the other book of hers I own. I look forward to reading it.

[Diane]

In South Africa with A Dry White Season by André Brink.

[Yrinsyde]

I'm reading Smoke Bellew by Jack London, book 2 for stories set in the Yukon. My first book was The Yukon Trail by William MacLeod Raine. It was a great adventure story. Smoke Bellew is proving to be a great adventure story too! My fav bit of it so far is the main character Kit calling his uncle 'oh avuncular relative'. I want to use that myself haha!

[Carol]

I’m in Germany with Nora Krug’s graphic memoir, Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home. It is exquisite.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I’ve just arrived in Ireland again, with The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan - highly anticipated.

[Lilisa]

I'm in Central Europe during WWI with The Winter Soldier.

[Diane]

I am in Vienna, Austria with Auto-da-Fé by Elias Canetti.

[Carol]

I am in Pakistan circa 1948-ish with the first in a 120+ book mystery series, The House Of Fear by Ibn-e-Safi.

[Claire]

I have been in Zimbabwe learning about the transition from colonial Rhodesia to contemporary Zimbabwe, the loss of identity of a country told through a narrator who grows up not knowing his parents or his own identity who tries to create a place inside another family when their son disappears.

It recounts some of the horrors of Gukurahundi, a dreadful event that noone who went through will talk about ("we only ever talk about the war of Liberation").

This historical novel, became the author's personal quest to learn more about that dark spot in modern Zimbabwean history, the ethnic cleansing/genocide carried out against the Ndebele people in the early 1980s after the liberation struggle. The strengths of her characters come from an immersion into reading first hand personal accounts of people who survived that period, works that are not available in Zimbabwe, that she was able to access from the Iowa University library when she was studying her MFA.

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

[Claire]

Nadine wrote: "I'm in the fictional West African country of Ukemby in Praise Song for the Butterflies. Love Bernice McFadden!"

I just read this over the weekend Nadine, my first Bernice McFadden, I loved it and I really her writing style and characterisation. I was a little worried about the content after recently reading House of Stone, which doesn't hold back on recounting the brutal aspects of Gukurahundi, but I appreciated that McFadden doesn't make the reader witness the brutality to quite the same extent.

[Nadine in California]

Claire wrote: "Nadine wrote: "I'm in the fictional West African country of Ukemby in Praise Song for the Butterflies. Love Bernice McFadden!"

I just read this over the weekend Nadine, my first Be..."

Yes, Bernice McFadden seems to know how to show brutality without minimizing it or making the reader look away.

I'm in another fictional Africa now with Black Leopard, Red Wolf. It's fantasy, so Marlon James has a different approach to brutality - laughing in it's face.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

Visiting my parents in Tasmania for a week in real life, I thought it would be a good time to swing by Antarctica with My Last Continent - it doesn’t seem so far away!

[Diane]

Like Andrea, I am reading where I am currently visiting in real life. Currently reading The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino and Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. Just finished Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture.

[Rusalka]

Diane wrote: "Like Andrea, I am reading where I am currently visiting in real life. Currently reading The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino and [book:Under the Tuscan Sun|..."

Ooo enjoy your holiday and your books!

[Rusalka]

Andrea wrote: "Visiting my parents in Tasmania for a week in real life, I thought it would be a good time to swing by Antarctica with My Last Continent - it doesn’t seem so far away!"

Hope your parents are all okay with the fires and the weather down in Tassie. Enjoy!

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

Rusalka wrote: "Hope your parents are all okay with the fires and the weather down in Tassie. Enjoy!..."

Thanks Rusalka - all good here in the north.

[Lilisa]

Andrea wrote: "Visiting my parents in Tasmania for a week in real life, I thought it would be a good time to swing by Antarctica with My Last Continent - it doesn’t seem so far away!"

Nice one!

[Lilisa]

Diane wrote: "Like Andrea, I am reading where I am currently visiting in real life. Currently reading The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino and [book:Under the Tuscan Sun|..."

It's so fun to do that! Enjoy and safe real-life travels.

[Rusalka]

Andrea wrote: "Rusalka wrote: "Hope your parents are all okay with the fires and the weather down in Tassie. Enjoy!..."

Thanks Rusalka - all good here in the north."

Good to hear!

[Lilisa]

I'm in Iraq with The Gardener of Baghdad and in India with You Have Given Me a Country: A Memoir.

[Rita]

Lilisa, I enjoyed The Gardener of Baghdad - lovely cover too. I'm back in Australia with Colleen McCullough's The Touch. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... It's awesome!

[Rita]

I enjoyed The Gardener of Baghdad, Lilisa. Nice cover too. I'm back in Australia with Colleen McCullough's The Touch https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1.... Awesome!

[Carol]

I am in 1920s Egypt with The Last Cut by Michael Pearce. The Mamur Zapt historical mystery series is one I love and it’s been far too long since I read one.

[Lilisa]

Rita wrote: "I enjoyed The Gardener of Baghdad, Lilisa. Nice cover too. I'm back in Australia with Colleen McCullough's The Touch https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1.... Awesome!"

I enjoyed The Gardener of Baghdad, Rita - simple, well done, and heartwarming storyline. Hope you're enjoying Colleen McCullough. The Thorn Birds is one of my all-time favorites.

[Rusalka]

I just left Bali, Indonesia after the Bali Bombings with A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul and headed to Karachi, Pakistan with Fire Boy

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I’m in Mauritius with Eve Out of Her Ruins.

[Carol]

I am in Japan with The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

And now I'm in Nigeria with My Sister, the Serial Killer - what fun!

[Yrinsyde]

I'm in the Northwest Territories with Jule Verne's Fur Country. The opening is very promising!

[Val]

Andrea wrote: "And now I'm in Nigeria with My Sister, the Serial Killer - what fun!"
Yes, I enjoyed that one too.

[Lilisa]

In Hong Kong with Fate: The Lost Decades of Uncle Chow Tung and right now in London with The Moroccan Girl, where I've spent a smidgen in Moscow and I think I'm headed to other locales too...

[Nadine in California]

I'm in an alternate Portland Oregon with The Lathe of Heaven. The future 1990's that LeGuin imagined in 1971 isn't too far off what the 2030's might be like.

[Carol]

I’m in Kaufman County, Texas with In Plain Sight: The Kaufman County Prosecutor Murders by Kathryn Casey.

[Diane]

Andrea wrote: "I’m in Mauritius with Eve Out of Her Ruins."

I loved that one.

[Diane]

In Egypt with The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz.

[Yrinsyde]

Just 2 to go in my Nth America book journey. I've started Jules Verne's Fur Country for the Nth West Territories. The list of animals killed for fur & sold by the Hudson's Bay Company is heartbreaking.

[Yrinsyde]

I've decided to get on with finishing my Sth China Sea trip so I put two autobiographies of growing up in Malaysia on reserve at my local library.

[Diane]

In Botswana with The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales by Bessie Head.

[Yrinsyde]

Diane wrote: "In Botswana with The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales by Bessie Head." Must add that to my Africa list!

[Lilisa]

In Thailand with Bangkok Wakes to Rain.

[Carol]

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by my March 1 group read books and responded in true kindergartner fashion by picking, none of the above, and instead visiting Iceland with The Reckoning by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir.

[Lilisa]

Carol wrote: "I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by my March 1 group read books and responded in true kindergartner fashion by picking, none of the above, and instead visiting Iceland with [book:The Reckoning|39863..."

Lol - is the young girl a kindergartner too?

[Carol]

Lilisa wrote: "Carol wrote: "I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by my March 1 group read books and responded in true kindergartner fashion by picking, none of the above, and instead visiting Iceland with [book:The R..."

She's more mature - she's 10. I aspire to be 10 this week. :)

[Lilisa]

Carol wrote: "Lilisa wrote: "Carol wrote: "I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by my March 1 group read books and responded in true kindergartner fashion by picking, none of the above, and instead visiting Iceland w..."

You go girl! :-)